by S. Graham
"You know, Carol, that sounds perfect."
"Great, I will pick you up out front at 8 pm," Carol says with a smile.
" Looking forward to it." Closing the door, I can honestly say I'm looking forward to this night out with some ladies and thinking about something other than this house.
Like clockwork, Carol is in her driveway waiting for me at eight on the dot. Both of us dressed in nice summer dresses; we can't help but feel a little giddy with excitement; we looked good. "I love leaving the husband with the kids," she says as we drive off. "This way he gets a good taste of playing, bath, story-time, and then the kids not going to bed." She laughs.
"Mine are already in bed so Mitch is lucky," I say.
We pull up to the Vin Room four minutes later. It had opened up right outside our community gates, so it was definitely convenient. We walk into this busy little establishment, and I'm in awe of the huge wall of floor-to-ceiling wine bottles. Every single bottle you can imagine. The place is stunning.
"Becca, we have a spot on the patio. I can see the ladies." We walk out the back doors, and it takes us to the outdoor oasis of luxurious outdoor seating with oversized chairs, pillows, and stunning outdoor fireplaces, all bringing such an ambiance to the patio.
"Wow, this is nice." Looking around in complete awe. We walk up to a group of ladies who are waving us over with eager smiles.
"Isn't it?" says Carol. "Ladies, this is Becca, my neighbor I was telling you about."
"Becca, so nice to meet you, my name is Faith." One of the ladies gets up and hugs me.
"Oh," I say. I'm caught off guard with such a big strong embrace right out the front door.
"We hug here." She laughs. "All the time, plus a friend of Carol's is a friend of ours. Have a seat." Faith pats the spot right next to her. I sit down and sink into the comfiest outdoor couch I have ever sat in.
"Hi, I'm Sarah," says the last lady sitting next to Carol.
"Nice to meet you all," I say, feeling my face getting red with all the attention on me, the new girl.
"Let's order some bottles, you choose one, Becca," says Carol. "Sarah, you too."
"Oh, I will Carol. This mommy has no kids for a couple days because they are out camping with Daddy. I definitely will be enjoying a bottle or two." She looks at me with a wink. "Mitch and I really enjoy the Castello Banfi Brunello!"
"Great taste! Made in Tuscany, Italy. I spent last summer there. Completely breathtaking."
"Let's order a 2009 Marcassin Chardonnay and some appetizers for our palates." The young male waiter walks up to our area and takes our order. It doesn't take long for wine to start flowing while the band inside kicks off. I'm glad we are sitting outside so we can hear each other over the roaring band. As time goes by, I start to enjoy myself.
"So, Becca, we've talked about husbands, kids… tell us something else. How do you like the area?"
I start to loosen up and really feel a connection with the ladies. It's fun. "I love it here, everyone is so nice. It's warm almost all the time which is a bonus since I'm from Canada."
"How do you like the house?" Sarah asks. All ladies stop and stare at me.
I swallow a huge mouthful of wine and can feel its effects on my body. "It's nice."
"Nice?" Faith asks. "That's all? Tell us more about it."
They must know it's haunted. They continue to stare at me, waiting to give them some dirt. Do they know something about my house? "It's a good little house, but has had some bad luck. You know the lack of copper when we moved in, no lines, the rodents, and the disappearing pool equipment. I kinda think there's something else too." I let out a nervous giggle.
Should I continue or stop right here? I don't need new friends to think I'm off my rocker with a childish ghost story.
"Something else like what?" asks Faith.
"I swear I keep seeing a young child, a boy."
All of a sudden, a smash abruptly stops the conversation. Sarah's wine glass hit the floor and shatters by her feet. "Oh God, I'm so sorry," she says as she reaches for a napkin and dabs the ground of red wine and glass shards.
We all get up to help her, but the waiter is already coming over with a broom and dustpan.
"Sorry, I think I've had too much wine. Can I get some water please?" She asks the waiter.
"Sure," he replies as he walks away with a pan full of sharp glass. While he walks away, I notice all the ladies looking back at me. They clearly want me to continue my story.
