Ghost House (9 page)

“Mr. Witters. We have repeatedly asked you to
keep your distance from this house. Yesterday I saw you drive past
here, twice.”

“You did?” Asked Jim, surprised. Sarah shot
him a look and he walked back into the house to tell the girls to
get garbage bags and to start cleaning outside.

“I have had enough of you bothering us. We
won’t be renewing at the end of the lease year, Mr. Witters. Until
then we would appreciate you leaving us the hell alone or we will
take out a restraining order with the police department.” Sarah
told him firmly.

“Yeah, you like the police department, you
should be great friends with them as often as they have been here
since you moved in! May I remind you that this is MY MOTHER’S
house?” Joe Witters said taking a step closer to Sarah. She did not
back up, nor did she back down.

“No, you may not. You can turn around and get
off of this property for as long as we are paying you to live here,
and, for your information, we have already spoken to the police
department and told them all about you. It is a matter of public
record now.” Sarah told him.

Joe Witters turned and picked up two pop cans
and started to leave. “Drop those cans, Mr. Witters, unless you
want us to take twenty cents off our next rent check!” Sarah
said.

She turned to see Jim looking at her oddly.
“Really, Sarah?” “Well, he pissed me off.” “Apparently so.”

Riley, Ava and Emma came outside with garbage
bags and gloves and went to work picking up the trash and putting
the pop cans into the bags. Sarah looked at the ground and was
surprised to see Mr. Witters was correct about there being
cigarette butts on the ground. “Riley, come see me when you are
done there.” Her mother told her.

Sarah never did get the chance to speak to
Riley about the cigarette butts on the ground. She did not want to
embarrass her in front of her new friends and it was her birthday.
After they made sure the backyard was back to normal, the girls
went back downstairs to talk about the party. Sarah had a big pot
of spaghetti made, always good to feed a crowd. She put out bread
sticks and salad and called the entire family and Riley’s friends,
up for dinner.

The girls were eating at the table while
Sarah and Jim ate in the living room. Suzanne, on a sugar high from
all the cupcakes and cookies she had consumed that day, was singing
and dancing around the room with Mr. Pickles. Cooper jumped on
Sarah’s lap wanting to be petted. Sarah petted him and said “Momma,
Cooper, momma, momma, momma.” Again, little Cooper turned his head
as if he was trying to understand what she wanted. He jumped up and
licked her on her cheek. “Aww, Cooper.” Sarah said, “Not on my
face.”

Suzanne was sound asleep in her bed with Mr.
Pickles in her arms and Freddie and Cooper lying next to her. Jim
checked to make sure the doors were locked and then he and Sarah
told Riley and her friends’ goodnight and they went into their
bedroom. “Long day, huh?” Jim said as he looked over at Sarah
sitting on the bed. “Yes, it has been. Listen, Jim, I know I have
been on edge lately and I am sorry about that. I really think we
should start looking for a house of our own sooner rather than
later.”

“Sarah, we have been here just over a month,
we have to give it a chance.” Jim said. “Moving is a big deal and
the company isn’t going to help us pack and move our stuff to yet
another house. Frankly, I just don’t have the energy to deal with
another move, not to mention we have a one year contract with
Witters and you know he would take us to court if we broke it.”

“I’d like to break him.” Sarah said. Jim
smiled and pulled his wife close to him. “Let’s forget about that
for tonight, deal?” “Deal.” Sarah said, snuggling into her
husband’s arms.

Loud knocking on the back door woke Jim up.
Walking into the kitchen Jim was surprised to see Riley and her
girlfriends with the back door open and a young man standing there.
“What is going on here?” Jim asked.

“This is my boyfriend, Seth.” Ava said. “What
is he doing here at this time of the night?” Jim asked. “I came to
see my girlfriend, do you mind?” Seth said rather
sarcastically.

“As a matter of fact, yes, I do mind. Go
home, you can see your girlfriend at her house tomorrow.” Jim told
him, starting to shut the door. “Wait – can’t I just talk to him
for a little bit outside?” Ava asked. “No, if you want to, you are
welcome to call your parents and have them pick you and your friend
up and then you can talk to each other all you want, at your house.
This is my house, and we are losing sleep here.” Jim said.

