a Cute Little House

                She fell to her knees as the sound of a heavy door slammed shut from deep within echoed thru the empty house.  The suddenness of the noise had startled her so bad, it had caused her knees to give away and fall to a position on the floor as if she had been weeding in a sundress out in the garden on a hot summer day.  Damn, what was that??, thought Jamie as she rose from the floor. Reaching back for the handle on the front door; Jamie noticed that it had been the front door that had slammed shut behind her as she entered the house.  Well that was a strange thing. Calming her nerves as she rationed that the loudness had not come from within the house but from right behind her, which echoed throughout the empty house was probably why it had startled her with such force.

                “Oh my goodness, note to self. I must warn Caty and David about the front door as they come inside. I would hate to see either of them get caught in that doorway if it ever slams shut like that again.”  Reaching her arm up to brush the wavy brown shoulder length hair from her eye sight Jamie noticed the slight tremble in her hand and giggled at the sudden rush of adrenaline as her heart beat began to slow once more to normal.  After recomposing herself, Jamie took a deep breath then once again started her exploration into the empty rental house on Iowa before the realtor showed up to give the formal escorted tour.  After all she needed this time alone to see if the house would fit her family’s needs and wants. 

                The house from the outside was not in the best of shape with some slight fading in the paint and a shabby unkempt yard with its pad locked shed at the far end of the slight gravel driveway.  But it looked very livable and quite quaint; with a little TLC it had the potential to make a nice starter home.  Sitting on the edge of town with the only neighbors on the west side, because  on the east side the Hiawatha water tower  sat in its five story sky fading blue colored glory. The house had sat alone and empty since its last tenants had departed without notice in the middle of the night; not telling anyone where they were going, but just disappearing. After all it had taken the landlord a few months to clean the house back up so it could be lived in, due to the fact that they had left the little house in such a state of poor disarray.

                Jamie wondered throughout the small modest house enjoying its thirty year old look.  The kitchen had the flour drawers with the old tarnished metal sidings and an old gas stove opposite the sink.  Finding a fascination with its little idiosyncrasies of a picnic style dining area at one end of the kitchen separated by a split wood siding to the old floor black metal painted over heating ducts had caused her to stand in awe of such a thrifty style hidden treasure. Even the late fifties style push button light switches had caused her to stop and admire them as she wondered from room to room.  After passing from the front bedroom thru the front room and thru the dining/kitchen area, Jamie begin to get her hopes up at the thought of leasing this house for at least a year.  The TLC that Jamie was capable of once she got to apply her magic had caused even some of her harshest family critics to stutter. 

                Caty will love it and I bet David could feel right at home being the little not so handy man that he is. Suppressing the giggle about David, Jamie made sure to note the walk-in closet between the two bedrooms as well as the large crack in the bathroom door.  “Now that’s a nasty crack. Geese someone had to slam this door or push something very hard against it to cause damage this big.  Replacing the door won’t be to much more then I’m planning on spending.”

                Walking a step inside the bathroom after finishing looking at the crack in the door caused Jamie to stop in her tracks. The light that seemed to seep ever so slowly into the window on the side wall was causing a reflection off the small decorative white-orangeish colored tiles that were placed to mid way up the faded off white colored walls to glow as if they were emanating from bright florescent lighting.  “Oh, my I love the light here.  This is just beautiful; it simply reminds me of looking east off a hilltop as the sunrise takes control of the early morning sky.”  Stepping into the bathroom and closing the door behind her, Jamie just couldn’t understand how the small light from the simple one paned window could light up a room with such bright intensity.

                 Looking around the small room at the brightness of the light as it seemed to reflect off even the toilet and white bathtub, but yet be absorbed into the door on the far side next to the faded un-sanded shelving. Jamie slowly regained her senses from the magic and started to notice that the light seemed to pulse with just a faint intensity.  Wow isn’t this just strange. Thought Jamie as she just couldn’t comprehend the full magnitude of the fact that something this beautiful could be hidden away in such an ordinary old house in the north-east corner of Kansas, just out in the open for anyone to snatch away. This was going to be a long term project, but with the right amount of money anything could be done. For a brief moment the thought of owning the house instead of renting entered her mind

                As if a rhythm was starting, the pulse seemed to pick up in intensity while Jamie continued to stare in awe at the multitudes of inch tile pieces placed in perfect order covering the walls to the midway point all except for the two doors in the room.  Hmm, it’s getting warmer in here with the door closed. This will be great for hot baths in the winter as warm as this is, the realtor must of left the heat on. Jamie reached down and felt for the warm air coming from the air duct in the floor next to the small porcelain sink; there was none.  Now that’s unusual, the heat is coming from the reflection of the light off the walls.  Whoever created this trick must have been a genius. Oh my goodness I can’t wait to show this to David and hear his logical explanation for it. After all David did have a way of explaining things and just taking the fun out of the magic, but he sure was cute as he stumbled for the right words as he tried to each situation to her over and over again in mundane detail.

