This story is completely fictional. Any resemblances to names of people and/or places is purely coincidental.

by Peg Pellerin

Click here for the previous installment.

They decided to call it a day and attempt to tackle the last room and ‘adventure’ the next day.

The following morning Jake said, “Wonder what we’ll find in our final room,” while the four were enjoying a waffle/egg sandwich, compliments of Miri and Amy’s creative cooking. They were still trying different things that they would hope to serve guests in the future and the guys didn’t mind testing them out.

“I don’t know,” replied Miri, “but I, for one, will be glad to have it over so we can get back to our normal lives.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

They stood in front of the sixth room, the final room to be searched for something that belonged to the young spectral boy. They took a deep breath, signaled each other that they were ready to enter and went in. For some reason this room seemed a tad larger than the others. It was filled with several pieces of furniture that could be considered child-sized. There was a dry sink, bureau, armoire, an adult-sized rocking chair next to a child-sized one, and a bed. Everything was in near perfect condition as if it was still being used except the dust on everything showed it hadn’t been for many years.

“Wow, this is amazing,” said Amy in wonderment. “Could this have been Ian’s bedroom?”

“I don’t think so,” replied Miri. “When we started moving in and preparing the two bedrooms, ours and Dave’s, the one Dave has was nearly identical to this one so we assumed it was the child’s bedroom being closeby to the parents’. Maybe this one was in anticipation of another child, which never happened. ”

As they walked around looking over everything, they nearly forgot why they were in the room in the first place. Dave was the first to ‘wake’ up and started searching. The others followed his lead. Jake opened the doors to the armoire, which appeared to be empty. As he was about to close the doors, something caught his eye. He bent down to peer into the back bottom left corner of the cabinet and found a square wooden box, which was about 7 inches by 7 inches. “I think I found it or at least something,” he called out to the others who immediately surrounded him. He wasn’t sure if he should open it but they did want to get whatever event was about to happen over with. Holding his breath, he slid the cover off the box. Within was a beautiful star.

“What a beautiful star,” said Amy.

“This isn’t just any star, it is a Moravian star, originating in Germany back in the late 1700s. I can fill you in on the history of that but this is gorgeous,” said Jake in awe.

“Why hasn’t anything happened yet?” wondered Miri. “Maybe you have to take it out of the box,” she answered her own query.

Jake carefully turned the box over to let the twenty-six pointed star slip out onto his hand. Then it all started. The four felt that they were in a slow moving eddy but when all cleared, they found themselves in the downstairs living room, but it wasn’t the current one. A fire was lit in the fireplace and the scent of baking and wassail wafted from the nearby kitchen. A slight rapping at the front door could be heard and a woman quickly walked out of the kitchen to open the door. Cold air rushed from the open door as a tall, robust looking man came in carrying a young boy on his shoulders. Behind him was another man carrying a fresh cut red spruce, which was common in the Poconos region.

“Before you bring that tree in here, please shake the snow off onto the porch,” demanded the woman who turned out to be Emma Hodges. The tall man must have been Jebediah and the young boy, about age three, was Ian. Unlike the events in the past, everything was vivid as if the four were actually in the living room with the residents of the house, but weren’t noticed.

“Thank you, Tom, for helping my boy and I to bring that tree from the back of our property to the house. Once you’ve placed it where the Mrs. wants it, please go into the kitchen and help yourself to whatever Emma has made and some Wassail. I can smell it all from here.”

“Thank you sir,” replied Tom Meuller, the handy man of the Hodges home. Once he placed the tree into the stand in the living room, he went off to the kitchen to dig into the goodies and drink.

“C’mon lad, let’s get those cold damp clothes off you and sit in front of the fire before you catch your death of cold,” said his mother in a stern voice, staring harshly at her husband. “You kept him out there too long. You know how delicate his health is.”

“He needs good fresh air once in a while. You coddle him too much, plus he needs a little fun once in a while.” replied Jebediah. “You did have fun didn’t you, Ian.”

