THE SECRET BENEATH

PROLOGUE

Miss Jane awoke to a freezing room and driving snowstorm. Best to get an early start this morning and warm up the classroom before the students arrived. She pulled on her woolens to wear under her skirt and finished getting ready in the dim light of dawn. Hard pellets of snow stung her face as she walked up the hill to the one room schoolhouse. She put wood chips in the pot-bellied stove and started the fire. Now she just had to review the lessons for the day while she waited for her dedicated learners to arrive in this snowstorm.

As usual, Tobias arrived first, scarcely dressed for the weather in tattered shoes, not boots, and no socks. Tobias had a sad aura surrounding him, and Miss Jane suspected his home life was not pleasant. But he was helpful and respectful if a bit slower than the other students his age in the lessons. Miss Jane liked to teach in musical chants to help her challenged learners. Tobias seemed to respond well to this technique. Shuffling his feet now he asked Miss Jane if she would like him to stir the fire. He seemed proud of this job, so she was happy to let him do it. Plus, he sat conveniently in the back near the stove. The other students started filing in shortly afterwards.

Miss Jane looked up from her lesson just in time to see an ember from the fire in the pot-bellied stove catch a wooden beam overhead. A fire sparked so quickly thereafter, it took her breath away. Instinct kicked in and she hurried students out the front door of the schoolhouse into the driving snowstorm. She turned around one last time to check that all the students had made it safely out of the school. To her horror she saw Tobias engulfed in flames. Without hesitation, she ran back in to save him.

CHAPTER 1

Missy stood on her upstairs balcony looking down into her living room and sighed. What a mess, she thought. How would she ever get all those boxes and furniture organized into a decent living space? It was Thanksgiving weekend. So, instead of tackling the job at hand, she decided to bake cookies to fill her new home with the delicious aroma of sugar and chocolate. Later still, it seemed a good idea to have her friend Henry show her where the best gas station was in this little town he had suggested she move to in the first place. Parktown had been the perfect solution to escaping so many memories of her past. Childhood, high school, moving back after college, reacquainting herself with her best friend's brother, falling in love, marriage, and a painful divorce. These were all things she needed to move on from; heal from. Parktown was a small farming town not far from where she had grown up. Just right for starting over. It wasn't too far from the school where she worked at as a first grade teacher. But just far enough to not run into any of her students or their parents. Missy had purchased an old, renovated farmhouse. It was the 22nd house she had looked at in one day, and she immediately fell in love. This was a home where she could heal and make new memories. She vowed to do whatever it took to be able to pay the mortgage on her own on a meager teacher's salary.

Upon returning from the gas station, she realized she could not put off the inevitable any longer. She rolled up her sleeves and set to work unpacking boxes. The three most important rooms were the living room, kitchen, and master bed/bathroom. If she could get those somewhat organized, the rest she could work on a little at a time. As she was working in the living room, she heard a door slam shut. Had she left a window open? Missy didn't think so. She went upstairs to investigate. The guest room door was shut. She opened it and discovered no open windows with wind blowing in. Thinking it an odd occurrence, but chalking up to an old farmhouse phenomenon, she went back to work.

The rest of the weekend passed in a whirlwind of shopping, seeing friends, unpacking, and decorating. Missy went to lunch with a friend who had lived in Parkertown for a few years and gave her the lay of the land. On a rare warm day in late November, they dined al fresco as a horse and rider clopped on by. They laughed as she told her friend she loved this town already. Her friend Annie came over to help her unpack and organize her master closet. They sat on the stairs of her new home and drank beer while discussing future get togethers in this home. This house has a great energy Annie told her. And just then another door slammed upstairs. Missy told her about the other incident. Looks like you may have a ghost on your hands Annie laughed.

CHAPTER 2

Back to school on Monday found Missy focused on work and only able to work on the house during after school hours with errands and chores. She was slowly making progress. One night she needed a late night drink of water. Hearing classical music she went to explore it's source. It was coming from the den. On a side wall of the den under the stairs there was an old fashioned grate. Inside the grate was a small crawl space. This was where the music was coming from. It was classical music, playing a tune Missy did not recognize. Missy peered into the space with a flashlight. Dust, dirt, and old boxes. But the music stopped abruptly. She made a mental note to go through those old boxes. As she walked back up the stairs to retrieve her glass of water, the music abruptly stopped.