                With the force of a brick being dropped from a bridge into a stream it suddenly hit her.  Two doors? If this door is the entrance way in here, then what is that one for? Wondered Jamie as she spun from the cracked door to the door on the opposite side of the room next to the head of the Victorian style sunken bathtub.  Stepping towards the door on the far end of the small room was only a couple of steps, but the pulsing in the room seemed to brighten and quicken as Jamie reached out for the small white imitation porcelain door handle.  The brightest and final pulse came as Jamie touched the smoothness of the door handle and turned it counter clockwise to open the door. Well that was just neat, thought Jamie as she felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to tingle as if a slight static charge was building around her in the small bathroom full of the strange glowing tiles.

                Soothing the goose bumps on her arms as she opened the door to peer behind its entrance Jamie stood in sudden confusion as she glanced first into the doorway and back over her shoulder towards the entrance in the bathroom, because they both appeared to be the same.  Now what is this?? It looks just like…..Glancing again over her shoulder Jamie noted the crack in the door on the entrance, then looking forward thru the other door.  She saw the same crack on the door that appeared on the other side of the bathroom that was on the other side of the second door just in opposite as if she was looking into a mirror.  Jamie reached into her pocket and pulled her cell phone from it and started to dial David, so he could come and help her investigate what she had just found. I’ll just call David to get over here. I’m not going any further this is just too strange for me, besides he likes this kind of stuff. What damn the phone isn’t getting any service in here...  thought Jamie as she fumbled to put it back into her pocket.

                Jamie covered the short distance to the bathroom door in short order. Wait please don’t go. Come back please….The feminine voice came as soft as the fall leaf as it falls from the tree to signify the beginning of the change in seasons.

                “What?” asked Jamie in response to the faint phrase?  Unsure where the voice came from and not quite sure she even heard the soft voice caused the hair on Jamie’s neck to rise once more. Looking back over her shoulder and seeing nothing, Jamie opened the door and stopped once more. “What the hell?!”  Jamie saw the bathroom again that she was standing in on the other side of the door with the crack in it. Starting to shake and feel the tears seep into her eyesight as fear started to build up in the pit of her stomach. Jamie could feel her lunch turn and roll in her stomach as confusion and fright started to feel her entire being.

                Please wait a minute, can we talk a bit? Hearing the voice for sure this time behind her, Jamie looked back over her shoulder towards the original closet door and saw a young dark haired woman with old glasses in her early twenties standing in the doorway that she had thought she closed behind her. The young woman was standing there dressed in tight faded blue jeans and an old dirty tee shirt and was peering through the door at her as if she didn’t want to intrude but yet give Jamie her space so as not to frighten her any further.

                “So, I did hear someone speaking to me. Where did you come from and can you tell me what is going on at the moment? Why does it….”

                SShhhhh Jamie, just calm down and wait, please. I can explain everything to you, but I need you to come back thru this door.  The voice was not spoken but seemed to come from in between Jamie’s own ears.  Jamie just trust me I promise no harm will come to you.

                Jamie felt a slight calming effect as she noticed the slight pulse had started once more in a steady rhymic fashion.  Letting go of the first door and allowing it to close in front of her was done almost as if her body was put on automatic or in neutral, she just didn’t seem to remember telling her brain to complete that set of actions.  Jamie turned around and walked the few steps towards the woman and stood in front of the door by the bathtub. Peering inside she watched as the young woman had stepped in and had continued to motion for her to follow; Jamie started her step into the second bathroom as the woman stepped through the door on the other side.

