Storiesonline.net
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                            101 Bell Whistle
                                by JimWar

Copyright© 2009 by JimWar


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Description: Sometimes, even when times are hard, an opportunity arises. Sometimes such an opportunity can lead to adventure and give up mysteries that beg to be solved. Sometimes the solving of those mysteries can bring riches, adventure and sometimes even more mystery. Sometimes we find romance in such adventures. Sometime we find answers to questions that we never asked. Meet Joe and let the adventure begin.

Codes: MF rom het myst
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Chapter 1: A Rare Opportunity


"One person's misfortune is another's opportunity." I smiled as I remembered my daddy's words. Daddy had a lifetime of that misfortune; misfortune that must have given opportunity to a boat load of other men. Still with all of his hard luck I could never think about him without thinking of one of his similarly upbeat, off-the-wall comments. I even remembered daddy teasing the nurses as he lay in the hospital firmly battling the cancer that ended his life.

My frown turned into a weak grin as I realized that I was on the receiving end this time. The banks had a surplus of repossessed homes and apartments to be cleaned and prepared for sale. With the way the economy was heading they weren't quite sure when those sales would be but wanted the repos ready for sale on the spur of the moment. Almost no one had any ready cash, especially the twenty percent down the banks were now requiring. Most of those with any ready money at all were holding on to it with a tight fist. Hard times have arrived.

I couldn't keep from thinking that all of this is an opportunity for someone. Freelancing as a home closure expert, I carefully looked over each home taken back, sized up the dumpster requirements needed to clean the place out, and the man-hours of cheap labor needed. It wasn't complicated to figure and there was an abundance of newly vacated houses. Glancing down on the contract bid form I quickly noted a dollar figure and then double checked the address on the form against the mailbox at the curb. Hell, this one wouldn't even require a dumpster; the sub should be able to get this garbage in the back of his pick-up.

The price on the bid sheet was $600, the minimum bid that I make on any project. As it was, my bids averaged $800 per house and my average cost was about $400 of that. By the time I wrote down my bid I was already looking at the next house on my list. I gave a curse under my breath as I realized the next house was all the way on the other side of town. Well, it would be my last for the day. Looking at the marks on my tally sheet I realized that the next one would make 26 bids for this week alone, and today was only Thursday. If everything held up, I would win bids on 16 to 18 of those on Monday. My crews had already finished cleaning out ten this week with six more to be completed by next Tuesday. My gross profit had averaged six grand a week over the past four weeks and four grand a week for the three months before that. All of my sub's Mex labor was billed at $8 an hour and there were no taxes, no unions, no problems; those were the responsibility of the subs. Hell, that $8 an hour was $2 an hour better than any of my competition and I still outbid them on 75% of all jobs and almost every job that I really wanted.

"My competitors are really a greedy lot, " I thought as I headed into heavy traffic. Yep, the real secret in this business is knowing when to walk away from a job rather than bid it. Like this job way across town. I'd look at it but most like wouldn't bid it because of the distance from the other jobs and from the labor. Most jobs are in the new subdivisions that had sprung up around the auto radiator plant five or six years ago. That plant had shut down less than two years after it opened a victim of the stagnant auto industry.

As I listened to the droning voice of the electronic navigator I began to weave my pick-up through the streets of what looked to be an affluent section of town. I noticed that the houses here were much older and larger than the ones I typically bid. The houses, for the most part, seemed to be populated by old money. Not a bad place to live, really. I imagined that a house in this area would more normally be a target for an estate sale. I observed that there were no 'For Sale' signs on any of the highly manicured lawns that I passed.

Ah, here was the address. The first thing I saw was that there was no foreclosure sign on the house that seemed even older than the other houses in the neighborhood. Looking at my clipboard I checked the address again; 101 Bell Whistle Drive. The name matched that on the street sign at the corner and the numbers matched those hammered out of ornate bronze that were attached to one of the tall wooden pillars supporting the portico above the front porch. The grass needed mowing, but other than that the house didn't look vacant at all.

The house was old and yet stately and almost looked out of place here among the other, more modern homes on the street. Not that any of the homes on the street were new. Most were probably built in the 1920's or earlier. Still the house at 101 Bell Whistle looked a century older than that. For all its age, the house seemed to be in good repair.

As I stood examining the outside of the home, a sultry female voice almost echoed from the next yard. "If you're looking for the Andersons, they moved out about six weeks ago." After searching I found the seemingly disembodied voice belonged to a woman hidden by the privet hedge fence that separated the two yards. The woman was a svelte older blonde, probably in her mid-60s, languidly stretched out sunning herself on an outdoor lounge chair. The somewhat sun wrinkled woman was clothed in a fashionable blue short set and obviously intent on catching the last rays on a sunny day.

I introduced myself and explained the reason for my visit. The last thing I needed was for some nosey neighbor calling the cops. The neighbor, Elise Howard, provided me with some background information including the fact that the neighborhood did not even allow signage displayed in the yards of the homes being sold. The bank had come and put out a sign but Elise's neighbor, a member of the bank's board of directors had immediately had the sign removed. Elise seemed to know most everything that went on in the neighborhood.

"The Andersons lived in that house for over 40 years. Irma and Chad played bridge with the same club that Edward, that's my husband, and I still do. It seemed like one day everything was fine and the next they were gone. Said they were going to some retirement village in Arizona. Said she would write me when they got there. Never did though. Irma said the market meltdown took most of their retirement savings and they couldn't afford the mortgage payments or upkeep any longer. She sounded really embarrassed by it all, like it was their fault. I asked about the movers but she said the place they were moving to was completely furnished and they didn't want to pay for storage. Said they were looking at it as a fresh start. I asked her about selling the furnishings but she said she couldn't bear to go through that. Just left it all, can you imagine that?"

"What about the kids?" I asked.

Elise sat up and stretched as she replied, "Didn't have any kids, just some foreign couple and their worthless daughter who took care of the place. Don't know where the hell they went. They left months before the Andersons did and as far as I'm concerned it's good riddance." Elise looked at him expectantly after finishing up as if he was expected to add some information to what she already knew.

I shrugged my shoulders and said, "All I know is that the bank wants a bid on clearing the house out and making it ready for sale. There are so many foreclosures now that I don't think they send anyone out to look at these places anymore. Most of the foreclosures are across town so I doubt my competitors will even come way over here to bid this one."

Elise rose to her feet and pulled off her sunglasses as she said, "Obviously they have no idea what's inside that place. Hell, the furniture alone may be worth as much as the mortgage. Irma was off her rocker not to sell that stuff. You'll see when you look at it. Irma was an antique collector when she was younger. Why she would leave all of that I'll never know. People sometimes get foolish as they get older."

Giving me a stern look she said, "Don't look at me like that, I'm not that old." As soon as she said it her smile took any sting out of what she'd said.

I stuttered an apology, assuring Elise that I had no intentions of inferring she was old at all. Hell, she looked damn fine for her sixty years. Of course I didn't say that either. I was curious now to see exactly what was in the house so I said, "Guess I better get back to work. It was nice talking to you."

Elise harrumphed then laughed and said, "Guess I'd better get inside. The sun's gone for the day anyway. Edward, that's my husband, will be back from his golfing and wanting supper soon."

I shook my head as I watched her sashay over to her front porch. She had a nice firm butt for an older lady, if you know what I mean. I bet she was a heartbreaker in her day; still acted like she knew it too. Just before I turned she got to the porch and smiled at me; a knowing smirk if I'd ever seen one. I laughed and waved as I moved back to the yard of the house we had been discussing. Better look things over and then write up my estimate.

The lights were off in the house which meant that the bank had not sent in the order for the power company to turn them on as they were supposed to. That shit happened all the time and so I returned to my truck and picked up the long five-cell Maglight. The house had been clean at one time, as it was fairly clean now with only the coating of several weeks dust on the furniture.

The first beam of the light around the formal living room let me know that the nosey neighbor had been right. The items arranged around the room looked to be genuine early American antiques. I don't watch Antiques Road Show except upon occasion, but I could sense even in the half darkness that these were not knockoffs. The Persian rug that was the centerpiece of the large room was the largest I had ever seen. The chandelier hanging from the 14 foot ceiling looked to be real crystal, something made generations ago.

My mouth was hanging open as I wondered what would possess someone to up and leave all this. I was shaking my head as I strolled into the dining room. Another rich rug graced the floor. The mahogany table that was the centerpiece of the room had chairs for twelve people arranged like soldiers around its periphery. There was an elegant glass fronted hutch that dominated one side of the room. I could see through the glass doors of the hutch that it was full of china. There was a serving table and what looked to be an antique serving cart along the other side of the room. Impressive paintings in heavy frames hung from the wallpapered walls.

As I continued through the first floor I discovered a den that was furnished with rich leather furniture. The door to a wall safe was open on one wall; a painting leaning against the wall at floor level must have covered the safe. Again there was a thick rug on the floor instead of the more modern carpet. One long wall was built-in book cases that were about three-quarters full of books. The books seemed to have been pulled off of the shelves at random. Most likely the owners had pulled down those books of value to them and packed them to take with them. The room was richly paneled and the paneling didn't look like the cheap six mil stuff. There was a roll-top desk centered in the room with several rather uncomfortable looking chairs arranged around the edge. I knew that the roll-top desk alone would probably pay for the clean-out of most houses.

I sat down in one of the leather reading chairs and thought of what to do next. Whipping out my cell phone I dialed my contact at the bank. It was only 4:30 so he might still be there. The phone rang twice and a voice said, "First National Bank, Mr. Wheatley's office. May I help you?"

"Meg, this is Joe. Is Bob in? I have a question about the last property you gave me."

"Joe, it's a good thing you called now. Bob has been in meetings all day and just got back to his desk. Hold on, I'll let him know you're on the line."

I waited, wondering exactly what I was going to say. Normally I only contacted Bob to let him know the jobs were done. I usually dropped off the keys to several jobs as I gave him bid sheets for the other. Bob had let me know early that he didn't like questions he didn't know the answers to. He was one of those people that got into a routine and then got very upset if something messed up that schedule.

I heard a click on the line and then heard an obviously harried Bob say, "What is it, Joe? This has been a hell of a day and I'm about ready to head to the house. Six more houses added to the repo list yesterday. I don't know what I'm going to do if this pace keeps up. The way things are they won't let me hire more help and I can hardly deal with what I have."

"Bob, this last house you gave me over on Bell Whistle, what do you want done to it?"

There was a pause and then Bob answered, "What do you mean? I want the same job as all the others. Clean it out to the bare walls and make it ready to sell."

Then as if he sensed some reluctance on my part he added, "I know it's all the way across town but it still has to be cleaned out. You're the only contractor that would even look at it. Give me a bid, anything reasonable, and then get to work. I can promise that there won't be any competition on this one."

I dreaded saying it but I said, "But Bob, there's a house full of furniture in here."

Bob must have thought that I was angling for a higher bid because he sounded terse and out of sorts when he replied, "Then figure it in your bid. Hell Joe, you've been doing this for a while, you know how these things go. I know you'll give me a fair bid. I've got too much on my plate to mess with these minor details. I'll expect your bids in tomorrow. When you get here I'll have those six new bid sheets waiting for you. I've got to go."

I wasn't surprised but at least I had my answer. I didn't even have to worry about anyone else bidding the job either. I spent the rest of the afternoon detailing the job to be done. I decided to subcontract with a moving company to move the furniture out. I would put it all in storage; there was no place for any of it in my small two bedroom apartment. The place was huge, five furnished bedrooms on the second floor and a smaller servant's apartment behind the kitchen on the first floor. The kitchen appliances were older top of the line equipment. I would have to come back tomorrow and check out the basement. This was going to take some time. I would go ahead and put in a standard bid in on the project, hell, I felt like I was stealing anyway.

About the time I was getting ready to leave I heard a sound like a door closing. I was in the front room and the sound seemed to have come up from somewhere down below. I almost chalked it up to old house syndrome, those creaks and movements off old timbers made by old houses, but it seemed too loud for that to be the case. I debated just leaving but my curiosity wouldn't let go of my imagination and so I searched for the basement entry. The stairway leading down to the basement ended up being a narrow one that was fronted by a door to what I had earlier thought was a coat closet.

The constricted staircase wound downward into what appeared to be an endless pit of darkness. Not being particularly brave I decided to walk to the bottom of the stairs with my flashlight and see if the source of the noise was visible at that point. The wooden stairs seemed to creak louder as I moved forward onto each downward step. As I neared the bottom of the stairway I noticed a single dusty footprint on each of the two bottom treads. Shining the light back up the stairway I couldn't see if there were other footprints that I might have missed mingled with my own. It was also impossible to make out any other footprints on the green Astroturf-like carpet covering the floor of the basement.

The basement had a musty smell tainted with some unrecognizable other odor. I pointed the bright beam of the flashlight around the room, examining each area carefully. The immense basement seemed even larger than the house above. The area was tidily arranged into storage areas which contained chest-high stacks of boxes, discarded household items, books and old furniture divided by aisle ways between the items. Some of the stacks of boxes were higher than others and it was almost impossible to see beyond some of these although most of the tallest stacks were anchored by a basement wall. Finally I saw a tumbled heap of books; books that had possibly once been neatly stacked and managed to rationalize the noise I had heard as the toppling of that stack. About that time I heard a loud drawn out meow emanating from behind a stack of boxes near that pile of books.

With my curiosity overriding my nervousness I quickly moved around the stack of boxes. There I saw a largish orange and grey tabby. The cat was intently pawing a box as if trying to bat it aside.

"What's the matter, kitty, trying to get to a mouse?"

The cat peered up at me as if I was stupid, something cats always seem to do when I ask them questions. The cat remained motionless as I approached and softly meowed as I picked it up. As soon as I started to stand the cat scrambled and scratched against me to get loose and then jumped onto the top of the pile of boxes. I tried to pick the cat off the top of the boxes but it lightly jumped across from one stack of boxes to another and ended up on the other side of the room. Cursing some half remembered epithet that I had picked up from one of my Mexican workers I kissed the scratch on my hand and walked around the boxes to find the cat. Shining my light all over the stacked furniture on that side of the room I realized that finding the cat wasn't going to be easy.

My best ploy was to get the cat to come to me so I called, "Here kitty, kitty, come here kitty." Of course it was to no avail as any cat worth its salt would be blackballed for coming when called. Still, I tried and repeated the call over and over, searching for the cat's eyes using the bright beam of the flashlight. Knowing that I wasn't going to find the cat without some help I went back upstairs to the kitchen. Going to the cupboard I found no cat food, or food of any other kind. I did, however find a couple of old chipped dishes. I took the only saucer and half filled it with water from the faucet. I thought that at least they had the water still on, even if the lights were not.

