The yard was overgrown with weeds and the windows were boarded up. I was frightened almost to death and afraid to let it show. The older kids in the neighborhood were conducting tours and it wasn't cool for me to show my fear.
I ducked my head and entered cautiously into the house that we considered haunted. The rancid smell attacked my nostrils and I strained to adjust to the light as particles of dust hung and danced in the rays of light that entered between the boards on the windows. We went into the pantry where food had been left by the family that had abandoned the house. Someone had broken a glass jar of peaches. The sweet smell of the syrup was inviting, but the environment was not.
I nearly turned and bolted when I began to hear strains of organ music coming from the darkened doorway to my left. I could not show my uneasiness so I followed my playmates as they entered the dining room.
I was aghast as I saw him hanging there in the arch between the living room and the dining room. His head listed to the left and the arms of his flannel shirt hung limply to his sides. The fingers of his gloves fit loosely. He had only one boot on his right side. His left pant leg was pinned up. There was a crutch laying on the floor beneath him. My terror was overwhelming, but my determination to appear tough was stronger.
I don't remember how we got out of the haunted house that day. I do remember the anxiety I felt as we spent our first night in the house.
The house had belonged to a Dominguez family, but they abandoned it for some reason.
The house was auctioned to satisfy the debt for back taxes and my parents decided to buy it. There was not a single pane of glass in the house that was whole. Every window had to be replaced. Brooms and dustpans were replaced with scoop shovels and buckets to remove the dirt and rubbish that had accumulated in the years since the house had been abandoned. Spider webs were removed from the corners of the ceilings that sagged from the weight of the dirt resting upon them. Plaster on the walls was cracked and fragile. It fell with just a touch.
We moved our furniture into the house. Lace curtains had been prepared and hung in the living room. Wax was spread on the unfinished hardwood floors. The room at the northwest corner of the house right off of the living room was assigned to the boys. The worn boards of the floor had been painted with battleship gray paint. There were two beds in the room. One double bed where my brothers slept, and my single bed.
As night approached, the shadows across the walls and ceilings began to lengthen. There was a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling of the bedroom. As long as the light was on, I felt secure, but the time finally came that light was turned off. I was warm from the beautiful patchwork quilt laying over my twin bed, but my heart was chilled as the shadows under the beds darkened. I was afraid to hang my hand over the mattress for fear that some unseen being would grab it from underneath.
Sleep finally overcame the fear. When I woke in the morning, all was well.
6 comments:
As I was reading tension grew within waiting with anticipation for the results of this very leary descriptive story.... well done! Thanks for sharing with us the experience of the house most of us knew and had fond memories in!
Larry, Thank you for adding the photo. This is what the house looked like at the time of the event. You can actually see the boards on the windows.
some of the best times of my life wher in the b ack yard of the 3rd st. house. I learned how to dig a shallow well ha Kent just to cover it back up.
It was in the back yard of the house on third street that there was a big pine tree. At the base of that pine tree was a nest of ants. We affectionately referred to them as pissants. They were also known as wood ants. They were two colored. The front was red and the back was black. These ants would bite with their pinchers and then would excrete a liquid on the wound that would sting. When I was but a wee lad I had an ant latch onto my scrotum and administer a painful dose of excretion. I was crying and could not open the back door because I could not muster the strength. My mother came to my rescue and removed the ant for me. I was then able to go play again.
That back yard became many things. At one time Arlo had a garden in the back and I had one in the front. We had such different opinions of how to raise a garden that we couldn't work together. He didn't do it more then one year. I kept on gardening. I had some beautiful gardens. I worked in the garden every week day morning at sunrise. I never had weeds in my garden. I still don't.
That is where the horses and mules were kept. At one time The boys and I cleaned it up and had the back mowed. It was like a lawn.
Guess who got to mow?
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