Entry #551265, added on 11-24-07 @ 8:08 am EST
Entry Access Restriction: None.
| The Bay Road Legacy Chapter 10 Bless This House | Entry #551265 |
THE BAY ROAD LEGACY
Chapter Ten
Bless This House
Thursday afternoon and no one has mentioned ghosts or strange happenings to Uncle Cy and Aunt Catherine. The closest they had come to feeling an other world presence while on their vacation was to stand quietly in the midst of an old Revival Church sight in the nearby woods. Was that about to change? Thursday night would be upon us shortly and too Friday night and they would still be with us at Bay Road.
The new crops for Friday’s business at the farm stand had arrived and my brother and I were hard at work putting them away in preparation for our Friday business. Mother and Cy and Catherine along with Greg and Dusty were up at the house when Father and Joan returned from work. Supper would be ready early, because Uncle Cy was determined to visit Uncle Jimmy’s favorite ice cream shop and to treat us all after we were done.
As planned, we ate early, and then as if by habit we all piled into Fathers car for a short ride around the area, which would be followed by an almost required stop at the ice cream shop. We all entered together and quickly “our waitress” was right there with us making sure we got a good seat. She was quick to greet us and ask how everything was going out at the old farm house. Without waiting for the answer she offered that things must be going good or else we would not be back again, or maybe we had moved! Being assured that all was well, and that we had not moved, mother introduced my Uncle and Aunt to Doreen. Being frequent customers, we did learn the young girl’s name. After the introduction, she turned to Uncle Cy and asked in slow deliberate tones, do you speak English? Cy did not understand the sincerity of the young girl’s question. Being assured that he spoke English she took our orders and of course went to fix a special banana split for Cy, just like she had done for his brother several weeks earlier.
We enjoyed our treats and in an hour or so we were ready to leave for the trip back out to the farm. Almost as though it had been planned or written into a script, the sky to the west had darkened and rain had started to fall. Crowded into the car and all slightly damp, made the ride back to the house seem like it was miles away, and not just a five minute ride out Bay Road. As we neared the house, mother tapped Father lightly and whispered, “look Ben, there are no lights on at the house.” My brother and sister and I started to giggle, knowing what would come next. Cy and Catherine had no idea of what lay ahead.
Now assured that we were in full control of the house, with all of its’ faults and mystery, and having no fears, we all poured out of the car and ran into the kitchen with Father carrying the flashlight. He lit two of the old lanterns that were now always kept close at hand, and we just acted as though it were just a matter of course, almost routine that the lights would go out and the rains would fall, and storms would pass by. Not the least bit alarmed or at least not visibly upset by the storm, Cy and Catherine took one lamp and headed for the living room. Just as they entered the room, a tremendous blast of thunder shook the whole house, the fireplace damper clanged open and the lantern went out. Noises from the upper floor of the house started to grow increasingly strong, and Cy, who was known to be somewhat deaf, started yelling that he heard people upstairs in the house. He called out for Father to come quick with the flashlight so they could go upstairs and find out who had broken in to our house. Father of course brought the light and asked my brother and me to come with them, and sneak in and get our guns, just to protect Cy from any bad guys. As we neared the top of the stairway, Cy was sure he could hear voices coming from the small room at the rear of the house, the small unused room that we had already identified as a very questionable area.
