OLD JACOB
Bon Rose
Copyright Bon Rose 2011
OLD JACOB
By Bon Rose
Why was it so easy to wake up in the summer, but when it was time for school, it was torture? Summer was almost over and tomorrow school would be starting. A tornado of thoughts whirled through my head. I needed to get outside before I burst from the energy inside me. I ran downstairs where Mom had blueberry pancakes ready, my favorite! I wolfed them down, got dressed and I was free.
Rushing out the door, I saw the blue sky and trees with all their leaves turning colors. It was me and nature now. Needed to get Blue (my bike), and figure out what to do today. I decided to go to my secret hideaway, a little wooded area with a stream, and make my plans there.
Jumping on Blue, I’m off. It felt good pedaling fast, then coasting until I needed to pick up speed again. My town was small, about 2500 people, and there was no swimming pool or theater, but I had lots of favorite places and friends, so I kept busy. Before long I was at the stream with my feet in the water, and planning my day, my last day of freedom.
As I sat in the sun, I remembered my best friend Jared telling me about a coal mine. I asked Dad about it, but he didn't want me to play there; you know the whole parent routine, “Mines are dangerous, you could get hurt” blah blah blah. I tried not to sound too interested, so I told him I just wanted to know if it was true. He said there were several mines around, years ago people made their living by mining. Later the mines were closed because they were getting old and dangerous.
That would be the plan, get Jared and search for a coal mine. When my feet were dry, it was, “Hi Ho Blue Awaayy!”
I decided I needed to pack a lunch so I stopped by my house first, then back on Blue and on to Jared’s. As I rounded the corner to his house, I saw him sitting on his front steps. I slammed on my brakes, and almost fell over trying not to hit the porch.
“What's your hurry, Hailey?” Jared laughed.
“I'm excited about today. Pack a lunch, and I'll tell you.”
While Jared fixed himself a sandwich, I asked him if he remembered the coal mine he told me about, and where it was. He glanced around for his Mom, and lowered his voice, “Yes I know where it is, I overheard Dustin talking about it. Of course, my parents told me not to go around it, ‘cause it could be dangerous.”
“Yeh, I got the same lecture,” I rolled my eyes.
Jared put a sandwich and Fritos in his sack, grabbed his water bottle, and yelled good bye to his Mom. We ran out the front door, jumped on our bikes, and we’re off to our new adventure.
I got Blue up next to Jared, “So, where’s this mine?”
“It's near the Patterson farm. My brother said you can see it once you go about a mile after their old barn. It looks like a small red mountain.”
“Did Dustin say anything else about the mine?”
“Well, he was talking with his friends, but when he noticed I was around and listening he stopped, so I left the room. I crept back to see if I could hear more but he was whispering. What I did hear was it had been abandoned for about 75 years, closed down because of some strange happenings. Then I couldn’t hear him anymore and was going to my room when his voice got louder and he said, ‘the townspeople say Old Jacob is still there in the mine protecting his gold.’ That stopped me!”
I steered closer to Jared, “There’s gold in the mine?”
“Yup, I heard him tell his friends Old Jacob was a coal miner, but found gold. Right before they closed the mine, he snuck back in to get the gold, but there was a huge cave-in at the entrance and no one saw him again. Years later explorers went into the mine to check out the story, and only one came out. When the townspeople found him he was totally insane, kept saying, ‘Old Jacob, axe, no heads!’ They say others have gone there, never to be seen again. While I was thinking how scary that mine would be, my brother snuck around the corner and screamed, ‘Look out there’s Old Jacob!!’ I yelled and grabbed him, then realized they were all laughing. He made that whole story up after he saw me listening, boy was I embarrassed.”
“Holy toledo, you had me believing it too.”
I giggled, thinking how Jared must have looked screaming and hugging Dustin.
“It wasn’t that funny!” Jared sniffed.
“Oh, I would have done the same thing.”
We laughed, and then saw it.
“There it is,” Jared said with awe. “Old Jacob’s mine.”
A shiver went down my back. Even though I knew it was a made up story, it was kind of spooky! As we got closer, I realized how silly I was. The mine looked like a giant hill or a very small mountain, but either way it wasn’t anything to be afraid of. I could now see the entrance. There were boards nailed across it, but some had fallen off and you could see an opening.
“Let's walk around the area, and see if we can find anything to collect,” Jared said.
We separated but stayed near each other and checked out anything that looked interesting. Didn’t find much, if there had been anything, someone had picked it up by now. We came back to our bikes, and stared at the opening.
“We could take a peek,” Jared suggested, walking up to the entrance. I followed, curious also. The opening was big enough that we could step inside and still stand up. After looking around, we were immediately disappointed, there was nothing but darkness. As I turned to go my foot kicked something, looking down I saw a flashlight. Someone else had been exploring and must have forgotten it, or maybe it was broken.
“Jared, a flashlight,” I picked it up; it was one of those big ones. I pushed the switch and to my surprise it lit up the area.
“Awesome!” Jared shouted.
“Shush, don’t want another cave-in.”
I pointed the light in front of us, and there was a path with rusted rails that coal cars had used.
“That’s a pretty good trail. Should we follow it a little ways?” I asked.
“Why not, we can always turn back if it starts to look dangerous.”
We carefully followed the tracks, while I shined the light. The mine had a different smell to it; I wrinkled my nose trying to figure out what it was, copper?
“Look!” Jared exclaimed. “There’s coal lying around.”
That took my mind off the smell, I could see all different sizes scattered along the tracks.
“Probably fell out of the coal cars,” I answered. “Let’s take a piece for a souvenir.”
We each chose a piece and dropped it into our sacks. So far the trail was pretty wide and safe looking, and we could see daylight behind us, so we kept following the tracks.
Suddenly Jared stopped, I ran into the back of his head.
