“Well? What was it?”
“Apparently he
tried to talk his buddies into skipping school and exploring the site of the
old Tonopah Mine, the one that was closed down back in the 1920’s after a miner
disappeared following an underground explosion and fire.”
Julie’s legs
turned to jelly and refused to support the weight of her body any longer. Her
eyes filled with tears and she crumpled to the floor. She thought she might
throw up, even though she hadn’t had anything to eat since yesterday at
lunchtime. Before Timmy had gone missing. “Are you saying my baby is lost in a
mine?”
Matt moved to the
middle of the kitchen floor and sat next to her. He put his arms around her.
“We don’t know that,” he said quietly. You know how kids shoot their mouths off,
trying to look cool in front of their friends. The old mine is just one
possibility, and the cops are heading out there right now to check it out. They
say it’s sealed up tight, anyway, that there’s no way anyone break into it and fall
into a shaft, especially one twelve year old boy. They’re going to call as soon
as they know anything. Let’s wait and see what they say.”
“I’m not waiting
for anything,” she said. She pushed herself up off the floor. “We’re going out
there right now.”
***
Julie could not believe the
ruggedness of the terrain. Matt’s four wheel drive Jeep bounced and skidded,
navigating the abandoned road leading to the old mine agonizingly slowly. She
wanted to shout at him to step on it, that she needed to get to her baby, but
she knew he was doing the best he could. Any faster and the truck would
probably just ricochet off the rutted, overgrown path into a tree, or break an
axle or something, and then where would they be?
So she held her
tongue, and her breath, and finally the Jeep rounded a corner and the woods
opened up into a massive clearing and they were there. A chain-link fence,
rusted and bent, surrounded the site of the old mine, its front gate standing
open. Two police vehicles, a four wheel drive pickup truck and a four wheel
drive SUV, were parked in front of a dilapidated shack roughly in the middle of
the clearing, their hazard lights flashing busily, the officers nowhere to be
seen.
Clouds boiled
overhead, dark and threatening, a blackish-purple smear hanging low over the
scene. Matt gunned the engine and the Jeep shot through the open gate, the
ground at last flat and relatively clear. He rolled up next to the two police
vehicles and Julie leapt out the passenger door before the truck had even
stopped moving.
She pounded up to
the ramshackle door, vaguely aware of Matt following behind telling her to slow
down. “Be careful,” he said. “You won’t be doing Tim any favors if the building
falls on you and you have to be taken out of here in an ambulance.” She ignored
him. Her baby was here, she just knew it, and he needed her.
She pushed through
the doorway and into the building’s nearly empty interior. Her attention was
immediately drawn to the far side of what had clearly once been an office, or a
base building of some sort. Through a pair of windows filthy with grime and
crud she could just barely make out the two policemen standing together, maybe
fifty feet behind the building. They seemed to be staring at a rise in the
earth, and one of them was talking into what looked like a walkie-talkie or
some type of radio.
Julie clapped a
hand to her mouth, terrified, and ran out the half-open rear door. Once again,
she could hear Matt behind her telling her to slow down, and once again she
ignored him. “Is it him?” she cried as she ran. “Did you find him? Is he okay?”
The two officers
jumped in surprise and looked up, the one with the radio reaching toward the weapon
at his hip. Julie didn’t care. She kept running; it wasn’t like they were going
to shoot her just because she had surprised them.
She stopped right
behind the two policemen. They were standing in front of what was
“Apparently he
tried to talk his buddies into skipping school and exploring the site of the
old Tonopah Mine, the one that was closed down back in the 1920’s after a miner
disappeared following an underground explosion and fire.”
Julie’s legs
turned to jelly and refused to support the weight of her body any longer. Her
eyes filled with tears and she crumpled to the floor. She thought she might
throw up, even though she hadn’t had anything to eat since yesterday at
lunchtime. Before Timmy had gone missing. “Are you saying my baby is lost in a
mine?”
Matt moved to the
middle of the kitchen floor and sat next to her. He put his arms around her.
“We don’t know that,” he said quietly. You know how kids shoot their mouths off,
trying to look cool in front of their friends. The old mine is just one
possibility, and the cops are heading out there right now to check it out. They
say it’s sealed up tight, anyway, that there’s no way anyone break into it and fall
into a shaft, especially one twelve year old boy. They’re going to call as soon
as they know anything. Let’s wait and see what they say.”
“I’m not waiting
for anything,” she said. She pushed herself up off the floor. “We’re going out
there right now.”
***
Julie could not believe the
ruggedness of the terrain. Matt’s four wheel drive Jeep bounced and skidded,
navigating the abandoned road leading to the old mine agonizingly slowly. She
wanted to shout at him to step on it, that she needed to get to her baby, but
she knew he was doing the best he could. Any faster and the truck would
probably just ricochet off the rutted, overgrown path into a tree, or break an
axle or something, and then where would they be?
So she held her
tongue, and her breath, and finally the Jeep rounded a corner and the woods
opened up into a massive clearing and they were there. A chain-link fence,
rusted and bent, surrounded the site of the old mine, its front gate standing
open. Two police vehicles, a four wheel drive pickup truck and a four wheel
drive SUV, were parked in front of a dilapidated shack roughly in the middle of
the clearing, their hazard lights flashing busily, the officers nowhere to be
seen.
Clouds boiled
overhead, dark and threatening, a blackish-purple smear hanging low over the
scene. Matt gunned the engine and the Jeep shot through the open gate, the
ground at last flat and relatively clear. He rolled up next to the two police
vehicles and Julie leapt out the passenger door before the truck had even
stopped moving.
She pounded up to
the ramshackle door, vaguely aware of Matt following behind telling her to slow
down. “Be careful,” he said. “You won’t be doing Tim any favors if the building
falls on you and you have to be taken out of here in an ambulance.” She ignored
him. Her baby was here, she just knew it, and he needed her.
She pushed through
the doorway and into the building’s nearly empty interior. Her attention was
immediately drawn to the far side of what had clearly once been an office, or a
base building of some sort. Through a pair of windows filthy with grime and
crud she could just barely make out the two policemen standing together, maybe
fifty feet behind the building. They seemed to be staring at a rise in the
earth, and one of them was talking into what looked like a walkie-talkie or
some type of radio.
Julie clapped a
hand to her mouth, terrified, and ran out the half-open rear door. Once again,
she could hear Matt behind her telling her to slow down, and once again she
ignored him. “Is it him?” she cried as she ran. “Did you find him? Is he okay?”
The two officers
jumped in surprise and looked up, the one with the radio reaching toward the weapon
at his hip. Julie didn’t care. She kept running; it wasn’t like they were going
to shoot her just because she had surprised them.
She stopped right
behind the two policemen. They were standing in front of what was
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