The House That Dad Built

           It was going to be a fresh start for our family. My parents had been scrimping and saving every penny for the last five years just so they could buy a piece of land in the country.

           For as far back as I can remember, which is only the fifteen years of my life, we moved every few months from one dingy apartment to the next. It was the only life I knew. So, when my parents took my little sister, Jackie, and I on a road trip one weekend, I had no idea what to expect.

           “K.K.” my mom said, (K.K. was short for Kevin Keith, my actual name.) “Did you remember to bring your camera along?”

           Photography was my passion. I had a second-hand Nikon camera that my mom picked up at a yard sale when I was ten. It wasn’t digital like modern cameras; it was an old 35mm camera that you had to load with film. Once my dad showed me how to operate it, I was shooting pictures everywhere I went. That is, until my parents told me that I couldn’t have any more film unless I could pay for it and the developing myself. That deterred me a bit, but I never lost interest.

           One Christmas, when I was thirteen, my parents surprised me with a brand-new digital camera. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a point-and-shoot, but it meant no more limits on how many pictures I could take.

           All along the way, I snapped pictures as we drove. I took photos of houses, signs, barns, and I even caught a picture of a man picking his nose while we were stopped at a red light. The further away from the city we travelled, the more beautiful the pictures became. There were horses and cattle in the fields. I saw a crop-dusting plane flying over our car too, but when my dad stopped the car and said, “We’re here!”, that is when things really started getting interesting.

           We sat parked in front of a beautiful two-story house with a huge yard. A mailbox sat on a post near the gate that read, “THOMPSON” on it. I looked to my parents, and they just smiled gleefully.

           “So, what do you think?” asked mother.

           Jackie replied, “It’s so pretty.” Her eyes were as big as golf balls.

           “What about you, K.K.?”

           “It’s pretty sweet,” I said nonchalantly as I snapped off more shots of the house.

           “Kids,” my mother began, “this is our new home!”

           “But, how?” I asked.

           “With all of the money we saved up, your father and I were able to buy this property, and ever since then, your father and Uncle Rick have been working very hard to build this house.”

           My sister and I looked at one another, then ran to our parents and wrapped our arms around them tightly. I never dreamed that we would ever live in a place this nice. We gathered up the bags that we brought with us and hurried to the front door. I was very excited to see what the inside looked like.

           The interior of the house was even more eye-catching than the outside. The floors were all a red hardwood. My dad said it was hickory. There was a staircase leading from the foyer to the second floor, and past the staircase, was the kitchen. To the right of the foyer was a large living room with a great big window. I had never seen windows this big in the apartments we lived in. It reminded me of a storefront window.

           The kitchen had cupboards to match the floors and a big, walk-in pantry for all the food and ingredients. To the right of the kitchen, was the dining room with a round table in the center with wooden chairs surrounding it.

           We raced mom and dad up the stairs next and argued over who got the bedroom at the front of the house. When my parents heard what the argument was about, they quickly settled it by saying that the front bedroom was theirs. I settled for the room with the bigger bed while my sister was happy with the room with the larger closet.

           My mom said that the rest of our belongings would be arriving the next day, so we would need to get a good sleep and be ready when the movers arrived the next day. My dad ran into town and picked up a pizza for us to eat for dinner, then it was straight to bed.

           The next morning, I woke to a commotion outside my bedroom door. I sleepily dragged my tired legs across the floor and propped open the door just a crack. There were strange men walking around outside my bedroom. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I closed my door and sat up against it, hoping to keep them from opening it.

           I heard a tapping on the door and jumped slightly, then my mom’s voice asked me if I was ready for breakfast. I told her that I would be right down. What a relief that was. I quickly threw on some clothes and hurried down the stairs, narrowly avoiding a collision with a burly man in blue overalls carrying my mom’s bedroom lamps that she loved so much.

           I could smell the bacon and eggs before I ever entered the room, and it made my tummy growl loudly. It felt like I hadn’t eaten in days. My mom told me that the country air always makes you hungrier than the city air. She even cooked up some extra food for the men that helped move the furniture, which they gratefully accepted.

           After everything was unloaded, the unpacking began. My mom helped Jackie in her room while I worked on my own room. My dad started with the kitchen and dining room. By dinner that night, everything was put away in its place, and we all sat down to watch a DVD. My sister’s choice was always the same movie, “The Little Mermaid”. I didn’t want to admit it, but I kind of liked it too. Scuttle, the seagull was always my favourite character.

           Before the film finished, Jackie was already sleeping, so my dad carried her up to bed. My mom asked me to help her tidy up a bit before I headed up to bed too. As I was putting a box of popcorn back into the pantry, I noticed a light coming from behind the wall. I tried to figure out what was on the other side of that wall when my mom called out my name. I shut the pantry door and decided to check it out another time.

           It was a few days later when my dad ran into town for some supplies and my mom was upstairs bathing Jackie, that I saw my opportunity to investigate. I looked inside the pantry to see if there was a door that opened to another room, but I couldn’t find anything. I then slipped on my shoes and snuck outside and around to the side of the house. I estimated where the pantry was located and looked for an entrance along that wall. All I could see was wood siding and a bunch of junk piled next to an old rowboat that my dad said he was going to fix up one day so we could go fishing.

           I approached the boat and saw that it was fasten to the wall with bungee cords. I undid one of the bungee cords and pulled the boat away from the house. There behind it, was what appeared to be a door hidden by the lapboard siding. I undid the other cords and pulled the boat back some more for a better look. That was when I heard the distinct sound of my dad’s old 1980s Ford LTD Crown Victoria that he bought at a police auction. About every ten minutes or so, it would backfire. I quickly refastened the bungee cords and hurried back into the house before he pulled in the driveway.

