New House

There was nothing that distinguished 201 E. Everton St. from it's neighbors. It stood, small and squat, on a street among other small and squat homes. The deep red sides of the house were peeling in some places, the roof was clean if not a bit worn, and there was nothing special or ornate about the detailing. It had been built some number of years ago, just prior to the exodus to the suburbs enabled by increased car ownership, the promise of cheap land and the desire to fill that empty land up. It had a small porch, empty except for a pair of chains hanging down from the ceiling that may have held a porch swing at one time or another.

A car pulled up and out stepped a man and woman who hurried up the stairs on to the porch. The woman unlocked the doors with a single key she had pulled out of her jacket pocket and stepped through the threshold followed by the man. It was late afternoon, but the early spring sun gave them enough light to navigate the small segmented rooms once their eyes adjusted.

"Where do you want to start?" the man asked. The woman glanced at her phone.

"Why don't you do the upstairs and I'll look around down here," the woman said. "I don't think we'll find anything we want to take with us."

With a nod of his head, the man went up the creaking stairs and the woman moved out of the entryway and in to the adjacent room. She ambled slowly glancing left and right, but there was not much to see in the plain square room. Some nails in the wall, and empty fireplace with dust covering the mantle, nothing that seemed to warrant further inspection.

As she turned to move in to the kitchen, she noticed four worn indentations in the floor. She leaned down to take a closer look and ran her fingers over them before standing back up. As she straightened up, she heard a single key strike and turned back to face the room.

The room was full now, of light, of furniture, of people. Drinks were strewn across a coffee table, people were laughing on the couch, a couple were standing by the window talking closely to one and other. One man was gently sleeping in an armchair on the other side of the low table and plate of food sitting half-eaten next to his chair. A fire was slowly smoldering in the fireplace having burned through it's supply of wood. Two children were sitting on the stairs there hands clutching the balusters, watching the scene below. She turned and realized she was standing in a tight group of people all huddled around an upright piano. Everyone stood shoulder to shoulder leaning over the piano mouths moving in unison.

Singing? At least this is what she thought, she couldn't make out any words or the tune. It was as if they were filtered through water.

The pianist bounced back and forth in his wooden chair and his hands moved up and down the keyboard as everyone laughed and sang. The singers thrust there drinks up in the air as the pianist tilted his head back for the apparent climax of the song and as she blinked she was again alone in the empty room.

At the top of the stairs, the man had turned in to the first of two rooms from the landing. He paused at the threshold of the door and scanned the room. The closet was slightly ajar and the man made his way over to it, he slid the doors open and glanced inside. A few wire coat hangers were tangled on the floor, but nothing else caught his eye. He slid the door closed and turned back to leave the room and froze.

Two people slept peacefully in the bed, their backs facing the man. There was a dresser, the top cluttered with picture frames, change and other small things fished from a pocket at the end of the day. A small full bookshelf was pushed in to the corner next to an armchair and lamp. As the man reflexively started to apologize for, he wasn't sure what, appearing in a strangers room? The door flew open as two children came rushing and threw themselves on to the bed. The bed was a momentarily an explosion of flailing arms and legs as the children hurried to climb on top of the two startled bodies on the bed before they were enveloped in the blankets and sheets before coming to rest in one big pile. He heard muffled laughter from some great distance. The man took a step back in to the closet door and as he caught himself he found that the room was empty and he was alone.

He hurried out of the room and as he turned to go back downstairs he saw the woman staring up at him, wide eyed, gripping the railing with one hand, her other hand pressed against the wall. He realized he had one hand gripping the door frame having spun himself out of the room, ready to hurtle down the stairs.

"Uhh," the man swallowed, "nothing up here." The woman paused for a moment.

"Did you," she started "hear..." she trailed off. The man steadied himself with one hand against the wall and slowly made his way down the stairs. The woman relaxed her grip on the railing and gave him space to step down in to the entryway. They both swallowed and looked at each other.

"We should get going," the woman said, finding her voice. The man nodded and they stepped out on to the porch. They walked back towards the road, the strangeness of the last few minutes dissipating with each step they took. They both paused and turned back to look at the house. The house offered no answers to the questions they had half formed in their heads and the longer they stood there, not more than a few moments, the harder it was to hold on to those questions.

"Do you want to walk to dinner?" the man said, turning away from the house, "think it's only a mile or so."

"Yeah," the woman said, color returning to her face. "I just have to call and confirm with the demo guys for tomorrow." They pulled each other close to help ward off the cold. The chains on the porch swayed in the wind.