The Potted Pig

THIS STORY IS PART OF A SERIES CLICK HERE FOR THE PREVIOUS PART

ONE

While the treasure stayed hidden in Nana's old barn, Mel and Cal had a normal life. A life with a mom and a dad. A mom and a dad that did mom and dad things. One of those things is buying fruit trees and telling their spouse to plant them.

The lonely pear tree stayed in its pot for years. It received water and sunlight, but not a place in the ground. When the treasure was found, it wanted to break out of its pot. As the kids were trapped in the flaming house the roots made their way out of the pot.

The young tree had grown well enough for being confined to its little pot, somehow it survived until the day that mom got fed up enough that she had told Mel and Cal to plant the poor neglected tree in the backyard. This is where this story starts.

TWO

"Is the hole big enough yet?" Cal whines.

"Cal, we have barely broken ground here." Mel motions to the section of grass that they had pulled away to start digging.

"But it is so hot."

"Oh cut it out," Mel says.

After a while of digging in the hot sun, they were finally ready to plant the pear tree. Together they roll the tree over to the hole and with a heave, they lift it out of the pot and plop it into the hole. Both of them sit down on their butts and take a moment to catch their breath.

"You think it likes all of this breathing?" Asks Cal.

"The tree?" Asks Mel, still catching her breath.

"Yeah, they like the CO2 that we breathe out."

"Then, yeah," She responds, eyeing the tree," I guess it does."

She starts to daydream, but the dream quickly turns into a nightmare. A nightmare full of smoke and flames and strange voices. Suddenly a voice breaks her out of her trance.

"Hey, what's this?" Asks Cal reaching into the bottom of the empty pot.

"Huh?" Mel says looking at Cal with confusion.

"There is something at the bottom of this pot, it looks like a piece of paper."

"Hand it over already!" Mel says scooting close to him.

They both looked at the small piece of torn paper in their dirty hands. It had a few markings on it, but one thing was drawn on it. A pig.

THREE

Mel pulls the hyperventilating Cal into the house, after grabbing a glass of water from the kitchen, she drags him to his room. She hands him the water and grabs him by the shoulders. He tries to breathe and talk at the same time, but it just comes out in jumbled words.

"The- The- The- Pig? Li- Like- Like-" He stammers.

"Like The Wolf and The Bull? Yeah, maybe." She finishes his thought and then wraps him in a hug. Cal melts into shakes that Mel recognizes as crying. She tries to stay strong, but a tear comes down her cheek too. In an attempt to stay strong for her brother, she wipes the tear away quickly.

"What do we do?" Cal asks in between sobs.

"Dover," Mel says quickly and Cal seems to calm down.

They head for Cal's desk and pull out a drawer. Behind the drawer sat a hidden phone that Dover had hidden for them. He told them to call the only number in the phone if anything ever happens again, so that is what they did.

FOUR

"Is it ringing?" Asks Cal.

Mel puts a hand up in the universal "I'm on the phone, don't talk to me" manner. The phone did ring though, it rang and rang until it didn't. It sounds like someone picked up the phone, but they weren't saying anything.

"Uh, hello?" Mel asks.

"Is someone there?" Whispers Cal and Mel raises her hand with more force.

"Is anyone there?" She asks, then *click*.

"That was weird." She said looking at the phone.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, it just rang and then stopped ringing, then it hung up."

"Weird."

Then the phone rang and they both almost jumped out of their clothes. Mel hastily answered the phone and put it to her ear.

"Uh, hello?" She asks, then shouts, "OW!"

A loud, strange sound came out of the phone's receiver and filled the entire room. After a few moments of this, it stopped and the phone hung up again. There was silence for a moment while they just stared at the phone then they heard a beeping from their closet.

FIVE

"What the hell is that?" Mel asks.

"You swore..." Cal said in a scared whisper.

"Oh hush," Mel says moving towards the closet door.

"What are you doing?!"

"I am going to go see what this beeping is."

"You crazy?!"

"It is something Dover set up. If we can't trust him, then who can we trust?"

"I don't know about this."

Mel doesn't respond, instead, she just waves Cal off like a buzzing fly and keeps towards the door. She slowly opens the door and heads in. She doesn't know why she is being quiet, but she is. After a bit of moving her head around, she realizes that the sound is coming from the back wall.

By the time she makes it through the clothes and to the wall, she notices that Cal is peeking into the closet. He is visibly shaking and Mel rolls her eyes. A close inspection of the wall reveals that there is a blinking light near the bottom of the wall that comes on in sync with the beeping.

"I think I found the beeping," She says and then instinctively presses on the flashing light and it compresses.

"What did you do?!" Cal asks in a fear-fueled shout as he runs to her side.

The wall opens up revealing a small metal box with a handle. Mel grabs it without hesitation but she could hear Cal's breathing increase. After unlatching the front of the box she opens it to find a strange-looking gun and a note.

