The Ghostly Hideaway

by Doris Hale Sanders

The Wroe Family made their way across Tennessee without mishap. They stopped in Nashville—well it was just a few miles south of Music City at a town called Smyrna. Edward had managed to get tickets to see the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night and even though they couldn’t get close to the stage, it was still exciting. They got to see a couple of their favorite country music singers—Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers and they even sang one of their favorite songs: “Islands In The Stream.”

  On Sunday, they crossed the Tennessee – Kentucky border and took the toll road that goes by Bowling Green and ends at Owensboro. About the time they got to Owensboro, it started to rain. And not just a light drizzle but a total downpour. They weren’t sure of the number of the exit they meant to take. They weren’t really sure where they were going; but they exited off the bypass and were soon disoriented and— even though Ed didn’t want to admit it—completely lost. Actually, since they had nowhere in particular they had to be at any specific time, they weren’t too concerned. Finally, though, they came to a fork in the road and took a left turn. It seemed okay for a short distance but soon the road began to narrow to something like a bare country lane. The asphalt turned to gravel and the gravel became a muddy path—with no place to turn around. Deep ditches on both sides of the dirt road were filled with muddy rainwater run-off.

  Now they were somewhat worried. Penny was almost frantic when she checked the gas gauge and saw they were almost on empty.

  “What on earth will we do if we run out of gas, Ed?” Penny wanted to know.

  “I don’t know; but we’ll think of something. Weren’t we looking for adventure? Truly, I didn’t think about that pulling the big trailer behind us would take so much extra gas.”

  Andy and Candy, the four-year-old twins were asleep but Chrissy heard their conversation. “At least it’s stopped raining and it isn’t dark for two or three hours, yet." Chrissy was trying to look on the bright side.

  “What’s that up ahead? I can see what appears to be a building of some kind through the trees." Penny was peering through the dirty windshield that the wipers couldn’t quite clean when they made their half-circle swipe. About that time, the engine coughed a couple of times and glugged its way to a shuddering stop. Then with what seemed like a tired sigh, the engine died completely. Looking at the gas gauge, Penny saw that it had dropped down even below the big red ‘E.”

  The lack of motion and the sudden silence woke the twins. “Did we get there?” Andy asked sleepily.

  Candy rubbed her eyes. “Where is ‘there?’ I don’t see anything. We can’t be ‘there’ because ‘there’ has to be somewhere and this looks like nowhere to me." Not too well phrased perhaps, but accurate nonetheless. This looked like nowhere to all of them.

  “I still think I can just make out the shape of a building through the trees. Let’s go for a walk and find out—what do you say? Let’s begin our adventure." Penny opened her car door and undid the childproof locks on the other doors. “We’ll follow the ‘yellow mud road.’”

  Of course, the first thing Andy did when he got out of the car was to stomp in the middle of the deepest and muddiest puddle he could find. And, again, of course, Candy wrinkled her nose and shrieked. “Mama, make him stop that. He’s getting my clothes all wet and dirty.”

  Penny grabbed a hand from each twin and they started on down the road. Ed locked the doors and he and Chrissy followed them. When they got to the bend, sure enough, an old three-story house with tall pillars and a wide verandah was standing there.

  “It looks like a cross between a plantation house and a haunted castle,” Chrissy exclaimed. “Those spiral things at the top look almost like turrets, don’t they, Mom?" Actually, that was a pretty apt description. The house had once been painted white and the shutters were still a faded green. Some of the shutters at the front of the house were open, some were closed and a couple were hanging askew where the hinges had pulled loose. A swing was attached to the porch ceiling at only one end with the other end swaying slightly as one corner balanced on the floor. The yard looked as though it hadn’t been tended in a very long while and the flowerbeds that still showed some color were choked with weeds.

  As they approached the house, their first thought was that it had been completely abandoned and was vacant; but Chrissy spied the mud-caked footprints on the verandah steps and across the floor toward the door.

  “Look, Mom, someone has been here not too long ago. The muddy footprints would have been washed away with wind and rain after a week or two, wouldn’t they?”

  “I suppose that’s true. Oh, and I can see a light on in the hallway inside near the door. That’s great! Maybe they have a phone, too, so we can call the auto club to bring us some gas.”

  Ed stepped to the door, knocked and when nothing happened, he knocked more loudly.

