Free Uncollected Blood by Daniel J. Kirk

Wall.
    ><><
    Jeff had every intention of becoming a globetrotter. But he never lost his priority of being a grandfather.  He visited little Will every chance he got. 
    They had become the best of friends and Jeff’s daughter appreciated the time his watchful eye gave her to rest. Jeff felt like a million-bucks, or better yet, Grandpa-of-the-Decade!
    Then one day much to his surprise he did not arrive in Will’s bedroom.
    He arrived in a dark and dank and terrible place. Soda and beer cans and black trash bags swallowed his footing and he collapsed into a heap of trash. The smell barreled him over until he wretched up his morning cereal. He fought to stand again and knew exactly where he had ended up.
    This can’t be happening!
    Only it was, Jeff was stuck in a garbage truck.
    His daughter must’ve found the bone in Will’s room and thrown it out thinking it was simple garbage that the boy had collected.  Jeff was so angry he didn’t notice right away that he had lost the bone. It was somewhere in the trash heap.
    He fought through wet newspapers and packing materials and all kinds of slime.
    Then the air compressor hissed.
    “No!” Jeff cried as he could hear the gears starting to churn. He would be crushed alive.
    “Help I’m trapped in here!” he screamed. “Somebody help! I’m in here!”
    He dove through the garbage hoping in the darkness his hands might stumble upon the bone. He tore apart bag after bag, unleashing the foulest of stenches.
    “Stop! Please!” he hoped the garbage men could hear him, but the truck was already growling forward and Jeff was tossed into the compacting mess. He could feel his pressure of the trash as it snapped the bones in his ankles, and his brittle old shins soon followed.
    Please God help me, please!
    He screamed and dug. He begged that it be a quick death if he couldn’t find that stupid bone. He could feel his heart sputtering. It wasn’t made for this. He was going to die, he just needed to accept that, but he couldn’t. He dug until the familiar shape appeared in his hand. It was too dark to know for sure, but he didn’t have time to worry about that. He squeezed as hard as he could.
    ><><
    Will jumped over a headstone.
    “Did you see that, Mommy?”
    “Will, be respectful this is a cemetery.”
    Will didn’t know what that had to do with anything. He jumped another one and this time his mother yanked him by the arm back off the grass.  She almost lost the bouquet of flowers she was carrying.
    “Don’t do that, you will make people mad!”
    “But nobody sees me. Nobody here is alive anymore. And I know these places aren’t haunted. I’m not six anymore. I’m seven, duh.”
    “Oh really?”
    Will nodded with pride. He wasn’t afraid of anything.
    “Do not jump on people’s graves.”
    Will nodded and his mother tugged him back towards another grave.
    “Hi, Grandpa!” Will screamed.
    “Please,” his mother corrected him, “show some respect.”
    “Ah mom, but dead people can’t hear. They’re so old they can’t hear. You’ve got to yell way louder than I did.”
    “He’s right,” Jeff said looking at his daughter and grandson.
    “How’d you beat us? I thought you hadn’t left your house yet?”
    Jeff smiled and rolled forward in his wheelchair. He’d never shared his secret with his daughter, even after the incident with the trash compactor. No, from now on Jeff decided it was best to keep the bones out of places where other people might move them.
    “How are you doing?” his daughter asked.
    “Well the wheelchair is different, but I’m getting around.”
    His daughter bent down and kissed his forehead. “You aren’t a young man. You can’t go jumping around anymore. Mom would’ve chewed your ear off if she could.” She set the flowers in a vase in front of her mother’s grave.
    “Oh really?” Jeff smirked, “well I’ve got a bone to pick with you!”
    His daughter looked him completely dumfounded and then he