Backyard Bones

By Brenda Wilson

She could not know the mystery of the bones buried in her backyard. Not even Mattie could guess what she would face next. From this battle, there is no escape, and still the war rages.

A young woman, just beginning to live, leaves all that is home and heads out to take the world by storm. What awaits her in the city is nearer an end than a beginning. Fate takes Maddie Morgan full circle from being loved to being hated, to being hunted, and no one could imagine how the past would play into her future as she teeters on the edge of what is good and evil.

Good battling evil is as old as the beginning of time. Coming out of a small farming town on the river, Maddie Morgan never thought evil would touch her life. She wasn't that important. Escaping back to her hometown on the river, young Maddie fears certain retribution is on her heels. A move to a new beginning in a city, a strange love affair, a flight from certain death hadn't been in her plan. She could not know the fury of a homeless woman from France who lives in a discarded refrigerator box.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: May 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645364139

Brenda Wilson

Brenda Wilson is a wife, a mother, and a nana. She and her husband reside in the small mid-west town of Memphis, Missouri. She has held many positions of employment, but the last three decades of nursing has instilled the belief that nothing is stranger than life itself and even the still of the country holds its secrets.

Book preview

Epilogue

About the Author

Brenda Wilson is a wife, a mother, and a nana. She and her husband reside in the small mid-west town of Memphis, Missouri. She has held many positions of employment, but the last three decades of nursing has instilled the belief that nothing is stranger than life itself and even the still of the country holds its secrets.

About the Book

She could not know the mystery of the bones buried in her backyard. Not even Mattie could guess what she would face next. From this battle, there is no escape, and still the war rages.

A young woman, just beginning to live, leaves all that is home and heads out to take the world by storm. What awaits her in the city is nearer an end than a beginning. Fate takes Maddie Morgan full circle from being loved to being hated, to being hunted, and no one could imagine how the past would play into her future as she teeters on the edge of what is good and evil.

Good battling evil is as old as the beginning of time. Coming out of a small farming town on the river, Maddie Morgan never thought evil would touch her life. She wasn’t that important. Escaping back to her hometown on the river, young Maddie fears certain retribution is on her heels. A move to a new beginning in a city, a strange love affair, a flight from certain death hadn’t been in her plan. She could not know the fury of a homeless woman from France who lives in a discarded refrigerator box.

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this to my husband for his patience as I took this journey of imagination and the time spent researching and creating a realistic story; and to my Master, who ne’er lets me travel alone.

Copyright Information

Copyright © Brenda Wilson (2019)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Wilson, Brenda

Backyard Bones

ISBN 9781641820356 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781641820363 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781645364139 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019935035

The main category of the book — Fiction / Classics

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2019)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 28th Floor

New York, NY 10005

USA

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Prologue

1826

Young Emma Smith thought she would surely melt like a lump of lard being rendered. The wood fire forged for the week’s baking had driven the August heat in the kitchen above bearing. Wiping her brow with the tail of her apron, the genteel Southern mother was relieved that her little daughter, Hope, had gone down for her afternoon nap. Gazing at her sleeping beauty, Emma wished her husband, Jesse, could be here to see how the humidity curled the coal black hair Hope had inherited from him.

Emma began slicing a couple of pieces of bread from a fresh loaf. She had sent Jasmine, a neighbor girl who was helping her, to the well for some cold water, and fresh vegetables and berries. A slice of bread and honey with some berries and a cool drink would be a welcome treat.

She could smell the intruder before she sensed his presence. Turning her head, she was shocked to see a poorly kept pig of a man stuffed into a Confederate uniform, standing in the middle of the kitchen. Her heart began pounding as her mind registered fear.

The vile things he was threatening to do were barely audible above the drumming of her terror. Beyond the beast, Emma heard Hope begin to wail.

Unsheathing the saber strapped to his side, the swine turned toward the babe. Emma realized what he intended to do and bolted from the spot where she stood frozen in fear.

Flying at the attacker with the bread knife still in her hand, she struck him with the fury only a mother protecting her young possesses. She did not know the man’s saber had found its mark. Striking him again and again with the knife, Emma hardly felt it as the air-splitting saber tore into her.

