DJ Jones

“The name Diedre Joanne Jones may not mean much today, but by the time this book is over you’ll think you’ve known me and my friends for a lifetime.” DJ narrated to the trees as she marked her path through the fields. “DJ is an only child.” DJ continued, snapping a twig from a low branch and swishing it like a sword. “DJ’s life is unbearably boring. But someday she will be a spy, or an assassin, or a detective.” DJ paused to decide. “A detective. Yeah, in the big city. Fighting bad guys, catching crime bosses. All with her best friend, Sarah Smith.”

DJ’s narrative cut short as she burst through the brush lined ravine and emerged behind the sprawling Smith estate. DJ cast the twig into the bushes and did her best to brush the woods off her jeans and sleeves. 

DJ stomped up the first two steps to the back porch before remembering the scolding she had gotten from the Smith’s maid last time. 

“Young ladies should have better manners.” DJ thrust out her tongue at the memory.

Composing herself she rapped politely on the screen door. The late morning sun beat down on the south facing porch making sweat rise at the collar of DJ’s jacket. She was about to slide her arms free of the sleeves when she heard the familiar click of the door latch.

“Diedre. You’re late.” Sarah’s prim face peered through the screen. 

“I don’t have a watch.” DJ shrugged. “Come on, adventure awaits!”

Sarah breathed a sigh through her pert little nostrils. Her sleek dark ponytail swished as she cast a glance over her shoulder into the house. 

“Why don’t we just play with dolls in my room today.” Sarah cast a glittering smile. “My bonne mere brought me a new set from Europe, they came with dresses and everything.” 

DJ’s shoulders dropped at the thought of playing dolls in Sarah’s frilly lilac and cream bedroom. “Is bonne mere here?” 

“Yeah, she’s-” Sarah’s shoulders slumped this time as she remembered the last encounter between her best friend and her great grandmother. “Yeah. Let’s just enjoy the nice weather instead.” 

Sarah disappeared only a moment as the door swung closed. DJ strained to hear the muffled exchange before Sarah’s sneakers approached once again. 

“Au revoir, bonne mère! I’ll be home before dark, Ms. Lucy!” Sarah called to her maid and great grandmother before dropping onto the porch and closing the door behind her. 

“So what sort of trouble are you going to get us into today, DJ Jones.” Sarah did little to hide the glint in her own eye.

Sarah wasn’t a troublemaker by nature, not like DJ, but she enjoyed their escapades no less.

“I think I found a secret door.” DJ’s smirk was almost manic.

“Like to an abandoned bomb shelter?” Sarah hurried to keep pace with DJ as they crossed the ravine and ducked back into the woods.

“Better.” DJ huffed as she picked up speed. 

She was shorter than Sarah by at least a few inches, but always managed to stay just ahead. This was perhaps more in part that Sarah preferred not to break a sweat if she could help it. 

“A speakeasy, then?” Sarah laughed as they picked up speed down a hill. “Are we going to the golf course?” 

DJ was panting too heavily to respond, but Sarah had her answer as they emerged at the edge of the well groomed clearing. 

Before them sprawled the town’s greatest playground for the wealthier set. A place both DJ’s and Sarah’s fathers frequented. Their reasons were far different however. 

The sound of a commercial mower roared at the far end of the ninth hole. 

“Dad won’t hit this stretch until after lunch.” DJ’s smile was more devious than usual. “But the whole course is closed for reseeding this week. That gives us at least two hours to check it out.”

“DJ!” Sarah called out as DJ bolted across the open field. 

It wasn’t until they crested the nearest bunker that Sarah realized the full scope of DJ’s adventure.

“Oh no.” Sarah caught her friend’s arm.

DJ stumbled back, shocked at the burst of speed Sarah had to have put in to have caught up with her at the steps of the crumbling house.

“That’s breaking and entering, miss future cop.” Sarah gripped DJ’s arm as she turned the girl to face her.

“No need to break, just enter.” DJ winked and raised her arm to a broken basement window. 

“Still counts.” Sarah released DJ to cross her arms.

“We won’t damage anything. I promise. And I’ve been in and out a couple of times now.” 

Sarah’s frown spoke volumes.

“I had to scope it out first. For your protection.” DJ defended. “I swear I didn’t get into the really cool part without you.”

“What’s the cool part?” Sarah caved, arms still crossed.

“It’s so much better if I show you.” DJ urged. “Come on. I swear, it’s totally safe.” 

Sarah sighed the remains of her resignation off and waved for DJ to proceed.

The glee in DJ’s eyes was followed by a stifled squeak of joy. “You will not be disappointed.”

With that DJ was at the shattered window pane and on her belly. She shot her arm into the opening with practiced motion. Sarah was at the side of the house in time to here the clack of a latch falling free.

DJ rolled back from the open pane to reach behind a withered shrub. Her arm reappeared with a pipe that Sarah noted just happened to be a perfect fit to prop the window fully open.

“How many times did you say you trespassed in here?” 

DJ scowled up at Sarah. “I really wish you would stop using words like that. Now com on.”

DJ disappeared through the opening leaving Sarah to decide if she would follow. It was an ease decision even if she lingered long enough to make it seem more trying. 

Sarah dropped into the dark hole of the vacant basement and coughed at the dust and cobwebs. She was momentarily blinded by a beam of white light.