Yes father, I did. I’m not cold mother,” said Ian as his mother hurriedly took off his wool coat, pants, hat and mittens, which she had knitted for him.

Jebediah had taken off his outer clothing and had rushed into the kitchen to grab he and Ian a cup of warm Wassail and a tea cake. After placing them down on the table, he went to the side room, returning with a square wooden box. “I’ve been holding on to this until I felt Ian was old enough to appreciate it.” He sat down next to the young boy and slowly opened the box. He carefully turned over the box in order to let the content slip out onto his large meaty palm.

Both mother and son exhaled in awe at the beautiful sight. Sitting in Jebediah’s large but gentle palm was the most beautiful sight the two had ever seen. It was a multi-pointed, twenty-six to be exact, silver and gold star. The light from the fireplace made it appear to sparkle. “Oh, Jeb, it’s beautiful! Where did you buy it?”

“I didn’t. It was given to me by my father when I was Ian’s age. Look see,” instructed Mr. Hodges as he removed one of the points, exposing a hole. He then gave the star to Ian, instructing him to carefully hold it so as not to drop it and he lifted the boy so he could reach the top of the six foot tree. Ian was able to place it on the top point of the tree. The first decoration of the Christmas tree.

The four quietly watched the three as if they were looking at a live Victorian image on a Christmas card. Jake looked down at the star in his hand knowing that it was the same star that had been placed on the tree. Amy remembered the wool coat she had removed from the armoire, which brought Dave and herself into a tundra facing a polar bear.

Suddenly their vision seemed to waver. When it cleared they were still in the living room but it was a different time. The tree was already decorated with the star at the top and the remainder of the tree covered with ropes of popcorn, berries and other handcrafted items. Mother, father and Ian at approximately seven years old were sitting nearby, unwrapping gifts. Laughter could be heard from the three until Ian untied the cloth ribbon that was holding a flat square cloth covering the present. It was a slate framed in wood. There was a clay pencil and the cloth was considered to be the ‘eraser’. “It’s time you start some academics, learning how to read, write, and to do sums,” explained Mrs. Hodges of the present that Ian didn’t seem too thrilled about receiving. The child thanked his mother and put the unwanted gift down to his side.To break the somber moment, Mr. Hodges picked up another gift, much larger than the one that the young boy had just unwrapped. “Let’s see if this will brighten up your spirit,” as he glared at his wife. Ian had a difficult time unwrapping the package which appeared to be too heavy for him to hold. His father went to his side and loosened the twine so the boy could unwrap the heavy brown paper that covered a box. Ian opened the box and whooped with delight. He lifted the object out of the box. It was a toy Blunderbuss Pistol.

Mrs. Hodges didn’t look pleased. She quietly said to Mr. Hodges, “Why did you get the boy something like that? Is it to try to make him feel like he’ll be a big game hunter like you? You know he’ll never be able to do these things.” The boy didn’t hear their conversation as he was too excited by the toy he held in his tiny hands.

Jake, Miri and Dave looked at each other as they recalled the event in the attic, the first of several they had experienced since finding items belonging to Ian.

The living room vision wavered once again. When it cleared another Christmas unfolded in front of the quartet. This time it appeared that Ian was a couple years older. He walked into the room with a piece of raspberry tart in one hand and a cup of wassail in the other. He set it down on the table. His mother was the only other person in the room. “I was hoping that your father would have made it back in time for Christmas, but it doesn’t look like he will. There is a heavy snowstorm going on in New York where he went for business,” explained Emma to her son of the absence of his father. “We can still enjoy the day. There are some gifts for you under the tree and supposedly a special one from your father. I wonder what he got for you this time,” she stated rolling her eyes. It was obvious that Mrs. Hodges did not approve of some of the things her husband had brought home for her son. He felt she coddled Ian too much and she felt that her husband didn’t see or didn’t want to see how feeble her son was.

