Ghost House (2 page)

She looked around and did not see any of her
possessions. No dresser, no bed. Not even the boxes she had packed
the night before. She wondered how they could have disappeared so
quickly like that. She went downstairs, dragging her new princess
bag on the stairs. She looked out the front door that was wide open
and saw a couple of men carrying their dining room table out and
chairs. She looked into the living room and was happy to see Mr.
Pickles and Freddie sitting on a pile of stuff in the corner. She
ran and grabbed them and then sat down to wait. Wait for what she
did not know.

“There you are, pumpkin!” Daddy said as he
came into the room and lifted her up into his arms. “All ready for
pancakes?” Suzanne was, in fact she always was, and it was one of
her most favorite things to eat. She nodded her head yes and then
laid her head on her father’s shoulder. She felt sad, but wasn’t
sure why.

Brianna went out to breakfast with the family
and she and Riley talked non-stop. Mommy and Daddy had a lot to say
to each other too, so for once Suzanne just sat there and ate her
bacon and pancakes and drank her chocolate milk and wasn’t the
center of anyone’s attention.

After breakfast they took Brianna back to her
house. Riley and Brianna were crying and hugging each other.
Suzanne started to cry too. Not because she was upset about
anything at this particular moment, but because she felt that was
the right thing to do since her sister and Brianna were crying.

After they finally got a teary eyed Riley
back into the car they spent the rest of the day visiting with
various friends of her parents, saying their good-byes. A couple of
them handed her mother a bag of cookies or brownies to take with
them in the car. They then decided to go see a movie, one of the
ones Riley picked out that was also age-appropriate for Suzanne to
see. They then had dinner out and went back to spend their last
night in their house.

Suzanne was tired when her father carried her
into the house. She barely woke up when he placed her into her
sleeping bag in the living room next to Riley. She felt her
mother’s kiss and heard her say “When we wake up tomorrow morning
we will leave for our new home in Michigan.” Suzanne instantly fell
into a deep sleep.

Hours later Suzanne woke up with a start. She
was instantly afraid, but when she looked over to see her parents
and sister all asleep in their sleeping bags next to her she felt
better. Until that is, when she remembered her mother’s words from
right before she fell asleep.
When we wake up tomorrow morning
we will leave for our new home in Michigan.

Suzanne did not want to leave their house.
She grabbed Mr. Pickles and Freddie and went and sat on the stairs
to her bedroom. She wrapped her arms around the banister tightly
and whispered into the long bunny ear “We are not going anywhere,
are we Mr. Pickles? We are going to sit right here until mommy and
daddy change their minds! Even if it takes until I am old enough to
go to school! Nothing is going to move us from these stairs! She
vowed.

When Suzanne next opened her eyes she quickly
looked for Mr. Pickles and Freddie and was happy to find that they
were still on her lap. What she wasn’t happy about was realizing
she was in her cat seat in the back seat of daddy’s van.

“Good morning, sunshine!” Her mother said.
Suzanne didn’t think it was such a good morning and one look at
Riley told Suzanne that her sister didn’t considerate it one
either.

Sarah told Jim that they should stop at the
next family restaurant they saw so they could eat and use the rest
room. They pulled off of Northbound I-75 and into the parking lot
of a friendly looking restaurant that had a big porch and four
rocking chairs on it. Jim and Riley walked into the restaurant
while Sarah got Suzanne dressed and combed her hair. Suzanne was
still confused about how they got her away from the steps and into
the car.

When they were all seated at the big round
table and their food orders placed, Jim turned to his wife. “We
really got a good jump on the traffic by leaving so early. I figure
we drive as far as we can today, and then spend the night somewhere
in Ohio and then get to the house the day after that, what do you
think?”

“I think it’s a very long drive and these two
little ones have been good so far, but that is probably because
they were both sleeping through most of the way. Why do we have to
rush? I want to make sure all the furniture gets there before we
do. Didn’t you say the management company we went through would see
to it that our furniture will be in the house when we get
there?”

