The Legend of Youngs Corner XXXI

PART XXXI
The Children’s Return

I reached for Amanda’s hand and took what she was holding. It was a small notepad. Tattered and ripped, it was green in color with a metal coil at the top holding the pad together.

“What’s this all about?” I asked.
“Open it,” she said.
I did, and to my horror, I saw a familiar sight…a child’s handwriting.
“What is it?” Nick asked from over my shoulder.
“Drawings. Kid’s drawings.”
As I flipped through the notepad, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the watercolor mural we found on the first journey. Here again were images of people, rainbows, horses, all drawn with a child’s hand. Some pages even had math equations as if the child used it for their homework. Questions soared in my head. Whose notepad was this? Why the math problems, did the child do assignments in these cabins? Why was it here, in the middle of the woods? Did a child live here, in these horrible conditions?

“Where did you find it?” Nick asked.
“In this crate,” Amanda said. “It’s full of clothes.”
Indeed there was a large crate, sitting next to the table. The clothes were like the notepad: old, tattered and faded. They were very dated, just like those we had found in the big cabin. But something was different about this collection.
“They’re all dresses,” Amanda said, as if reading my mind. “They look like…wedding dresses.”
“The forgotten wedding,” said Nathan.
“Right,” I uttered. I searched the outline of the crate with my flashlight. And when the light glanced the wall, I saw them. The smiles.
“You see them too, don’t you?” Nico said, standing behind me.
There they were, drawn with colored chalk, all up and down the wall. Small smiley faces, yellow and round. Rainbows accompanied them to create a strangely serene feeling. By this time I had finally finished flipping though the notepad and came to the last page. I looked down to find a scribbled line, in a child’s writing.

“Beware of the one’s who smile too much, you’ll always know they’re up to no good.”