Moving carefully back down the stairs I called to the cat again but still no results. I sat the saucer down under the bottom step and headed back up the stairs feeling some comfort in knowing that at least the cat had water. All of a sudden it dawned on me that if it had been six weeks since the owner's left the cat must have some way to eat and drink, else it would be dead by now. At the top of the stairs I turned and gave one last look towards the darkness below, responding to some inner feeling that I was not alone. Shrugging off that feeling, I locked the house without further incident and then sat in my pick-up as I wrote up the bid and made a series of phone calls.

The first call was to the power company to get power turned on. I had done this several times in the past and I was on their authorized list. The second call was to a moving company that I occasionally used. I talked to a friend there and cajoled him into meeting me at the house the next afternoon with a wrap and pack crew. I would have to pay full rate to get a truck out on Monday to remove all of the furniture and boxes. I figured to take all of my bid sheets into the bank in the morning and then spend the afternoon in the basement, looking through boxes, sorting things to throw out. Hopefully, at that time I would also find the cat. My third call was to a dumpster company to site a dumpster on Tuesday to remove all the remaining detritus. I advised them to place the dumpster where it wasn't visible from the road.

All of this reminded me to check out the garage in the back which was a one story brick building at the end the wide paved driveway. As I walked to the back I noticed that the back yard looked to have been professionally landscaped. There was even what appeared to be an old covered stone well at the center. I noticed that someone had placed flowers in the old bucket that now hung from the crosspiece. Someone must have been watering these flowers as they looked bright and healthy.

The garage itself was a nice enough brick building with white trim that matched the trim on the house. It looked to be large enough to hold at least three cars and then some additional room for storage. The front had what looked to be two modern double garage doors, probably controlled by garage door openers that I didn't have. I found a normal entry door on the back yard side of the building that I opened with a second key that was on the small split ring with the front door key.

This door opened into a room that was obviously a laundry room. There was a modern commercial washer / dryer combination sitting below shelving that was made to hold laundry products. In the center of the room a nice large wooden table provided space to fold clothing near a built in ironing board attached to the wall. Another door leading from this room into the main garage was standing open.

My senses were assaulted by the same unrecognizable scent that I had noticed in the basement tinged with the familiar hint of gasoline. I was only mildly surprised that the garage was not completely empty. Along the metal shelves that lined the walls were many of the common items used to maintain cars. This part of the garage was the first part of the property that appeared to be in disarray. There was a large metal pan that contained the oily gasoline that accounted for one of the odors. Inside the pan were some roller bearings that had apparently been left there to soak.

After seeing nothing major in the garage itself my eyes moved to the door to a second space next to the laundry room. This room was about twice the size of the laundry room and contained a large collection of small power woodworking tools neatly ensconced on pegs along top of a nice, rather sturdy workbench. The other side of the room contained a riding lawn mower, a smaller hand mower and various and sundry garden tools. There was a large built in cabinet above the workbench. Inside the unlocked cabinet I found every hand tool a wood or metal worker could want, all neatly shadow boxed as if waiting for someone to start a project. There was one room or closet behind the work room that was locked. I tried the key I had been given but it would not unlock this door.

I quickly locked up and was still shaking my head in disbelief as I walked back to the truck. Hell, someone could move in here tomorrow and the only thing I could see that they would need to do would be to buy some groceries and turn on the power. That was when I begin to wonder what a property like this would go for. I knew the bank was still in negotiations with several realtors and hadn't yet listed any of the recent acquisitions. I also knew that Bob had mentioned in passing that if I saw a place that I wanted, just to let him know. After my puzzled look he let me know that the bank was so loaded with properties that they would let most of them go for the balance owed, and with the way the real estate market was dropping probably would not even get that on most of the properties.

I knew that I had all of my money in cash. It wasn't in my mattress but it was in three different banks. Ninety percent of it was in six-month maturity CDs. I trusted banks but only because of the federal depository insurance. I also knew that when a bank folded there could be a short period where your deposits were temporarily unavailable so I kept my money spread out among different banks. They all happened to be the largest banks that contracted me and each probably thought that I had all of my depository accounts with that bank.

When I reached my small apartment I took my wheel book from my back pocket and logged onto my laptop computer. I went straight to the internet login of each of the banks and accessed my accounts. It only took a few minutes to note the totals and the maturity dates of the CDs. I was really surprised seeing that I had been able to accumulate over $245,000 cash over the past three years. Not bad for a 26 year-old high school graduate. I knew I had made much more than that but taxes had killed me. My accountant kept telling me that I needed to invest the money and give it room to grow, but from what I saw of the market, CDs were the only investment that made sense at the moment.

I looked out on the web and located the county tax assessor's website. I went to the search feature and pulled up the record for 101 Bell Whistle Drive. I wanted to find out what ball park I would be playing in. This site was really good, it gave a basic floor plan, square feet and the tax assessed value of the property. I knew the state had laws that limited the amount that residential property tax assessments could grow per year but also knew that with declining property values these appraisals were at least a starting point. I saw that the county was owed back taxes for the past year on the property. The 6,800 square foot house with detached garage was assessed at $560,000 less the homestead exemption.

Looking at the recorded liens I found that the property was mortgaged ten years ago for $220,000. Up to that point it had not had a mortgage. The owners, as expected, were Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Anderson. The listing must be slightly out of date as I was sure the bank would have immediately recorded the foreclosure. I was hoping to find the amount owed here. I moved on to the clerk of court website and quickly scanned through the pages of foreclosures that were processed in the last month. Finally I found it, two weeks ago, amount owed was $130,000. Hell, it made no sense to me at all. Why would someone give up a property worth well over a million dollars for $130,000? I was going to call Bob bright and early in the morning.

The rest of the evening was spent finishing my reports and reprinting the bid sheets from templates I had stored in the computer. I headed for bed after watching the late local news. In my excitement I had completely forgotten supper and ended up snacking on the frigid remains of a pizza I had only half finished the previous evening.



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Chapter 2: My House?


The next morning I arose as usual bright and early at six. Sleeping longer than that was almost impossible as the apartment I rented had walls that seemed to be made of cheap cardboard. My alarm every morning was the two secretaries living in the unit with a common wall with my bedroom. Inevitably they would begin the day with a loud argument over whose turn it was to take the dog out or whose evening it was to cook supper. I figured they must enjoy quarrelling for I was sure they could do either task in half the time they spent jawing about it.

Both women had acted friendly and interested when I made the mistake of helping them move in, but I quickly lost interest after the first week of wake-up calls. At first I even tried pounding on the walls to try to quiet them down but that only seemed to add fuel to their fire. Their response was a start another argument. One said, "You see, now you've gone and woken up that nice neighbor man," and on and on and on, ad nauseum. I could see it was another good reason to buy the house.

Thinking back on it I couldn't say when I decided to buy the house, rather than simply taking and selling all of the furnishings. I did know that it didn't take me long, once I had the idea to accept it as my original intent all along. The first thing I did before leaving the house was to call the moving company and cancel the packers and the move. The manager wasn't happy as he had put off another customer and reassigned three of his best packers to my job. I ended up paying the daily rate for the three packers.

I walked into the bank only moments after it opened and took the elevator to the second floor office of Bob Elliott. I dropped the bid sheets into one basket on his secretary's desk and put the contracts for the completed jobs into another. Meg wasn't at her desk and I noticed Bob in his office already shuffling papers. I knocked on the glass besides the door and Bob motioned me to enter.

Bob didn't even let me get inside the door before he asked, "What's going on with you? This will be two conversations we've had in less than a week. Usually I just get some tersely worded message from you scrawled on a bid sheet."

After barely pausing to catch his breath Bob continued, "If it's about that house on Bell Whistle, just do it as a favor to me, okay? One of the directors wants that house sold with a minimum of fuss. He's afraid that an empty house on that street will signal a decline in his property values. As much as ordered me to give it my highest priority. So whatever you bid on that one, go ahead and get to work on it first thing because you won the bid."

Bob hadn't given me an opening to say anything so I raised my eyebrows at him as I plopped down in the overstuffed chair in front of his desk. Bob looked nervous as I stared at him, without saying anything. Finally he asked, "You think I don't know the way you work, don't you? I shouldn't tell you this but your bids on houses you want are always 10 to 20% below your competitors. On those you don't want to touch your bid is 20 to 30% higher than your nearest competitor. I'm just letting you know that your bid on Bell Whistle will win no matter how high it is because I haven't let anyone else bid on it. I want a bang up job done and I want it done fast."

I was learning more than I expected by keeping my mouth shut but I couldn't let that pass me by. "Speaking of Bell Whistle, how much will that property list for?"

"Why, you going to start selling real estate now?" Bob laughed as what he must have thought was a hilarious joke on me.

I gave him two beats of a laugh and then said, "No, just answer my question. I might have a deal for you that will get your head off of the director's chopping block."

"Are you serious? You know someone who wants to buy that old place? It's in a quiet area, I'll give you that." Bob began to rustle the papers around on his desk. As he searched he said, "I just had it here minutes ago. It's really a steal. We bought it back on the courthouse steps for the amount owed. Normally I would have it appraised, but if you know someone who wants it now, I'll let it go for what we've got in it. That will be..." He hesitated as he located the paper and whistled, "Well, I don't know what your bid on the property was but add that to $148,000 and that's the price."

I asked, "What about financing?"

Sensing a sale Bob answered, "We don't normally finance our own OREO."

Seeing my puzzled look Bob explained, "OREO is a bank term for 'other real estate owned', in other words property we have taken back."

Seeing the sale slip away Bob said, "I think an exception can be made for this property, seeing how a director wants it sold ASAP. We can do 90% financing on OREO at prime plus 1%, which would be 4.25%. I might be able to get that down to 4.0% fixed if we could close within a week."

I put the palms of my hands down on his desk and said, "Okay, here's the deal. I've decided I need to get out of that small apartment and have been looking for a nice quiet place for the weekend. How about I take it as is, with no clean out? I'll give you $48,000 down, you eat the closing costs and finance the balance at 4.0% fixed. I'll close as soon as you have the paperwork drawn up."

Bob looked surprised as he remarked, "Well, I didn't know you were going to be the buyer. Maybe I should look at this Bell Whistle property again, huh?" He laughed and said, "Tell you what. You pay for the owner's title policy and you've got a deal. Oh and one other thing. If you buy this property you can't park that crappy pick-up truck you drive out front. If you do, I'll never hear the end of it from the director."

I stood up and said, "Call me when you've got the papers drawn up. Oh, I left the new bid sheets in your basket. I didn't see Meg at her desk so I'll get out of the little hair you have left."

Bob scowled. Evidently I had found a touchy subject. He responded, "Very funny. Meg called in sick today. I hope it's not morning sickness like I think. I told her she shouldn't get pregnant until after things improve but like most women she never listens to anything I say."

I laughed and waved as I was half out the door. I drove down three blocks to the small grill where my main subs hang out waiting for the morning's jobs. Hector and Jorge both enjoyed the free breakfast and normally managed to come up with enough good men for whatever jobs I needed done that day. They also worked for my competitors but they always filled my jobs first, mainly because I paid better that anyone else.

Angelo greeted me as I entered the small diner. I waved and walked back to the back corner where Hector and Jorge waited at my usual morning table.

"Hey boss, you late this morning. Me and Jorge were just about to go looking for something else to do. We gotta get those guys busy or they'll be off screwing their old ladies or getting wasted. You got anything new for us today?"

"Nothing new but we still got the two jobs from yesterday. How about finishing them up? I should have some new jobs Monday morning bright and early. From what I've seen, there should be six or eight of them. Think you get enough men to work eight jobs at the same time?"

Jorge sat silent. He wasn't much of a talker. Hector seemed to always speak for both of them even though they ran their crews separately. Hector gave a half-laugh and said, "Sure we can. My men ain't got no other work to do. Some are even talking about going back to Mexico. I doubt they will though 'cause there ain't no work to do down there either."

I was distracted, still thinking about Bell Whistle so I was curt when I said, "Well, line them up then. I doubt there will be much else going on. It seems like this is going to get worse before it gets better."

Hector nodded, "Okay, we gonna' go ahead and leave. We done ate; left you the tab though."

I didn't respond. Their breakfast was one of the few business expenses that I had other than labor, dumpsters and a few odds and ends. Angelo's younger sister Maria waited for Jorge and Hector to leave before she strutted over to take my order. For some reason Maria didn't take to either one of my subs. Maria was a classic dark haired Mediterranean woman. She was less than five foot tall with a pretty face marred by a large Roman nose. That large nose might have put men off if not for her other two much larger features, the largest pair of breasts I have seen on a woman of her size. I smiled as I thought that the only thing larger than her breasts was her ego.

She also didn't mind talking my ear off if given half a chance. She started as soon as she neared my table. "You're running late this morning. What's the matter? You have a long night last night or something?"

I laughed and said, "Something like that."

I figured if she thought I was getting something somewhere else she might let up on me. Before she could say anything else I said, "Bring me some black coffee and my usual breakfast."

Maria rolled her eyes and said, "Angelo started on your order as soon as you came in the door. If everybody was as predictable as you Angelo wouldn't even need me out here taking orders. You really out with someone else last night?"

I laughed. I was having fun so I said, "I never said I was out anywhere. I just said I had a long night last night. You don't have to go out to have fun."

Maria put her hands on her hips and said, "So..."

About that time Angelo shouted, "Maria, leave the poor man alone. His breakfast's ready and you've got others waiting."

Maria stomped off, returning with my coffee and breakfast which she almost slammed down on the table.

Angelo walked over after I was half finished with my breakfast. He sat down across from me in the booth and said, "You really shouldn't tease her like that. She's really a nice girl and I don't just say that 'cause she's my sister."

"Angelo, I know she's nice. She's your sister. It's just that there's no spark there and I can't get her to understand that by talking nice to her."

"Yeah, I know Joe. It's just she's got it in her mind to settle you down. She sees you here all alone all the time. I think it's more the challenge than anything else."

I laughed. Angelo said, "It's not funny. I've got to listen to her whine all day now."

I dropped a twenty on the table as I rose and said, "Sorry Angelo, I've got to scoot. I've got a busy morning. I'll try to be more sociable from now on."

Afterwards, I headed over to Bell Whistle to sort through stuff in the basement. I wanted to repack the stuff, hoping I could reuse some of the boxes already there. I was hoping I might get lucky and find that some of the items in the basement were valuable enough to help recoup some of my down payment. I also wanted to explore the rest of the rooms, snoop through drawers and check out the attic. The whole place could use a good airing out. I could probably move in next week. My apartment had come furnished, such as it was, and there was nothing much to move.

I drove on through to the back waving to Elise who was back out sunbathing. I walked back around front up the driveway to say hello to my new neighbor.

As soon as I rounded the hedge separating the yards she asked, "I see you parked in the back. Expecting company?"

"Good morning Elise. No, I was told it would be best if I kept my truck parked in the back."

Elise laughed. I could only imagine the crinkled look of her face as she laughed as the chaise lounger was turned away from me taking full measure of the morning sun. Then she sat up, sprightly swiveled around and came right to the point. "So what did the bank say when you told them about the furniture?"

"They told me to go ahead and clean it out anyway."

