Ghost House (11 page)

Sarah put the clothes into the wash machine
and turned it on. She poured bleach into the laundry tub and ran
hot water into it for a minute, and the three of them went back
upstairs.

“Suzanne?”
Where did that girl go now?
Sarah called as Jim walked over to turn on the air conditioning
unit. The heat was stifling hot in the house. Jim heard the water
running and went into the bathroom to see if Suzanne needed help
with her shower.

Sarah opened the front door to check the
mailbox. “Sarah, come in here for a minute.” Jim called. Looking
through the mail Sarah joined her husband in the bathroom. “What?
Where is Suzanne? Where is Cooper for that matter?”

Jim turned off the water in the bathtub that
was almost overflowing onto the floor. They opened the door to the
upstairs bedroom and there again they found Suzanne, sitting on a
step near the top of the staircase. Only this time, Suzanne was
holding Cooper in her arms. Coopers ears were back as if he were
standing in front of a fan and his tongue was hanging out.

“Suzanne! What did we tell you about going up
there?” Her father yelled at her. “It’s too hot and this is the
only place it isn’t!” Suzanne yelled back.

Jim’s patience had run out. The long drive
back, the heat, the toaster on the floor, the water in the bathtub
and the lock on the door. It was just too much and all of his good
mood of the prior two days dissolved like an ice cube in a frying
pan. He stomped up the stairs to get Suzanne and when he reached
for her and Cooper he said “What the hell?”

“JIM!” Sarah shouted, angry that he would use
such language in front of his family, especially in front of
Suzanne.

Jim picked up Suzanne and Cooper and
struggled to get back down the stairs without dropping one of them.
He then put them down and closed the door to the upstairs. He told
his wife to give Suzanne a hug.

Sarah had fear in her eyes, she didn’t know
what Jim was trying to convey to her about Suzanne. She knelt down,
hugged her daughter and said “Honey, we are sorry we yelled at you,
we were just scared and you know you are not to go up those
stairs.”

Before Sarah had finished her words, her back
had stiffened and she looked up at her husband. “Why did you turn
on the water in the bathtub and then walk away and leave it,
Suzanne?”

“I didn’t, Harry Potter did.” Suzanne
pouted.

“Go sit on the couch with your sister and
Cooper.” Her mother ordered her. “Yes mother, cheerio!” Suzanne
sang, trying to sound British. Sarah stood back up and she looked
at her husband.

“How?”

But Jim just shook his head.

Cooper ran and jumped on Riley as she was
sitting on the couch. “OH, Cooper, you feel so cold! Come give me a
hug!” Riley said.

Jim and Sarah opened the door to the upstairs
bedroom and instantly felt the heat from the closed off room. They
slowly walked up the flight of stairs to where Suzanne and Cooper
had been sitting. The air there was not only much cooler, it was
freezing cold.

It was sheer determination that made them
continue up those stairs to the bedroom they had not previously
seen. The room was so hot that they could not breathe. All of the
windows up there were broken. There was furniture there that was
turned over and some articles of men’s clothing strewn all over the
floor.

Sarah felt as if she was going to pass out
from the heat. It was like sticking your head in a very hot oven.
She grabbed for Jim’s arm and they went back downstairs, pausing at
the spot that had the ice cold air. Jim ran his fingers along the
wall, checking to see if there might be some sort of air
conditioning unit somewhere that might account for the extreme
temperature drop, but he could find nothing.

“Put the girls to bed, Sarah, I have some
work to do.” Jim said. “You are not leaving us now and going to the
office, Jim!” “No, I meant on the computer.” Jim snapped back at
her.
It didn’t take long to kill any joy we had the last two
days!

When Sarah went downstairs to put the clothes
into the dryer and finish cleaning out that laundry tub, she looked
around the basement, wondering where the shadows Riley had seen
could be coming from. On a whim, when the clothes were dry, Sarah
packed them back into the suitcases they had come out of. She also
walked over to Riley’s dresser and started putting all of Riley’s
personal items into the suitcase as well. She didn’t stop there.
They had big plastic bags with zippers that they had brought with
them that carried towels and such. These were in the basement and
Sarah used them to pack up everything of Riley’s that she could.
Riley was not going to spend one more single night in that
basement.

