The House in the Park

Gisela Woldenga

752 Runnymede Ave. Coquitlam BC, V3J2V1

email: gwnovels@gmail.com

Tel.: 604-939-5357

THE HOUSE IN THE PARK

Emily stopped and pointed. “Look at that house, Claire. It’s like a left-over from another time. And those colors.”

Claire focused her camera. “Yeah, who has skinny, pink houses with yellow shutters nowadays.”

Emily felt a small shiver going down her spine. “Not shutters. The windows are boarded up. They look like dead eyes.”

Claire giggled. “How dramatic. Maybe we can find out what it’s still doing here. But right now we need lunch.” She secured her camera and hoisted the bag over her shoulder. “Let’s go to that cute café around the corner.”

“Why don’t you shoot pictures with your cellphone, Claire? Most people do that now.”

Claire gave Emily a stern look. “Not me. Those pictures never turn out as well as with my trusted camera.”

Emily and Claire had been friends since Grade three. Both had grown up, gone to work, and kept up with their friendship. Since Claire loved photography, they had decided to take a few days out of their busy schedule and take a bus trip to a neighboring city with a camera museum. Emily didn’t mind, even though her interest in snapping pictures was not that intense.

On their way out of the park Emily looked back at the house and rubbed her eyes. The house shifted back and forth, ever so slightly. She shook her head. “I was probably fooled by shades and tree branches moving.”

G.Woldenga: House in the Park

Claire looked at her. “What are you talking about?”

“The house. It moved.”

Claire patted Emily’s shoulder. “You’re seeing ghosts again. Let’s eat first, then investigate.”

Stupid me, Emily thought, too much imagination.

After they had ordered their food, Clair took a sip of her iced tea. “I’m going to ask the waitress if she knows anything about that weird house.”

Emily swallowed. “Why? She might not know.”

Claire shrugged. “You got me curious.”

The waitress smiled at her question. “All I know is that it’s haunted.” She pointed to another waiter. “Don might know more about it. I’ll ask him.”

After a while the waiter came over. “I’m on a short break. What do you want to know?”

Claire started. “What’s an old, strange house still doing in the park? Why not take it down and build something nicer?”

The waiter smiled. “It’s a long story. The house is haunted and nobody wants to disturb it.”

“Why not? Exorcize it and then take it down.” Emily had read about how to get rid of ghosts that way.

The waiter shook his head. ‘’It has been tried without success. The priest suffered severe burns when he did.’’

Emily gasped. ‘’Did he survive?’’

‘’Yeah, barely.’’

‘’What about its history?’’ Claire asked.

‘’Again bad. Murder and suicide.’’

‘’Well, blow it up then.’’ Claire popped a French fry into her mouth.

‘’And spread the demons all over the neighborhood?’’ The waiter looked grave. ‘’They’ll just invade another house.’’

‘’Why would they do that?’’ Emily felt dumb to ask but wouldn’t the ghosts be happy to be free?

‘’Oh, Emily,’’ Claire sighed. ‘’Maybe they want to live in a house like we do?’’

The waiter got up. ‘’It was nice to meet you, but it’s back to my job for me.’’

‘’Thank you,’’ both girls called.

After finishing their meal they decided to walk over to the Bed’n-Breakfast place that had been reserved for them. Again they asked the lady of the house about the haunting.

Mrs. Benson stared at Claire and Emily. ‘’Stay away from there. It`s an ungodly place. Been there for years, getting noisier every evening.’’ She shook her head. ‘’I wish it would explode and kill whatever is in it.’’

‘’The waiter said that would spread the ghosts all over the place,’’ Emily said.

Mrs. Benson stayed busy at the stove. ‘’Don’t get a headache over it. Just stay far enough away from it.’’

Emily and Claire looked at each other. How can we stay away from it? Emily thought. Maybe we get close enough to hear the noise the lady is talking about.

Outside Claire said, ”I have never seen so many people so scared of a haunted house. To prepare ourselves let’s see a scary movie.”

Emily had to laugh. It turned out to be a spy movie with Claire’s favorite “hunk-actor”, as she called him. Afterwards Emily suggested an inspection of a few boutiques along the main street.

Claire sighed. ‘’Too expensive for me.’’

Emily spotted a shawl made of soft, filmy material. ‘’Look at those colors. They really shimmer.’’ She held it up against the light. ‘’Light blue and gold with some green. I’ll buy it.’’

Claire giggled. ‘’Do you still have money for supper?’’

G.Woldenga: House in the Park

‘’Pfft. Just this once.’’ She had to bring something home. After supper at the little café they looked at the sky. ‘’It will take some time to get dark,’’ Claire said. ‘’We might as well wander through the rest of the park until then.’’

The park appeared bigger than they had thought. Claire clicked pictures of the man-made little waterfall flowing into the lake with ducks. Flowers bloomed in many colors with an especially beautiful rose bed.

In the meantime it had gotten darker. “Let’s sit down on the bench close to the house.” Emily could hardly wait to see or hear something, anything, coming from the house.

Everything around them seemed to quieten down with only the wind rustling the leaves of the trees and some far-away sounds of cars. “It’s spooky,” Claire said. “I feel like a child waiting for the ghost under my bed.”

