Jake and the Giant Hand (6 page)

No Flies on Us

T
he
next morning, Jake went to his swimming lesson. It actually wasn't that bad. The other kids were pretty nice, and the teachers were teenagers so they weren't too strict. Jake was surprised when the hour-long lesson was over.

The rest of the day he played with Gus in the front yard, visited Maggie in the barn, and rode his bike up and down the lane or into the field. His grandpa didn't mention building the shed again.

The big auger shone in the sun.

In the middle of the hot afternoon, a mini-bike roared up the lane. Jake looked up from reading in the hammock on the big front porch and waved. Kate was driving, and Chris waved back from behind her. Kate parked the tiny machine.

“Hey, guys.” Jake lifted himself a little from the hammock.

“Hey, Jake,” Chris said. He wrestled his blond head out of his skull helmet. “You want to come fishing? We're going back to the creek.”

Swamp!

“Um, okay. Now?”

“Yeah, go ask your grandpa.”

Jake shifted from the hammock and slowly swung his feet onto the porch.

Kate pointed over at the stakes laid out in the shape of the abandoned shed. “Hey, what's that auger doing over there?”

“My grandpa was building a shed.”

“Was?”

“Yeah. He kind of lost interest. I'll be right back.” He went to look for his grandpa and found him napping in his bedroom. Gus lay on the floor. He thumped his tail at Jake but didn't move.

Jake made a “shhhh” at Gus, then left his grandpa a note on the kitchen table.

“Grandpa, I went fishing with Chris and Kate. Back for dinner. Jake.”

He went and got his bike from the barn, then the three friends headed back toward the creek. They found a perfect spot under the trees beside the little stream. The twins set their rods, then Chris brought out a bag of trail mix he made: peanuts, granola, raisins, and sunflower seeds.

“That was a crazy story about the giant hand,” Jake said, his mouth full of trail mix.

Chris rolled his eyes, but Kate nodded. “I know. Mrs. Cody scared us when she told it last year at the ghost walk.”

“What's a ghost walk, anyway?”

“Well, you walk around and tell ghost stories at haunted or creepy parts of town,” Kate said. “And believe me, our town is super-haunted and weird. At least judging by the number of creepy stories Mrs. Cody told us.”

“Where were you when she told the story about the ghost hand?” Jake asked.

“Oh, I think beside the library. Some of the stories were about places too far away to visit, or too mysterious, or they didn't really know exactly where something happened. They're just strange stories she wanted to share.”

Jake shivered. “There's a whole bunch of newspaper clippings in the library about creepy stuff.”

“Like what?” Kate asked.

“Some of them were about huge horses and giant pumpkins and things. Then one was about an old lady, Edwina Fingles. She got lost in the swamp, way back in 1908 or something.” Jake looked sideways at Kate.

She nodded. “Yeah, that one seems kind of true, doesn't it? Sometimes it's hard to tell what's real and what isn't around here. This town is a little weird.”

This time it was Jake's turn to nod.
No kidding!

“There weren't any newspaper stories about a giant hand, though,” he said quietly. “And when I asked Mrs. Cody about it, she acted really … sneaky.”

Kate laughed. “She's really nice, Jake! What do you mean ‘sneaky'?”

“I'm not sure. She used her body to block all the clippings I hadn't seen yet. When I left, I'm sure she snuck one of the clippings off the wall.”

“Weird,” Kate whispered softly.

Jake said, “I want to go back to the library. Do you guys think you could get your dad to take us tomorrow?”

The twins nodded. “Oh yeah, he always wants us to go to the library.” Kate rolled her eyes.

Chris piped up, “I have books to take back. Let's go tomorrow for sure. It's supposed to rain, anyway.”

“Good,” Jake said, then he thought of something else. “Hey, have you guys ever seen white rocks around here? Like really white, white stones deep down in the ground?”

Chris shrugged. “White rocks? Nope. Kate?”

Kate thought for a minute. “No. Dad dug a huge hole last year for the new kitchen sunroom, but there weren't any white stones down there. Why?”

Jake didn't answer right away. “Well, I saw this really white stone in the bottom of a post hole my grandpa and I dug.”

“Where?” Kate asked.

“Near the auger you saw. It was a hole for the shed, for a post. I actually fell in the hole. Gus dragged me out.”

Kate shrugged. “No white stones around here, Jake. If you want, we can help you look for more.”

“Yeah. Okay. Oh, and what about
flies
?”

Kate shrugged again. “What about them? It's farmland. There are always lots of flies around a farm. They like cow poop.” She looked at Jake like he was crazy.

“No, I mean big flies, like
really
big flies. Flies the size of birds that make a sound like a chainsaw?”

Kate laughed, and it was Chris's turn to look at Jake like he wasn't making sense.

“No, that's crazy talk Jake. There are definitely no flies around here the size of birds. I think we would have noticed them.” The twins looked at each other briefly, like they were a little worried about their friend from the city.

Kate cleared her throat. “The fish aren't biting,” she said. “Let's go back. I'm starving.”

