Eight

My worries carried me to sleep that night and as I drifted off into dreamland I wondered if the whispering I heard next to my bed was a part of the dream I was entering, or if there were the ghosts chattering around me, making their plans right under my nose. 

I found myself in a strange building in this dream.  It was a very large open white room as you walked into the front door.  I was standing on a landing next to the front door taking in all I could see.  Across from me there was a waterfall flowing from somewhere behind the wall into a large fountain.  The empty space that lay between the waterfall and me was paved with a white stone tile and there were four steps down from the landing to that area.  I stepped down with care as there was no handrail and the steps were very steep.  I felt dizzy looking around me.  Large paned windows that filled the walls around ceiling to floor on the two walls next to the waterfall, behind me above the landing and steep stairs was a second stairwell that ran along the side of the wall over the landing with a small door at the top.  The walls were all paved with the same white stone tile as the floors, as were the stairs.  The windows were frosted so that only light was let in, but you couldn’t make out anything of the outside, nor could anyone see into the building from the yard. 

After spinning around the room, I realized someone was standing on the landing at the top of the larger second staircase that led up the wall.  They were wearing a white robe with a hood over their head.  Their head was bowed and I couldn’t see anything of their face.  The moment I noticed them they turned to the small door, opened it, and walked through into a blinding light.  I found my footing and hurried up the steep steps along the wall.  I felt my breath run out of my lungs and was gasping for air before I reached the top, almost as if the air was thinner the higher I went.  When I looked down to the waterfall it seemed as if I had climbed a great mountain inside the very large room.  The stairwell running behind me looked like there were several times more steps than those I had climbed.  I reached for the knob of the door to opened it.  As I touched the golden brass of the handle my fingers were singed from heat, the knob felt as if there were a fire on the other side of the door.  I wanted to know what was beyond this room so I used my shirt to decrease the heat of the knob and slowly turned the handle.  It steamed from my touch, releasing the white smoky vision around me.  I smelled sulfur as the door opened.  No fire on the other side of the door, but the light was so blinding I had to shade my eyes.  When my vision adjusted enough to make out the images around me I realized I had stepped into a long hallway.  Large windows were on the right of me, on the left were doors hung on the walls every few feet as if there were tiny rooms all down the hallway.  The hallway was very long so that at the end it seemed much smaller than where I was.  I saw the robed figure at the end of the hallway, opening another door and going through it. 

I started running towards the end of the hallway trying to catch up the the hooded person.  It seemed that with each step my movement was put into slower and slower motion.  I could feel the air around me dense as if I were trying to run in a swimming pool filled with water.  The impact of my feet on the floor made a loud clicking sound each time the two connected.  I noticed this as a strange occurrence because I was wearing sneakers and I didn’t imagine they could make such a sound. 

When I finally reached the end of the hallway I looked back at the other end, it seemed as though all of the doors were opened now and darkness was behind each door.  I felt a fear rise up in my back like pins and needles piercing my spine.  I held the knob of the door in my hand attempting to maneuver it open.  It was stuck, as if locked.  I shook it and tried to turn it but there was no use, the door would not budge. 

I felt like something was watching me, and that time was running out.  I turned to look down the hallway again, finding that the darkness was spilling into the light like an ink stain covering the walls, windows and floors.  I pushed hard on the door another time with all of my body weight while turning the stiff knob.  This time it moved slowly, as if the gears were grinding improperly against each other.  The door swung open and I fell into a darkness just like the hall was being flooded with. 

 The door shut behind me with a thud.  I was sitting on some sticky substance in complete darkness trying to adjust my eyes to the extreme change.  I heard a smacking sound several feet away from me.

“Hello?”  I called out to the darkness.

The smacking sound stopped for a moment, then seemed louder, closer.

“Is somebody there?” I called out again.

I felt a hot breeze on my neck like someone was breathing on me.  I waved my hands around the air looking for whatever was causing it.  Nothing seemed to be there, but the smacking sound was next to me and the hot breeze continued to breathe on my neck.

Tears and sweat were streaming down my face.  I was truly terrified.  I felt stuck completely where I sat and whimpered a bit, trying not to give a vocal accompaniment to the salty taste running into my mouth.

“It’s going to be ok.”  I told myself in my head.  “You have to get up and get out of here.”

I kept repeating the thought and took a deep breath.  I had never been afraid of the dark, but this was different.  It petrified me.  Even my breathing felt forced.  I knew logically that there wasn’t anything dangerous about the darkness, as I continued to rationalize internally.  This just felt like more than lack of light, it felt like it was alive.  I realized at that moment that it must be alive, in fact that was what I likely was hearing and feeling breathe on me.  Then I wondered if I might be inside a beast.

Seven

My father, Betty, and Deanna were all at the table and almost finished with their meal when I got to my seat.  Mom had served me my food already and it was a little cold.  I didn’t realize how much time had passed while I was outside.

“You need to listen for you mother better, Sam.”  Dad scolded me.  “I don’t want to see you missing like that again, or I might not let you out on your own any longer.  You are old enough to know better.”  He shoved the rest of his meal in his mouth and left the table.

Betty and Deanna were doing their usual whispering and snickering at me.  I had enough at this point of their teasing and I’d been nice for too long I think, so I devised a plan to get them back.  It was time they would learn they had better stop pestering me.

It was my turn to do the dishes, I really didn’t want to because of how preoccupied I was with my thoughts of revenge on my sisters.  It was taking too long for my father apparently because he slapped me out of my daydream.  My ear stung from the pain and tears welled up in my eyes.

“Don’t you dare start sniveling,” he said to me harshly.  “you know better than to be messing around like that.”

Rather than get slapped again I hurried the dishes.  I felt so angry at him for his cruelty.  He rarely slapped my sisters the way he did me.  I usually got the brunt of his frustrations.  I always felt like he spoiled them.  It was so unfair.  Nevertheless, I bit my lower lip and kept it inside.  I wasn’t going to let him know he could push me that way.

I found my sisters playing with the clothes they had found earlier this summer in their room.  They both had a dress on, Betty in the light blue dress that had been Sarah’s, Deanna in a green dress that was bigger and I didn’t recognize.  They were both of similar style and had aprons on.  I saw they had also found some hats and shoes to go with the dresses.

I went in their room without being invited and sat on Betty’s bed that was on the far side of the windows. 

“Hey!” she started to object.

I cut her off.  “Do you want to know where the dresses came from?”

Deanna’s eyes widened with curiosity, but Betty wasn’t impressed.

“We know Sam, the attic.”

“No, I mean who owned them first.  It was the original owners of the house.  Remember what Gus was telling us about?”

“Duh,”  Betty still wasn’t curious, but Deanna’s eyes told me to go on.

“She’s the one mom hears crying at night.  She cries because she is lost and wants her dress back.  She’s been getting angry that you are into her things.”

“Whatever,” Betty scoffed at me.

“No, wait Betty, mom does wake us up a lot.”  Deanna was hooked.

“She came into my room last night looking for her clothes.  I saw her going through my closet.”  I continued.

“That just means she is bothering you, not me.” Betty wasn’t going to give in so easily.

“Maybe at first, but I told her that you had it.  I bet she comes to bother you tonight Betty.”

Deanna moaned and ran out the door.  I knew what was coming next so I hurried to my room, grabbed a book, and sat on my bed.  I opened the book and pretended I was involved with it.  When I heard the door open I didn’t turn to look and see who it was.  I was sure it was my mother, coming to tell me to stop bothering my sisters.

“I heard you running to your room Samantha.”  Mom was purely annoyed with the situation.  “I have better things to do than to deal with your squabbles between your sisters.  Tell Deanna you aren’t sending a ghost to attack her.”

“I wasn’t mom, I was sending it to Betty.”  I told her defiantly.

