The Search for Grandma Sparkle Page 11

  The thump happened again, followed by a high pitched squeak. Opal held the candle down to see under the bed. “Meow,” said the creature. Opal saw a black cat climb out from under the bed. The farm cat dropped a dead mouse in front of Opal like she was giving her a present.

  Opal got out of bed and picked up the mouse with the rag that had been a curtain. She grabbed her homemade wooden crutch and moved to the door. It was difficult to open the door with the crutch in one hand and the wrapped mouse in the other but she managed. As she threw out the mouse and shooed out the cat, she said: “Thanks for getting rid of the mouse for me. You can eat it. I’m not that hungry.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Sarah woke up shivering. Her alarm clock made a raucous sound to remind her that the time was 7 o’ clock. She went to the bathroom to wash the cold sweat from her face. Returning to the bedroom, she passed the air conditioning gauge in the hall. It read 78 degrees. Why did she feel so cold?

  Looking out the bedroom window, she saw that the sky was black. She jumped when she heard thunder and saw a streak of lightning at the same time. “That’s close. It’s so hot. Could there be a tornado? I wonder if Grandma and Jessica are somewhere sheltered from the storm?

  She was so tired that she returned to bed. She felt like either screaming or sobbing but her energy was too depleted to even make a sound. What could she do? It had been ten days since Grandma Sparkle and Jessica disappeared. She missed too many days of summer classes to receive college credits. Besides, she couldn’t concentrate.

  The minister came over last night to inquire about funeral services that he called a “celebration of life.” Dad stood up and said, “There will be no funeral without a body.” He showed the minister to the door and slammed it shut.

  Sarah went to Michelle’s house to see her sister. Susan just sat on the sofa and stared at the TV. She answered “Yes” or “No” or one word answers to questions asked of her and moved mechanically, like a robot, but otherwise sat still.

  Nancy busied herself with canning and freezing green beans and tomatoes from the garden and expected Sarah to help her. Why? They still had vegetables from last year and when she was in school, there were only two people to feed. Did her mom plan to die and leave her food for others to eat like her crazy Great Aunt Jenny? She had willed “all her canning jars, empty and full” to her brother as if that was the most valuable thing she could leave behind.

  Yesterday, she drove her mother to HyVee to buy bread and milk. Most of the people in the store turned away as though they weren’t there. Of course, they didn’t know what to say. Did most people feel that Grandma and Jessica were dead? Did they think that they were tortured or raped before they were killed?

  One of Susan’s friends stopped by with her daughter, bringing a casserole and said, “I can’t even imagine what you must feel knowing that Jessica won’t be here for her birthdays, Christmases and the other holidays. You won’t be able to see her grow up and graduate from school and get married. I can’t even imagine life without my little girl.”

  A friend of her grandmother stopped by to bring food and said, “It must be hard for you, as it is for all of us. But we need a funeral as closure to Opal’s life. You lost both the matriarch of your family and the youngest member. Now you must take the role of decision making since your parents and sister aren’t capable of it. Sarah wanted to scream, “They aren’t dead,” but she ran upstairs sobbing and slammed the door to her room instead.

  Sally, Sarah’s classmate from high school, stopped by and said, “I know how you feel. A month ago our dog, King died. I was so little when we got him that I can’t even remember life without him. It’s so sad.”

  Sarah screamed, “You dare to compare my grandmother’s and niece’s life to a dog?” Then she shut the door in the friend’s face.

  Sarah got up from bed and went to her desk and her computer to call Tom. He seemed to be the only person who actively cared about her feelings and was interested in helping her. He called her every day and just talked. Tom never judged her when she told him that she felt angry and depressed. She told him she wished that she had done more for Grandma Sparkle and Jessica and how much she missed them.

  Tom started to tell her about a guy at his part time job when he heard her sharp intake of breath.

  “What’s happening?”

  “I just got the weirdest email from somebody named Charlie.”

  “Read it to me.”

  “Okay. Here goes-

  ‘Sarah,

  I have been reading about your family and saw the television message about your grandmother and niece. I looked in the sky and got a message to tell you where they are. Don’t worry about them. They have not been harmed. They have food and water.

  Consider these facts.

  1.They disappeared from the car without leaving anyone else’s fingerprints.

  2.They didn’t pack any clothes to take with them.

  3.There aren’t any tire marks where they went off the road.

  4.They weren’t seen at any road blocks.

  5.No one can trace Grandma’s cell phone.

  6.No one can trace credit card purchases.

  7.No one has demanded a ransom.

  8.They could return on or before the appearance of the blood red moon or the first day of deer hunting season.

  9.They have disappeared off the face of the earth so they have been abducted by ALIENS.

  Charlie’”

  Tom laughed. “Aliens? That’s a new one. Do you really think it’s aliens?”

  “No. But Tom, what do I do? Do I call the sheriff? Will they laugh at me? Do you think they might find something to help Grandma and Jessica?”

  Tom answered. “Yes. Take the computer to the sheriff’s office to see if they can trace this email but don’t share it with your family.”

  He continued, “It looks like an amateurish way to make a joke. It doesn’t sound to me that a professional person wrote this.”

