"Exploding Bets"
The sun was beating down as sweat streamed from her forehead like the old creek bed down the hill. The forty-something year old women excruciatingly pushed her lawn mower around her yard. It was 11:43, and she had already been mowing for an hour now. Her mind kept drifting to all the things that needed to be completed before she could pick her kids up from school. As she drifted off, she did not see her mower pass over a sprinkler head. Suddenly, the mower jumped up and burst into flames. She jumped back and screamed as she watched the flames engulf her mower. Her neighbor looked up from his plant watering and saw the horrendous sight. He ran over and put the fire out with his hose.
"Maya, what did you do?"
"Nothing, I…I was just mowing and my mower jumped up- in flames." She could hardly speak from the shock of the explosion.
"How old is your mower?" he said as he bent down to examine its underside.
"About a year…It's never done this before. I…I don't know what happened."
"Look here, you passed over your sprinkler head. It probably hit the blade."
"I've mowed over it before…you're probably right. What else could it be?"
The woman took the mower to the mechanic who painstakingly examined the mower. However, despite his efforts he could not find anything wrong with it.
Two days later, the woman was washing dishes when she heard a scream. She looked up through the kitchen window to see another mower in flames, and another neighbor frantic. She grabbed the extinguisher from under the sink and ran toward the mower. After putting out the blaze, she looked at the tossed piece of metal. "Twice in one week!" she thought. As she passed her hand along the grass, she expected to find a sprinkler head. "You don't have an automatic sprinkler system, do you?" The neighbor shook her head. The women bent back down looking for a rock or anything that could have hit the blade. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a mole hole. "Moles have been plaguing our lawn too," she added.
She helped her neighbor recover from the shock and the two compared their freak explosions.
"Something must be causing this."
"Maya, what kind of mower do you have?"
"I don't know, but it's not this kind. What about the fuel?"
"I get mine from Harvey down at the gas station."
"I think we all do, you don't think… could there be something wrong with it?" In such a small town, neither one wanted to believe anyone had done something wrong.
"Fuel wouldn't make a large mower jump up like this. Maybe we should call the police."
"What are they going to do?"
"I don't know, but we can't have mowers exploding all over the place. What if next time one of your kids is mowing the lawn?"
"I suppose you're right. Do you want to call?"
The women looked at each other. Not one of them wanted to call for fear the police would not believe them- despite the three witnesses. Finally, they decided to go down to the station together.
At the station, the secretary brought them to the officer in charge of public concerns. When they recited their stories in detail, the officer took of his glasses, and looked at the women as if they were crazy. Finally, out of good measure, he said he would send an officer to check it out the next morning.
It was not even 9:00 in the morning when Maya Kensington heard a knock at the door. She looked through the hole and saw two people in trench coats conversing as they waited. "These must be the officers," she thought as she pondered why officers would wear trench coats. She turned the knob and the door creaked softly as it opened.
"Hello, I'm am Agent Fox Mulder with the FBI, and this is my partner Dana Scully." The two flashed their badges and proceeded to enter the house without asking.
"What is the FBI doing here?"
"Your mower exploded yesterday," Mulder stated as he looked around the house.
"I told the police. Did they call you?" The women could not believe she was being examined by the FBI. What could the government want with a simple case like this?
"No, ma'am."
Through the door, Maya saw another car pull up. This time, an officer in uniform came out and started walking up to the house. Maya made her way around the nosey agents to welcome the officer.
"Good morning Maya. You had a complaint about your yard?" In their town, everyone knew everything about everyone. Sometimes Maya liked it that way, and other times she wished she could have some privacy. Never before had she called on, or been called on by the police. Yet, they all knew her name. It made her uncomfortable knowing whatever the police knew would eventually end up as gossip at the local coffee shop.
"Yes. Are you here to investigate too?" Maya became confused.
"Who else is here?" the officer asked.
Scully turned around and looked at the officer. "We are agents Scully and Mulder with the FBI."
"FBI? What are you doing in a little neighbor hood like this?" Now the officer was confused.
"The same thing you are, investigating." Mulder talked to the man as if he was a kindergartner. For his own reasons, he never really liked police officers. They always felt they did not need the FBI's help and that they could handle anything on there own.
"I am officer Escobar. It's nice to meet you," he tried to be polite but was really lying through his teeth. "Could I talk to you outside?" He was also not too happy to hear the FBI was in town. He always felt they were always encroaching on local business.
Mulder followed the officer outside as Scully started to question the woman. When the two men were a few feet from the door, the officer turned around and gave Mulder a look up and down.
"So, what does the government really want with a simple countrywoman?"
Mulder sighed with disgust, "I told you, we are investigating this neighborhood's problem of exploding lawn mowers."
"I really don't think it is necessary that you waste tax money on a simple investigation, we have everything under control."
"From what Mrs. Kensington has told me, you don't believe her mower ever exploded." Mulder questioned the officer who again looked at him.
"How did you find about this anyway," the officer asked.
Mulder almost started to laugh, "Please, we work for the government- your Big Brother. And I believe we will be sticking around to investigate."
"I told you. You and your…partner, are not needed here."