“What has gotten into you?” she seemed even more perturbed, but I knew she wouldn’t hit me like my dad did.

“I’m sick of her bothering me, talking about me behind my back, and acting like she’s so much better than me.  I did tell Sarah where to find her and I’m not going to lie about it.”  I hadn’t really told Sarah anything considering I didn’t want to talk to her after all that I had been through.  I knew lying wasn’t a good way to get out of trouble with my parents but I was tired of trying so hard only to be reprimanded anyways.  I never got any credit for my good behaviour. 

Mom’s face went a shade redder than I remember seeing before.  “That’s it, you are grounded to your room.”  She shut the door on me and I heard her walking down the hall to my sisters room.

“Betty, Deanna, your sister won’t tease you any more, but you’d better not go bothering her or you’ll be grounded too.” 

Wow, she was really mad, she didn’t usually ground them, or anyone.  I didn’t think it was fair that they got to get away with everything.  I threw my book at the wall and turned over in my bed.  I hit my pillow a few times and started to cry.

While I soaked my pillow with tears I felt someone tap my shoulder.

“Leave me alone!” I cried through the soft cushion.  I felt the tapping again.  “I said leave me alone!” Again the tapping was felt on my shoulder.  I turned to yell at who I thought was my sister coming to annoy me and saw Sarah.

I jumped from the surprise.  Then I thought I must be dreaming.  The only thing that was different was that I wasn’t in her room like usual in my dreams, I was still in mine.  Everything exactly the same as when I had turned to cry, even the book was still in a mess on the floor.

“What’s wrong?”  She asked me.

“I, uh, nothing.”  I told her feeling embarrassed.  I wiped my tears away.  I remembered the necklace from the neighbor and fingered the star shape.

“That can’t do anything.” She told me looking at it.  “But it is a nice piece of jewelry.”  She looked around hesitantly before she continued. “Nothing can stop my mother.” 

Suddenly my closet door creaked itself open.  I looked to see what was making it move and when I looked back Sarah was gone.  I thought that perhaps she was trying to show me the secret passage again.  I was very intimidated about going into the closet, but I wanted to find the passageway again so much that I dared to venture into the small dark space.  Luckily the door stayed open this time. 

The light from my room barely illuminated the space.  I noticed a crack on the wall where I had been thrown up against it.  There was dry wall peeling down a bit, so I pulled it ever so slightly and the whole thing came crashing onto my feet.  I winced and held still for a moment hoping that I hadn’t drawn any attention from my parents.  My dad would surely kill me for this if he saw it.  After I felt sure that I wasn’t caught I felt around on the wall for the secret door.  Something clicked suddenly and a small opening appeared as the little door drew itself into the darkness behind it. 

I took a deep breath and squeezed into the space.  It was a little smaller than the crawl space was, but the ladder wasn’t the only thing in the room.  It was too dark for me to see completely, but I was sure the direction the space went would lead me to my sisters wall of their closet.  This new development really tickled my heart when I realized what it meant for me.  I couldn’t wait until tonight to try it out.

I climbed out of the secret passageway and back into my closet.  I figured I could clean up some of the mess so that the bigger pieces wouldn’t draw any attention and got my garbage can to do so.  While I was picking up the drywall I heard a little humming sound.  I looked around my room but nothing was there.  Then I put my book back into the case checking it as I set it down for any damage.  Nothing was harmed on the spine, just a few of the pages were bent, I could live with it, but I mentally kicked myself for throwing it.  I tidied up the rest of my room and then sat in front of the window to watch outside.  I felt like someone was in the room with me, but every time I looked there wasn’t anything or anyone there.  I kept hearing a humming, like a girl would do while she was busy with something.  It sounded so sad to me.  Then I heard some clicking of shoes on the brick outside.  I looked and saw Molly Richardson walking up our path with a brown paper bag.  Just as she went through the gate she looked up at me and stopped, a strange look on her face.  As if she was seeing something she couldn’t believe.  She looked around her and turned to leave.  I heard our front door open and my mom saying something to her.  She stopped and handed mom the bag, shook her head and went back down the street towards her home at a much faster pace than when she was approaching.

I heard our front door close and a few moments later mom was at my sister’s room.  I couldn’t make out what she said exactly, but my sisters made squeals of joy.  Then there was a knock at my room and mom poked her head in.

“Mrs. Richardson just brought over some things for you.”  She said pulling out a notebook and some pencils.  “She thought it might be helpful for your school year, but seeing how I already got you what you needed you can do what you like with it.”  She set the notebook and pencils on my desk.

“I saw her outside.  Why did she leave so quickly?”

“I don’t know, she seemed upset about something.  You weren’t being rude were you?” Mom looked at me like she was told this information.

“No, mom.  I wouldn’t do that.  I like her.  I was just watching out the window, I didn’t say anything at all.”

“Well, she looked up at your window like there was something going on up here.  Were you making faces?”

“Honest, I wasn’t.  I was just looking.  I swear.  I don’t know why she got upset.  She looked up at me and then turned to leave.  I didn’t do anything.”  I offered her what I saw hoping she would believe me even though I was in trouble at the moment.

“I better not find out otherwise.”  She glanced around my room and saw some of the dust on the floor of my closet.  “What is going on here?” She demanded and took a step towards my closet.  The door slammed shut before she got very close.  She looked at me accusingly. “What are you doing?” She snapped at me.

“I didn’t do it, I swear.”  My heart sank in my chest. 

“Doors don’t move on their own Sam.”

“Mine do.”  I told her back.

For the first time in my life my mother slapped me.  Then she put her hands to her face and left my room.  She didn’t even shut the door.  She just called out over her shoulder. “You had better clean that up before your father comes up and sees it.”

I held my cheek in shock.  Tears ran down slowly and dripped onto my clothes.  I couldn’t explain what was going on in my house because nobody believed what I said.  I knew I wasn’t perfectly honest, but usually I made a point to keep my facts straight and not make things up. 

My bedroom door slowly swung itself shut.  As the door closed completely, Sarah materialized holding the knob.  It was her that had shut my doors!  She looked at me sympathetically.  Took a tissue out of her apron pocket and dabbed at my tears. 

“I’m sorry I got you into more trouble.  I had to keep your mom from seeing the secret.  It will ruin everything.”  She faded away again as if she had never been there to begin with leaving me frightened, confused, and a little worried that there was more going on than my own plans to tease my sisters.

Six

August 1^st greeted us with a summery swelter of heat.  I heard on the radio that it was a record-breaking temperature.  Mom didn’t even cook breakfast it was so hot, she just gave us cold cereal. 

“It’s time we got you registered for school.”  My sisters and I were informed while we chewed on the sweet flakes in milk.  “I want you ready to go by 10:00.  No dilly-dallying.” 

I groaned dreading the idea of the new kids and new teachers.  We had moved so many times in my life that I was always asked the same thing. ‘Army brats?’  ‘No’ I’d tell them, ‘Dad just can’t sit still.’  Then I’d get a look of confusion and pity.  It never felt good.  No matter what school we went to, we never seemed to fit in.  Our clothes were always the wrong style, our hair had a strange cut to it, our way of speech was made fun of.  The teasing usually started right away and didn’t stop till we had moved.  I was in plenty of fights with the other kids defending my sisters.  We were close enough in age that there was only one school year between each of us.  This year it was sixth, fifth, and fourth.  As I have told you before, I am the oldest, after me is Deanna, then Betty.  That meant next year my sisters would be without my defense.  I worried sometimes about them being alone without me.  Neither of them knew how to defend themselves. 

During the few weeks we had lived in our house we hadn’t spent much time looking for friends, not that we’d had any time to.  Mom and dad kept us busy most of the time.  While we were getting into our car I noticed a couple of kids playing on the porch across the street from us; a boy and a girl.  The boy looked like he was about my age, and the girl looked much younger.  He looked up at us as mom started the engine.  I waved at him, I think he smiled, but we were driving away at that point so I couldn’t see for sure.