                              ***********************************************************

                What a shame, she was such a nice woman too. She really seemed to want to find a good little home.  The realtor thought as she turned the key in the lock on the front door after watching Jamie step inside the house.  Oh well, at least the house won’t be hungry for another few months. This will give me time enough to find its next meal. Shutting the door on her metallic red Suburban and pulling out of the drive towards Casey’s to get her a pop before heading home.  “One of these times I won’t be able to find the house a victim and then grandma’s curse will come true.” Mumbled the smiling blond realtor as she turned the radio up to sooth her seeping guilt. …but not today……….

a Matter of Choice

            As the money floated from Kelly’s pocket to the blackjack table, it never even occurred to her as to what she had put at risk during her latest trip to the Casino. Kelly continued to look forward to the next big payoff and with the dealer showing a six of hearts verses her pair of aces, it seemed splitting the ace’s was the only logical course of action to the thirty-nine year old gambling addict that seemed to of finally had a change of luck. The mixture in the kaleidoscope of sound and lights the filled the casino from every angle seemed to slowly fade into the background as small beads of sweat seemed to form from every visible pore and a few that weren’t visible to the bystanders eye as Kelly suddenly calculated that she had gone over her assigned budget this trip. Originally Kelly had planned on only spending two-hundred this time into the casino, but that plan had suddenly gone away when the pair of aces faced the dealers  six on Kelly’s last hand before she reached her time limit to leave. Kelly had reached into her pocket and broke her own rules that her councilor and she had settled on to curb this self destructive habit known to the world as uncontrolled gambling.

                Basic blackjack strategy had just gone out the window when the chance to split the aces against the dealers six for Kelly. Without thinking Kelly had pulled her rent money from its separate envelope to cover the cost of the new bet; instead of pulling her money from the table and walking away ahead finally the chance to cover at least some of her recent losing trips into the casino. Watching the dealer change over her bills into chips and replace them in front of her, Kelly grabbed the pile and separated it into the need amount to show the dealer she wanted to split her hand. A loud siren had just gone off somewhere out of sight amongst the many rows of slot machines that lined the edge of the casino, like the finely arranged bricks that formed the foundation of a middle school.

                “Kelly, you know better; what are you doing?” the feminine voice had so suddenly came from her left, it had startled her enough to jump slightly to the right side of her chair, which caused her to glance towards the still unseen voice more in anticipation then startlement. What Kelly saw in the chair next to her drew her attention so wholly that she forgot for a split second where she was at. To her it seemed she was staring in the mirror at her bedside vanity, late at night alone in her bedroom, only she was in a crowded casino instead with a hundred plus people shuffling around like ants in a colony each with their own distinct plans towards accomplishing their individual goals.

                “Excuse, me?” stuttered a startled now visibly tremoring  Kelly as she remembered where she was at and glanced at the cards on the table and the dealer as he continued on with the hand and started it with the player to her far right at first base.

                “Hey watch it there you damn jumping bean, I’m sitting right here,” a closer feminine voice sitting directly to her right where a second ago it was empty. Kelly would only play black jack if the chairs next to her were empty, part of a silly superstition, but it helped Kelly get through her fear of crowds while feeding her addiction to gambling. She hadn’t expected someone to intrude on her personal space so quietly and so suddenly without her noticing at least some kind of movement.

                Glancing to her right the pure shock of seeing her reflection sitting next to her snapped her back into reality for a second. “Madam?” this male voice came from in front of her. It was the dealer, “Maam, are you ok?” he asked with more question then concern.

                “Ah, yes. I’m fine.” She responded with uncertainty, glancing from her left then to her right slowly and shaking as she saw what appeared to be two exact replicas of herself. The one on her right had a very mischievous grin and the one on her left had a slight frown on her face as she glanced back at Kelly with a look of pure concern laced with an edge of pity. Looking back down at her cards, Kelly could see that the dealer had split her aces and placed the stack of two hundred dollars in chips behind each ace. Pulling his hand back to the shoe the dealer brought out a card and flipped over a seven of clubs to place on the first ace.

                Before Kelly could brush her curly shoulder length reddish brown hair from in front of her eyes, the first replica to her left spoke up “Kelly, what are you doing dear? You just bet your rent money for this month on just one hand! Where are you gonna live after your landlord evicts you; cause you lost the rent money again?”

                “I can’t lose this time the dealer has to hit that six, my luck is finally changing”, whispered Kelly, more to her left then anyone.  Glancing down at the lone ace next to the ace with the seven sitting across it in the shape of a tee, Kelly began to think again about the possibilities of making up her losses here then leaving after this last hand.

