Ghost House (3 page)

Sarah gave the girls milk, toast, cereal and
a banana for breakfast and then took out her list of things to do.
“Let’s see what needs to be done.” She said, taking out two pens
and handing Jim a piece of blank paper. “What is this for?” He
asked. “That is for your jobs.” She then went down the list of
things that needed to be accomplished.

“Call to set up cable and internet service– I
can do that. Find a car for Jim – you can do that, Jim. Grocery
shopping – done, School enrollment – that can wait – Oh, Jim, did
you go downstairs to see if the washer and dryer made it O.K. and
if they plugged them in?” “Not yet.” He notice her looking at him
and he added “But I am putting it on my list!” He smiled.

“This is a big lot, Jim. We are going to need
a lawn mower and things like that we didn’t ship here. And we
should get a snow shovel, much as I hate thinking about it,
especially in June. I put in a change of address, but I will check
the mailbox here and also take a trip to the post office just to
make sure, oh, and we have to change the addresses on our driver’s
license.” “We might have to take a test to get a valid Michigan
license.” Her husband added. “We also will need Michigan license
plates.”

“See now why I suggested taking more time to
get things settled here before you go back to work?” “There is
certainly a lot more to do than one would imagine.”

“What can I do, mommy?” Suzanne asked. “You
and Riley can go unpack your suitcases and put your clean clothes
in your dresser drawers. Then, Riley, you can start taking apart
the empty boxes so they lay flat.”

“Why?”

“Easier to throw out that way. Oh that is
another thing, I have to check to see what day garbage pickup is
and if it’s the same as the day they pick up grass cuttings and
such. I saw two large bins outside, but we still need to get a
garbage pail for the kitchen. Jim, this is not high on the list,
but I would like you to measure all of the windows so I can
eventually go and pick out window curtains. Can anyone think of
anything I left out?”

All three of her family members looked at her
and said at the same time “NO.”

“Good, Jim, maybe you should get the beds put
together first so we won’t have to sleep on the mattresses on the
floor again tonight. Then I can make up the beds properly.” Sarah
looked around the living room as if she were looking for something.
‘That is odd. When we first pulled up I could have sworn I saw a
puff of smoke coming out of the chimney and I remember thinking how
nice that the house has a fireplace.”

“No fireplace.” Jim said, “There wouldn’t be
a fire lit in it anyway, not in June.” “Of course you are right. I
was exhausted tired when we finally got here. I must have just
imagined it.”

Jim took Suzanne with him to purchase a car
and take care of the other things Sarah had on the list for him to
do. This way it would give Sarah more time to work without her
youngest daughter underfoot.

By the time the family sat down for dinner,
they were eighty percent done with their list of things to do, and
one hundred percent exhausted. Except for Suzanne, who kept asking
if she could go outside and run around? Being that the lot was on
the corner and that they had not met any of their neighbors or
noticed if there were any large dogs around, both mom and dad told
her no for today. That didn’t sit to well with Suzanne and she made
it known.

“Sarah, this chicken and rice dish is
wonderful, where did you find the time to do everything you did
today, plus make such a great meal?” Jim complimented his wife. “No
problem, just threw everything into the crock pot this morning and
let it cook on slow all day. I love that crock pot, such a time
saver.”

“Can we talk about the basement for my
bedroom now, please?” Riley asked. Sarah cleared the table and said
“Let’s check out what is down there. Jim, bring the suitcases down
with you, we can store them there.” Sarah said, picking up a
shopping bag full of laundry soaps and dryer sheets to take down
with them.

The basement looked larger than you would
have imagined it to look from the outside of the house. It was not
finished, just one big basement with cement floors. Jim was happy
to see that the washer and dryer had arrived and had been set up
without any scratches on them. The only thing there besides the
furnace and hot water heater was some furniture which looked pretty
nice, and a door against one of the basement walls.

Sarah walked over and opened it. There was a
narrow, long room with nothing in it. “I wonder why this is here.”
Sarah said.

Suzanne pushed her way around her mom and dad
and looked into the room.