“Geez, Deej!” Sarah’s hands flew to her face. “Lower the high beams!”

“Sorry.” DJ’s voice bounced off the walls. 

With her eyes adjusted to the dimly illuminated space Sarah took in the surroundings. Dust and cobwebs indeed festooned every inch of the space. Abandoned tools, toys, trunks, and appliances decorated the shelves that lined the walls. 

“It’s just a basement.” Sarah huffed as she examined objects within reach of her hands and DJ’s light. “And a filthy one at that.” She drew back dust greyed fingers leaving streaks in the shelf.

“Not here.” DJ almost whined. “Come on, follow me.” 

Sarah was left with even less choice from this command as the light swept around the room and away from their entry point. 

DJ waited at the base of a flight of narrow stairs. As Sarah met her there she swung the little lantern light again to illuminate a door at the top.

“DJ, how far into the house did you go? Are those stairs even safe?” Sarah’s protests were not more than DJ was used to hearing. 

“Totally safe. All the way to the top.” DJ’s smile in the dim light of the flashlight was enough to tell Sarah she meant more than the top of these stairs.

Sure enough Sarah followed her friend through the basement door to the main floor of the house. They continued through the kitchen, conspicuously ignoring the abandoned dishes in the sink, stench from the fridge, and a closed suitcase on the center of a peeling kitchen table.

 “Who lived here?” Sarah managed to ask as they moved on through a sitting room of mildewed sofas and chairs centered around a television with a shattered screen.

“Dad said it was for the course caretaker.” DJ offered as she plodded on to her intended destination. “That was back in like the forties though.” 

A shivered passed through Sarah as she caught up with DJ at the base of yet another flight of stairs. This one looked more hazardous than the last.

“Deej I’m getting one of those feelings again.” Sarah rubbed her arms. 

“You been hangin’ with your g’mere too much again.” DJ waved at the air.

Before Sarah could protest DJ was up the stairs two at a time.

“See it’s totally safe! Come on!” 

For a fleeting moment Sarah’s attention turned back to a movement reflected in the cracked screen of the television.

Her fear of ghosts, due much in part to her bonne mere’s superstitions, outweighed Sarah’s concern of the stairs. She was on the second floor landing in fewer steps than it had taken DJ.

“Okay. Top floor. Now what.” Sarah hid her fear behind a frown. “If you say we’re going to the roof, I’m tapping out.”

“That’s a lie I won’t make you hold to don’t worry.” DJ’s smirk was almost more that Sarah could take. “It’s just down here.”

DJ led the way along the landing to a door at the end. Sarah followed though her eyes darted from mote and shadow dancing in the shafts of light in the hallway. Sarah tried not to notice that every room but the one DJ stood in front of was missing a door. She was grateful instead that the curtainless rooms allowed ample light into the house, and that they had hours of daylight left. 

Brighter that the afternoon was DJ’s impish grin. Sarah often hated the results of that smile, but it was far too late to turn back now.

“Are you ready?” DJ gripped the lever on the lone door on the top floor.

Feigning disinterest Sarah shrugged. “I mean you dragged me this far.” 

Ignoring the prodding for what it was DJ slammed down the lever and swung open the door. The effect fell far short of the magnificence DJ had clearly intended.

Sarah took a step into the revealed room. She took another, and turned her head to take in the nearly vacant space. Like the other rooms the windows were bare. Wallpaper peeled from the mouldy walls. And at the room’s center stood a single metal frame bed.

“That’s a stupid place for a bed.” Sarah scoffed.

She continued to survey the space as she circuited the bed.

“That’s what I thought too.” DJ’s grin was far too big for such a clearly boring find. “So I moved it.”

Sarah’s brow furrowed. But before she could question or protest DJ was taking a running start at the opposite side of the bedframe. 

Sarah had to all but leap clear as her friend heaved against the single piece of furniture sending it and DJ into the far wall of the room.

“What the-” But Sarah’s protest was cut short as she spied the floor where the bed had been.

“That’s what I said the first time. Only with a far more colorful ending. And not in french.” DJ sniffed back a laugh as she circle behind Sarah.

“It’s. A door?” Sarah lowered to her knees beside the strange opening.

“And it doesn’t lead downstairs.” DJ’s voice was at Sarah’s ear. 

“That’s impossible.” Sarah turned nose to nose with DJ. “You must not have looked hard enough.”

“Oh I looked.” DJ nodded, her eyes wide. “I looked and then I found the key.”

From her pocket DJ produced the key she spoke of. 

“It looks old.” Sarah reached for the twist of metal.

DJ played at snatching it away from her friend before catching Sarah’s hand and dropping the key into her palm.

“What’s behind the door?” Sarah turned the key in her hand.

“Don’t know.” DJ shrugged. “I waited for you.”

“Such an honor.” Sarah quipped. 

It was though, Sarah knew, DJ always saved the best part of an adventure for them to experience together.

They both knelt at the edge of the door closest to the keyhole. Sarah slid the key into the lock, and held her breath before twisting the latch. As DJ promised the lock clicked its release. Both girls reached for the doorknob. 

DJ relented with a smile. “I was just excited. The honor is all yours.”

“Nah.” Sarah left her hand on the knob. “It should be both of us.”

She didn’t need to be offered twice. DJ rested her hand on Sarah’s and with a twist the door released. It took both the girls to lift the hatch from the floor and reveal the space beyond.