The Muddy Stick

Roscoe burst through the doggie door, leaving muddy footprints across the brand-new hardwood floor. He was dragging a long muddy stick which left muddy prints of its own.

"BOB, screamed Margo ,Call your dog!!! Roscoe wagged his tail as he placed his new treasure at Margo's feet.

"The patio door slowly slid open. Bob stuck his head in.

"Whats the problem? Oh shit, there's mud all over the new floor!"

"That's the problem. Your dog brought half the mud in the yard into our house along with a huge muddy stick. Could you please take him outside and clean him off, and get rid of that stick; and I'll clean the floor AGAIN."

Bob couldn't help laugh to himself as he called Roscoe, who was so proud of his treasure. He called and whistled to Roscoe, who obediently jumped back through the doggie door. Margo locked the door behind them and began wiping up the mud. She heard the hose go on as Bob squirted the muddy dog. She wondered how long it would be before the landscaping would be finished. They'd been in the house for almost a year, but remodeling and upgrading themselves seem to take forever. Working on the inside had been fun; but Bob only had weekends and the backyard had never been touched so it was taking forever. Roscoe had appointed himself Bob's crew. So when Bob dug in the mud so did Roscoe.

Bob stepped out of his shoes and into the house locking Roscoe outside to dry off.

"You're not going to believe this! Roscoe's stick is not a stick, but some kind of bone. Come and look at it," Bob urged.

"Seriously? I'm still cleaning up the mud Roscoe brought in."

'I mean it, I think it's something interesting. Come and look."

Margo sighed as she approached Bob.

"What's so special about the stick?"

"It's not a stick, I think it's a bone. And I think it's human."

"Come on, Bob, what are you talking about?"

"Look at it!"

"I think you might be right, whispered Margo. It looks like an arm bone, see these knobs at the ends? OH MY GOD! This was in our yard?"

"Calm down, it could be from an animal," Bob comforted.

"Or there could be a human skeleton buried in our backyard. Remember how we couldn't believe how cheap this old house was. That's why. Maybe the whole backyard is full of skeletons. Maybe an

ax murderer lived here. That's why the backyard was never landscaped. I think we need to call the police."

Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to call the police and have them tell us the bone was from a deer, or a large dog? Let me do some research before we call anyone. I'll block off that part of the yard so Roscoe can't dig anymore until we figure this out."

"Figure this out? Bob, I don't know if I can sleep here another night."

"We've been perfectly fine here for almost a year, there is nothing to worry about."

As Bob and Margo sat down to dinner, they could almost see humor in Roscoe's treasure. Margo admitted that her fears and emotions were magnified by her pregnancy, but she was hoping hard it was someone's dog.

On Bob's lunch hour the net day he took the "stick" to the library. He looked at hundreds of skeletons of all kinds of things, but he didn't have the expertise to find a match to his bone.

That night after dinner they made a trip to the local museum to ask for advice. They kept the bone and said they would have their expert take a look at it tomorrow.

Margo did some research of her own and the Hall of Records. She traced the owners of the house back to the early 1900s. It was exciting to see the history of her neighborhood. Her researched showed that this property had at one time been a cattle ranch, which could explain the bone. She found one family that were famous criminals, but they were robbers not murderers.

On Thursday, Bob came running in after work.

"The specialist at the museum wants to talk to us and see our property. He's coming tonight. What if it's a dinosaur? We could be rich or famous or both."

"Relax Bob, it could also be a cow or a dog. If it is a dinosaur they would have to dig up our whole yard, maybe even our house."

The doorbell interrupted the conversation. Roscoe barked then sat by the door as he was trained. Margo opened the door to find a tiny man on her front porch. He wore horn rimmed glasses that were crooked on his face. He wore a very wrinkled suit and tall rubber boots, and carried a duffle bag. He introduced himself as Dr. Thornwood from the archeology department at the museum.

Bob took him out to the yard. Roscoe followed and watched carefully. Dr. Thornwood looked at the area and muttered to himself as he dug around. Finally, he stood up and agreed that this could be something. He agreed to bring a crew over tomorrow and have a look.

Could you please have the dog penned up. We will come in from the front so no one needs to be here. I will let you know as soon as I know anything one way or the other.

Bob and Margo could hardly sleep that night. They discussed all the possibilities they could think of and all of them were exciting.

Margo dropped Roscoe off at Doggy Daycare and continued to her classroom at Victor Elementary, wondering just how long it would take to find out anything. On her way home Margo had the strangest feeling that they were about to discover something very odd.

She and Bob pulled into the driveway like it was synchronized. There was a note on the front door to call Dr. Thornwood when convenient. Bob dashed to the phone.

"Hello. Dr. Thornwood, this is Bob Fischer."

"Yes, Mr. Fischer. Well we found some very interesting things in your backyard. No Dinosaurs, no humans, but an interesting collection of skeletons. We found a Pelican, a cat, a dog, several large birds, a baby deer, a sheep and other assorted bones. We dated them back to the 1940s. "

"Why would someone have buried that combination of animals.?"

"I have no idea. But the animals were not injured, it looked as though they died from natural causes. So no crimes have been committed. Thank you for an interesting discovery. Please let me know if you find the answer to this problem."

Margo ran to the office and got her list. Who lived in the house in the 40's. Turns out it was a local school teacher who lived alone. She lived in the house from 1940-1948 when she was killed in a car crash. Margo knew the next step was to find out who this woman with the skeleton collection was.

She might even have taught and her school. The next day she asked the secretary how far back school history went. Jeanine dragged out a dusty photo album. Pictures went back to the late 30's. She told Jeanine why she was looking and Jeanine smiled.

" I think I know who you want." Jeanine called the custodian to the office. Mr. Jacobs arrived smiling as usual.

"Yes, what is it you need?"

"Do you remember the name of the teacher that used to bury bones on the school ground?"

'Yes, I do. Mrs. Green. She was a weird one. The principal told her she couldn't bury dead animals at school so she would take them to her house and bury them in her backyard. The weird thing is people would bring her dead animals to add to her collection. I heard she had quite a collection. She buried them so the bugs would clean the bones, then took them to the museum where they had a tank which would clean them completely. She was a great science teacher and used the cleaned bones in her classroom. The kids loved to be in her class. The parents were never quite sure."

Jeanine smiled, Well, Mrs. Fischer here, bought her old house and while landscaping her husband and her dog dug up some of those skeletons."

Mr. Jacobs laughed, "Every once in a while I still find a bone or two around here. It doesn't frighted me anymore but it used to."

Margo called Bob at work, and explained the whole thing. They were laughing hysterically as they talked.

Margo said, 'Now I can sleep in peace."

Bob replied, "I'm glad we didn't call the police."

Roscoe went outside through the doggie door and began looking for another stick.