The twins and Jake rode back toward the farmhouse.

When they were gone, a giant fly buzzed over the riverbank. It dropped into the grass where they had been sitting and found a sunflower seed. For a moment, a horrible gobbling and sucking sound filled the air.

Then the fly buzzed lazily back into the woods.

What Does Grandpa Know?

J
ake
sat looking over the field. The sun was going down, and it was quiet and peaceful. Jake's grandpa was smoking a pipe in a lawn chair nearby, reading the paper.

Jake stroked Gus's head. “Grandpa?” he finally said.

His grandfather put down his paper and looked up. “Yup?”

“Grandpa …” Jake wasn't sure how to continue.

“Somethin' on your mind there, Jake?”

“Well, it's just that the other night at Kate and Chris's, Kate told this crazy story.…”

“… about a giant hand?” his grandpa finished. When Jake looked surprised, his grandpa said, “Chris told me when I came to remind you about swimming, remember?”

“Oh yeah, he did mention it, didn't he? Well, it's just that Kate seemed so sure it was true and Chris seemed so sure it wasn't. And then at the library yesterday, I met Mrs. Cody … she says hello, by the way … and I asked her about the giant hand, and she really seemed like she was hiding something. She put one of the newspaper clippings in her pocket when she thought I wasn't looking. I was just wondering if you ever heard that story … about the giant hand?”

His grandpa sighed. “You know, Jake, you probably shouldn't believe everything you hear. And Mabel Cody is a lovely lady, great friends with your grandma and me for years, but she gets the kids all riled up with those ghost walks every summer. Just ask yourself this, Jake: how would a giant hand turn up in someone's back field? Where'd it come from?”

“Yeah, sure, I guess. But you
have
heard the story, though?” Jake went on. He was determined to get his grandpa to tell him what he knew. His grandpa sighed and leaned his old head against the back of the chair.

“Yes, Jake, I've heard that story. It's an old scary story from around these parts. But honestly, a giant hand? Who thought
that
up? Look, like I said, this town is
weird
. People are bored, they don't have much to do, so they think up crazy stories to spook each other with. Poor old Edwina Fingles goes missing, and suddenly we have a swamp creature. But a giant hand? I'm with Christopher Cuthbert on this one. Just nonsense.”

His grandpa stretched and sighed. Conversation over.

“Go get the backgammon board and we'll have a game out here before the sun goes down.” Jake went inside to get the game board. But he could have sworn that his grandpa changed the subject a little too quickly. He didn't even try to start one of his crazy “did-I-ever-tell-you-about-the-time” stories.

Which wasn't like him. It wasn't like him at all.

Access Denied

T
he
next day was rainy. At ten o'clock Mr. Cuthbert's big black van pulled up and Jake climbed in. He waved goodbye to his grandpa and Gus waiting beside the road.

Chris and Kate were sitting in the back seats, so Jake got the front seat beside their dad. He couldn't help but notice that Chris sat beside a huge stack of books. Kate didn't seem to have any.

“Are those the books you're taking back?” Jake pointed. It was a huge pile.

“Yeah. They're mostly about ancient Egypt, but there are a few Hardy Boys stories in here, too.” He picked a book out of the pile and handed it to Jake. The blue cover read,
The Hardy Boys: The Twisted Claw
.

The image of a twisted, bony hand made Jake shudder.

A giant twisted hand in a farmer's field!

Jake handed the book back to Chris. “Thanks, I'm really not into mysteries.”

Mr. Cuthbert drove slowly along the country lanes. Even though it was raining, Jake liked looking out the window at the late summer fields. The apples in the trees were ripe, the wheat in the fields was high, and almost everything was ready to go to market. Jake liked the clean smell of the air, too. Sometimes he thought it might not be
so
bad to live in the country, like Kate and Chris. Maybe he could get a mini-bike.…

Then Mr. Cuthbert pulled the van up in front of the library. The steps were slippery with rain, and the three friends had to run carefully up to the big wooden door.

Mr. Cuthbert yelled, “I'll be back in an hour,” then he drove off.

Jake opened the big, wide door with a creak, and the friends stepped into the quiet, dark library. Water streamed down the glass windows outside, but inside the library it was dark, and silent. Since it was Saturday morning and raining, nobody was there yet.

Jake walked to the front desk. Another librarian was working today, not Mrs. Cody, which was probably a good thing considering what Jake was looking for.

“Excuse me, I'm wondering where the 100 Years of Our History display went?” Jake pointed to the corner where the sign had been and where all the newspaper clippings were stuck to the board. “It was here a few days ago,” he added.

The librarian looked up at Jake, and he got the distinct impression that she really didn't want to be disturbed. She was much younger than Mrs. Cody, but she didn't look nearly as friendly.

“Oh, that was on loan from the city archives. We had to return it yesterday.”

“Oh.” Jake stood there, not sure what to do next. Chris Cuthbert struggled up to the desk with two armloads of books.

“Hi, Mrs. Strathroy,” Chris said in his most polite voice.