"Would you like to put your money where your mouth is? Officer?" Mulder's vanity began to take affect.
The officer smiled, "Ten dollars says we can have this case solved, with proof, before you and your girlfriend."
"I gladly except your challenge. Now if you excuse me, I have some investigating to complete." Mulder walked back to join Scully who was finishing.
"Thank you Mrs. Kensington. Do you mind if we take a look around?" Scully had questioned the woman for ten minutes and felt as if there were no leads. As she walked outside, the hot air rushed upon her face and startled her coming from the cool air-conditioned house.
"What have you got?" Mulder questioned.
"Unfortunately, not much. She says…" Scully glanced at her notes, "She was mowing her lawn when the mower suddenly, and apparently spontaneously, jumped up and combusted into flames. Her neighbor ran over and extinguished the fire with his watering hose. They attributed the incident to the blade hitting a sprinkler head but a local mechanic found no evidence of the blade hitting anything. She also told me her neighbor's mower exploded yesterday." Scully scoured her notes searching for the name, "um…Mrs. Dering. However she does not have an underground watering system."
"Well, I guess we should start by looking at the mower. We should also try to find out which sprinkler head she ran over- just in case." Mulder seemed worried. There was no lead and the possibilities were endless.
"Mulder, we're not mechanics. Would you know if there was something wrong with the mower? Besides, I think the cause has to be subterranean, since the neighbor's mower exploded too."
"What are you suggesting?" For once, Mulder did not have a hypothesis.
"I don't know, perhaps a natural gas leak." Scully was not sure either.
"Mrs. Kensington mentioned everyone in the neighborhood uses the same mower fuel. They buy it locally at the gas station," Mulder stated.
"Then why isn't everyone's mower exploding?" Scully questioned her partner's logic.
A loud noise came from across the street. The agents turned to find another mower in flames. After the flames were extinguished, they walked over and looked at the tossed mower. Soon a large crowd had gathered as neighbors began to speculate on the cause of the explosions. The two agents starred in disbelief. Three different mowers, in three different yards.
"I'm going to go to the Gas Company and get the subdivision's Gas Schematic. Why don't you question this man and witnesses on their beliefs of the cause. Maybe they know something we don't." Scully ordered Mulder and got into the car before he could argue otherwise. Mulder was surprised since he usually gave the orders, but recognized her need to feel control. She definitely was a headstrong woman.
Mulder questioned the man but he was no more help than Maya. He did not have an underwater sprinkler system, but his lawn was infested with gopher holes. A thought ran through Mulder's mind, "Could the gophers be doing this?" Then he almost laughed at himself. "Don't be so naïve," he thought, "gophers can't make mowers explode." Finally, he started asking the neighbors. No one was too pleasant when they found out the FBI was in town. They all said the same things, "I'm not a mower expert," "You're the FBI agent, you tell me," and "I have already told everything I know to the police." Mulder wondered how much further the police were. They had already beaten them to all the witnesses, so they were going to have to beat them to the evidence. As Mulder reviewed his notes, a boy in his twenties came up to him. He was dressed in overalls, boots and had a hefty layer of whisker stubble.
"Ain't you that FBI agent?" Mulder's ears rang with the whiney tone of the young man's voice.
"Yes, I am Special Agent Mulder. Can I help you?"
"My pa farms the land there yonder, down by the old creek bed. There's something I'm thinking you'd ought to be seeing."
Mulder followed the boy wondering what he could possibly want. He really didn't care, since he was sick of everybody's lack of friendliness. He thought it would be nice to take a brake until Scully had returned. The sun was high in the sky as Mulder took off his sports coat to save himself from the blistering heat. Finally, the boy stopped and turned around. They were standing on the edge of the woods and Mulder got his first look at the infamous creek bed. He could also see a farm down the grassy hill, which he assumed belonged to the boy's father.
"I have played in this here creek bed since I was of three years old. Never before, has there been this white stuff right here. I noticed it 'bout three months ago. 'Bout the time stories of mower blow'n but started."
"Wait, did you say the lawnmower stories commenced three months ago?"
"Yes sir."
"Do you know why they weren't reported until recently?"
"Thinking the folks were scarred everyone would think them crazy. Guess the neighbors decided to keep it quiet 'till so many of them started blow'n up."
"Do you think this white stuff has something to do with it?"
"Don't know, do you?"
Mulder hoped Scully would be able to identify the substance when she returned. He looked at his watch. It had been an hour and half and he assumed Scully would be back by now. He thanked the boy and said they would keep his conjecture in mind.
When Mulder returned, he saw their car parked outside of Maya's house. He looked around but he could not find his partner. Finally he found her examining the gopher holes.
"Did you find anything?" When Scully looked up, Mulder could see the sweet roll off her forehead.
"The Schematic showed no sign of leaks anywhere in the subdivision. However, they told me there is lab equipment at a university thirty minutes from you. I can use it if it's necessary. I think we should perform a Mass Spectrometer on the air in these gopher holes and a chromatogram on the fuel to rule out possibilities."
