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

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

by Peg Pellerin

Continued from last week.

With uncertainty in his voice Dave said, “I don’t know about you guys but it’s getting dark, which means we’ve been up here a lot longer than we should have been. How much time just passed? I think we should go back downstairs and think about what just happened.” It didn’t take much for Jake and Miri to agree. They carefully put the real and toy guns back where they belonged, closed the lid to the trunk and headed down to the main floor.

The nerve-racked threesome sat at the breakfast table trying to piece together what had happened. Miri brought iced-tea for everyone and then sat down trying to explain what she experienced. “When I picked up the toy gun I suddenly felt dizzy so I hurried to sit down. Everything in the room seemed to swirl, changing from the attic to a jungle. I heard a little boy’s voice telling me to shoot the tiger with the toy gun. It wasn’t making much sense to me but he continued urging me to do it. Once I pretended to shoot the tiger, he thanked me and said something like, ‘You are now my chuckaboo,’ whatever that means. Everything then came back to normal. How long did that last?”

While Jake was using his Smartphone to look up chuckaboo Dave said, “I just happened to look at my watch when Jake was pulling out the carved box because I was getting hungry and thought we should break for lunch. It was 1:15. I forgot about lunch when I saw how gorgeous that box was and wanted to know what was in it. All hell broke loose and it’s now 6:00. Believe it or not I’ve lost my appetite.”

Jake said, “I found chuckaboo and it’s a very old word meaning close friend. Miri, you told me a few times that you’ve had dreams about someone telling you to continue reading the diary so you’d better understand the house and that the individual was lonely. Could that individual be the one who reached out to you to shoot the tiger?”

Miri looked at him and said, “I don’t know; might have been, but does that mean this place is haunted? I sort of believed in the paranormal but now that something has happened to us, I feel a little more strongly about it. Do you think that’s why people left after living here for only a few years? If I hadn’t pretended to shoot the tiger, would it have harmed us? I’m trying to get my head around this. I’m going to go make us some sandwiches. We do need to eat something.”

The three sat in silence working through their sandwiches and trying to get over what happened. Jake broke the silence. “What are we going to do? Do we stay here and hope nothing like this happens again? We’ve invested everything we have to make this place work but can we handle any more ‘hauntings’, or yet, open a B & B where guests will witness weird events?” He put his head in his hands, shaking it back and forth.

“While I was making the sandwiches I was thinking more about the little boy that was talking to me and things he’s said in my dreams and also in the attic. Did you guys hear him in the attic or did he just talk to me?” They shook their heads in the negative. “I’ve finished reading the diaries and Ian, the little boy, was very lonely. According to his mother’s entries, he used the house as his play area going from room to room pretending to be someplace or do something with an imaginary friend. In my dreams he often said he was lonely and by reading the diaries I would understand the house. He was giggling and clapping when I ‘killed’ the tiger. Maybe it wasn’t the intent for us to be injured but playing a game with Ian.”

“Ok,” said Jake, “Let’s say for argument’s sake that the little boy, Ian, is haunting this place but doesn’t intend to do us any harm, what caused the event to happen in the first place? I was looking at the gun his father probably used to kill the tiger when the attic turned into an Indian jungle.”

“I think it happened when I picked up Ian’s toy gun. It was like a password for the game to begin,” replied Miri.

“Some game,” said Dave. “I wasn’t having fun and I’m surprised I didn’t have to change my underwear!”

“Listen,” requested Miri, “remember movies based on a couple from Connecticut that dealt with the supernatural or paranormal? This couple was real and they would collect artifacts from homes that were haunted. Once the artifacts were removed, the houses were no longer possessed. Jake, you mentioned that you wanted to give some of these antiques to the state or some other museum. If we do that then the house would lose its unearthliness.”

“I see where you’re going with this and it might work,” agreed Jake. I don’t know about you two but I’m exhausted. I might not be able to get any sleep but I feel like I need to go to bed.”

Miri finally fell asleep but it was restless. Ian approached her in another dream. “You haven’t been through the whole house yet,” he said. “There is still fun and games to be had. You’ll see when you visit all my rooms.”

That morning they all sat around the table looking like death warmed over. “You guys didn’t get much sleep either,” Dave yawned while rubbing his eyes.

“I had another visitation in a dream,” replied Miri. “Apparently Ian wants us to visit every room. He wants to play.”

“Oh just great!” Said Jake. “Wait, if there’s something of his in each room and we go along with his fun and games, we can get rid of those items and hopefully we’ll be free. Dave you can continue with your renovations while Miri and I visit the other rooms and see what we can scare up,” he said half-heartedly. “Hopefully we can get this over, with and soon.”

“It’s worth a try,” agreed Miri as Dave nodded in approval. I just hope our nerves can handle whatever he has in store for us.”

Dave held his hand up as if in a classroom. “Won’t whatever you bring to a museum, or wherever, haunt that place too?”

“I don’t think so,” replied Miri. “I think the items and Ian are connected to this house only. He died here, leaving his toys behind and once we play with him and his toys it should all be over, but I’d still like to get rid of his things once we accomplish the tasks.”

“Sounds logical,” Dave and Jake said in unison. Dave continued, “Do you want me to do anything to the smaller room on the second floor that you’re intending on using as a linen/storage room?”

Jake replied while looking for Miri’s approval, “Maybe make closed closets with shelving? We can measure later in order to decide how big we want them. Before you do work in that room, though, we have to search it to see if there are any artifacts that could cause an event to occur and clear it out of there.” Miri nodded her agreement. “Let’s just hope if we have to go through another episode, it isn’t as frightening as last night’s!”

Continued next week.

