The Haunted Manor
John got out of bed and stretched, then heard a knock at the front door. He opened it to find something that looked like a dachshund looking at him. Only it stood upright. It had floppy jowls, a long nose, flat head, and it began to talk and show him paper. When the dachshund imagery faded he began addressing a man named Buddy Dell.
“You have not addressed these notices, and I was sent by the city to make certain you get them and record a response.”
“What notices?” John asked, suddenly worried.
“This house has back tax issues and some transfer fees which must be addressed, or the city will take action and you can lose your free house.”
John brought the dachshund man in and looked at the papers. “I never got these, I was told the house was free except for the taxes, and we have saved almost all of those.”
“Well” Buddy replied, “If you can pay the tax part I can give you an extension on the rest for ninety days, but the transfer fees and the fees associated with assuming an abandoned house have to be paid.”
John looked at the papers. “Well the fees are really not all that bad, but I will need the extension.”
Buddy did not smile he simply replied “I can give you till the sixth of November to pay this off, but you really don’t want to miss that because the city will assume authority and there are contractors who want to bulldoze this house and put up more stinking…” he wrinkled his nose “con-does.”
John nodded. “I’m on it.”
Buddy handed him a pen. “Sign here acknowledging you agree, and you have till November sixth and the house will be fine except for upkeep and tax each year. Seems like the place is probably worth it.”
John signed the papers. “It is. The kids love it, the mouse loves the kids, and I think the local blonde kid likes Genny.”
After dachshund man left, John slapped his forehead and went to Debra.“Taxes, no issue, but these transfer and code fees, in ninety days? Ouchie pie! We have to do some repairs too, if we are going to stay here!”
Debra looked at the papers. “Did he say anything about payments?”
“I didn’t think to ask, but still, that’s more money than we can get that quick, Deb. How could we possibly just come up with that kind of…” John noticed Debra glaring at Paul, who was grinning and giggling.
“Don’t get any ideas, Paul.”
“Too late.”
“We have had this conversation twice.”
Gennae wheeled into the kitchen and looked at them. She folded her hands as if enjoying the exchange between Paul and Debra.
“All the other kids I know…”
“No, Paul.”
“The whole back yard could be a trail.”
“My back yard Paul.”
“All those tall trees…”
“Are going to get trimmed and provide shade.”
John smiled. “We could park people next door.”
“Do not encourage him, Jonathan!”
“I don’t need to.”
“I think it’s a great idea!” Gennae said.
“Young lady!”
“We even have my hearse!”
“For you to drive! Like a car, Paul!”
“Those two kids you hang out with. Jerrold and Robert…”
“Be quiet Paul, do you know the definition of quiet?”
“I wouldn’t want to paint it or do any more mowing…”
“Can you say I AM A SINGLE MAN?”
“We’re outside the city, we could do ANYTHING!”
Debra picked up a cup that had a dribble of milk in it and dumped it on John’s head. He smiled pleasantly.
“Miss Debra, I married you because you are a fun loving, pleasant person, great sense of humor and overall nice. Can you give me the reason why you are so adamant our house should not turn into a haunted attraction, make some money and have some fun this year?”
“You sound like a psychiatrist.”
“I could be an evil doctor.”
Debra looked at him, shook her head slowly and replied “I will consider it, okay? I just have a hard time envisioning corpses and caskets, skeletons and dead people all over my home!” Paul grinned. “I have no trouble at all…”
Debra slapped Paul on top of the head as she walked out of the room. “Disloyal.” She commented.
A little bit later, John and Debra were in the living room and Debra looked worried. “Look John, I understand you want to make money, but these haunted attractions cost so much money to even start! If we can’t put up the funds for the house, how in the WORLD can we come up with investment money for caskets, corpses, costuming, and affects? You aren’t talking about a few hundred dollars.”
Paul was sitting with Gennae in the sitting room as they spoke. He came into the living room.
“In the attic is a bunch of old dresses and other clothes stored there and forgotten.” He said.
“How do you plan to fund the props?”
Gennae wheeled out of her room. “My legs don’t work, but my brain does. I might have an idea.”
Twenty minutes later, Shawn, Jerrold and Robert sat with Shawn’s wife June in the living room of the house.
“Dollarwise, we could pull it off pretty easily, but I have a lot of affects that could turn this house into a really creepy place with projections, three dimensional figures, holograms, stuff like that, and these dolls, scatter them around and make the place all dark, it could be really creepy.” Shawn said.
June looked at him. But are people going to drive all the way out here?”
“They will if we advertise in key places, make it interesting and use social media.”
Gennae grinned. “We also have some real legends, real ghosts, and a hearse.” She added.Jerrold spoke happily. “So when do we outvote Debra and get this going? We’re out of school and got nothing but time!” He saw Debra look at him and shake her head.
John gave Debra a kiss on the cheek. She grinned disgustedly. Shawn nodded. “I’m game to put up the money and handle the social media. Let’s do this, and when your debts are paid on the house we split the rest.”
Robert looked anxious. “Do you think there will be much?”
Shawn smiled.
Paul and the others were excited to start turning the house into a haunt, and Paul found himself opening the front door, feeling Betsy push her nose against his, and she backed him against the wall when the announcement was made final.
“I’m waiting, Snooks?”
“For…”
“For you to ask me for my forgiveness.”
“Because…”
“Because I give you my hearse and you did not make me first on your list when you wanted partners. So are you going to humbly apologize and beg me to forgive you so we can go, or what?’