  Sarah asked, “How can a person know all this unless they are involved in Grandma Sparkle’s and Jessica’s abduction? I don’t believe in aliens but nothing makes sense. Why would he send this to me?”

  “Because he could.” Tom answered. “This whole situation wasn’t done by a pro. His actions show that he is impulsive and immature.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Sarah moaned as she reached over to silence the high pitched ring of the alarm clock. The clock read 7:30 am-Sunday July 24. The first thing she remembered from yesterday was how the pastor of their church came to discuss funeral arrangements for Grandma Sparkle and Jessica. Now she couldn’t face him or anyone else this morning.

  She lay awake for fifteen minutes before she decided to get up, take a shower and get a cup of coffee for breakfast. Usually her mom had cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfasts but today Sarah wasn’t hungry.

  The house was silent when she went downstairs but the coffee maker was on automatic so she smelled the wonderful aroma of fresh coffee.

  She grabbed a cup of coffee and touched her jeans pocket to check that her cell phone was in it. Sarah was quiet as she opened the door and went outdoors because she didn’t want to awakened her parents. They probably didn’t want to go to church today either.

  Tom answered on the first ring so he must have anticipated her call. “What are you doing today?”

  “Well, I’m getting some more information for my Iowa history paper. My history professor said to explain why studying the contents of our paper is relevant today.”

  “Really. How are you going to do that?”

  “Well, I can write about sinkholes.”

  “Sinkholes?”

  “Yeah, I can write about the sinkhole in South Des Moines that swallowed a forty foot tree and tell how there are many underground mines that could potentially become sinkholes.

  “I don’t remember the sinkhole. When did this incident happen?”

  “On Wednesday, April 13 of 2016.”

  “Wa
s it very big?”

  “Yeah. The Des Moines Register said the hole was ‘thirty feet wide by twenty five feet deep and swallowed a 40 foot tree. This sinkhole was located where a 203 acre mine used to be located.’ I’m going to read you another quote from the paper. ‘The Iowa Geological Survey estimates that as many as 6,000 underground coal mines are scattered across 38 counties and could potentially affect 80,000 acres of Iowa land.’”

  “Sarah asked, “But how often do sinkholes happen?”

  “The Register’s quote from the Mining and Minerals Bureau said ‘two or three mine-related sinkholes typically occur each year in Iowa.’ Just think, with over 6,000 abandoned mines in Iowa over 38 counties, there is a potential for many more sinkholes. It is important to know where they are located.”

  “Sarah sighed. “You still think that Grandma and Jessica are in an abandoned building, mine or sinkhole?”

  “Yeah, they could be.” Tom answered.

  “Then you could say the information you have learned about mines and sinkholes is relevant today.”

  “Yeah. When will I see you again?”

  Sarah’s voice was emphatic. “I don’t know. I still think that John has something to do with their disappearance. I don’t want to go looking for them if we are going to find dead bodies.” There she said it. She didn’t want to think about what horrors happened to her grandmother and niece and had never said out loud that they may be dead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  The so called friends of the Spoolstra family seemed more intent voicing their dire viewpoints than listening to Sarah or merely helping her with a silent presence. Tom didn’t try to talk her out of her depression or discuss Grandma Sparkle and Jessica but just said that he wanted more knowledge for his term paper.

  “Do you know anyone who can help me learn more about these mines?” He asked Sarah.

  “If you want to see where more mines used to be, I’ll get you Dave Moore’s phone number. He’s the local guru on the mines in this area. Dave has an encyclopedic memory of the mines and tells stories about the people who lived and worked there.”

  “How does he know so much?” Tom asked.

  Sarah answered, “He moved back to Iowa from out west someplace, around the late 1990’s. He was retired and decided to search for his roots. His grandparents and great-grandparents were miners who even owned their own mine. His grandparents and my great-grandparents were Andersons so there is a family connection. Tom, when you phone him, tell him that I’ll go too. He knows our family connection and had even interviewed Grandma Sparkle when he was drawing up his maps.”

  “Great. Sarah, I’ll phone you back after I’ve spoken with him.”

  A few minutes later Sarah’s phone rang. She turned the news off and went to her bedroom so she could talk in private.

  “I phoned Dave and he said that he can spend time tomorrow or Tuesday depending on the weather. How does the weather look near Bussey?”

  Sarah answered, “An earlier weather forecast called for rain but the weather is only cloudy this Sunday afternoon. The temperature is 98 degrees but a breeze from the north makes it feel cooler.”

  “Do you suppose that I can stay overnight at your grandmother’s house tonight?”

  “Since I will sleep at home, I’m sure that it will be all right. I’ll call Susan to be sure that she is still planning to stay at Michelle’s house.”

  Sarah’s face brightened when she saw Tom arrive in his beat up Jeep an hour later. Although she was depressed and didn’t really feel that taking this trip with Tom would help find her grandmother, it was something to do and she liked being with Tom.

  “Let’s go for a ride,” Tom suggested.

  “Do you want to see a real covered bridge?”

  “Okay.”

  “We’ll have to go to Attica and drive down some gravel roads.”

