Why Not Murder

52. Graves

52. Graves

Maya was canoeing across the lake to go to the Brockton. From there she would travel to her ancestral lands and visit the graves of her child and husband. It was a miracle that the oil which had covered the graveyard had all been cleaned. She accepted the claim of XX Fuel that it was they who had drained the oil so that it returned deep underground. Various agencies continued to test the surrounding water and found that it was as drinkable as it had been before the spill; however doubts remained. XX Fuel behaved like an emotionless entity, which a corporation is, steered exclusively by profit. Underlying that, there were humans who had no responsibility in the decisions of the corporation which were determined by the results of artificial intelligence and statistical data. At the base of it all, responsible or not, there were humans and the corporation existed for the sake of humans. Humans needed and used the corporation's product. No matter what the cause of the oil spill and whose responsibility it was, it was commendable that the spill had been cleaned and Maya was grateful for that. Another corporation may not have bothered to clean up the spill.

When Maya was within sight of the lake's central island, she noticed that there was a sturdy boat that was pulling something out of the water. She was pretty far away but it looked like a body that they were pulling out. From the way it was being hauled up with a small crane, Maya knew it wouldn't be a live person. Other debris was also being hauled on board, a round object with a flat bottom and windows, large enough for a human to sit inside. Maya wondered if it was one of the earlier devices used by scientists years ago to investigate the lake bottom and anomaly. Hopefully it would be reported on the news.

The wind was pushing her along and she arrived in good time at her usual spot where she pulled up her canoe and hid it under brush. She had a map of the entire area with her. There was a little used road coming off the main road that went to XX Fuel's extraction site, that led to the village where she had lived with her husband and child. The road to the village was long and it would take a day before she would get there. The graveyard was a short distance outside the village. Maya had no idea who still lived there, if anyone did.

Brockton was quiet. Signs of looting were apparent. Only grocery stores were open. There was hardly any traffic. People were out walking and enjoying the warm evening sunshine. There were no protesters. Maya decided to rest in a nearby park. It was the oldest park in Brockton, at least one hundred and fifty years old. A wrought iron fence twenty feet high and studded at the top with spear points encircled the entire park which was one hundred acres in size. There were four main gates facing the cardinal directions that were manned by a special police force to keep out unwanted people. The gates were closed one hour after sunset each day and reopened one hour before dawn. Some of the trees were huge. One was said to be one thousand years old. Even though the gates had been shut as soon as the mayhem broke out, torches were thrown in and some of the trees were burnt, fortunately not the oldest. Park police were quick to extinguish the fires and the water system that serviced the park alone kept running. As Maya neared a fountain with a sculpture of three blue heron at the center with water pouring out from their beaks, she recognized a woman sitting on the ledge surrounding the fountain. Hundreds of coins had been thrown in for good luck. It was the woman she had rescued from the maze in Marhaven. She sat down beside her. The woman recognized Maya. They said 'hello' to each other at exactly the same time and then both laughed.

"My name is Maya Whitehawk."

"I'm Amanda Martin. I can't thank you enough for getting me out of that maze. I'm sure I was in there for days. At times the stars were out and at other times the sun was up. I would have died in there if you hadn't come along."