Michael's Ghost Girl

Epilogue

The weakened boards of the burnt-out shell of the house slowly collapsed in on themselves, leaving a pile of timbers where once a house had stood. It sat that way for nearly two years, and now people crossed the street rather than pass by it for a different reason.

The badly burned body of a man had been found, but the coroner said it looked like he had died before the house was set on fire. There was no sign of burning or scorching in his lungs. People forgot that a young girl had been charged with his murder, with the charges then being dismissed on the basis of the testimony of another girl who had been held in the house.

Michael's parents had sold their house for a good price in spite of the fate of the house up the street. They moved to Los Angeles to be closer to Michael, and to put as much distance between Kit and her ordeal as they could.

The burnt ruins of the house sat for a long time for the owner's estate had to be cleared up. Finally, a distant relative was found and the property put on the market. It sat, unsold and untouched until the owner decided to have the remains of the structure removed to increase the desirability of the lot.

One day heavy equipment arrived crowding space on the street. The noise began early one morning as a bulldozer began smashing the remains and removing the burnt timbers from the shell of the structure, and dropping them in a giant trash bin.

The work was finished in two days and people remarked at how strange it seemed that the now-empty lot had once held a house. With the workmen and the timbers removed, there was a sort of eerie quiet to the street that neighbors did not know how to deal with.

Neighborhood boys, ignoring the "No Trespassing" sign, climbed down into what had once been the earth-floor basement and began to explore. "The owner was murdered," said one, "the murder weapon might still be there," said another.

On hands and knees, they began to dig around in the dirt hoping to find something. After what seemed to be a fruitless search they were ready to give up when one said, "Hey, I think I found something, it looks like a human bone." His friends jeered at him, but gave in to their morbid natures and went to see what he had found.

One of them grabbed a cell phone and called "911". The dispatcher was disinclined to believe him, but the boy was so insistent and so sincere that a car was sent out to see just what they had found. Undoubtedly it was nothing, and the policeman would give them a stern lecture on trespassing.

The boys were standing and guarding the bones when the officer arrived. He shooed them away, all except for the one who had made the discovery and would not leave. On hands and knees, he dug in the dirt until he found more bones and recognized them for what they were.

A crowd had gathered by the time the coroner's van arrived. The boy who had made the discovery stood with his mother and watched while cops and the coroner excavated in the soft dirt. At last, they found a skull with the tattered remains of a few dreadlocks hanging from it. Not far away was a second skeleton, lying on its side as if asleep.

No one saw the two women clad in black tatters standing apart from the crowd. As the skeletons were lifted from the earth and placed into body bags, they disappeared.