"It's weird but strange things have been happening since we moved in and I honestly can't explain it."
Sarah abruptly stands up. "I'm sorry guys, I can't sit here and listen to this. Someone needs to tell her and it's not going to be me. It was nice meeting you. Becca. Ladies." She nods at the other two.
"Sarah, what? Wait! This is silly, come here." Carol is already chasing Sarah through the patio doors, and I'm left stunned.
What just happened?
"Becca, I'm so sorry. Clearly Sarah has had too much to drink," Faith says as she scoots next to me.
"What the hell did she mean?' Tell me what?" I snap. "Why is everything so secretive when it comes to my house? Everyone is always curious. Why?" Just then, my phone rings and breaks up the awkward moment between Faith and me.
"Hello?"
"Hey babe, how's it going?" It's Mitch, and it's kind of strange he's calling just a couple of hours into a girls' night.
"Are the kids okay?" I ask.
"Yes, sleeping. They were playing a game on me and running around upstairs after I tucked them in. They were setting the musical night light in Logan's room and a couple of his loud fire trucks. By the time I got upstairs, they ran into the room and pretended to sleep."
"Pretended?"
"Yeah, I think so. It was weird." Mitch laughs. It wasn't a regular Mitch laugh; it was forced. He needs me. Without a doubt, I bet he's creeped out since I shared my concerns about the house with him.
"I'm finishing up here and coming home now. See you soon." I hang up without hearing his response and stand up. It is time to go; this night turned sour fast, and sitting here any longer wouldn't make sense. "Faith, it was nice meeting you but I have to run home."
"Not you too," she says.
"Yes, I have to. Tell Carol I say goodbye and I'll talk to her tomorrow."
Faith stands up for a hug and gives me a sad face as if it would guilt trip me into staying for another glass. It is not happening. Grabbing my purse, I pay my bill at the counter inside. Carol is walking back in with no Sarah, so I b-line it out the door right into a waiting cab. I was done socializing and needed to get home.
The cab pulls up in front of my house minutes later; paying him, I open the door to step out. My eyes are immediately diverted, looking up at Logan's room where the lights are flickering on and off so fast, similar to a strobe light. The cab driver, who has his window down, looks up at the lights flickering and says, "Party?" with a chuckle. Looking at Logan's window, I respond, "Yeah, something like that".
When I walk into the house, Mitch is standing in the kitchen. "Babe, you didn't need to come home, I got this."
"I know," I responded and walking over to him, putting my purse on the counter. "I'm tired and wanted to finish my night off with you at home." He leans in for a long kiss and chuckles.
"Brunello, huh?"
I laugh. "Yes".
"Let's head to bed," Mitch says while leading me towards our room.
"Give me one second, I want to check on the kids." Breaking away, I head towards the stairs.
"Okay, set the alarm, will you?" Mitch heads down the hall.
Climbing the stairs quietly, I'm almost straining to hear any sound; nothing. I get to the top of the stairs and can see Logan's room. The lights have calmed down, and the room is dark, almost sleeping. Making my way towards Connor's room, placing my hand on the doorknob, turning it ever so slowly. Peering in, they're fast asleep. The room is lit with the bright full moon outside. The blinds must be open. I ope
n the door enough to see the window. The blinds are wide open, and right in front of it is a silhouette of a small boy standing facing the door, looking right at me. Letting out a gasp, I fumble frantically for the light switch.
Finally, I find it, and the lights come on, and the silhouette disappears with the brightness of the room. It's gone; no one is standing in the room. My heart races as I take a breath, trying to slow it down. The light doesn't affect the quality of the kids' slumber, thank goodness. I look one more time around the room for the boy and see nothing. Relieved, I turn the light off and wait for my eyes to adjust. Still nothing; he was gone. "Leave them alone," I whisper. I must've stood upstairs standing in their room for what felt like hours, making sure he never came back. He was gone. This is ridiculous, and maybe I saw something else after a good bottle of wine. I head towards the stairs and glance around—nothing up here. I descended the stairs, then headed to the front door to set the alarm. As I punched in our passcode, the alarm made a sound letting me know it is armed and the house is now secure. I turn off the lights and walk to the master bedroom. The sensation of someone watching me is still there, and I'm fighting the urge to turn around and look—goodnight.
