The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang

Word count: 298





            “Hurry up!”  I yelled at my brother. 

            Jack grumbled.  “Why couldn’t have finished watching the show.”

            “They’ll be home soon.  We’ll be in trouble.”

            We’d been told to empty the shelving, move it to the other end of the wall and replace everything.

            That had been as Mom and Dad walked left at 9:45 this morning.  It was now 5:10, and we’d spent the day procrastinating.  Now there was no way we could clear the shelves, moved the shelves AND replace everything, perfectly organized.  I expected them momentarily. 

            I plopped down on the steps, frowning.

          “What if we just move the whole thing?”

          “Look at it.  It’s way too heavy for us to move as it is.”

          “No, look…if we each take a side we can do it.  We only need to lift up a little. We’ll just move it over a little at a time.”  He jumped up and took one end.  “Come on.  It’ll work.”

            I looked at the darkening sky and took my place at the end of the shelves.

            “We’ll lift on three.”  Jack directed.  “One, two, three…”

            It was heavy, but we were actually doing it.  We barely lifted it off the floor and inched our way down the wall.  It was slow work, but we were getting there.

            And then it happened.  Jack, who’d been walking backwards, tripped on an old paint roller.  I watched him try to right himself, over-balanced and went crashing into the shelves, which in turn, crashed through what we’d thought was a brick wall. 

            It wasn’t.  First, I made sure Jack wasn’t dead, and helped him up.  I got a flashlight and held it up, so we could see through the hole…and saw a pair of skeletons, sitting in a room we never knew existed.