XIII. Death. [Reversed]

A FARM—MORNING

Iris and I are kissing as the sun rises. My hands are running over her tiny, tattooed back, as I find we are at the farm compound.

Again.

I try to say “We should really get back to the survey,” though it is muffled by her kisses.

Iris mutters, “Uh-huh, back to work.” But we are kissing again anyway.

It is nice getting cozy with Iris again, but then, as we come up for air, she pushes me away a bit and suggests she has a friend to introduce me to. She says this mystery girl and I would make a great couple.

I say, “Let me guess. She’s fat.”

“No,” Iris says, “No.”

“But she is. Plain looking and boring too.”

Iris bites her lip. Silent. Caught.

Neither of us makes a move, aside from Iris twisting a toe in the dirt which is maddeningly sexy and I squeeze my fists to my temples.

But this sudden episode is soon mercifully broken, when Iris reaches again for me. I open my eyes to notice part of a human skull lying nearby in the grass.

“Jesus!” I pull away from Iris and point, “Look!”

“Shit!” She looks around and points. “There’s more!”

There is a lot of dumped debris and trash mixed in with our back dirt near the place we had been digging the soil before we started digging on each other. Though we typically run the soil through the sieve, there was enough slag and garbage that we had just been piling it near the hole. Now I take a second look and I am not surprised to see a piece of bone in what was my last scoop of dirt.

While Iris watches, I shovel some of our spoil pile into one end of the large screen resting on two saw horses. I dig a few shovelfulls of fresh dirt from the hole and add them to the other end of the screen for comparison. Poking around in the screen, I find what looks like burned bone fragments in the spoil pile. Not much help. On the other end, I spot what I think looks suspiciously like a piece of the occipital bone from a human skull. I hold off digging more, deciding what to do.

“I know you will want to bring in the Boss to make the decision. But I am quite sure the bone is human,” I try to say judiciously, “And I also know that the Boss will disagree just to be petty and contrary. If that happens, if she declares these finds to be just deer remains, or something perhaps some heinous murder will go unsolved—or worse.”

“Perhaps,” Iris is just as judicious in return, “What do you recommend?”

“I start the next test. And we see what we see.”

In the first shovel: Articulated human cervical vertebra and a cranium that had been sawed into quarters, as if by a medical bone saw in some horrible operation.

“The Boss cannot argue about this!” I laugh, but Iris doesn’t hear. She’s grabbed a sleeve of pin flags and is inspecting the ground for bones, flagging them as she goes.

Iris and I follow the trail of human skeletal remains back to a nearby dilapidated barn. A quick survey of the rest of the property reveals more skeletons scattered about. We peek into the barn, wondering whether to follow the path of bones inside.

“Well,” Iris announces, “I’m going back to the van to call the Boss and see what she sez to do.”

As she disappears, I half-heartedly call after, “Wait! So, I guess our truce is broken?” I don’t like Iris going above my head to the hated Boss. I kick at some bones in the dust, angrily pacing and waiting for the verdict. As I do so, I come across the Farmer working at a large oven in the back of the barn.

“Can I help you?” he asks matter-of-factly.

I clear my throat. “Uh, we were just surveying this property, you know, for the development. And—”

“And you saw the bones outside?”

“Yea.”

The Farmer shoves a lumpy canvas sack into the fiery oven. “Well, weren’t you informed that the place is still operating as a crematory?”

I shake my head.

“Well, it is. And what don’t burn is tossed out there for fertilizer.”

“Oh, well, I guess that explains at least the presence of human remains on the lot, and their scattering about.”

I stagger back into the blinding sunlight as Iris returns.

“Back to the van!’ she says “We’re gonna go meet the Boss back at the village and tell her what’s up, so she can come handle this situation.”

“But—!”