The Incident at Pine Hills Mounds
Black-eyed kids and other shenanigans.
The Lang Farm
Theodore Lang returned home that day at quitting time. He was looking forward to sitting down to rest for awhile, having decided to wait until the next day to go see the sheriff. When he turned into the driveway he saw his three hands finishing up for the day. Two of the guys (Israel and Ramon) had come to work together that day. When they left, his other man (sort of the “foreman”), came walking up to give him a report for the day.
“Good evening Boss,” said Jonty Huffman (though the two men were actually friends and the formality was not required). “We’re almost done with the fencing on the east side, and we’re about to start cutting up those trees that fell during the storms last summer. I think there’s going to be about 9 cords, maybe more. Some of it will be well seasoned.”
“By the way,” he continued, “I’m not sure it’s going to take three of us to run your operation until next spring. Just wanted to let you know that someone may be about to draw their unemployment. That’s just a heads-up.”
He spoke again before Lang could respond to him. “I need you to look at something.” He walked to his pickup, and stopped at the bed. “Look at this.”
Mr. Lang looked inside the truck bed and gasped. What appeared to be the detritus of an ancient civilization was strewn throughout the truck’s cargo area. The were cartouches, broken, made of some stone that Lang did not recognize. There were numerous figurines depicting cats. There were some daggers made of copper. A few of them were in very good shape. There were also copper spearheads. There were rings and bracelets that were obviously made of gold or some other fantastic material.
Though Mr. Lang was not remotely a historian or even interested in history, he watched television just like everyone else and he could tell right away that the items bore a foreign motif. The writing was some kind of hieroglyphic text. “Amazing!” he exclaimed. “Where did these come from?”
“They came from close to the north property line, just south of it, actually. It’s close to the hay meadow that we baled just before it turned fall. Not long after we baled it, Israel disked it up so we can plant peas next year. These things came from inside the tree line where there is a large circular hill. Boss, I think you may have some sort of an Indian burial ground on your place.”
“Normally I wouldn’t argue, Jon. But not one of these things really looks like a Native American artifact. You know, as long as my family has owned this land, I don’t think I’ve ever been in those woods. I want to go out there and have a look around, to take a look at that mound. You and I will go tomorrow if the rain slacks up. Who else knows about this?”
“Just me. The guys were on the other side of the property.”
“One more thing,” said Jonty, reaching into the truck bed to throw back the edge of a tarp. “There are three of these. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many more amazing things to be found.” He picked up some sort of weapon. It was in perfect condition and it could only be described as a lance. The thing had been taupe before he picked it up. As soon as he touched it, it mirrored the color of the grass around him!
“Some kind of camo, Boss?”
“My goodness. I don’t know what you’ve found out there. We will definitely go tomorrow, assuming there’s not going to be a raging thunderstorm.”
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