Elise shook her head and said, "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope, that's exactly what they said."

Elise lay back down, closed her eyes and muttered, "And we wonder why all of the banks are having so much trouble." Opening her eyes and peering at me she asked, "You aren't really going to throw any of those things out, are you?"

I answered her question with one of my own, "Would you be upset having a real working man as a neighbor?"

Elise again sat up on her lounger and gave me a wicked grin as she said, "Sounds like you think I'm some kind of a snob. I'll have you know that I worked hard for a living up until we retired. Hell, most of the people on this block were working people at one time or another."

Then shifting thoughts faster than I cleaned out houses she said, "You know, you're smarter than you look. I bet you got it for a song. It couldn't have had much of a mortgage on it. So what are you going to do today?"

I chuckled and said, "You know, you would have made a good detective. If I talk to you much longer, you'll know more about my business than I do."

That didn't seem to faze Elise in the least so I continued, "Actually, I decided to look the place over better. There was quite a mess in the basement, full of junk. Most of it I'll have to sort through later. Some of the furniture down there looks to be older than the stuff upstairs."

Elise thought a moment and then replied, "Irma never threw anything away. She wanted all of the stuff in each room to at least be from the same period. As she bought stuff she would store it in the basement until she had enough to complete a room. The she would have Chad swap the stuff out and he would move the items she replaced to the basement. After he moved stuff she would sometimes buy another piece that would give her an even better grouping and poor Chad would have to swap things out again. I heard him complain about his aching back more times than I can remember. I never thought about the stuff down there. Depending on your taste you might want to use some of it rather than what's upstairs. Or you could sell it and probably get enough to pay off your mortgage."

I was surprised and said, "I did look at it closely but I thought that the stuff in the basement was probably damaged some way. I mean, the books and stuff down there just seem to be piled at random and there doesn't seem to be any care given to the way the furniture is stacked."

Elise slowly moved up from the lounger as she said, "No, I know Irma would never go down in the basement and I know Chad was tired of moving those things up and down so he may have been a little haphazard in what he did down there but I doubt you'll find anything damaged. Irma would have given Chad endless grief if she even had a hint he wasn't being careful with her collection. That's why it makes no sense at all to me that she left all of that stuff behind."

I shrugged and said, "Well, there's a lot of things I don't understand but I guess I'd better get to work. Oh, by the way, do you know if they had a cat?"

Elise pursed her lips and tersely said, "No they didn't, but that snotty brat of their servants did."

Elise laughed at the evident surprise on my face as I watched her express her obvious disdain. She explained, "The servants doted on their daughter and yet from the few times I saw her she treated them almost as if she was ashamed of them. Her cat, Mr. Whiskers, I believe his name was, picked up on her attitude and treated everyone in the house with that same contempt, as if he was the real master of the house. I never understood it but Irma loved that cat and treated him as if he was her own. That's why it really surprised me when Irma discharged the servants and then less than a month later decided to move. I'm sure the cat went with the servants. Besides if the cat was still there, he would be dead by now with no food and no water. And the place would stink to high heaven with no one to clean his cat box for the last six weeks."

"Well all I know is that there definitely is a cat in the basement. The funny thing is that it seems to be doing okay. At least good enough to scratch me up and then get away and hide from me. There must be another way in and out or a large supply of mice in the house. Cleaning up the basement is one of the things I want to get done today. Speaking of that I guess I'd better get moving if I want to get anything done."

Irene smiled and waved back at me with one of those minimal effort upper crust waves using only the middle two fingers of one hand. Just as I was walking away she added, "You know there may be several ways into and out of that house that aren't apparent."

She smiled as I turned back, knowing that she had caught my interest again.

I tried to act casual, as if it really didn't matter as I asked, "Why would you think that?"

She smiled again as she stated, "I don't think that, I know it for a fact. Can't you see that the house seems much older than the other houses along the street? The story was that it was the home of one of the original settlers in this area. The subdivision sprang up around it in the early part of the century as the one of the heirs deeded off the land. The rumor I heard was that the heir had a serious gambling problem. Anyway, the developer built a street out of the original driveway and added other houses along that street so as to not make this house look out of place. Originally the houses were much farther apart but during the depression people sold off some of their excess land and later newer houses were built. For the most part these houses kept the style of the 1920's but have all of the modern conveniences. Anyway, Irma told me that Chad found a tunnel leading from the basement when trying to find the source of a leak in one of the basement walls. She was making fun of him during our bridge game for wanting to explore it. Said that was ludicrous at his age. I never heard whether he did, but if he did he didn't let on to Irma. Irma did say later that the leak wasn't coming from the tunnel but from a rusted pipe in the basement wall."

Elise's story was interesting and only gave me more reason to want to explore the old house, soon to be my old house. I made my escape and headed back over to do just that. Before I left, Elise extracted a promise from me that I would let her know what I found when I did explore the old tunnel.

After entering the house I went around and opened all the windows and examined the screens. I was surprised that not only were all of the screens were in good shape but all of the windows opened rather easily as well. I was used to old houses having windows painted shut and needing a lot of work to open, but that was not the case here. After opening the house up to the outside air I went back to the truck and brought in the boxes in order to get started on repacking items in the basement. As anxious as I was to get started on the basement, I decided not to go down there until the electricity was turned on. Knowing that the workers at the utility company were fickle I could only hope that I was on their list for today.

I was thirsty and went to the sink to get a drink of water. As I was letting the water run to clear the old water from the pipes I noticed a saucer in the bottom of the sink. My mind didn't immediately register the connection but for some reason I just stared at it, wondering how it got there. I knew that there was no saucer in the sink yesterday and thought the only saucer in the cupboard was the one I had filled for the cat. Looking closer I saw that the saucer even had the chip that I remembered. I had a strange but certain feeling that when I looked under the bottom step in the basement, there wasn't going to be a saucer there.

As I said before I am not an unusually brave person. Knowing that someone or something had been in this house since I was last there was a bit unnerving. I looked around for any signs of forced entry but found none. I looked for other things that were different from my last visit and again came up empty. Still, unless the cat had suddenly grown arms and carried the saucer up from the basement someone had moved it up here. Thinking that gave me a bit of a shiver through my back and arms. I steeled myself and went to the stairwell to the basement and with my flashlight walked down to the basement.

It was impossible to tell whether all of the footprints on the stairs were mine or whether some belonged to a mysterious stranger. Upon cursory inspection the basement appeared the same but as I expected I found no saucer under the bottom of the stairs. There was also no sign of the cat. I hurried back up the stairs, almost as if I were chased by some unseen spirit.

Leaving the mystery of the basement for the moment I went back to the other things I had decided to do while waiting on the electric company. Most of the rooms had one or more windows and with the drapes pulled back, could be examined pretty closely. I decided to start on the second floor and look through each of the rooms carefully. I did not feel I was snooping as this was soon to be my house. This was almost a game that I sometimes played as I tried to discover something about the previous occupants. In most cases the only thing left was trash and broken junk but even those items could reveal a lot.

At the top of the stairs was a landing and a semi-darkened hallway. The hallway divided the second floor almost down the middle. The right side had three doors while the left had four. I had been into each of the rooms and knew that all except two doors opened into bedrooms. One led into a huge closet containing a dumbwaiter while the second led into a surprisingly large bathroom. I guess when you considered that the bathroom was for the occupants of four of the bedrooms it was not overly large.

There was one bedroom not much larger than the others that contained its own private bathroom. I thought of that suite as the master bedroom. The large master suite, the large separate bathroom, and the large closet with the dumbwaiter were all on the right side of the hall. Four nice sized guest bedrooms were on the opposite side of the hall.

I began examining the master bedroom and found that every drawer and closet was clean and empty. The master bedroom was furnished in imposing antique colonial furnishings. The bed was set high off of the floor. There were no linens on the bed and I noticed that the mattress was surprisingly new looking. Overall it was almost as if someone had cleaned the room just prior to my arrival. The master bathroom and the second bathroom on the hallway shared a common wall but were not connected. I imagined that was for the convenience of the plumbing, which may have been added on after the home was built. Both baths were as clean as the master bedroom had been. Neither had anything that could be considered trash or the property of the previous owners in any drawer or on any shelf under the vanities.

The large walk-in closet held a dumbwaiter along one side next to a wall full of built in drawers. The opposite wall had narrow but sturdy shelves obviously built for storage. Facing the doorway at the other end of the narrow space was a smaller doorway. I opened this doorway and found a flight of steps leading upward, obviously an entrance to the attic. I noticed that there was another door at the top of the stairs. I thought it unusual that this stairway would have a door at both the top and the bottom. As curious as this was I was not anxious to explore the attic without adequate lighting. I checked each drawer and found each completely empty. I tried to open the dumbwaiter but found the door would not open with the electricity off. There did not seem to be any mechanical override to allow me to operate the system.

Moving quickly to the bedrooms on the left side of the hall I found that each was large enough to be comfortable and found all four to be similar in size. Each of the bedrooms had two large curtained windows that gave plenty of light but none had any built-in closet space. I noticed that three of the bedrooms were completely furnished, each with antiques from a different period. Included in the furnishings of each room was a large armoire with space for hanging clothes that I supposed took the place of closets. The bedroom at the far end of the hall was completely empty. I thought that the room would work well as a home office, something that I had first thought I would have to put in the den downstairs.

I measured the bed in the master bedroom trying to determine if it the mattress was queen size or something that was custom made. It looked to be a bit larger than a normal queen sized set. There was no tag on the mattress so I wrote down the measurements in my wheel book.

I was just about ready to descend the stairs when I heard a loud rap on the front door. I quickly moved down the stairs and on into the entryway and opened the door. I was greeted by the technician from the electric company who had come to let me know he was about to turn on the power to the house.

I decided to save the inventory of the first floor and attic for a later time. I also decided that it was close enough to lunch time to put off my exploration of the basement until I was fed. I thought that I would visit the grocers tonight and bring some foodstuffs, mostly canned goods, over. I would give the commercial sized refrigerator a good cleaning out tomorrow and shop again on Sunday. With that plan made I headed out the front door, locking up but leaving the windows open to keep the place cool. Taking a chance I walked back around the hedge and spied my neighbor bent over working in her flower bed. Damn nice view from the back. Sure couldn't tell she was a senior citizen from that angle. Too bad she was married.

I was sure she heard my approach but she calmly finished planting the flower she was working with before she moved from her knees to her feet. As she arose she said, "That's when I can tell I'm getting old, when I try to get to my feet. Uncle Arthur never bothered me when I was younger, but as I get older he settles in more and more."

I must have looked puzzled because she laughed and said, "Arthritis, Uncle Arthur; don't tell me you never heard that before?"

Shaking my head I said, "I learn something new from you every time we meet. I was just wondering if you'd like to get a bite to eat. I don't know this part of town and was hoping you'd know a good place to have lunch."

Elise gave me a wicked grin and asked, "So is this a date? You do know that I am a happily married lady."

Turning on my most woeful look, I said, "Well I was thinking that it was more like I was taking a new friend to lunch, but if that offends you I'm sure I can find something somewhere."

Elise obviously was in a teasing mood because she laughed and said, "You will do no such thing. I have all the fixings for sandwiches in the house. That along with some iced tea will be better than anything you can find in this neighborhood."

Then tossing her head she said, "I just hope my husband doesn't hear of me taking a strange man in the house in the middle of the day. I'm sure it would ruin his golf game." After she said this she winked at me to let me know that she was still teasing.

Something about the friendly banter and our shared conversation made me react as if we were close friends. In that spirit I replied, "Well if your husband prefers playing golf to staying home and keeping your virtue safe then it seems to me that he deserves to at least have his game ruined." I laughed at the obviously faked look of shock on her face.

She then turned serious and said, "I can see that I am going to enjoy having you as a neighbor."

I then asked her where I could wash up for lunch and she pointed out a door that turned out to be a half bath that was off of her living room.

I could hear her in the kitchen as I came out of the small bathroom. I looked around and was surprised that, after all of our discussion of antiques, her living room was furnished with bright modern furnishings. As I walked into the kitchen I gave voice to my observation. She paused in preparation of the sandwiches and said, "I decided years ago that I didn't want furniture that was older than I was. To me that's too much like living in the past and living in the past has a tendency to let time pass you by."

Our observations during lunch were about the weather, her husband, my lack of family and other small sundry things. We were becoming friends and quickly filling in the details in our backgrounds that friends commonly share. She told me a great deal about her husband as well and opined that he and I would also become fast friends. When she said that I stated, "Well, I don't pretend to be a golfer at all, so I doubt we will be that close."

Elise answered, "Edward doesn't golf all the time. The club we belong to is having a charity tournament this week and this is the way he helps support those things. Edward is very eclectic in his interests and we spend more time together than apart. Edward doesn't make friends easily and I'm hoping that you will hit it off."

I laughed and said, "Most days I work from sunup to sundown although I suppose I will be spending more time at home now that I have a home to take care of."

Elsie said, "You can feel free to borrow any of our tools that you need until you can get some of your own. Edward has been keeping your grass cut, but with the tournament, hasn't had time to do it this week."

"Thank him for me until I can do it properly. I will have to take both of you out somewhere to show my appreciation. I don't think I should have to borrow any tools. It seems your former neighbors left all of their tools in the garage, including a nice riding mower and push mower. I'm not much of a gardener so you may have to give me advice on the plants and such but I'm sure I can push a mower with the best of them."

Toward the end of lunch the subject of the basement came up again. I let Elise know that I had refrained for poking about down there in the dark too much. I also asked her if she knew anything about the mystery of the saucer and she seemed as puzzled as I was. She said that she had not seen anyone other than me near the place since her former neighbors moved six weeks ago.

I left after thanking her for lunch and promising to return the favor after I got settled in. As I turned to go I gave her my card, explaining that the phone number on it was my cell in case she needed to get in touch while I was working.



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Chapter 3: The Tunnel


Well fed and eager to get back to the basement, I left my neighbor's home and walked to my truck. After taking my Maglight and an armload of boxes out of the back of my truck I entered the house and headed straightway into the basement. My first priority was to tackle the jumble of books that made moving about in the basement almost impossible. It seemed incongruous to see the chaotic tangle of books among the order of the otherwise neatly stacked boxes and furniture. It was if someone had been looking for a book and stacked books in any convenient place and then in a hurry had knocked over the stacks. Although I was no bibliophile, I scanned the books for any of apparent value. I thought that I would donate most to the local library. Books were meant to be read and were of no value sitting in someone's basement collecting dust.

I had only gone through a handful of the books when I realized that the books were of two sorts, either first editions or cheap book club versions. It was easy to tell the two apart without even opening the book to the flyleaf. After separating and boxing the books I found that I had two boxes of first editions and eleven boxes of cheap book club volumes. I had deliberately packed the books in small boxes as books are heavy. Remembering the partially filled book shelves in the den I carried the two boxes of first editions up to the den and sat them there. Then I lugged the boxes of book club editions up the stairs and set them near the front door planning to dispose of them later.

