We walked toward the boxcar that had a faded flower painted across the side of it. There weren’t any tracks around it, either, but the wind was blowing pretty hard and when I looked back at the footprints that Violet and I had made they were already almost invisible.

“I’m getting cold,” Violet said. “Let’s go back to your house.”

“Just a minute,” I told her. “I want to see what’s inside here.”

“Why?” Violet asked. “It’s just an old boxcar. There’s probably a coyote or other wild animals hibernating in there.”

“I don’t think coyotes hibernate,” I said but I hadn’t thought of animals. The door was slid open only a little bit but it wasn’t hard for me to get inside. “Are you coming?” I asked Violet.

She shook her head no and said I was crazy. But she didn’t say it in a mean sort of way. More like as if I was brave.

It was dark in the boxcar and smelled like the sour pickles my dad likes to eat straight out of the jar. The boxcar was empty except for a wooden box with a glass jar sitting on top of it. No Joseph Wither. I didn’t really expect him to show up but I was still disappointed. I walked over to the wooden box and saw that the glass jar had something inside it. A piece of paper and a wrapped piece of butterscotch candy.

“Are you coming?” Violet called from outside.

“In a minute,” I called back as I took off my mittens and twisted the metal lid. I set aside the lid and reached inside the jar. The piece of paper was folded into a tight square and my fingers were so cold it made it hard for me to unfold it.

My eyes went right to the bottom of the letter. It was from Wither. My stomach flip-flopped and suddenly I wasn’t cold anymore. I unwrapped the yellow candy and for a second I heard my mom’s voice in my head telling me not to eat it—that it might be poisonous. But I put it in my mouth, anyway. It tasted like sunshine.

Case #92-10945

Case #92-10945

DEAR CORA,

I KNEW YOU WOULD COME! I HOPE YOU LIKE THE CANDY. DON’T TELL ANYONE!!! THIS HAS TO BE A SECRET OR WE WILL BOTH GET IN TROUBLE. IT WON’T BE LONG NOW AND WE CAN SEE EACH OTHER IN PERSON.

LOVE,

JOSEPH

Beth Crow Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Beth Crow

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Somehow I’m able to doze here and there but the chair in the family waiting room doesn’t make sleep easy. Across the room from me Max is curled up in an awkward ball on the room’s one couch. He looks cold but I’ve got nothing to cover him with.