Jim was still on the computer and Sarah could
not sleep. She got out of bed and started packing her and Jim’s
clothes into their large suitcase. She wasn’t sure why she was
doing all this packing, but she just felt like she should. Like she
had to if she was ever going to get to leave this house.

The next morning when Sarah woke up, Jim had
already left for the office. She went into the living room and
found the girls watching TV and eating bowls of cereal. Cooper was
lying next to them.

“Sorry I overslept.” Sarah said. The girls
mumbled their good mornings. Jim had left the coffee pot on, so
Sarah poured herself a cup, got a bowl of cereal for herself, and
sat down to read the mail she had taken out of the mailbox last
night. There were quite a few pieces of mail there. Because they
never opened that front door, they didn’t always remember that
there could be mail for them there.

“Riley, here is a letter for you from
Brianna, looks like it could be a birthday card.” Sarah said,
handing it to Riley. “What is there for me?” Suzanne asked. Sarah
gave Suzanne the colorful advertisements for Toys R Us and then
noticed a letter addressed to her, with no return address and no
stamp.

Sarah looked at the envelope, wondering if
she should open it.
It’s not a snake, it’s a letter, of course
open it.
She told herself. She pulled out a single sheet of
paper and read.

“Dear Sarah,

This is Dawn, from the drugstore down the
street. I was hoping that you would come back in the store so we
could finish talking, but I haven’t seen you and it has been
several days.

I couldn’t talk freely at work, and I have
been transferred to another store, so I thought I would write you a
quick note in case you came in looking for me and I had already
left.

I told you the house you are living in is
haunted and it is. Everyone in the neighborhood knows this. Don’t
judge your neighbors too harshly. Some have tried to help others
who have rented that house, but the owner, or someone or something,
would break their car windows or destroy their flowers or
gardens.

Do not trust the man who owns the house. Some
say he killed his mother and that her body is buried on the
property. I can’t say this is true or not, but there have been many
unexplained, frightening things that had happened in that house.
One family found their cat dead, in some room in the basement.

I know you might not believe me, or, maybe
you do since you have lived there for a while now. I just would not
feel right if I hadn’t told you about this. You and your family
have always been so nice when you came into the store.

Please move as soon as you can before that
deranged man who owns that house, or that evil poltergeist can harm
you.

Best wishes,

Dawn”

Sarah was stunned. “Poltergeist” She said out
loud.

“Harry Potter – Cheerio!” Suzanne sang from
the living room.
Poltergeist – Potter Guy – Poltergeist.

“Suzanne, come here a minute.” “Yes, mommy?”
Suzanne said, walking up and climbing on her mother’s lap. “When
you heard the lady next door saying Potter Guy, could you have
misunderstood her? Could she had said the word “Poltergeist”?

“Yep, Polder Guy, Riley said that she meant
Harry Potter, remember?”

“Thanks, Suzanne. You can go back and watch
your TV show.”

Sarah got up and unplugged the computer. She
then went into Suzanne’s bedroom and started to take all of her
daughter’s clothes and put them on the bed. She found Suzanne’s
princess suitcase and started stuffing her clothes into the
suitcase.

It was then that there was such a loud
crashing sound from the basement that Sarah felt the floor beneath
her shake.

“MOMMY!” The girls ran into the bedroom.
“Mommy, what was that?”

“We have heard that sound before, remember?
Everything is O.K. Riley, there is Cooper’s leash, and could you
put it on him for me? Thanks honey.” As Sarah was talking she was
walking towards her purse and keys. Picking up the suitcase and the
laptop Sarah said a bit loudly “Let’s go outside. Cooper hasn’t
been able to run around the front yard since we have been
here.”

Sarah grabbed her purse and keys and ushered
her daughters and puppy out the front door. “You didn’t turn off
the TV mommy.” Suzanne said. “It is O.K., Suzanne, we will be right
back.” Sarah said, handing Cooper to Riley to carry.