The note read,

"Sorry kids, can't help right now. This is up to you, hope this helps.

Dover,

P.S. Don't worry Cal, it is just a tranquillizer."

SIX

Mel sat at the desk as Cal huddles in the corner of the room with the gun pointed at the door. She studies the scrap of paper closely but can't make out anything other than the drawing of the pig.

"Ugh!" She says, "Cal I need your big brain."

"Nope, I am standing guard."

"You are cowering."

"What is the difference?"

"Really though, I need your help."

"Protecting us is helping," Cal says readjusting his grip on the gun.

"You're gonna shoot mom."

Cal just glared at Mel.

"Pleeeaaaasseeeee?" Mel asks.

"Fine, but I am not moving. What do you have to go on?"

"Well, I can see that it is a drawing of a pig and it came out of the pot from the pear tree."

"So nothing then?" Cal asks.

"No! That's why I need your help."

Cal doesn't move, he just makes a sort of grunting noise.

"So?" Asks Mel.

"Maybe that isn't nothing."

"Explain."

"Well, maybe the fact that it came out of the pear tree's pot means something."

"Like what?"

"Maybe that's a clue as to who put it there."

"Okay, okay, who would put a paper with a pig drawn on it in a pear tree?" Asks Mel.

"Maybe it was a message and this scrap was left behind."

"Oh, that's good. I knew I could trust in you to figure this out, little bro."

"Who was the message for?"

"Well, who bought the pear tree?"

At this moment, both of their stomachs tried to come out of their ears and they said in unison, "Mom and dad."

SEVEN

At this point, they both start pacing back and forth and shooting sentences at each other.

"I am pretty sure mom bought it, I remember her telling dad to plant it," Mel says.

"Maybe, or maybe dad got it from one of his odd jobs and mom just didn't want it sitting on the patio forever?" Cal responds.

"Good point, but didn't it still have a price tag on it? Like it came from a store?"

"Someone still could have given dad a store-bought tree."

"Crap, you're right."

"Maybe-" Cal starts but there is a knock at the door.

"Kids? You in there?" Calls mom through the door.

"Uh yep." Says Cal and hides the gun behind his back.

"Oh, okay," Mom says through the door, "The tree looks great out there. Good job kids."

"Thanks, mom!" They both say.

"You guys okay?" Mom says cracking the door and looking in.

"Yeah we are okay," Mel says, then mom falls to the floor.

EIGHT

"YOU SHOT MOM?!" Mel shouts.

"I- I- I-" Cal tries to speak.

Mel flings open the door and kneels beside mom, not sure what to do next. Cal starts to shake, then he spots his dad in the kitchen. He is holding a knife and is looking in their direction. Cal doesn't think, he doesn't have time to, he just aims and pulls the trigger. Parent number two hits the floor.

"CAL!" Shouts Mel, "What are you doing?!"

"He- He- He had a knife!"

"We weren't sure it was one of them!"

"We were pretty sure!" Cal says with fresh tears coming down his cheeks.

Mel sees that this was not an easy thing for Cal to do and takes a breath, "The note said that it just was a tranq, so they should be okay."

"Exactly, no harm."

"Exactly."

"What do we do now?" Cal asks.

"Try the phone again?"

"Maybe..."

"You have a better idea?" Asks Mel.

"Dover said to deal with this ourselves, maybe we should go look for more clues in the pear tree dirt?"

Mel sighs and looks at her unconscious parents, "I guess."

The two of them head out to the tree and begin to poke at the pot and dig in the dirt. Cal keeps the gun in grabbing range as he digs. Just like when they first looked in the barn, they didn't find anything useful.

"This is dumb, I can't find anything," Mel says.

"Neither can I-" Cal says, then stops suddenly when a twig snaps near them and he aims the gun at Dover with his hands up.

NINE

"You are quite the shot kid," Dover says pulling the dart out of his bulletproof vest.

"DOVER!" The kids shout and run over to bear hug him.

He doesn't know what to do with this sudden affection and just stands there until it's over. He then says, "Sorry I am late, glad to see you got my care package."

"Yeah, about that," Mel says looking at Cal.

"What happened?"

The kids fill him in on the last few hours of excitement.

Dover is surprised but says, "This is fixable. I can make it seem like they fell asleep on the couch."

"What about The Pig?" Asks Cal.

"You mean the drawing on the scrap of paper?" Asks Dover.

"Yeah."

"Nothing. I don't think it is anything. There is no 'The Pig' in the organization."

"Really?" Asks Cal with guilt in his voice.

"Looks like just a mix-up. I have run a thousand checks on your parents, they aren't trouble."

The kids just looked at him, then down at their feet.

"Hey, as I said, it is fixable, just give me the gun, head inside, and I'll come in and take care of your parents in a second."

The kids both solemnly nodded and did as they were told. After the kids were inside the house he pulled out the gun's magazine and checked inside to find an emblem of a pig.

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEXT PART