Fallen Stones (55 page)

After a few seconds slight smiles appeared on their cherubic faces as they looked upward as if hearing someone calling to them. Then they began to slowly dissolve as Stephanie had seen the dome dissolve. Next, two long streams of effervescent particles streaked up onto the heavens. Stephanie thought she heard the boys calling to their Aunt Amelia Miller. Perhaps the time had finally come for the boys to join her and Amelia had come to lead them home.

“Bye bye, boys,” Sammy said. He heard their voices inside his head distant and fading. “Goodbye, Sammy. You have been brave and have helped to free us so we can move on. Live a long and good life and maybe we will see you again someday.”

Sammy didn't understand everything the boys were talking about, but he could tell they were both happy and were going to a place far away, where they would never be sad again.

Jason and Stephanie looked about them at the burning buildings, the billowing smoke and the debris strewn patches of burning meadow.

“What now?” Stephanie asked, staring around in stunned confusion.

“Well,” Jason replied, pulling out his cell phone, “now I guess we call 911.”

 

Epilogue

 

“Wright Industrial Consulting; Jason Wright speaking,” Jason said into his desk phone. “No. Sorry. I don't have need for that at the moment, but I'll keep you in mind. Thank you and goodbye.” He hung up the phone and thought, “Salesmen! Well, I suppose they have to earn a living too.” He had found since setting up his own business and working from his home office he seemed to be getting a lot of ‘cold calls' from a variety of salesmen. This was probably because he had been doing a lot to promote his business through a number of professional and Internet resources. “I suppose since I put myself out there to try to gain some name recognition, I have to assume the push is starting to work by the number of sales calls I've been getting. Too bad most of them aren't from potential clients.”

As he was about to return to the project on his desk he stopped for a moment and found himself once more reflecting back on how much had happened. And how much had changed over the past six months, since that unbelievable night.

After the firemen had managed to get the blaze under control and the gas company had capped the leak, he, Stephanie and Sammy had been taken to a hospital in the city of Yuengsville to be treated for shock as well as minor cuts and abrasions. The rescue workers were amazed the three had even survived the carnage. When they had arrived on the scene the workers had found them aimlessly walking toward the main road, down the driveway as a conflagration equivalent to a war zone could be seen burning behind them. One rescue worker described the sight as appearing like three survivors escaping from Hell. Jason had been carrying his son in one arm while his other was secured tightly around his wife. The fire trucks had proceeded up to the home site while the ambulance crew looked after the family near a large rock in the driveway which bore the inscription “Fallen Stones”.

None of the Wrights seemed to have had much of a recollection of what actually happened, but somehow they had managed to survive a gas explosion which had destroyed every single structure on the property. Even the in-ground swimming pool and patio area as well as Jason's pickup truck in the driveway had been blown to bits.

Later Jason called his brother-in-law, Chuck, from the hospital to check on Jeremy and Cindy. He wanted to be sure the specters had not done anything to harm them. When he heard they were ok, he quickly filled Chuck in on what happened – being careful to exclude the mention of demonic ghosts - and asked him to keep the kids for another day until he and Stephanie could get some details worked out. He knew it would take months until their lives even came close to returning to normal, but he figured he could at least get out of the hospital and settled into hotel as a temporary measure by the next day.

The property was a total loss with everything being burned to dust in the inferno. All that remained of any of the building was rubble. Luckily for the Wright family, included in the tax escrow for the property was a clause for automatic payment of their homeowners insurance as well. Jason and Stephanie forgot about how Armstrong had explained everything to them on the day of the settlement. Since Armstrong's death, another lawyer had taken over his practice and assisted Jason and Stephanie in resolving matters. Eventually they received a settlement check for close to three million dollars for their loss.

After what they had been through, Jason and Stephanie both decided it would be best to move back to Berks County and begin again with a fresh start. Jason quit his job at the Ashton facility and pursued his dream of starting his own consulting business. He already had several lucrative client contracts, and since he had managed to leave his old job on good terms, the Ashton factory also agreed to become one of his clients.

He and Stephanie built a brand new home in Western Berks County in a new upscale subdivision with large homes on two acre lots. The home didn't compare in opulence to the one which was destroyed, but that was just fine with them. Jason had a home office from which he could run his business, and Stephanie had a small studio she could use to write her books. The kids each had their own bedrooms, a large family room and an in-ground pool in the back yard.

