stated, "Looks like a finger to me. Whatcha doing with a cut-off finger?"
"A finger? That's what 'I' thought it was," answered Katie. "I'm taking it inside. Put it back in the bucket, please."
"Uh, okay, in a minute." Jimmy sniffed the suspected dead piece of meat and wrinkled his nose. "See this brown stain on the end? That's dried blood. "Yuck!" and as he squinted, a puzzled look of recognition crossed his face. "Golly gee. This is Oggie's finger! How'd you get this?"
"Huh?" she questioned. "Are you sure? I don't think Oggie lives here anymore."
"Yeah, but he did last week!" Jimmy countered. "And, he had all his fingers. Where'd you find it?"
"By Mister MacIntosh's trash wagon. Why do you think that's Oggie's finger?"
"See the freckles," he directed. "Oggie had freckles everywhere... even on his rear end," he snorted as he dropped the severed appendage back into the bucket. "Where'd you say you're taking it? Inside? Are you gonna show it to a teacher?"
"Yes, I was thinking about Miss Applebee."
"Miss Applebee? Yeah, I guess she's a good choice... better than most," surmised Jimmy. "Okay, go find Miss Applebee but don't tell her or nobody else I talked to you or even saw it. I'm supposed to be cleaning erasers. Agreed?" Katie nodded consent. "Tell you what girl; I think that finger's got a story to tell. Meet me here at the same time tomorrow and we'll look for more clues. I got lots'a 'free time' tomorrow. Maybe we'll find an arm or leg... or maybe Oggie's chopped-off head filled with long, black slimy worms!"
Katie's eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped as she emitted a frightened, Eeek."
"Silly little girl, I'm just a funnin' wit cha."
Katie quickly scurried away to find Miss Applebee, who she felt sure would calm her newly risen fears which Jimmy had instilled. Yes, Miss Anabelle Applebee would know and explain everything. She treated the children with kindness which was far different from the other workers and the kids believed whatever she said. Even better, the young woman was attractive, seemed smart and smiled often. In fact, she was the only adult at the orphanage who ever smiled. Surely, that must be the reason why all the children wanted to be around her.
Katie soon found her working in the school's library and offered her coveted bucket without comment.
"Oh, my. What do we have here, Katie?"
"Is it Oggie's?" without further misgivings, she blurted.
After studying the finger, the young girls custodian knelt to Katie's level and slowly said, as if searching for the correct words, "Yes, my dear, its Oggie's... or rather, it was. He's not with us now." Katie's arched eyebrows asked, Why? "He was adopted four days ago, late at night."
"Adopted" Katie repeated. "Oggie's been taken away? But he was so ugly..." Miss Applebee frowned. "Sorry, ma'am. I mean, we all thought he was too old and looked... er, not pretty."
"Ah, well, I understand what you mean Katie. Perhaps 'adopted' is the wrong word. Let's just say a long-distant relative... an uncle, came for him."
For some unknown reason Katie felt Miss Applebee was making up her story as she went along. To appease her? To fool her? If so, why? She peeked at the finger again.
"Oh, that!" exclaimed Miss Applebee. "The finger and the blood, of course... An accident happened... as Oggie boarded the carriage. Yes, an accident!" seemingly pleased with her choice of words. "The horses bolted. They were frightened by a flash of lightning. The carriage jerked, he fell and became caught in the ironwork. His finger was ripped off in an instant, just like that!" clapping her hands. "Very unfortunate. His uncle... pinched it and tied off the stub. They drove him into town to have the doctor stitch it up." She paused for effect, "Oggie was very brave, but still happy to leave... in spite of the tragedy. We all will miss him very much. I'm sorry you had to find out about it this way. Apparently the finger wasn't disposed of properly." Giving her best, condescending smile, "Is there anything else, Katie?"
"No, ma'am. Thank you, Miss Applebee."
"Leave it in the bucket here. I'll take care of it. You run off now to your class. It must be starting soon."
Katie sat in her classroom with three other girls about her own age. No teacher was present - there seldom was. An old, decrepit science book had been placed on every desktop. Each student had to read it for two hours, no talking permitted. An attendant would come in and announce when the class was finished. There would then be an hour for chores before the next class. Without the least bit of interest she flipped through the thirty-year old pages and wondered why she hadn't heard the storm or Oggie's screaming three nights ago. "But then," she reasoned, "Miss Applebee said it happened late at night and I must have been asleep."
