Ghost House Read online

  Ghost House

  By Carol Colbert

  Copyright 2016 by Carol Colbert

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, except for brief quoted passages for review purposes.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or collective memories of people she has known in general, put together to form various single characters, and thus, resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, unless explicitly noted, are entirely coincidental.

  For you, Jason

  Cover by [email protected]

  How naïve we were.

  Paying money each month to occupy a space does not necessary mean that you can claim it as your own. In our case, it did not even mean that we were alone.

  Chapter 1

  “I don’t want to go! You can’t make me!” Suzanne screamed, slipping away from her father’s grip and running back into her bedroom and crawling under her bed.

  “Suzanne!” Jim called, walking into his younger daughter’s bedroom. “Suzanne, where did you go?” He thought he heard a shuffling sound and got down on his knees to look under her bed. “What are you doing under there?” Suzanne quickly shut her big blue eyes, believing in her five year old mind, that if she could not see him, then he could not see her.

  “Suzanne!”

  Suzanne opened one eye to try and determine just how much trouble she was in this time. When she saw her father’s arm reaching for her she gave a little squeal and shimmied to the far side of the bed, out of the reach of her father’s big hand. Jim then went to the other side of her bed and tried again, but Suzanne had already scooted back to her original spot, right in the middle.

  Jim Gaunter gave up. He found his wife in the kitchen. “Suzanne wouldn’t put her shoes on, she is under the bed again.”

  “I have a lot of running around to do today, Jim.” Sarah told her husband. “Are you going to be home long enough to watch her while I get things done?”

  “No, I have to go into the office and finish up some paperwork before the transfer.”

  “Let’s give her ten more minutes and then we will have to figure out something. Riley isn’t home yet anyway. Suzanne will get tired of hiding and come out eventually.” Sarah said. “When are the moving people coming?”

  “Wednesday, sometime in the morning.” Jim answered.

  “We should be ready by then. Is everything all set on the other end?” Sarah asked.

  “Yes, rental agreement faxed over, the utilities turned on. Are the kids all set up with the school in Michigan?”

  “No, not yet. I know which school the girls will be attending there, but they just got out for the summer, so we have a lot of time to enroll them for September.”

  Jim put his arms around his wife’s waist. “Are you sure you are really on board with this move, Sarah?”

  “I am. It will be hard to leave here. I’ve grown to love Tennessee, both children born her, but it will be nice moving back home too. Riley is the one we have to worry about.”

  Jim looked at his wife “Suzanne is not exactly ready to leave either.”

  “Suzanne is so young, she will find new friends quickly. Besides, after Wednesday she won’t have a bed to hide under.” Sarah smiled. “It’s Riley who is taking this transfer hard.”

  “She is young too, she will adjust.” “There is a big difference between five and thirteen, Jim. Riley will be O.K., but I am not counting on a smooth location transfer with her.”

  Suzanne was getting tired of laying still. She saw Mr. Pickles laying on the floor by the door and slowly crawled out from under her bed. She picked up the big rabbit with the plastic white face and long ears and legs and hugged him to her chest and whispered to her favorite toy. “Don’t worry, Mr. Pickles, they can’t move without us.”

  Suzanne jumped when she heard the front screen door slam. She peeked down the stairs and saw her sister taking off her shoes.

  “Riley, leave your shoes on, honey, we have some running around to do. I want to get you and Suzanne some shorts and t-shirts.” Sarah told her older daughter. Noticing Suzanne half hiding behind the upstairs banister she added “I thought we would also stop and get an ice cream cone, what do you think?”

  “I want ice cream, mommy!” Suzanne said, rushing down the stairs.

  “I don’t know, Suzanne, daddy said you wouldn’t put your shoes on and wouldn’t let him help you put them on, either. Be careful, Mr. Pickles is almost as big as you are, don’t trip. Go back upstairs and get your shoes on and we will go.”

  Suzanne wondered why daddy hadn’t told her that they were going for ice cream. She had thought they were going to that Michigan place today. Suzanne didn’t know what Michigan was. Riley said that it was far away and that when they went there they would never be back to their house. Right after Riley had told her that, Suzanne asked her father to put Mr. Pickles in the car for her. She was afraid that when they went to Michigan, Mr. Pickles might get left behind. That only lasted until bedtime, however, since Suzanne could not fall asleep without Mr. Pickles in her arms.

  Sarah had been able to get everything done she needed to do today. She put in the change of address at the post office, cancelled a dental appointment for Jim that he would not have time to get to and finished the shopping for the kids that she wanted to do. Sarah was thankful that Riley wasn’t as difficult as some teenagers could be as far as picking out clothes that were suitable for a thirteen year old girl. Sarah did not consider herself overly strict, but she still insisted on final say to anything that her girls wanted to wear. Suzanne was easy, anything in pink or purple, sparkling or had a princess on it was instantly on her approval list.

  Sarah pulled up to the ice cream shop and they all went inside to partake in their favorite treat. They were sitting there eating their ice cream when a horrible thought crossed Suzanne’s mind. “Mommy, is there ice cream in Michigan?” She asked, a worried look on her ice cream dotted face.

