The Brown House

by Christy Sloat

  I heard a loud crunching noise, like footsteps and I jumped up, but it was only a dog. She came over to me to sniff me. Her tail wagged happily, assuring me she was friendly. So I patted her head and she seemed to like it. I sat back down and the dog sat next to me.

  “Well you’re a good dog, aren’t you?” I asked her. She licked my face for her reply. It was nice to see a dog again. We had lost our dog a year ago and I missed her licking my face. For now, this dog was keeping me company, and that was okay by me.

  “Daisy, Daisy… here girl,” I heard someone call out. They were looking for their dog, and I had her.

  “So you’re Daisy huh?” The dog’s ears perked at the sound of her name. I stood up and called, “She’s here.” Hoping they would hear me.

  Sure enough, I could hear the footsteps coming closer and a girl with red hair came into my sight. She was tall like me, but lanky. Her hair was stringy and wet. She had a pretty face that hid behind her hair. Her blue eyes stood out amongst the rest of her features. She didn’t wear any make-up and she seemed to dress in baggy, comfortable clothes instead of the latest trends. As soon as she saw her dog, she ran to her.

  “Daisy,” she leaned down and hugged the dog. “You can’t run away like that.” She looked up at me, smiled and pulled the hair away from her face.

  “Thanks for holding her here, she runs off all the time.”

  “No biggie, she just sat here with me. I’m Brylee.” I felt it necessary to introduce myself. She held out a skinny hand and I shook it.

  “I’m Lynley, but you can call me Lyn for short; everybody does. Are you new around here?” She sat down on the log and I nodded.

  “Yeah, I just moved in to the house up there.” I pointed toward the house. She looked toward it then looked down. She looked sad or scared.

  “You moved into the Brown house?” she asked, almost too quiet to hear.

  “Yeah, last night was our first night. We just moved from California.”

  She still did not meet my gaze. She kept her eyes focused on the ground.

  “What’s wrong?” I finally asked.

  “That house just hasn’t been lived in for so long. I thought no one would ever live there. None of us ever go near the Brown house.”

  “Why do you keep calling it that?” I finally asked her. I knew it was brown but the way she said it, Brown house, it was as if that was its name.

  “That’s just what everyone calls it, because of the Brown’s. They were the last to live in it. They owned that house for years. But my mom says no one will ever live in it.”

  “Why not, is there something wrong with it?”

  “Yeah, it’s haunted. Everyone knows that. People died in that house. That’s why no one lives in it.” Her eyes shot up and gave a dead serious reaction.

  My skin crawled as she said it. It was as if she was trying to scare me. I stood up and decided to defend my new house. I didn’t care if it was haunted or not. It was our home now.

  “Look, I am glad you found your dog, but I have to go. I have unpacking to do.” I walked away and could hear Lyn try to call after me, but I couldn’t make out what she said.

  After an hour of unpacking, I was ready for a nap. Mom tried to keep me motivated but once the couch was set up in the living room I fell straight onto it. I couldn’t help it, I was extremely exhausted. We had gone grocery shopping earlier and drove around to look at the lake near our house. It wasn’t much, but after all that time in the car the past week I would have rather walked.

  As I lay there, I thought about Lyn and what she had said. Everyone thinks the house is haunted. She also said someone died here. I didn’t really care if it was haunted. Maybe they would be nice ghosts that just occasionally did weird stuff. However, my general opinion of ghosts was pretty relaxed. I didn’t really fear them, but then again I didn’t want them opening the bathroom door as I tried to exit. That did scare me. In the daytime, I didn’t feel as vulnerable.

  I didn’t really think this house was haunted too bad, if even at all. The door opening could have just been my imagination. I decided that this was a good assumption and that was the last I thought about it for the day.

  In the evening Mom made chicken on our tiny stove. She complained that she had to light it with a match to get it to ignite. Dad said at least it lit and left it at that.