The boy slowly went to a chair near the tree and sat down. He didn’t seem to have the spirit in him as he did in the past Christmases that Jake, Miri, Dave, and Amy had witnessed. There was a sad somber feeling in the air. The mother brought some small wrapped items to Ian for him to free from their wrappings. There were new mittens, hats, a coat, and a few other items she had made for him. He hugged her giving thanks. Emma finally came to a larger item that was under the tree, evidently something that Mr. Hodges had sent for Ian and that Tom had picked up at the post office.

To be continued

This story is completely fictional. Any resemblances to names of people and/or places is purely coincidental.

by Peg Pellerin

Click here for the previous installment.

Another activity unfolded on the floor. Several clowns appeared performing antics to make the young and young at heart laugh. They were followed by jugglers passing what looked like bowling pins as well as swords and sticks on fire to each other. The four, or was it five, from the Stewart House, were enjoying themselves immensely. On stage others later came out doing acrobatics, performing tumbles and gymnastic routines. “I used to do those types of routines in the gym but we had mats on the floor,” remarked Miri.

When these performances were completed a huge cage was rolled out to the center of the ring. It contained a very large lion. The voice of the Ringmaster then announced, “Ladies and gentlemen. You may want to cover the eyes of your youngins for this next act. The keeper will now enter the cage of Sarabi, the largest lion in captivity.” Again, there was total silence.
Dave whispered to Amy, “Do you want me to cover your eyes? If not, could you cover mine?” She lovingly punched his arm.

The lion tamer, better known as a keeper, walked out into the ring. He was bare chested except for a red vest. He wore tight pants and tall boots. He carried a short whip. An assistant followed him to the cage, opened the cage door and quickly closed and latched it as the keeper entered the cage. The Ringmaster stated, “Watch as Gabriel attempts to allow Sarabi to lick his hand.”

As the keeper slowly brought his hand toward the lion’s mouth, Miri said, “I hope Sarabi doesn’t think that hand will be its snack,” as she partially covered her eyes.

The lion licked Gabriel’s hand in a very affectionate way. “Good boy, Sarabi,” said the keeper as he gave the lion what appeared to be a treat. The keeper then played around with the lion, pulling on its mane, rubbing its neck and then the enormous nose, all the while the audience watched, barely breathing. Then Gabriel did what would be considered an act asking for death. He opened Sarabi’s mouth, put his hand in his tremendous jaws, and pulled out the enormous cat’s tongue. He even wantonly whipped the poor cat, but it seemed as if the cat enjoyed the ‘play’ by his keeper. There were sounds of gasps of fear and astonishment of the performance then suddenly the unspeakable happened and the lion struck out with its ginormous paw and struck Gabriel’s chest, tearing the vest.

“Oh my God!” Called out Amy when she realized that she, as well as the others, were back in the bedroom. They found whatever they could to sit on and tried to catch their breath. “Did we just see Gabriel clawed to death?”

“I don’t know, but I bet Ian had enough of the circus at that point and ended the adventure,” replied Miri. I felt a small person standing near me during most of the circus acts and I think it was him. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve had enough of this for the day,” she said, looking at the time on her cell phone. “It’s about time we get some dinner going anyway. I’m heading downstairs to the kitchen.” All were in agreement and followed her down.

Click here for next installment.

This story is completely fictional. Any resemblances to names of people and/or places is purely coincidental.

by Peg Pellerin

Click here for the previous installment.

Having gotten over his chilling experience, Dave went to the cellar to look for parts of items stored there that would make the renovated bedrooms unique. In the process, he opened a drawer to what appeared to be a woman’s vanity. He found a packet bound in cloth and closed with ribbon. “I wonder if this contains more of the diaries like Miri found in the antique desk a couple of months ago,” he said to himself. He did find some pieces of furniture that would add to a room or two. He went back to the main floor to find Jake to help him bring them up. He found Miri and handed her the packet, “I think I found more for you to read, maybe telling us more about our little spector. Where’s Jake?”

“Thanks, I think. He’s in the carriage house looking around for things we might be able to use in or outside the house.” She took the small bundle and immediately unwrapped the bundle, which held two more diaries. “Guess I’ll put my book aside for a little while and go through these while sitting on the porch,” she said to no one in particular, but she thought she heard a child’s voice say, “Thank you.”

