the house

was she real or not!

I think in every neighborhood in the country, and quite possibly the world, there is a haunted house of sorts. I know for me in my small Massachusetts town of Billerica, it was the house in the dead center of my little subdivision. No one of my friends, nor anybody else for that matter, ever saw anybody coming into or going out of that house. To state it in just a few words the house was creepy. Yes, that is a highly technical term for kids.
It was a two story brown house with orange shutters and a classic corvette in the driveway. I always saw this house because in order to get out of my house to go see my friends, I had to go by this house.
I never saw any lights on in there day or night, nor did I ever see anyone out cutting grass, only the city who did it as a code violation, but even that guy didn’t go any closer to the house than he had to as, like us, it seemed to give him the creeps.
I was 13 years old, and Halloween came that year, along with an early snow. It was time for trick or treating, I had waited all day for this. I came home from school and began to prepare myself for it. I got my luck pillow case for candy ready. I considered it luck because, when I used it, I always brought home more candy than anyone else in my neighborhood would; my friends hated it when I used it.
We always stayed together as a group, that is unless one of us saw and talked to a cute girl while we were out trick or treating. Then we would go off by ourselves to do what ever kids do. Me? I wasn’t out to meet girls as my friends were; I was out for the candy. I wanted enough to have some all year long with my lunches at school, but this year would be different.
As we walked by the house, for the first time in as long a time as anybody could remember, there was a porch light on.
“Hey guys!” John came running up to us;” There’s a light on at THE house.”
We all looked, and sure enough there was a light on.
“Go knock on the door John,” I taunted him, knowing he wouldn’t go.
“I’m not going up there,” he said as fear ran rampant in his voice,” Y-y-you go!”
The guys started telling me to go, then came the chanting, then George stepped out in front of me, looking me in the eye. I knew what he was going to do.
“Go on and knock at the door, I dare you too.”
My weakness is being dared to do something; he knows I hate having that done to me. It always made me mad when he did that and he knew it, but I realized later that was the reason he always did that because he knew I would do it just because he dared me to.
So, like clockwork I accepted the dare, and began walking towards the driveway with the car in it, then up the walk to the door. I heard my friends take off running as soon as my feet hit the driveway, its not like the were trying to be quiet or anything.
“Chickens…” I thought.
I turned the corner and reached the steps of the porch, I carefully climbed the steps, only slipping a little on the ice that had built up there. I looked for the doorbell, but there was none to be found. So I opened the screen door and knocked on the hard wooden door.
I turned and saw that the street was empty as far as I could see, but I knew I wasn’t alone, although I hadn’t seen where my friends ran to, and were hiding. I knew they were there. I stood there a few seconds, and heard nothing, so I knocked again.
So with no answer this time I turned to leave, but before my foot could hit the steps, the door clicked and slowly opened. I spun quickly around, and held my bag out. I cleared my throat and spoke in slow load and distinct tones.
“Trick or treat!”
“Well, which do you want?” a voice came from the darkness inside the door,” A trick or a treat?”
“A-a-a treat, p-p-please!” I answered a little nervous but not too nervous, didn’t want to sound anxious or anything.
“You are a brave one,” the voice said,” All your friends left you here to come to my door all alone while they are hidden safely away from harm. Not really good friends, I think.”
“No not really!” I said.
“Then, for your bravery I will give you a treat,” the voice said, as this figure of the most beautiful girl I have ever seen steps out onto the porch with a big bowl of candy and pours it into my pillowcase.
I am, for the first time in my life, at a loss for words, I was totally enamored by this girl.”I-i-i-i-…” is all I could get out to say to her.
I just stood there staring into her beautiful green eyes, her blond hair blew in the wind. She quickly leaned over gave me a kiss on the lips, and disappeared back into the house.
“Come see me sometime!” she whispered to me as she shut the door. I wasted no time in picking up my pillowcase and walked back down to the street where my friends had come out of hiding after the door closed to congratulate me for doing this. When I got down to them they were cheering me, as I looked back at the picture window by the door I saw her standing there waving to me, blowing me kisses. I would defiantly have to come back tomorrow after school and talk to her.
The rest of the night went off without a hitch, the rest of the guys got a lot of candy, but even at the end of the night I still had more with that one stop than the other had the entire night. I truly was a happy kid.
The next day, after I got home from school, after thinking about her so much that I could barely do anything else, I went over there, to my surprise, when I got there I saw a demolition crew tearing down the house.
I went up to the construction supervisor and asked what happened to the people who lived there. He told me that no one has been in this house since before I was born, that it has been condemned for years.
I informed him that I spoke with a young girl from that house last night, when she came out of the house through the front door. He laughed and said that the bottom floor had fallen away into the basement about two years ago, and that the city just got the permission to tear it down and that girl I spoke of was a girl that was killed by her father just before I was born.
I was shocked, and so was my friends, as they saw her too from their hiding spots. For some reason that stayed with me most of my adult life, even now when I go past that lot I still think of her, and shed a tear.


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