  “There is ice cream everywhere, silly, all over the world!” Riley said. Suzanne was happy, but still looked up at her mother for confirmation. “Yes, honey, there is plenty of ice cream in Michigan. They have everything there that we have here. Did you know that mommy and daddy were both born there?”

  Suzanne pondered that bit of news and Riley said “I think I heard that before. You and dad came here years ago, but why?”

  “The same reason we are moving back there now, because of your father’s job. Riley, I was actually pregnant with you when we moved here.”

  “Who are you going to be pregnant with when we move there?” Suzanne said with all the innocence of a five year old. Riley rolled her eyes and Sarah laughed and moved Suzanne’s long blonde hair away from her mouth, out of the path of the ice-cream. “No one honey, it will just be daddy, mommy, Riley and you moving to Michigan.”

  “And Mr. Pickles!” Suzanne shouted loud enough to turn heads.

  “And Mr. Pickles” her mother agreed.

  “Can Brianna come stay with us after we move?” This from Riley. Sarah did not want to promise anything she was unsure of. She knew that both of her daughters had very long memories and were not afraid to call her on any promises that looked to them as if they were about to be broken. “I don’t know, let’s just get there first and get settled. Brianna’s parents might not like her going so far from home and she can’t travel that far by herself.”

  This did nothing to appease Riley. “Are there any girls my age in our new neighborhood? She asked. “I have no way of knowing, Riley.” Her mother answered. “I am sure there must be some, and if not, you will make new friends at your new school.”

  “Is our new
house pretty, momma?” Suzanne asked. “The picture I saw of it looked very nice. Daddy arranged for us to rent the house for one year. After that, we can move to somewhere more to our liking or decided to stay there.”

  “I like it just fine right here where we are, mommy.” Suzanne said, licking the last of her ice cream off of her lips.

  “I know, honey. It won’t be easy for any of us, but we have to move so daddy can keep his job. Look at it as an adventure. The house has a big backyard.”

  “Can we get a dog?” Riley asked. Suzanne’s eyes got big and she looked up at her mom, eagerly awaiting her answer. “Let’s just get there and get settled first, girls. We are renting the house and sometimes the owners do not allow pets.”

  “Momma! We can’t go if Michigan don’t allow pets! I’m not leaving Mr. Pickles here when we go!” Suzanne said with a determined look on her little face.

  “I am sure Mr. Pickles will be happy in Michigan, we all will.” Sarah smiled.

  The next couple of days went quickly. Sarah and Riley cleaned the house from top to bottom and Suzanne packed her favorite books and toys into a box her mother told her would go on a truck and be delivered to their new house in Michigan. Any toys that Suzanne had grown out of or no longer wished to keep, they would give to the Good Will for some other child to enjoy her mother told her.

  Suzanne packed with great deliberation. At the last minute she pulled out her little boy doll, Freddie. She didn’t want Mr. Pickles to be all alone in the car when they stopped at places daddy wouldn’t let her take him in. Daddy had gotten angry with her the last time Suzanne had carried Mr. Pickles into the restaurant with her and then cried and insisted he be given a baby high chair to sit in. Suzanne was given a booster seat, but she did not want Mr. Pickles to slide on the floor while they ate. After that, Mr. Pickles had to stay in the car and wait for the rest of them to come back.

  Riley had been allowed to spend the night at her friend Brianna’s house and Suzanne sat on the stairs with her elbows on her knees. She was looking at everything within her range of vision, trying to take mental pictures so she would never forget her house. Momma had told her that tomorrow night they were going to have a camp out in their living room and get to sleep in their sleeping bags. Suzanne liked that they were all going to be sleeping in the same room and mom said they would even have a lantern for light like they do when they would go camping out in the woods. Suzanne figured this would be better than camping in the woods, no bugs! Mommy told her that tonight she had to take her bath and go to bed very early because they were coming to get the furniture early in the morning to take to their new house in Michigan. Suzanne fell asleep holding Freddie and Mr. Pickles tightly in her arms.

  It seemed to Suzanne like she had just fallen asleep when there was her big sister shaking her awake. “Go to bed, Riley!”

  “You have to get up now, Suzanne, mommy said so. Do you want them to carry your bed out to the truck with you still on it?” She asked. Suzanne jumped out of bed. She did not want to be put into some big truck.

  Sarah walked into the bedroom smiling. “Good morning, sunshine.” She gave Suzanne a hug, brushed her hair out of her eyes and sat on the bed.

  “Good morning, mommy, what is that?” She pointed to something that her mom was holding that had three princesses on it. “This is your new travel bag. Put these clothes on and put the pajamas you are wearing into the bag. Do that now and brush your teeth and I will help you comb your hair. We are going to go out to breakfast this morning.”

  “Can I get pancakes and bacon?” Suzanne asked, holding her hands together as if in a prayer. “Of course!” Her mother told her. Suzanne jumped off of her bed and ran down the hall into the bathroom to change. Sarah took the bedding off of Suzanne’s bed, folded it and placed it into a duffle bag. As she was taking the bag downstairs with the bedding from the other beds for Jim to put into the van, she passed the moving men on the stairs. She took Mr. Pickles and Freddie and placed them in a corner of the living room on top of the sleeping bags they would use that night.