  “Did you see that curtain move at the upstairs window, Candy?" Andy was sure he had seen it move as though someone looked out and then moved back. “Knock again, Dad. Maybe they didn’t hear you. They might be deaf or something.”

  After knocking loudly several times, however, still no one came. While they were standing there, it began to rain again; not quite the downpour it was earlier but enough to soak anyone caught out in it.

  “Maybe they’re in the back and can’t hear us. You all wait here and I’ll go around to the back door and see if anyone’s back there." Edward took off in a run around the side of the house and discovered a side door near the back of the house. He started to knock on that door but realized the door was slightly ajar. He still knocked, but again nobody came. The door appeared to open into the kitchen area and he could see a light in that room, too. He didn’t know what to do. They were fairly well sheltered on the porch but they couldn’t stay there all night. After knocking several more times with no results, he opened the door wider and called, “Hello, is anyone home?” into the kitchen. Still no answer. He stepped inside and looked around. Maybe someone was hurt and needed help. He noticed several dirty dishes stacked in the sink but they didn’t smell. That meant they hadn’t been there a really long time. The room to the right of the kitchen door where he had entered appeared to be a pantry with ample food supplies. To the left was the dining room. Directly ahead of him was a doorway into a hall and he opted to take this direction. Just inside the door, he saw a telephone on the wall. He picked it up and put it to his ear. There was no dial tone. Well, so much for calling for help. He passed two closed doors on each side of the hall before he reached the front door where his family waited.

  “Listen! I thought I heard someone in the house." That was Penny. Ed opened and closed the nearest hallway door.

  “I heard a door close!” Chrissy enthused. “Somebody must be coming. I hope Dad comes back around, soon. They might think he’s snooping around or something.”

  Edward was having a good time playing tricks on his family until he heard a door close with a loud bang on the second floor. Suddenly, he was rooted to the spot and stood looking up the stairway for someone to come down and want to know what the hell he was doing in their house. He continued to stand there for several moments but nothing else happened and no more sounds emanated from the upper regions. He sneaked back down the hallway and then walked with a heavy tread toward the front door.

  “Somebody’s coming to the door." That was Candy.

  “I hear them, too." Andy chimed in. “It must be whoever moved the curtain upstairs. It sure did take them a long time to get down to answer the door.

  About that time, the door opened very slowly and Ed was grinning widely as the door creaked and groaned as if on cue. “Well, hello, there. Do come in,” Ed laughed loudly at the shocked looks on the faces of his wife and kids. The laughter was short-lived, though, because at that precise moment, the upstairs door banged again. Five pairs of eyes stared in apprehension at—nothing. Again. As they were about to relax, the front door banged shut loudly behind them. Finally, they were able to shake off the shivers and make their way back to the kitchen.<
br />
  “There’s plenty of food in the pantry, Penny. And the electric stove looks as though it would work fine. Any way there’re dirty pans that seem to have been used for cooking. I don’t know what we should do. Do you?”

  “I’m not sure we have much of a choice. We either take shelter here and wait for the owners to come back or we spend the night in the car after we get soaked to the skin getting there. That doesn’t seem to be much of a choice, do you think?”

  “I suppose we can offer to pay for whatever supplies we use or any inconvenience we might cause. I can wash up the dirty dishes. That should be some incentive to let us stay." Chrissy set about stacking the dishes and running water in the sink.

  “There’s a freezer in here in the pantry, too,” Penny said as she opened the lid, “and I see some frozen hot dogs we could boil for supper. We will eat crackers with them unless we find some buns or bread.”

  The twins were happy. “Yay, hot dogs.”

  “But I need mustard with mine." Candy opened the refrigerator and immediately spied the mustard jar. She preferred the kind you squeeze on the hot dog but this would be fine.

  “Chrissy, wash this pan next, Honey, and I’ll use it to boil the wieners in.”

  While the rest of them were working in the kitchen, Ed decided he would look around. At the immediate end of the hallway a door opened into a half bath and laundry room combined. In that room was a stool, a lavatory, a slop sink, a washer and a dryer. He opened the first door on the right as he started down the hall toward the front door and found a small sitting room. In that area, he saw a fireplace, some overstuffed chairs, a few extremely dusty tables, a sewing basket, and a rocking chair. A few braided rugs on the floor and a few pictures with cobwebs woven over them completed the décor.

  On the opposite side of the hall, the door opened into a well-stocked linen closet. Sheets, blankets, pillowcases, tablecloths, quilts, extra pillows, towels, washcloths, and other linens were stacked neatly.