“It’s a jail for bad little sisters.” Riley
said. Suzanne grabbed her father’s leg and held on tight. “It is
not, is it daddy?” She asked.

“It’s an old fashion coal room.” “What is
that?” Riley asked.

“When this house was first built it ran on
coal. The coal would be fed into a furnace that was built to
accommodate it and that is how they would keep the house heated.
See that window?” Jim said pointing to a window inside of the
enclosed room. “That is where the truck would put a slide or sort
of chute and they would just dump the coal into this room. The
house has a modern furnace in it now so I guess they use it just
for storage now.

“Can I make this my bedroom, dad?” Riley
asked again. “Well, it is cooler down here than it is upstairs. You
will have to wait until I change the locks and make sure there are
bolt locks on that side door first.”

“And not until we get some curtains or
something on these windows down here so no one can look in.” Sarah
added.

“But then can I?” Sarah and Jim looked at
each other and shrugged. “I guess if you want to it would be O.K.”
Riley started laughing and dancing around and Suzanne said “What do
I get?” “You get to have your very own room again and it is right
across from mom and dad’s room.” Suzanne started to laugh and dance
around just like her sister did.

The next morning Riley and Sarah were putting
the broken down cardboard boxes into large garbage bags when the
cable guy knocked on the front door. At first it startled them
since they had yet to use that front door since the side door was
so much more convenient to their cars.

Riley kept looking at the very tall young man
who was installing their cable TV and internet. She thought he was
very cute.

“Have you been a cable man for a long time?”
Riley asked.

“About ten years. Where are you folks
from?”

“Tennessee, why?”

“I like your accent.” “I don’t have an
accent, you do.” Riley smiled. “All set, Mrs. Gaunter.” He said,
handing her the TV remotes and showing her how to log on and how to
set up her email. “Seems like I am here a lot.” He said.

“Here, in this house you mean, or in the
neighborhood?” Sarah asked him. “No, I mean in this house. People
come and go all the time. Don’t know why, it’s a decent little
house, nice neighborhood. It never stays vacant for very long, but
people don’t stay long either.” He asked Sarah if there was
anything else he needed to explain to her about their services,
gave her a list of the cable channels and remotes, smiled at Riley
and took his leave.

“One more item to check off our list!” Sarah
said.

Sarah and Riley had just finished bagging up
the cardboard boxes when Sarah looked outside. “Oh look, Riley,
people have begun putting their trash at the curb, so tomorrow must
be trash day. I meant to call earlier to find out. It will be good
to get all of these bags of boxes out of here. We certainly had
enough of them.”

They hauled all of the trash out to the curb.
Sarah noticed an older woman in the window across the street. Sarah
smiled and waved to her. The curtain covered the window again and
the lady was gone.
Maybe I shouldn’t have waved to her, this
isn’t the south, and people are more reserved here.

Sarah and Riley turned to go back in the back
door when they saw a man holding the screen door open as if he were
about to walk into their house. “Excuse me!” Sarah shouted, running
over to the man. Suzanne was in the house. “Sir, excuse me!” The
man turned around. He was about sixty years old and had an odd look
on his face. Sarah walked up to him and said “Is there something
that you wanted?”

“I’m Joe.” He said, obviously expecting her
to know who he was. “Yes. Joe, why are you here?”

“Just checking up on things. My granddaddy
built this house.”

“Oh, you are the owner then, would you like
to come in and have a glass of ice tea?”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Joe said, walking in
ahead of them. “Stove and refrigerator to your liking? “
“Everything is just fine, thank you.” Sarah said, motioning to the
dining room table and handing him a glass of ice tea.

“Mom, I’m going to take some of my stuff
downstairs. Can we go to the store today for the curtains?”

“Yes, as soon as Mr. – I’m sorry, Joe, what
is your last name?” “Witters, Joseph Witters. You’re not planning
to make a bedroom out of the basement, are you?”

Before either Sarah or Riley could answer,
Suzanne ran into the room. “Hello, Mr. Whiskers, my name is
Suzanne. Glad to meet you!” She said as she held out her hand for
him to shake.

Joe Witters looked at Riley instead of
answering Suzanne. “Are you planning to make a room in the
basement, young lady?”