“This is bogus, man!” Seth said.

Jim looked at Riley “Go to bed, Riley.”
Riley, Julia and Emma turned to go downstairs, but Ava stood her
ground. “You are not my father!” She yelled at Jim. “You are
correct – go call your father and I will be glad to step aside and
let him make the decision. But until he gets here, you have to
leave this property, Seth. My wife and five year old are trying to
sleep.”

Seth left, yelling obscenities’ kicking the
gate on his way out.

“I’m sorry.” Julia said when Jim came back
into the house. “It’s not your fault, Julia.” Ava stomped back up
the stairs with her purse in her hand. “I’m leaving and you can’t
make me stay!” She screamed.

That started Cooper barking and woke Sarah
up. “Julia, does your mother know Ava’s parents?” “They are our
neighbors.” Julia said. “Please call your mother, I would like to
speak with her or with your father.”

Julia called home and Jim spoke with her
parents. Sarah was listening and jumped when they heard a car horn
blasting outside. Suzanne ran into the dining room crying and
clutching Freddie to her chest. “What is happening?”

At this point, Jim did not know what to do.
He and Sarah were responsible for the welfare of the girls as long
as they were on their property as invited guests. He did not want
to detain someone who wished to leave, but at this time of the day
and as young as Ava was, there was no way Jim was going to let her
go with that moron who was blaring his horn outside.

Blue and red colored lights shown through the
kitchen window. “Son of a bitch!” Jim said, walking out the door to
speak with the officers. Sarah told all of the girls to go into the
living room and sit on the couch. The police officers walked into
the house and asked which girl was Ava and asked her to go into the
kitchen so they could speak with her. You could still hear every
word that was said, only the small dining room stood between the
kitchen and the living room.

Riley was crying and Suzanne started to creep
closer to the kitchen so she could see what was going on.
“Suzanne!” Her mother said, giving her a look. Suzanne came back
and sat next to Riley.

Julia’s mother and father came into the house
and said perhaps it would be best if Julia and Emma went home with
them now. “Did you speak with Ava’s parents?” Sarah asked
Victoria.

“I did, but the police officers thought it
best that they take Ava home. That boyfriend of hers is something
else.” The two sets of parents expressed their regret on how the
evening turned out. Ava left with the police officers, and Jim and
Sarah looked at each other. “This is insane. Riley, you are not
dating until you are thirty!”

Sarah looked out the window. “Crap! More than
a few houses have their lights on, Jim. Now the neighborhood has
even more to talk about!”

“I couldn’t care less!” Jim answered, anger
finally winning over diplomacy.

“Why should you, Jim? You are at work all
day, it’s me and the girls who have to deal with everything here!”
Sarah yelled at him.

Riley cried harder and Suzanne had tears in
her eyes now as well. Sarah felt awful for the way she and Jim were
bickering with each other. None of this was their fault, nor the
fault of their daughters.

Jim looked at the clock. It was three a.m.
Sunday morning. “Get the kids to bed, Sarah.” Jim said, walking
into the kitchen and making a pot of coffee. Sarah had Riley and
Suzanne lay down in Suzanne’s room, she gave them each a kiss on
the cheek and told them no one was angry with them and that mommy
and daddy were just tired. The girls fell asleep within
minutes.

Sarah walked into the kitchen and poured
herself a cup of coffee and sat next to her husband in the dining
room. “I don’t know why I am drinking coffee, it will just keep me
up the rest of the night. Jim, what are we going to do?”

“I have a plan.” Jim winked at his wife.

When Suzanne woke up that morning she again
found herself in her car seat in the back of her father’s van. She
didn’t mind it so much this time.
Maybe we are going back to
Tennessee.
She was surprised to see Cooper sitting on the back
seat next to her. He had Freddie in his mouth and she had Mr.
Pickles on her lap. All was well in Suzanne’s world.