The registration process was fairly quick and easy.  I found out I had Mr. D’Angelou this year.  I had never had a male teacher before so this surprised me a bit.  Mom assured me that he was a nice teacher as we were leaving. 

After we were done mom surprised us by taking us out for hamburgers for lunch.  This was a big deal for us because we almost never went out.  They had a patio with a play ground to eat on and mom let us sit there.  She let us play on the equipment for almost an hour and bought us ice cream to eat in the car on the way home.  Over all, it had been a nice day considering the events that reminded us that summer was almost over and school just around the corner.  How I longed for the summer to never end.

When we drove up the brick street to our home I didn’t see the kids on their porch any longer.  I wondered who they were, and hoped they were friendly.   Mom parked the car in front of our house and we all got out.  Walking up the front walk I looked up to my room and saw both Sarah and her mother standing in the window.  Her mom had her arm around her shoulder.  Even though it looked like it was supposed to be a loving gesture, I didn’t get any feelings of joy from either of them.  In fact, it felt like their eyes were piercing through me.  I tugged at mom’s arm and asked her if she saw them.  She looked up to my window and asked “What?”  It was apparent that she couldn’t see them.  Just before we got into the porch a little old lady came out of her house next door to us.  She was on the side farther away from Gus’ house, to the right.  She waved at mom to go talk to her. 

“Go inside and change into your play clothes and you can watch TV till I come back.”  Mom told us as she went to the fence to chat with the lady.  I hesitated at the door watching the lady point at me, my room, and wondered what she was saying.  Mom turned to look at me and glared.  I hurried inside and went up to my room to change.

I was a little nervous to go inside my room since I knew that Sarah and her mother were there.  Since the last event it had been a bit more quiet, the doors still opened and closed a lot, and mom kept insisting she heard us crying at night; but the dreams had ceased and nothing major had happened - plus I hadn’t seen them again until today.

When I opened my door, like usual the closet door shut hard.  I had pointed this out to my dad, even got him to witness it, but he said it was only the air pressure making that happen.  I knew he was wrong, the windows were not even open a little.  Still, to argue with him would get me in trouble so I just left it alone. 

I was starting to think mom believed me.  I overheard her defending me to my dad.  She must have noticed me walking up because she stopped talking about it so I wasn’t sure exactly what she was saying to him.  The look on her face made me think of the fear in her eyes when I told her about the night I was locked in my closet. 

The uneasy feeling I had in my room made me stay out of it more and more.  In fact I didn’t enjoy being upstairs most of the time, luckily mom let us play in the yard frequently because of the summer.  I had even talked her into letting us sleep on the deck one night, only to wake up to a huge mosquito bite on my eye.  She said ‘Not again.’ after that.  She never said anything to me about how I was avoiding the upper floor though.

“What do you need, Sam?”  My father was asking me.

“I just wanted to go outside.”  I told him meekly.

“Go on then.”  He replied, “your mother and I are discussing something, we’ll call you when we are done.  Please do not interrupt us again.”  He seemed irritated, but that was normal to me.  I wondered what they were talking about, I was even tempted to spy on them, but I thought I had better not to keep from punishment.

I went out to the back yard and skipped around our pond.  I picked some of the daisies and wove them into a wreath to wear.  I used some old burnt wood to draw a hopscotch and found a rock to play.  As I was jumping through the path a snake slithered right past me and startled me.  It glided itself into our pond and went under the water.  I wasn’t so sure I liked the idea of a snake in our pond so I went to investigate.  Peering into the water I noticed there were a couple of much smaller snakes swimming around as well.  My dad had told me that we had Garter snakes earlier in the summer, but I had yet to see one till now.  It had a yellow stripe down it’s body from what I could see.  It looked exotic to me even though dad had told me that they are common.  He also said that I shouldn’t worry about them biting me because their venom isn’t dangerous to humans.  I was a little disappointed to see that there were so many, I wasn’t frightened by any means, I just didn’t like them much.

After investigating the snakes to my satisfaction I decided to play a hopping game I had invented where I hopped on my cement toadstools back and forth in different variations and styles of hopping.  First one foot then the other, then the closest toadstool, then the farthest, and so on.  It was when I was hopping to the farthest toadstool a voice startled me.

“Little girl!”  I couldn’t tell from where and looked around.  “Young lady!”  I heard it again and turned towards the direction it came from, missed my footing and fell into the grass.

When I got up I saw that it was the old lady from next door calling me.  She was waving at me to come closer to her.  I was a little nervous to talk to her, but she seemed very serious about my obeying her. 

I neared her at the side of my fence, still keeping some distance.

“Come here child!”  She told me, her voice cracking a little with her words.

“Yes ma’am?”  I got as near the fence as I dared.

“You’re the one at the top of the house aren’t you.”  It was more of a statement than a question.  I nodded.

“You see them?” she asked me.

“Who?” I responded, even though I was anticipating the answer.

“You know what I’m talking about, don’t you.”  She looked me in the eye very closely.  “Don’t let them get to you.  They can trap your soul!” 

I was getting a little more afraid of her by the way she was speaking to me, but a part of me was glad someone knew what I was going through and believed me.

“What do you mean?”  I asked her.

“They come to your dreams.  They’ll get you lost inside their hell, but don’t let them, here.” She put a small star on a black cord into my hands. “Keep that with you at all times.  It will protect you from their curse.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to her.  I wanted to tell her all about everything that had happened to me, but I held it in for some reason and just thanked her.

“Put it on now, little one.  You can resist them, you are not alone.  If you need something just call on me.  I’m Vera.  I’ve been putting my spells out for you.  Just hold onto that charm.”  She turned and went back into her house leaving me stunned.  I put the necklace on, it was a pretty silver star that rested right near my heart.  The cool metal felt good against my hot skin. 

I went back to playing on the toadstools for a bit, until I saw Gus in his yard raking up some debris.  I thought it would be nice to offer some help to him, so I ran down the alleyway to his back yard and asked him if he’d like my help.

“Sure I would”  He told me when I got there.  “There’s a second rake in the shed over there.”  He pointed to a small building off the alley.  I went to the doorway and found the rake in corner right off.  He had a lot of tools in the shed, it looked like many of them were very old and used.

I raked with him for some time, Gus told me about the birds that came to call on his garden and I was lost in time until I heard my mother calling for me.

“I gotta go.”  I said to him.

“Thanks for your help.”  He reached into his pocket. “Let me give you something for it.”

“No thanks” I shrugged it off, mom always said that when you help a neighbor the service is the reward, not money.  I ran home to see what my mom was calling about.

“It’s dinner time.” She said when I got there.  “where have you been?  I’ve been calling you for several minutes.”  Without giving me a chance to answer she continued, “How did you get so filthy?  Never mind, just go wash up before coming to the table.”

Five

It took me a few days to get back to feeling like myself.  My mom and dad were patient even though that meant a halt on the activities for the family.   I know my father was especially unhappy about my lack of presence.  My sisters were the most unhappy though because they had to make up my share of the chores in the house and being the oldest I had a lot of responsibility. 

I had the same dream over and over about the field with the man collapsing.  Each time the water became brighter and more colorful.  I wondered what it could mean.

The closet door in my room seemed to open and close constantly.  It reminded me of the dream with Sarah taking me down to the basement through the secret passageway.  I looked and looked, but there was no passageway.

We had lived in this house for only about two weeks and my mom had woken up my sisters or myself almost every night claiming she heard one of us crying.  I only partially believed that she heard it, she often felt a little smothering as a parent.

“Your father and I are going out for the evening tonight.  I want you to babysit your sisters while we are gone.”  My mom told me one afternoon when all the work in the house was finished.

“Mo-om!  We’re old enough to watch ourselves!”  Deanna exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Betty chimed in.

