Page 37 of A Touch of Murder
The boy glanced at his mother as if seeking permission. When she nodded, the kid turned back to Adam. "I found this digging in my backyard. I want to know what it is." The child pulled a small bone from the pocket of his pants.
Adam looked at the bone and nodded. "That does look very old. What do you think it is?"
"Mom says maybe a rabbit, but I think it's something cooler like a bobcat or even a bear."
"What's your name?" Adam asked.
"Brady." The boy held the bone out toward Adam. "So, can you tell me the past? I want to know what this is. I'm going to dig for more, but I need to know what I'm looking for."
Adam looked up at the boy's mother. "Are you okay if I do this? I need your permission."
She nodded and rested her hand to the boy's head. "It's why we came in."
"Then let's take a look." Adam had worked with kids like Brady before and always treated them the same way he did his adult customers. "Jacey, will you get me water and two bars please?" Then he glanced at Brady. "Let's go back to my office so I can sit down, and then I'll look at that bone." He led them back into his office. "Please, have a seat." He nodded at the table.
Brady ran to it and climbed up on a chair, kneeling on it as he set the bone on the table. "It has to be old. It was buried way deep."
"Well, let's see if I can tell you." Adam pulled off one of his gloves. "Okay, will you drop the bone into my hand? Careful you don't touch my hand, or I'll see your past, and that's not what we want to do today. We want to know about the bone." Adam held his hand out, palm up to the child.
Brady leaned over the table and very carefully dropped the bone into Adam's palm.
Adam closed his eyes and smiled as he saw images of the boy begging his mom to let him come to the shop, then another image of him dropping the bone as he walked to the car. It took a few moments to weed through the images of Brady with the bone before he finally saw something that he could tell the child."I see berries on a tree. Lot's of green leaves. Big meadows with the wind blowing the plants. And there is a small river where the animals drink." Adam opened his eyes. "I know what kind of bone it is."
"What is it?" Brady was so excited he was nearly trembling as he looked back and forth from the bone to his mother.
"It's from a deer." Adam loved the way the boy's eyes widened. He closed his own eyes again and smiled at the image of fawns suckling the doe. "This deer was a girl deer. It was a mother because I can see her with two babies as they walk across a small stream. I get the feeling she had a lot of babies over the years."
"How did she die?" the boy asked, sounding suddenly very serious, and perhaps worried.
Adam seldom lied to his customers, but when it came to children, he was very careful about what he said. His vision told him this deer had been attacked by a coyote and died, but he didn't tell the boy that. "She looks to have lived a very happy and long life, and just laid down and went to sleep. She died happy and old."
He opened his eyes and caught the relived look on Brady's mother's face.
"How long ago? Can you tell?" Brady asked.
"It's hard to say. I would guess maybe twenty or thirty years ago." Adam had no idea how old the bone was. He had nothing to base a timeline on. Trees looked the same today as they had a hundred years ago. "It's hard to say with animal bones."
"Do you think there are more bones there?" Brady asked.
"I'm not sure. There could be. Sometimes the rain and snow move the bones around, so they aren't close together." Adam reached out and gently let the bone drop back on the table in front of Brady. "I wish I could tell you more, but deer are pretty simple creatures. They wander around, eat, drink, and play inmeadows." He slowly pulled his glove back on and took the water that Jacey handed to him. He took a long drink, then took one of the candy bars and handed it to Brady's mother. "This is for Brady for being so interested in nature. He can have it when you tell him it's okay." Adam tore open a bar for himself and popped a square of chocolate into his mouth. This reading had taken hardly any of his energy.
"Thanks." Brady grinned at his mom. "Can we come back if I find more?"
"Sure, as long as your mother says you can." Adam smiled at the woman.
"How much do I owe you?" she asked.
"Nothing. I don't mind helping kids learn." He meant that. The reading hadn't been hard, and he'd have a loyal customer in the future if they ever needed something important figured out.
"No, you took the time to help him. Please, at least take this." She set a twenty-dollar bill on the table. "You have just given me a quiet day to work in the house as Brady entertains himself digging in the yard."
He let the money lay there. "Thank you, but when it comes to stuff like this, I look at it as helping the community. It's good to know about the animals around the area."
"Nevertheless, you took the time. Thank you for that." She patted her son on the shoulder. "Tell them thank you and let's get back home and see what else you might find."
"Thank you." Brady hugged the bone to his chest. "Maybe I can find all of her." He looked at Jacey.
"Maybe." Jacey laughed. "You're lucky. I never found bones when digging in my yard."
