Survived By Secrets

4 • Darrel Higgs

Lya waited outside the house. The sky above her a gray tint.

They had to go inside again. She had convinced Ryan to leave the box there because it was someone's property and they didn't bring a bag to hide it in. Now they had to come back for it and she agreed to come because whatever was going on, it had something to do with her mother.

Lya had to find out what actually happened. Her mother was something her dad never talked about. He didn't even tell much about what her mother was like. What was her favourite food? Did she have any hobbies? She didn't know, so she held onto as many details as possible but the details were not enough and holding onto them felt like holding onto a string, and at the end of the string were thousands of lost memories too heavy to carry.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't realize Ryan walking up the sidewalk. He then stopped to stand beside her.

"Let's go in," he said. Lya hesitated. "Don't worry, the ghost won't hurt us. It's just a little girl."

They went in the house, then went up the stairs. Ryan pulled down the stairs for the attic. As they went up they could see that the box sat in the same place they left it. Ryan walked over to it and bent down to pick it up. He opened it, looking at the contents again. Lya stood beside him as he sifted through the pieces of paper, then stopped at one with a name on it.

Darrel Higgs

Under it were two words, secret and wife.

"I think this is a clue of some sort," Ryan said. He took out the off-white paper to give Lya a better view. "I don't really know what it means though."

She looked in the box. There were several more papers but none made sense.

Ryan reached into the box, pulling out the newspaper cutout again. "Only the headline and picture is cut-out. The story in the article might give us more information."

"The library has archives. We could probably find it there," Lya suggested. Ryan nodded and he put the cutout back in the box.

"We should try to bring the box with us," Lya said. "I hate coming here."

He stuffed the box in his backpack and they made their way to the stairs. Then he said, "Lya, can I ask you something."

She stopped to look at him. His shoulder hunched as he wringed his fingers. And she knew what he was going to ask her.

"Do you believe me?"

And she said nothing because she still didn't know if she did. Nothing really made sense and she couldn't explain what was happening. "I do believe you, I just don't want to."

"Why?"

"Because if ghosts are real I would want to talk to my mother, see her again." She shook her head. Again... she doesn't even remember the last time she saw her mother. "It's easier to think she's gone forever."

"Lya, if you wanted me to... I could try..." He rubbed his arm. "I mean, I don't really know how any of this works."

"I don't want you to." He nodded and then they made their way down the stairs and out of the house.

***

Ryan walked down the sidewalk, Lya beside him. Thick, ragged clouds filled the sky, sagging so low they could almost be touched.

The road in front of them was flat and the buildings that lined the crooked, narrow street were close together and packed. Every building was like a snowflake, unique in it's own way, no two shops looked the same.

They continued walking until a beige, small building came into view. Written at the top was Mistenhan Public Library. They walked up the concrete steps and opened the old, wooden doors.

The library was small. They stood on brown carpeted floors and they were surrounded by beige walls. Wooden bookshelves lined one side of the room and other side had desks surrounded by chairs.

"The archives are digital so they should be on one of the computers," Lya said. She led him pass the desks. Lya had been there a lot more times than Ryan. She sat down at one of the computers.

"Do you remember when she died?" Ryan went took one of the chairs at the desks and pulled up beside Lya.

"1967," she replied, her eyes scanning the screen. "It would be in the 1960s section."

Ryan watched as she clicked on the link and scrolled through the articles. She stopped and then clicked on one. It was the same newspaper that was cut out in the box. They both read it.

"Her dad is Wallace Carson," Lya said, breaking the silence.

I need to know who killed her

Her voice randomly rang through his head again. "Maybe the voice in my head is Myrtle, Nancy's mom."

"Possibly." Lya tilted her head at Ryan. "Could you ask her? If she's Nancy's mother?"

"I don't think it works like that. She doesn't really answer me."

"If she is Nancy's mother, how did she die?"

"Maybe she is still alive," he shrugged.

Lya's eyes went back to the computer screen, her hand under her chin. "The article doesn't really help." She sighed. "I think we are at a dead end."

"We need to figure out who Darrel Higgs is and what the words on the paper mean."

"Maybe he killed her. That's why his name is in the box."

"Nancy said her brother kept secrets in the box."

"Even if he did kill her..." She turned to face him again. "Why?"