The dealer seeing her speak but not quite hearing her leaned forward and said “Excuse me, I’m sorry you need to motion hit or stay, maam.”

“Uh, yea. I’m sorry hit me” making a sweeping motion towards herself with her right hand. The dealer understanding her sign flipped over the next card onto the seven to show a two for a total of twenty. “Now that’s better” mumbled Kelly making the standard stand motion, as she looked to her left with a cocky smirk at the replica to her left, but to no avail because the replica was no longer there only an empty chair. Looking quickly around she noticed the replica to her right was still there and in response to her puzzled look of confusion, the replica to her right simply shrugged its shoulders as if to say don’t look at me I don’t know.

“Maam, is there something wrong,” it was the dealer again talking to her in a little louder voice this time.

Looking forward at the dealer and down at her hands again she noticed that the dealer had flipped over the next card for her hand, it was an eight of diamonds for a total of nineteen.  As a she realized what had just happened and without so much as thinking her hand made the standard stand motion. Unconsciously Kelly looked towards her right and accepted the tissue from the replica on her right to wipe the small beads of sweat that started to form on her forehead. The replica appeared as if to say something then decided better against it and simply sat and waited for Kelly’s next move. “What?” Kelly slightly snickered in a mockingly arrogant voice as she looked back at the replica.

“Don’t look at me, I wouldn’t of even stayed here when I started to lose past my loss limit” the replica smiled back at her, “besides dear Kelly the odds may be in your favor this time but testing fate too much has a way of biting you hard in the long run.”

The dealer spoke up and said “Ok here we go, let us see what we have.” Grabbing his six he used it to flip over his down card, this caused a seven to come into view for a total of thirteen.  The dealer having to draw till a hard seventeen is met reached for the next card in the deck flipping it over, a three of clubs landed next to the seven on the dealers pile. Looking nervously towards her right at the replica Kelly noticed that she was now sitting alone but for one other person sitting to her far right because the replica was know where in sight.  Glancing back down at the dealers hand he drew the next card in the shoe, showing a two of spades for a total of nineteen.

 The dealer quickly paid off her hand of twenty and gave the sign of a push for her hand of nineteen, removing the cards from in front of the two players at the table. Kelly collected her two hundred dollars winnings in chips, pulling back everything in front of her.  Gathering her chips in her hand to place them on the betting square a harsh voice could be heard in her head.  Don’t test me again; I won’t be so nice next time.  Startled Kelly gathered her chips and left without further need of urging.

a Matter of Conscious

As the money floated away from Crease and down the Platte river, the money untouched and still in the zipped bank bag had been placed in a cheap Wal mart sealable tub which was just big enough to hold the bag and its monetary contents of nearly ten thousand dollars, began to sink from sight with the ebb and flow of the dark muddy fast flowing water. Crease then sat down on the large flat rock where he had just stood to throw the spoils of a very uncharacteristic decision that had been made only a few hours earlier and acted on impulsively due to a very hard string of recent bad luck. Attempting to sit and plan his next steps, Crease brushed the loose rocks and twigs off the large flat river rock, the thoughts of the course of events started to flow into his head without effort as he stared into the rolling dark river water.

            Shadows lengthened and the sun continued its unending daily route as it slipped down to the horizons edge. The speed of the water started to slow down as Crease’s subconscious moved into over drive and then rewind, seemingly one point stood out plainly as the beginning of his turn of events, allowing the memory to draw him deeper into the day dream. The absence of color in the murky water appeared to change and blend within itself as a single spot in the river just off shore turned itself into a moving picture, Crease just simply let it happen as he hung on to the edges of the rock, as his mind forced his body to relax as it played the last couple of days out in his memory.

            Crease’s bad luck had started only a couple of days ago, but in the finite clock of life a couple of days seemed like an eternity to someone that until recently knew the direction his life was going, as the cycle of life goes with its ups and downs. Losing his job at the nursing home where he had been at for over five years had only been the first of several rapid blows to the thirty-nine year old ego. As he drove home from his job lose Crease had attempted to call his fiancé, who was soon to be his wife in just over two months after months of planning the perfect wedding for her to remember, but she had failed to answer his phone calls. “Hmm, that’s not like her. I hope she won’t be to shook up over this incident, cause I’m already not handling this well.”