Hawthorne House

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

by Peg Pellerin

Continued from last week.

As the three were getting ready to go on their first exploration adventure of the house, Miri asked Jake if he had had a chance to find out about the builder and owner of the house.

“It took some digging but I did find a rich dude by the name of Jebediah Hodges who had the house built to his specifications. He got rich by investing in collier companies which were trains and canal barges that transported coal. Those investments paid off, making him quite wealthy. There wasn’t much about him other than the fact that he was rich, and helped a lot of local businesses stay on their feet in their early stages. Apparently he died due to injuries incurred in a big game hunting trip. I couldn’t find out anything more about the house or his family other than he married Emma Brithe. There was no mention of children.”

“Strange,” said Miri, “The entries of the diaries I’ve been reading mentioned those trips. It was a sad and lonely life for his wife. Their only child, a son by the name of Ian, was born with ailments that kept him frail throughout his childhood. I just got to an entry in the diary stating that he died at age twelve. It was tough on Emma because her husband was rarely around to help with the upbringing of a sickly child. Her life was deeply devoted to caring for him. She resented her husband for not being there and tended to imbibe in the spirits often. I think she blamed herself for her son’s illness because she drank so much while she was pregnant with him. From her writings I think what her son had was what we would call today, FAS, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.”

The young couple shook their heads in sympathy for the original woman and child of this house. “Let’s get out of this slump and head upstairs. Attic here we come!”, said Jake.

The only one of the three who had been in the attic before was Dave when he was inspecting the house to make sure there were no leaks coming from the roof. The place was solid. Since it was only half a story tall the ceiling wasn’t as high as the other two floors and didn’t give much clearance for someone like Dave to walk around without bending his six-foot frame while Jake and Miri didn’t have too much of an issue since both were vertically challenged being less than five feet, five inches tall.

“It’s warm and musty up here,” said Miri. “I think that window can open and by the way don’t either of you think of changing it. I love that window.”

“Okie dokie, you’re the boss,” said Jake as he went to figure out how to open the window. “It pivots out from the bottom,” discovered Jake and swiveled it open on its hinge, allowing a comfortable breeze to enter the attic. Once the back window, which was a plain sash window, was opened the air in the attic wasn’t so musty. “There isn’t any lighting up here so we’ll have to do our exploring during daylight. Dave, any chance you can install a light or two up here and maybe a plug or two?”

“No problem.” Dave started to look where he could bring up the electrical wiring, while Jake and Miri started looking around the attic.

There were odd pieces of furniture, wooden boxes, and two large domed top steamer trunks. At one point, Jake jumped back, startled to see a large animal face peeking out from behind one of the dusty bureaus. “Whoa, what is that doing here?”

“Didn’t you say that the original owner of this house was a big game hunter and there used to be some of his trophies in this house?” answered Miri. “Maybe not all of them were removed and the head of that Wild Boar was put up here.” Hope we don’t find too many more of those trophies. Who do you think would want it so we can get rid of it?”

Once Jake’s nerves calmed down he said, “I’d like to bring it to school to show the students in Mr. Wilkinson’s history class and then see if the state museum would like it. I wonder what other exciting things we’ll find up here.”

They started going through drawers of some of the bureaus, finding very little; some pieces of clothing that dated back to the 1800s and apparently one of the bureaus was used in the dining room because table linens and silverware were found in the drawers. “We could probably find someone who would purchase some of the antiques that we won’t use and we can use the money toward the renovations,” suggested Miri.

“Sounds like a good idea, Ollie,” grinned Jake, referring to a famous old-time comedy team. He went over to one of the steamer trunks and brushed off the dust and cobwebs. “I wonder if it’s locked,” He said as he attempted to open it. At first he thought it was locked but apparently only stuck from being closed for so long. Once opened, the trunk revealed clothing made of heavy wool twill, which looked like something someone would wear when going hunting and lighter cotton clothing worn apparently for fishing. There were also some old rods with spools holding rotting fishing lines. “Well I guess Jebediah liked to fish too.” I can’t wait to show the history students some of this stuff!

“Ouch!” exclaimed Dave, who also was looking at the antique fishing gear.

“What happened,” asked Miri, hurrying to go to his side when she saw blood on Dave’s hand.

“I was moving some of this stuff aside and I caught my hand on some of the old fishing hooks that were stuck on a piece of cloth.”

“It’s a good thing you recently got your tetanus booster shot. Maybe we should go down to wash that out and bandage it.”

“I have a boo boo strip in my wallet,” motioned Dave as he took one out and put it over the injury. “We’re almost done up here anyway, so I can take care of it when we head back downstairs.”

Once they completed the investigation of the first trunk, Jake headed to the second. “Great! This one is locked. You didn’t happen to find a key in any of those drawers did you?” he asked Miri. She shook her head.

“I need something to pry the hasp open. Dave, do you have a screwdriver handy?”

“I never leave home without one,” chuckled Dave.

Once opened, Jake picked up a large piece of wool fabric which covered the contents of the trunk. “OMG! Miri, Dave, you gotta see this!” Jake cried out. Before them, within the trunk were small pieces of ivory, most likely from some of the animals that Mr. Hodges had bagged. They couldn’t believe what lay before their eyes. All types of small weapons from knives, to swords, and even guns. Jake was hesitant to pick any of them up, not wanting to damage any of them considering how old they were. “This, I believe, is a Bowie knife named after Jim Bowie who fought at the Alamo. This is a cavalry sword; I think a brass hilt saber.”

“Is that a Katana?” Pointed Dave to a beautiful sword from the Japanese medieval period. “How did the old guy get his hands on this?”

Continued next week.