The kindergarten playground at Oakwood Elementary School looked just like any other - brightly colored swing sets, a sandpit, and a large open area marked with the familiar hopscotch grid painted on the asphalt in faded white lines.

But this ground held a dark secret.

When the school was built in the early 1960s, the land had been secured cheaply from the county after serving for decades as a potter's field and pauper's cemetery. To save money, the construction crews had merely paved over the old burial grounds rather than relocating the graves.

So now, the echoes of past lives beneath the feet of innocent children as they played hopscotch, their shrill laughter a stark contrast to the solemn permanence of what lay beneath.

Sarah Morton pushed open the chain link gate, her new saddle shoes leaving scuff marks on the soft asphalt as she hurried to the hopscotch court. She was running a little late this sunny Saturday morning after dawdling over her breakfast.

Her best friend Janey was already there, tossing an old flat rock onto the chalked squares and hopping through nimbly.

"Hey, no fair starting without me!" Sarah called out indignantly.

Janey just grinned. "You snooze, you lose! But come on, I'll reset and we can start over."