Please be an old coin - I think to myself, as my metal detector makes a loud beeping sound.
I start to dig with my garden shovel with thoughts of uncovering lost history. I dig up a mound of dirt about the size of a man’s fist and wave the metal detector over it and the machine beeps.
I use my fingers to break up the dirt and come across something that’s not a rock. I inspect the unknown object with my fingers - “Darn it” - I say out loud after discovering that it’s only a bottle cap.
I walk home from the wooded area which takes me 15 minutes.
I try to think positive and tell myself that tomorrow is a new day and there’s bound to be rare artifacts in these Virginian woods.
“No, luck today?” My wife Katie asks me when I get home.
“Just nails and bottle caps.”
“Any of those county workers harassing you about using your metal detecting on government land?”
“No, it’s been a while since I’ve seen them. I’m pretty sure those photos that I took of them sleeping on the job got most of them fired.”
“Good thing you did that. We don’t need them anyways!” Katie responds with a look of content on her face.
“Where’s the girls?” I ask.
“They walked over to my mother’s house.”
“Oh, okay” I respond.
I go upstairs into my room and look online at various coins and artifacts people have uncovered using a metal detector.
My eyelids start to feel heavy and I give in and close my eyes.
“Tom!” My wife calls out from the kitchen.
I slowly wake up and walk towards the kitchen and say to Katie “What’s up? I had passed out.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I just wanted to see if you want me to make you something to eat?”
I look down at my watch and see that it’s close to 9:00 pm.
“Nah, I’m fine. Are the girls home?”
“Sarah texted me and said the three of them are going to stay the night at my mother’s house.”
“Oh, okay - doesn’t Alice have gymnastics in the morning?”
“She does, but it’s fine if she misses it.” Katie responds to me.
I head back to bed and think to myself how fortunate we are to have my wife’s mother to look after: Sarah 13 years old, Patricia 9 years old and Alice 6 years old.
I look online for a while and start to feel tired again and pass out.
I wake up with Katie lying next to me. I take a quick look at my phone and am surprised to see that it’s 7:00 am.
I think to myself how nice it is not having to go to work ever since I sold off my Crypto Currency six months ago.
With really nothing else to do, I go back out metal detecting.
I resume where I ended yesterday and have to walk a little slower as it’s apparent that it rained last night and the ground is slippery.
It doesn’t take long before I get a hit and the detector starts to beep.
Because most of the stuff I dig up is junk, I am cautiously optimistic that it might be something worthwhile.
I dig no more than four inches and my metal shovel hits the distinctive sound of glass.
I use my fingers to wiggle out what looks like a modern glass bottle that has its cap still screwed on.
“Hmm that’s strange, there’s a piece of paper inside.”
Intrigued, I untwist the bottle cap and let the piece of paper fall into my hand.
I drop the bottle and unfold the piece of paper, which reads “cut off both of your pinkies. You have a half hour. If you don’t do this then Kathy’s dead.”
I stand there for a few moments stunned. Then I quickly do a 360 turnaround to see if anyones watching me.
Cathy, my mother-in-law? I think to myself.
Nah, Kathy is a common name so it could be any of the hundreds of Cathy’s who live in Virginia alone.
But who would bury a bottle in the middle of the woods and write something random like that - I pause for a minute - “unless they wanted me to find it!” I say out loud.
These woods have always creeped me out - from the revolution war era soldiers who have been slaughtered here to the Yankees and confederates who had countless battles in this area and to the tortured slaves, who souls have never left these God forsaken woods. For these reasons, some say these woods are sacred but I see them as being cursed.
I look down at my pinkies and think - I’m not cutting them off.
I look down around the ground beneath me and notice a bunch of footprints caused by the rain which made the ground soggy which I didn’t pay attention to earlier.
I put my own foot next to the footprint closest to me and think - okay, that footprint is about a size 13 like mine and leaves the same imprint.
Then I look a few inches over “well that’s not mine” comes out of my mouth as I see the footprint is significantly smaller.
Reality really starts to sink in as I’m almost certain that this note is for me.
I then do another 360 to see if anyone is watching me, but I still don’t see anyone.
I try to outweigh the pros and cons of this situation and wonder - if this is true - then do I have it in me to cut my pinkies off?
Those darn county workers! There messing with me. Those bastards!
I look down at my phone and estimate that 20 minutes has passed since I dug up the bottle.
“Hello, this isn’t funny. Come out and talk to me. If money is what your looking for then I’ll give it to you. Don’t hurt Cathy.” I yell out.
I wait a couple of minutes and I hear and see nothing.
I pull myself together and decide to call my wife.
I get my cell phone out of my pocket and call Katie as my hand shakes a little.
“Hey, Hun - the kids are home - right?”
“No, there still at my mother’s.”
“Fuck!” I whisper, as I stupidly assumed the kids were home.
“What?” Katie responds after the out of context curse word comes out of my mouth.
“Oh nothing, I’ll be home in a few minutes!”
I leave my metal detector and shovel in the woods and jog home.
As I’m jogging, I’m thinking about the next best course of action to take, as I continually wiggle my pinkies as a reminder.
I get home and greet Katie with a “still no word from your mother?” which comes rushed out of my mouth.
“Not since, I talked to her this morning.”
“Oh, you talked to her this morning?” I say with a smile on my face.
“Yeah, she told me the kids are fine and she’ll call me when they want to come home.”
I feel like a weight has been just lifted off my shoulders because of Katie saying that she talked to her mother.
I look down at my watch and see that a half hour has passed and just to be a hundred percent sure, I decide to call my mother-in-law.
I walk away from Katie.
The phone rings twice and I think nothing of it knowing that she’s probably preoccupied with my daughters.
The phone clicks over to voicemail and I think it’s probably best to leave a short message for her to call me.
The voice message starts and instead of hearing Kathy’s voice, I hear a male computerized monotone voice say “Cathy is dead go back in the woods”.