The Hanging Hill

40

Zack heard a muffled boom somewhere right above his head.

He figured it must be a summer thunderstorm.

He and Meghan and Zipper continued creeping around the base of the giant brass statue.

They reached the back.

The girl hidden in the darkness continued to sob and moan and weep.

Meghan flicked on her illuminated wand.

A young Native American girl, maybe twelve, stood in the shadows, tears streaming down her face. She wore a fringed buckskin dress decorated with beadwork, and cradled a dozen ears of dried corn tight against her chest.

“Are you a demon?” she asked Zack in a quavering voice.

Zack shook his head.

The girl turned toward Meghan. Shook and sobbed. “Are you a demon?”

“No. I’m Meghan. Meghan McKenna. Who are you?”

The girl couldn’t answer. She convulsed into another spasm of sobs.

“What’s wrong?” asked Zack. “Does something hurt? Are you in pain?”

The weeping girl nodded. As she did, her head seemed sort of loose and rubbery on her neck.

Zack glanced down at the floor. The girl was standing in the center of an area squared off by the stumps of four rough beams. Maybe sawed-off support posts from an old foundation. Wormy six-by-sixes.

Now he heard footsteps.

“Hey … who are you guys talking to back here?” It was Derek.

“My father curses this ground!” the girl cried out. It was hard to understand what she was saying, because she kept sobbing the whole time she talked. “I did not steal this corn! We gave you demons the seed; how could we steal that which we gave you?”

Zack wished he knew the answer, but he didn’t, so he gave the ghost a pleading shrug. Meghan did the same thing.

Zipper sank to the floor and whimpered.

The girl wailed the most mournful cry Zack had ever heard in his life, worse than a million funerals all mixed together.

Then she and her corn crumbled into powdery dust and disappeared.

“Wow,” said Meghan.

“Yeah,” said Zack.

“We have to find out who she was.”

“Who who was?” asked Derek. He was staring at Zack, Meghan, and even Zipper as if all three were deranged.

“The girl,” said Zack.

“What girl?”

“In the buckskin dress?” said Meghan.

“She was just here,” said Zack.

“When?”

“Two seconds ago,” said Meghan.

“Ha-ha. Very funny. Can we go back upstairs now?”

Zack and Meghan looked at each other and realized Derek Stone couldn’t see ghosts!