Christopher watching Monster House
June 16, 2014
If you missed Secrets of the Cemetery, part I, click here.
To read Secrets of the Cemetery, part II, click here.
If you missed Secrets of the Cemetery, part I, click here.
To read Secrets of the Cemetery, part II, click here.
Tom headed out his side door of his office that was adjacent to the left of his desk. It was odd place for a door. It seemed like like an escape hatch because Tom could leave the building without anyone ever knowing. He’d have to navigate around the series of walls just before he’d make it to that gorgeous aberration of a woman.
“I’m losing it,” Tom thought as he hurriedly tried to get to her. “I’m an educated man. I use to think I was normal,” he mumbled.
He walked past the four-foot high granite headstones as he continued to make his way towards the beautiful brunette who was now only about 100 yards away (91 meters).
As he arrived to the spot where she was sitting he noticed the plot belonged Abe Johnson, 1898-1964. He stood silent and only stared at her for about a minute.
“You can talk to me you know. Without using your mind,” she said.
“Oh, thank god. I thought this confrontation was weird enough but not moving my lips, geez, talk about feeling weirder.”
She giggled.
“You’re funny,” she said.
“I feel like I’m dreaming this entire scenario,” he said.
“Well you’re not I’m as real as a ghost as you’re going to meet. Just like Elmer the night before.”
“And this Abe guy your sitting next to. Is he still around?”as he patted the back of the warm surface solid mass.
“Abe left this place on his own but we don’t talk about that.”
“Well, what can we talk about?” he said.
“Don’t know, I guess just stuff. I want to know all about you,” she said.
“How friendly with Elmer are you,” Tom asked.
“Oh, I’ve known him for years. I mean way before he died. He reminds me of my daddy. And I have taught him a lot about these grounds before he was buried here.”
“Is his tomb far from here?”
“No just beyond those trees,” she points, “over the hill and next to the angel sculpture where dear old Ann is buried.”
Tom looks around at the gravesite. He was trying to look for other spirit who may have been watching or just standing around. But more so he was trying to fathom this whole situation.
“Am I dead. Can all this be real?,” he thought to himself.
She laughed, “No you’re not dead, so silly. Life is a blessing be glad that your not dead. This side is so unpredictable. Much like life but worse!”
“Worse? Then what’s going on? Why is it going on here? Is this the only place on earth where the dead can live?”
“Well, how do I know that? I’m confined here behind these walls to walk these green body filled grounds. I just can’t venture out and haunt the first house I see.” she said while giggling.
“How long have you been here? How did you die?”
“Why would you ask me that,” the brunette said her friendly demeanor quickly turning cold, like a lifeless body.
“I just (Tom stammering) I’m- I—I’m just trying to figure all this out”
“You just don’t ask someone how they died. Who the hell are you to ask me that personal question? You don’t know me!” she became more animated. Her anger spewing out of her gritted teeth.
“I-I,” Tom was lost.
“Just go, Tom! Go away! That is none of your business! How dare you ask me that!”
The trees around Tom began to sway violently and yet the sky was as blue as the heavens. The brunette entwined her soul into the swirling wind and quickly disappeared.
Everything went calm. The dust settled down. The birds began to sing again.
Bewildered, Tom fell back and sat on the exact spot on Abe’s tombstone that she had just occupied. He looked the vast area to see if anyone had seen any of this paranormal activity.
"This is just nuts," he said while he ran his hands across the rough edges of Abe’s stone. He steadily traced the inner writings on Abe's thombstone while he was reflecting. He got off the tombstone to step back and get a better look at what was written on the graish marker.
"This is just nuts," he said while he ran his hands across the rough edges of Abe’s stone. He steadily traced the inner writings on Abe's thombstone while he was reflecting. He got off the tombstone to step back and get a better look at what was written on the graish marker.
“Abe Johnson,” he read out loud, “ 1898- 1964. Loved his family. Loved medicine. A friend to all who knew him.”
"Well Abe, " he said out loud, " I need a doctor because I’m going nuts. I spurn dead women, too."
Growing up in South Dakota as an only child, Tom found himself alone many times while his parents would dig up the dead of another kind, dinosaurs. It was in the Badlands where his father and mother made fascinating prehistoric discoveries. After both receiving their doctorates in paleontology they had high expectations for Tom. But Tom wanted none of it.
“You can keep the dirt, dad,” Tom said in anger before he left for college. “I’d rather bury a carcass then dig it up. I’m tired of all this prehistoric stuff and all the comes with it. The obscene heat, the nasty sand storms rustled up by the intense winds and yours' and moms non-stop digging. This is for you two. Not me.”
“Son, look," he father said trying to talk to rationalize, "this, all this stuff is a legacy, our family legacy. Our research has brought some answers to the meaning of life. Who are we? Where are we headed? This past will tell us our future. So we don’t end up like these very creatures that became extinct before us. Your mother and I always tried to demonstrate that to you.”
“Dad, and you did. But I have seen hundreds of college students intern and they never returned for a job. You know why? Because life is happening! I can’t live in South Dakota anymore. I respect the life you’ve created for us. I respect more so of what you’ve both taught me, but I’m out of here to live amongst the living. Not these bone relics. It's time for me to start my life”
Tom quickly headed out of town to attend college in New York at Columbia University. College is the one thing he did take from his parents. Both had received their degrees in Earth and Environmental services from the Ivy League university. Their contributions to the college funded program, allowed their son to go to that prestigious school on a full scholarship.
While struggling to find himself in an active college lifestyle he’d head home, time to time, to the mobile home, that was the family estate. They would move it from place-to-place and set up on any site that produced dinosaur bones. Unfortunately his last trip home was to bury his parents. They died in a crevice deep inside a canyon where they discovered a new breed of dinosaur. His parents weren’t the best rock climbers or the best people to repel down into a cave. Unfortunately, they died while repelling deep inside the dark canyon.
Tom went back to his desk. This time he walked through the front door rather than his so-called secret office door.
While sitting down reviewing the state review checklist his thoughts would wander back into the cemetery. He thought about Elmer and the pretty brunette. He wracked his brain trying to figure out was real and what seemed like fantasy or sci-fi.
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