"A local boy took me down to the creek bed and showed me a white precipitate I think you should take a look at. Perhaps it will give us a clue. Meanwhile I'm going to go down to the town hall and see if there is anything in the building permits." Mulder turned and started towards the car. "Oh, and Scully, did you know these explosions have been going on for three months now? Apparently, nine of the fourteen house in the neighborhood have had problems."
"That only strengthens my theory of an subterranean problem."
Scully finished collection of air samples from the gopher holes and the samples of fuel from the mowers. Tomorrow she would have to go run the tests. She walked the two blocks to the local inn where they were staying. She decided there was no reason to torture herself by wearing her dark suits, so she changed into a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. Her feet were soar and the tennis shoes she put on felt like heaven compared to her heels. As she went to put her gun belt back on, she realized she could never conceal it under her shirt and decided there was no need for it anyway. After a refreshing snack of yogurt, Scully headed out to the creek bed.
When she reached the creek, she immediately saw the precipitate Mulder had spoke of. Scully was no ecologist, but she knew it was not natural. She took out a pair of latex gloves and examined the powder. It was fine, but wet from the water in the creek. She collected a sample and started to head back. Then she turned and decided to take a sample of the water- just in case. When she bent down, she saw the water was full of the powder.
"What could this be?" she thought. She decided that even if it had nothing to do with the mowers, she wanted to discover its origins.
When she got back, she found Mulder reading the documents he had pursued. He looked up and became jealous to see Scully had changed into comfortable clothes.
"Did you find anything?"
"I think I have solved the case." Mulder beamed, as Scully became skeptical. "In looking over the building permits. I discovered the neighborhood developer built the whole thing on top of an old Indian burial ground."
"You are not going to tell me the land is cursed." Scully was too tired to get involved in another argument. She prayed that what Mulder was about to say had at least, a tiny bit of scientific credibility.
"I not sure if the land is cursed, but I believe the bodies were not removed. They could be decomposing and producing methane. Since methane is an extremely combustible gas, a spark from a lawnmower motor could set it up in flames." Scully was almost proud of Mulder. Finally, he had a theory that was based on scientific principals.
"Then the Mass Spectrometer of the air in the gopher holes should confirm the presence of methane. I will go over to the university right now and see what I can find. Would you like to come with?"
"No, I have no idea how to use any of that stuff. I'd rather go shower and rest back at the inn."
Scully and Mulder drove back to the inn. She unwillingly changed back into her suit as she saw Mulder go to change into his shorts. It always seemed to Scully that she worked while Mulder lounged around. Enjoying the air-conditioning for one last minute, Scully walked out the door to the car.
At the University Laboratory, she pulled open the door and with a flash of her badge, security let her pass. The scoured through her handbag to find the professor's name the men at the Gas Company had told her. Finally, she found the crumpled piece of paper and read the name, "Professor Spangenberg- Office #707." Scully walked over to elevator and pushed the button reading "". She flicked the paper as she impatiently waited for the transportation device to wake up from is nap. In her frantic wait, she sighed loud enough that the security guard looked up from his fishing magazine.
"The steps are to your left ma'am."
Now a little embarrassed, she thanked the man and walked to the stairs. As she opened the stair door, she heard a faint "ding" and a laugh from the guard. "Figures," she thought. She commenced to ascend the seven endless flights and she became glad she had worn her flats instead of heels. When she reached the seventh floor, she was pleased to immediately find room 707. The door was wide open and before she disturbed the professor, she watched him for a little bit. He was short and pudgy with glasses ornamenting a balding head. He was wearing the typical white lab coat and a tan suit underneath. She almost laughed when she saw his brown and tan bow tie that clashed horribly with his suit. She knocked on the doorframe and entered the office as the little man looked up.
"Oh, hello! You must be the FBI agent my friend told me was coming." His voice was high pitched and soft for a man.
"Yes, sir. I was hoping to make use of your lab to run some tests. Specifically the Mass Spectrum and the Chromatogram."
"I assume you know what you're doing. If you will come along with me then."
She followed the man into the pea-green walled lab. Obviously, the lab had been furnished in the seventies but surprisingly she found the equipment current.
"Do you have a background in science?" The man was curious to know the agent's credentials.
"Medical science, actually."
Intrigued, the man eventually left her to her work. She started with the chromatogram of the fuel. As the machine analyzed, she prepared the samples of the precipitate and the air from the gopher hole.
Meanwhile, Mulder had soon become weary from the cramped conditions of their small room. Therefore, he decided to go for a walk and see some of the town. They were always so busy investigating that Mulder felt they were left out of the excitement of exploring their surroundings. He found the town quite quaint as the overall silence amused him. He listened carefully but could not here car honks or people shouting in the streets. Mulder often thought of retiring to a small community where the sidewalks were open enough to take jogs. As he took in the wonderful feeling of the small town, he noticed he had wondered across the police station. Outside, he saw Officer Escobar who was rocking in his chair on the porch. Mulder laughed as he was amazed the police had time to rock on the station porch. Escobar looked up and was not to pleased to see the agent.
"I see you are busy on the case." Mulder said mockingly.
"And yourself," replied the officer pleased to see Mulder was also working so hard. "Got anything."