After the class, Katie was her way to the cafeteria for her next chore and just by luck passed by a window overlooking the front courtyard entranceway. She stopped in mid-step. Outside, was indeed a startling sight to behold! Mister Weolf, the grounds keeper, stood aside the roadway, a shovel laid at his feet, head bowed low and his hands clutching his cap in a wad to his chest. He appeared timid... and afraid. And for good reason too! Directly in front of him stood Miss Applebee wailing and failing her arms all about. What a spectacle! Katie couldn't hear the words she screamed but Mister Weolf, a giant of a man, looked so assailed and distressed Katie thought he was going to break down in tears. The empty trash bucket lay at their feet. Miss Applebee waved Oggie's finger in his face then threw it down and ground it into the dirt with the heel of her shoe! She next pointed at the shovel, said a few more choice words, then stormed off. Katie wanted to see more but had to rush to the cafeteria before the cook became mad and threw the overflowing garbage against the kitchen walls. She would have to clean it up and not get dinner.
The following day: "And that's what happened," Katie related to Jimmy.
"Wow, I can't believe little Miss Applebee would talk to Mister Weolf like that! He's so big and scary. I've never seen him smile... or even heard him speak," marveled Jimmy as he shook his head.
"I told you true, Jimmy."
"Yeah, okay."
"And what I told you about Oggie's finger too," she added.
"Well... if Miss Applebee says so, it must be true," he conceded. "Maybe."
"Jimmy..."
"Hey, c'mon. She's one of the 'girls' teachers. I don't know her that good." Playing the devil's advocate, "Tell me this, Katie. Don't you think it's kinda' strange so many 'ugly' kids get adopted late at night? I swear it's been going on like that ever since I've been here and probably before too. They disappear... poof, and we never hear from them again. Whatcha think of that, little girl?"
Not agreeing with his assessment, "We never hear from anyone who leaves here, Jimmy. That's not so strange. No one wants to come back to see this place again."
"Ummm, well, er," he murmured.
"And," Katie added, "did you ever considermaybe Mister Huntington doesn't want us to watch anyone leave. I know I would be very sad to see them go. I truly would."
"Yeah, maybe so," he passively conceded, for the moment. But being a suspicious-type of boy, he added," and maybe not so." He scanned the surrounding area, "Guess there's no reason to snoop around the trash wagon now. I'm sure Mister Weolf has picked up all the loose tidbits or other evidence after he got fussed out."
As they wandered back toward the main building and far away from the wagon, Jimmy stopped. "Hey, look at that!"
"What?" asked Katie.
Her companion pointed and noted, "The cellar storeroom door is unlocked," - the padlock hung open. "Never seen that before... and look, the door's open a crack. Let's see what's inside."
"I dunno," fretted Katie. "I don't think we're supposed to be here. We could get into trouble. What if a grown-up comes? We might get a beating." She lamented, "Worse than that, what if Mister Weolf comes! He'd get blamed for leaving it open and who knows what he'd do to us after getting fussed out by Miss Applebee."
"Don't worry, it won't happen. I saw the big, bad Mister Weolf go to town an hour ago and all the teachers are doing somethin' el
se. Stop acting like a fraidy-cat girl."
Jimmy slowly pulled back the door. It was dark inside, but the outside light showed stairs leading downward. They both put their heads in the entranceway. "I don't like it," whispered Katie. "It's spooky." "Nah, it ain't so bad. I can see the floor. There must be a torch or somethin' burning down there." He gently grabbed her arm, "C'mon, let's go in."
In no hurry and one behind the other, they descended. There were no handrails which prompted from Katie, "Boy, if you didn't know these steps were here, you could fall and break your neck."
"Maybe that's what really happened to Oggie," touted Jimmy. "Maybe he and all the other missing children are hidden down here... their bones stashed in a storeroom filled with giant, hairy spiders! Eeee... ohhh," he teased.
They arrived at the bottom, the floor was worn-smooth stone, the air felt dank and still. There were two tunnels. One was faintly lit with a few scattered candles - the other appeared pitch-black. Each tunnel entrance had an iron-bar door which had been opened fully against the wall. An unlit oil lamp hung between them on a peg. "Too bad I don't have any matches on me now; we could use the lamp," assessed the young boy.
"We're not allowed to have matches. You know that."
"Oh, yeah," he giggled. "I 'forgot'. But it don't matter none; we got enough light to see down that one tunnel," gesturing to his right. He set off, his boyish curiosity leading the