“That is what they said. The men driving the
truck will call them and they will meet them at the house to let
them in and then lock up afterwards.”

“So then why hurry?” Sarah asked. “It’s not
like you have to go to work right away, they said take the days you
need, so why don’t we?”

“You are right, although I hate driving
during the day when there is so much traffic and construction,
especially through the big cities.” Jim said.

“O.K., then why don’t we drive until, say
about five or six and then find a nice place to stay and then leave
again in the morning really early like we did this morning?” Sarah
said, reaching to pick up a napkin Suzanne had dropped.

“We can do that.” Her husband smiled.

They drove for the remainder of the day, only
stopping for gas and bathroom breaks and coffee. They had the
cookies their friends had been nice enough to pack for them and
they had a few boxes of protein bars, the kind with the nuts,
raisins, yogurt and chocolate. Riley liked eating healthy and
Suzanne thought they were candy bars. Jim and Sarah had a cooler in
the van with bottled water and orange juice so they never felt the
need to stop for a bigger meal.

Both girls were quite. Riley was looking out
the window as they drove and Suzanne was playing with Freddie and
Mr. Pickles. Sarah read and Jim sang. So far there had only been
one squabble, that one when Riley yelled at her sister to quit
being so annoying and kicking her legs. But for the most part, they
were content to just be left to their own private thoughts.

Suzanne was sleeping when her dad pulled into
the hotel. He carried her in and woke her up, asking her if she
wanted to go swimming. Suzanne did not know how to swim, but she
was not going to say no to a splash in the water. She looked around
at the big room and was in awe when she walked to the pool with her
mom and dad and Riley. “Daddy, I love our new house!” She excitedly
yelled.

“You goofball” Riley told her “This isn’t our
new house, it’s a hotel!”

Suzanne was still happy, she didn’t know what
a hotel was, but she knew a pool when she saw one. Sarah took her
into the shallow end and Suzanne had a ball working off all of that
pent up energy. Riley decided it was too much work to keep pouting
and acting annoyed. She and her dad splashed each other and tossed
a beach ball back and forth that had been by the pool. Jim then got
into the hot tub to work the kinks out of his back and legs from
the long drive.

They went back to their room and ordered
pizza from a local delivery pizza parlor and settled in for the
night. They were all sound asleep by eight p.m.

It was dusk when the Gaunter family pulled up
to what was to be their new home, at least for the next year. The
house sat far back on a corner lot and had an enormous back yard, a
very small, detached garage, and a pretty bay window.

Sarah looked around and was glad to see that
the other homes on the block were of different styles. She did not
particularly like the cookie-cutter type home neighborhoods you
sometimes saw. She noticed doors opening and curtains moving to the
side. The usual curiosity of whose came before, getting a peek of
their new neighbors. No one actually came out to meet or greet the
newly arriving family and for that Sarah was glad. It had been a
long trip and all of them were tired.

The management company which handled the
rental agreement had sent them a set of keys a week back, so they
all entered by the side door which led them to the kitchen. Their
furniture was there, but not placed in any particular grouping. The
living room was also filed with boxes and one of their mattresses
was leaning up against a wall in the hallway.

“Well, Sarah, what do you think?” Her husband
asked her. “It’s cute, small, but I am glad they left some lights
on.” She walked over to the refrigerator which was the owner of the
house’s property along with the stove. “There is ice made and the
inside of the refrigerator is clean. The stove is clean and looks
in relatively good shape. It was summer and the house was hot
inside. “Jim, turn on the air conditioner, its hot as blazes in
here.”

Jim took a quick look around and came back
into the living room. “Looks like there is no central air, just a
couple of window units.” He said. Riley and Suzanne had sat down at
the dining room table when they first came into the house and they
were still there. “Riley, help your father unpack the car. Jim,
remember to spill out the water in the cooler.” Sarah instructed.
She was very happy to see that there was no carpeting. The floors
were hard wood and looked original to the house. She pushed the
couches into the spots she wanted them to be and then picked up the
box that was labeled “Bathroom.”