***
A few hours later, I'm suddenly awoken and sitting straight up to our house alarm blaring.
"What's that? Our alarm?" Mitch yells.
"Yes!" I yell back. I pull the covers back instantly. A mother's first instinct is her babies; they are down the hall and upstairs, which in moments like these seems so far away. Mitch grabs a bat he had under the bed and heads for our master door. Without even thinking, I push past him and run into the darkness. I glance around the living room and run for the stairs straight for the kids.
"Becca! Wait!" Mitch yells. By the time he screamed for me to wait, I'm already up the stairs and at Connor's closed door, pushing it open.
"Mom? What's that sound?" The boys are both sitting up in bed, holding their hands over their ears.
"It's nothing, my love, Daddy accidentally set off the alarm, silly Dad." I smile, hoping the boys mirror my face reassuring them that everything is okay.
Mitch is trying to punch in the code to deactivate the alarm, and it's not taking. "Becca! I can't turn this dam thing off."
"Mom will be right back." Heading out their bedroom door, I hear the boys laughing, thinking this is rather a funny debacle. My mind is so flustered that I cannot even think with all the blaring noise. I head down the stairs holding the railing, with my legs shaking with adrenaline. Finally, after two attempts, the alarm takes, and the loud siren has now stopped.
"That had to have woken up the whole street," Mitch says. "I have no idea why it went off, the house is still secure."
My cell phone rings by my bed, assuming it must be the alarm company. I sprinted towards our bedroom nightstand and got it just before it went to voicemail.
"Hello Mrs. Morgan, this is Lone Star Alarm Company wanting to check in with you in regards to your alarm going off. Is everything alright?"
"Ummm… Yes," I say, so damn flustered. Reaching for the alarm clock, I see it reads 3:41 am. Of course, it does. I am sure the alarm started at 3:39 am.
"No…No, please don't send anyone. We can't figure out why the alarm went off anyway," I say.
"Why don't we start with your family password to verify this account?" My mind is blank for a second. "Oh, yeah, it's Spinner." Mitch was a dedicated fisherman and picked the password himself.
"Thank you. Ma'am, this may sound strange, but my systems indicate the windows on the first floor were triggered and all opened at the exact same time. It must be a malfunction with the alarm system because you have nine windows on that floor. This makes no sense. If you don't mind, we would like to send a technician out around noon today to see what's going on."
"All windows at the same time?" I say with concern and a sick feeling to my stomach.
"Yes, ma'am, and because of this we won't send police out just because it looks like a technical issue."
"Thanks," I say, still feeling shaky and sitting on the bed.
"Today at 9 am someone will be out to fix this issue. My apologies again. Like I said, I've never seen this before."
"That sounds fine, have a good night." I sit back on the bed, taking in all this madness.
"What did they say?" Mitch asks, standing at our bedroom doorway with his baseball bat resting on his shoulder. I look over, shaking my head.
"You can put that away now, apparently it was a malfunction with the system because he said all the main floor windows were tripped at the same time."
"That's weird, isn't it?" He asks.
"Umm yeah, I would say so." I put my phone down and stand up.
"No need to get up, I tucked the kids in already. Thanks for saying I set the alarm off to them." He laughs.
As I sit back down, my phone starts to ring. The caller ID says it's Carol. "Oh great, it's Carol. The whole neighborhood must have heard."
"Hello, Carol!" I answered. "No, we are all fine, just a malfunction with our alarm system. No, really, we are okay. Sorry about the noise. Yes, we can chat tomorrow, goodnight." I hang up and lay back in bed. "Great I'm sure everyone will be buzzing with chatter tomorrow," I say to Mitch.
"Who cares, let's get some sleep," Mitch says, rolling onto his side of the bed. He always has this superpower to fall asleep anytime, anywhere. It must be nice.