"We should prove one of our theories in the next couple of days." Mulder was over confident.
"Well I can hardly wait to compare your findings with ours- which will be completed on Wednesday." Mulder looked at his watch; it read "Monday". He could hardly believe that the Station was ahead of them and hoped that Scully could confirm his theory.
"Well, I'll see you around," Mulder stated.
"Yep." Escobar felt he had won that battle and was winning the overall war.
After thirty minutes of tests, Scully finally had the results. She read and re-read the results as she could not believe what she had in her hands. Quickly, she gathered up her belongings and sped back to the inn. In their room, she found Mulder watching baseball on ESPN. She was not surprised.
"What did you find?" Mulder asked. He waited to hear Scully say he was right.
"For starters, the fuel checked out. It's composition was entirely typical hydrocarbons: Methane, Butane, Benzene, Octane, etc. However, whatever is under that ground is not rotting Indian corpses."
"What do you mean?" Mulder sat up and began to pay more attention.
"The gas in the gopher holes is not methane. It's a highly combustible gas called Acetylene. Its chemical formula is C H . This not something you would usually find naturally. Generally, it is made through an acid-base reaction in laboratories."
"Do you think some one put it there?"
"No. Do you remember the white precipitate you asked me to look at?" Mulder shook his head. Mulder's lack of scientific background made it hard for him to understand Scully's reports. He paid close attention as he tried to translate it into English.
"The precipitate is not usually natural as well. The Mass Spectrometer found it to be Calcium Hydroxide- which can also a product from acid-base reactions."
"So how do you know this material wasn't dumped." Mulder was not following his partner.
"What we have here is two products, from what I believe, is the same acid-base reaction. I believe the stream water is acting as one of the reactants. A pH test found it to be slightly acidic as with most stream water from sediment contamination. It is my scientific opinion that the water is reacting with something underground producing the by-products." Scully finished her report, somewhat proud of her findings and her identification of the precipitate.
"Well, what's underground?"
"I'm not sure, but it's not Indian spirits. These events are the cause of a source purely scientific. It think we should start tomorrow with a core sample to really see what's underground."
"Tomorrow? Why not today?"
"Mulder, it's already…" Scully looked at her watch, "…4:00. I am exhausted. I don't know about you, but I worked all day."
"So did I, but how hard is it to take a sample?"
"What's your big hurry? Are you really that excited to get back to the office and complete all the paperwork for this case? If you want the sample so bad, go get it yourself." She threw the core-drill on Mulder's bed and sat down as she took off her shoes. Mulder looked at the device and had not idea where to start.
"I guess it can wait."
The knocking on the door echoed through Maya's house. She was not in the mood for visitors and was in the middle of cooking breakfast. The pounding continued. Maya looked at her clock, which showed 7:30. "Who in Pete's sake would pound down a women's door at 7:30 in the morning?" she thought. "How indecent of them!" It did not take long for her to decide not to answer the door. However, as the dreadful knocking persisted, Maya finally gave in. As she pulled open the door, her visitors could see she was not happy.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Kensington. Do you mind if we take some samples of your lawn?" Mulder thought that perhaps he should have listened to Scully and came later in the day.
"Do you guys ever sleep? Yeah, I don't care anymore. Tear up my grass if you want." Mrs. Kensington had had enough of the police- and the FBI. So what if her mower exploded?
Scully knelt down near the sight of the explosion and cranked the coring tool into the ground. Mulder watched as Scully struggled to turn the screw into the dry ground.
"Would you like me to do it?" Mulder asked.
"Are you implying that I can't?" Scully was somewhat insulted by his offer.
"No…I just thought I could lend you a hand."
"Well I'm almost done." Scully struggled to finish the few last turns. "There, all done." Scully sighed with exhaustion as she stood up. She grabbed the handle and began to yank upwards. However, with all her body weight pulling on the core, it would not budge.
"Would you like…," Mulder started as he watched his partner struggle once more.
"No!-Well…"
"I know you can do, I just thought…" Scully moved aside as Mulder grabbed the handle.
"I could have done it." Scully said to preserve her pride.
"I know," Mulder said to appease her. Mulder finally freed the core from the ground and gave it to Scully. She looked at it carefully as not to miss anything.
"Topsoil…Clay…Building rubble and water…Glacial till water…Impermeable Shale." Scully identified all the layers of the core with ease. I think we have just solved the case. It's all normal except for…"
"The Building rubble. This sight used to be a factory before it was torn down for the neighborhood. That was stated in the building permits. Who ever tore it down didn't clean up the mess." Mulder could not believe his eyes. "The rubble is the missing reactant to the acid-base reaction."
Officer Escobar pulled up in his shinny police car. When he got out, he did not appreciate the smile on Agent Mulder's face.
"Officer, I am elated to report we have identified the cause of the explosions." Mulder's pride seemed to burst from his face. The agents explained to him their findings and told him the only way to fix the problem was to demolish the neighborhood and clean up the mess- or stop mowing their lawns.
Scully began to walk away. When she reached the car, she turned around in time to see Escobar handing Mulder some crisp dollar bills. "Figures," she thought as she realized Agent Mulder's overwhelming rush to solve the case.