  The next room on the right served as an office/library with a desk and chair, a couple of filing cabinets, and some straight backed chairs. The bookshelves that lined three walls of the room were filled with all types of books from dictionaries to Tom Sawyer to Modern Romances and Shakespeare. Several volumes that looked like legal reference books were piled on the floor.

  On one side of the front door was a formal living room and on the other side was an informal family room. Both contained couches, lounging chairs, dusty tables and paintings festooned with cobwebs. In the family room were an old-looking television and a huge fireplace while the living room across the hall contained a piano and a large Persian-looking rug.

  Ed looked long and hard at the stairway before he ventured up the steps to the second floor. Four of the rooms on this floor were bedrooms with two bathrooms opening into the hall, which ran the full length of the house as it did on the first floor. The bed in the front bedroom was unmade and articles of men’s clothing were strewn around on the floor, the chairs, and the furniture. The closet contained an area devoted to women’s dresses and accessories none of which was out of place. The other end held a few pieces of men’s clothing and several empty wire hangers. Hanging on the closet doorknob was a sloppily hung, out-dated suit. Dust had accumulated on the shoulders of the jacket and the pants had, in addition to the three pleats on each side of the fly, many wrinkles, and the deep cuffs on the pants were partly wrong side out. The once-white dress shirt was yellowed with age and was in a heap on the floor beneath where the suit was hanging. One dresser seemed to hold only neatly folded women's things. The one on the opposite wall had open drawers with men’s under garments hanging here and there across them.

  At the back of that second-floor hallway were the steps that went up to the third floor. The other three bedrooms appeared to be ‘spare’ guest bedrooms; however, they were fully furnished with beds, dressers, chests of drawers, and other necessary furniture.

  “Ed, are you upstairs?” Penny called. When he answered in the affirmative, she continued. “The hot dogs are ready."

  Chrissy had also found some cans of soup and the meal was quite simple but filling. While they ate, Ed told them what he had found while he was exploring. They were eating in the dining room because the kitchen table was too small for the five of them. Penny had found a fire ready to light in the dining room fireplace and since the dampness had seeped in from the outside, she had decided to light it not so much for warmth as for cheeriness and to dispel the musty dank smell.

  "Only one bedroom is in use. The others look as though they haven’t been used for some time. There are sheets, blankets, and other bedclothes in the linen closet in the hall, so we shouldn’t be without a place to sleep. We may want to go up there and do some dusting and cobweb sweeping before bedtime. If it quits raining, I’d suggest opening the windows and letting them air out, too.”

  They were startled again by the slamming of a door on the second floor; but it sounded like it came from the doors near the rear of the house instead of the front as it had before.

  “Does anyone know anything about getting rid of ghosts?” Penny laughed nervously.

  As night began to fall and no one came to see who was in the house, they began to think about going to bed. Penny and Chrissy had cleaned up the supper mess and Ed and the twins had gone to see if the television worked. Surprisingly, it did get a decent picture on three different stations and two or three more that were somewhat fuzzy. But it beat nothing all to pieces.

  Chrissy and her mother were somewhat nervous as they climbed the stairs to see about preparing the beds for sleeping. Nothing except dusty coverlets was on any of the beds other than the one in the room that had been used most recently. They did sweep down many of the cobwebs and dusted what they could in all three rooms. They decided not to disturb the front bedroom and leave it as it had been when they arrived earlier. They had decided that the bedroom on the other side of the hall from the one that someone had been using would work well for Ed and Penny. The one next to it on the same side would be good for the twins. It even had twin beds in it. The room across the hall from the twins should work fine for Chrissy. They went back downstairs to get armloads of bed linens to make up the beds they would use. The two of them managed to turn over the mattresses and spread fresh sheets and blankets on them.

  It was still raining cats and dogs outside so they would all need to ‘borrow’ something to sleep in, since no one had wanted to get out in the rain to get their suitcases out of the SUV.

  While they were making up the bed that she would sleep in, Chrissy made the remark, “Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if one of our ghost friends would go get our suitcases for us?"

  Penny laughed, “I don’t think we’ll hold our breaths, though, do you?”

  They went back downstairs and sat for a while in the family room watching the T.V. with the others. When the news and weather went off, they decided it was bedtime.

  “I wonder if it’s still raining,” Ed murmured and went to look out the front door on the way up the stairs. “What in the—? Where did these come from? These look like our suitcases; but I would have sworn I locked the car."