THE CARRIAGE HOUSE

“Hey Jake, finding anything interesting?” Dave said as he looked around. “This is a large and sound building. There’s plenty of room for tools, a tractor. Any idea of what you want to do with the rest of the place?

“We haven’t really talked about it since we’re spending more of our time trying to get the house ready for our business. Why? Do you have some ideas?” Asked Jake.

“It’s something I’d like to talk to the two of you about and see how you feel.” I’m planning on proposing to Amy on her birthday in September. I hope you don’t mind her staying here with us until I get a place of our own, which is where the carriage house comes in. If you guys aren’t planning on anything in particular, I’d like to buy it from you two and turn the larger part of the place into a home for us and a studio for Amy’s photography business. I’d make sure that part of it would still be able to be used for the storage of the tools and tractor.”

“Wow! Congratulations, Dave! Amy is great and I won’t say a thing until you propose to her. I truly believe she’ll say yes. It’s obvious that she is deeply in love with you. As far as turning the place into a home and studio, I think that we should get together with Miri and talk about it but personally I don’t have an issue with it. In fact I think it’s a great idea.” A big hug was shared.

ALL ABOARD

The beginning of August had arrived and it became crunch time for Dave and Jake to try to get at least one more bedroom fitted for guests since Jake would need to go back into school to prepare for the new school year and Miri to prepare her classroom for probably what would be her last year teaching. It was a very warm first weekend of August when Jake, Miri, Dave and Amy walked around the room looking for whatever would cause the next ‘event’ since it seemed something of the little spectral Ian was left hidden throughout the upper floor of the house. “I wonder what we’ll find and where it will take us this time,” stated Miri.

“I shudder to think of it,” commented Amy remembering her memory of the frigid adventure she and Dave experienced. Maybe you guys thought about this already so forgive me for mentioning it but why haven’t you gone through all the rooms to find these items and get the ‘adventures’ over with so you can continue with the renovations?

The three looked at each other and with Jake slapping his forehead said, “Doh! We’ve been so focused on the renovations that we only looked for items in the room we were going to tackle. What do you say, guys; follow Amy’s lead in searching the rest of the house first?

“Are we up to multiple events not knowing what we’ll face?” replied Miri.

Dave gave his two cents worth, “We have been frightened out of our wits but we haven’t been injured. I vote to get it over with.”

“Whatever we decide,” interjected Miri, “We should be careful of what we are imagining when we find whatever was left behind. It appears we have had this wrong. When Ian died, his mother was quite distraught and decided to take items he enjoyed spending time with because his father would bring him gifts after most of his trips and hide them around areas where he spent many days, especially later in his shortened life. She strongly felt that her son’s spirit would remain in the house and these would make him happy. I think we’re correct in thinking he’s experiencing adventures through our imagination once we find these items, so let’s be very careful where our imagination might lead to.” After a few moments of thinking it over all were in agreement and continued with the search of the room they were currently in.

Jake was the one to find the item. It was hidden under the raised armoire. He barely had the time to show the others when everything within the room became fuzzy. In his hand he held a tin toy of an early train engine looking very much like what was called the Tom Thumb. However, what they saw in front of them was a real life Tom Thumb hauling passenger cars made of stagecoach bodies. It looked like people could sit either inside or on outdoor rumble seats.

“All aboard,” was heard and an apparition of a conductor could be seen pointing toward one of the carriages.

Four pairs of shoulders shrugged as Miri, Amy, Jake and Dave entered one of the cars. “What can go wrong?” questioned Jake. “These didn’t go very fast and only for short runs.”

As they sat down Amy wondered, “Are we still in the room and is this for real?”

“I have a theory about all of this,” replied Miri. After reading Emma’s diaries, which were mostly about her son, Ian, I believe that Ian is using us to fulfill fantasies of what he wished he could have experienced. We know more of what could have been so our imaginations are triggering the ‘adventures’ for him. We just have to make sure our imaginations don’t run wild. Once the ‘adventure’ is over we move on to the next and he’s happy. Why he never moved on to the ‘other side’ after his death, who knows, but this is probably the only way we’ll finally get him there and he’ll leave us alone, I hope.”

