The Ghostly Hideaway Read online

  Chapter Six

  Ghosts A-Plenty

  “There it is again,” Penny was considerably unnerved by all of this door slamming. “I’m going up there. Right now." She suited the action to the words and climbed the stairs quickly. She went into all the rooms and checked in each closet, cubbyhole, and corner. No one was there. She couldn’t feel any drafts that would cause the doors to shut by themselves. While she was in one of the bathrooms, the door across the hall slammed again. Chrissy had been coming up the stairs when it slammed. She stifled a small scream but still forced herself to go on up the stairs.

  “Where are you, Mom?” she called. She couldn’t truthfully say she wasn’t spooked but she wasn’t afraid, either. “Mom.”

  “I’m in the bathroom across from your room, Chrissy. Did you slam a door before you called out to me?”

  “No, it banged as I was coming up here. Mom, I think there’s something you should know. I probably should have told you a long time ago." Chrissy pointed to a fresh bouquet of flowers on her nightstand. “I found the first little bunch of flowers on my nightstand the same morning I found the picture album. Ever since, they’ve been magically appearing two or three times a week. They have all been simple little clusters that you could find growing wild or in a flower bed—nothing extravagant or sophisticated. I liked getting them and it seemed so romantic. It felt a little more special if I kept it a secret. You’re not mad at me, are you?”

  “No, but it might have been better if you’d said something. I can’t say I feel good knowing someone or something has been in your room in the middle of the night while you’ve been asleep. You don’t have any idea how they’ve been getting there, do you?" Penny was aware that Chrissy and Johnny were interested in each other and he visited fairly often these days.

  “No, I sure don’t, Mom. I remember one night when I was about to drop off to sleep, I thought I heard something in the Coy’s bedroom. However, I went on to sleep and nothing else happened that night. At least nothing that woke me up. I don’t know what’s going on. I really don’t. I guess it is a little sinister, though. If they can get in to leave flowers, I guess they could do anything else they wanted to, too.”

  About that time, they heard JoJo bark and Johnny’s whistling and so did the twins. Andy and Candy forsook the cartoons they had been engrossed in and ran out to play with JoJo. At almost the same time, they heard the SUV pull up out front. That meant Edward was home from working at the Tinsley’s place.

  Chrissy blushed when she asked her mom not to say anything about the goings-on in front of Johnny. “I’d be embarrassed if he knew I’d been getting flowers in the middle of the night. You understand, don’t you, Mom?”

  “Okay, but as soon as Johnny leaves, we’ll put the little ones to bed, and we’ll discuss this thoroughly.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  Penny went directly into the kitchen and put supper on the stove to warm up before she put it on the table. Then she heard it again. The door that slammed this time, though, sounded as if it came from the third floor. They hadn’t done a thorough job of searching up there. Maybe that was the next step.

  Johnny stayed for supper…..again. It was getting to be a habit but they didn’t actually mind a great deal. He was a very likeable young man; they weren’t sure but that he and Chrissy were getting too friendly, too fast. However, they didn’t think it would be likely to get too serious. After a while, it was Andy and Candy’s bedtime so they put them down for the night and Johnny and Chrissy slipped off to the front porch swing. Penny began telling Ed about the doors slamming and about Chrissy’s flowers that showed up on her nightstand two or three times a week. That troubled Ed as much as it had Penny.

  “Do you think he,” Ed nodded toward the front porch, “could be doing that? He is obviously quite taken with Chrissy, but I don’t know. I don’t like the idea of him or anyone or anything else being in Chrissy’s bedroom when she is asleep—or even if she’s not asleep.”

  “I think we need to talk to her and try to figure some things out. Moreover, another thing I think we need to do is to do a thorough search through the third floor. We’ve gone up there; but we’ve never done a systematic investigation.”

  “I agree." Ed went to the front door and turned on the porch light. “Chrissy, it’s time to call it a night. Johnny, if you still want to help me at the Tinsley’s tomorrow, I’ll see you about seven in the morning.”

  “I’ll be here Mr. Wroe. Goodnight. Goodnight, Chrissy. I’ll see you tomorrow, too.”

  When Chrissy came inside, they began to discuss the unnatural events that had been happening including her flowers.

  “Dad, I promise I have no idea how the flowers get there. They’re always there when I wake up in the mornings; but I’ve never seen anyone or any—. “At that moment, they again heard a door slam but far enough away it sounded as though it were on the third floor again.

  “Get the flashlights, Penny, we’re going up there. I hope it didn’t awaken the twins." But all seemed quiet as they went up the stairs to the second floor. They walked as quietly as possible down the hall to the stairway that leads to the top floor. They tried to balance their weight near the ends of the steps being as stealthy as they could. When they reached the top of the stairs, they noticed the door at the entrance was open a crack. Ed opened it gently and stuck his head inside; the beam from the flashlight slithered from side to side throwing eerie shadows everywhere. He flipped on the lights in the hallway and the three of them tiptoed down the hall looking in each room they came to in turn. They were about to open the last door when suddenly they felt a drafty chill and the entrance door at the other end slammed shut. Penny and Chrissy both emitted a little startled scream and Ed even gasped audibly.