Emma fell on the floor, her life seeping away as she watched the man stumble out the front door and collapse. With her last bit of life, Emma saw how Hope lay in a sleep that would be eternal. With her sight growing dim, her mind’s eye searched another realm as she cried out, Jesse, Jesse, I have to find you. Oh, Jesse, I will search until I find you.

Emma closed her eyes, and her spirit was set free. Then the search began.

***

Mama! Mama! What happened to us? Where is Papa? Please don’t let me die, Mama! Clinging to her mother’s waist, wrapped in her mother’s arms, genteel fifteen-year-old Ona Bennett trembled and feared for their lives as the sound of gunfire was heard nearby. There was screaming, then the unbearable silence, which was usually broken by the horrific sounds of bombs blowing their way into what had once been Ona’s serene and protected life.

Shush. Quiet, child. This too shall end, but you must not speak again until I speak aloud to you. Understand me? Our lives depend on our silence. Ava Bennett cradled her daughter and gently crooned these instructions to her softly as if she were singing her baby a lullaby. She barely believed they would survive, but she could not tell Ona that. Crouching in the dugout, dirty hidey-hole under the floor of the workhouse was their best hope. Her husband Neil and the house staff had prepared this small hideaway just in case she and her daughter needed to hide. She had heard the stories of what happened to women and girls taken by the enemy. Preparing herself for the worst, she had hidden a sleek hunting knife of her husband’s under her skirts. If they were found, Ona would be first to go, then she would fall on the dagger and steal the spoils from her enemy.

As she held Ona in the darkness, Ava inhaled the loamy scent of the earth. She thought of her home and how she had cleared land, turned the soil, and planted a garden. She had reveled in the smell of their earth, the ground that would support their house, and they had spoken of this day. Nothing was more important than the survival of their only child. Neil had insisted that she stay with Ona. He had known that only her mother would be able to soothe her in this time of terror.

The hours passed like minutes. Perhaps they had slept as Ona was still sleeping. Finally, Ava had to change her position. She had barely unwound her arms from Ona when footsteps were heard on the floorboards above them.

Shush! Not a sound now! Ava breathed as Ona stirred and started to awaken.

The door of the hidey-hole opened revealing black boots and olive drab uniform pants. Thank goodness, it was a GI Joe that had found them. Ava pushed Ona to him believing the American would take care of them.

***

1945

Ona, soon to be known as Mère, needed to go to the little store down the street for food. She didn’t feel well, and she hadn’t received any American money from her GI husband for what seemed like a long time. France surely was liberated by now, and he would be here with her soon.

She knew he would be sad as she was about the baby being born too early. She wished he could have been here with her these past seven days. The cramping had started on Friday and really gotten bad the first part of the week. On Wednesday, she began to bleed. She couldn’t speak English and didn’t know what to do. During the night, when the too tiny baby slipped from her body, she had watched it to see if it would breathe; it did not.

There was no first breath, so there could be no life. When the pain was all over, she managed to clean herself up. Mère took the premature girl and cleaned her. Using her wedding veil, Mère swaddled her and laid the babe in the ebony jewelry box her parents had given her. She knew when her Sammy got there; he would know how to give their baby a Christian burial. She would just keep her until then. Mère felt alone. She missed Sammy. She missed her parents. She missed her homeland, France.

Taking the few pieces of paper money she had left, she started for the little store to get some food. She carried her bread, milk, and fruit up the steps of the apartment building. She was sure she could get by for a little while. Then there would be more money, and Sammy would be home soon.

Arriving outside her apartment door, she found all her belongings tossed about in the hall. She slipped her key into the door and turned the knob, but it would not open. She looked around; there was no one but her. She spent the night in the hall, sitting by her things. When morning came, the lady from downstairs came to her, handed her some of the belongings, and made a shooing motion like Mère was an unwanted dog. The landlady got the point across that Mère had to leave.

Taking the ebony box, her food, and what little else she could carry, Mère stepped into the street uncertain of the new life ahead of her. Leaving the rest of her life behind, she began walking and looking into the faces of strangers, hoping to find her Sammy.

