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.