The sun was beating down as sweat streamed from her forehead like the old creek bed down the hill. The forty-something year old women excruciatingly pushed her lawn mower around her yard. It was 11:43, and she had already been mowing for an hour now. Her mind kept drifting to all the things that needed to be completed before she could pick her kids up from school. As she drifted off, she did not see her mower pass over a sprinkler head. Suddenly, the mower jumped up and burst into flames. She jumped back and screamed as she watched the flames engulf her mower. Her neighbor looked up from his plant watering and saw the horrendous sight. He ran over and put the fire out with his hose.
"Maya, what did you do?"
"Nothing, I…I was just mowing and my mower jumped up- in flames." She could hardly speak from the shock of the explosion.
"How old is your mower?" he said as he bent down to examine its underside.
"About a year…It's never done this before. I…I don't know what happened."
"Look here, you passed over your sprinkler head. It probably hit the blade."
"I've mowed over it before…you're probably right. What else could it be?"
The woman took the mower to the mechanic who painstakingly examined the mower. However, despite his efforts he could not find anything wrong with it.
Two days later, the woman was washing dishes when she heard a scream. She looked up through the kitchen window to see another mower in flames, and another neighbor frantic. She grabbed the extinguisher from under the sink and ran toward the mower. After putting out the blaze, she looked at the tossed piece of metal. "Twice in one week!" she thought. As she passed her hand along the grass, she expected to find a sprinkler head. "You don't have an automatic sprinkler system, do you?" The neighbor shook her head. The women bent back down looking for a rock or anything that could have hit the blade. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a mole hole. "Moles have been plaguing our lawn too," she added.
She helped her neighbor recover from the shock and the two compared their freak explosions.
"Something must be causing this."
"Maya, what kind of mower do you have?"
"I don't know, but it's not this kind. What about the fuel?"
"I get mine from Harvey down at the gas station."
"I think we all do, you don't think… could there be something wrong with it?" In such a small town, neither one wanted to believe anyone had done something wrong.
"Fuel wouldn't make a large mower jump up like this. Maybe we should call the police."
"What are they going to do?"
"I don't know, but we can't have mowers exploding all over the place. What if next time one of your kids is mowing the lawn?"
"I suppose you're right. Do you want to call?"
The women looked at each other. Not one of them wanted to call for fear the police would not believe them- despite the three witnesses. Finally, they decided to go down to the station together.
At the station, the secretary brought them to the officer in charge of public concerns. When they recited their stories in detail, the officer took of his glasses, and looked at the women as if they were crazy. Finally, out of good measure, he said he would send an officer to check it out the next morning.
It was not even 9:00 in the morning when Maya Kensington heard a knock at the door. She looked through the hole and saw two people in trench coats conversing as they waited. "These must be the officers," she thought as she pondered why officers would wear trench coats. She turned the knob and the door creaked softly as it opened.
"Hello, I'm am Agent Fox Mulder with the FBI, and this is my partner Dana Scully." The two flashed their badges and proceeded to enter the house without asking.
"What is the FBI doing here?"
"Your mower exploded yesterday," Mulder stated as he looked around the house.
"I told the police. Did they call you?" The women could not believe she was being examined by the FBI. What could the government want with a simple case like this?
"No, ma'am."
Through the door, Maya saw another car pull up. This time, an officer in uniform came out and started walking up to the house. Maya made her way around the nosey agents to welcome the officer.
"Good morning Maya. You had a complaint about your yard?" In their town, everyone knew everything about everyone. Sometimes Maya liked it that way, and other times she wished she could have some privacy. Never before had she called on, or been called on by the police. Yet, they all knew her name. It made her uncomfortable knowing whatever the police knew would eventually end up as gossip at the local coffee shop.
"Yes. Are you here to investigate too?" Maya became confused.
"Who else is here?" the officer asked.
Scully turned around and looked at the officer. "We are agents Scully and Mulder with the FBI."
"FBI? What are you doing in a little neighbor hood like this?" Now the officer was confused.
"The same thing you are, investigating." Mulder talked to the man as if he was a kindergartner. For his own reasons, he never really liked police officers. They always felt they did not need the FBI's help and that they could handle anything on there own.
"I am officer Escobar. It's nice to meet you," he tried to be polite but was really lying through his teeth. "Could I talk to you outside?" He was also not too happy to hear the FBI was in town. He always felt they were always encroaching on local business.
Mulder followed the officer outside as Scully started to question the woman. When the two men were a few feet from the door, the officer turned around and gave Mulder a look up and down.
"So, what does the government really want with a simple countrywoman?"
Mulder sighed with disgust, "I told you, we are investigating this neighborhood's problem of exploding lawn mowers."
"I really don't think it is necessary that you waste tax money on a simple investigation, we have everything under control."
"From what Mrs. Kensington has told me, you don't believe her mower ever exploded." Mulder questioned the officer who again looked at him.
"How did you find about this anyway," the officer asked.
Mulder almost started to laugh, "Please, we work for the government- your Big Brother. And I believe we will be sticking around to investigate."
"I told you. You and your…partner, are not needed here."