This left an empty space next to a wall where I placed the other boxes after I went through them. I opened each box, scanned the items inside, repacked the items I decided to keep and labeled each with a summary of the contents. I sorted the contents into two categories. The first was mostly small decorative items, things I would call knick-knacks or bric-a-brac. I kept these as they were useful in making a room seem more homelike and lived-in. The other things were mostly the sentimental junk that all of us accumulate over time. I was careful in labeling the former and ruthless in eliminating the latter. I carried the boxes to be thrown out upstairs as I uncovered them planning to either donate them to goodwill or throw them in the small dumpster that I had ordered for Monday. After I had gone through the first long row of boxes I was beginning to think ordering the dumpster might have been a mistake as I had only carried three boxes of junk upstairs. Most of the boxes contained an interesting assortment of miscellaneous small curios, many of which were antiques.

I almost lost track of time as I stopped to examine many items, trying to fathom what the knick-knack had originally been used for. By the time I stopped for a breather I found that I had moved all of the boxes except for one small row in the back of the room. At that point I was more than a bit tired and realized that I had lost track of the time. Looking at my watch I saw that it was four o'clock, and being Friday I knew I still needed to inspect the two job sites and pay my subcontractors so they could pay their workers. Even though I was tired it was with some reluctance that I closed the windows, locked the door and walked out to my truck. For the first time I didn't see Elise sunning herself as I drove off to attend to my business.

At the two job sites I found both my subs had their crews still working. It was convenient that the two job sites were only a block apart. It didn't take me long to walk through each house and give them a final inspection as the crews finished up. Both jobs were small and I paid Hector and Jorge the agreed upon amount in cash. They appreciated being paid in cash as it kept them from running to the bank late on Friday. I reminded them of the new jobs scheduled for Monday and promised to be at the diner early enough for them to line up crews to get started. After that I headed back to my apartment where I quickly packed up some clothes, an extra set of sheets, my pillows, a toilet kit including towels and washcloths, and my laptop.

I stopped by the grocery store near my apartment and, even though it was already crowded with Friday evening shoppers, managed to get the items that I needed for the weekend. I wanted to clean out the refrigerator before I put any fresh vegetables in it but figured some eggs, bacon, milk, and a few frozen items wouldn't complicate that too much. My last stop was to pick up a super value meal at the burger joint of last resort; you know the one with the golden arches, and then fought my way through traffic back towards 101 Bell Whistle.

I pulled into the driveway after eight o'clock and parked in the front for a change. Moving bags and boxes into the house only took six trips. Then I dutifully moved the truck to the back of the house to park it for the night. I added a remote opener for the garage doors to my long list of things that I needed.

The super value meal was now super hard fries, super soggy burger and lukewarm watered down diet coke but it still filled the empty spot that had been gnawing at my gut. I also realized at that point that I had no radio, no television and no internet connection for entertainment. Luckily I had my cell phone so I wasn't completely cut off from the outside world.

After putting the groceries away and making up the bed in the master bedroom I decided to finish exploring the ground floor of my new home. The layout of this older home was unusual in that the first floor was much larger than the second. This feature was not noticeable from the street as the area of the house not covered by the second floor was all at the rear of the building. I thought that this may have been accomplished by adding on to the original construction but the builder had done such a good job that it could have been a part of the original construction.

There was a small entryway just after stepping into the house from the front porch. Going down the entryway I opened the first of a set of heavy wooden pocket doors on the right and found a formal sitting room. Opening the second of the set led me into a formal dining area. The dining room and parlor were connected by a common wall which was divided by an oversized set of pocket doors. I was surprised to see pocket doors on a house this old. Even more surprising was the ease with which the obviously heavy wooden doors moved on their tracks into the wall. Completely opening these oversized doors almost seemed to merge these two spaces into one large room. Both the parlor and the dining room had large brick fireplaces along the outside wall. I opened a single pocket door in the dining room and found that I was in a very short hallway that led to the kitchen.

Walking through the kitchen I found that it also had an entrance from a door at the end of the entrance hallway. That door divided what had originally been a much longer hallway that ran the length of the house into two shorter connecting spaces. Walking out into the back hallway from the kitchen I found the entrance to a small bathroom next to the entrance for the kitchen. As I neared the end of that back hallway I found one of two rear entrances to the house, the other being in the kitchen. Outside those two back doors I found I was on a porch that was smaller than the one on the front of the house which had wide steps leading to the back yard. I went back into the kitchen and noted that although it was a large country kitchen it seemed to have all modern appliances. I found that all of the spaces along the right of the hallway took up slightly more than one half of the bottom floor of the house.

I next went back out to the front hallway. On the left side of that entry hallway were three doors the first of which was another pocket door that opened into the den. This den occupied most of the front left corner of the house. The second door, three-quarters of the way down the front hallway, was the door that led down to the basement. The last door that I opened on the first floor was a single pocket door that led to a stub hallway fronting a small apartment. I walked into the apartment and found it contained two tiny bedrooms, a small sitting room and a bathroom. It looked like the two tiny bedrooms had been constructed from one larger bedroom as only one of the two small bedrooms had any closet space at all. Finally to the left along the back of this front hallway was the stairway leading to up to the second floor.

All of the rooms I walked through were furnished. I searched all the drawers, closets and pantry spaces and found nothing was left except for the china and crystal in the magnificent hutch in the dining room, those few chipped dishes in the kitchen, some odd pieces of cheap stainless steel flatware in the kitchen and a few assorted kitchen tools. The single bed in the smaller servant's bedroom was missing a mattress but other than that the small servant's quarters was completely furnished in older but serviceable furniture.

There were several drawers in the roll top desk in the den that were locked and I felt they would require a locksmith to open without damaging the desk. Except for finding almost nothing in the drawers and closets and the missing mattress and one empty spare bedroom the house was completely furnished and ready to be lived in. Since I had no need of servants the missing mattress was of little concern to me.

All of this exploration took some time and it was after midnight before I was finished and ready for bed. The excitement of being in a new house was finally overcome enough that I was able to drift off into a sound sleep soon after getting into bed.

Suddenly I was aware of something. I wasn't even sure that I was awake; it was more like I was on the misty border of full consciousness but not quite there yet. The process of waking wasn't maintaining its momentum and for a few moments I listlessly lay there again drifting off towards sleep. I was just on the edge of that expected blissful slumber when I felt more than heard a creaking noise from somewhere down below. With my brain now fully engaged I remembered the similar noise bringing me awake the first time. Still feeling quite listless I lay there listening for a repetition of the noise, a noise my subconscious was telling me I had heard before. I had just about chalked it up to old house syndrome, when I clearly heard it again. This time I was sure it was from down below and for some reason my mind immediately identified it as the same noise made by the creaking basement stairs.

I knew that I had to investigate and yet I was a bit reluctant to leave my comfortable bed in the middle of the night. My mind was still a bit fuzzy as I finally struggled upright in this not completely familiar environment. Wearing only my boxers and the same tee shirt I had worked in all day I searched the darkened room for my jeans. Finding them draped over the end of the bed I pulled them on and quietly stepped out into the hallway, leaving the light off and my door opened.

Moving as noiselessly as possible I grabbed my trusty Maglight and soundlessly moved down the stairs by stepping on the outside of the treads rather than the center. As I approached the bottom of the stairs I noticed a light coming from the slightly opened basement stairwell door. My heart was pounding by that time and I was almost frozen into a motionlessness stupor, rooted to the floor trying to summon the courage needed to descend into the basement. Taking hold of my emotions I had my hand inches from the knob of the basement door when I heard the sound of running water coming from the kitchen. For some reason having the noise on my level and knowing that I wouldn't have to descend into the basement washed over me as a great relief. Some of that anxiety returned as I crept towards the back hallway.

When I saw the light shinning from the open door into the kitchen I again felt my heart come up into my throat. Moving as silently as possible I crept to the edge of the opened doorway. As I was about to peer around the corner I heard a loud 'meow' followed by a very soft 'shhhhhhh." I was debating whether to look around the corner or turn around and go back upstairs and retrieve my cell phone and call '911' when I heard a small female voice whisper "We have to be very quiet now. He's just upstairs you know."

Hearing the soft voice and my mind identifying it as female seemed to negate the majority of my fears. Still I was a bit apprehensive as I peeped around the corner of the kitchen door. What I saw however completely calmed all of my worries. Sitting on the floor in the middle of the kitchen was what appeared to be a bedraggled young girl gently stroking the fur of the orange and grey cat that had mysteriously disappeared in the basement. So focused was she on the cat, who was silently lapping water from a saucer, that she didn't even notice me as I crept into the room.

As I quietly crept towards her I was first struck by how thin she appeared. The name Twiggy immediately sprung to my mind. Her clothes seemed to be clean and her well tanned appearance worked to counteract any impression that she was unhealthy. She had long raven black hair bound together in one long braid by a series of elastic bands. Her eyes were closed as she seemed to feed off of the cat's energy. All at once the cat stiffened and her eyes came open looking around in confusion. Then she caught sight of me advancing and she screamed, as if I was her worst nightmare.

She was quick as she jumped up grabbing the cat as she moved. I thought I had her trapped but she immediately bolted for the open door into the short hallway leading into the dining room. Visualizing where she was heading I didn't chase her but ran back out the door I had entered and made an effort to intercept her as she headed to the basement. I almost made it. As Maxwell Smart might have said, 'I missed her by that much.' She was just ahead of me as she fled down the stairs into the basement. Believing that I had her trapped I slowed up realizing almost at once that there was no use in falling down the narrow stairway.

Imagine my surprise as I calmly ambled into the basement and found that she had vanished. At first I thought that she was hiding behind one of the boxes or among the furniture. A painstaking half-hour of carefully probing each possible hiding place disabused me of that thought. During my search I vocally pleaded with both the young girl and the cat to come back; assuring both that my intentions were pure and no harm would come to them.

Tired and frustrated I trudged up the stairs wondering if the girl was real or some nether spirit sent to haunt me. With a sense of defeat I shut off the light and almost slammed the door to the basement. Thinking that at least I had them trapped I wedged a kitchen chair under the knob of the door ensuring that no one would come through it for the remainder of the night. Deeply frustrated I went back to bed where I tossed and turned as sleep eluded me. Near daybreak I managed to drift off into a troubled slumber only to have nonsensical dreams of endlessly chasing some wraith that over and over went up in smoke as I approached. In my dreams the spirit was constantly laughing at my vain attempts to catch her but even in the laughter she had a brooding, winsome appearance.

I awoke in the morning feeling like I hadn't slept in a month. I was tired, frustrated and yet for some reason worried about the mysterious girl. I woke myself with a shower that ended up being more cold than hot. I added finding and checking out the hot water heater to the long and growing 'to do' list in my wheel book. Still the cold water shower awakened me completely and brought to the forefront a gnawing hunger. I'm used to waiting for my breakfast most mornings until after I have visited the bank, which opens at nine o'clock so it surprised me that I was so hungry so early. When I put my watch on I was surprised to see that it was eleven o'clock. No wonder I felt starved.

As I approached the kitchen my hunger made me think again of the young girl, wondering if she had eaten and if so, what she had eaten. I wasn't as hungry after thinking about that and I settled for a quick bowl of cereal before again heading down into the basement. I took a fresh look around trying to figure how she could get away so quickly. If there was a tunnel down here it had to either have a door through one of the walls or a trap door in the floor. A small section of the basement was taken up with the furnace and air conditioning equipment. I had examined those and found them to be fairly new. Other than that area the only things blocking off access to the walls was stacks of furniture and boxes. I had moved all of the boxes yesterday except for one last row. Two stacks of furniture were near the walls and it didn't appear that there was any way to get past them to get to a wall.

Puzzled, I started repacking the last row of boxes, thinking more about where the door to the tunnel might be rather than what I was doing. That seemed to make things go even slower. As it was I had to start in almost the middle of the floor as the boxes were stacked in such a haphazard manner that I couldn't start near the wall; those boxes seemed to be sagging from the weight of the other boxes that were leaning on them anyway.

I worked for a while and as I got near the wall found that the next box I pulled off was much lighter and contained only some light cushions. They were ratty cushions, not something that I would ever have kept. Moving down that stack I found that only the box on the bottom held anything substantial. As I picked that heavy box up from the floor, what was left of the last stack of boxes literally fell apart at my feet. Pushing them aside I saw that they were fashioned so that they were not only empty, but ingeniously crafted with only three sides, the side facing the wall having been cut away and that one of the remaining sides was constructed so that it could be opened and pulled closed and held closed by a cord. I also noticed a small cut out at the bottom, one small enough for a cat to squeeze through. Behind that box was the opening to the tunnel. There had been a door at one time that had obviously been removed.

After going upstairs to get my Maglight from beside my bed I stooped through the small doorway into the entrance to the tunnel. Once I was inside I realized that I could easily stand upright, as the tunnel was a foot taller than me and a good 18 inches wider than my shoulders. I also noticed that the walls of the tunnel were completely covered in some type of masonry. This enabled me to quickly move through the tunnel and after walking only a dozen feet ahead the tunnel took a sharp turn to the left. A further dozen steps put me in the middle of a small bare ten by ten foot room. There was a pull string dangling from a single bulb light fixture in the ceiling. I noticed that the bulb was missing, so no help there. The only contents of the room were what appeared to be one of my kitchen chairs and several books on the floor next to the chair. There were two outlets from the small room other than the tunnel I had come through. One way out was straight ahead and another was to my right. Obviously the passage to my right had not been used for quite some time as it was replete with crisscrossing spider webs. I quickly chose the entryway straight ahead and moved forward.

The tunnel began to angle downward and I soon approached a second room where I noticed a faint glow of light coming from above. Looking upward I could see daylight coming through the seams of a rough wooden, circular ceiling approximately fifty feet above. The small room that I was in seemed damp and the floor was now made of plywood rather than masonry. As I looked to my side I saw what appeared to be rusted iron ladder rungs anchored into the concrete wall. These extended most of the way to the top door but I could see that several were completely rusted through. This ladder way had obviously not been used in many years.

The only other opening in the room was what looked to be a smaller tunnel opposite the way I had entered. As soon as I entered this portion of the tunnel I noticed that it seemed much smaller and much more crudely constructed. My shoulders brushed the walls and I had to walk slightly stooped forward to avoid hitting my head. The walls and floor of this portion of the tunnel were packed dirt. Spaced out about eight feet apart were wooden six by six upright posts that supported thick plywood panels that supported the actual roof of the tunnel itself. The walls of the tunnel crumbled slightly whenever I brushed them so I made an effort not to touch them. I meandered forward for another 100 feet before I came to a third small room that was walled in with plywood. The wall to the front of me contained two additional wooden posts to which a ladder was mounted. I could see a short vertical shaft leading to what looked to be another trap door about a dozen feet from the floor. I moved up the ladder but found that the trap door above would not open. As I vainly pushed against the trap door causing it to rattle I would swear that I heard a gasp from somewhere above the door. Frustrated, I realized that I had come to a dead end.