Sarah, feeling a stab of anger for Joe’s rude
behavior towards Suzanne, said. “It’s Mr. Witters, Suzanne, go
finish coloring.” Then she turned to Joe and said “Yes, Riley is
going to have her room downstairs, is there any reason you would
have a problem with that?” She asked him pointedly.

“Oh no, no, no. Just that there are three
bedrooms up here is all.”

“We will be using the upstairs bedroom mostly
for storage until the winter months. I imagine it gets extremely
hot up there with no central air conditioning in the house.” Sarah
said, wishing now she had not poured such a big glass of ice tea
for Joe.

“There are a few very nice furniture pieces
in the basement. Are you going to be removing them, or is someone
planning to come back for them?”

“No, why?”

“It’s just that they are very nice and I was
thinking maybe we could utilize them for as long as we are here. We
would leave them when we move back out, of course.”

“You’re moving back out?” Joe barked.

He must be hard of hearing.
“We just
moved in, Mr. Witters, I meant when we eventually do move, we will
make sure we leave that furniture where it is.”

“Oh. My grandfather built this house. He and
my grandmother lived here until the day they died. My mother and
father did too. You make sure you keep the walks shoveled in the
winter time. Mother didn’t stand for no snow or ice on her
sidewalks. Too dangerous she always said.”

Sarah had become bored with this
conversation, she had too much to do to waste any more time on it.
Riley had already made three trips back and forth to the
basement.

“Mr. Witters, it was nice meeting you and we
will remember about the snow removal.” Sarah said, standing. If Joe
took the hint, he gave no indication of it. “Yep, we laid out
mother right there in the living room, dad we had in this
room.”

Sarah was glad Riley was downstairs just then
and that Suzanne had run back to her bedroom. Since the soft
approach didn’t work, Sarah knew that she had to be more
direct.

“Thank you for stopping by, Mr. Witters.
Suzanne? Riley? Come on, we have to get going to the store now!”
She called out to her daughters. Joe Witters finally got up and
said “I’ll be going now, you mind what I said about the snow.”

“I understand, Mr. Witters, goodbye.” Sarah
had to practically shove him out the door. She then went and again
told Suzanne that they needed to get some stuff done so put her
shoes on and let’s go. Suzanne took her time and Riley ran back
downstairs to take one more load of her stuff, so it was a good
fifteen minutes before the three of them waked out of the side
door.

“You planning on watering these flowers
anytime soon?”

Sarah jumped. “Mr. Witters, I thought you had
already left.” “I am leaving, just as soon as I water these
flowers.” He said. Sarah was angry now. “My husband will water the
flowers when he gets home from work. No need for you to do it.” She
said with an edge in her voice. But Joe Witters just ignored her,
picked up the hose and started to water the flowers.

Sarah and the girls got into the car and
locked the door. Sarah drove as far as the next block and then
stopped and took out her cell phone. She sent a text to her husband
saying “Make SURE you buy those bolt locks today for both doors and
make sure you install them today too!” She typed. Then she went to
the store to purchase window coverings for all of the windows, even
the one upstairs in the attic.

Riley liked to bowl, so when they could find
the time, they would go to the local bowling alley and bowl a game
or two. Riley met a new friend there named Julia. Sarah was glad
that Riley had met someone she could be friends with. There were
not many children in their neighborhood. It wasn’t long before
Julia was almost a third daughter at the Gaunter home and Riley had
also spend a great deal of time at Julia’s house. Julia lived a
couple of miles from them, so the girls would have to have their
parents give them rides back and forth to each other’s houses. It
was nice too that Julia’s mother, Victoria, and Sarah had also hit
it off.

Suzanne, however, didn’t like when Julia
spent so much time over their house. It was not that she did not
like Julia, but she wanted to either be included when they got
together, or she wanted Riley all to herself. Jim and Sarah felt
sorry for little Suzanne and promised that they would get her a
puppy. Suzanne figured that a puppy was much better than a sister
who ignored her. They had gone as a family and picked out a cute
little Cockapoo dog from the dog pound and named him Cooper.