She then set about putting up the shower
curtain and put the toilet paper in place and shampoo and shower
gel into the bathtub shampoo holder. She just left the rest of the
stuff in the box and shoved it onto the floor of the hall closet
outside the bathroom door.

Jim and Riley came in with the rest of the
suitcases and items from the car by then and they all stood there
looking at their new home.

“How are we ever going to get all of this
stuff put away?” Riley asked. “It makes me tired just looking at
it.”

“Little by little it will all come together.”
Sarah said. “Before we get too much more tired I think we should go
to the grocery store and get some supplies.”

“All of us?” Riley whined. “No, you can stay
here and start unpacking if you want to.” Her father answered.
“I’ll go.” Riley said, sounding unhappy.

Jim looked over at Suzanne who was sitting
there and had yet to venture an opinion of the new house. “What do
you think about this place, pumpkin?”

“I like the hotel house better.” She
said.

The house had two bedrooms on the main floor
and one upstairs. There was also a full unfinished basement. Sarah
was disappointed to see such a small porch in the front, and no
porch off of the side door. No deck and no pool.

Jim dropped Sarah and Riley off at the
grocery store while he and Suzanne went to clean out the car and
get gas. They had decided to sell Jim’s older model car that he
drove to work before they moved. It wouldn’t have been worth
filling two gas tanks on the long trip, nor did Jim want Sarah to
have to drive one of the vehicles by herself or with the kids that
far by herself. It just made more sense to come in the newer
vehicle of the two and purchase one for Jim to get back and forth
to work in after they got here.

Sarah had intended to only purchase what she
felt they would need for the night and perhaps the next day, but
she got her second wind and she and Riley were able to do a full
two shopping baskets full by the time Jim and Suzanne came
back.

Everything that needed to be in the freezer
and refrigerator was put there, most everything else was left in
the shopping bags for the night. Sarah found the box marked
“Kitchen” and unloaded their coffee pot, toaster, blender, plates,
bowls, silverware, pots and pans. She left the microwave in the box
to worry about another day.

The movers had not placed their beds where
Sarah would want them, but at the moment she did not care. She put
a sheet on the mattress in the larger of the two bedrooms and
carried towels into the bathroom told Riley to take a shower and go
to sleep. She was giving Suzanne a pass on bathing tonight. At five
years old Suzanne was very bright and could bathe by herself, but
tonight Sarah did not want to have to supervise, or to clean up
water splashed onto the floor. Neither Riley, nor Suzanne
complained. Both were worn out.

Sarah and Jim worked throughout most of the
night. Sarah washed out the cabinets and put shelf paper down
before stocking them with their can foods. Jim carried the
microwave and set it up in the kitchen and helped her hang up their
clothes put their cleaning supplies and towels in the linen closet.
They did not finish everything they would have liked to have gotten
done, but by the time Riley and Suzanne woke up the next morning,
the house looked considerably more like home. All of the windows
had shades or blinds and the kitchen and dining room windows had
lace curtains already up, so they didn’t have to fool with hanging
sheets over the windows last night for privacy.

Riley said that she wanted the bedroom that
was upstairs, but her parents told her with no central air
conditioner, they doubt it would be livable up there in this summer
heat. Southgate, Michigan was not as hot as Hendersonville
Tennessee, but it was still hot.

Riley didn’t like how close the two main
floor bedrooms were and she did not want to share a bedroom with
Suzanne. She had grown up having her own room and she did not want
to give that up. “Can I make a room in the basement for me? It
would be cooler down there and I wouldn’t have to sleep with
Suzanne.”

“Riley, let’s just wait on that. We are not
even fully unpacked yet and the mattresses are still on the floor.
I haven’t even looked in the basement yet, but I know it’s not
finished.”

“What does that mean?” Riley asked her
mother, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “It means knock it off.”
Jim told her. “We will get things figured out, just not all on the
first day we are here.”