Mrs. Strathroy smiled. “Hi, Chris! Good to see you. Returning all these today? Or are there any renewals?”

“Nope, Mrs. Strathroy. I'm returning them all, thanks.” Then Chris and Mrs. Strathroy got into a five-minute conversation about which book Chris liked best. It was a Hardy Boys book, the one he had showed Jake:
The Twisted Claw
.

Then Chris smiled at the librarian again. “We're actually a bit disappointed that the 100 Years of Our History display is gone, Mrs. Strathroy. We were hoping to do a little research and start our local history projects for school this year.”

Jake and Kate nodded solemnly behind Chris.

Great thinking! Local history projects! Brilliant!

“Oh! What a great idea.” Mrs. Strathroy beamed. “I can't show you the original newspaper clippings since that's all been boxed and moved to the archive museum in the city.” The three friends tried not to look too disappointed. Jake felt his heart sink.

“But I
can
show you how to use the archive on the librarian's computer. All the stories we used for the historical display are in there. It will show you scanned images of the original newspapers. Some of them are over one hundred years old, so you can imagine the quality isn't perfect. Shall I sign you in and show you how to use it? It's right over there.” She pointed at a sleek new machine behind a huge librarian's desk in the far corner.

“Mrs. Strathroy, that's so nice of you! Thank you, we really appreciate it.” Chris smiled again at Mrs. Strathroy, and before they knew it the three friends were seated at the librarian's computer, looking up historical articles from the display. Chris sat at the screen while Jake and Kate looked over his shoulder.

Mrs. Strathroy found them the right folder, then left them to their “history projects.” Chris opened the folder with a click. The titles of hundreds of newspaper articles popped up. Kate leaned over her brother's shoulder and whispered, “You are such a geek. Thank you for being such a geek, from the bottom of my heart.”

“Yeah, Chris, thanks. Where would we be without you?” Jake suddenly realized that it might just pay to be charming and well-read.

They started looking through the file names of each newspaper clipping. The entries were strange and, frankly, a little disturbing.

“Giant hail stone kills McGready horse: 1912”

“Frequent fog patches cause panic among local pigs: 1907”

“Record-breaking pumpkin owner dies eating pumpkin pie: 1897”

“Famous blueberry jam poisons dozens at fall fair: 1921”

“Local honey producer drowns in honey vat: 1917”

“Man, this town IS weird!” Kate said after Chris had scrolled down a few pages.

Then Chris said, “Hey, look!” and pointed at a folder that said,
“Lady goes missing in swamp: 1908
.
”

“That must be the Edwina Fingles story. Maybe we're getting close,” Jake said, excited. Chris kept scrolling.

“Circles found in dust bowl crops: 1932”

“Farmer claims four-ton boulder in his field mysteriously moved 300 feet overnight: 1930”

“Family hears spectral train on long-abandoned track: 1918”

“Fournette ghost walks highway looking for lost dog: 1912”

“Mysterious maze and local girl vanish into thin air: 1913”

Then Chris jabbed his finger at the screen. “Here!”

The file read,
“Giant hand-like structure found in farmer's field: 1913”

“That's it! Click on it, Chris!” Jake could barely contain his excitement. Chris clicked on the file … and a message popped up:
USER BLOCKED
. The three friends groaned. Chris tried again, but the same message popped up. “User Blocked. Access Denied.”

“Wait,” Chris said. “You can sort of see the newspaper clipping underneath the blocked message. It's a little hard to see. But there … it's one of the farmer's feet, and looks like a view of the back door of the kitchen maybe.” Chris squinted and moved in closer to the screen. “Under the picture it says, ‘… father and son discovered this morni …' That's all you can see. Here. Look, Jake.”

Jake switched places with Chris and leaned in close to the computer screen. He peered hard. The big “
USER BLOCKED, ACCESS DENIED
” banner covered most of the image and pretty much all of the article, but Chris was right. He
could
see a tiny bit of the picture and read a little of the caption. Jake looked. He could see feet, a bit of grass, a tiny bit of back door … then his heart started to race. He saw something.…

He was about to tell Kate and Chris what he saw in the picture when a loud voice spoke behind them.

“What are YOU doing on the librarian's computer? This isn't for you!” It was Mrs. Cody. “Mrs. Strathroy had no right to let you peek through our files. Shoo.” She reached over and snapped off the computer screen. She sent the three friends scurrying away, then she went to scold Mrs. Strathroy.

Kate, Chris, and Jake gathered at the library door and waited for Mr. Cuthbert to pick them up. When they were away from the prying eyes and ears of Mrs. Cody, Jake whispered to his friends.

“I saw something in the picture.”

“What? What did you see?” Kate breathed. Chris leaned in to listen.

“I saw a
pump
. A horse-head pump. There's only one, and it's on Grandpa's farm. The picture
had
to be taken there!”

The twins looked at Jake, and Kate let out a long, low whistle.

“Looks like your grandpa might know more than you think,” Chris finally whispered.

Jake nodded. “Yeah, he knows something alright.”

But what?