Roaming Incomplete

"Just another day in an excavation. Sure, why not? Pretty normal!" said a dreary Holly Palmer. The Palmer family - Holly, her younger sister Misha, and her parents, Nick Palmer and Helena Palmer - were on an excavation site during their summer vacations, for camping. Helena was looking for evidence of the sudden and unnatural landslides which occurred about a month ago. It was a sunny day in June. The Palmers had travelled all the way from California to San Jose for this special visit. Somehow, Holly and Misha ended up with an archaeologist and an astronomer (Nick) and toured around excavations and laboratories throughout their vacations. All this, while the other children went off to Disneyland and beach resorts. 

 

Suddenly, Holly caught sight of something that looked like...bones! Her eyes glued in its direction, she called out to her mom. "Mom! Come quick. I think I...I found bones!" Helena rushed to the muddy spot where her daughter stood, frozen. "Whoa... That's one good skeleton!" Helena exclaimed, revealing a whole skeleton, brushing off the dirt with her gloved hands. "It seems fresh." 

 

IN THE NIGHT…

 

(Fire crackling)

"I studied the skeleton. Its right leg is missing," concluded Helena.

"Ugh! Gross!" cried Misha. 

"Hey honey, is that a full moon?" questioned Nick, pointing to the sky. 

"Yeah, and that also a blue moon" replied Helena.

"But the moon isn't blue." said a confused Misha. 

"A blue moon isn't blue. Normally, there's one full moon each month. But sometimes there's another full moon which is called a blue moon and…" Nick faltered. 

"And what dad?" Holly inquired.

"Nothing. Nothing important," said Nick, staring at his wife.

"Let's get to sleep people. After some more digging in the morning, we gotta get ready to go!" said Dr. Palmer.

 

LATER THAT NIGHT…

 

Lying down in her sleeping bag, Holly felt something pointy nudging her in the back. She tried to move away from it, but it wasn't much help in their compact tent. Misha slept peacefully beside her. Soon Holly also drifted away to sound sleep. 

 

A sound woke her up in the middle of the night. "It was probably just a harmless animal", thought Holly. But, something that happened next, made her hold that thought. A dull rumble and a faint scraping noise came to be heard. Surprisingly, no one other than Holly was disturbed. The sounds came closer and gradually became louder too. In a flash, a shadow appeared against their tent. Holly barely managed to stifle a scream on seeing this. The figure went around the tent twice and then receded. Holly couldn't believe what she just saw. It scarred her. She was soon able to subside the surprise, but not the fear. 

 

NEXT DAY…

 

"Hmm. This is strange. The skeleton that was here last night, has disappeared. There's an old legend that skeletons emerge out of their graves on a blue moon to gather their bones and walk the earth." said Helena, once everyone was out of bed. Holly caught her breath. "I used to think it was just a crazy old story" Helena continued, wondering and baffled. Nick was also muddled. 

Holly pointed, with a trembling finger, at the ground around her tent. Mr. Palmer kneeled to have a look. So did Helena. They saw tracks of a skeleton foot and a pole. "As if it was using some sort of crutch," said Helena. "And it went around the tent twice. As if it was looking for something. But what?" pondered Nick.

 

Holly knew the answer. She'd lain on it all night long.