"Would you like to put your money where your mouth is? Officer?" Mulder's vanity began to take affect.
The officer smiled, "Ten dollars says we can have this case solved, with proof, before you and your girlfriend."
"I gladly except your challenge. Now if you excuse me, I have some investigating to complete." Mulder walked back to join Scully who was finishing.
"Thank you Mrs. Kensington. Do you mind if we take a look around?" Scully had questioned the woman for ten minutes and felt as if there were no leads. As she walked outside, the hot air rushed upon her face and startled her coming from the cool air-conditioned house.
"What have you got?" Mulder questioned.
"Unfortunately, not much. She says…" Scully glanced at her notes, "She was mowing her lawn when the mower suddenly, and apparently spontaneously, jumped up and combusted into flames. Her neighbor ran over and extinguished the fire with his watering hose. They attributed the incident to the blade hitting a sprinkler head but a local mechanic found no evidence of the blade hitting anything. She also told me her neighbor's mower exploded yesterday." Scully scoured her notes searching for the name, "um…Mrs. Dering. However she does not have an underground watering system."
"Well, I guess we should start by looking at the mower. We should also try to find out which sprinkler head she ran over- just in case." Mulder seemed worried. There was no lead and the possibilities were endless.
"Mulder, we're not mechanics. Would you know if there was something wrong with the mower? Besides, I think the cause has to be subterranean, since the neighbor's mower exploded too."
"What are you suggesting?" For once, Mulder did not have a hypothesis.
"I don't know, perhaps a natural gas leak." Scully was not sure either.
"Mrs. Kensington mentioned everyone in the neighborhood uses the same mower fuel. They buy it locally at the gas station," Mulder stated.
"Then why isn't everyone's mower exploding?" Scully questioned her partner's logic.
A loud noise came from across the street. The agents turned to find another mower in flames. After the flames were extinguished, they walked over and looked at the tossed mower. Soon a large crowd had gathered as neighbors began to speculate on the cause of the explosions. The two agents starred in disbelief. Three different mowers, in three different yards.
"I'm going to go to the Gas Company and get the subdivision's Gas Schematic. Why don't you question this man and witnesses on their beliefs of the cause. Maybe they know something we don't." Scully ordered Mulder and got into the car before he could argue otherwise. Mulder was surprised since he usually gave the orders, but recognized her need to feel control. She definitely was a headstrong woman.
Mulder questioned the man but he was no more help than Maya. He did not have an underwater sprinkler system, but his lawn was infested with gopher holes. A thought ran through Mulder's mind, "Could the gophers be doing this?" Then he almost laughed at himself. "Don't be so naïve," he thought, "gophers can't make mowers explode." Finally, he started asking the neighbors. No one was too pleasant when they found out the FBI was in town. They all said the same things, "I'm not a mower expert," "You're the FBI agent, you tell me," and "I have already told everything I know to the police." Mulder wondered how much further the police were. They had already beaten them to all the witnesses, so they were going to have to beat them to the evidence. As Mulder reviewed his notes, a boy in his twenties came up to him. He was dressed in overalls, boots and had a hefty layer of whisker stubble.
"Ain't you that FBI agent?" Mulder's ears rang with the whiney tone of the young man's voice.
"Yes, I am Special Agent Mulder. Can I help you?"
"My pa farms the land there yonder, down by the old creek bed. There's something I'm thinking you'd ought to be seeing."
Mulder followed the boy wondering what he could possibly want. He really didn't care, since he was sick of everybody's lack of friendliness. He thought it would be nice to take a brake until Scully had returned. The sun was high in the sky as Mulder took off his sports coat to save himself from the blistering heat. Finally, the boy stopped and turned around. They were standing on the edge of the woods and Mulder got his first look at the infamous creek bed. He could also see a farm down the grassy hill, which he assumed belonged to the boy's father.
"I have played in this here creek bed since I was of three years old. Never before, has there been this white stuff right here. I noticed it 'bout three months ago. 'Bout the time stories of mower blow'n but started."
"Wait, did you say the lawnmower stories commenced three months ago?"
"Yes sir."
"Do you know why they weren't reported until recently?"
"Thinking the folks were scarred everyone would think them crazy. Guess the neighbors decided to keep it quiet 'till so many of them started blow'n up."
"Do you think this white stuff has something to do with it?"
"Don't know, do you?"
Mulder hoped Scully would be able to identify the substance when she returned. He looked at his watch. It had been an hour and half and he assumed Scully would be back by now. He thanked the boy and said they would keep his conjecture in mind.
When Mulder returned, he saw their car parked outside of Maya's house. He looked around but he could not find his partner. Finally he found her examining the gopher holes.
"Did you find anything?" When Scully looked up, Mulder could see the sweet roll off her forehead.
"The Schematic showed no sign of leaks anywhere in the subdivision. However, they told me there is lab equipment at a university thirty minutes from you. I can use it if it's necessary. I think we should perform a Mass Spectrometer on the air in these gopher holes and a chromatogram on the fuel to rule out possibilities."