“Ok, we won’t call it ‘babysitting’”  Mom said to them, “but I want you to respect your sister if she says something because in an emergency she is in charge.”

“Aww.”  They both whined about her response and left the room. 

If I had cared much to be a part of their playtime I might have felt left out the way they always stuck together.  I just never felt like spending a lot of time with them.  They would laugh at things I said, and give me funny looks when I tried to tell them something.  My sisters were never interested in the things I wanted to talk about and do.  They liked dressing up and reading magazines about TV and fashion.  I preferred books and studying things.  Some days I would sit in my window and ponder the meaning of life.  I suppose to them that was strange.

“Don’t get too bossy with them Sam, ok?”  I knew mom really trusted me because she never left my sisters alone without me there.

“I know mom, they think they are on their own, but I still have to protect them just in case.”

“Exactly.  Don’t let them answer the door to strangers or play on the stove.”

“I know mom.”

After mom and dad had left for their evening out, I made some sandwiches for us to eat and we agreed to have them as a picnic upstairs.  I decided to play along with them for once just to be nice.  We laid a blanket on the floor in their room and set up our dinner to enjoy.  My sisters thought it was fun since we weren’t allowed to have food in our rooms.  We chewed our food quietly for most of the meal.  Then I got an idea.

“I know a game we can play.” I told Betty and Deanna.

“What?” They said in unison with their eyes widening.

“Let’s play ghost!”

“Ok. How does it go?”

“One person plays spooky music on the piano and the other two make spooky sounds and creep around upstairs.  Then we try to scare each other.  Kind of like hide-and-seek only with ghosts.”

“That sounds fun.” Deanna said.

“Yeah, who goes first on the piano?” Betty asked.

“You can.” I told her. “De and I will hide and make spooky noises and lets see who scares who the most!”

“Ok!”

We grabbed our picnic plates and put them in the sink so our dad didn’t yell at us when he got home.  Then Betty started playing music on the piano that sounded scary.   Deanna and I went upstairs and hid in the attic room pretending to cry like mom always had claimed she heard.  We left the light off so it was very dark.  Deanna held onto my arm tightly as we moaned and howled out to our little sister like we were disembodied spirits. 

After Betty played a few more notes she came upstairs calling out to us.

“Is anybody there?”  She said as she climbed up the staircase.  “Hello?”  She paused in front of the attic where Deanna and I were trying not to giggle.  “Hello!” Betty called out again.  “Hmm.” She said, “I guess I am hearing things.”  She pretended to go down the stairs a few steps.  Deanna let out a giggle.  Then the attic door swung open hard from Betty finding us.

“Caught you!”  Betty shouted with laughter.

“Me next.”  Deanna giggled.

“Ok, you go start playing and we’ll hide.” I told her

This time I suggested to Betty we hide in the crawl space.  She agreed.  We crawled in through the small doorway and started moaning and wailing like ghosts.  Deanna came up the stairs as Betty had calling out like she didn’t know what was making the noises.  When she got to the top of the stairs we quieted down and waited to be found.  She walked down the hallway and looked in the rooms.  She checked the attic and then our closets.  Suddenly she screamed out loudly.

Betty and I hurried out of our hiding space to see what was wrong and there stood Deanna laughing at us. 

“Caught you!”  She had played a good trick.

“Ok, my turn.”  I told them.  “Make it a good hiding spot for me ok?”  The both nodded their eyes wide with excitement.

I went down to the spare room where my parents had set up the piano and started to play the spookiest music I could think of.  After a few moments I heard a sound like crying and moaning and went to find where my sisters had hidden.

As I stepped up the stairwell I paid attention to where any of their moans might have been.  I couldn’t tell whether it was in a room or a closet.  As I neared the top I noticed the curtains were rustling as if someone had just been playing with them.  Then I looked at the attic door and saw a light shining through the cracks under the door.  I wondered if they realized that I could see the light and opened it as suddenly as I could.  There wasn’t anyone in the room.  Just the boxes my parents had left and the axe on the floor near the newer floorboards.  I stood in the doorway of the attic room, looked down the hallway and strained my ears to hear them.  I heard a shuffle in the attic room behind me and turned to see what it was.  The only thing that seemed strange was the location of the axe seemed to be a foot or so from where I thought I had noticed it a moment ago.

I walked down the hallway leaving the door open to the attic room so they couldn’t hide in there after I had left.  I thought I heard some movement in my room so I tiptoed down towards the open doorway.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw the image I had seen in my dream in my sister’s room.  The lady holding my sister by the hair.  I turned my head to get a better look and the image disappeared; just my overactive imagination.  I continued to my room. 

As I entered my bedroom, I noticed my closet door was rattling a bit.  My heart started pounding from the excitement of the game, I was sure I had just found them.  I pulled open the door and looked into the darkness.  Nothing but my closet and clothes were in front of me.  I turned to continue looking for them and felt a pair of hands on my chest pushing me hard into the closet.  I didn’t see anyone doing it, I only felt the hands.  I fell into the back wall of my closet with a loud crashing sound like I had broken the wall.  The closet door slammed shut on me and I was alone in the darkness with the breath knocked out of me.

Remembering the time when I had knocked the wind out playing on a chair as a small child and how my mother showed me to fix it I knew what to do.  I put my head between my legs and breathed slowly until I felt better.  It was quite a task to make it happen with my heart beating so hard it felt like it was in my throat and I could still feel the hands on my chest that I hadn’t seen as if they had left their imprint on my body.  Once I regained my breathing and could stand up straight I felt around for the handle of the door.  I found it and attempted to turn the knob.  It didn’t move even a little.  I rattled the knob and pushed on the door.  I couldn’t get it to open at all.  I started feeling a little panic and called out to my sisters.

“Betty!  Deanna!”  I shouted to them.  “Help!”  I screamed it over and over again until tears were in my eyes.  I kept pushing and pounding on the door trying to turn the knob and it wouldn’t turn.

Finally I felt the door give way as I pushed on it and my sisters were standing behind the door gaping at me as if I were crazy.

“What happened?”  Betty asked me.

“I don’t know, something pushed me and locked me in!”  I cried out to them trying to catch my breath from the tears I had shed.

“The door wasn’t locked.  See?”  Deanna showed me the handle moving freely. 

I examined the handle on the door and realized there wasn’t even a place to lock it.

“Are you ok?”  Betty asked.

“I don’t know,” I told her, “my chest hurts like someone hit me, I got the wind knocked out of me too.”  I sat down on my bed and lifted my t-shirt to see if there were marks on me.

Betty and Deanna gasped loudly at what we all saw.  Two red handprints right where I had felt the hands pushing me stood visibly out on my skin.

“Let’s not play this anymore.”  Betty said

“Agreed.” I said.  Deanna just nodded her head looking at me with real fear in her eyes.

We went down to the living room to watch tv for the rest of the evening.  Deanna was tired first and went to bed.  Betty took a bath and went to bed next.  I was left alone in the living room not wanting to go back to my room.  When the shows were over I pulled out a book to read while I waited for my parents to get home.  It seemed like hours I sat there reading until I heard something.  It sounded like one of my sisters were crying above me.  I rolled my eyes thinking they were trying to scare me again.  I really didn’t want to go back upstairs yet, but the crying seemed so sad like someone was really hurt.  Finally after several minutes of trying to ignore it I decided to brave the upper level of our home for the sake of protecting my sister, whichever one was having the problem.

As I crept up the stairs slowly I noticed the curtains blowing above me at the top.  At first it looked like someone was under them.  I opened my mouth to say something about it and realized my eyes were playing tricks on me, they were just blowing from some wind.  At the third step from the top the crying stopped and the curtains fell flat.  I looked at the window and realized that it was closed.  That frightened me tonight so much more than it ever did in my dreams.  I rubbed my eyes thinking I was seeing things.  I checked the window, it was locked and closed as I saw.  I tested the lock.  The window stayed shut.  Then I remembered how I had heard the crying and quickly stepped into my sisters’ room.  They were both in their beds looking asleep. 