They climbed into one of the carriages and sat on the very hard seats that were made of wood, with very little padding. “I do hope this will be a short ride,” complained Dave who found that his tall frame felt cramped within the compartment.

At first the four were quiet while listening to the rumbling as the train left the station/room, and as it started to speed, up the chug, chug of the train was almost tranquilizing and would have been if it were not for the uncomfortable seating arrangement. “Wow, I think I could walk faster than this train is going,” remarked Jake, “I read that they went anywhere from twenty to thirty miles per hour but I feel like we’re crawling.”

“That’s OK by me,” said Dave showing how uncomfortable he was being confined to such a small area with his knees practically under his chin. “I just hope this is a short spur and we’ll be over this ride soon.”

Miri, glancing about, was able to see into the carriage behind them. She could have sworn she saw a little boy looking at her with the largest smile on his face. He definitely looked like he was having a good time. “I think Ian is happy,” she said and pointed to the other carriage. It was a quick glance and all agreed they thought they saw the face of a young boy but the ride was over and they were all standing in the bedroom of the house.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad,” said Jake, “Even though it was a bit uncomfortable. Nothing happened to scare us out of our wits. Do we have time to look in another room? This one took us a little over an hour.” Nods of approval went around. They left the room to go to the next room with Dave rubbing his rump and stretching his body to get over the cramped muscles.

THE KEEPER WILL ENTER THE CAGE

The four immediately started their search ofthe next room. They looked within the furniture that was in the room, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, under the wardrobe, and even under the bed all coming up empty. Scratching his head, Jake wondered if they would find anything at all but couldn’t understand why this room would be free of anything that Ian would have left behind. He thought of one last place to look, which was between the cotton-stuffed mattress and the weave of ropes that held the mattress up within the wooden frame. “I think I found something,” he said, holding up a large rolled up heavy paper. “Help me unroll this,” he said to Miri who came over and gently they unrolled what appeared to be a poster advertising an Equestrian Show at the Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City.

Just as all four came together, the room wavered and they found themselves in an amphitheater with a stage and circus ring. They could hear but only see blurred visions of what they assumed to be other attendants of the circus that was about to unfold in front of them. “I think we’re at the place we saw in the poster. I’m curious what we’ll see but hope it’s over soon and we’re back in the real room,” stated Jake.

They saw a group of horses come out with riders standing on their backs with both riders and horses doing all types of tricks. After what seemed to be fifteen to twenty minutes, a voice, most likely coming from a Ringmaster, spoke loud and clearly announced, “Ladies, gentlemen and youngsters. Raise your eyes upward and behold a large rope stretched across the way. Watch as you see a rope walker doing his death defying tricks walking across it without a net below.” Total silence filled the room until it appeared that the walker was about to fall and several sounds of gasps could be heard, but he was able to catch his balance and stay on the rope. He made it to one side and returned to the other. “Whew!” Said Dave as he was catching his breath. “I thought the guy was a goner.”

Another activity unfolded on the floor. Several clowns appeared performing antics to make the young and young at heart laugh. They were followed by jugglers passing what looked like bowling pins as well as swords and sticks on fire to each other. The four, or was it five, from the Stewart House, were enjoying themselves immensely. On stage others later came out doing acrobatics, performing tumbles and gymnastic routines. “I used to do those types of routines in the gym but we had mats on the floor,” remarked Miri.

When these performances were completed a huge cage was rolled out to the center of the ring. It contained a very large lion. The voice of the Ringmaster then announced, “Ladies and gentlemen. You may want to cover the eyes of your youngins for this next act. The keeper will now enter the cage of Sarabi, the largest lion in captivity.” Again, there was total silence.

Continued next week

This story is completely fictional. Any resemblances to names of people and/or places is purely coincidental.

by Peg Pellerin

Click here for the previous installment.