  Suzanne changed into her clothes and put her pajamas into the new princess bag like her mother had asked her to. She was still sleepy, but she finally finished getting dressed and brushing her teeth. Suzanne then climbed onto the closed toilet lid. She knew she was not supposed to do that, but she liked looking out the bathroom window into the backyard. Suzanne stood there for a while looking out at her backyard. She looked at the pool she loved to splash around in and the tree she liked to sit under when the sun was too hot and she needed a break from whatever she was doing. She probably would have felt sad if she had realized that was her last look at her favorite old tree and yard, but she didn’t. She brushed her very long hair the best she could and then ran back into her bedroom.

  She looked around and did not see any of her possessions. No dresser, no bed. Not even the boxes she had packed the night before. She wondered how they could have disappeared so quickly like that. She went downstairs, dragging her new princess bag on the stairs. She looked out the front door that was wide open and saw a couple of men carrying their dining room table out and chairs. She looked into the living room and was happy to see Mr. Pickles and Freddie sitting on a pile of stuff in the corner. She ran and grabbed them and then sat down to wait. Wait for what she did not know.

  “There you are, pumpkin!” Daddy said as he came into the room and lifted her up into his arms. “All ready for pancakes?” Suzanne was, in fact she always was, and it was one of her most favorite things to eat. She nodded her head yes and then laid her head on her father’s shoulder. She felt sad, but wasn’t sure why.

  Brianna went out to breakfast with the family and she and Riley talked non-stop. Mommy and Daddy had a lot to say to each other too, so for once Suzanne just sat there and ate her bacon and pancakes and drank her chocolate milk and wasn’t the center of anyone’s attention.

  After breakfast they took Brianna back to her house. Riley and Brianna were crying and hugging each other. Suzanne started to cry too. Not because she was upset about anything at this particular moment, but because she felt that was the right thing to do since her sister and Brianna were crying.

  After they finally got a teary eyed Riley back into the car they spent the rest of the day visiting with various friends of her parents, saying their good-byes. A couple of them handed her mother a bag of cookies or brownies to take with them in the car. They then decided to go see a movie, one of the ones Riley picked out that was also age-appropriate for Suzanne to see. They then had dinner out and went back to spend their last night in their house.

  Suzanne was tired when her father carried her into the house. She barely woke up when he placed her into her sleeping bag in the living room next to Riley. She felt her mother’s kiss and heard her say “When we wake up tomorrow morning we will leave for our new home in Michigan.” Suzanne instantly fell into a deep sleep.

  Hours later Suzanne woke up with a start. She was instantly afraid, but when she looked over to see her parents and sister all asleep in their sleeping bags next to her she felt better. Until that is, when she remembered her mother’s words from right before she fell asleep. When we wake up tomorrow morning we will leave for our new home in Michigan.

  Suzanne did not want to leave their house. She grabbed Mr. Pickles and Freddie and went and sat on the stairs to her bedroom. She wrapped her arms around the banister tightly and whispered into the long bunny ear “We are not going anywhere, are we Mr. Pickles? We are going to sit right here until mommy and daddy change their minds! Even if it takes until I am old enough to go to school! Nothing is going to move us from these stairs! She vowed.

  Chapter 2

  When Suzanne next opened her eyes she quickly looked for Mr. Pickles and Freddie and was happy to find that they were still on her lap. What she wasn’t happy about was realizing she was in her cat seat in the back seat of daddy’s van.

  “Good morning, sunshine!” Her mother said. Suzanne didn’t think it was suc
h a good morning and one look at Riley told Suzanne that her sister didn’t considerate it one either.

  Sarah told Jim that they should stop at the next family restaurant they saw so they could eat and use the rest room. They pulled off of Northbound I-75 and into the parking lot of a friendly looking restaurant that had a big porch and four rocking chairs on it. Jim and Riley walked into the restaurant while Sarah got Suzanne dressed and combed her hair. Suzanne was still confused about how they got her away from the steps and into the car.

  When they were all seated at the big round table and their food orders placed, Jim turned to his wife. “We really got a good jump on the traffic by leaving so early. I figure we drive as far as we can today, and then spend the night somewhere in Ohio and then get to the house the day after that, what do you think?”

  “I think it’s a very long drive and these two little ones have been good so far, but that is probably because they were both sleeping through most of the way. Why do we have to rush? I want to make sure all the furniture gets there before we do. Didn’t you say the management company we went through would see to it that our furniture will be in the house when we get there?”

  “That is what they said. The men driving the truck will call them and they will meet them at the house to let them in and then lock up afterwards.”

  “So then why hurry?” Sarah asked. “It’s not like you have to go to work right away, they said take the days you need, so why don’t we?”

  “You are right, although I hate driving during the day when there is so much traffic and construction, especially through the big cities.” Jim said.

  “O.K., then why don’t we drive until, say about five or six and then find a nice place to stay and then leave again in the morning really early like we did this morning?” Sarah said, reaching to pick up a napkin Suzanne had dropped.