“Who is crying?”  I said out loud.

They didn’t reply.

“Hey,” I said a little louder. “Why are you crying?”

Betty stirred in her bed. 

“Are you guys messing with me?  It isn’t funny!”

Still they said nothing so I went back down to my book.  A little while later the same thing happened.  I heard someone crying, I went to check it out, but when I got there they both lay in bed as if they were sound asleep.  I decided to make sure they were asleep.  First I started with Betty since she was the one moving around last time.  I tapped her shoulder and shook her a little.

“Hey,”  I put my hand under her nose.  I cold feel her breathing slowly.  “hey,” I said louder.  She jumped a little in the bed and opened her eyes.

“What?”  she asked me.

“Were you crying?” I looked at her seriously.  “I don’t think it’s funny.”

“You sound like mom.”  She told me.  I thought about all the nights mom had woken me the same way.  I decided to just let Deanna sleep and went back downstairs.  I opened my book and a few moments later I was involved in the story I was reading.

Suddenly I heard a door rattling.  I wasn’t sure which one, it sounded like it was coming from my parents bedroom.  I started to scream and realized my mother and father were standing in the living room looking at me.  I covered my mouth with my hand and stopped the scream mostly.

“What are you doing!” my father more demanded than asked me.

“You scared me.” 

“You should be in bed!”  He said crossly.  “What are you still doing up!” 

I wasn’t sure if he really wanted an answer so I hesitated a moment.  Mom came to me and put her arm around me guiding me towards the back of the house.

“I’ll get her to bed.”  She told him.

As she escorted me upstairs she could tell I was reluctant to go.

“What’s wrong honey?”  She rubbed my back still pushing me forward.

“I just had a weird night mom.”  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell her about all of it, partially because I thought she might be disappointed at our rough housing, partially because I wasn’t sure she would believe me.

She guided me down the hallway and into my room.  I sat on my bed as she got out my pajamas looking at my closed closet door.  She told me to undress and  put the pajama’s on as she set them beside me on the bed.  I started to obey and she moved towards the door and stopped and looked back at me startled.

“What happened to you this time?”  She asked me looking closer at my chest.

I wasn’t sure what to tell her or how.

“Did one of your sisters do this to you?”

I looked at my closet door shaking my head no.

“Speak to me Sam, what happened.”

I broke down and started to cry as I explained our events of the evening.  Mom sat in my chair and listened with fear on her face.  She waited a long while after I finished before she said anything.

“Tell you what,  I will sit here with you until you go to sleep, ok?”  She offered.

I nodded.  She tucked me in, this time I didn’t object or feel babied at all.  I was so grateful. 

“Do you want me to read to you?”  She asked.

“Could it be poetry?”  I responded with my request.  “I don’t think anything exciting would be good tonight.”

She smiled and let out a small chuckle.

“Of course.”  She said to me reaching for my Emily Dickenson book.

It took several poems before I finally dozed off.

My dreams were inconsistent images and colors, nothing connecting to each other when I woke in the night to a booming.  At first I thought it was like the pounding I had heard previously in a dream, but then after the pitter-pattering on my window I realized it was only thunder.  I listened to the rain until I dozed off again.

Four

It was a few nights later when I dreamed about the house again. 

Sarah was standing at the window above the stairs inside the curtain.  She was crying quietly to herself.  I walked up behind her and watched her for a moment before I decided to speak.

“Are you ok?” I asked her.

She stopped crying and turned to me.  Her eyes were darker than I recalled from the last dream I had of her.  She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. 

The door creaked at the bottom of the steps.  Sarah grabbed my hand and pulled me into the attic room before the lady with auburn hair came up the stairs.  She put her finger to her mouth as if to say “be quiet”.  I heard the lady walk down the hallway.

“Is that your mom?” I whispered to her.

She nodded her eyes big with fear.  A few minutes later the floorboards creaked again as if someone had gone down the stairs and the door shut.  A click came right after that I recognized as the sound of a latch being put in place.  We were locked into the upper level.

Sarah opened the attic room door and pulled me down to her room.  She pointed out her/my bedroom window as if she wanted me to look out.  I peered through the glass and saw her mother leaving through the gate.  She looked up at us crossly in the window before starting down the street.

Sarah opened the closet door and pushed a piece of the wall until I heard a sliding sound.  I watched her open the wall up through this piece.  Behind the wall was a small opening.  She gestured me to follow her as she descended on a little ladder.  It was several steps down and a very tight enclosure.  I almost felt like I would suffocate.  When we reached the bottom of the ladder, she disappeared from my sight.  I turned around and saw a small opening into a dark room.  It reminded me of the coal room I had cleaned, except the half wall was missing and there were bins of coal in the corner.  I saw her skirt slip through the doorway and followed her. 

The basement of my house looked very different.  There wasn’t a workbench or the washer and dryer.  The shelves my father used for his tools weren’t there either.  A large woodpile was where those items stood. 

I walked around the corner looking for her and saw a man working on something.  He was so involved in what he was doing he didn’t seem to notice me.  I couldn’t see what exactly he was working on because of the way his body was positioned.  I scanned the area looking for Sarah and couldn’t find her.

“She went upstairs.” The man’s voice startled me.  “Be careful you don’t let my wife find you wandering around, she’s not kind to unexpected visitors.”

I climbed the steps slowly and carefully watching for something that might grab my foot from beneath the staircase.  I found myself in the kitchen.  It looked very different than ours did.  There wasn’t a refrigerator and the stove was an old black cast iron looking thing, it had a pipe leading up through the ceiling.  The cupboards were different than what we had, and the sink was larger and made of porcelain. 

I peeked through the door that led to my bathroom and was surprised, she had told us the bathroom was an add on, but there were fixtures in place in this house, although they were a little different than ours – you could see more of the pipes to them and they had a different shape.

I heard a giggle behind me and turned to see Sarah.  She pulled me into the pantry and offered me a cookie.  I took it and bit into it.  It was a chewy oatmeal based cookie with some sort of fruit pieces. 

Suddenly the room went dark and everything blurred out of focus.  Sarah, the house, the cookie I was eating all disappeared and I was in an open field watching a man work in the garden.  He was bending over weeding some vegetables and suddenly collapsed, then a river opened from the ground and water in the color of a rainbow swept him away. 

I opened my eyes to see my mother over me with a thermometer.  I felt so hot and cold at the same time.  My stomach felt so sick I wasn’t sure if I was going to puke.  I turned over in my bed and noticed she had placed a bowl at the floor.  I also noticed a wet mark on the floor I don’t remember making.

“Honey, it’s ok, you just have a bug.  Your fever has come down a bit since I last woke you.”  Mom shook the thermometer and wiped my forehead with a cloth.

I felt really confused about what she was saying.  I didn’t remember anything but my dream.  It was hard to let it slip away from me, but reality started setting in more and more and my body was aching. 

Mom gave me some nasty tasting syrup and helped me change into a clean nightgown. 

“I found those nice quilts that you had on the floor.  They had to be cleaned but they came out rather well.  What do you think?”  I looked at the blanket she had over me and realized it was the Holly Hobbie quilt I had found in Sarah’s box.

“Did you find a picture?”  I mumbled to my mom, my throat was feeling scratchy too.

“The one you drew?”  She pointed at the crayon drawing I had hung on my wall.

“I didn’t draw that, I found it.” I replied.  “I mean the photo that was on my desk.  It was a black and white, it was old, it had the same people as the drawing.”  I started to cough.

“Don’t worry about it now honey, just get some rest and feel better.  I will check on you in a bit.  Do you think you could stomach some apple juice?”