As soon as they got out of the front door,
Sarah whispered for Riley to run to the van and she picked up
Suzanne and ran as well, pushing the remote door opener as she ran.
When they were running past the dining room window, it shattered.
When they had reached the van, they watched the coffee pot fly out
of the kitchen window, part of the tile and the plug still
attached. The girls screamed and Sarah didn’t wait for anyone to
put their seatbelts on. In fact, she still had Suzanne half in her
arms and Riley was only half way over the front seat, trying to get
to the backseat with Cooper in her arms when Sarah pulled away from
the curb. “Mommy, Mr. Pickles is falling.” Suzanne said, trying to
hold onto her rabbit.

Sarah drove as fast as she could for three or
four blocks. Then she turned onto another side street and stopped
the car.

“Are you both alright?” She asked. The girls
nodded and Sarah asked Riley to help Suzanne over the front seat
and to buckle them both into their seatbelts. Sarah picked up the
laptop from the floor and put it on the seat and handed the
princess suitcase to Riley to put in the way back.

“What are we doing, mom?” Riley asked, fear
in her voice. “I am not quite sure.” Sarah answered. She took out
her cell phone and called her husband’s work number. His secretary
answered. “Hello, Sarah, how are you enjoying your vacation? Jim
said that he would be back to work tomorrow, was there something I
can help you with today?” She asked cheerfully.

“Um, O.K., well, no, I called you by mistake.
I am so sorry.” Sarah mumbled. “No problem, bye.” His secretary
said, hanging up the phone.

“Where are you, Jim?” She said out loud. Now
that they were several blocks from the house, Sarah felt calmer.
She and the girls and Cooper were safe. It was daylight, still
morning in fact. She didn’t know what had just happened, but she
did know that they were safe. She kept repeating that over and over
again to herself.

She called Jim’s cell phone and he answered
on the first ring. “Surprised?”

Surprised? Yes, I was freakin surprised!

“Where are you, Jim? I called the office.”
“I’m not there.” “I know that, now, where are you?” Jim said “We
are just about one block from the house, see you in a minute.” And
he hung up.

WE are a block from the house? Who is
WE?

Sarah sat there for a few moments until her
hands could stop shaking enough to turn the ignition key back on.
Sarah then turned the car around and slowly drove towards the
house.

Sarah stopped the car down the street from
the house they had just fled. She could not believe her eyes when
she saw two big moving trucks next to the curb and her husband’s
car in back of them. Several men were walking into the house.

Sarah blew the car horn and when her husband
looked up, he smiled and walked over to the van. Sarah opened the
door. “Hi there family! Today is moving day.” Then he noticed the
looks on their faces. “What is it? What happened?”

“Harry Potter threw the coffee pot at us out
the kitchen window and he made the windows break and the floor
shake! Suzanne said, stopping finally to take a breath.

“I need to talk to you.” Sarah said, opening
the car door and stepping out, leaving the air on for the kids and
walking to the back of the van.

Just then a woman ran up to Sarah and threw
her arms around her. “Oh you are moving so soon? Where are you
going?”

Sarah and Jim looked at each other and Sarah
finally found her voice. “Who the hell are you?”

“I am Mindy, I live right next door to
you.”

Sarah took her husband’s hand and opened the
van doors and got in, ignoring their neighbor until she walked
away.

“I swear, I have never seen that women before
in my entire life.” Sarah said. “Why are the moving men here? Where
are we going?”

“I couldn’t wait any longer. When we were up
north I found us a house, it’s about ten miles from here. I closed
on it this morning, you have some papers to sign, by the way, but
they said that can wait until tomorrow. These guys are expert
packers and movers, look how much they already have in the truck.
Jim said, pointing to the men carrying boxes of items and the
dining room chairs.

“Uh huh.” Sarah said, stunned. “Get us out of
here.”

“The moving men are under strict orders not
to tell anyone here where they are moving out stuff to.” Jim
said.

“Please, Jim, can we please just go, like
NOW?”

“Of course.” Jim said. “We can come back for
my car later.”

“NO!” Sarah shouted – go get your car, we
will follow you, please!” Sarah said, pleading with her
husband.