Adler Acres

When I first moved to Lee Acres everyone welcomed us with food and polite conversation.  It was a nice neighborhood in New Mexico where my parents could buy a nice house with lots of property and retire early.  We were coming from the small town of Las Cruces to the big city of Albuquerque.  I was scared and really didn’t want to leave my friends. I’m only 12 years old and Las Cruces was all I knew. Our backyard was the desert with quail and roadrunners.  Our park was down the street where I tried to play baseball with the local kids. I wasn’t very good. I never was a social person, being an only child so putting me in a new city to make friends was a daunting task. 

Everything was a whirlwind, and people were coming to the house with casseroles and cookies every hour.  I was happy to get the food but skeptical of the people.  Perhaps it was watching too many Twilight Zone episodes and reading Goosebumps but I trusted no one.  

My parents asked around about children my age that I could go frolic with. They really had to do some legwork because I preferred books over humans.  But Serena, the girl across the street, offered up her services as my tour guide.  She was a skinny girl with glasses and blunt bangs. We both agreed that we liked Harry Potter.  So she took me to Grecian Park which was just around the corner.  It’s where all the neighborhood kids would hang out whether that was smoking cigarettes, playing on the playground, or kicking a soccer ball around the park, it was the place to be. It was much bigger than the park in Las Cruces and there were a dozen people there.  Sitting at the gum-covered picnic tables, Serena was giving me the low down on the neighborhood. 

“First thing is that black truck pulling up,” Serena points to a small culdesac area behind me where a Black Ford F150 is meeting a man. “They sell meth so leave them alone.” Well, we’re already off to a rough start. “They live in townhouse 116. Avoid that townhouse.”  Serena points to the townhouses to the right of her, “Then there's the back alley behind those townhouses, that’s creepy and again you don’t won’t THOSE guys to see you back there.”  

“Sometimes we run back there when it’s getting dark as a dare,” said Tyler, this lanky kid with tight jeans and messy hair. 

“Lastly the ditch over there,” She points to the very southeast end of the playground lined with trees,  “Never go down there at night!” 

“It’s where a little boy was murdered,” Tyler smirked. I give him a look like I don’t believe him.  It sounds so dramatic.  And he’s a stupid boy and stupid boys lie. 

“Let me tell her!” Tyler says to Serena. She shrugs and joins me at the picnic table while Tyler takes the stage. 

“Wait, he’s being serious, “ I whisper to Serena.

“Dead serious,” she says she says with a serious face that has a hint of fear. 

“My dad said in 1986, he came home and the whole park was roped off by police.  A jogger found Nathan’s body.  He was only 8!  He was next to a tree in the ditch.  The tree had been struck by lightning BUT that’s not what killed Nathan. He had been put there after a blow to his HEAD and left there.  They said his face was covered with blood but he was still holding his soccer ball.  At night, they say you can hear him calling out for his mom. And if you’re not careful he’ll take YOU to be his forever playmate!” I will say Tyler is quite theatrical and this sounds so corny.   

“Okay,” I said, still not sure if this was a prank. I’m the new girl.  There has to be some hazing, right? My neighbors in Las Cruces were a bunch of boys that used to sneak up on the girls and scare us.  So Tyler and his friend must tell scary stories to scare the girls here. 

“Let’s go look at it!” Tyler said. I follow along quietly.  I’m feeling people out, hiding my personality. I’m waiting to see what I can believe. 

As we walk towards the ditch the light gets dimmer and dimmer as the large trees cast a shadow on the entrance of the ditch.  As the sun is setting it looks like we are walking into a black hole.  We go down a small alley and there is a huge tree split in two with black char on it.  Makes sense this was hit by lighting.  In the trunk of the broken tree were McDonald’s toys, a plastic Power Ranger cup, and a laminated photo of a bright-eyed boy pinned to the tree.  It was a shrine to Nathan.  Chills went up my spine.  Unless this is an elaborate prank, the story has to be real.  

“Why are people still leaving toys?” I ask.

“His family still lives down the street.  His brother, Josh is in high school but he goes to La Cueva across town.” Serena explains,  “And I think people feel bad for Nathan.  No one knows what happened to him.  He was just dead under a tree. No clues.” I feel like I walked into my own episode of Twilight Zone. 

“Now I think people just do it for fun,” Tyler interjects.  Tyler and Serena explain that no other children were murdered in the area since then so it had to be someone he knew.  The parents were upstanding citizens. His brother, Josh, was a star student and football player that went to a school in a different part of town to escape all the questions about Nathan. The police explored lots of leads but there was no evidence that gave them a person of interest.  The case is cold. The tree still stands. It’s a haunting reminder that you never know how short your life can be. 

Moving cities is already proving to be a wild ride. Everything is changing. How am I going to change with everything?