The weeks before winter break sped by in a blur of testing and report cards at work, and finishing setting up the house for holiday decorating at home. Missy bonded with her outgoing neighbors, making new friends and continuing outings with her old friends, particularly the ones who lived in Parktown. She had also made some time to explore the old boxes in the crawl space. In them she had found old, yellowed newspaper clippings about a tragic fire that had taken place long ago in a one room schoolhouse. The articles focused particularly on the anniversary of this fire in what was now the town of Parktown. One fact jumped out at Missy right away. There had been two deaths, but there were no bodies to bury and no money for a headstone. Those poor souls Missy thought! As soon as the chaos of the holidays was over, she would go straight to the local library to see if she could learn more about this horrible tragedy.

CHAPTER 3

The doors slamming and classical music continued all through the holidays, though very sporadically, and never when friends or family were over. True to her word, Missy visited the library during the second week of her vacation. In the archives section she found all the details she needed. In 1898, a one room schoolhouse had burned to the ground in a fire sparked by a stove in the middle of a frigid, winter storm. The victims were teacher Miss Jane Milhouse and student Tobias Hanover. Their ashes were never buried, and the ruble was cleared for farm land. Included in the file was a map of Parktown then and now. Missy couldn't be sure, but the area seemed to be near where her renovated farmhouse stood now. She had to find out!

Next stop was city hall where Missy printed out a recent map of Parktown and wrote down the coordinates. She had already made copies of the older map of Parktown, and all relevant information about the schoolhouse history and fire. Her friend Henry was just the kind of encyclopedic mind to help her find out if her new house and the ancient schoolhouse were ever in the same vicinity. Missy called Henry and made plans to meet for lunch later.

They met at their favorite Chinese restaurant. Henry studied the two maps with his brow furrowed. Then he tapped a Google search into his phone and asked her for her address. "Looks to be pretty damn close," he declared. The next step was to drive to her house to check the mile markers. It was a match!! Missy's house stood on or very near what used to be the ill-fated one room schoolhouse! This was huge. It explained everything. Missy and Henry discussed the situation and came to the conclusion that the slamming doors must be Tobias. He must be angry about dying so young and not even having a gravesite with a marker to honor his memory. Perhaps his parents were too poor to be able to do that for him. Miss Jane must be the music downstairs. The articles on file mentioned that she enjoyed teaching her lessons to music. The articles had mentioned no family or survivors. Missy decided right then and there it was her obligation to do something to honor their memory. Henry helped her come up with a plan.

CHAPTER 4

They held a fundraiser at Missy's school. She simply asked for donations from the staff to buy a gravestone. Missy shared articles and pictures of the tragedy and victims, and in no time the sympathetic educators came up with enough money. She asked a few of her coworkers to help her pick out a simple, inexpensive stone. Missy had it engraved with a simple message. Next she printed out invitations for friends, family, and coworkers inviting them to a memorial ceremony. The word spread as it tends to do in a small town, and the town newspaper caught wind of the story. Missy confirmed the rumors about a memorial, but refused to be interviewed. She certainly was not doing this for selfish reasons and had no desire to be recognized for it. The newspaper story ran a few days before the ceremony, thus attracting some of the town residents to attend. It was a beautiful, bright, sunny day. There were upwards of 50 people in attendance. Missy thanked everyone for their support in making this long overdue memorial happen. The gravestone could not be placed in the town cemetery without a plot. So Missy placed it in her garden surrounded by rose bushes. Miss Jane and Tobias were finally resting in peace. As for the ghostly happenings at Missy's new home, the slamming doors had ceased. But every once in a while, Missy could hear classical music drifting through the house from the crawl space. And that was just fine with her.

EPILOGUE

HERE LIE TOBIAS AND MISS JANE

BRIEFLY IN LIFE

FOREVER IN DEATH

WINTER 1898