Nobody Knows Your Secret

39

"Well, Beanie, I guess we're going to have to tackle the stairs before we can even hope to get to the second story rooms," Hadley said.

"Okay. Let's clean the kitchen last, Hadley. Eustian died in that room. It's spooky. What if he's haintin' that room? I don't want to make Eustian's ghost mad," Beanie said.

"Okay, Bean," Hadley said, "if that makes you happy. But I promise you only Eustian's junk is there. This place is not haunted. No ghosts. Okay. Keep telling yourself that. No ghosts. Doggone, but I think I can see a small speck of light at the end of this tunnel. We're making good progress, Beanie. Good progress."

"No ghost," Beanie muttered as he worked. "No ghost. No ghost. No ghost."

Hadley started to the bottom of the stairs. The stairway was as cluttered as the rest of the house.

With the bottom steps cleared, it was much easier to move the litter at the top down the steps and out the door to the dumpster.

"Onward and upward, Bean," she said as she grabbed the first of an astounding number of old piles of yellowing newspapers. "For some odd reason, I want to add 'tally ho!' Must be the dust. It's gooping up my brain!"

Hadley stumbled and almost tripped. She sat the large box down on the landing.

"That was close," she said.

"Be careful," Beanie said.

"I will. I think I was hurrying. I'll slow it down. No sense breaking my neck over a bunch of old newspapers."

Hadley sat down beside the box.

"I don't know who's dustier. Me or this box. Who would've thought papers could be so heavy?"

"Must be the dust," Beanie said. "You know, weighing it down."

"Umm. Probably right," said Hadley. "Look here, Bean! This one on top's about the terrible roller coaster accident."

"A lot of folks got hurt in that," Beanie said quietly.

"They sure did," said Hadley. "Claire Winthrop was one of them. Look at those mangled cars."

She unfolded the paper and a cloud of dust poofed up in front of her face. She shook the paper to get a better view of the images on the page. Several large photos accompanied the article. One was a close-up of the disturbing MEGA clown.

"Look," Hadley said, "that old clown looked as creepy then as it does now. Poor sod looks as bad in his pictures as I do mine."

"I like you in pictures," said Beanie.

"Spoken like a true gentleman," said Hadley. "Look. That's Vance Odis. This ruined him."

There were several more shots of the twisted coaster cars. One shot pictured a lone tennis shoe dangling from a tree branch. The last couple of photos were of the crowds standing around gawking at the wreckage.

"Looks like Lou Edna there, Bean," Hadley said. "I think she still has the same hairdo now that she did way back then. Can't tell what color her hair was in black and white, but it looks light. I think I remember her as a blonde back then. She gets it out of a bottle, you know."

"Really," Beanie said as if he knew what his friend was talking about.

"Look how young and handsome Bill looks in his uniform. Gosh, we were all so young, then," said Hadley, pointing Bill Whittaker out to Beanie. Hadley adjusted her glasses. "Hmmmm, if I didn't know better, I think that was Hardy Branwell."

Hadley held the paper to the side, hoping to catch some better light.

"He looks really shell-shocked," she said.

Folding the paper up neatly, Hadley walked to the front door and placed it in her large pocketbook.

"Just making sure we don't toss this in the dumpster. I want to get a better look at this later. Give me a minute. I'll see if there are any more like this."

Hadley rummaged through the box, but nothing else caught her attention.

***

"Back to work," she said.

Beanie and Hadley made their way up the stairs. The towering piles leaned inward as they worked their way to the top step. 

Beanie grabbed an old suitcase off the top of the pile. The heap began to sway ominously toward the center of the path. Dust started falling over them like snow.

"Tiiiiimmmmber!" Beanie yelled.

There was a loud crash. The heap toppled over causing an avalanche of debris to rain down on Hadley and Beanie. Arms flying, legs flailing, bodies tumbling, they landed at the bottom of the stairs in a mound of dirt and debris.

"Shoot. Bean. Are you okay?" Hadley asked, rubbing her shoulder.

"I think I bumped my butt on the way down," Beanie said. "Hadley, are you okay? I didn't hurt you when we got tangled up, did I?"

"I think I'll live, but I bet you and me are going to be two sore housecleaners in the morning. Nothing to do but pick ourselves up and brush off some of this dust."

Beanie looked at the mountain of rubble.

"We sure know how to make a mess," he said.

"No sense making an average mess when with a little effort you can make a colossal one! Let's be a little more careful, huh? We could have broken our necks on that one."

A wicked grin spread across her face.

"But I will say this," Hadley said. "It was quite a ride down, wasn't it?"

"If you say so, Hadley," Beanie said.

***

The cleanup proceeded, although at a much slower pace. The sun sank over the skeletal remains of the roller coaster in the distance.

"Let's call it a day, Bean," Hadley said.

"A day," Beanie said.

Hadley patted Beanie on the back.

"We did good," she said.

Beanie smiled. He liked it when his friend was happy. Hadley got her purse and the salvaged newspaper, and the two tired friends went home.