Coal Creek
were stretched out on big Xs, spreadeagle, hands pointing to the skies. The clothes were simple, and I could
tell even at a distance that they looked like they were
made of very coarse material, the kind used for potato
sacks. All of them wore black hoods that came to a
point at the top. I swallowed and considered going back
to Tony to see if he knew anything about these. “Those
almost look like Klan hoods,” I said.
Sara nodded. “White, and they would be.”
She took a few more pictures along the way as we came
to the first one. The thing was of a similar size to the
human it represented, and the sackcloth filled out convincingly. It was bound to the wooden X frame with
baling string, and the frame itself appeared to be made
from railroad ties. I planted a hand onto it and pushed
in, exhaling with relief as it gave way. I almost expected to feel a body in here, but it felt like hay instead.
Sara took another picture before standing on her toes
and reaching for the hood.
“What are you doing?” I asked
She grinned. “You’re going to wear this thing, and I’m
going to take a picture for the book. Facebook will eat
it up.”
I fidgeted, not sure if I wanted to wear the hood. Something about it, about the way everything was arranged,
shook me. Tony’s story didn’t help my mood.
Sara screamed. I snapped back to myself as she fell
backwards, arms flailing as she fell on her bottom and
started pushing herself away. She curled up with the
camera held tight against her chest. Her face was white,
and I thought for a moment that she might cry.
I knelt beside her. “What’s wrong?”
She caught her breath, but she still shook. “It’s a head,
Brice. There’s a head in there.”
I gave her an odd look before standing back up and
reaching for the hood. “Don’t!” Sara said. “We have to,
we have to call the cops or something. Don’t go messing with it.”
I pushed the hood away, and, sure enough, there was a
face in there. The eyes were shut tight, and the expression was tight enough to reveal twin rows of uneven
teeth. I pushed the hood up further, and the sheet of pa58
per with the face on it fell away, spinning in the breeze
before coming to a rest on the ground. “Is that your
face?” I asked, pointing to it. I might have been grinning like an idiot.
Sara stared as the paper fell in front of her. “A drawing?” she said, picking it up and holding it in front
of herself. She laughed out of disbelief. “This thing
doesn’t even look like a face out in the open. Looks
like a second grader did this.” She sat it down in front
of her and snapped a picture, and then she looked back
up to me. “What do you think it was doing in there?”
“No clue. We’ll ask Tony when we get back out.”
She stood holding the drawing and handed it out to me.
“Here, you take this. I don’t want it any more.” I took
it from her, and she quickly rubbed her hands against
her thighs as if trying to scrub them clean. I put the
drawing in my messenger bag, and we kept walking
across the field. When we came to the next scarecrow,
I looked under the hood and found another face drawing in there. The eyes looked angry, but the mouth was
open in a shocked O.
“Just leave it,” Sara said. “We’ve already got one.”
I shrugged. She was right. “Come on, we’re almost to
the edge.” I pointed up ahead and could even see the
sparkle of the little stream in the sunlight. We came
to the edge of the field, which ended in a ditch before
going back to the creek embankment. It was just wide
enough to need a bridge, which we found nearly a hundred feet away from where we stood. The bridge was
probably as old as the coal mine itself, but it was made
well enough to have weathered the years. The creek
was only about ten feet across, but I could tell it would
be deep enough to get your pants wet past the knee if
you tried wading it.
On the other side of the bridge was another small field,
this one littered with a few sheds and other ramshackle buildings. Some looked large enough to have been
homes at one point, but they did not fare so well as the
bridge. Sara brought up her camera and snapped a few
shots, already walking towards the ruins.
“Hey,” I said. “Let’s check out the mine first. We can
come back here later, but we’re not going to see anything in that mine once the sun sets.”
October 2013
INSIGHT