“I’ll try.”  I told her.

“I’ll have Betty bring you a glass.”  She left the room.  I heard her walking across the hallway floor to the stairs, and then the steps she took descending the staircase.  A few moments later Betty appeared with a glass of amber colored liquid and handed it to me.

“Mom says to sip it slowly.”  She told me.

I took the glass and tasted it, like always when we were sick it was watered down.  I was grateful that it wasn’t too strong because the moment it touched my tongue my stomach turned more.  I handed the glass back to Betty.

“Tell mom it makes me want to puke.”

She sighed at me like she was annoyed and left my room.

I lay in my bed half-conscious trying to make sense of my dream.  I wondered why I hadn’t remembered waking up and all the things mom and my surroundings indicated had happened since last night.  I couldn’t come up with a suitable answer for my curiosity.

I rolled over on my bed and felt something crumple in my sheet.  I pulled at the cloth to see what was under it and pulled out a paper.  Looking at it I realized it wasn’t a paper, it was the photo I was searching for.  I put it under my pillow wondering how it got inside my sheets and fell back asleep.

I found myself in my back yard – the grass covered with daisies that stood over my head.  I looked up at the sky and noticed the window at the top of my house.  Sarah was in it watching out over the yard and neighbourhood.  A snake slithered past me just as I went to take a step.  I looked back up to the window and Sarah was gone. 

I walked through the path touching and smelling the flowers with each step.  As I neared the house it looked strange to me.  The paint was peeling off all around it.  The patio’s stone pavers were broken in pieces and weeds were bursting through all the cracks.   I stepped down to the door of the basement and tried to open it.  As I pushed  it fell from its hinges into the basement.  

A large dog on a thick heavy chain jumped up and started to bark at me.  Its teeth were dripping with saliva and his breath smelled horrible.  I backed out of the doorway and fell against the stairs.  The dog’s chain was just long enough to reach the door and I had fallen just far enough to be out of his reach.  I backed up the stairs on my bottom and found my footing again. 

I heard a scream coming from the inside of the house.  I ran to the steps of the deck and started climbing them.  I could see through the wood that something was moving underneath the deck.  I hurried faster and pulled open the screen door at the top of the stairs.  Another scream called out from the upstairs level.  I bolted through the porch and into the kitchen.  A loud thump upstairs made me jump and I ran to the stairs in the bathroom.  The door was locked.  I fumbled with the sliding latch trying to open it but it stuck firmly in its place.   I heard another wail coming from the upper level and remembered the secret doorway through the basement.  I hurried to the door of the basement and heard the latch on the door to the upper level move.  I looked back as the door creaked open on its own.

I ran back to the stairwell hearing another scream from above.  I couldn’t make out what was being screamed, or even who it was that was screaming.

I ran up the stairs so fast I tripped up half of them twisting my ankle.  The pain didn’t stop me from reaching my destination.  My heart was beating and adrenaline pumping me faster and faster.  I almost missed Sarah in the attic room.  I paused to see if it was her, but the screaming that started again confirmed it was not.  I ran down the hallway towards my room and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw in my peripheral vision Sarah’s mom holding someone’s long black hair up while the girl dangled from it at least 6 inches off the floor.  She turned and looked at me, her green eyes almost glowing; she had a wooden rod in her hand beating the poor girl.

“Hey!”  I shouted at her as she raised her hand to strike the girl again.  Then I saw who it was.  She had my sister Betty in her hands.  I didn’t think about why Betty was in my dream, all I could do was run at the lady with all of my strength.  Just as I came close to her, she turned into smoke and Betty disappeared.  I fell into the wall when she disappeared.

I heard a cry come from the attic room.  This time the sound was not a screaming like before, but a sad wail.  I picked myself up and fled the room to investigate the attic.  When I got close enough to the door I could almost touch it - it swung shut so hard the slam shook the house.  I could hear a maniacal scream followed by a thud, and then another and another.  The crying stopped, but the thudding continued.  At least ten thuds followed, the maniacal screaming consisted with each blow. 

Then suddenly the door opened.  Terrified I peered through the crack to see what was going on but no one was there.  In fact, it didn’t look like the house of old any longer.  It had our boxes, the axe against the wall, and the strange floorboards that were new compared to the older flooring. 

I walked through the rest of my home and found it was exactly as it had been the day before; our furniture, our kitchen, our food in the pantry.  The bathroom was the one we used. 

“Sam,” I heard my father calling me from the basement and went to see what he wanted.

 “Samantha.”  He called me again.  I descended the basement stairwell and looked for him.  “Sam,” he called again.  I couldn’t see him anywhere.

I opened my eyes and found that I was still in my bed, my father sitting next to me in my chair.  It looked like my desk had been moved against the crawl space door.  My vision was blurry.  I rubbed my eyes.

“There you are.”  Dad seemed like he actually cared.  “How are you feeling?”

I sat up in my bed.

“Okay, I guess.” 

“Mom says you’ve been feverish and sick all day.”  He felt my forehead. “You seem to be doing better now though.  What was all the tossing and turning for, you having a nightmare?”

“yeah.” I nodded.

“You want to talk about it?”  He asked me gently. 

“Not right now.”

I adjusted myself in my bed and felt the photo I had under my pillow.  I pulled it out and handed it to him.

“This is the picture I found.”

He looked at it and furrowed his brow.  He turned it over and read out loud “Fowler, September 1904.  Hmm.”  He handed the picture back to me.  “That is a very interesting find Sam.”

“I think it’s the people who built the house.  Gus said that was their name and described them.”

“Well, don’t worry too much about it.  Whoever they were doesn’t really matter now.  This is our home and although it may be interesting to learn about the history of our home, I don’t really think it would be productive.  Why don’t you worry about resting up, I still have a lot of work I need your help on.”  He seemed like he was trying to be nice about a subject that irritated him.

“Alright.” I wished that he was willing to listen to me about this. 

He got up and left the room pausing at the door.  “I’ll let your mother know you are awake and can try some food.”  Then he turned and walked down the hall.  I found it strange that the creaking floorboards weren’t sounding off for him like they did everyone else in the family, even the people in my dreams.

Mom showed up with a bowl of chicken broth and some crackers on a tray.  I was looking at the photo of the Fowlers trying to shake off the horrible images and things that happened in my dream.

“Here you go Sam.”  She placed the tray on my lap and sat in the chair.  “It’s good to see this is a minor illness.  I wonder what got you feeling so bad.  No one else is showing symptoms.”  She looked at the photo in my hands and held her hand out.  “Could I take a look?”

I handed her the picture.  She studied it closely - her eyebrows raised a little. 

“Where did you find this?”  She asked me.

“In the box with the quilts and the other picture.” I pointed at the crayon drawing on my wall.

“Wow.  I didn’t realize you had something like this.  Maybe we can show it to Gus and see what he says.”

“Thanks mom, that’s a good idea.”  I smiled at her.

“Okay, now eat some soup, it will help you get back on your feet.”

I picked up the spoon and started swallowing the broth down a little at a time. 

“Slowly.”  She advised me.

I nibbled at a cracker and ate my soup slowly while my mom visited with me.  She told me what they were doing for the day and how much she missed my help around the house.  I was feeling better enough that when I was finished with my soup I wanted to read for a while.  Mom handed me the book I requested and told me that she’d check on me later.

The story I was reading was about a girl with dark hair and a Siamese cat that solved mysteries.  It was very exciting, and I read half the book before I noticed my closet door had creaked open on its own.  I looked up from my book and the door shut itself.  I put the book down and opened the closet door.  I remembered my early dream and felt around on the panel of the wall for the secret opening.  I couldn’t find where it might have been, but it had gotten so dark I decided I’d try with a flashlight.  Before I could find the light my mom had come back up to check on me. 

“What are you doing?”  She asked me as I was looking through my drawers.

