2. The Old "New" House

The adults were now standing in the kitchen. They had just come from the garage. The kitchen had white walls with black cottage trim. It had a black and white checkered floor, a black table with black chairs. The cabinets on the wall were white with black dishes showing through the glass panes. Everything was black and white. It was an old fashioned cottage styled with a modern twist. It was done very nicely. Everything had been updated.

Katie led them through the house. All the rooms had black and white patterns done on the walls or on the floor. Some of the rooms were psychedelically black and white; some of them followed the cottage pattern. Even the photos of flowers on the walls were done in black and white. It brought back the same feeling of unease to Luanne. Mitch seemed to be uneasy as well. When Katie finally left, the children had calmed down, and said goodbye to her properly.

"Phew!" exclaimed Luanne as she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand sarcastically. "We have the house to ourselves. Now what shall we do?" She said this last part suggestively. He smiled at her and began to walk toward her. He put his hands on her waist and was leaning in to kiss her.

BAM!

Giggles were coming from upstairs. Mitch looked up at the ceiling. "What are you doing up there?" he shouted.

"Nothing!" they shouted after a second. There were more giggles.

"Well," said Luanne. "I'd better go see what they're doing."

He reluctantly let her go. She kissed him on the cheek, and turned from him. She smiled back at him as she walked toward the black carpeted stairs. 'Later,' she mouthed.

He smiled back at her as she walked up the stairs. His eyes hadn't left the stairs even though she was long gone. He couldn't help it. He loved her. He turned his head from the stairs suddenly. Did he hear something outside? He shook his head. Of course he didn't. Not here.

The sound of pounding feet drew his attention to the stairs again. The children and his wife were marching down the stairs.

"Dinner time!" Luanne exclaimed happily.

*=*=*

They sat around the table and ate their food in silence. The lights were on all through the house. None of them noticed that it hadn't gotten dark outside at all. They were all engrossed in their own little worlds.

"When's Junior coming?" asked Johnny suddenly. Everyone looked at him. Luanne smiled.

"He'll be here in the morning," Mitch said with a smile slightly playing on his lips.

"I can't wait!" said Judy excitedly.

"Me either!" exclaimed Johnny.

"Your brother's going to be happy to see you guys too," said Luanne. "I know he's really excited about summer break. I wish he didn't have to go to college so far away."

"Did I forget to tell you?" asked Mitch. She looked at him blankly. "Junior's transferring to a school in town. He'll only be a half hour away."

"What!?" Luanne exclaimed.

"Really!?" said Judy.

"Wow!" said Johnny.

"You forgot to tell me!?" Luanne couldn't believe it. Her son was coming home. Junior was only 8 years younger than her. It was weird thinking of him as her son at first, but now she couldn't imagine him as anything else. Junior was Mitch's brother's oldest son. His mother died right after Junior was born. Luanne met Mitch a few years after that and they fell in love.

They made a really happy family together. That's why they looked too young to be the parents of a college kid. They were too young. But it was nice. She couldn't have kids. But now she was a mother. Her son, Junior, would be coming home tomorrow; home to stay.

Mitch looked at his watch. "Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Look at the time! I had no idea it was this late! Time for you kids to be in bed."

"But it's still bright out!" exclaimed Johnny.

Mitch looked outside. It looked pretty bright out, like it was still early evening, or late afternoon. How was that possible? It was already 9:45. Wasn't it? He took out his cell phone to look at the time. His phone said it was 9:46. He looked back at his watch. 9:46; they were working properly. They all got up from the table to look outside.

There were floodlights surrounding the cottage. Bright floodlights. Not an inch of night reached the house. How were they supposed to sleep in this? And more importantly why was it like this? The lights shone glinting on a metal wire that they hadn't noticed in the daylight. It surrounded the tree line. It looked like it was used to keep the forest at bay. It was still weird. Eerie almost.

They went inside and tried out all the light switches in an attempt to turn off the floodlights. None of them worked.

"That settles it," Mitch said. "We'll put blankets on your windows. Kay?"

The wide-eyed kids nodded, not knowing what else to do.