Chapter 3

III

Rolling up the long driveway of their home somehow made Amy forget, at least for a few seconds, about everything that happened over the last few hours. It was truly an amazing piece of architecture. It was a sprawling 19th century Victorian style home. Beautiful, yet eerie at the same time, like somehow the angles and the corners didn't quite add up. The driveway wound through a heavily wooded lot to the house, which stood almost hiding between the trees. The rough-hewn siding and rambling shape almost suggest that the house was thrown together without fuss or fanfare instead of intently planned and developed, like it dared you to live within it. To Amy the lawn and hedges looked perfectly unkept, “Does that even make sense?” Almost as though the grass and bushes refused to grow after a certain point or where forbidden, but Amy chalked it up to a very long night and left it at that.

They parked in front of the garage and walked up to the front porch. It was in incredibly shape for being over a century old. Calvin assumed they had to have done some work on it at some point, but the wood and even the nails looked original. As Calvin pointed out to Amy, nails in the 1800's were made a lot different than today. The size and shape of the nails were easy to distinguish from modern day ones. Calvin had a wealth of useless knowledge and loved to let everyone around him know it. Not in an arrogant way, but as though he had no control over it, it just spilled out of him. He was ever the teacher, just like his parents, even though he decided against the profession. Must have been ingrained through heredity Amy always thought.

They opened the large front door and the smell of flowers permeated the entire house. It was not what Amy expect upon entering a 100 year old house that hasn't been occupied in years. She figured the realty people must have done it. “What were they trying to cover up,” she thought, “busted sewage line, a dead body.”

“Honey, do you smell that?”

“Yeah, it smells like flowers or something.”

“Do you remember that smell when we were here before?”

“No, I don't remember it smelling bad, but it definitely did not smell like flowers.”

“I hope that agent is not trying to cover something up.”

Like two peas in a pod.

The movers weren't coming until tomorrow, but they did have a few things in the house. Calvin took a ride from Boston a few weeks ago with his best friend from college, Patrick, to drop off the bed and a few chairs. Calvin and Amy had only visited the house once before and bought it on the spot. The asking price was a well under half of what the places around the neighborhood were going for, which was odd considering it is by far the biggest place around. Calvin spent the better part of a day going through the house trying to find something wrong with it; bad wiring, rusted pipes, anything, but the place looked amazing. They put their bid on the house and within a few days they heard that the owner accepted it. They were home owners.

“Honey, I think I'm gonna go to the store to get a few things to tide us over until the movers come. Do you want to go?”

“Nah, I think I'll look around the place for a while.”

“Alright, I won't be long.”

It was the first time Amy was in her new house alone. She was growing exceedingly excited about the move and the new beginning for their family. Especially now that she can walk around and see the place as the new owner. She was a little intimidated by the size and character of the house. She felt afraid to be alone in it, like a child on their first day of school, frightened but excited. She was amazed by how clean the house was overall. She thought the realty people must have brought someone in to clean the place top to bottom because walking though the house she didn't see any dust. Even the ceiling was without cobwebs in the rafters.

She made her way through the downstairs trying to imagine where everything will go. She didn't believe in that Feng Shui bullshit, but she did consider herself a closet interior designer; although doesn't every woman. She ascended the main stairway imagining the pictures and painting would look best on the wall as she went. Upstairs near the master bedroom, Amy discovered a plain white door with a glass knob that she didn't recall seeing before. It is about ¾ of the size of the other doors in the house and appears to lead to the attic or a crawlspace of some type. As Amy turned the knob the door shrieks as though she wasn't opening a door but some ancient moss-eaten crypt. She stepped back as she saw something move past her. It was a small yellow ball with red and blue stars haphazardly placed over the entire surface. Amy watched as the ball bounced down the old wooden staircase and against the front door. She felt her stomach clench as the butterflies gathered. “That's Jeremy's ball,” she thought to herself running down the staircase. The ball had black scuff marks from kicking it in grandma and grandpa's backyard. Most of the stars worn away from use. He never went anywhere without it. Where most kids have security blankets or teddy bears, Jeremy had his ball. Now, holding it in her hands, Amy thought she could almost feel him in the room, watching, waiting for her to toss it back to him.