Dave, with Jake’s assistance, measured out the smaller second floor room. Since the room had been made smaller than the other rooms due to the fact that a half bathroom was constructed from one of the large bedrooms, Jake and Miri had decided that it would be the perfect size for storage of linens, towels and other sundry items when the house would be turned into the Bed and Breakfast. There was a child sized desk and chair in the far corner of the room. In order to gain access to the walls, Dave moved the desk to the middle of the room. In the process, something fell out of the storage space of the desk. Jake immediately went over to pick it up to see what it was. He found a thin slab of slate and a pencil made of clay. “What is it?” asked Dave.

“Apparently this was where little Ian was home schooled or the desk and chair were brought up here for storage,” answered Jake. “Boy have we come a long way in school supplies,” holding up the two items to show Dave.

Suddenly they felt as if the floor was undulating beneath them. “Not again!” cried out Dave as he was looking for something to hold on to so he wouldn’t fall over from the vertigo that suddenly struck him. They found themselves in a single room schoolhouse. At the front of the room was a large wooden desk with a small desk and chair facing it and two regular sized desks and chairs behind it. Each desk had a thin slab of slate, a clay pencil and a small rag for erasing the slate. The wall behind the large adult desk and chair sported a cobbled together slate. On the desk were several pieces of clay pencils and a couple of large rags as well as a thick ruler and a wooden pointer. In the corner of the room, near the teacher’s desk was a stool with a dunce cap sitting on top of it.

All of a sudden a transparent figure appeared at the desk. As the male figure, the headmaster, walked to the front of the desk, he was struck by a small item coming from nowhere in particular. “David, how many times have I told you to stop throwing spitballs in the classroom and now you dare to hit me with one?” stormed the schoolmaster.

“What? Me? Wait, this isn’t real!” said Dave.

“We both know it’s not real. Just go along with it to get this over with. Nothing will happen. It will be OK.” stated Jake, referring to what happened in the attic.

“Come here this instance,” ordered the educator. Dave, going along with it, went toward the front of the room toward the see-through teacher. The disciplinarian took the heavy ruler on his desk and ordered Dave to put his hand out.

“Now, wait a minute!” shouted Dave.

“Don’t make this any harder on yourself, boy!” declared the school master. Looking toward Jake for reassurance and getting a nod from him, Dave went to the teacher and put out his hand. Whack came the thick ruler onto his hand.

“OUCH!” yelled Dave. “It’s not real, you said. Nothing will happen, you said. That hurt like H E Double hockey sticks! Yet when he looked at his hand, it didn’t appear like anything happened to it.

Jake started to laugh. “I see you haven’t learned anything either, dear Jacob,” stated the schoolmaster. “Go sit yourself on the stool and place the cap on your head.”

Once Jake did as he was told, everything disappeared and they were back in the linen/storage room. A slight giggle could be heard near the small desk and chair that was sitting in the middle of the room.

“Let’s finish up with the measurements you need and get the heck out of this room,” said Jake and when they left the room he took the slate and clay pencil with him. Another room was ‘cleaned’.

“Jake, Dave where the heck are you?” called Miri from the bottom of the stairs. “Dinner is ready. You guys have been up there forever.”

After taking a deep breath and calming his nerves, Jake called back, “On our way. C’mon Dave. Wait until Miri hears about this!”

“Are you guys OK?” Miri asked after hearing about the second episode to happen in the house.

“Other than our nerves being stretched out and my knuckles hurting, I think we’re OK.”

“Your knuckles don’t even look like they were hit even though I saw that ruler coming down hard on them,” said Jake.

“I felt it though,” said Dave rubbing the top of his right hand fingers. “You have to admit, it was funny when you were forced to wear the dunce cap.”

This evoked a laugh from Miri. “I’m just glad you guys are OK.”

“I heard the kid laughing. This was a game for him,” Jake pointed out.

“It is a game,” Miri asserted. “If we can tough out whatever he has us experience, we can pacify him and he’ll finally leave us alone, hopefully leaving the house.”

Continued next week