                The drive home was short enough only to end in seeing his brothers red Ford Ranger parked in the drive way. Well that explains why she didn’t answer her phone; Steve and her must be out back talking.  Being the typical joker that he was, thinking it would be easier to break the bad news to her. He now wanted to surprise Shelly and his brother Steve before getting her alone, Crease slipped in the front door quietly to scare his lovely fiancé and his brother before he announced his presence.  Stepping in through the front door Crease stopped and listened for the sound of the location of the conversation between the love of his life Shelly and Steve who was not only his brother but his best friend as well. Unable to determine the location of a conversation Crease stepped further into the house as quiet as he could, but the sounds he begun to pick up weren’t from the kitchen or dining room like he expected. The sounds seemed to be coming from the upstairs and they weren’t of a conversation but only of Shelly telling Steve to keep doing something. Crease made his way about half way up the stairs before the sounds and stresses of his fiancés voice became clear as to what was causing them, he had heard them before but only he had been the one in the room with her.

                Realizing that his brother and fiancé were in a very compromising position and from the sounds of action obviously didn’t expect to be interrupted anytime soon, since Crease wasn’t due home for another six hours or so, had caused his stomach to tighten and pull itself even further down towards his toes.  Crease began to shake and sweat as a multitude of emotions started to boil and fume around his brain with anger emerging as the lead candidate before the explosion that was now eminent to happen. A decision had now been made in his brain, a decision that his sub conscious seemed to control over his conscious mind without its knowledge. Creases vision seemed to draw back from a full screen view as his body worked itself on autopilot, slipping from the stairs and back down to the hall closet where he kept the 9mm handgun and ammunition Shelly had got him last year for his birthday. Crease didn’t understand how he had gotten suddenly back up the stairs and at the bedroom door before regaining control over his body.

                A voice that Crease didn’t recognize seemed to come from everywhere at once and within his own head all at once could be heard plainly and was very compelling to follow.  You wussy, they weren’t concerned about your feelings or repercussions of what they did. Now man up and make them pay for not thinking about you or what you would do if you ever found out about their little love affair. From outside on the street the sound of two quick gunshots were heard by neighbors followed about 30 seconds later by the squeal of tires from a car as a few of them opened their cell phones to report what they had just heard to the local authorities.

                                                            **********

            The voice had continued to talk to and tell Crease what he should do over the next couple of hours as he followed its instructions to the letter. Crease had gone into the Wal Mart and picked up the items the voice had told him to get while no longer wanting to fight the voices control, Crease seemed to relax and just do as the voice instructed. When he had first heard the voice back at his bedroom door it seemed like he had just started a ride on an amusement park roller coaster ride but now it was like he was a willing participant on a slow farris wheel journey that just didn’t seem to quite.  Following the voice’s instructions to the letter Crease then journeyed to the bank and withdrew all of the money from the accounts him and his now deceased fiancé had collected over the last year to spend on their honeymoon to the Bahamas.

            Pulling from the parking lot of the bank, the sound of another voice caused Crease to slam on his brakes and stop his vehicle in traffic. Creaseie, what the hell do you think you’re doing? The voice had seemed to of yelled as it sounded as if it came from between his own ears and echo through the stereo speakers within the car itself. You just killed your fiancé and your own brother in cold blood because they were having sexual relations behind your back. Shame on you, your grandmother would be ashamed of you. The sound of a multitude of car horns snapped Crease back into reality as the voice slipped to a whisper in his eardrums it told him what he now needed to do.

                                                                *********************************

                The sound of sirens seemed to come from behind Crease as he continued to sit on the large flat river rock. Creases sub-conscious had now allowed him to think over the result of all of his actions over the last few hours as the sound of sirens continued to grow steadily louder while the now insistent flash of police lights could be seen in the parking lot behind him. Looking down stream for any sign of the long tide swamped tube, Crease pulled the small notepad he kept in his front shirt pocket and scribbled a few lines before laying the now closed pen and pad beside him.

                                                                                ***********************

                As the officers waited on their superiors to get to the scene of the shooting, the shooting officer kicked the hand-gun from the suspects now dead hand, he saw the small note pad near the now collecting pool of blood. Picking it up he read its contents silently and slowly shook his head in disbelief.

                Dear Officer,

                Do not hold yourself responsible for these actions but I cannot live knowing what I have done recently, which I’m sure is why you are here to find me. I do not have the courage or foolishness to do this myself, so I will need your assistance. Sadly Officer, I will have to make sure you help me follow through with this.

                                                                                Unfortunately yours,

                                                                                Crease