***

1957

The light of dawn struggled to penetrate the film of filth on the window of the shabby room. Shimmers of light bounced off the blazing red hair atop the little ball of humanity curled in the corner. Five-year-old Lilly opened her eyes and crept to the edge of the single bed to see if her mother’s friend named John had left. There was no one there. She had hoped she could curl up beside her mother until it was time to get up. Since no one was in the bed, she slipped under the cover and began to drift off to sleep. The bed was better than the floor, but it lacked the warmth of her mother’s arms.

Little Lilly awoke several hours later. It was not the light or the hard floor that woke her this time. She was hungry.

She made her way down the stairs into the room where a man had to lean over a big desk to see her. He asked her why she was by herself, but she didn’t know. He offered her doughnuts from a tray, and she took one. She would have taken two, but in one little fist, she held her mother’s favorite opal ring. She couldn’t hold two doughnuts in one hand, and her mother would want her ring back.

Stepping onto the sidewalk, Lilly thought she might find her mother on the corner where she sometimes waited for one of her friends, John. Looking around, she didn’t see the familiar red hair. She thought maybe her mother was on the next corner. Lilly took a bite from her doughnut, then started walking, all the while looking for her mother.

Chapter 1

Giving a deep sigh of relief, Maddie Morgan smiled as she watched the skyline get smaller in her rear-view mirror. As she pushed the Mustang down the road, she thought about how lucky she was to have made it this far. In just a few more hours, she would be free. Laughing to herself, she remembered it had only been three years ago when she had ridden a bus down this very road, headed the other way. Going to the city was supposed to set her free; free from her taunting older sister; free from her mother’s constant disapproval and humiliation.

She had planned to go to the big city to become successful and rich. All her pain and heartache would be left at home. That had been her plan. There wouldn’t be daily reminders that Daddy’s little girl didn’t have the strong man who had always shielded her from her mother’s caustic criticism. Her daddy hadn’t even been able to defend himself from her mother after his stroke.

A cynical smile smeared itself across Maddie’s face as she contemplated where she was today. She’d run away to the city, but here she was, running to the house she knew as home.

This time she was looking for real freedom. She’d left behind the cities’ barbs that made her mother’s deepest pricks seem like nothing.

She was still breathing and stronger than before. Surely, she could find enough strength to begin again.

Feeling the surge of power from the Mustang’s engine as she tickled the accelerator with her foot, Maddie felt strong. Maddie caught a glimpse of an image similar to her mother staring at her from the reflection of the windshield. She felt her newfound strength begin to waver. Would she be strong enough to keep surviving, strong enough to keep secrets, strong enough to do whatever had to be done?

***

The ebony canopy, generously studded with heavenly jewels, wrapped itself around the countryside like one of Grandma’s hand-knotted duck down quilts, the kind made at home. The night sky cuddled the land like one of those quilts over a featherbed on a cold winter’s night, its winking stars reminding Maddie this glory had always been here.

Pulling her ’68 Mustang off onto the graveled shoulder of the highways, Maddie eased to a crunching stop. She stepped out of the car and felt the fingers of a balmy summer breeze rush her long dark-brown hair away from her face and off her forehead. Maddie’s senses soaked up the vivid contrasts between this and the hellish skillet she had recently fled. Sucking in a great breath of clean fresh air void of the acrid city stench, Maddie felt a tingling to her very soul. Crisp air filled her lungs and began clearing the muddled thoughts in her head. Only the chirp of a bug or the croak of a nearby frog broke the roaring rural silence assaulting her ears. It was wonderful to stand in the middle of all this nature.

Stretching her arms toward the sky, Maddie drove out the cramps the long ride had left in her muscles. She cast a wary, backward glance over her shoulder and saw only pitch-black road shrouded in a grayer shade of night. There were no rapidly approaching headlights, no low-flying helicopter, and no tendril snatching at her from the recent past. Maddie looked forward and beheld her immediate destiny. It was her place of origin. Stretching before her lay a shimmering silver ribbon of highway that