03/09/01

So I’m at Porch Rot’s farm. Not a soul around. I find a shovel and start chiseling my way through the frost layer. Just keep digging away, removing the soil that had been used by Hiram to fill in the old well years ago. In time I’m down so deep I can’t even throw the dirt out anymore. I have to find a ladder and a bucket to carry the dirt up in. I just keep digging down deeper and deeper. No sign of Clean Phil’s remains though. Next thing I know I feel dirt raining down on my head. I look up and there’s Stash Skimington looking down on me from the rim of the well up above.

I hear you think I might have been involved in your trailer being set on fire, he says.

Well what would you think if you were in my shoes? I ask.

Stash says: I would be saying to myself ‘if this guy was behind the fire he would have had a bullet in my head already and had me half-buried too.’

Suddenly the ladder is pulled out of the well before I have the chance to grab it. I look up and the sun is shining down the well making it hard for me to see. I see what looks to be a pistol in Stash’s hand. I’m no sure what’s happening. And then, BLAM!

Somehow the bullet misses. I start climbing out of the well as dirt continues to rain down on me. I’m clinging to the rocks lining the shaft as I slowly inch my way to the top. I’m worried the whole time there’ll be another blast. But there is no blast. There’s no sign of Stash up top either. I start to wonder if this was all just a hallucination. I wonder if this was all part of a dream. . . And right then I wake up.

So I find myself going to Stash’s house again to try again to talk things over with him. But he’s still away. The note he left for Phebe was still at his door starting to yellow. This time I found a message in Phebe’s handwriting just below his handwriting. It said: Please call me.