           My mom came down with Jackie soon after I walked in the door and kicked my shoes off. When my dad entered, my mom greeted him at the door with a kiss. That was when she saw my shoes tossed haphazardly across the floor with chunks of mud left in a mess around them. When she brought it to my attention, my dad gave me a strange look. It was if he knew what I was doing.

           I apologized and cleaned up the mess, then went up to my room. I tried to read a novel, but my mind kept turning toward the hidden door. I tried to imagine what could be hidden behind it and wondered why my dad was trying to keep it a secret.

           An hour had passed, and I heard a knock at my bedroom door. “Come in,” I called out. The door opened and my dad walked in, closing the door behind him.

           “Can I talk to you, Kevin?” he asked.

           “Sure dad, what’s up?” I responded with hesitation in my voice.

           “Were you out by the side of the house today?”

           I figured this was it. He caught me.

           “Yes dad, I was.”

           “Were you messing around with that boat, Kevin?”

           I had to think fast.

           “Well, kind of. I was checking it out to see what had to be done to it. I figured that you and I could work on it together. Can we do that. Dad?”

           My dad stared at me silently for what seemed an eternity, then said,

           “I think that’s a great idea, Kevin, but it may be a while before I have time to start on it. Do you mind waiting?”

           “Of course not, dad. Whenever you are ready.”

           He smiled and asked me to stay away from the boat for now because he claimed it could be damaged easily in its current condition. Then he messed up my hair, gave me a playful shove, then left the room. I sighed with relief.

           It was weeks later before I had another opportunity to go outside by myself. My dad was gone into town again, and my mom was in the garden out back with Jackie. This time, I slipped on my dad’s work boots and walked out to the boat. I quickly undid the cords and laid the boat down on the ground. There was no handle that I could see on the door, so I started pulling around the edges where I thought the door was located. It wouldn’t budge.

           I leaned up against the wall of the house while I tried to think of another solution, and that is when I heard a click. I stood back, and a section of the wall popped away from the rest of the house. I swung it open slowly and behind the door was a room about six feet by six feet. Along one wall sat a shelf with several DVDs and some magazines. At the back of the room sat a small table and a chair. On top of the chair was a laptop.

           I grabbed one of the magazines and discovered pictures of young girls around my age on the cover. I skimmed through and saw that the girls inside were all naked. I quickly put the magazine back where I found it and ran back out of the room.

           I stood there for a minute and pondered what I should do next. I decided to go tell my mom what I had discovered. I ran back to the garden as fast as I could in my dad’s oversized boots, and I called my mom over. I told her that she needed to go see what I found around the side of the house. Jackie tried to follow, but I told Jackie that I needed her help to plant seeds.

           Five minutes later, my mom walked unsteadily around the corner of the house. She had a look of shock on her face. When I caught her attention, she told me to bring Jackie into the house. A few minutes later, she came in too.

           We sat in the living room and waited silently, except for Jackie. She was oblivious to what was going on and played joyfully with her dolls by the fireplace. It wasn’t long before we heard that familiar sound like gunshots in the wind. My dad was home.

           He walked in through the front door carrying several bags of groceries and a brown paper bag that he tried concealing inside his jacket, but both my mom and I saw it poking through.

           “K.K., take Jackie upstairs, please. Your father and I need to talk,” she stated in a gruff voice.

           I grabbed Jackie by the arm and told her to come with me. She argued stating that she wanted to play with her dolls. I gathered up her dolls and told her to go. She wanted to bring her dollhouse too, but I told her that she would have to get it later. Once we were upstairs, I heard my mom laying into my dad about the hidden room. I turned on the radio so Jackie couldn’t hear them argue.

           The yelling began to increase and then I heard a shriek. I told Jackie to stay in her room and I went downstairs to see what happened. I saw my dad racing out the door and I rushed to the living room where I spotted my mom laying unconscious by the fireplace. The hem of her dress was sitting on hot embers and ignited. I grabbed her under the arms and pulled her away from the fireplace. The fire was beginning to spread on the lower part of her dress, so I began to hit it with a pillow that I grabbed off the couch. The pillow soon caught fire as well, so I threw it out of my hand before it burned me. I then rolled my mother’s body over until I was able to smother the fire.

           That is when I saw the pillow that I threw away ignite the couch. I shook my mom and yelled out her name until she finally woke up. Jackie came down the stairs during the commotion, and I told her to wait by the front door. I helped my mom to the door, and we stood out in the driveway as the flames began to spread throughout the house.

           When my mom was able to focus, she reached into her pocket, pulled out her cellphone, and called the fire department. By the time the police, fire and ambulance arrived, the house was almost completely engulfed in flames.

           When the fire was finally out, the Fire Marshall inspected the burnt structure and came across some of the materials that I had discovered in my dad’s hidden room. He brought it to the police officer on scene. The officer took my mom to the side and took her statement. I saw my mom pointing at me and assumed she was talking about my discovery.

           Before the officer finished talking to my mom, my dad returned. When my mom told the officer who he was, my dad was taken into custody. I watched through the swirling rings of smoke as the police car drove away with my dad in the backseat looking back at me. His face was void of any expression.

           My mom rejoined Jackie and I and we sat on the back of the ambulance watching the red glow of the embers beneath the skeleton of what was once our dream home.

           “All that matters, is that we still have each other,” my mother began. “I spoke to your Aunt Barbara, and she said we can stay with her for a while until we get back on our feet.”

           We climbed into the old Ford after everyone was gone, and we headed back into the city. The house that dad built was never going to be a home after discovering my dad’s dark secret. His life would go up in flames just like his dream home.

           I managed to grab my camera before we left the house, and as I scrolled through the pictures, I came across my first picture of the house. I stared at it momentarily, then pressed “delete”.