“I’m trying to find my flashlight.”

“Well, let’s leave that for tomorrow.  It’s time for you to get back in bed.” 

I got back in my bed and she took my temperature.

“Yes, you do look like you are feeling a lot better.”  She handed me a glass of watered down apple juice.  “Drink this.”

I sipped the drink and gave her back the glass.

“Go brush your teeth and get to bed.  Have a good night.  Love you.”  She told me.

I groaned a little and did as she asked.  Getting back in my bed I hoped I didn’t dream about the house for the rest of the night.  

Three

I was very tired the next day at breakfast.  My sisters whispering to each other would have normally piqued my interest, but this time I just ignored them.  I wanted to go back to bed before I had even reached the table.  My mother was busy fixing my father some eggs and hadn’t noticed Betty and Deanna being silly at the table.  Mom would usually reprimand that kind of behaviour.  Today she seemed hurried in her activity and the eyes in the back of her head were looking elsewhere.

“Samantha!”  my father said so loudly I jumped, and then realized why he was shouting at me.  My elbow sat in the butter dish pushing the contents out around the edges and spilling in a sloppy mess on the table. 

“Sorry.”  I got up, went to the bathroom, and washed my elbow.  The water made a whistling noise when I turned the knobs on.  Then a breeze coming from the open stairwell doorway brushed past me and the whistling stopped.  Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something moving.  I turned to see what it was and it disappeared from my vision. 

“Get in here and eat your breakfast!” my father demanded as I stood in the doorway of the stairwell.  He could see me from the table clearly.  “and shut that water off!  You are wasting my money!”

I shut off the water and sat down at my placing.  Mom said a prayer to bless the food and everyone started eating.  I was sitting next to my father and could see the bathroom through the open doorway.  I realized there was a window I had missed when we first walked through the house because it was hiding behind the stairwell doorway.  It looked to me like there was a shadow between the open door and the window, as if a person was hiding there watching us eat breakfast. 

“Close your mouth dear and eat please.”  Mom said to me politely.  “There is still a good deal of cleaning and you need your energy.”

I shut my gaping mouth and then took a bite of my cereal.  It was getting soggy from my wasting time.  I knew I should eat it quickly so it didn’t get any worse, but I couldn’t help wondering what was near the door.  I kept staring in that direction and chewing slowly on my food.  Dad must have been annoyed by it as well because he got up and shut the bathroom door.  I still wondered about the shadow but finished my meal in silence as quickly as I could without being rude.  My sisters were nudging each other and smiling as if they had some kind of secret.

It was Deanna’s job to do the dishes today so as soon as I was finished eating, mom excused me to a short time of freedom. 

I went to the bathroom and looked behind the stairwell door; nothing was there.  I slowly started ascending the stairwell on my way to my room and I felt a chill run through me.  I looked up above me and the curtains were blowing out as they had previously.  It looked like a figure standing at the window.  At the third from the top step they fell, just as they had before.  This time, to my surprise the window was closed.  I started to turn back to tell my mom about this and I heard the floor creak in the attic room behind me.  I turned back to see the attic door open.  It was not opened a moment ago!  I peered into the doorway of the attic and momentarily was blinded.  A reflection of light from the window was shining on the handle of the axe I had tripped over previously.  I went over to it and picked the axe up. 

“Dad could use this for the wood out back,” I thought to myself. “Of course, he might make me chop it if I bring it to him.”  I decided I would not take the chance and placed the axe against the wall of the attic and left the room.  As I walked through the doorway, the door shut behind me by itself.  My first impulse was to run down the stairs and tell my mom about it; instead, I went to my room and sat down on my bed.  

I was thinking about the dream I had the night before, the dress my sister had found, the curtain blowing without a window opened.  These all seemed like clues to me, and I was fond of mysteries.  It was exciting to think our house might be haunted.  I had always wanted to meet a ghost.  Then I noticed the box in my room marked “Sarah”.  I hadn’t put it back away yet.  I decided to open it and go through it more thoroughly. 

I pulled out 3 patchwork quilts, one that had pink and blue flowered patches that alternated with white patches, another that was green and gold with little flowers embroidered into the patches, and the last one had Holly Hobbie patches that matched my wallpaper. 

At the bottom of the box I joyously found a picture that had been drawn of our new house.  It had a little girl with blond hair in pig-tails pale blue eyes and the pale blue dress that looked like the one my sister Betty had found, a lady with auburn swept back hair in a dark green dress with green eyes, and a man with brown hair in a brown suit with a brown bow tie.  It was very detailed for a crayon drawing.  I liked the picture right off and decided to hang it on my wall.  Then I found another picture, this one was a black and white photo of the same looking people in the drawing.  On the back, it said the name “Fowler” and the date “Sept. 1904”

Just as I was setting the picture on my desk a gust of wind blew my door shut.  My window was open in my room and the tree was blowing in the wind outside, so it shouldn’t have been such a surprise, but I fell back against the frame of my bed I jumped so hard from it.  My back ached from the sharp pain shooting up my body.  The stinging was incredible.  I felt a trickle drip down my backside and limped off to find my mother.

“What did you do to yourself!”  Mom exclaimed more than questioned me.  “You’ve got blood everywhere!”  She hurried me into the bathroom where she washed my back with some antiseptic.  She blew on it when I winced from the sting. 

“This is too big for a Band-Aid.  Just be careful and don’t pick at it.”  She hugged me.  “Now how did it happen?”

“I just lost my balance and fell against my bed.  I don’t know how it could have cut me.”  I was wondering myself why my clumsiness had suddenly amplified. 

“You worry me with how you are constantly getting hurt.  You need to be more careful.”  If she hadn’t said it so lovingly I would have felt chastised.  “Now go find your shoes and tell your sisters we are invited to a neighbor’s for tea.” 
Mom didn’t really drink tea so I assumed she just wanted to meet the people around us.  Apparently, they wanted to meet us too. 

“Be sure to use your manners, don’t take anything that isn’t offered, and say please and thank you.”  Mom always reminded us the same things whenever we went anywhere.  I figured by now she would realize we knew how to behave, but I guess she wanted to make a good impression.

We walked out the front door and too the brick sidewalk and headed towards the corner or Dorkus and 15^th Street.  We turned around the corner and walked down the hill past two houses before we stopped. 

“This is it. Remember what I told you.”  Mom reminded us again. 

The house was smaller than ours was.  It was only a single level.  It’s deep blue exterior and white trim looked like a dollhouse I had seen in a magazine.  The front yard had a hill of grass with a curving path that lead from the sidewalk to the large covered cement porch.

The man who answered the door was a tall heavyset man with dark brown skin, brown eyes and curly grey black hair.  He laughed when he saw us and opened the screen.

“My wife must have forgotten you were coming.  She has stepped out for a while, but you’re welcome to join me for my tea.”  His voice was deep and melodic.  He pushed the screen wider. 

“What lovely children you have Mrs. Cooper.”  He grinned at me as I walked past him into the living room.  The room had a small round table with two chairs on the far side of it with a doily style tablecloth and dishes set out for a formal tea.  I thought it was very pretty.  The sofa and chairs in the room all were in a Queen Anne style with doilies decorating them.  They had a fireplace against the back wall near the tea table with a mantle full of pictures.  Mom nodded in our direction and we sat on the floor near the sofa.

“Ha ha ha ha ha.. You can sit on the sofa.”  He reached his hand to me laughing, I took it and shook it as politely as I knew how.  “My name is Gustaphe Richardson, but you can call me Gus.”  My sisters sat next to me and mom took a chair. 

Gus poured some tea and set it on the coffee table for my mother, then he turned to my sisters and I, “Do you like sugar cookies?” His eyes gleamed and sparkled with life.  “Sure you do.”  He set a cornflower blue china plate of cookies in front of us and gave us each a glass of milk.  “Go on now, help yourself.”  He gave us another chuckle and smiled broadly.  His teeth were so white and straight.  He didn’t seem to be as old as his greying hair suggested.

