Before She Was Found(73)

Joseph keeps telling me to make sure I come to the train yard on Friday, that he’ll leave something there for me. I want to go, but I’ll admit I’m scared. I casually asked my sister if she knew where the Primrose Sugar boxcar was and she got all upset and started yelling at me to stay away from the train yard, that hobos and druggies hang out there, and if she found out I was going there she was going to tell Mom.

I told her to relax, that I heard some kids talking about it at school and I just wanted to know what it was. She calmed down after that but said that she would seriously kick my butt if I started hanging out there.

So Violet is coming over on Friday and then I can explain everything and maybe she’ll go with me to the train yard. I know that Wither said I shouldn’t tell anyone about our emails but Violet can keep a secret. I just hope she’ll keep mine.



Case #92-10945


Excerpt from the journal of Cora E. Landry


Feb. 10, 2018

So Violet and I went to the train yard yesterday. I didn’t tell her that we were going to go to find the present that Wither left for me. I don’t know if I didn’t tell her because she wouldn’t believe me or if I didn’t believe it myself.

She kept asking me what was so important that I needed to tell her, but I started to lose my nerve, so I told her I would tell her later, after we ate supper.

We told my mom we were just going to the park for a little while and she offered to give us a ride but I told her no thanks, that we wanted to walk. I asked her if she would hold on to Skittles so that she wouldn’t get out but she just rolled her eyes and kept on chopping up the vegetables for supper and told us to be home before six.

It was freezing out. It snowed all day so I had on my winter boots and I lent Violet an old pair that my sister used to wear. Violet said she forgot hers at home but I don’t think she has any. I’ve never seen her wear any before, but most kids don’t wear snow boots to school, anyway, so it’s not a big deal.

It took us about fifteen minutes to walk to the tracks. It looked like we were the first people there in a while—at least since it snowed. The ground was glittery and perfect with no footprints. I almost hated to walk across the train yard and mess it all up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Skittles run by. Her golden fur was like a streak of sunshine against the snow. She must have followed us. “Sweet, silly girl,” I said. Violet thought I was talking to her and we both started laughing.

We looked for Skittles’s footprints in the snow, but the wind was blowing and we couldn’t find them. I wasn’t too worried, though; she always finds her way home.

I asked Violet if she believed that Wither was real and she laughed and said no way, so I laughed, too. We walked along the tracks, our boots sinking deep into the snow, until we were both out of breath. Then Violet said sometimes she thought Wither might be real and she wondered where he would go when it was so cold out like this.

I watched her for a minute. I couldn’t tell if she was making fun of me or not. But then she said that maybe he slept in one of the boxcars at night. I guess that makes sense, though I don’t think it would be much warmer inside a boxcar than out.

I told Violet that I thought that Wither probably snuck into people’s houses at night and hid under the stairs or in a closet. Violet wanted to know how Wither got inside the homes. I wanted to tell her that he scratched at windows and came through vents. Instead I told her that I guess he gets in and out the same way Skittles does—whenever someone opens and closes a door.

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.