Len and Norma Lose a Body

Chapter 19

The girls had found some orange bailing twine in and amongst the concrete rubble surrounding the body. "Perfect," Amy pulled the tangled mess of twine out of the cracks and crevices, "we can use this to move the body." She scrambled down the broken pieces of concrete and the girls met around the body once more. "Ok what did we all find?" Lauren was ready to take inventory of what they had scavenged for 'operation dead guy'. They had a piece of a broken bottle for cutting, a piece of old barn board, a rusty bent wrench and the twine. They silently surveyed the pile of found supplies and seemed happy with their finds.

"Ok, so what are we actually going to do then?" Nicole asked out loud for anyone to take the lead. "Well we have to get him out of this pit," Amy said sensibly, "your parents know we're here and it's our bb that's lodged in his brain." She looked at Jill as she finished this statement indicating that she still thought it was her wild shooting that had caused this stranger's death. "Ya," Lauren agreed that they needed to get the body out of here but it was wide open prairies up there, "Once we get him out of this pit what are we doing though?"

The girls stood in silence watching a fly walk on the narrow edges of the dead man's ear. "I've got it," Lauren said, "There's an abandoned farm not far from here with lots of big trees around it. We need to get him there." It was the beginning of a plan. The girls put their heads together forgetting the body of the man warming in sun. For the time being they were going to have to leave the body where it lay. "Shouldn't somebody stand guard?" Jill asked as they climbed the banks of the pit to get back to their bikes. "Why, he ain't going nowhere," Nicole answered back in a landslide of dry dirt and rock as she made her way up over the lip of the pit towards her bike.

Lauren, Nicole, Amy, and Jill peddled with the conviction of a team with a rock solid plan. They were going to need the quad, a pallet, some empty jugs and a blanket. All they needed to do was drag the body up out of the pit with the twine and quad, then roll him onto the pallet covered in the blanket, drag the body across the highway and get him into the creek. From there they'll put the empty jugs under the pallet fashioning a raft where they can float the body to the abandoned farmyard without being seen. It was a fool proof plan.

...

Diane was in her garden when the group of girls came riding down the lane. What a nice surprise she thought as she straightened up shielding her eyes from the sun with the back of her hand. She waved her granddaughter and her friends over as they neared. "Come come, I have snacks for you all," and she turned and started walking toward the house expecting the girls to follow. Lauren looked back at the rest of the girls and shrugged. The man in the pit would have to wait, there was no saying no to a grandma with snacks.

The girls followed Lauren into the house and Diane was already at the counter with pouring sugar and vanilla into the cream that was already in the mixing bowl. "You girls must be famished," Diane said and before she let them answer had turned the mixer on full speed and turned her attention to whipping the cream. Lauren, Nicole, Amy and Jill sat in silence around the kitchen table grateful for the noise and the distraction. When the whipped cream had formed Diane took the plastic cover off of the cake tray on the counter revealing a chocolate bundt cake with chocolate frosting and coconut sprinkled on top.

For a few moments the body was forgotten and the girls stared as Diane cut four equal sized pieces of cake and set them down in front of them. Diane hadn't brought the forks yet because she had yet to dole out the whipped cream. She brought over the big metal mixing bowl from its stand and dolloped heaping spoonfuls onto each slice. "You probably need something to wash that down with," Diane smiled as she delivered a fork to each of the girls who were eager to dig in. Rounds of thanks you were quickly muffled by the sounds of forks lightly tinking against plates and satisfied "mmmms".