Calvin returned and found Amy on the bottom stair, eyes red, he could see that she's been crying.

“Honey, what's the matter?” Amy couldn't respond, she just shook her head, trying to regain enough composure to talk.

“Jeremy.”

“What about him?”

“It's his ball,” Amy held the worn yellow ball out for Calvin to see.

“It does look like his old ball maybe it got mixed up with one of the boxes Patrick and I dropped off.”

Amy looked up into Calvin's eyes, “maybe he's right,” she thought to herself. “Blame it on the hormones or the stress from moving and leave it at that.”

They finished bringing in the groceries from the car and opened the bottle of wine that Calvin picked up at the store. Night was slowly creeping along the long winding driveway and Amy thought nothing would be better than a nice glass or two of wine, especially after the day they had. As they sat on the porch, it couldn't have been a more wonderful night.

“You almost forget how beautiful the sky is when you live in the city,” Amy said.

“The city skyline isn't without its charm, but it really is amazing out here.”

“When I was younger I would call the stars the up-aboves. I miss the simplicity of childhood.” They both took a sip of wine. Amy sat, with one knee bent on the porch railing as her other leg hung precariously over the side. Calvin sat on the second step down, with his elbows propped behind him on the first step. Although, the real work won't begin until tomorrow, and would probably continue for the next few weeks, it was nice to be able to sit on the porch and just take everything in.

“Do you hear that?”

“What?”

“Exactly, silence. No cars driving by, no horns or shouting, nothing. Isn’t it wonderful?”

“I don’t know, shouldn’t there be some noise, crickets or something. Normally we get eaten alive sitting outside, but I haven’t seen or heard anything all night.”

"You're right, maybe this is the perfect place.”

The first night in their new home felt somehow odd to Amy. She couldn't help thinking that it was like sleeping in the guest bedroom at her in-laws place. Nice, but a feeling as though ownership belonged to someone else. Amy was aroused in the middle of the night by a sudden urge to find the bathroom. Calvin would always joke that she had the bladder of a five year old, which has been exponentially worse now that she was pregnant. As a kid Amy's parents were big horror fans and it seemed like just about every weekend they would rent a new horror movie and Amy and her sister would sit and watch it. Now, even as an adult she still remembers many of the scenes. Looking down the long dark hallway, she almost expected to see a little boy ride by on a tricycle or two creepy looking twins in white dresses standing at the end of the hall, but she shook the images away. With no accents or art decals of any kind, the bare white walls of the bathroom reminded Amy of the restroom of some roadside diner or highway convenience store on the outskirts of town; barren, empty.

As she stood up and walked over to the sink to wash up Amy saw something catch her eye in the mirror. It was a white streak or flash of something, but she didn't know quite what. She walked out of the bathroom and turned toward the stairs. She placed her hands on the railing and looked out over the side. Suddenly she felt a pressure on her sides near the hip. She turned with a startle to find Calvin standing behind her.

“Jesus Christ Calvin. What the f**k? You about scared me half to death.” What are you doing?”

“You left the light on in the bathroom. It woke me up.” Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I'm fine.”

“You still a little shaken up from today?”

“No, no I'm all right. I'm heading back to bed.”

“Okay, I have to take a piss. I'll be there in a little bit.”

As Calvin took his first, and as it turns out only, drink of coffee the next morning the movers arrived with little fanfare. Amy played supervisor to the guys. There were two movers from Acme Movers, Calvin, Patrick, and Gary, Calvin's father, along with Amy, Barbara, Calvin's mother. Moving the boxes and furniture felt endless to Calvin. It took them the better part of the day to unload the truck.

“It's amazing how much crap we've accumulated. How did we fit all of this in the apartment?”

The last few boxes were placed in the foyer and Calvin placed his hands on either side of his back and pressed his chest forward to stretch.

“You're getting too old, old man,” said Patrick as he handed a beer to Calvin.

“Yeah, it comes with age, I guess.”

Amy admires the view from the porch as tiny pieces of the blue sky hang before slowly changing; clinging to the last bit of daylight, before leaving for the night. Calvin's parents offer to pay for dinner for the group. It's been hours since they ate and everyone was starving. Calvin wrapped an old zip up parka around Amy's shoulders and they locked up the house and walked out to the car.