I returned to the basement almost as perplexed as when I began. Some mysteries take a bit longer to unravel. One of my hobbies is Sudoku puzzles. Most of the magazines that contain those almost addictive numbers riddles start with the easy ones and then move on through progressively harder puzzles. After spending my time painstakingly working through my first book of puzzles I found the beginner puzzles in subsequent books to be annoying. The hardest puzzles are in the end far more satisfying. I wondered if this analogy would hold true in my present predicament as I exited the tunnel.

As I re-entered the basement I heard an almost incessant buzzing from upstairs. Making my way to the stairs I deduced that the buzzing was my doorbell. Mentally I added replacing the doorbell to my ever expanding 'to do' list. I was beginning to feel married to this place already. The front door opened to reveal a man holding what was obviously a German chocolate cake. I swept my arm wide to bid him enter. As he was entering he said, "You must be Joe. My name is Edward Howard. My better half sent me over with this to welcome you to the neighborhood."

I took the cake and sat it down on an expensive looking entryway table. "Edward, your better half is one exceptional lady. She has already fed me lunch yesterday and managed to read my mind as to my favorite type of cake. How about we move to the kitchen and have some coffee with a piece of this cake?"

Edward gave me a weak smile and answered, "I'd really love to do that but I can't at the moment. It happens that German chocolate is my favorite as well, and Elise, whatever her other faults may be, makes the best that I have ever put in my mouth. Still, my diet won't allow me to eat it and we've got a charity thing at the club in a couple of hours. I hope we can get together soon though and get to know each other better. Elise is a good judge of character and if she took the trouble to bake you a cake then you're someone I want to get to know better."

We shook hands on that and Edward headed back over to his yard. I walked out onto the porch and waved at Elise who obviously was watching Edward to make sure that the cake reached its destination in one piece. My stomach growled at that moment to remind me that having an uncut German chocolate cake in the house just wouldn't do. I thought about solving the riddle of the tunnels destination and decided upon a plan of action as I worked my way through two pieces of the delicious cake.

Having sacrificed my waistline to the god of German chocolate, I again put the chair against the door of the basement, locked the door and headed out for my truck. Ensconced in the driver's seat I headed for the nearest store with camping supplies. Five blocks after I had left the subdivision I spotted a K-mart. Hoping that they still carried camping equipment I parked the truck and entered to find this store's layout different than the last that I had entered. I never could figure out why these large chains couldn't keep the layout of each store exactly the same. The best guess I could come up with was that they wanted you to wander around looking and hopefully in the process making additional impulse purchases while you were looking.

After ten minutes I found the compass that I was looking for and headed for the checkout. I got in the shortest line, which was easy in a K-mart even on Saturday afternoon because of the dearth of customers in the store. A half hour after I left home I was back inside with my 100-foot tape measure and new compass. It only took a few minutes to measure off the distances from the entrance of the tunnel, which was along the back wall of the basement to the side of the house. After noting this in my wheel book I started measuring distances and directions in the tunnel itself. Finally I noted the dimensions of the basement itself and then moved upstairs to note the distance of the basement entrance from the front of the house. With all of those measurements it was relatively easy to go outside the house and using the compass and tape measure find the points where the two entrances to the tunnel should be. The first entrance was the bottom of the well I had noticed in the middle of the back yard.

When I looked into the well it I saw what appeared to be a floor that had been added at about five feet below ground level. It appeared from the top that this was a safety precaution to keep children and small pets from falling down into what had obviously at one time been a working well. It was apparent that no one had entered or exited the tunnel from this point in many years.

Using the final numbers and directions from my wheel book I measured off the location of the other trap door. It was somewhere within the back of the garage. Opening the garage I measured again and came to the locked room in the back of the garage, the one that my key wouldn't open. At this point I was determined that I wasn't going to let a locked door stand in the way of solving this mystery.

I could hear noises in the room as I searched for a hammer and large screwdriver. Luckily the door had been hung with the hinges on the outside of the door and seemed to be a loose fit. I was not much of a locksmith and so I hoped I could remove the hinge pins and take the door down without damaging it. As I hammered at the well oiled hinge pins I could hear more noises within the room and then the sound of a door closing.

The small room I found when I removed the door was full of clutter. Metal shelves on one side of the room held nearly empty opened cases of canned goods. Empty but obviously washed food cans filled several empty boxes in one back corner of the room. A small mattress covered by several quilts and a pillow occupied much of the side of the room opposite the metal shelving. There was an old kerosene lantern on a stool next to the bed. A small suitcase was closed at the end of the bed. More of the books were randomly stacked next to the bed. The cat hissed at me from atop the trap door which was in the other back corner as if I were the interloper. Thankfully there was no cat box or feces in the amazingly clean room.

I had my visitor trapped in the tunnel or basement now.



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Chapter 4: An Answer of Sorts


After I lifted the cat off the top of the trap door I opened the door and headed back into the tunnel leading to the basement. Since I had blocked the door at the top of the basement stairs I made sure that I first nailed the trap door open so that it couldn't fall closed and trap us. The mysterious girl had obviously cleared the tunnel and was hiding in the basement. I found her hiding under an antique dinning room table among the chairs that had been stacked around it.

I calmly said, "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you."

She still shook from fear as she crawled out from among the furniture and appeared ready to bolt at the first opportunity. She didn't speak a word to me. When she started to dart off for the tunnel I grabbed her by the wrist. If you had been nearby you would have thought I was killing her the way she started screaming and cursing at me.

I tried to be gentle and was rewarded by her fighting harder and scratching both of my arms. Finally I maneuvered myself behind her and lifted her off the floor by her wrists. I hoped the helplessness of her situation would induce her to surrender. Instead she struggled so violently that I was worried that she might dislocate her shoulders. I lowered her to the floor and as soon as she had leverage she kicked back at my shin with the heel of her shoe. My concern for her safety was quickly overridden by considerations of my own, causing me to again lift her off the floor.

At this point she was screaming an almost incoherent stream of invectives; words spewed with such vehemence that they were nearly incomprehensible. Finally it dawned on me that this wasn't merely a ploy to get away from me but something rooted in a genuine fear of what I might do. I wrapped her in my arms, ignoring her kicking and scratching and uttered calming words; words first drowned out by her own screaming. I was powerless and hoped that she would calm down before doing serious injury to my legs.

I was beginning to think myself a fool for trapping myself like this when her head of steam began to dissipate and her words began to make some sense to me. Then as if some evil genie had been released from her soul she slumped forward in my arms and calmly said, "Please let me go. I won't try to get away. Just don't hurt me any more, please." Her voice sounded so plaintive and compelling that I immediately set her back on her feet and released her. I did this not knowing if I could catch her again if she decided to run so I positioned myself in between her and the entrance to the tunnel.

Her energy drained, she was unsteady on her feet, almost like a boxer in the final round of an exhausting fight. She allowed me to lead her over to the steps where we sat both gasping for air. Finally she asked, "What are you going to do with me now?"

Exhausted from the chase and capture I held up my hands as I tried to gather my wits about me. I had not given any thought as to what I would do with her once I caught her. I was hoping for answers from her after I regained my senses enough to compose the questions. For the moment I decided that what she wanted was reassurance. I wanted to allay any fears she had for her own safety. I answered her question with one of my own. "What would you like me to do with you?"

Her blackened, sweaty brow crinkled as she seemed puzzled by my query; as if she wasn't used to having choices. She shrugged her shoulders and looked defiantly into my eyes, as if she was daring me to do my worst. I tried to make peace between us as I added, "I have no quarrel with you. I admit that I was a bit frightened at first having a stranger in my house. I am puzzled as to how you got here and would like some answers, but you are free to go if that's what you want to do."

She looked at me in obvious doubt. She almost whispered, her voice cracking from the strain of her previous outbursts, "I can go? Just like that, you hunt me down, try to break my arms, squeeze the life out of me and now I can go?" Then she started laughing, a haunted laugh; a laugh you might expect from someone without a firm grip on reality. Then as the discordant laughter died out it muted into a soft plaintive sobbing; a deep throated sobbing that struck such an empathetic chord that it seemed to twist and tear at my gut. Without thinking I slid next to her on the rough wooden step and wrapped an arm around her.

She pulled back momentarily as if she was unsure about my intentions, then after that pause she hugged herself to my chest, accepting my comfort. Her crying gradually subsided but every few seconds she would shudder against me. It was obvious that she was unsuccessfully trying to bring her emotions under control. In between sobs she would push away from me a bit and try to say something only to have it choked off. It was all I could do to keep control of my own feelings.

As things quieted down and we both gained some meager control of our emotions, I said, "I'm Joe. Would you at least tell me your name?"

She lifted up for a moment, wiped her eyes and pulled away from me to sit on the steps. She looked at me and at last said, "Sorry I fell to pieces like that, Joe. I'm Audra."

Those words, though still somewhat emotional, had a certain strength to them, as if the little girl had magically transformed herself into a composed adult woman. Anyone looking at her appearance would think that she was a preteen ragamuffin, at best a late blooming teen. Most of this was due to her small size and thin, waif-like appearance. The accumulated grime was such that the freshly shed tears had tracked across her face like a bizarre mass of tangled spider webs. I was sure that any opinions I based upon her current looks would be upgraded after she cleaned up.

I chose my words carefully, lest I frighten her again. "Audra, I'm sorry I hurt you while I was restraining you. That wasn't my intention at all. More than anything, I was afraid that you would hurt yourself and I would hate for that to have happened. I'm going back through the tunnel and open the basement door. I would like you to come up when I do that so we can talk. Would that be okay?"

Audra nodded. At that moment the cat came bounding across the basement and jumped up into her lap. She hugged the cat as if it was perhaps her only friend in the world. I left the two of them together and went through the tunnel, climbed into the garage and eventually returned to the top of the stairs where I moved the chair from under the door knob. I hoped that when I opened the door that I would find Audra still in the basement.

She was waiting at the top of the stairs and walked into the house with a confident air that must have come from living here, and yet it was evident that she must have felt some measure of apprehension from my being here. She slowly followed me into the kitchen and sat in a chair at the kitchen table. The cat obviously reached the limit of his tolerance of being held and sprightly bounded from her arms to the floor where he meowed loudly waiting to be recognized.

Audra spoke to the cat as if responding to a request. She said, "No, Mr. Whiskers. We don't live here now. There are no treats to be had."

I looked at Audra and said, "Do you think he might accept a saucer of milk?"

Audra gave me the first hint of a smile as she said, "I'm sure he would love to have a saucer of milk. Thank you very much."

As I went to the refrigerator I asked her, "How about a glass of milk for you and a piece of German chocolate cake? Our neighbor, Mrs. Howard, baked the cake as a welcome gift."

Audra raised her eyebrows at me and said, "Our neighbor? Who else is coming to live with you?"

I smiled and said, "No one, I just assumed that you had been living here for a while and that would make Elise, Mrs. Howard, your neighbor as well."

With an unrestrained vehemence she said, "She's not my neighbor. She never liked me. I don't know why but she didn't. She's a mean old busy body..." As she said that she took a large bite of the cake I had set before her. With her mouth so full it was almost spitting cake, she mumbled, " ... but she sure knows how to make good cake."

I almost laughed at the sight of her hungrily demolishing the piece of cake. There is a certain satisfaction watching a really hungry person eat something that they truly enjoy. I ended up refilling her milk, all hope of conversation momentarily gone. After refilling her milk I sat the container on the table and took a seat opposite hers and patiently waited for her to finish. As she was finishing up the last crumbs of cake on her plate she glanced warily at the two-thirds of a cake that was remaining. I quickly cut a smaller piece and put it on her plate. Then I said, "I ate two pieces myself right after Mr. Howard brought it over."

Audra grinned up at me through yellowed teeth spotted with cake crumbs as she started in on the second piece. Mr. Whiskers meowed as he finished his saucer of milk then glided over to my chair and arched his back as he sinuously rubbed his side against my leg. I have always thought of that as the way cats pet their humans. Then, as if that was enough, Mr. Whiskers set off to find a sunny spot to do what cats do best.

Audra fought to finish the last of her second piece of cake. I didn't want her to get sick from eating too much sugar so I said, "the cake isn't going anywhere. If you stay you can have some more later. I certainly can't eat it all myself."

Audra looked surprised and said, "Stay, you mean here with you? I thought you'd want me out of here to make room for your own family."

I hadn't thought about what I meant, the words just came out. I thought over what I had said as I tried to reassure her. "No one is kicking you out. I don't have any close family, at least not living nearby. I'm not sure what you want but you are welcome to stay here until we can locate your family. I'm sure..."

Audra screamed out, "No, you can't send me back to them! I won't go. I don't have to. I can live on my own and make my own way! I'm not some kid, you know."

Trying to calm her, I said, "But they're your parents. I'm sure they're both worried sick about where you are. I'm surprised the police haven't come to search the house before now."

Audra, almost hysterical at this point, stood up, knocking her chair over in the process as she sobbed out, "You don't understand! I'm 19 and no longer their responsibility. You can't make me go back to them. I won't go."

While all this was happening she was backing out of the kitchen as if looking for a place to run. I quickly pleaded, "Wait, please listen..." but made no move to get up out of my chair, afraid that I any movement on my part would cause her to bolt.

Seeing that I was making no move to pursue her she slowed her retreat. She had returned to the emotional, keyed up state I had witnessed on the basement stairs. As calmly as I could, I said, "Please stay. Let's talk. I didn't mean to upset you. I'm not going to do anything other than offer you suggestions."

It felt like we were in a Mexican standoff as Audra stopped backing up and gave me a pensive look. I stayed where I was and tried to act calm but I'm sure my heart was beating as fast as hers. I am known for making rapid fire decisions at my job sites. In addition, I normally know what to say to placate temperamental workers, but here I was at a loss. Finally I decided to put it to her that way, "Audra, help me here. I have no close family so I assumed you would want to be with yours. I know I would if I had any. Please stay and talk."

Audra wiped her sleeve across her eyes, smudging the dirt on her face once more. She looked like she had put a long day in the coal mines. Cautiously she edged back towards the table. Finally she spoke. "You don't understand."

It was a statement that I couldn't refute so I answered, "Help me understand."

She hesitated only momentarily and then righted the chair she had knocked over and finally cautiously slipped back into it. She looked across at me almost defiantly and said, "You keep talking like I'm a child. I know I don't look my age but I'm 19 years old. Legally I'm an adult. I can make my own decisions."

My surprise must have shown because she added, "I can prove it. I have a driver's license out in my purse in the garage."

All I think of to say was, "Audra, if I had a daughter her turning 19 wouldn't keep me from wanting her to be with me. I'm sure..."

I could see the anger rising in her eyes as she interrupted, "You're sure of a lot of things but you don't know anything. Everyone isn't part of some happy-ever-after family. You don't know what happened."

I swallowed and replied, "You're right. Can you tell me what happened and help me to understand better?"