Now the two men, brothers, each being willing to show that they were fearless when in the company of the other, moved down the hallway to the rear room. The door was of course locked from the outside, and as they stood before the door, a second massive bolt of lightning struck nearby with an almost ear shattering roar of thunder. There was a moment of almost complete silence that lasted for at most a few seconds, and in that moment the door to the room was unlocked. The two men stepped back to swing the door open, when seemingly by itself, it flew back against the wall and then slammed shut again. Father reached for the doorknob and tried to pull the door open. It would not move. It would not open. “It” said Father, probably jammed when it slammed shut. We can come up in the morning and see if we can open it. The two men now turned their backs to the door and as if it were a command performance, loud screams could be plainly heard from within the room. Father, pushed Cy into my sisters bedroom and motioned him to stand still. At that moment, I believe Cy was already paralyzed with fear and could not move. Another scream, was again heard from within the room. This time it sounded very much to be that of a woman’s’ scream, calling for someone, anyone to come to her. The sound of other noises could be heard much like furniture being moved, and too the sound of breaking glass. A deafening roar now seemed to grow louder and soon the screaming stopped. The roar from within the room faded, and all was again quiet. Catherine, joined by mother had made their way to the top of the stairs in time to hear the sounds from the room. Catherine let out a yell. “Merciful God, save us from the darkness, save us from the unseen” and at that moment all of the lights came back on, the storm had passed, the action packed entertainment for the evening had ended. Father with Cy, crossed the hall and again reached for and opened the door to the small room. He turned on a light and all that was visible was what had already been seen. No evidence for the source of the voice, or any other phenomena. The room was cold and quiet once again.
The guns were put away, and we all returned downstairs to the living room and then to the kitchen. As a family, we were not speaking of the incident. Mother offered to make some fresh coffee or to get out some sodas, and since the rain had ended suggested that we might all go out and sit on the front porch and smell the sweet grass. Cy and Catherine exchanged long questioning glances at one another and when the tension of the moment peaked Cy blurted out in a still shaking voice, “Ben, just what the Hell happened”. Jimmy said this was a great place, but that s.o.b. never mentioned anything like this. What the Hell is going on in this house” “Calm down Cy, calm down, and come outside and we will tell you all about it” was Fathers reply.
We went outside and all of the events from the earliest days to the current moment were recounted for the benefit of our guests. After the stories were told, Cy went up to his room and returned in a moment with a small glass vial that he kept with him when he was away from home. It was, he explained, Holy Water from a sacred shrine in Quebec, and he asked if he and Catherine could sprinkle some of the water around the house and in the places that we had mentioned. Mother told Cy that if it would make him feel better to go right ahead and splash away. Together he and Catherine prayed over the whole place, the house, the barns the silo, even the front porch on which we were seated. The conversation dwindled and it became time for bed. Our home was now fully blessed.
Friday morning everyone was up early and gathered in the kitchen. Father and Joan would be off to work, the farm stand would be opened and mother had planned to take Catherine into Glens Falls to help her shop. Cy announced that he and Catherine would not be staying through the day as planned. It was a long way back for them to travel, and they thought they would like to get an early start on the trip. They would be leaving right after breakfast. Cy said that he knew if they stayed another night they would probably be up late at night again, and he did not want to start out on a trip already tired. Yes they would be leaving right after breakfast. Before noon they were gone. As they left the driveway, Mother rolled her eyes back in her head and said boldly, “Thank God that they are gone. Anyone that can’t put up with a few ghosts at night in an old house certainly shouldn’t have to stay. There not at all like us or Jimmy, why they are no fun at all and life is supposed to be full of fun. I just wonder who your father has invited to keep an eye on us next week” she said.
Keep an eye on us next week? I was somewhat surprised that mother had made such a comment. Had Father in fact planned each week for “Guests” to arrive just so that we would not be alone in the old farm house? Did he know something that we had not been told? Only time would solve that riddle. Just after the relatives left, mother quickly ran inside to call her new friend Helen and tell her what had happened. Helen arrived at our house within minutes of the phone call and spent the whole day with mother. Together they went off shopping and returned in late afternoon. The business at the farm stand was brisk and productive. Another day at the farm was just great.
It being a Friday and this being an almost predictable time for strange things, Helen, had invited us, the whole family to come to her house for supper, and mother had accepted, providing that we bring the fresh corn and green beans. When Father and Joan arrived home, they quickly changed into casual clothes and we were on our way to our new friend’s house for dinner. The experience of our family being invited out to visit with friends for dinner was brand new. We were thrilled to go. Helen had baked a huge ham and with the veggies, dinner was terrific. It was during the after dinner conversation that Father made the announcement that next week, probably on Tuesday, we were going to meet some people that we had never met. We did indeed have some more of Fathers relatives, his Aunt and Uncle would be coming by bus to visit with us. They were very elderly, and Father said that as a young boy, he had lived with them for several years. Mother knew right away that he was talking about his uncle Jim and his wife Lil. She had met them only once, at a funeral for my Fathers mother, many years earlier. After the announcement, with a knowing glance, Mother looked at me as if to say, “see I told you so, he has a plan to not leave us alone in that house.” She also looked toward Helen with whom she had obviously shared her suspicions.