  “Where in the hell did that gust of air come from? Let’s go back through each room and see if there’s a window open or something that could have caused the door to close." They went on into the last room and checked that room thoroughly finding nothing amiss. Only two bedrooms were up there on one side of the hallway and on the other side was only unfinished storage space. No light fixtures had ever been installed in the storage area but they did a fairly extensive search with the flashlights. They carefully went through the other bedroom and the closets in each as well as the bathroom on that level. They found absolutely nothing. When they were about to open the door that had slammed at the head of the staircase, they stopped abruptly. Ed put his finger to his lips in a shushing gesture and motioned them to turn off the flashlights and he flipped off the hallway lights. They stood so they wouldn’t be seen as they watched the door slowly open on creaky hinges. Ed had his hand on the light switch and when the door was fully open, he pushed the light switch up, and everybody screamed. The activity above their heads had alarmed the twins and when they hadn’t been able to find their parents or their sister, they had sneaked upstairs to see what was going on. The screams, though, gave way to giggles, the giggles turned into laughter. However, the laughter suddenly became cries of terror. The cold gust of wind seemed to rush past them—or through them—and once again, the door slammed shut in their faces.

  It was a solemn and sober quintet who went back down to the first floor. They huddled together on the couch, rubbing their hands up and down their own arms trying to dispel the icy cold effects of the third floor experience.

  “D-Daddy, do you th-think that was a g-ghost up there?" Andy was shivering and his stammering was completely out of character.

  “Oh, don’t be silly, Andy, there’s no such things as ghosts; right, Mama?" Candy’s teeth were chattering.

  Chrissy pulled an afghan off the back of the couch around her shoulders and said nothing. She was thinking about her flowers and wondering if she would be finding any more on her nightstand. As much as she had enjoyed them, she wasn’t sure she wanted any more magic flowers.

  Ed and Penny did their best to reassure the kids, but that wasn’t easy when they felt they might need some nerve pills themselv
es. Even though they didn’t sleep well, no more manifestations disturbed them during the remainder of the night.

  The first thing Chrissy did when she opened her eyes the next morning was check her nightstand for flowers. It was empty. The only things on it were a lamp, a clock, and a box of tissues. A few moments later, her mom knocked on the door and poked her head in to check also and she looked relieved at the absence of flowers.

  Johnny came in and had a cup of coffee with them before going with Ed to help with the cabinet building at the Tinsley’s place. The twins came down while they were still drinking their coffee.

  “Where’s JoJo, Johnny?” Andy wanted to know.

  “JoJo is about to have puppies, Kids, any day, now.”

  “Oh, how many baby puppies will she have?” Candy asked excitedly.

  “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “I wish JoJo had been here last night. Maybe she could have catched the ghost before it scared us nearly to deaf." Andy still wasn’t feeling too confident.

  “Ghost? Where was a ghost?" Johnny asked.

  “Oh, ever since we’ve been here, we hear doors slamming and we’ve had some other peculiar events that are certainly difficult to explain: things appearing without us knowing how or why or by what means. I’m sure eventually we’ll figure everything out, but last night was unnerving." Ed tried to sound matter-of-fact. “Well, I guess we’d better be underway, Johnny, if we’re going to get anything done to those cabinets today.”

  Two weeks later Ed and Johnny had the job done and some totally satisfied customers. They had also been asked to make a bid on another job. The Ohio County Board of Education was taking bids on various facets of the new school building that was under construction. Ed had told his family that Johnny was learning exceptionally fast and was as good a helper as he had ever had. He’d also offered to hire Johnny for the new job if they were the successful bidders and if Johnny was interested. Johnny had declared he really enjoyed the work and could certainly use the money. Ed had estimated that the new job would probably take about three months to complete. Johnny had said the only thing he would need to do was to get up some wood for his grandmother before cold weather. Ed would need some firewood also so they decided to work together to get the wood for both families. The deal was set.

  Ed and Johnny started to work on getting the wood for winter fuel while they waited to see if they would get the job they had bid on. The sealed bids would be opened on September 15 and as soon as they had that decision, they would be able to plan their winter’s schedules. Ed was pretty confident that his bid would be low because of the good deal Frank Tinsley was offering Ed on the lumber from Frank’s property. He could pass his savings on to the customer and that let him make a lower bid on the job. There would be a supplies cabinet in each classroom of the school that was being built as well as cabinets and storage bins in the kitchen and pantry of the school lunchroom. Various other cabinets were located in different areas of the school and Ed had studied the blueprints carefully before making his bid. Actually, he had done a similar job in North Carolina and he remembered the costs involved with that work and that helped, too.