Audra stood up and said, "Maybe later. Right now I've got to find a new place to stay before it gets dark. I've got some money. I need to find a cheap motel or something so I can put my life back together and move forward. I know I shouldn't have been staying here but I couldn't think of anyplace else to go at the moment. I've had a lot of time to think since ... well, I've had a lot of time in the past weeks and I've decided that I need to get a job and a place of my own. Can you maybe give me a ride?"

I should have been glad to get her out of the house but there were too many unanswered questions. I knew if I let her go that I might not ever get those answers. Also, I felt like I owed her something. That sounds lame but I was getting this house for almost nothing, well, for less than the value of the contents. Surely I could spread some of that largesse around a bit. With that running through my mind I said, "I have two possibilities that you might want to consider."

She answered, "Such as?"

"Well, you could stay here a while. There are three other fully furnished bedrooms upstairs. I haven't bought the house yet but it should close next week. I'm going to need help setting the place up and someone to help me maintain the place. You know the house and would be a big help to me. I'd pay you, of course."

She said nothing for a moment and then asked, "What was the other possibility?"

"I thought that if you didn't feel comfortable staying here with me and really wanted to be on your own that I have an apartment that I have a paid up lease on until the end of the summer. Since I intend to live here, the apartment will be empty. You could stay there. It's on the other side of town, but that's where most of the jobs are anyway."

I kind of trailed off. Audra thought for a moment and then asked, "Why are you doing this? You know, trying to help me and all. I'm not going to sleep with you. You should just kick me out like my blood relations did and be done with me."

Then, her voice changed to one of a teasing child as she said, "You know Mrs. Howard isn't going to be sending you any more cake if you keep me around."

Ignoring her last remarks I answered, "Audra, everyone needs a break now and then. I was thinking a couple of days ago how lucky I was. I mean, I have a good business, doing a lot better than most right now. Then I stumbled upon this treasure, at a giveaway price. It just feels right to help you out. The other thing is that I really do need the help."

Then to add a tease of my own I said, "Of course if you come to work with me you'll have to dress better and keep a lot cleaner than you are now."

Audra looked at her hands and arms and said, "I did keep clean at first but the water was so cold and I didn't have any towels and no one else was around anyway."

Then as if her thoughts completely changed direction she said, "If I stay, I'll have to sleep down here in the servant's quarters."

I smiled as I thought that she was at least considering staying. I answered, "It's your choice of course but the bedrooms down here really seem small. If you really want to stay in the apartment down here I will have the two bedrooms remodeled and made into a larger bedroom."

She said, "I wouldn't want you to go to any expense for me." Then as if she understood what I had said she asked, "Would you really let me stay in one of the fancy bedrooms upstairs? Mister Anderson used to say that those were his wife's showrooms. I don't think I ever saw anyone sleep there."

I quickly responded, "You can stay in any bedroom you want, except the master bedroom of course. I plan to make the unfurnished bedroom upstairs into my home office, so I won't have to walk down to the den when I'm working late at night. I will probably be making some other changes to the house as well, but those will all come later."

Audra thought for a moment and said, "I really don't cook very well. Other than that, I can do everything else except for the really heavy lifting. I'm sure you could find a lot of people that could do things better than me."

I answered, "I probably could find more experienced people but I bet I couldn't find anyone who knows this house as well. I'm not going to make a big mess and once we have the house cleaned and stocked it should be fairly easy to keep clean. As to the cooking, I can cook some stuff myself and I understand the community college has cooking classes."

She eventually agreed that she would try it out for a week. She cleaned up quite nicely and that evening I took her out to eat to celebrate her employment. I found out that she looked a bit more like a diminutive adult after she was cleaned up. All of her clothes were filthy and we spent almost all day Sunday getting her situated in her new room upstairs. There was no opportunity to talk about things until late Sunday evening.

As we pulled into the driveway returning from a shopping trip Sunday evening Audra scowled as Elise waved at me from her porch. I pulled into the back of the house and began to unload the groceries from the truck bed. As we moved the bags into the house and began to put away items in the pantry I could sense Audra's mood becoming darker and more somber. Finally she stopped in the middle of the kitchen and stomped her foot on the floor in frustration. She whirled and sat the bag of groceries down and said, "I don't understand why she hates me. I never did anything to her. I tried to be polite but she always acted as if I didn't deserve to be in the same room with her. It's just..." She stopped and began putting up canned goods in the pantry.

I could see that Audra and I needed to talk about things. As soon as we put up the groceries I motioned her to the kitchen table. Acting more like a young girl than a 19 year-old adult, Audra lay her head down on her arms, turned her face towards me and asked softly, "Are you sure you want me to stay here? She won't like it."

Puzzled by her statement, I tried to sound confident as I said, "I'm sure we'll work through things. Elise is a reasonable person. I think sometimes we get off on the wrong foot with people. Think of this as a new opportunity."

Audra pushed her head up and glared at me. "But I don't want to get along with her. She's a bigot, a snob, and a gossip to boot. She can't stand me. I'm not one of her kind of people. She would always talk bad about me to Mrs. Anderson."

It sounded as if Audra was a bit paranoid and yet I did know that Elise didn't seem to think highly of her. I felt that at least part of the reason was the enmity between Audra and her parents. Elise had interpreted that as a lack of respect on Audra's part. I gave those reasons and shared bits of my conversations with Elise but Audra remained unconvinced. My logical mind couldn't understand why Audra refused to accept my explanation.

Our conversation finally gave Audra the opportunity to tell her own story. Her account was sometimes rambling and repetitious. There were parts of it that were unclear and other parts that seemed to be glossed over and I often stopped her to ask for details that were unclear. I tried not to interrupt her too often as I felt she needed to get her story out.



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Chapter 5: Audra's Story


"My father stole from the Andersons. I found out when I overheard them arguing about my father's plans on the night of my 17th birthday. It was late and I wasn't sleeping well because I had eaten too many sweet things. Then there was a late night summer storm and I was awakened by a loud clap of thunder. There was only a thin wall between my bedroom and my parents and I often overheard things that I wish I didn't ... you know sex things. At first I thought that was what I was hearing, I mean they usually whispered in bed except when they got excited during ... well, you know what I mean. Mom was almost yelling. I heard her say she was sure my father was going to get caught and then we'd be out on the street. That caught my attention. To hear the rest I had to put my ear close to the wall.

"Mom said something about books and I heard my father say that they hadn't been touched in years. I was puzzled. The only books of value I knew about were those in the den. Mr. Anderson, an avid reader himself, sometimes let me read those books over the summer break. Father couldn't mean those books because they were in constant use. I knew they were valuable as Mr. Anderson had told me to be careful of them. He explained that I needed to take care not to crease the pages or leave them lying about.

"I listened but never understood exactly what he was talking about. Father calmed mother by telling her he had a way that would never be found out. Their talk quieted down after that and I lay awake most of the night trying to figure out exactly what they were talking about. In the end I was more curious than afraid and decided to spy on my father to see if I could get to the bottom of things. I felt bad but what else could I do? It took me a long time to figure out what he was actually doing. For the most part he was doing nothing other than his regular duties. I never followed him out to the garage because I knew all the books were in the house. It didn't even dawn on me for a long time that there were books in the basement.

"One day mom sent me to fetch my father to help her move something for Mrs. Anderson. He had gone out to the garage to work on one of the cars; he did a bit of everything, including routine maintenance on the cars. The Andersons had two cars and father was supposed to be in the garage changing the oil in one of them. The garage was closed up when I got there and the door on the side was locked. I thought it was strange that father had the garage shut. It was a hot day and there's no air conditioning in the there. There was an old fan but to take advantage of that you have to have one of the doors open. I stood outside the garage and knocked on all of the doors. Finally father came to the side door and opened it up. He was really mad that he had been disturbed. He tried to tell me that he was working on the car and listening to the radio. I didn't hear the radio at all and was suspicious of what he was doing.

"After that I started hanging out around the garage, professing an interest in what my father was doing. It was strange that most of the time when he was in the garage the doors would be open but every once in a while everything would be locked up. When father came in after those times he was always dirty, as if he had been digging in the garden. I found out later that that was exactly what he had been doing.

"I figure it took him the better part of a year to dig the tunnel from the garage to where it connected to the old tunnel. I never figured out how he knew about the old tunnel. Mr. Anderson used to keep the basement locked..."

At that point I did interrupt Audra. "Audra, there's no key to the old lock on the basement door. That's why I had to prop a chair there to block off the door."

Audra grinned at me; one of those grins that teenagers give us older folks when they know something that we don't. She said, "I wondered why you did that because there is a key to the door. Mr. Anderson kept that key in a cubbyhole in the roll top desk in the den. He probably left it there. I'll show you if you want."

I smiled and answered, "First you'll have to show me where he keeps the key to the roll top desk. It's locked and I don't want to break it to get inside."

She said, "Oh. I don't know about that. He always had the key to that desk on his key ring in his pocket. He may have taken it with him."

We stopped at that point, as both of us were hungry. Audra cut each of us a piece of the cake. I got the milk which caused Mr. Whiskers to begin to rub on my leg. I put a saucer of milk down under the table. After that I had to attend to my bladder and so it was some time before we resumed our talk.

At that point, Audra began again. "Well, as I was saying, I'm not sure how my father knew about the tunnel in the basement. The only times that I know for sure that he was in the basement was when he was helping Mr. Anderson move furniture up and down the stairs. Mr. Anderson even cleaned the basement himself. My father must have spent some time down there though because he not only knew about the tunnel but knew that it turned sharply at the old well. He also obviously knew about the books in the basement.

"I have no idea where he put the dirt he took out of the tunnel or where he got the stuff he used to brace the tunnel roof. My father was a small man but he was strong for his size. Still, it must have been backbreaking work for him to dig that tunnel and carry those heavy timbers into the shaft. He would have had no one to blame but himself if the tunnel had caved in on him."

At that point I interrupted again. I said, "I'm just curious why he didn't just enter through the old well. There are enough rungs of the old iron ladder left for him to have climbed up and down. The job of adding new rungs or even using a temporary ladder would have been a lot easier."

Audra again flashed me a knowing smile. She continued, "I'm not sure, but I can think of a couple of possibilities. Mrs. Anderson spent a lot of time working out back. It was what she called her formal garden and gardening was her favorite pastime, aside from her antiques. She would have noticed if someone used the old well. I remember when I was younger Mr. Anderson wanted to get rid of the old well because of the danger of someone falling in and getting hurt. Mrs. Anderson had a fit, saying it was the centerpiece of her garden. They compromised and Mr. Anderson had father install a floor in the well as well as redoing the roof. Father did a lot of things like that."

Audra stopped as if she was thinking and I asked, "You said there were two reasons?"

Audra smiled and said, "Father did all the mowing, tilling and heavy lifting for Mrs. Anderson but didn't have a real reason other than that to be in the back yard. The large window in the master bedroom overlooks the garden. If father used the well he could never be sure that someone wasn't watching him from that window."

She continued, "As it was it took him a year and a half to construct the tunnel. At that point he finally was able to start stealing the rare first editions stored in the basement. He concealed what he was doing by replacing each book that he took with a cheaper copy of the same book. I overheard him telling mom that he had a partner in this, a rare book dealer. The dealer was paying him about a third of what the book was worth and that infuriated father. I never heard him mention a name but I figured he had to be someone local because the dealer supplied the books that he used as replacements."

At that point I had to interrupt again. "You mean that each of the book club editions down in the basement replaced a rare first edition? There must have been ten boxes of those when I went through them the other day. Surely he couldn't have remained undiscovered for that long."

Audra nodded, "I don't know how he did it, but he managed to keep from being found out for almost a year. That collection of books was Mr. Anderson's pride and joy but he only had limited shelf space in the den. He had most of those books when we first came to work here. He was still buying when he found a book that he wanted. When he bought one it was as if a treasure came into the house. He would read it and then spend some time deciding where to place it in his library. What I didn't know at the time was that for each book he placed in his library he would move one to the basement. Mrs. Anderson wouldn't let him build more shelves. She also wouldn't let him leave them lying about. After I knew father was stealing books I asked Mr. Anderson about the books in the basement. He then took me down and showed me the stacks in the basement. He told me he kept them lying flat in stacks and unboxed so that he could retrieve a book if he decided to read it. I don't think Mr. Anderson ever brought a book back up from the basement once he put it down there though. Father must have known that."

I interrupted once again and asked, "So how did your father get caught?"

"A pipe started leaking in the basement and Mr. Anderson was worried that his books would get too damp. When he went to move his books he discovered what father had done. Of course at the time he didn't know that father had done it. I remember that day for sure. We were all walking around on pins and needles. I never saw Mr. Anderson that angry before or since. He was so mad I was afraid he was going to have a stroke. It didn't take him long to find out that father was the one doing the stealing and when he did he fired father on the spot. Father was told that we could either leave by the end of the week or we would all go to jail."

I asked, "I wonder why he didn't take the rest of his books with him, seeing how they were so precious to him?"

Audra answered, "By the time we left they were already planning to move, although I didn't think it was going to be as soon as it was. Mr. Anderson had what they thought might be a particularly aggressive form of Alzheimer's. While he was going from one specialist to another to find out exactly what it was, Mrs. Anderson confided in mom that she was afraid they wouldn't find out exactly what it was until it was too late to get Mr. Anderson any help. They did find out what it was though.

"By the time Mr. Anderson discovered the theft of the books they knew that the disease was advancing more rapidly than they expected and they quickly moved to Arizona. Mrs. Anderson was upset that the only treatment center for this disease was so far away but that didn't stop her from making arrangements to go as soon as they could begin treatment.

"I heard her tell mom that there had been some reverses in their finances because of the stock market but that they were still quite well off. Mrs. Anderson told mom they had more than enough cash to buy the retirement house, pay for the treatment and live out the rest of their days in comfort. The rest of their estate was tied up in rare books, paintings and antiques. I heard Mrs. Anderson tell one of the neighbors that she couldn't bear to sell those things and I guess she just left them. I thought she was joking about leaving things but I think the progression of Mr. Anderson disease was such that it scared her. She knew he needed to start treatment immediately. So they used cash to make the move and left the rest. Mrs. Anderson had been planning on giving mother and father a large severance package until they discovered father's theft."

I said, "Still, you would think they could have hired a conservator or someone to put the house on the market. The value of all of this would have set Mrs. Anderson up quite nicely after Mr. Anderson passed."

Audra shrugged, "I dunno about that. All Mrs. Anderson was thinking of was Mr. Anderson at the time, and Mr. Anderson's memory was starting to go. I know Mr. Anderson was always the one who took care of the financial stuff and Mrs. Anderson was stressed with all the decisions she had to make. I don't thing they had any children or close relatives, or at least I never heard them speak of any."

I interrupted again to ask, "After they moved, what happened to your family? Why didn't you go with them?"