Stephanie's latest book was doing amazingly well in a very tough market. Fortunately for her, about a week before the fire, Jason had sneaked into her loft in the middle of the night and found her book and illustrations buried under a stack of papers. Unbeknownst to Stephanie, Jason packaged everything and then sent it to her publisher. About a month later a galley proof of the book arrived at the apartment where they were temporarily staying until their new home construction was finished. Jason had it mailed to him so he could surprise Stephanie with it, which he did one night while having dinner at their favorite restaurant.

He was delighted by her tearful reaction. He hadn't seen her so happy since their wedding day or the day Sammy was born. He supposed holding a new book that was personally created was distantly like holding a newborn. Stephanie was so inspired; she immediately began working on her next book. She had also been doing numerous book signings, readings and interviews with magazines, newspapers and blogs as well as television and radio.

Stephanie no longer had any desire to recreate her family history and told Jason perhaps it would be better if the kids didn't know about their ancestors. Maybe in a hundred years or so one of their dependents might take an interest and begin researching anew, but she didn't want to record what she knew or what they had been through. She thought once again, “Everything happens for a reason.” All of her data was destroyed in the fire and so perhaps it was meant to be destroyed.

She and Jason almost never discussed the events of that horrible evening again hoping perhaps that time might erase the memories. But they both knew deep inside that on those nights when pleasant dreams turn unexpectedly to horrifying nightmares, the images would return. There would be little they could do to stop that but they could opt to not discuss it while awake. Sammy seemed to have forgotten completely about it or else with his brain's child-like resilience he simply found a way to block it out, which was just fine with his parents.

Since Emerson Washburn's will required they not be permitted to sell the property and must keep it in the family, Stephanie thought of a way to put the land to work, making at least some money for them. She asked Jason to hire a contractor to remove all of the debris from the property. Then, since the gas line was capped out at the highway, she had them dig up and eliminate the old gas line. They filled in the foundation and the in-ground pool remnants with top soil and re-tilled the entire forty acres, making it perfect for farming. Then they contacted a number of local farmers and found several interested in leasing a section of the farm for their own use. The income from the lease was not much, but it made Stephanie happy to know the land, which had once caused so much sorrow, was now being put to a good use.

Things were finally getting back to normal for the Wright family, now that they were settled in their new home. Jason could hear Stephanie and the kids in the back yard swimming in the pool, enjoying the start of their summer vacation. The scars of that horrible night were finally starting to fade and life was beginning anew.

Jason decided to check over the latest proposal he had prepared for one of his new potential clients. He reached over and removed the paperweight which held the pile of documents in place. He picked up the weight and smiled knowingly as he turned it about in his hand. It was a small flat, irregular-shaped piece of stone, about an inch or so thick.
 

To the casual observer it would look like a piece of marble or granite which might have once belonged to something larger, but had broken off. The back of the paperweight was smooth but the front bore a partial carving of some sort which resembled half of the face of an angel or cherub. It was the type of engraving one might find on the tombstone of a very young child. Jason picked up the report and placed the stone back on the stack of documents smiling once again.

THE END

Thomas M. Malafarina - September 2012

Lawrence Knorr's Original Ideas for "Fallen Stones"

 

(Remember unless you want some of the story spoiled -

wait to read this until you finish the book.)

 

This Stephen King-style thriller starts with a young family with children moving onto a farm in upstate Pennsylvania.

 

An old family plot is discovered on the property in a copse of trees in the middle of the property

 

Meanwhile, the children begin to experience ghostly encounters from ghost children and a ghost mother.

 

The mother, who had been working on the family genealogy, decides to research the (long ago) former owners.  (relatives)

 

She discovers a tragedy -- first determining this family all died around the same time -- tracing from census records to burial records, wills, and newspaper accounts.

 

She also discovers there is a genetic connection between the woman and herself.

 

Ultimately, an old letter is found in the county archives describing how the mother killed all of her children, drowning them in a well.

 

The husband came home, discovered this, killed his wife, and then himself.

 

The mother begins to lose her mind, and sets out to repeat history...

 

But, will the husband get home in time?

 

Will the spirits prevent her?