“Oh, I hope he’s ok.” Stevie fretted. “The man who fell was my friend from high school’s dad. He’s getting a little too old to be up on a roof... Anyway,” she turned to the boys. “Let’s get you guys some snacks or something.”

  They crossed the street to a small restaurant with the name ‘Sally’s’ on the window front, in big gold lettering. When they walked in they were met with the immediate smell of something fried and delicious. David was looking forward to getting something in his belly after all that excitement. Robbie’s energy, meanwhile, also escalated as he took in the smells and realized how hungry the day’s events had made him. In one corner, a mailman, still in uniform, had a sandwich and a coke while reading his phone.

  Behind the counter was Sally - Stevie’s cousin. She was in her fifties and wore her hair up in a bun. Her hair was a mix of dark and grey, and her cheeks were flushed, probably from the heat coming out of the kitchen. She greeted Stevie and the boys with a big smile.

  “Who are these handsome young gentlemen?”, she said playfully. “Do you have two sons you never told me about?” she teased.

  “It’s a long story actually,” Stevie replied. “But, the long and short of it, is that they got off the train going to the South Rim this morning, and their parents… didn’t. Bill picked them up and brought them to the station, but then he had to leave ‘cause Jenny Martinez’s dad fell off the roof. Bill had to go pick him up to take him to the hospital in Ranch Creek.”

  “Oh no,” Sally’s eyes widened in surprise. “He can’t be going up on the roof, like he’s not almost seventy. Is he ok?”

  “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know how bad it is. But… I have to get back to the radio - there’s no one else at the station right now. But can you feed these boys and I’ll come back later to pick them up and settle the bill?”

  “What bill?” she waved her hand and sucked her teeth in a mock dismissive tone. “Get out of here.” Then she turned to the boys with a wink. “You know our VIP guests don’t pay. Go on. They’ll be fine with me.”

  Stevie left and Sally told the boys to sit wherever they wanted. They chose a table by the front window, which let them look out at the street, and Sally gave them a rundown of the menu. They both decided to get burger and fries with a coke. After hearing how much Robbie loved to draw, she brought them each a pocket-sized notebook with a short pencil, like the one she had to take customers’ orders. Robbie was happy to get back to his superhero drawings, but David stuck his pencil and notebook in his pocket and was content to watch a muted tv on the wall while they waited for their food.

  Twenty minutes later Sally came over with their food but then rushed away as it started to get busier - it was now close to noon and the lunch rush at the small café had begun. The boys ate their meals with gusto, allowing the fat and the salt of their fries soothe the nerves from the morning’s events. They had devoured their burgers and were finishing the last of their fries when Sally, sweaty and relieved that lunch-time rush was over, came and sat next to them just as they were returning from the bathroom.

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  “So, can I ask you guys all about this morning? Sounds like you had an adventure.”

  David told Sally everything from the beginning, all of which she listened to with rapt attention. But as the story went on, her face began to change, and she began to look concerned. She waited for David to finish and then she said: “You said the girl was about ten years old, and had black hair in a pony tail?” David nodded and Sally began to chew her fingernails.

  “I think I saw her,” she spat out. She looked as if she were trying to visualize something in her mind and then repeated herself. “Yes, it had to be her.” David and Robbie were staring at her impatiently and she explained herself in more detail.

  “Earlier today a man came in to pick up a takeout order, nothing special, a bunch of sandwiches and drinks. But I’d never seen him before, and I always notice strangers because I know every single person in this town – pretty much.” She looked off into the distance as she tried to remember all the details. “So the man who picked up the food didn’t necessarily look like the one you saw, but I saw his pickup truck outside and I noticed there was a girl sitting by herself in the passenger seat, and she looked sad – she was looking down. She had dark hair, and was about ten, like you said. I was busy with another customer but, when I looked back again, the guy who picked up the sandwiches was driving the truck away, and now there was a man on the passenger side, and the girl was between them. The second man could have been the man you saw on the train - I couldn’t really get a good look.”

  She thought about something in her mind for another few seconds before concluding she wasn’t fooling herself. “It had to be them. And.. yeah, it was suspicious.”

  She paused, trying to see if she could remember anything else. “Ok… I remember they made a right on Havermeyer Road, which is that street right there – you can see it from here. That road will take you out of town eventually, but the asphalt ends after a couple of miles and then it’s all dirt, and very bumpy. There’s a much better road out of town that everyone takes. So…” She thought about it some more.

  “The only other thing over in that direction, besides cacti and road runners, is the old mine: Red Gully Mine. But that was shut down decades ago – when I was a very young girl. I don’t even remember it ever being open. Why in the world would they be going over there, much less bring a little girl? There’s nothing over there except a bunch of abandoned and rusty equipment. In fact, there’s signs over there telling people not to trespass and the entrance to the mine was boarded up a long time ago.”

  She paused again, thinking about the whole thing. “We have to do something,” she declared as she put her hands on the boys’ arms.

  She ran to the kitchen and told one of her cooks to mind the front. Then she grabbed her purse from behind the counter and motioned to the boys to get up. “C’mon, let’s go.”

  ? 2025 Gil Pedro Bento. All Rights Reserved.