"I did go with them. I didn't think at the time I had any choice. The thing was that I couldn't stand them. I had tried to distance myself from them as soon as I knew what they were doing. I should have told the Andersons as soon as I knew what they were doing but ... they were my parents. How could I respect them for stealing from the Andersons, who had treated us almost like family? I should have done something. I'm just as bad as father, I guess. We grew apart. I think mom thought it was just a phase or something but it was the knowing."

She paused for a moment and then continued, "After father was caught the Andersons seemed to think that all of us were stealing stuff. In a way I guess we were all guilty. Mrs. Anderson changed and became cold towards me. I felt guilty because I knew and didn't say anything, but they were my parents..." Audra looked up at me with tears in her eyes and asked, "What was I supposed to do?"

I answered, "It must have been hard for you. What happened then?"

She said, "When we moved away my parents started fighting about money. It seems that some of the money had been gambled away and they argued constantly about what to do with the rest. My father seemed to think that since he had taken all of the risk he should make all of the decisions. They didn't go to work for anyone and had a lot of time on their hands. I got sick of them fighting and told them I was leaving. Mom begged me to stay and father, well my father basically told me he thought it was a good idea. They fought over that. Mom slipped me some money and I used it to stay in a motel for a couple of days. While I was there I thought about what I wanted to do and I realized that I wanted to go back and mend fences with the Andersons.

"I took a bus and came back here. Even though it was a wet and miserable day I managed to focus on what I would say when I arrived. I had hopes that they could find it in their hearts to forgive me. I planned to beg them to let me go with them when they moved and help take care of them. I would work for free hoping to make up for what father did. I was so disappointed when I arrived and they had already left. I had no where else to go and so I stayed here, keeping a low profile because of that woman next door.

"I was surprised to see all of the furniture still here. I thought they would surely come back for it. The days stretched into weeks and then the man came and posted the 'for sale' sign in the front yard. Even though he came back later and took it down I knew more people would be coming. I rearranged the basement and moved back to the garage. There were canned goods there bought from the warehouse store. I hoped to hold on until someone bought the house. I hoped I might be able to either find out where they had moved and follow them or that maybe the new owners would let me work here doing what mother had done for a while. Then you came."

"So why did you hide from me once I was here?"

Audra looked at her hands as she said, "I was afraid. I had thought perhaps a family would come, maybe an older couple. You came and I heard you on the phone as you spoke to someone about cleaning the place out. I knew you would most likely discover the tunnel in the basement but I thought if I hid in the locked room in the garage I might still be safe. I didn't think that you would buy the place for yourself."

She looked up at me and said, "I had nowhere else to go."

I smiled at her and said, "Well now you do. Hopefully you'll be happy here. Maybe later we can find the Anderson's address arrange a visit. I'm going to give them any money I make from selling things in the house that I don't use. I wouldn't feel right profiting any more than I already have from their situation."

Audra seemed satisfied with that and we both turned in for the evening. Audra in particular seemed to be emotionally exhausted from our conversation.

The next few days were busy as I cleaned out repos during the day and moved the remainder of my personal effects in the evening. Audra kept busy doing a deep cleaning of the entire house. The closing on the house was scheduled for Thursday and went off without a hitch. My bank balance was $48,000 lighter and I now had a $100,000 mortgage with a payment of $650 per month, including escrow. I planned to use some of the remaining CDs to do some remodeling and needed repair work. I intended to do a lot of that work myself.

Friday afternoon I took off early, went to the small wine shop in the same strip center as Angelo's diner and picked up a couple of bottles of Chianti. I had cooked all week and Audra was trying her first meal this evening. She had been cooking the spaghetti sauce all day. I had stopped by during lunch and was barely able to get in the kitchen. I had always thought of spaghetti as something that was a quick meal, you know, sauce from a jar, cook the noodles, and maybe toast some French bread with a little garlic butter. I knew she was cooking the sauce herself because during lunch it was all over everything in the kitchen, including Audra.

I was pleasantly surprised when I entered the driveway to see Elise sunning herself. She had been conspicuously absent all week. Walking down the driveway to the front I stopped to say hello. Pleasantries having been exchanged she confirmed that I had closed on the house and again welcomed me to the neighborhood. I could tell that she was skirting around something and guessed it was Audra. I broached the subject myself when I said, "Both Audra and I really enjoyed the cake you baked. I'll return the plate in the morning."

Her face crinkled into a smile at the complement. She then said, "Glad that you enjoyed it. It's one of Edward's favorites. I had to watch him like a hawk while he took it over."

I said, "Edward has good taste. German chocolate is my favorite as well, and yours was one of the best I have ever tasted."

Elise beamed and said, "Well thank you. It was my mother's recipe. Joe, can I ask you a personal question?"

I grinned, "You can ask anything. I can't promise an answer."

Elise hesitated only a second and then said, "It's about Audra. Is she ... Is she your girl friend?"

I laughed and said, "No, she's my housekeeper. You do recognize her, don't you?"

Elise answered, "Of course I do. I just wondered how you got in touch with her so quickly."

"I didn't, she contacted me. You two need to get together and talk. Audra is a fine young woman who has lived through a horrible experience. I don't feel comfortable saying anything other than that. If you get to know her you may find that she is not the 'snotty brat' that you think she is. I have to get inside now. She has made spaghetti from scratch tonight. Maybe we can get together later on in the weekend."

Elise left with a puzzled look on her face, as if she was mulling something unpleasant. I found Audra waiting for me inside the door. She was dressed beautifully but looked as if she had just bitten into something sour. I held up the bottles of Chianti and asked, "Wrong wine?"

Audra said, "The wine is fine, it's the neighbor I'm worried about. Has she been poisoning your mind about me again."

I laughed and answered, "No, I was just thanking her for the cake. She did ask about you though. Asked whether you were my girl friend and then how I had contacted you. I didn't give her any details but did say that you and she needed to clear the air with one another."

Audra stomped her foot and shouted, "I don't need to clear anything. I don't owe her any explanation. She's the one that jumped to all the wrong conclusions."

I held up my hands as if in surrender and watched Audra turn on her heels and storm off into the kitchen. I went to the dining room and opened a bottle of wine and set it on the sideboard to breathe. Mr. Whiskers was asleep in the only chairs that had been pulled away from underneath the table. I then noticed the fine china set out on the table. The problem was that there was only one place setting. I heard the angry rattle of pots and pans in the kitchen and decided to head upstairs to shower and change before dinner.



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Chapter 6: The Passage


Audra definitely had a temper. After showering, shaving, and donning a coat and tie I returned to the dining room where I busied myself setting a second place at the table. As I looked for the various items I noticed that all of the dishes and stemware had been carefully washed and replaced in the hutch. As I worked the rattle of pots and pans in the kitchen gradually subsided. I quietly opened the pocket doors and moved to face my young lioness in her den.

I was surprised to see her slumped in a chair at the kitchen table staring at the wall with tears rolling down her cheeks. I shook my head as I thought to myself that her emotions certainly ran the gamut. When she spotted me she jumped up from the table, wiped at her eyes, trying to hide her tears and asked, "Are you ready to eat?"

Instead of giving her and answer I walked over and took her hand in mine. Almost pulling her along I led her into the dining room where I pointed to the second place setting. "I hate to eat alone. I've done too much of that in my life. I hope you'll eat with me whether the meal is in here or in the kitchen. That is unless you think I have cooties or something."

She fought to hide her smile as she said, "Cooties, I hope not." She laughed and continued, "I'm used to the help eating separately. Every Friday evening Mr. & Mrs. Anderson used to dine formally in the dining room. Sometimes they would have neighbors but most of the time they would eat alone. Even during the week when they ate in the kitchen, we ate at different times."

"Audra, I'm not the Andersons and I'm not going to do things the same way they did. I can understand what they did. You had two separate families here then. They were probably trying to give your family the space you needed to be a family. They also grew up in a different time and lived their lives under different expectations. Both of us are alone and I am hoping that you will dine with me this evening." As I said that I pulled a chair from the table and held it for her so she could sit down.

She reluctantly sat down as she protested saying, " ... but I have to serve the table."

I finished seating her and said, "No talking back. I will serve you this evening. You have worked hard all day cooking this meal for us." Grinning I continued, "At least I think I saw enough for two."

I picked up the plates and salad bowls and went to the kitchen. Returning I had a towel draped across my arm, two salads in my hand. In a poor imitation of an English butler I said, "Dinner is served."

Placing our salads on the table I retreated to the sideboard and half-filled two glasses with the decanted Chianti. I winked at Audra as I placed the glass beside her salad plate. I then sat down across from her grinning at her open-mouthed expression.

She just continued to stare at me as if I was crazy and finally raised her eyebrows.

I asked, "What?"

The tension broken, she started to get up as she laughingly said; "There was salad dressing for the salad in the refrigerator. I'll get it."

Motioning her back down, I hopped up and quickly retraced my steps back to the kitchen. As I returned to the table with the homemade dressing I asked, "I'm not very good at this am I? It takes some thought."

Audra laughingly agreed as she spooned the homemade dressing on her salad. She said, "It's easier if you prepared the meal and know where things are."

The rest of the meal progressed nicely. I refused to allow her to serve at all during the meal. She drank very sparsely of the Chianti during the meal and, although she tried to hide it, I could tell that she wasn't enamored of the rather dry wine. During our conversation it came out that she had never been allowed even a sip of wine by her parents. I offered to bring her iced tea or a soft drink but she declined, saying she was sure it was an acquired taste. The sauce and spaghetti were both delicious and the conversation although subdued was even better as my decision to serve her seemed to have broken the ice.

I deliberately maintained a languid pace serving the meal, complementing her cooking as I served each course. Gradually I could see her begin to relax and come out of her shell. I insisted on helping her clean up afterwards. We were laughing and joking like old friends during the clean up.

After the kitchen was cleaned we retired to the den where I had installed my small home entertainment center. After the friendly banter in the kitchen I was surprised to see her tense up and become silent again as we entered the den. As I motioned her forward she perched rather stiffly on the far end of the rather uncomfortable leather couch. We barely communicated as I paused after each offering on the remote to gage her reaction. Finally I settled on a movie that neither of us was really interested in. During the movie she continued to sit stiffly as if she was in a dentist reception area waiting to have a wisdom tooth removed. The only time she relaxed at all was when Mr. Whiskers jumped up and curled up in her lap.

I tried to break the ice by talking about the changes I wanted to make to the house. She finally agreed that it would be nice to have one room that was decorated for comfort rather than show and we both decided the den would be the perfect place. I say we both decided but it was more as if she sounded out what I wanted and then agreed. Finding out what she truly thought about any one subject was difficult.

My plans were to move the roll top desk to the empty bedroom that I was going to use as an office. Getting her to commit to specifics of the décor was harder than pulling teeth. I felt that she had opinions but was reluctant to share them for fear of offending me. She repeatedly said the room should reflect my taste and not those of a mere servant.

Every time she spoke those words I would heartily disagree. I hoped over a period of time to break through this class barrier she had placed between us. I found despite her protest to the contrary that she was well read, articulate and charming when pressed for her opinion. As the evening progressed I found myself becoming more and more infatuated with her gentle nature and simple beauty. Despite my best effort I was unable to gain any ground in my battle to heal the breach between her and Elise. After a couple of false starts I gave up, feeling that it would be counterproductive to force the issue.

One of the things that we talked about was the original tunnel. I queried her as to whether she had ever explored the tunnel branch that began in the room where the new tunnel joined. She confessed that her curiosity had been bested by her deathly fear of spiders. She told me that she had come close, several times, to cleaning out the spider webs and exploring the passage but had always shied away at the last moment. I found that it was all she could do to use the main tunnel when she had to. As careful as she had been about being discovered, she had used a direct path from the back door of the house to the garage many times to avoid going into the tunnel.

We made plans that night to search that branch of the tunnel sometimes in the next couple of days. I told Audra that my plans for the weekend also included hiring a locksmith to open the roll top desk and checking out the attic. Audra related that the door at the top of the attic stairwell was locked and she thought the key was also kept in the roll top desk.

By the end of the evening Audra seemed more at ease and more readily shared her opinion on some small things. Still as the evening wound to a close she was on one end of the long couch and I was on the other. We both retired to our rooms after the movie. As I entered my bedroom I heard the definite click of a lock being set as soon as she closed her door.

The next day began with me waking bright and early even though I wished I could have slept later. I have never been able to just lie abed once I have awakened. Even when I have absolutely nothing to do my restless disposition won't allow me this comfort. As it was six in the morning I was careful to be quiet so I wouldn't awaken Audra in the bedroom across the hall. I decided to drive to a bakery that I had noticed about six blocks away. When I exited the house it was such a beautiful morning that I changed my mind, deciding to walk instead.

This area of town was built upon a rather large hill. The street's placement on the edge of the hill gave me a gorgeous view of the bay below as I walked to the bakery. There were a few large trees along the way and it was especially pleasant listening to the rustle of the leaves as the early morning sea breeze freshened. The occasional rattle of those leaves in an errant gust was the only interruption of an otherwise tranquil morning as I traversed the first several blocks of my journey. I walked by one home with a sprinkler system just as the sprinklers started but had enough time to rush past before they cycled up to full force. I reached the bakery just as the store was opening for the day.

Inside the bakery I was immersed in a virtual plethora of aromas interlaced with the sweet smell of baker's yeast. One of those underlying scents assaulted my nose and directed my feet to a carafe of coffee freshly brewed on a small table on one corner of the room. I poured a cup into one of the small white Styrofoam cups stacked by the pot. Then I began to make the difficult decision as to what to buy. After almost drooling on the glass front cases I ended up with a box of donuts large enough to make an entire SWAT team salivate. Several of the varieties were still warm and I managed to finish one soft glazed donut in only two bites.

The heady fragrance from the closed box dominated my olfactory senses on the uphill return. Several times I almost talked myself into opening the box in order to renew my strength for the arduous journey. It is a testament to my will power that the box arrived at my door with only one other pastry missing. I set the box on the table in the kitchen and noticed that someone, presumably Audra, had started a pot of coffee. I went looking for her only to meet her descending the stairs followed by Mr. Whiskers.

She smiled at me and said, "There you are. I knocked on your bedroom door. When you didn't answer I looked in and found your bed empty. I thought for a moment that you might have changed your mind and decided to work but then looked out back and saw your truck in the driveway."

As she spoke we were walking together into the kitchen. Before she even saw them the smell of the open box of pastries reached her nose. She gave a small clap of childlike delight as she exclaimed, "You walked to Dennon's. I just love their donuts. I hope you bought a couple of crème filled ones. Those are my absolute favorites."

By that time she had reached the box and again squealed with delight as she saw that there were indeed several crème filled donuts in the box. I laughed as I deduced that I had managed to find one thing that cut through her reserve. We both sat silently enjoying several more of the sugary pastries. I had mine with coffee while Audra washed down hers with sips from a large glass of milk. During the feast with half full mouth she said, "I had planned on cooking you a large breakfast. It's the only meal that I feel confident in cooking."