  “I saw you lock the car, Eddie. But these are definitely our suitcases. Did one of you all go after these? You couldn’t have; we’ve been together all evening. I just don’t understand this at all.”

  “Mom, don’t you remember? I said I wished one of our ghost friends would get them for us. I guess they did." Her laugh sounded somewhat strained and nobody else seemed to find much humor in her statement either. Eventually, though, they locked the downstairs doors and, taking the luggage, went up to bed.

  The next morning, they all declared they had slept soundly with no disturbances during the night. The sun was shining through a foggy haze but shining, nevertheless. Ed walked down the muddy road to check on the car and the trailer. Everything was locked and looked undisturbed just as they had left it except for the suitcases. He had forgotten his jacket that
he had hung over a chair back in the kitchen with the keys in the pocket so he couldn’t get in to check anything but it all seemed to be fine.

  He reported this to the others when he returned and then checked his jacket pocket in which the keys still resided. “Well, I wish we had some gas for the car so we could drive it on up to the house. It would make it a lot handier to unload stuff, wouldn’t it?”

  Penny agreed. “If you had your lawn mower out of the trailer, you could improve the way the yard looks. Maybe if we’ve made enough improvements when the owner returns he won’t be too mad about our staying here.

  “I guess I could push the mower that far. After breakfast, I’ll take the keys and go get it.”

  Penny made pancakes for breakfast along with some frozen sausage she found in the freezer. They had located some syrup and margarine in the refrigerator so they had another good meal. While Penny and Chrissy cleaned up again, Ed took the keys and went back up the road to get the mower. He unlocked the driver’s door to check that everything was as they had left it and was about to go to the trailer and unlock it when he noticed the strong smell of gasoline. He looked at the gas gauge and then stood with his mouth hanging open in total disbelief. It’s almost half full! The gas tank is almost half full! He was sure any minute he would wake up and all this would have been a dream. But when he turned the ignition, the engine roared to life. He slowly closed the car door, put it in gear, and pulled on up the road to the front of the house. He was still shaking his head when he went back into the house.

  “Penny, let’s be damn careful what we wish for around here.”

  “You sure weren’t gone very long. Did you get the lawn mower already? Wait, where are we going?" Ed was still nearly speechless with surprise. He pulled Penny by the arm to the front door and pointed to the vehicle parked by the front gate.

  “Oh, it did have enough gas to get it up the lane this far. Well, that’s just wonderful!”

  “Penny, it’s got at least five gallons of gas in it. The gas tank is almost half full.”

  “Oh, it can’t be,” she laughed. “We drove at least a hundred and fifty miles since we stopped at the filling station. And I had been watching the arrow creep down to empty for the last ten or twenty miles. When it stopped the arrow dropped down below the empty mark. There’s no way it can have that much gas in it."

  Ed took her by the hand, led her out to the SUV, and again pointed to the gas gauge. Penny felt her knees go weak and if Ed hadn’t been holding her, she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have fallen.

  “This is so weird. It’s unbelievable! Chrissy wished for our suitcases and there they were. You wished for gas in the car and it’s got plenty. This isn’t possible." By this time, the kids were out there and Andy decided it was his turn to ask for something.

  “I wish I had a hambur—“

  Penny slapped her hand over his mouth. “We mustn’t do that. There’s no telling what might happen if we ask for too much,” she cautioned. “I think somebody is being awfully nice to us. Let’s see if we can make enough improvements around here to show them we appreciate their kindness in helping us.”

  Ed got the mower out of the trailer and began cleaning the yard. Penny found a broom and was sweeping the porch when the twins yelled from around on the side of the house where none of them had been before.

  “Look what we found,” they exclaimed in unison when the rest had followed them around the house. A small chicken house stood in the corner of the yard with hen’s nests and roost poles. Some of the nests had eggs in them and several hens and a rooster were scratching in the yard...

  “Now we can have eggs for breakfast,” Candy said excitedly.

  Ed had thought he heard a rooster crow earlier while they were still in bed, but figured it was probably his imagination. Yes, the eggs would sure come in handy. Chrissy found a small box in the car and they gathered the eggs, took them into the house, and put them in the refrigerator.