Emily nodded. “Because we expect something to happen.” Then she pointed. “Look. Do you see that?” Wisps of vapor curled around the roof of the house, not in a stream but waving in a motion close to dancing.

Claire shivered. “Weird, what is that?” she whispered.

“I hear something,” Emily said. “Listen. It sounds like singing.” She got up and took a few steps towards the house.

Claire jumped up. “What are you doing? I thought you were scared.’’

‘’Just a bit closer.’’ Emily could hear more voices now. What is it, singing, yelling or loud talking? She barely noticed that she had walked nearer to the sounds. Then she stopped. The door of the house stood open. The same fog-like figures she had seen earlier floated in and out. Their arms were waving. Are they waving at me? What do they want?

Emily’s heart was beating up into her throat. She felt no fear, rather excitement for an adventure. Claire came up behind her. ‘’How far are you going? Stop!’’

‘’I just want to find out . . . Hey!’’ Something or someone ripped the shawl off her neck. It sailed through the air into the open door. ‘’No! You don’t get my expensive shawl.’’ Emily sprinted after it. The last thing she heard was Clair’s scream, ‘’Emily, come back, stop!”

Emily found herself in a dark hallway. A bluish glow made it possible for her to see a stairway going up. What now? She heard giggles around her. “Where is my shawl?” she shouted. “I want it back.” The answers were again giggles and high-pitched laughter.

G.Woldenga: House in the Park

Emily shivered. A penetrating cold surrounded her. ‘’What do you want with me?’’ she called once more. Someone shoved her and she stood in a living room with two candles flickering on a table. A shadowy figure moved around waving her shawl and something touched her face. Emily shrank back. I’m a grown person, I’m not afraid. ‘’Leave me alone. I want to get out. Now! I can’t do anything for you.’’

Everything around her became quiet. One candle sputtered and died. Emily heard a groan and someone moaned as if in pain. Emily took a deep breath. “Why are you still here? You are long dead. Go towards the light.’’ At least that’s what everyone always says. She heard a voice, ‘’Where?’’ Then more moaning.

‘’The light, the other side. You have to pass over.” Do they even understand what I’m saying? Emily heard two words, ‘’Bad, bad.’’

Emily began to understand. Their terrible history? “Even if you were bad, you have to go to the light.” But where is the light? Slowly she took a few steps backwards. Could she get out? She saw the shawl floating through the air again. She stretched out to grab it. But it disappeared up the staircase. Darn, I’ll never get it back. She looked at the door. It was still closed. A swishing noise sounded behind her and a touch on her shoulder made her jump and cry out.

“Let me out. You have to go – by yourselves.” Emily took a chance and dashed for the door. It opened. She ran outside right into the arms of Claire.

“You silly goose! We were scared to death for you. How could you? We heard you yelling in there.’’ Claire had tears in her eyes.

Emily stared. ‘’Where do all these people come from. Did you call them?”

Claire wiped her eyes. “I thought maybe they could help. You were in there for quite a time.”

Some men and women came closer, talking to each other. Some just stood and shook their heads.

Emily tried to take a deep breath. What am I going to tell them? A tall man came over.

“What is in there? What did you see? Are you okay? Come sit down here.” He took her arm and led her to the bench. Another man with a camera appeared and knelt in front of Emily. She started to shake, she couldn`t help it. What am I going to tell them?

G.Woldenga: The house

Claire sat down beside her. ‘’You don`t have to talk, you know.’’

‘’It’s alright. I tell them what I saw.’’ Emily let out a shuddery breath and turned to the two men. ‘’They’re just souls who got trapped and didn’t know how – to really die. I think they know now. I only saw one dark shadow but I heard them.’’

A loud cracking noise shattered the quiet of the park. The ground shook around them. Everyone looked at the house. It swayed and, like a deck of cards, in a cloud of dust, fell into itself, rumbling and creaking as it did.

Emily held her breath. Then she smiled and looked at Claire. ‘’They went. They found the light. It’s over for the haunted house. It was ready to go.’’

All around her people murmured. She heard ‘’Thank God it’s gone.’’ ‘’Unbelievable.’’ ‘’One for the book.’’ ‘’What did the women do?’’

Emily had a strange feeling of happiness inside her. I had to come here to save some unhappy souls. Coincidense? ‘’If it hadn’t been for the camera museum we wouldn’t have come,’’ she said to Claire. ‘’Thanks.’’

Claire still frowned. ‘’I’ve never been so scared in my life. I thought they had turned you into a ghost too. And all because of your silly scarf.”

“Yeah, I’ve lost it. Let’s go and get some sleep. I’m bushed.”

Most of the people had ambled off, still chatting with each other. “They’re going to talk about this for the rest of their lives,” Claire said.

As they passed a tall bush Emily stopped. Something fluttered on a branch. “My scarf!” Carefully she retrieved it. “They gave it back to me.” She held it in her hands. Who of the ghosts in the house had touched it? She looked once more over to where the house had stood. All that was left was a heap of rubble and dust. But two thin, smoky spirals hovered over it for a few seconds, then went up into the air and disappeared.