  I stayed on the couch while dinner cooked. Dad had put my bed together in the room with the bay window, and he left the rest up to me. After it was all set up, it looked really nice, but I still wasn’t certain that this was the room I would be picking.

  Dinner was done and Mom called us to the table. It was nice to finally sit at our table as a family again. It had been too long. Dad always commented on how I seemed to cherish family traditions more than any other teen he had met. I just loved my family and I wanted to be with them for dinner. My friends were not like that, though. They all sat in their rooms for dinner. I thought that I owed them more than just taking my food and hiding in my room.

  During dinner, Mom and Dad talked about the ideas they had for the kitchen and for the rooms upstairs. Mom said she would go out tomorrow and meet with the lady from the cabinet store. I told her I would be fine here alone. Dad started work tomorrow and, even though he didn’t express it, I knew he was nervous. I didn’t start school for two more days. I would be starting late since school out here started a few weeks back. I was nervous and I told them all about it. I was afraid that if I met more people like Lyn, I wouldn’t make any friends. I had been so mad at her for telling me about the house. I found it rude to just come out and say it like that. There are just some things you just keep to yourself. Things like your house being haunted.

  Chapter Four

  That first night in my new room was great. I slept like a baby with no interruptions. When I woke up, I took a bath in the huge tub. It took me a while to get the hot water right, but once I did, it was amazing. I soaked for a while until I heard Mom calling for me.

  “In here,” I called back. She came to the door and knocked. She knew I needed my privacy and she would never come in without knocking first. I had so many bubbles in the tub that all you could see was my head.

  “Come on in.”

  “Oh wow, nice tub. I came to tell you I’m going to meet with the cabinet lady.”

  “Okay, I’m going to soak some more then maybe go outside and draw.” It seemed like a great idea since I hadn’t drawn since we got here. Mom said goodbye and left me to relax. I heard her walk down the stairs and leave the house. Ah, peace at last. I closed my eyes and started to think about the one person I didn’t want to think of, Ethan. I had to get over him but the thing was I didn’t know how. Ethan had invaded my thoughts for so long that it was as if he was embedded in my mind. Every day I went to school I looked forward to seeing him. I couldn’t wait to see him in our one and only class we shared together, which was art. He was a pretty good artist.

  I drew nature, and he drew anime. I thought if we ended up together, I would have him teach me to draw his way and I would teach him mine. We wouldn’t have that choice now, would we? Somehow, I thought maybe he would visit me out here and we could do a long distance relationship, but those just never seemed to work out very well. My only chance at a boyfriend was over.

  Just as I decided it was time to get out of the tub I heard a door close.

  “Mom? Did you forget your cell phone again?” She was notorious for that. I didn’t hear a reply. I got out, wrapped a towel around me, and walked to the staircase.

  “Mom? Was that you?” Still nothing. I slowly walked down the steps, careful not to slip with my wet feet. Once I reached the landing, I looked around and realized no one was in the house. I turned around and walked back up the staircase. As I reached the top of the stairs, I heard a loud crash in the kitchen. I took off down the stairs again, my heart was pounding. Did someone break in? What if it was Mom and she fell? Then, as I reached the end of the stairs I thought, ‘What if it was a ghost?�
�� I peered around the corner of the wall and saw two pots lying on the ground in the kitchen. My heart was still beating like a drum and I took a careful step down.

  “Hello?” Fear caused my wavering voice to crack. I didn’t hear anything else and I didn’t see anyone. I walked to the bathroom, looked around, and saw no one. I checked the rest of the house and found nothing out of place. I finally hung the pots back up on their hooks and went upstairs to get dressed.

  It was getting chilly so I put on a thick USC sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. I slipped on my wooly socks and boots and grabbed my notebook and pencils.

  I tried not to think about the noises I had heard and the pots falling. Things like that happen all the time. It wasn’t unusual for something to fall. Maybe they weren’t on the hooks well enough.