"A local boy took me down to the creek bed and showed me a white precipitate I think you should take a look at. Perhaps it will give us a clue. Meanwhile I'm going to go down to the town hall and see if there is anything in the building permits." Mulder turned and started towards the car. "Oh, and Scully, did you know these explosions have been going on for three months now? Apparently, nine of the fourteen house in the neighborhood have had problems."
"That only strengthens my theory of an subterranean problem."
Scully finished collection of air samples from the gopher holes and the samples of fuel from the mowers. Tomorrow she would have to go run the tests. She walked the two blocks to the local inn where they were staying. She decided there was no reason to torture herself by wearing her dark suits, so she changed into a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. Her feet were soar and the tennis shoes she put on felt like heaven compared to her heels. As she went to put her gun belt back on, she realized she could never conceal it under her shirt and decided there was no need for it anyway. After a refreshing snack of yogurt, Scully headed out to the creek bed.
When she reached the creek, she immediately saw the precipitate Mulder had spoke of. Scully was no ecologist, but she knew it was not natural. She took out a pair of latex gloves and examined the powder. It was fine, but wet from the water in the creek. She collected a sample and started to head back. Then she turned and decided to take a sample of the water- just in case. When she bent down, she saw the water was full of the powder.
"What could this be?" she thought. She decided that even if it had nothing to do with the mowers, she wanted to discover its origins.
When she got back, she found Mulder reading the documents he had pursued. He looked up and became jealous to see Scully had changed into comfortable clothes.
"Did you find anything?"
"I think I have solved the case." Mulder beamed, as Scully became skeptical. "In looking over the building permits. I discovered the neighborhood developer built the whole thing on top of an old Indian burial ground."
"You are not going to tell me the land is cursed." Scully was too tired to get involved in another argument. She prayed that what Mulder was about to say had at least, a tiny bit of scientific credibility.
"I not sure if the land is cursed, but I believe the bodies were not removed. They could be decomposing and producing methane. Since methane is an extremely combustible gas, a spark from a lawnmower motor could set it up in flames." Scully was almost proud of Mulder. Finally, he had a theory that was based on scientific principals.
"Then the Mass Spectrometer of the air in the gopher holes should confirm the presence of methane. I will go over to the university right now and see what I can find. Would you like to come with?"
"No, I have no idea how to use any of that stuff. I'd rather go shower and rest back at the inn."
Scully and Mulder drove back to the inn. She unwillingly changed back into her suit as she saw Mulder go to change into his shorts. It always seemed to Scully that she worked while Mulder lounged around. Enjoying the air-conditioning for one last minute, Scully walked out the door to the car.
At the University Laboratory, she pulled open the door and with a flash of her badge, security let her pass. The scoured through her handbag to find the professor's name the men at the Gas Company had told her. Finally, she found the crumpled piece of paper and read the name, "Professor Spangenberg- Office #707." Scully walked over to elevator and pushed the button reading "". She flicked the paper as she impatiently waited for the transportation device to wake up from is nap. In her frantic wait, she sighed loud enough that the security guard looked up from his fishing magazine.
"The steps are to your left ma'am."
Now a little embarrassed, she thanked the man and walked to the stairs. As she opened the stair door, she heard a faint "ding" and a laugh from the guard. "Figures," she thought. She commenced to ascend the seven endless flights and she became glad she had worn her flats instead of heels. When she reached the seventh floor, she was pleased to immediately find room 707. The door was wide open and before she disturbed the professor, she watched him for a little bit. He was short and pudgy with glasses ornamenting a balding head. He was wearing the typical white lab coat and a tan suit underneath. She almost laughed when she saw his brown and tan bow tie that clashed horribly with his suit. She knocked on the doorframe and entered the office as the little man looked up.
"Oh, hello! You must be the FBI agent my friend told me was coming." His voice was high pitched and soft for a man.
"Yes, sir. I was hoping to make use of your lab to run some tests. Specifically the Mass Spectrum and the Chromatogram."
"I assume you know what you're doing. If you will come along with me then."
She followed the man into the pea-green walled lab. Obviously, the lab had been furnished in the seventies but surprisingly she found the equipment current.
"Do you have a background in science?" The man was curious to know the agent's credentials.
"Medical science, actually."
Intrigued, the man eventually left her to her work. She started with the chromatogram of the fuel. As the machine analyzed, she prepared the samples of the precipitate and the air from the gopher hole.
Meanwhile, Mulder had soon become weary from the cramped conditions of their small room. Therefore, he decided to go for a walk and see some of the town. They were always so busy investigating that Mulder felt they were left out of the excitement of exploring their surroundings. He found the town quite quaint as the overall silence amused him. He listened carefully but could not here car honks or people shouting in the streets. Mulder often thought of retiring to a small community where the sidewalks were open enough to take jogs. As he took in the wonderful feeling of the small town, he noticed he had wondered across the police station. Outside, he saw Officer Escobar who was rocking in his chair on the porch. Mulder laughed as he was amazed the police had time to rock on the station porch. Escobar looked up and was not to pleased to see the agent.
"I see you are busy on the case." Mulder said mockingly.
"And yourself," replied the officer pleased to see Mulder was also working so hard. "Got anything."
"We should prove one of our theories in the next couple of days." Mulder was over confident.