“I humbly apologize that you were not first, please forgive me, now where are we going?”
“WHERE DO YOU THINK SNOOKS? GET IT TOGETHER!”
Within minutes, the entire entourage was in front of the funeral home, and caskets, embalming tables, jars, sheets, and various building materials were being driven, walked and carried from the old funeral home to the house.
Debra began to help, and she was amazed at how quickly the house bean to change from a nice old mansion into a dark, creepy house full of ghostly legends.
During the evening and on weekends, John and Debra helped, but during the day, the kids were free since they had no more school, and with the exception of Debra and John’s rooms and the living space, the house turned into a spooky place in short order.
Dolls adorned cracks and cupboards, lights were fitted with dim bulbs. Shawn fitted projectors and devices, creating ghosts and images, and he invested in materials to build corpses and skeletons. Gennae took her most precious dolls and put them in a large trunk, locked them in the attic, and her room became an embalming room.
The front yard became a graveyard filled with grave stones, and old clothing found in the attic was fitted to people who wanted to help.
John and Debra found themselves very comfortable at night sleeping in their room, closing the door on the many dead things, but they experienced things they knew were not part of the trappings.
Debra saw phantom images of nurses, heard people talking, crying, and walking, and John saw things move in the house, shadows cross the floor and people mingling in empty rooms.
He grew accustomed to it, and as the months turned chilly, he simply enjoyed his house and hoped that this idea would work well enough to make it his without involving the state.
Hours turned to days which turned to weeks, which turned to October, and Paul drove his hearse around town and advertised on the weekend.
Paul secured a job maintaining equipment for a company that used drill bits and saw blades, and his boss told him “as long as you get done what needs done, I don’t care if you do it all in two days.” Paul then began working long days and giving himself long weekends for the haunted attraction, and finally when the time came to open the doors, Betsy happily switched on the lights and a haunted house with a haunted past came to life.
Shawn knew how to use social media, and for the first couple of nights things were slow, but soon Debra found herself with long lines of people driving down the road, parking in the empty lot next door, and passing through the house. Screams filled the air, and from time to time Debra found that things happened that were not planned. Betsy teased and razzed guests and her humorous insults made her popular. Paul asked her for scissors to trim cloth and she replied “I do my best to keep sharp objects away from people like you.”
Debra saw doll heads turn and look at guests, and she was asked about people who were not hired to work for them. But night after night the terror of the house of broken dolls began to turn into a cash flow, and when the season ended, Debra paid a few locals for their help, gave Shawn back his investment, and found that there was more than enough money to get rid of all debts associated with the house.
She and John threw a pizza party at the end of the season and they all celebrated. As the chill of fall became the harsh cold of winter, the decorations made their way into storage and the house became again a silent gray home where Gennae rolled her wheel chair to the grave yard to do something she had wanted to do for some time, and visited the grave of Charlotte and brought a huge spray of flowers which she sat at the base of a tall angel on top of a stone which read:
Charlotte Long
1846-1863
Angel of Mercy
To North and South
Gennae felt the cold breeze blow on her as she sat next to the grave, and she shed a tear, then slowly wheeled herself out of the cemetery and back down the road to the house.
She wheeled herself up the ramp they had built and into her room, where she had sat most of the dolls back on display, with Francis next to her bed. Debra had bought a set of glass doll eyes and refitted Francis with one, so she had two eyes again, set into her frame of blonde hair, marred only with a crack on her face from falling, and Gennae left the cloth doll in the locker, taking it out from time to time to look at the very old relic with the badly stitched back.
Paul finally decided he wanted to go into making film, and he was told that a local company would use him if he had no problem starting at the bottom. They offered him work building sets, which he took, and he drove the hearse to work each day. The pay was not that great, but it was a start, and he promised Gennae that if he ever was able to he would get her the operation she needed. Gennae had smiled and thanked him, but quietly retreated to her bedroom where she had cried quietly, depressed and sad, wondering what meaning she could bring to a life where she was bound to a wheel chair.
Gennae began to sink into periods of depression, but in the night, still, she would feel a slight breeze and reach out to see the phantom hand of the lovely little teenage nurse from the American Civil War who would take her hand and transport her to a magical place where there was no wheelchair or loneliness.
Gennae sincerely wished she could simply go back in time and be the sister of Charlotte Long, even if it meant joining her in the graveyard down the road because of some stray bullet.
Nonetheless, Gennae was deeply grateful as day followed day, that in the house of dolls there was a spectral figure who was dedicated in life, and in death, to bringing comfort to those who were wounded and suffering.
One day when Gennae was in a contemplative mood, she heard a sound at the door and opened it to find Jerrold on the other side.
“Can I help you?” Gennae smiled.
“No, miss Gennae, but seeing as I have had a thing for you for some time and only recently had the guts to say something, you could go out with me and hang out at the new park down the road that opened. You can still take rides and play some of the games.”
Gennae laughed happily and joined Jerrold.
Her wheel chair went into his trunk, and he eased her into his car, and they rode down the old dusty road. They passed a small road overgrown with weeds that led to a small, run down house in which sat a familiar figure, staying out of circulation to make sure he was not going to get into trouble, indeed, he wished to be forgotten.
Missing his one finger, Caleb Isogul sat at a table, the letters and diaries of his forefathers strung out before him, thinking only of being free of the old house he was in, and a new beginning. His eyes glowed with a fury of a predator about to strike.