  “We’ll need to break them in a saucer before we cook them to be sure they’re not too old to use. There’s no way to know if they’re fresh or not. Well, I think there is a way to tell, but I don’t remember how to check. I was thinking last night that it sure would be nice to have some eggs—but I didn’t say it aloud. Honestly, I didn’t. I promise I never said a word about it." Penny wasn’t sure what was going on, but it was absolutely getting stranger and stranger all the time.

  They worked outside almost all of the day and by nightfall, the front yard at least looked presentable. A few flowers that hadn’t been choked out by the weeds were growing and when the dead blooms had been picked off and the weeds pulled, the flowerbeds looked much better. All the mud and dirt, dead leaves and sticks that had accumulated on the porch had been removed and the shutter and swing that had been hanging had been repaired.

  Some canned chili with cheese grated on top had been warmed up for their supper and tasted fine after their afternoon’s activities. Chrissy offered to clean up the kitchen and Candy stood on a chair by the sink and ‘helped.’ Penny wandered into the office/library and finding a clean rag in the linen closet began to do some dusting. She cleaned the desk and the tops of the wooden file cabinets, the other tables, and wooden chairs. In addition to the big office-type desk in the middle of the room, an old-fashioned roll-top desk stood against one wall. She began dusting this and, as curiosity reared its head, she found herself rolling up the lid to see what its contents might be...

  Inside she found a big checkbook with names on it: Clifton C. Coy and/or Lorraine M. Coy. "These must be the people who own this property." Somehow, she almost felt like an intruder for the first time. Not knowing their names made it easier to dismiss them as actual people. But now she knew whose place they were occupying. She saw one more important-looking book. She picked it up and saw that it said ‘JOURNAL’ on the front of it. She glanced inside even while she told herself she shouldn’t look at something that was sure to be quite personal. It looked like a man’s handwriting and sure enough at the bottom of the first entry, it was signed: C.C.C. The entry was dated almost three years previous. Penny shoved it back in its cubbyhole and hurriedly pulled the lid back down.

  She was still thinking about it when she went up to bed; but she hadn’t shared its discovery with the others. She wasn’t just sure why, but she hugged the knowledge to herself for the time being.

  As they climbed the steps to their bedrooms, Candy yawned sleepily and said around her yawn; “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had some fresh milk for breakfast. I sure do miss our milk." Nobody even noticed what she had said or that it was almost a wish.

  Until morning. The first thing they heard when they awoke—or perhaps that’s what awakened them—was the rooster crowing. The second sound was somewhat unfamiliar for city people but they recognized it from television shows and commercials. It was a cow mooing. When they went out to look, it was standing near the back porch with its bag and udders distended with milk. It took some trial and error but Ed did manage to get her milked. The nearly two gallons of milk looked rich and creamy and they were all anxious to try it. It turned out to be delicious.

  “I wonder who this cow belongs to. She looks well fed and cared for. I guess someone will come looking for her after awhile. But we’ve got one bunch of milk to enjoy, don’t we?”

  “I don’t know who it belongs to, Daddy, but I suppose I wished for it last night. I didn’t really mean to wish for it. I was just thinking out loud, I guess. Anyhow it sure does taste good.”

  But as the days went by, no one came to claim the cow or the house and the Wroe family was beginning to feel right at home. They put the cow in a stable in the barn and fed her corn from the crib that was built into one end of the barn. The chickens continued to provide eggs and the twins shelled corn to feed them, too. They had seen absolutely no one except each other since the night they had become stranded there.

  Ed began to explore beyond the fences around the house and barn. He discovered a small orchard that
was also in dire need of tending. Some pests were beginning to invade some of the fruit trees and having found some pesticides and sprayers in a floored storage bin in the barn, he began to spray and tend the trees. It looked as though there could be apples, peaches, and pears in the fall.

  Inside the house, Penny took careful stock of all their food supplies as well as cleaners, laundry and bathroom supplies and other necessities. They had enough of everything to last for maybe a couple of weeks yet, but after that, it would be necessary to find a store and replenish their larders. They had almost no meat left but the canned vegetables were still plentiful. They could become vegetarians if it came to that.

  She had begun to sneak into the library whenever she felt she had some time without too much chance of interruption. She was fascinated by the journal Mr. Coy had kept. She had begun to read it from the beginning and she was determined to read it as it was written: chronologically—without peeking at the end. She had checked the date on the last entry, however, and noted that it had been written only three days before their arrival. Mr. Coy had begun writing in this book on September 19, 2002, almost three years earlier. Today she was reading December 24 of that first year.