Ghost House

by Carol Colbert

  Jim knew he was taking another big risk in finding a home to purchase without having Sarah in on the deal, but if he couldn’t manage to get them out of their lease with Witter, then any purchase of a new home might have to be put on hold and he just could not face the three faces he loved most in this world with that news.

  Jim looked for a three bedroom brick home with an in the ground pool and a big kitchen. A finished basement and central air were deal breakers. He was determined he wouldn’t screw up like he did with this little house with no room and with a horrible landlord. He wanted an attached garage and granite for the kitchen surfaces. Sarah and his girls deserved the best.

  Cooper nuzzled Jim’s leg. “O.K., boy, let’s go for a walk.”

  Chapter 12

  The Gaunter family were a much happier bunch the following morning. Each one felt relaxed and in good spirits. After a big breakfast that included Belgium waffles, pecan pancakes, bacon and plenty of fruit, they went back to their room to pack.

  “How come we have to go back home so soon?” Suzanne said.

  “We can take our time, stop along the way if we see something we want to visit, but I have to get back to work too, so we need to leave here today.” Jim explained.

  “It is still your birthday week, Riley, is there anything special that you would like to do today?” Sarah asked her.

  Riley was surprised when her mother brought up her birthday. She had figured that was one subject they would all like to forget. “I saw a miniature golf place down the street that looked really cool.” Riley said. Suzanne jumped up and down clapping her hands and laughing. “Can we go there daddy? Can we?” “Let’s get our stuff in the car and go.” Her father said.

  They were very pleasantly surprised to find out that the owners of the miniature golf place were animal lovers. They told them that as long as they kept Cooper on a leash and had a pooper scooper with them just in case, that they would not mind just this one time if Cooper joined them. The only other condition was that if anyone else became afraid of their dog, or if he caused any damage, or if he started barking at the other customers, that Cooper would have to wait for them outside of the attraction.

  Sarah had a doggy bowl for Cooper in the car and they kept bottled water in their ice chest, so Cooper had plenty of refreshing water to keep him happy and hydrated.

  “Little sweetheart.” Sarah said, patting Cooper on the head. “I know you are loving that hair cut too. Momma, momma. Momma.” Sarah said, repeating that mantra. Cooper was happy except that he could not understand why he was not allowed to chase after those little balls that his humans were hitting with a stick.

  Next to the miniature golf place was an arcade and a coffee shop which sold several items besides coffee. Sarah convinced them that she would love to get a protein shake and sit outside at one of the cement tables that were covered with a big blue and white awning with Cooper. Just to enjoy the beautiful day and read her new eBook, ‘Jennifer’s Journey – The Journey Continues, purchased the other day on her Kindle. She always carried her Kindle with her in her purse wherever she went. It really helped to calm her nerves when she got caught by a very long train or when her doctor or hair stylist was running way behind.

  Jim took his daughter’s hands and they hurried off to the arcade. He looked as happy to spend time there as his girls did.

  Two hours later, when Jim and the girls had played every game in the place at least twice and after Sarah had taken Cooper on a walk in the park across the street, they were ready to hit the road again.

  They drove and sang songs and thoroughly enjoyed just being together and being happy. Jim started to wish that he had told work that he would be off yet another day, but he hadn’t wanted to push it. They stopped at a mom and pop grocery store and a couple of miles down the road stopped at a roadside grill and roasted hotdogs and ate potato salad from the store.

  Jim meant to stop at some point before they got back home. He was anxious to check the feed from the house cameras. He knew they were pretty far away and way out of range, but he wanted to check out the white streaks he had seen in the film. He wondered if the brand new cameras had some sort of defect or had stopped recording.

  It wasn’t quite dark yet when they pulled the van up to the curb. Everything looked O.K. in the back yard. Sarah was surprised to see people in their backyards and walking down the street. She had always found it odd that no one spent time outside in this neighborhood. She had renewed hope that perhaps the girls would find friends nearby before school started.

  They came into the house and found their toaster on the floor. “How did that happen?” Sarah asked no one in particular.

  “Maybe a big truck went by and jarred it off of the counter.” Jim said, not quite sure he believed that explanation himself.

  Sarah noticed that Riley hadn’t been in any hurry to go to her room in the basement. She let it pass without mentioning it.

  Sarah put their dirty clothes in a laundry basket and Jim, trying to sound as casual as he could, told his wife that he would help her carry it downstairs. Sarah looked at him like he was nuts, but she went along with it.

  When they got in the basement Jim asked her if she noticed anything different. Sarah walked over to the beautiful satin blanket and pillows that Riley had picked out for her bed and picked up one of the pillows. “Look, Jim, it has a cigarette burn in it.” She also picked up the decorative lamp that had been sitting next to Riley’s bed on the night stand. It was laying on the floor and the light bulb was shattered.

  She walked over to the wash machine and sniffed. “Jim, this laundry tub smells like urine. This just makes me sick to my stomach.” It was then that Sarah noticed what Jim had been referring to. “What is that lock doing on that door?”

  “I don’t know, I found it right before we left. I didn’t want to mention it while we were on our mini vacation.”

  “Jim, we can’t let something like this go.” Sarah said, yelling up the stairs for Riley to come downstairs.

  Riley came down the stairs slowly, looking at her parents. She then went and sat on her bed, looking scared. “Yes, mom?” “Do you know how this padlock got on that coal room door?” Sarah forced herself to speak slowly and in a low voice.

  “I put it there.”

  “Why would you do that, Riley?” Her father asked her in a slightly louder voice than Sarah had used.

  “I will tell you, but you will freak out!” Riley said. “More than I am freaking out right now?” Her mother asked.

  “I didn’t want to tell you because I was afraid you wouldn’t let me have the party. Especially since it was raining outside and I knew we would have to have it down here if at all.” Both Jim and Sarah waited patiently for their daughter to continue.

  “I kept seeing shadows. One was a big fat shadow and the other one was a taller, thinner shadow. They were going back and forth really slow by the foot of my bed and I have seen them more than once! That is why I had the baseball bat by my bed, and why I would come upstairs and sleep on the couch or with Suzanne in her room.”

  “Riley, we live on the corner, didn’t the shadows go away after we put the curtains on the windows?”

  “No, at first I thought they were from the cars driving by too, mom, but even after the curtains were up, I saw those shadows.”

  “So, you put a lock on the door to – to what? Trap the shadows in there?” Her father asked her.

  “No, daddy, Julia and I put the lock on there because the door kept swinging open and slamming shut, all by itself and I couldn’t sleep and we were afraid.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us any of this stuff before, Riley?” Sarah asked her, putting her arm around her.

  “Because I was afraid, because I thought you might call me a baby, because Suzanne was talking about Harry Potter living here and because I wanted that party. I don’t know why, mom, honestly, I don’t.”

  “Give me the key to that door.” Jim said, holding out his hand. Riley looked at he
r dad and got up and took a key out of the drawer of her dresser and handed it to him. Sarah bit her lower lip and Riley looked afraid. Jim gave his daughter a stern look and then opened the lock.

  “What is it, Jim? What is in there?” Sarah asked from her place with Riley on her bed.

  “Nothing, there is nothing in here.” “I told you.” Riley said. “Do you want to sleep upstairs with Suzanne from now on, until we can get to the upstairs bedroom after the hot summer?” “Yeah, sure.” Riley said.

  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.