FICTION: The House, part 4: Between the weeds

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.

While Jake and Miri went into town to pick up groceries and other needed supplies for the house, Dave decided to be outside of the house so he mowed the lawns and roamed the property. Once mowed, the place looked more inviting. A tractor that had mower and bucket attachments, made the task quicker and easier, taking only about an hour and a half to complete. After putting the tractor away in the garage that was once a carriage house, he decided to walk around the grounds taking note of trees that should come down due to rotting or too close to the house if heavy winds should come about causing large limbs or the tree itself to come down onto the house.

Toward the back of the property there appeared to be a path overgrown with weeds and low brush. “Depending where this goes, we might want to clear this out,” he thought to himself. He found himself drawn to the path and decided to go through as much as the growth would allow him. After about a five minute stroll, dodging prickly brush and a few large fallen tree limbs, he came to a clearing, which was also densely grassed in. By the shape of the area it gave Dave the impression that it might have been a garden of some sort. There was something in the center of the space.

Trudging toward the object, he saw there were more articles within the confines of the tall grass. He also saw a broken down arbor. In the arbor were a couple of granite benches. To either side of the arbor there were statues. Upon closer inspection of the statuaries he found one to be of a man wearing what seemed to be safari type clothing. At the bottom of the statue was an inscription. Dave pulled some of the grass away so he could read it. Jebediah Hodges Big Game Hunter was carved into the stone. There were no dates, so Dave didn’t think the big game hunter was buried there or at least he hoped he wasn’t. He then went to the other statue and it was that of a young boy. The inscription on this was Ian Hodges My Precious Little Boy. “So you’re the one who caused us to be frightened out of our wits last night,” he said aloud to himself. He thought he heard a giggle coming just outside of the garden area but did his best to ignore it, but it still gave him the creeps. He thought, “I’ll have to make sure Jake and Miri see this.”

By the time Dave came out of the path and onto the freshly mowed lawn, Jake and Miri were driving up the driveway toward the house. “The lawn looks great!” Miri said. “It makes the place look so much cheerier.”

“You’re not going to believe what I found on the back of the property,” said Dave as he grabbed some of the packages from the SUV and helped to bring them into the house. He told them about his little excursion and discovery. After putting things away, he led them to what may have been at one time a tranquil garden for Mrs. Hodges.

“Alrighty then!” exclaimed Jake. “We’ll have to decide what we’re going to do about this but the inside of the house takes precedence.”

“I like the idea of a place to come and sit to unwind, but I don’t know about those two statues.” Miri pondered while looking at the little boy. “House first, garden later,” agreeing with Jake.

To be continued…