“What the . . . ?”
He was pointing to the top of the cave. I looked up, and the ceiling was filled with a thousand stars.
Jared sighed, “Look how those walls sparkle.”
The farther we walked, the more the walls sparkled like diamonds. But these walls weren’t diamonds, they were filled with gold. "Old Jacob’s gold,” I whispered, as we looked at each other. Jared had the flashlight now and looked rather ghostly holding it below his face. I noticed how dark it was, funny, it didn’t seem this dark earlier. Then it hit me, I could no longer see daylight behind us. The entrance was gone!
“Jared,” I gasped, “we must have curved away from the entrance, I can’t see it anymore.”
Jared swung the light behind us. There was nothing but blackness.
“Oh man, we better go back. Nothing to worry about, we’ll follow the tracks,” Jared sounded more hopeful than he looked.
“You know, there was an old axe we saw earlier lying across the tracks. If we see it going back
we can use it to chip gold off the walls,” I also tried to sound hopeful.
“Sweet,” said Jared. “That would be cool if we could have gold and coal.”
“Um, Hailey?”
“What?”
“Do you remember another set of tracks?”
“No, just the one we were following.”
Suddenly my throat tightened, there, off to the side, was another set of tracks. Had we veered off somehow?
“Did we go straight or curve?” I just remembered looking up and following the sparkling walls.
“Oh no,” Jared’s voice broke. “I think we’re going a different way!”
We slowly stopped, and shined the light around. We could see two sets of tracks now, but neither seemed to take us towards the entrance.
“Okay,” I said, trying to sound confident, “we need to walk for a few minutes one way, and if we don’t see daylight we’ll backtrack and go the other way. We haven’t walked that long, so we can’t be too far from the entrance.”
“Jared?”
“What?”
“Why are you dragging your lunch along the wall?”
“I’m not; I thought you were making that noise.”
We stood still, holding our breaths, hearts pounding in our ears. Nothing but silence, it was our lunches hitting our legs - what idiots! Just as I was about to laugh, and call him a scaredy cat, I heard it again. Something scraping along the walls, or was it the floor? That was not the noise of a lunch sack; it was the noise of something heavier, much heavier. We stared at each other frozen, at the same time we choked out, “Old Jacob’s axe!”
We started running, but the scraping sound was getting closer. The copper smell was overwhelming, then it hit me, blood smelled like copper. Behind me I heard a crazy high-pitched laugh. I was moving in slow motion, and the smell was gagging me.
“Jared,” I screamed, “he’s going to catch me!”
Jared grabbed my arm, I could move again, but I could hardly breathe. Where was that entrance! Then it happened, the flashlight started to dim.
“Oh no, not this,” Jared cried.
We kept running, but it was hard to see. All of a sudden Jared went down; I stumbled and fell over him, and the flashlight went spinning off in front of us. Frantically I tried to get up, then I saw it; there by my hand was a skull. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t move, couldn’t think. I heard a swooshing sound, something heavy coming at my head then nothing . . . . .
That noise, what was that terrible noise?
I opened my eyes, and realized I was in bed. It was my alarm clock, today was Monday, the first day of school. I started grinning, what an idiot I was; thinking about that mine yesterday caused a horrible nightmare.
I ran downstairs for breakfast, then back to my room to get dressed, and I was ready for school. All I needed now was my lunch. There it was on my nightstand, Mom must have brought it up while I was brushing my teeth. Grabbing my sack, I peeked inside and noticed something under my sandwich. Reaching in, I pulled it out, and sank to my bed in disbelief. There, in my hand, was a piece of coal!!
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BE SURE TO READ ALL OF HAILEY AND JARED'S ADVENTURES:
OLD JACOB SERIES #1
The copper smell was overwhelming, then it hit me, blood smelled like copper. Behind me I heard a crazy high-pitched laugh!
THE OLD SCHOOL SERIES #2
"I'm not moaning, why are you saying....," I stopped, and with a sick feeling looked at Jared, I now heard a strange sound coming from behind me.
OLD INJUN JOE SERIES #3
As Jared got closer I could see the smile on his face, then it dissolved into a look of horror.
"Hailey," he screamed, "behind you!"
OLD LADY GREY'S HOUSE SERIES #4
Then there was this bumping sound, and her head came rolling down the steps and dropped at his feet!
THE OLD CABOOSE SERIES #5
In an instant my grin froze, the color drained from my face. I looked at Jared, and his smile was gone replaced by a look of fear.
THE OLD CLOCK SERIES #6
There, sitting by the front door, were the skeletal remains of Mary dressed in her wedding gown!
THE OLD CEMETERY SERIES #7
"Okay, tell me the ghost story about Annie."
OLD BOOTS SERIES #8
Suddenly it became cooler, a gust of wind blew over us, and you could hear a howling.
THE OLD MUMMY SERIES #9
I took a step closer and the smell hit me, something old and rotten!
THE OLD BARN SERIES #10
Suddenly I flinched, behind me I heard a dragging sound; my heart started beating so loud I could hear it in my ears.
THE OLD JACK IN THE BOX #11
Okay I can’t do this anymore, with a shaking hand I reached out; hoping that nothing from under my bed would come out and grab me, I turned on the light.
THE “OLD” ADVENTURES OF HAILEY AND JARED BOOK #1 (the first 6 short stories)
THE “OLD” ADVENTURES OF HAILEY AND JARED BOOK #2 (the next 5 short stories)
Read my short stories for adults:
DYING TO WRITE
I giggled, my fingers were no longer attached to my hands, they were typing all on their own.
DEATH BY LOVE
Grabbing her arm I dragged her over to the edge of Lover's Leap.
The Rabbit’s Foot
He looked at the bed, the lamp and the wall switch, all painted in his blood.