  On the day of the bid opening, Ed and Johnny were genuinely excited. Johnny had already decided he would give Chrissy an engagement ring for Christmas and this was his chance to earn the money to pay for it. Of course, Johnny had the money his Grandfather O’Reilly had left him in his will. It amounted to over three hundred thousand dollars but Johnny still felt it would somehow mean more if he earned the money himself. His Grandmother Lydia didn’t even know he had the money even though he had used some of it to fix little things around her house up on Thorne Hill. Their needs there were simple and he enjoyed hunting and fishing to provide meat for them for food.

  As soon as they had announced that Ed Wroe was the successful bidder on the cabinetry, Ed told Johnny that they should celebrate and that he had something important to discuss with him. They went down to McAfee’s Restaurant and ordered hamburgers and tater tots. They ate most of their celebration meal in silence and then Ed got serious.

  “Johnny, I’ve decided I don’t want you to work for me any more.”

  Johnny was totally devastated. “But Ed, I thought you said I had been working well and doing a good job! You asked me to come with you today to see if ‘we’ got the bid. Why would you suddenly want to fire me?”

  Ed grinned mischievously. “Because I want you to be my partner,” he announced. “You’ve learned very quickly and you’re such good help, I don’t feel right about not sharing the profits with you. I want you to be my partner, that is, if you want to, Partner." Ed held out his hand and Johnny took it enthusiastically.

  “Man, you had me worried there for a minute,” Johnny said, getting a long breath. “I’d love to be your ‘Partner in Crime,’” he said in jest.

  “Oh, don’t say it that way." Ed was remembering his last partner. “I guess it’s about time I told you what happened with my last colleague." Ed took a newspaper clipping out of his billfold and placed it on the table between them. “This guy worked with me, side by side. We went to school together and I thought he was the last person in the world who would do something to hurt me. I considered him a friend. However, as you can see from the story, Norman stole around twenty thousand dollars worth of property from our last customer and framed me for the crime. I was arrested and tried and Norm testified that he saw me take the stuff. When my attorney proved I hadn’t done it, Norman skipped town, went to Chicago or somewhere, and left me to face the consequences. Moreover, even though, I was found not guilty, my reputation sustained enough damage that I decided it would be better to leave town and ply my trade in a new place. That’s how I ended up here. I thought maybe you should know what I had been accused of before you agreed to join the firm of Wroe and O’Reilly, Contractors.”

  “Hey, that was a hateful thing for somebody you thought of as a friend to have done to you. He sure doesn’t appear to be the kind of guy who would do something like that." Johnny studied the picture and the police description. His age, it said, was thirty-nine; he had sandy hair and moustache; blue eyes; five feet eight inches tall and weighed one hundred seventy pounds. Under distinguishing marks and characteristics it listed a tattoo of a hammer on his right forearm and that he walked with a noticeable limp. He also, it said, wore glasses.

  “I know. I still have to wonder why he would have done that to me. Well, that’s water under the bridge. We’ll just start from here, Johnny. Okay?”

  “This says he has a limp. Was he in an accident or something?”

  “No, it was a birth defect. I guess he always felt sort of left out. He didn’t feel he could compete in sports or anything. Except for me, Norman never had many friends, I guess. As I said, though, this is a new day and we start from here.”

  “Okay. There is something I need to talk to you about. I plan to ask your daughter, Chrissy, to marry me in the spring and I wanted to know that you didn’t have any serious objections. I haven’t mentioned it to Chrissy yet, and I wanted your blessing before I do.”

  “Johnny, I think my daughter would be a lucky girl to have you for a husband and I’m sure Penny will feel the same way. Just think; I’ve gained a partner and a prospective son-in-law all in one day as well as what should be a lucrative job. Congratulations to both of us." Ed clapped Johnny on the back and they got to work deciding what materials they would need first.

  A few days later, on Sunday afternoon, Johnny asked Chrissy to go for a walk with him.

  “I’ve got something to show you and somebody I want you to meet.”

  Chrissy looked at her dad for permission and Ed with a twinkle in his eyes nodded his assent.

  “Can we go, too?” Andy and Candy asked in unison.

  “No you may not; not this time,” their parents insisted.

  Johnny and Chrissy began walking toward Thorne Hill hand in hand.

  “I also have something to ask you." Johnny kissed Chr
issy as they turned toward each other. “I’ve grown to love you more and more. More than I ever thought I’d love anybody. I’ve put a down payment on a set of rings and I want to give you the engagement ring for Christmas. This is a sweetheart ring that I hope you will wear until Christmas." He had taken the little square box out of his pocket and now he offered it to her. “Will you be my sweetheart for the rest of my life and my wife, eventually? I love you and I’ll always be good to you and try to make you happy. Do you love me just a little, Honey? Will you at least think about it?”

  “I don’t think I could ever love you ‘just a little,’ Johnny. I already love you so much my heart is about to burst. Yes, I’ll be your sweetheart, now and I’ll be proud to be your wife, too. Oh, Johnny, I’m so happy! I was so afraid maybe you didn’t feel about me the way I did for you.”

  “I think I’ve been in love with you from the first moment I saw you." Johnny hadn’t told her, yet, that the first time he had seen her had been on the front porch that first day when they ran out of gas.