My sisters took a cookie each in turn and then I picked one up and bit into it.  I was pleased to find they were soft and sweeter than I expected.  My grandmother made sugar cookies that were crunchy for her tea and I didn’t like them much.

“Thank you, Gus.”  Mom told him as she sipped her tea. 

“You’re welcome.” Gus replied.  “I am so glad that you came to visit.  Molly will be sorry she missed you.  It must’ve slipped her mind she’d invited you.  She’s a little forgetful these days.”  He chuckled again.  “She says you have moved into the old Fowler house.” He continued; my ears perked up.

“I watched that house get built.”  He told us. “I was a boy then, of course.” Mom smiled at him as he told his story. 

“I remember there was a nice couple that moved in, they had a little girl.  She was about my age then.  Let me think.  I was about 8 or 9.  I lived with my grandma as my parents died of influenza.  She kept me busy working in the garden all day so I watched them build the house while I worked.  It was the biggest house on the block at the time, it’s land was right next to Grandma’s back then.  The other homes were built later after the Great Depression.  They were a strange family.  That woman was always hollerin and fussin about something or other.  I was afraid of her.  The girl wasn’t allowed out without her mother, she was kept indoors all day.  Often times I saw her in the upstairs window watching out.  Occasionally I swore I heard her crying there.  I never knew for sure.  She didn’t look to happy at that window.  I just kept away.  Too bad what happened to them.”

The front door opened suddenly and I jumped.  My milk spilled all over the coffee table. 

“Oh, no!” I cried out. 

Mom glared at me, and used her napkin to try to clean up the spill. 

“No worries,” Gus smiled at me and got a towel for me. 

“Oh my!  I completely forgot.  I am so sorry Mrs. Cooper.”  Molly Richardson put the bags she was carrying down on a chair and shook my mother’s hand. 

I cleaned up the mess I had made.  I felt so embarrassed.

“It’s quite alright Mrs. Richardson.  Your husband has been telling us about when our home was built.”

Molly gave her husband an angry look.  “Don’t you be fillin their heads with your stories, Gus.”  She looked back at my mother.  “I hope he isn’t frightening you and your girls.  He gets a little carried away at times.  Don’t pay him any mind about that, his memory isn’t all that good.”

My mother smiled at her.  “It’s alright, we are interested in hearing about it.  He isn’t bothering the girls.  He has been quite the gentleman.”  Mom looked around. “I think I may have your chair Mrs. Richardson.”

“Now, now dear, you sit and be comfortable.  I am just fine over here. There are several other children in the neighborhood.  Have you gotten the girls registered for school yet?”  Mrs. Richardson poured herself a cup of tea as Gus excused himself from the room.  She sat in the chair Gus had been occupying.

“No, not just yet.  We are at the end of unpacking.  I thought I would do that at the end of next week.  I understand school doesn’t start until September here.”  Mom answered her.

“Yes that’s right.  I remember when my children were getting ready for school.  They are all grown now.”  The delicate older lady sat reminiscing about her past for a moment.  She had a smile on her lips and a dreamy look in her eyes.  Her hair was tucked back into a bun and she wore a nice green silk dress with lace on the collar and cuffs of her sleeves.  She had matching low heeled shoes with silver buckles on the toes.

Mom sipped the end of her tea and set the cup down.  “Would you like another cup?” Mrs. Richardson asked her.

“No thank you.”  Mom answered her.  “How has your day been going?”

“Fine dear, I went shopping.  I thought it was tomorrow you were coming so I wanted to get some cookies for the girls.”

My sisters and I giggled a little.  Mom looked at us with raised eyebrows.

“Thank you that is very kind.” She said.  “We should be going now, though.  Perhaps we can do this again soon.  I would love for you to come over and visit us.  How does next Tuesday sound?”

“Oh that would be very nice, thank you Mrs. Cooper.  Next Tuesday would be perfect, and please, call me Molly.”

“Yes of course, and you can call me Gina.  I’ll see you next Tuesday then.  Thank you so much Molly.  We’ll see you soon.” Mom looked at us.  “Girls?”  We got up and followed our mother out the door.

“Oh, wait a moment!” Molly called after us.  She reached into one of her bags and pulled out the same cookies we had been eating.   “This is for your girls.  Please let me know if you need any help with anything.”  She handed mom the box of cookies and shut the screen door after us.  Mom thanked her again and led us down the porch stairs. 

As we walked through the gate of our yard I looked up to my closed bedroom window on the second story of the house.  I thought I saw someone in the window, but I couldn’t make out the face of the person, it just looked like a shape.  As we entered the living room Dad looked up from a paper sitting on the sofa.

“Oh, I’m glad you are back.  I got home early so we can get started on the basement.”

“First these girls need something other than cookies in their bellies.  I’m making lunch.”  Mom told him.

Dad nodded and went back to reading his paper.  Deanna climbed up next to him and snuggled against his arm.

Betty announced she was going upstairs to play. I followed my mom into the kitchen.

“Can I help?” I asked her.

“Sure honey, you can set the table.”

I didn’t really want to go up to my room just yet.  I hadn’t closed the window before we left and Gus’ story made me wonder what was really in our home.

After lunch dad had me cleaning out the basement with him.  He had Deanna and Betty helping this time too.  He gave me the broom, Deanna a garbage sack and Betty the dustpan.  Dad led us to the room he wanted us to sweep up.  It was a strange room with a little door in the upper part of the wall.

“Is that a crawl space too?”  I pointed at the door.

“No Sam, that’s a coal shaft.  In the old days, they would shovel the coal down through there and it would be stored here until they needed it to heat the house.”  He pointed to the other side of the room that had a dividing wall in it.  “We are going to clean this out and use it for the wood we chop.”

I swallowed hard.  I had a bad feeling that the “we” he was talking about was actually me.

It took us a little over an hour to clean the coal room up to dad’s liking.  We were covered with soot from head to toe.  Mom drew us a bath to share.  She said it would save on water and keep the rest of the house from getting dirty.

After I was cleaned up and dressed again I went to the window at the top of the stairs.  I had forgotten for the afternoon about the story Gus had started to tell us.  I looked out at our yard and saw Gus in his through the chain link fences of the neighbors.  He was working on his garden in the fading evening light.  He looked up at me and waved.  I waved back and smiled at him.  I was about to open the window and holler at him something when mom called us to dinner. I thought I heard the floor creaking behind me, without looking I ran down stairs to eat.

At dinner I started to tell my father about what Gus had told us.

“Rubbish!”  He said loudly.  “The old man is just pulling your leg, he hasn’t been around here that long.”

“His wife made it sound like he was telling a story too.” Mom added in.

“But dad, I found a picture of them!”  I told him.

“humph.” Dad grunted.  No one said anything else.

After dinner I went to my room to get the picture to show my dad.  It wasn’t on my desk where I had put it.  I got down on the floor and looked under my chair for it.

“Whatcha doin?” 

I hit my head on the desk backing out.

“Ouch!”

My sister giggled behind me.  I rubbed my head and looked up at her.

“Did you take my picture?”

“Nope.”

“Get out of my room!” I said to her harshly.  I wondered what happened to the photo I found of the Fowlers. 

It was a hot night so I reopened my windows.  Every now and again a breeze would blow into my room.  I sat in front of the windows looking for other kids in the neighborhood.

At bedtime mom just said goodnight and turned off the light.  I was a little slow to fall asleep thinking about the noises and shadows that filled the house; the doors that opened and shut all the time around me.  It was a cross between fear and excitement that kept my heart beating fast and my mind alive with wonder.  I finally dozed off and slept through the night without any dreams I remembered or mom waking me.