Riley was looking out the window. She didn’t
know where they were going, but she didn’t much care at this point
either. All she had wanted was to have a nice birthday party and
look how that turned out. She hadn’t really liked Ava and could
tell that Julia wasn’t real close with her either, but Emma had
asked if Ava could come too and they felt they couldn’t say no.

She had been disappointed in Alex too when
she saw him smoking a cigarette. He had also acted stupid with the
friends he had brought with him. She had also felt funny when a
bunch of kids she had never seen before and who were obviously much
older than herself and Julia, started to come in the back door. She
couldn’t tell them to leave and she didn’t want to tell her parents
either.

Riley was still young enough to have expected
everyone to walk in with a birthday present for her, but not one of
those people did. Julia had given her a birthday card and it did
have a five-dollar pass to the movie theatre, but besides that and
the beautiful new bedding and rugs that her mom and dad let her
pick out, she felt left out in the present getting scheme of
things.

Sucks to grow up. Now mom and dad are mad at
me. I probably will never have another birthday party.

Jim had been noticing how increasingly upset
his wife had been becoming and he felt bad. His job was very
demanding, especially with the transfer. He knew he should had
followed up with the management company or with Mr. Witters
directly, but until the other day, he had not witnessed what Sarah
had been trying to tell him all of these weeks.

He had thought about calling his old friend
Bob. He knew that Bob and his wife Barbara had a beautiful big
cabin in Oscoda, about three and a half hours north of Detroit. But
the thought of room service and a big indoor pool had him changing
his spur of the moment plans yet again. He figured he had a lot to
make up to Sarah and the girls and it would be good to get away for
a couple of days while the kids were still on summer break.

Sarah sat in the front seat, fighting to keep
her eyes open. When Jim had suggested that she get the girl’s
swimsuits and a couple of changes of clothes together, she hadn’t
even stopped to ask him why. Now here they were just a few hours
later, driving up Northbound I-75. She hadn’t asked him where they
were going, simply put, because she did not care. As long as she
was away from that house. Right now her only worry was if Cooper
would get car sick or not.
So far, so good.

Jim had not gotten any sleep at all. First he
went to Meijer and made some very important purchases. He came back
home, installed and checked out what he had purchased, then went
back out to get an oil change and to fill the gas tank. He had
called his boss on the way back to the house from the gas station.
All that was left was to load his little family into the car and
take off.

This was the first time the family was
traveling with a pet, so they had to make sure they stopped enough
for Cooper to get some exercise and fresh air and have time to
insure there would be no accidents in the car. Jim also had checked
his smart phone when he stopped for coffee, to make sure the hotel
they were going to allowed pets.

Jim looked at Sarah. She was sleeping with
her mouth open, a tiny bit of drool coming out of the side near her
bottom lip. He noticed a couple of lines near her eyes that he had
not noticed before, and her hair was sticking up in all directions.
He thought she never looked more beautiful. She was truly the glue
that kept their little family together and he was very grateful for
her.

When they got to the hotel and had deposited
their belongings into their room with two queen beds, they all
seemed to get their second wind. They had a big breakfast at the
buffet and brought some back for Cooper. Jim had suggested that
they go horseback riding that afternoon and was very surprised when
Sarah and the girls said that they would much rather stay in the
air conditioned hotel room with Cooper.

Jim wasn’t sure about bringing Cooper with
them on this trip, but he did know that there was no way he would
leave their newest family member in that house all by himself and
with them so far away. He didn’t trust Mr. Witters to stay away and
for that very reason had arranged with the local police to issue a
restraint order. That required the help of his friend Bob, plus a
kind lady at the management company who understood immediately
their dilemma. Jim was told to check a particular website Monday
morning and that he could then initiate an electronic signature to
finish the process. Jim had no idea if this was regular procedure,
or if someone had helped them be able to leave town sooner, but in
either case, he was grateful and felt more like he was part of the
solution.

Jim stayed in the room with Cooper, saying he
wanted to check a few things on line for his job. Sarah took the
girls and they went to the pool. Jim checked a few things out on
line and then put Cooper’s leash on, wrote out a short note in case
Sarah came back before he and Cooper did, and then he and Cooper
left the room.