  Once I was outside the cool, brisk air bit at my face. How did people stand this weather? It wasn’t even winter yet. I would have to ask Aunt Leona to go shopping with me for some warmer clothes. I headed to the same log from yesterday and sat down. I got comfortable and started to look around for my focus. I found a tree with a cardinal in it, and started to sketch away. Just as I drew the outline of the bird, it flew away. Perfect, now I had to find something else.

  “Hi Brylee.”

  I turned around and saw Lyn walking toward me. I rolled my eyes. I was not in the mood for her crazy talk today. I refused to believe my house was haunted. She sat down on the log next to me, her red hair blowing in the wind. I noticed she was wearing shorts and a sweater. She had to be crazy to be dressed like that in this weather. I got even colder just looking at her.

  “Why are you wearing shorts?” I asked, as I looked around for another bird.

  “It’s not cold really. It’s nice out. I can tell you’re from California, you’re dressed like its winter.” She laughed.

  “It’s cold,” was all I could say. I guess it was colder to me since I wasn’t used to this weather yet. She had lived here her whole life so she was used to it. My body wasn’t.

  “Sorry about yesterday. I really wasn’t trying to scare you off. I was just telling you what everyone says about the house.” I realized then that I was mean to her yesterday. She did seem to be a nice girl and I was being a total snobby bitch.

  “No, I am sorry, Lyn. I shouldn’t have been like that and walked away from you.” She looked surprised by my admission. Maybe she thought I would be confrontational. I didn’t want to be like Leslie anymore, and to be a good-hearted person I had to start admitting my mistakes. Well, that’s what Grandma had said anyway.

  “Hey, don’t you have school today?” I asked her. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and looked me with a sad look. This girl definitely had that look down pat.

  “My mom said I could stay home today. It’s the anniversary of my dad’s…” she broke off, but I understood. Her dad must have died, and today was the anniversary of his death. Now I felt even more awful.

  “I don’t start until Thursday; maybe we can hang out today,” I offered.

  “Okay. What do you want to do?” She jumped up.

  “I don’t know. What does a teenager do around here?”

  “Most of them all hang at the lake. But since I am not like them, I don’t usually hang there.”

  She wasn’t popular was what she was saying. Then I realized that all the popular kids must be in school right now.

  “Let’s go check out the lake. No one is there, right?”

  We walked to the lake and, on the way there, she told me all about the kids in school. She told me about Marcy Heppner and I decided Marcy was my Leslie. She was the head cheerleader and she was a bully. Marcy was the queen of the school in Lyn’s eyes, and to pretty much everyone else. She was the girl you complimented every day, because in order to survive she needed to hear it. She thrived on attention. Yep, definitely a Leslie. Miles was Lyn’s crush and has been for a year. She described him as ‘totally hot.’ He apparently smiled at her yesterday and it made her whole day. I found out that her dad died in a car wreck when he was hit by a drunk driver two years ago today. I couldn’t even imagine losing my dad. As we walked, I wrapped my arms around myself. Not because of the cold, but because of the thought of being in Lyn’s shoes.

  “There it is.” She pointed to the lake. I had seen it already but only from the car. Being close to it on foot was different. Two swans and several ducks were swimming around in circles. The trees that were on the edge of the lake reflected in the water like a mirror. It was just plain beautiful. I grabbed my sketchpad and I started to draw. Lyn pulled me to a bench and I sat down. I was in my own world at this point.

  “It’s so pretty. We have beaches back home that are beautiful, but the lakes are far away from where I lived,” I told her, never looking away from the paper.

  “You’re a really good artist. Did you take Art at your old school?”

  “Yeah, Art II, it was the advanced course.” Sure I was bragging but I was proud of my art accomplishments. I wanted to study Art in college, but I had no idea what to major in yet.

  “Wow, I can’t even draw a stick,” she replied. I laughed but stopped when I realized she wasn’t. Lyn didn’t have any confidence in herself. That made me sort of sad. She was naturally pretty, she just needed to dress a little better and do something with her hair.

  “I can teach you to draw if you want.”

  “Really? You would do that for me, even though we just met?”

