Page 83 of Stay Buried

Ashley turned and looked at Mini. “You know his name?”

“Sure. We learned about him in school. He was an important man. He saved a lot of people back then. He’s the reason the whole town didn’t die in the flu.”

Ashley nodded. “He had a helper. A young woman named Frankie O’Massey. Have you heard of her?”

Mini puzzled over the name, but it wasn’t familiar to her. She shook her head, then said, “I never heard of her. You should go see Miss Josephine. She lives in Dr. Endicott’s old house. She knows what happened to everyone in this whole town. I don’t think there’s anything that’s ever happened here in Boone’s Ferry that Miss Josephine doesn’t know about.” Mini bit her lip, thinking she’d said too much. And thinking that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, sending Ashley to see Miss Josephine.

Ashley smiled. “Actually, I met her yesterday. She showed us her dolls.”

“It’s like a museum in there. My dad’s family are on the third shelf by the window. And my mom’s are right across from it.” It always madeMini feel a little strange—going into Miss Josephine’s and looking at those rows of dolls, her ancestors. The way Miss Josephine would say, “This is where you come from, Mini. You would not be here, none of us would, if it weren’t for these people who came before us. The past shapes the future.”

“The dolls are pretty amazing,” Ashley said now. “One of them was a little freaky, though. The knackerman.”

Mini gasped. “She showed you that?”

She couldn’t believe it. Josephine had broken the rules! Mini’s heart thumped in her chest. Miss Josephine, of all people! She was the biggest rule follower in the whole town.

Miss Josephine scared Mini a little. Sometimes, when she was in Miss Josephine’s house looking at those dolls, the old lady felt almost as scary as the knackerman himself. She’d said that to her mama once, and Mama had given her a light whack on the head and told her she mustn’t say such things and that Miss Josephine was pretty much the most important person in the whole town and she deserved respect. But the way Mama said it made Mini think Mama was a little afraid of Miss Josephine too.

“What did she say about the knackerman?” Mini asked, unable to help herself.

“That he’s just a story people tell.” Ashley bit her lip, looked down at the grave, at the offerings laid out there. “But he’s more than that, isn’t he, Mini?”

She waited, watching Mini. Mini held perfectly still, like she was playing hide-and-seek. Only this was a new kind of hide-and-seek. She was hiding her feelings, hiding the truth. She kept her body still, her face expressionless as an old china doll’s.

“A story doesn’t have a grave of his own,” Ashley went on. “People don’t leave gifts for a story.” She reached down, touched a bottle of rum and a dried-up bouquet of daisies. “They don’t leave notes.” She looked Mini right in the eye.

Mini took in a squeaky-sounding breath, her throat tightening.

“And no story I know has the power to come and paint a red mark on your door in the night.”

Mini took a step back. “I have to go,” she said.

“What does the mark mean, Mini?” Ashley asked.

“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry! It’s got nothing to do with you. You should go. You and your brother, just get in your car and drive away from here.”

Ashley shook her head. “You’re wrong,” she said. “It’s very much got something to do with me. See, you’re not the only one with the mark on your door. Last night, someone—something—came to visit me and painted the same thing on the door of my motel room.”

“No,” Mini said, her head spinning. It wasn’t possible.

“Please, Mini. What does it mean?”

“It means…” Mini thought; she considered lying, saying it meant nothing, that it was just some kids messing around. But if it was true that Ashley had gotten the mark, she deserved to know the truth.

“It means you’ve been marked. He’s coming for you.”

“Coming for me?”

“You’ve broken the rules. You’ve… displeased him in some way.”

“Him?”

“The knackerman.”

Ashley was quiet a second, staring down at the blank grave of the knackerman. Then she looked right at Mini. “Why is the mark on your door?”

Mini sighed. “I broke the most important rule of all—I saw him. You’re never supposed to lay eyes on him. You’re supposed to put out the gifts and lock your door, draw your shades, get into bed.”