Talk:Penpal/@comment-25149416-20140707104740/@comment-25148747-20140707170326

I thought you were on to something so I went back and re-read the story. Josh and the man actually died after Veronica; the man that was buried with Josh is most likely the same man who ran over Veronica.

In "Friends”, Josh's Dad tells the authors mom that after Veronica's death, Josh's mother was a complete mess, she couldn't work and probably couldn't be left alone for too long either, so he stopped taking overnight jobs so that he could spend more time at home. "Due to his wife's mental deterioration, Josh's dad could no longer travel for work and began taking construction jobs that were less well-paying, so he could be closer to home. "

One of the less well paying jobs he took was to work as a laborer in the authors' old neighborhood. He was given the task of leveling the forest - so that the land can be used as property to build houses on, and he took the job because it guaranteed several weeks of work and also because that work would be close to home.

"On the third day, he arrived at a spot that he could not level." You know what happens next...He digs a hole to see why the ground isn't leveling, thinking it's old tree roots...hits something with his shovel....starts digging a wider hole to get a better look at it....and eventually finds Josh. When the dad frantically calls the authors' mom and she shows up, she looks into the hole and sees Josh.

"She said by the look of him, he had not been long-dead"

Soon after that we learn about how he was approached by a man who offered him $100 to fill some holes in his backyard. The father accepts the offer because they needed the money since the mother wasn't working. The man told the dad to come after 5pm because he needed to take pictures for the "insurance company". The dad comes, fills the holes, and gets on with his life.

The dad recognizes the man who is laying on top of Josh as  the man who approached him a month earlier to fill the holes. "He paid me a hundred dollars so that I would bury him with my boy..."

Since the authors' mother mentions how Josh looked like he had not been long-dead, what probably happened was when Josh's father came to fill the holes a month earlier, Josh and the man were probably still alive in their coffin or whatever, and they were buried alive. However the man definitely died first due to the injury Josh inflicted on his neck, and Josh was left to suffocate and/or starve to death.

It makes you wonder if the man had this all planned out from the beginning. Kidnapping Josh, killing Veronica, the dad having to take lesser paying jobs because the mom was unstable, approaching the dad with the $100 offer, knowing he'd say yes because he wasn't making as much money and ultimately being buried with Josh...