After dinner we all walked out to the site of the old cross and showed Joan and Father the post holes that we had uncovered earlier and the location of the center post and all that we had discovered on the neighboring property. Helen had one surprise for us. When we returned to her house just after dark, she produced from a desk drawer a small envelope. As she opened it she told us that she had gone back out to the site after we had left and while scratching around in the dirt she came across an old gold coin. She took it from the envelope and passed it around for all to see. “Look at the date on it” she said “look at what it was worth”. The coin was about the size of a quarter, but said on it 2 ½ D. It was minted in 1834. This she said is probably worth a whole lot more today than it was in 1834. This was probably in somebody’s pocket or put into a collection plate during a revival meeting at the camp. Think about it she said for over 100 years this coin has just laid there waiting for me to find it. I sure hope it brings good luck. I probably would never have gone back to the site if you folks hadn’t gotten my curiosity up”. We stayed quite late into the evening at the home of our new friends and it was only when Greg fell asleep on the floor that we decided it was time to return to the farm. The hour was well past 10:30 as we entered the kitchen, and everything seemed to be quite normal, and so it was. Whatever was on our ghostly agenda for that Friday night was over and done with before the time of our return.
Saturday came and with it, Father thought that he would give one more long and careful attempt at solving the mystery of the windows in the small second floor room. He went into the room armed with the sharp cutting tools and paint scrapers, and a large pry bar and hammer that had been used on the windows before. At one point in his somewhat erratic past, Father had been a cabinet maker, and he was sure he could find a solid cause for the problems with the windows. “After all” he said, “even a ghost might want to open a window now and then”. I countered his remark with the observation that I didn’t think the ghosts were having any trouble with the windows. That did not set well with Father. I left him to his challenge and spent the next few hours trying to get an old machine in one of the workshops to work. It was a belt driven lathe, that could handle large pieces of wood and I was sure if I could get it in shape the other rusted equipment in the shop would be next on my list of things to do. I had a clear vision of a fully restored woodworking shop. Maybe I could build a cabinet or a chest of drawers, or maybe just maybe, a boat that I would sail in up at the Lake. At my age, dreams were easy to come bye. On the farm, every day would hold the promise of a new dream.
By early afternoon Father had managed to remove one window from its frame by dismantling the casings around it. He had carefully taken the window out of the frame and sanded and scraped the wood surface so there would be no way for the window to stick, or to swell up in the frame. It would, he thought be trouble free and he would certainly win some points with his new family for having been so clever in undoing what had been done by over one hundred years of constant use. Yes, Father was indeed a man who liked a challenge. He always said that “nothing was impossible if you just put your mind to it. It is only when you stop trying that you lose”.
I arrived at the room in which he had been working for several hours now, just in time to see him putting the window back into the frame and re-attaching the casements around it. When the task was done he reached out and gently pushed the window upward. With an increasing pressure he pushed, and the window would not move. Just as before it refused to budge even a single inch. I have never seen such frustration as appeared on my fathers face on that day. He hurled the tools back into the tool bag, looked again at me and said he did not think that anyone ever would be able to correct that damned window, and insisted that he would call Mr. Roberts on Monday to have the whole damn thing replaced. That he said would put some crimps in the ghost’s game. “They just got to learn, this is our house”. When he came down to the kitchen, my mother asked how it was going. I said nothing, and Father suggested that since it was a nice day, maybe we should take the rest of the day off and go up to the lake for a swim. Saturday was an enjoyable day and all too soon it passed by and was gone. Sunday we were given some limited briefing regarding our Great Uncle Jim and his wife Lil who would be coming to visit on Tuesday.
|
© Copyright 2007 Peter Yule (UN: peteryule at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Peter Yule has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
|
Log In To Leave Feedback
Static Items
Books
Forums
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