  “That sounds good to me.”

  “The bridge has been moved up the hill since the bottom of the road gets flooded and you can’t drive over it anymore,” Sarah explained.

  “Look, you can see a seam of coal in the side of the ditch. We’ll stop here to photograph it.” Tom jumped out of the car and aimed his camera at the black streak in the bank. Excitedly, he lifted his head and looked to the left. “Look at the shale pile up there. Let’s hike up there. We can leave the car here.”

  They had just reached the top of the hill when they heard thunder and felt cold air and then the rain pelted them.

  Behind the gob piles was a dark opening. Tom went to investigate.

  “There’s a hole in here where we won’t get so wet.” He shouted. “Come here.”

  They both climbed underground into the hole which was about four feet deep before it went into the slope of the hill. Sarah’s voice was high as she wondered out loud if some animal lived here.

  Tom insisted that he would investigate. “You stay here while I check it out.”

  Tom disappeared into the darkness. Streaks of lightning flashed giving some light but Sarah didn’t see Tom anymore.

  “Tom! Tom!” She screamed.

  It must have been only a few minutes before Tom called back but it seemed like a long time before Sarah heard his voice. “Are you okay?”

  “Please come back. You shouldn’t go in there without a light.”

  “You are right. It looks like a small mine but I thought that they were all sealed. Some boys or men must have opened it up again.”

  “Let’s go home. I’ve had enough adventuring for one day.”

  “Okay, but let’s go out to eat first. I’m hungry for a good steak,” Tom replied.

  “I hear that Tasos’ Steakhouse is good but they aren’t in Knoxville anymore. We will have to go to Oskaloosa.”

  “Show me the way.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Dave Moore arrived at Grandma Sparkle’s house promptly at nine o’clock the next morning in his four wheel drive pickup. Tom guessed him to be about sixty-five years old. He was six foot tall with sandy hair. The tan on his arms and face showed that he spent a great deal of time outdoors while his hearty “Hello” and bright smile made him appear to be a congenial fellow.

  The two men didn’t seem to notice that Sarah was unusually quiet as the men discussed the coal museums that she and Tom had visited. She was happy to discuss the mines and abandoned buildings when she thought that Grandma and Jessica might be in one but now it looked like finding them alive was hopeless.

  Dave was happy that Tom had so much knowledge of coal mines. It was as if they spoke the same “coal mine language,” which was a language that not too many people were interested in anymore.

  Tom spoke up. “Did they really load sixteen tons of coal a day as the song ‘Sixteen Tons’ says? ‘Sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.’ And “I owe my soul to the company store’.”

  Dave replied, “Yes. That’s pretty much what happened but John L. Lewis made many reforms in health benefits wages, and safety with the UMW (United Mine Workers of America).”

  “You really can’t know about coal mines unless you include the work of John L. Lewis. I went to Lucus to see the John L. Lewis Museum.” Tom replied.

  “I think it was the UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund that Lewis created in a contract with the federal government that would change health care delivery in the coal fields of the nation permanently. I’m sure it also helped Lewis get the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson.” Dave added.

  “You really either hated John L. Lewis or you loved him,” Tom said. “There wasn’t any in-between. I understand that he was a big man with bushy eyebrows and a gruff manner as he belittled the mine owners who I quote ‘owned luxury yachts while coal miners children were starving’. But the docents at the museum in Lucus said that the staff in his office told them that Mr. Lewis was ‘adorable’ and ‘gentlemanly’ the way he treated the women who worked for him.”

  “Have you been to the museum in Melch
er?”

  “No,” Tom answered.

  “It has an opening in the basement that looks like you are walking into a mine. The mining museum is held in the same building where the union met years ago.”

  “Do you want to go with me next weekend?” Tom asked Sarah.

  “No. I will be helping Mom with Dad’s birthday party.” Sarah answered. She thought, Of course mom hadn’t said anything about a party and under the circumstances, there might not be a party but she had enough coal mine history for a lifetime.

  Tom asked, “Can you take us to Buxton?”

  “Sure,” Dave replied. “But first I want to take you to Muchykinock. The three people drove on old Highway 92 toward Tracy. Then they turned onto the new Highway 92 to Oskaloosa before they turned onto the four lane Highway 163 toward Eddyville. On the hill was an area that had been terraced and covered with grass. “That’s where the dump from Oskaloosa is but I don’t know if it is still operating as a dump. Below here, on both sides of the road was the Muchykinock Mine. The railroad owners went to Scranton, Virginia when the miners went on strike and brought back many blacks to work in the mines. When the mining gave out, they moved most of the people to Buxton about fifteen miles from here. . . .We have to take County Line Rd. or Highway 340.”

  “Is that the road between Marion and Mahaska Counties?” Tom asked. “Is there anything to see?”

  “No, it is between Mahaska and Monroe county but Marion county isn’t too far away since it is west of Bussey and north of Hamilton. What you can see is an area leased by the Monroe Historical Society where there are partial buildings and foundations.” As we followed the narrow rock road, we saw a collapsing building that Dave said was the Monroe Mercantile Store or company store. Nearby was a small red brick building where the pay office and vault were kept.