"Well I can hardly wait to compare your findings with ours- which will be completed on Wednesday." Mulder looked at his watch; it read "Monday". He could hardly believe that the Station was ahead of them and hoped that Scully could confirm his theory.
"Well, I'll see you around," Mulder stated.
"Yep." Escobar felt he had won that battle and was winning the overall war.
After thirty minutes of tests, Scully finally had the results. She read and re-read the results as she could not believe what she had in her hands. Quickly, she gathered up her belongings and sped back to the inn. In their room, she found Mulder watching baseball on ESPN. She was not surprised.
"What did you find?" Mulder asked. He waited to hear Scully say he was right.
"For starters, the fuel checked out. It's composition was entirely typical hydrocarbons: Methane, Butane, Benzene, Octane, etc. However, whatever is under that ground is not rotting Indian corpses."
"What do you mean?" Mulder sat up and began to pay more attention.
"The gas in the gopher holes is not methane. It's a highly combustible gas called Acetylene. Its chemical formula is C H . This not something you would usually find naturally. Generally, it is made through an acid-base reaction in laboratories."
"Do you think some one put it there?"
"No. Do you remember the white precipitate you asked me to look at?" Mulder shook his head. Mulder's lack of scientific background made it hard for him to understand Scully's reports. He paid close attention as he tried to translate it into English.
"The precipitate is not usually natural as well. The Mass Spectrometer found it to be Calcium Hydroxide- which can also a product from acid-base reactions."
"So how do you know this material wasn't dumped." Mulder was not following his partner.
"What we have here is two products, from what I believe, is the same acid-base reaction. I believe the stream water is acting as one of the reactants. A pH test found it to be slightly acidic as with most stream water from sediment contamination. It is my scientific opinion that the water is reacting with something underground producing the by-products." Scully finished her report, somewhat proud of her findings and her identification of the precipitate.
"Well, what's underground?"
"I'm not sure, but it's not Indian spirits. These events are the cause of a source purely scientific. It think we should start tomorrow with a core sample to really see what's underground."
"Tomorrow? Why not today?"
"Mulder, it's already…" Scully looked at her watch, "…4:00. I am exhausted. I don't know about you, but I worked all day."
"So did I, but how hard is it to take a sample?"
"What's your big hurry? Are you really that excited to get back to the office and complete all the paperwork for this case? If you want the sample so bad, go get it yourself." She threw the core-drill on Mulder's bed and sat down as she took off her shoes. Mulder looked at the device and had not idea where to start.
"I guess it can wait."
The knocking on the door echoed through Maya's house. She was not in the mood for visitors and was in the middle of cooking breakfast. The pounding continued. Maya looked at her clock, which showed 7:30. "Who in Pete's sake would pound down a women's door at 7:30 in the morning?" she thought. "How indecent of them!" It did not take long for her to decide not to answer the door. However, as the dreadful knocking persisted, Maya finally gave in. As she pulled open the door, her visitors could see she was not happy.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Kensington. Do you mind if we take some samples of your lawn?" Mulder thought that perhaps he should have listened to Scully and came later in the day.
"Do you guys ever sleep? Yeah, I don't care anymore. Tear up my grass if you want." Mrs. Kensington had had enough of the police- and the FBI. So what if her mower exploded?
Scully knelt down near the sight of the explosion and cranked the coring tool into the ground. Mulder watched as Scully struggled to turn the screw into the dry ground.
"Would you like me to do it?" Mulder asked.
"Are you implying that I can't?" Scully was somewhat insulted by his offer.
"No…I just thought I could lend you a hand."
"Well I'm almost done." Scully struggled to finish the few last turns. "There, all done." Scully sighed with exhaustion as she stood up. She grabbed the handle and began to yank upwards. However, with all her body weight pulling on the core, it would not budge.
"Would you like…," Mulder started as he watched his partner struggle once more.
"No!-Well…"
"I know you can do, I just thought…" Scully moved aside as Mulder grabbed the handle.
"I could have done it." Scully said to preserve her pride.
"I know," Mulder said to appease her. Mulder finally freed the core from the ground and gave it to Scully. She looked at it carefully as not to miss anything.
"Topsoil…Clay…Building rubble and water…Glacial till water…Impermeable Shale." Scully identified all the layers of the core with ease. I think we have just solved the case. It's all normal except for…"
"The Building rubble. This sight used to be a factory before it was torn down for the neighborhood. That was stated in the building permits. Who ever tore it down didn't clean up the mess." Mulder could not believe his eyes. "The rubble is the missing reactant to the acid-base reaction."
Officer Escobar pulled up in his shinny police car. When he got out, he did not appreciate the smile on Agent Mulder's face.
"Officer, I am elated to report we have identified the cause of the explosions." Mulder's pride seemed to burst from his face. The agents explained to him their findings and told him the only way to fix the problem was to demolish the neighborhood and clean up the mess- or stop mowing their lawns.
Scully began to walk away. When she reached the car, she turned around in time to see Escobar handing Mulder some crisp dollar bills. "Figures," she thought as she realized Agent Mulder's overwhelming rush to solve the case.