The Crossroads

Judy drove over to the North Chester Library when Zack and his father took off for Home Depot.

“What brings you here on such a gorgeous Sunday?” Mrs. Emerson asked. “Researching your next book?”

“No. Remember how you told me that you didn’t know why Miss Spratling put her memorial on that tree behind our house?”

“Yes, dear. I remember. In fact, I have a very keen memory. My knees are shot, but my memory is just fine. Now, then—what have you discovered about Gerda Spratling’s shrine?”

“What do you know about the Greyhound bus accident of June 21, 1958?”

“I know how to find out more. After all, dear, I am a librarian.”

An hour later, the two women sat at a large table covered with clothbound volumes of old newspapers.

“‘The Greyhound Scenicruiser was on its usual route from Boston to New York,’” Mrs. Emerson read from the lead news story in the North Chester Telegraph. “‘Along the way, it picked up campers from Camp Still-waters….’”

“A Boy Scout camp?” Judy asked.

“No, dear. A Bible camp. Used to be dozens up this way.” She tapped at a list printed alongside the main story. “This is the passenger manifest. Mostly strangers who had never met and they end up spending eternity together.”

“You think they’re linked in the afterlife because they died together?”

“I do.”

“Why?”

“Read, dear. We’ll discuss my ontological speculations later.”

“Ontological?”

“The metaphysical study of the nature of being and existence.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Read, dear. Read.”

Judy studied the list.

GREYHOUND SCENICRUISER BOSTON–NEW YORK AND ALL LOCAL STOPS PASSENGER FATALITIES

June 21, 1958

1. Pfc. Sylvester Barrows, 19 years old, U.S. Army

2. Clarence W. Billings, 36 years old, salesman

3. Sister Mary Ignatius Brady, 45 years old

4. Millicent Chapman, 9 years old, camper

5. Elizabeth Erin, 10 years old, camper

6. Dorothy Fenwick, 10 years old, camper

7. George Fenwick, 8 years old, camper

8. Christopher Ferguson III, 29 years old

9. George S. Gladding, 37 years old, businessman

10. Rebecca Goodwin, 18 years old, high school student

11. Corp. Simon Gorham, 22 years old, U.S. Army

12. Pfc. Alfred Grabowski, 20 years old, U.S. Army

13. Calley Jordan, 9 years old, camper

14. Mr. James F. Karpen, 43 years old, insurance salesman

15. Mrs. Charlene Karpen, 37 years old

16. Jessie Karpen, 10 years old

17. Harry Karpen, 8 years old

18. Gideon Leet, Jr., 10 years old, camper

19. Hudson Leverett, 9 years old, camper

20. Susan Lund, 10 years old, camper

21. Dr. William Mitchell, 35 years old, college professor

22. Mrs. Maryann Mitchell, 32 years old

23. Cody Mitchell, 5 years old

24. Hailey Mitchell, 5 years old

25. Tamara Mitchell, 6 months old

26. Pfc. Amos Morgan, 18 years old, U.S. Army

27. Sister Beatrice Mulligan, 55 years old

28. N. C. Perry, 76 years old, retired

29. George Porter, 8 years old, camper

30. Catherine Pratt, 8 years old, camper

31. William E. Selden, 9 years old, camper

32. Reverend Edgar Stiles, 48 years old

33. Sister Elizabeth Synnott, 63 years old

34. Charles Wannamaker, 38 years old, scientist

35. Russell White, 46 years old, businessman

36. Kathleen Williams, 31 years old, nightclub singer

37. Daniel J. Wilson, 28 years old, auto mechanic

38. Sgt. Abraham Yates, 29 years old, U.S. Army

39. Pfc. Adam Zahn, 19 years old, U.S. Army

40. DRIVER: Bud Heckman, 35 years old

Judy stared at the list to make sure she saw what she thought she saw.

Bud Heckman, the driver, was a local, so the newspaper ran his photo in the column alongside the list. Judy recognized him immediately: the nice man who had told her how to change a flat tire. Her goose bumps sprouted goose bumps. No wonder she had met the helpful man so close to a graveyard.

Bud Heckman was dead.