  “I like you Lyn. I think you’re cool. But you need to have more faith in yourself.” I looked up from the paper and noticed the swan’s necks tangled together in a loving embrace.

  “What do you mean?” She brushed her tangled hair away from her face again.

  “I just mean… I can hear the doubt in your voice; like when you talked about that girl Marcy. You sounded like she was better than you are, and I find that hard to believe.” It was hard for me to describe what I saw in Lyn. I saw something beautiful about her, but she was blind to it.

  “Yeah, well, you look like a super-model. Marcy will attack you like a leech. She will get you on her side.” Lyn turned away and I thought I could see her eyes tear up.

  “No way dude! I had a Marcy back home, but her name was Leslie. For a while, I ran with her crowd. I refuse to let myself act like those selfish bitches do.” Lyn laughed at my admission.

  “Really? So you want to be my friend?” she asked.

  “I thought we were already friends.”

  “Cool,” she said, and we continued to sit and watch the lake. I showed her how to start the outline and find her focal point. She drew along with me and, to be honest, she didn’t do too bad. I learned more about Lyn as the day went on. She has an older brother, Ephraim. He is a senior at our school. I also learned the reason why she didn’t do her hair was because she doesn’t know how. I promised her another lesson, this time in hairstyling. Her mom works two jobs to support her family so she is rarely around. Unfortunately, this makes Lyn very lonely. Her brother supports the household and does all the things his mother cannot. Lyn and her brother raise themselves.

  “You want to go back to my house? We can make some cocoa and sit out on the porch,” I asked her when we headed back.

  “Um… I am sort of scared of your house. We can go to my house, we have cocoa.” I didn’t argue I just followed her. I could tell she was scared of my house, but I hoped it wouldn’t last forever.

  Her house was a blue two-story with white shutters. It had a cute front porch that had two white rocking chairs. The front of the house was surrounded by red rose bushes and a strange flower I had never seen before. It was just as big as my house, except it was way better looking.

  We entered the house from the side, just like mine, which to me was so weird. Lyn told me it was a mudroom, even weirder. Supposedly, its purpose was for hanging up your coat and taking off shoes. So now I knew what our mudroom was, but it was still strange.

  When we entered her house it smelled like fresh apple pie. It was
so homey and I got good feelings from it. The house was decorated in a shabby-chic sort of way, with antiques and new items that were distressed to make them seem old. I fell in love with her home. I decided that this was how I was going to do my room. She led me to her kitchen, which by the way was filled with cabinets, and we got our mugs and cocoa.

  “You know it’s far too warm for cocoa, right?” she teased me.

  “It’s freezing to me, but no matter what the weather is cocoa is always awesome.” We laughed and took our mugs to her front porch. It was so nice to have met a friend already. I felt like things were starting to work out here. I looked forward to starting school now so that Lyn and I could hang out. I noticed a truck coming up her driveway. It was an old Ford and it was baby blue.

  “Is your mom home already?” I asked Lyn.

  “Oh, no that’s Ephraim. He’s just getting home from school.” She jumped up and ran out to meet him. I stayed in my rocking chair and sipped my cocoa. I could hear her talking to him on the side of the house, but I couldn’t see them.

  “Hey, how was school today Ephraim? Did you see Amber?” I wondered who Amber was. Then I realized it wasn’t my business.

  “It was good Lyn, missed you today. How are you? I was worried when you didn’t get up this morning.” He was so sweet. I had never heard a brother talk to his sister like that. He was concerned. This was the anniversary of their dad’s death, and he worried about his little sister.

  “It wasn’t bad at all, I made a friend. Remember the girl I told you about, the one that moved into the Brown house?”

  “Yeah, I remember. Is she nice?” he asked, making sure I wasn’t a total bitch.

  “Oh she’s so nice! She’s here now, we’re having cocoa and sitting on the porch. Come meet her.” As she said this I realized I was nervous. I didn’t exactly know why. I sat back and straightened my sweatshirt. I wanted to at least appear neat, even though I was dressed like a bum.