Apparition High School Part 2

               I tried to ignore the voices as I slid past the cemetery and into the parking lot of the very worn-out Gracie’s. I see Bryan sweeping the porch and “Hey there looks a bit empty” he smiles and tells me “Yes lately it has been but sometimes toward the end of the week the traffic picks up.” Once he is done sweeping, I leave my scooter out on the porch and we head inside he gives me the grand tour, “Counter, bait cooler, shelves of stuff, refrigerated items, clothing area, fishing stuff, the whole store.” I look over to Knight and he is putting dishes on the shelves “Knight is that an ice cream machine” He tells me “Chocolate, Vanilla or Swirl.” I tell him swirl then take it out to the porch to talk to Gracie (she’s been following me around nit-picking since I got here).
               Once settled in one of these cool looking rockers “I keep telling them to paint the place and fix that exit someone is going to get stuck.” That exit is a bit bumpy I almost went over coming in. “No one knows you talk to the dead do they.” I tell her “No my mom is ambivalent, and Grandma Dee loves it she says save her a place, uh is she alright.” Gracie has a nice smile and says, “No child your grandma is not technically your grandma but not coming to the other side any time soon.” Bryan and Knight join me and ask about Grandma Dee. “No, she’s not related by blood she was my mom’s stepmom years ago before I was born but she always considered mom family.” I point out the bumpy driveway and Bryan tells me “Mom and Dad want to fix it, but this place is not brining in the dough.”
               “Want to see dad’s maps Bea” Knight tells me their dad has many old maps of Morrisville. We get inside and Bryan says he can put my scooter in the back. The first map we see is a town map from the 60’s. “This is nice but where is the cemetery the one that is over there.” We all look and yeah in the 60’s that cemetery was not on the map. “It has always been there, but it was overgrown and when we expanded, we discovered it, hi honey I’m Jackie and this is Dean.” I shook their hand and Bryan tell them I’m Bea. “Yes, Mom and I live with Dee and that cone was great.” Dean gives us some more maps and we spread out on the end of the counter.
               We see the mine entrance near the school “Here it is just west of the track” Bryan states. Looking at that compared to the fire site I investigate the old article I downloaded to my phone. “Your Wi-Fi is excellent.” Jackie says thank you then something catches my eye the deaths from the school fire “Janitor, and 20 other kids, the accident happened after school was out, but some kids were setting up for a school play.” I have only seen the janitor and one boy, maybe everyone else has moved on. Knight nudges me and shows me another trail that might indicate the tunnel under the school “Its right here so this could be our hidden tunnel.” Then I notice the old mines used to use TNT to blast tunnels so if we could match the time, but it’s a long shot.
               “It getting to be 530 I need to head home can I take a picture of theses I have an idea” Bryan says sure, and I snap away. Saying my goodbye’s, I scoot over to the cemetery “We are all old miners who were killed in those blasted mines, are you a speaker.” I told them yes and said I will come back soon. I am researching the old fire at school. “That was after our time but maybe the cemetery by the highway.” I thanked them and got back home. I wonder why the old cemetery was overgrown and I haven’t been called a speaker before mostly spooky Bea and look who’s talking to no one. When I get home grandma dee has ham and grits nearly ready, so I tell her about the cemetery near Gracie’s.” Yeah, ah the one guy says they are all miners from the many accidents at the mines, but it was overgrown until Jackie said they expanded and then discovered it, why would anyone let a cemetery get overgrown.”
               “Well child they needed somewhere to bury them, and did you notice what color their skin was or if they were married?” I told her no, but I did not go into the cemetery just looked “Sometime I only hear voices especially at cemeteries.” Grandma explains that “Back in the day there was what was called Bachelors’ Grove were men who never married were buried. They had no family, and such were all interred at these places. In a not so nice past if these men were black or brown or Asian, they did not get buried in our local cemeteries, very racist yes.” We see Mom pulling in and no more dead talk, so we set the table and Grandma promises me another history lesson later.
               Mom is a 911 Operator, so she often works late but she was home before 10pm so that was nice.  “Hi, Mom, nice to see you before bed.” We hugged and I told her about Gracie’s. Minus the dead people talking to me and the cemetery. I sit with her while she eats grits and ham. She tells me about the lady she saved with CPR lessons over the phone. “Well sweet Bea (my nickname) I am beat but tomorrow I have the day off so how about that trip to Fantastic Cavern’s    tomorrow.” Since it’s Friday this week the school is on minimum day so a day trip will be nice. Often my dreams are vivid especially if I am seeing people like I have since moving here.  Walking through the halls they are old, and the doors are not but I recognize the janitor and I see some other kids. The janitor was in the boy’s room. I smelled pipe smoke, so he was smoking, guess you could do that in 1935. Then I smell something else, it’s like a cleaner but stronger and I feel the fire and see a can of Ether. My alarm makes me get up, I need to go to the school library and see if Ether was ever used as a cleaning solvent, it could have helped with the fire.

End of Part 2