Chapter 11
Daylight creeps in rather fast, and yet again, I never went back to sleep. Laying there, I listen to Mitch's snoring and let my mind wander. I get up and head to the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee. Mitch has a big conference call today, and I feel bad for his lack of sleep. Pouring myself a piping hot cup of coffee, I inhale the aroma. Mitch walks into the kitchen and kisses me on the cheek, pulling me into him for a hug.
"Don't spill my coffee, this is liquid gold!" I chuckle.
He lets go, "I'm going to need a couple pots of that liquid gold today, my call is at 8 am."
"What's it about?" I ask.
"Not sure," he replies. "I think new territory." He pours himself a cup of coffee and takes a sip. "Perfect," he says with approval.
"I better have a shower and get the boys up for school. Good luck babe," leaning in for another kiss.
"Thanks!" Mitch smacks my butt while I walk away, and I head to the bedroom with an eye roll and a smile. He may be cheesy, but I sure love him.
I drop the boys off at school and drive back onto our street. Today I was dreading talking to Carol and the alarm company; it surely is a crappy way to start today. Sure enough, as I pull into the driveway, Carol's sitting on my doorstep. Stepping out of the truck, I start walking towards her.
"Dropped the kids off already? You're faster than me!" I say.
"Yeah, I wanted to bring a peace offering." She hands me a Starbucks.
I smile. "You didn't need to do that." I accepted her coffee. I'm going to need every ounce of caffeine today.
"Yes, I do, Becca. Last night was silly and I apologize for it."
"It's okay, it was fun until it went south with the topic of my house."
"Yeah it was silly, and speaking of your house, what happened last night?"
"The alarm company said there was some malfunction with the windows, they are coming back this morning to fix it. Sorry, didn't mean to wake up the whole neighborhood."
"I'm just glad you're alright. Listen, I have to run. I have a trainer today at the gym." She gives me a hug and smiles.
"Thanks for the coffee, Carol."
"Anytime, doll!" and just like that, she disappears inside her house.
I open the door to our home and can hear Mitch on his conference call in his office. Quietly, I close the door and head right to our room to make our bed and start getting ready for the day. Not long after, Mitch walks in. I look up at him and see him rubbing his head.
"How was your call?" I ask.
"Umm, it was okay. We have taken on some new territory."
"Oh, yeah, that's great, where?"
He is hesitant to say. "Canada," he replies.
I look at him and can read him like a book. I've only been through this a million times. I sit down on the bed. "So what does that mean?" Not ready to hear his answer.
"Nothing really. It just means this is something I have to do, so I will be traveling a bit more."
"Bit more? Like how much?" He already travels so much it would be hard to think of him away even more.
"They are also giving me the opportunity to relocate back to our home town in Kelowna, BC."
"What?"
"They didn't say we had to, they just gave me the option. They say having someone in Canada would be our future goal and I could even open an office."
At this point, my mouth is sealed, and my eyes are directed at him. Yes, moving sucks, but I'm not going to lie; being back in Kelowna, where both our families live, sounded like heaven. Kids growing up in the same city as their grandparents is the best memory, even from my own childhood.
"We can talk about it later, it's an option. We have been here for a bit now and it's a new adventure for our family. We know how much we like those, plus the kids are at the small age right now where we can get away with another move."
"Mitch, stop. You don't need to sell this to me, I get it. I'm 100% supportive of whatever we need to do. I would follow you to the end of the earth and back. No, wait, I take that back." I giggle playfully.
"Very funny," he says, pushing me over on the bed. Just then, a loud smash comes from upstairs, right above our heads. It's Connor's room.
"What the hell was that?" Mitch says as he gets up, darting out of our room and up the stairs. I'm following right behind him. He opens Connor's door, and we get a gust of wind. The window was completely shattered, and glass was everywhere.
"What the hell is this?" Mitch looks at the window. There wasn't a piece of glass in the window frame. It looked like it exploded, leaving a litter of small fragments of glass in every corner of the boy's room.
"What did this? Birds?"
"I don't see a thing," he says as he steps over the glass.