The senior English class, one of the few classes held on Thursday, was silent as Isabeth stood in front reciting a poem:
"In a forest dead of life, a woman stands,
Lost of her sense of direction,
She stands there waiting for someone to find her."
Isabeth's mind wandered. She was distracted. Maybe it was the happenings outside the window. It definitely was the happenings outside the window. Benny and Malachi going into the woods with shovels and a duffel bag. The teacher snapped her fingers to bring Isabeth back to the task at hand. Isabeth refocused on her paper,
"And carry her home.
Reminiscing about her bad dead,
She prays her sin won't seek her out."
Isabeth rushed to finish the last lines of the poem. The bell rang as she returned to her assigned seat in the first row. She grabbed her thing off the desk and rushed to the exit.
"I will have your grades posted by Sunday," The teacher called out after them.
She followed the pack of students down the congested hall.
"Isabeth! Isabeth!" Someone called her name but she didn't turn back.
What were they doing with those shovels was the only thing going on in her mind? She didn't have time to stop and talk. She marched into the woods along the same trail the boys took. The hot sun brought beads of sweat to her forehead and her white polo shirt stuck to her back. She fanned away the love bugs that springtime brought. As she edged deeper into the timberlands, she could hear them and see them between the thin tree branches.
Malachi climbed out of the two feet wide, three feet deep hole. Dirt stained his light wash jeans. He stuck the shovel in the dirt, using it to hold himself up while he caught his breath.
"I thought you always wanted to dig a hole," Benny mocked pushing the shovel deeper into the earth with his foot.
"How deep does this grave have to be?" Malachi asked already bored with the task. He really did think it looked fun when he saw the lawn crew digging deep in the ground to repair the sprinkler system. Now, he knew first hand that looks could be deceiving.
"A grave is supposed to be six feet deep, right?" Benny asked, relying on his limited knowledge of graves. He flung a heap of dirt over his shoulder.
"Yeah." Malachi huffed out using his shirt to wipe the sweat off his face. "For a human. Not a five-pound dog. Just throw his ass in and let's be done."
The trees blocked out the sun but the humidity was thick and the flies were high. Malachi wanted to return to his climate-controlled room.
"What are ya'll doing?" Isabeth shouted through the trees. She made her way off the trail and down the hill.
"Burying the dead!" Malachi replied with a shout.
"What?" Isabeth yelled back. Partly from the lack of concentration but mostly because of the little traction the black flats gave her, she tumbled down the hill like Humpty Dumpty. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she tried to grab on to anything within her reach but the thin twigs couldn't sustain her weight. The twigs snapped in half sending her hand searching for another one to hold. The smooth dirt caused her to slide even more rapidly.
Malachi and Benny dropped their shovels to help her before the big bad woods swallowed her up. At the bottom of the hill, she was about to collide into a dried out, fallen pine tree.
She tried to grab hold of the earth to halt her trajectory but the dry soil quickly slithered through her fingers. As she neared the tree, she closed her eyes and braced from impact. She covered her face, closed her eyes and said a little prayer. Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, she bashed against the log. The boys heard her arm snap but it was the echo of her scream that sent the squirrels fleeing.
"Are you okay?" Benny asked carefully sliding down the hill.
Isabeth shook her head as she cried. She held up her arm. The bone poke through her skin as blood rolled down her arm and dripped on the jade grass she carried down with her from the top of the hill.
"That's disgusting," Malachi grimaced as he tried to look away. "Why didn't you keep your ass on the trail?" He asked as Benny took her other hand and helped her to her feet.
"My shoe, Benny. My shoe." She said through sobs. The shoe was sitting in a pile of broken twigs.
"Chi, get her shoe." Benny urged. He didn't understand why she cared about a shoe while her arm was snapped in have but whatever. "Get her shoe, dude." He said again but Malachi's attention was held by something else. "Malachi!"
Malachi's mouth opened. "I thought she was in Italy." He said to himself. Brittany." He dropped to his knees rubbing away the tears the formed in his eyes. "Brittany."
Benny looked passed the fallen tree and he saw it. Brittany's body a ghoulish gray with her mouth frozen agape.
Brittany is finally found. RIP Brittany.