With an equally stuffed mouth I disagreed. "Last night's supper was perfect. You are an excellent cook. That spaghetti sauce was delicious, best I ever tasted."

She tried to downplay her cooking skills saying, "Anyone can cook spaghetti."

I answered, "My point exactly. You can cook anything you work at. It obviously takes a lot more effort the first time you do anything but as you practice things will get easier and faster."

At that moment Mr. Whiskers brushed up against her legs announcing that it was his turn to be fed. She busied herself feeding the cat and didn't reply. After she returned to the table we finished almost half of the box of donuts before she remarked, "If you do this every Saturday morning I'm going to end up as fat as a pig."

I laughed and said, "I probably won't do this every Saturday morning. Besides, you could stand a little fattening up. You need to fill out a little more."

I thought I had hurt her feelings as she responded, "I know I'm small for my age. I can't do anything about that." Contradicting her earlier statement she said, "I don't seem to be able to put on any weight."

I started to say something about that contradiction and then thought better of it. Shaking my head I replied, "Maybe you should see a doctor about that."

She immediately said, "I'm not sick, I just don't gain weight."

"That's a problem I'm sure most women in this country would love to have. It couldn't hurt for you to make an appointment for a check-up just to be sure nothing is wrong."

She blushed and said, "I don't have money to waste on that."

I said, "I didn't intend on you paying for it. You work for me. I'll provide you with some type of medical insurance. We haven't discussed pay and benefits but you'll have medical and dental along with some type of retirement plan. I need to talk to my accountant about setting that up."

She laughed so loudly that she snorted. I asked her, "What's so funny?"

She said, "The idea of retirement. I'm only 19. From what I've read I don't think anyone in my generation will ever be able to retire."

Feeling us getting more and more sidetracked, I replied, "My accountant will explain it all to you. Everyone needs a retirement plan of some type. If nothing else it's a way to make sure that the government doesn't take all of your paycheck in taxes. We were talking about you needing to see a doctor. I think I'll require an employment physical. I don't want you getting ill on me."

She burst out laughing at that point.

I said, "Stop that! It's not nice to laugh at your boss."

She stifled her laughter enough to say, "Oh, so now you're my boss. For a minute there I thought you were trying to be my mommy. Seriously, I've never been sick a day in my life. Seeing a doctor will be a waste of your money."

Tired of arguing with her, I threw up my hands and left the kitchen. As I calmed down some I thought that maybe she was right. Maybe I needed to act more like her employer and less like her benefactor. It was obvious she felt I should make all of the decisions about the house and stay clear of her personal life.

Still upset from our conversation, I called the locksmith that I normally used when I had problems entering a repo. I knew he wouldn't make me prove that this was my house as many would. It didn't really matter as all of the paperwork from the closing was in a folder on my nightstand. Fred, the locksmith, said he was on a job on the other side of town and would be over within the hour.

After using the phone I thought about one for the house. I hadn't had a need for a land line in my apartment as the cell phone did the same job, but I needed one here in case Audra needed something. Realizing that making a decision on my own would only lead to another argument I went back into the kitchen. Unsurprisingly she didn't seem to care one way or another and we ended up agreeing that a cell phone would work as well or better than a land line.

I was still a bit down when Fred arrived. I wasn't sure if that was from my earlier argument with Audra or from the amount of sugar I had consumed. Fred had no problems opening the desk, and with the desk opened we found the keys to both the attic and the basement along with several other keys, one of which was a spare key to the roll top desk. I put that key on my key ring and paid Fred cash for the service call. I put the other keys in my pocket hoping to discover exactly what they opened during the weekend.

The desk was basically empty except for the keys and an accumulation of junk in one of the drawers. I planned on getting one of my subs to send me a couple of strong backs Monday to move the desk up to the second floor. I was also going to have the young bucks move the furniture out of the servant's quarters to either the basement or the attic in order to prepare those rooms for remodeling. Depending on how I felt I might move the furniture from the den at the same time. I started another list in my wheel book.

After Fred left I headed towards the attic. I took my flashlight but soon found that there were enough light bulbs suspended from the ceiling to enable me to see quite well. The attic space was large, hot and very dusty. The floor was finished with rough pine planks. The entire space was one large room and I could see that there was room for several large bedrooms.

Standing atop the attic stairway I could see where someone had long ago blown rock wool insulation into holes bored through the well-worn older plank flooring. I was puzzled as to why the Andersons locked the space as the one large room was empty with the exception of several rolls of carpet and a couple of boxes that I later found contained an older type of ceiling tiles. The dust had obviously lain on the floor for quite some time as there was a well defined set of footprints leading off into the room. The footprints puzzled me and at first I thought that they must lead to another exit from the attic as they didn't return to the stairwell. Following the footprints led me between the carpet rolls and boxes and then around behind the stairwell stub wall to an exterior wall. There was a maze of footprints at the wall as if the person spent some time at the wall looking for something.

The walls of the attic were finished with what seemed to be a rough plaster. The material was cracking in some places but in overall good condition. At one point I noticed a nail sticking out as if it had been used to hang something on the wall. For no reason I pulled at the nail to see if I could pull it from the wall. I was surprised that I heard a click and heard a creaking sound as a portion of the wall swing outward leaving a gap of about two feet. The nail was obviously some type of opening device. The creaking sound led me to believe that there was some sort of mechanical linkage in the door mechanism that needed lubrication.

Caught up in the novelty of the moment I pushed the wall section closed and almost as soon as it closed pulled on the nail one more time. Not surprisingly the wall section again swung outward. This time the creaking sound was reduced as if the action of opening and closing had somehow lubricated the mechanism. I was so tickled that I almost laughed out loud as I thought this house, now my house, had other secrets to give up. To me this was more fun than a trip to Disney World. Using the edges of my fingers I tried to move the door further open but it wouldn't budge. Peering behind the doorway I saw a narrow passageway that seemed to run parallel to the edge of the wall.

Switching on the flashlight I entered the dark narrow passageway. I noticed a handle on the reverse side of the panel that would have allowed me to pull the wall section closed. Since I had no idea how to open the panel from the inside I left it open. The narrow passageway followed the wall to a corner of the outside room about thirty feet away where it appeared to dead end. That puzzled me as I knew the footprints hadn't returned to the attic stairway. Looking around I saw no footprints in the apparently dust free inner passageway.

Examining the walls where the passageway ended I could find no other loose nails or other obvious opening devices. I thought that there must be some mechanism that wasn't apparent and so I retraced my steps examining the walls back to my point of entry. I found nothing other than plaster covered walls. Thinking that maybe the opening mechanism for the second opening wasn't as noticeable as the first I moved my hands over the walls all along the passageway from one end to the other.

I knew there was something I was missing but couldn't for the life of me decide what it was. I again traversed the passage rapping on the inside wall hoping to find a hollow space. I quickly determined that the inside wall must be constructed the same as the outer wall with studs as I heard hollow sounds all along the wall. I'm one of those guys who won't give up on something until I find an answer. That can be both good and bad. When I find a problem on a job I have been known to approach it from several angles until the solution becomes obvious. On the other hand I have also driven many miles out of my way because I refused to stop and ask for directions. After an hour of poking into every corner and searching everywhere I finally conceded that a fresh viewpoint might be helpful so I went in search of Audra. I didn't have to search far as I met her coming up the stairs wondering why I was taking so long in the attic. She had fixed some soup and sandwiches for lunch but told me I would have to clean up before I could eat.

While we were eating we mended our fences. Out of the blue Audra thanked me for caring enough to want her to see my doctor and agreed that she would do that as soon as I could make an appointment. In the end I apologized for not treating her more like the adult that she was. Pleasantries out of the way she asked, "What did you find in the attic that took all morning?"

My grin must have given things away because she repeated, "What did you find?"

I explained about finding the secret passage. Her next question was, "Where does it go?"

I felt dumb as I gave her a curt, "I dunno."

She seemed incredulous as she asked, "What do you mean you don't know? Didn't you follow it?"

I then explained about the dead end and gave her a detailed account of my attempts to find another doorway. Audra thought a moment and said, "Maybe it was closed off some time in the past or just a hidden storage area. It might not lead anywhere."

I shook my head and explained, "I found the passage because of footprints in the dust that dead ended at that wall. That person left the attic through that wall or there would have been other tracks leading back to the stairway."

Audra squeal of delight was almost as if she found another box of donuts. "Oh goodie, a mystery! I love puzzles. Can I help, please?"

I laughed and told her that I had come down looking for her help so we both headed back into the attic we finished lunch. I spent the next fifteen minutes explaining exactly what steps I had already taken to find the doorway. Audra listened to me patiently and then asked, "How do you reopen the door from the inside?"

I was almost embarrassed to say, "I don't know that either"

She suggested that we try that first since with her on the outside there would be no danger of my becoming trapped inside.

I walked through the door with my Maglight and closed the door behind me. At the same instant I heard the door click shut I heard what sounded like a softer click at the other end of the passageway. I hurried down the narrow passageway and found the opening that I had looked for all morning. Peering through the open doorway revealed a constricted stairway descending back towards the direction of the original opening. The bottom of the narrow stairway seemed to end in a short passageway on the second floor level.

I stepped through the narrow doorway and carefully descended to the space below. On the third or forth step from the top I felt more than heard the step of the stairway give slightly as I stepped upon it. The movement was slight but again I heard that click and the door above me closed with a loud click. This startled me as I wasn't expecting it. My heart raced as it now seemed that I was trapped within the confines of the stairwell and the closet sized passageway below. I found myself hoping that the way forward would be more obvious than the way into this space. I was comforted in the fact that it was obvious that at least one person had figured it out, as there was no body in this space with me.

The cramped landing offered no visual clues to any doorway. The constricted area was as wide and about three times as long as an old fashioned telephone booth. There were no protruding nails or mechanisms visible that might operate a door. Each of the three walls seemed to be constructed of an almost seamless piece of wood expertly joined to the other. The ceiling inside this area was less than six feet high, which meant that I had needed to stoop to enter the space from the bottom step. In spite of the open stairwell behind me I began to feel claustrophobic. I turned towards each wall and pressed outward but felt no give or irregularity. Puzzled I stepped back onto the stairway almost hitting my head on the low ceiling. As I stumbled I reached upward to catch myself on the edge of the ceiling. I felt a slight give as my hand contacted the ceiling. Entering the space again I pressed my palms upward against the ceiling. The back wall of the small chamber sprang open after the requisite click, leading into another longer passageway.

This corridor appeared to be only about twelve to fifteen feet long but when I covered that distance I found the corridor turned ninety degrees to the right and continued another twenty-five to thirty feet. From the distance I thought I must be traveling inside of one of the inner walls of the second floor. As I moved down the corridor my shoulders almost brushed both outside walls. Luckily these walls were also smooth and had no apparent nails or protrusions. I was becoming more confident as I negotiated each new opening, but I was beginning to feel as if I was inside a puzzle box and just hoped that I would continue to be able to solve the puzzle. Whoever constructed this labyrinth certainly did not seem to want anyone to negotiate it quickly.

The end of the passageway presented me with another, expected enigma; no apparent lever or mechanism to allow me to continue forward. I couldn't reach the ceiling and out of frustration I began to move along the walls rapping them with the palms of my hands and tracing over them with my fingers in an increasingly frustrating search for that elusive mechanism. Finding nothing after an indeterminable amount of searching I stopped and started playing my flashlight over the corridor I had just traversed. The shadows caused by the movement of my flashlight played tricks on my eyes and I could only imagine what it would have been like to have followed this passageway with only a kerosene lamp. Finally I thought I saw a raised spot on the wallboard about ten feet from the end of the passageway. This spot was not obvious and at first I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me. This area was just outside the area that I had checked with my hands.

I immediately went and pressed on this area of wall and was rewarded by the welcome sound of another click. Looking at the walls I was disappointed when I saw no doorway appear. Searching the walls for that opening, I saw what appeared to be another irregularity on the other side of the passageway. Pressing on that area I again heard that familiar click but saw no doorway appear. As I was shining my light looking for a third abnormal section of wall I saw what appeared to be a dark line across the floor. Further examination showed me that this was a counterweighted doorway to another stairwell leading downward to what must be the first floor level.

Peering into the hole revealed a wooden ladder bolted to the wall below. Putting my flashlight in my pocket and hoping that the ladder would hold I descended to the next level. The ladder was quite solid and didn't appear to flex at all until I hit the lowest rung, which was obviously also an activating lever of some kind. That rung seemed to slip about half an inch which caused the trap door above to swung shut, again blocking my retreat. This passageway was constructed much as the ones above. Again I had the feeling that I was trapped inside of an endless giant puzzle.

This narrow corridor went forward about ten feet and then cut back sharply to the left, most likely following a wall of the house. I realized at that point that I didn't have any idea where I was except that I was on the first floor level of the house. Hopefully the exit from this maze would be somewhere on this level. It would be interesting to know where these passageways actually were in relationship to the house walls but that would be a project for the future. Right now I was again feeling a bit claustrophobic and just wanting out. This feeling intensified as once again the passageway ended without an apparent exit.

About the time I started seriously considering my alternatives my cell phone rang. The noise startled me as it was completely unexpected. I quickly fished the phone out of my pocket and then answered it.

I heard a concerned voice say, "Joe, this is Elise Howard from next door. Are you alright?"

I gave a nervous laugh and answered, "Elise, I'm fine. A little tied up right now but doing fine. What can I help you with?"

I could barely hear Elise say obviously away from the phone after I had finished speaking. She then said, "Audra is here with me. She is very concerned about you. Said that she was afraid you were trapped somewhere inside the house. I couldn't make too much sense of what she was saying because she was almost hysterical at first. She has calmed down some now. I'll give her the phone so you can reassure her."

The next thing I heard was Audra's obviously strained voice asking, "Are you really okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm somewhere on the first floor in the walls of the house. The door opened when you closed the door in the attic. Then it closed when I descended the stairway I found to the second floor. Each time I manage to find and open another door the one behind me closes. I'm sorry to cause you to worry. Hopefully, I'm near the end of this thing."

Audra's voice had less strain in it when she said, "When I tried to open the door in the attic to look for you but the nail wouldn't budge. I tried again and again but it wouldn't move. I was so scared that something had happened to you. I'm coming back over so be careful, please?"

Still explaining, I answered, "I will. Each door has had a different opening mechanism. That's why it has taken me so long. I'm running out of things to look for so hopefully either I'm near the end or things will start to repeat. It will be much easier to go through next time because I'll know what to do after going through it once. Anyway, I'm glad that you and Elise seem to be getting along." I smiled as I thought of how hard it must have been for Audra to ask the older lady for help.

Audra's voice was nearly normal when she said, "I didn't know who else to turn to. I'm just glad she had your number. I'm going back to the house to wait for you. Hopefully I'll see you soon." Then she broke the connection and my concentration moved back to the problem at hand.

The designer of the passageway must have been as stumped as I was at this point because the next doorway was opened by another nail similar to the one in the attic. The doorway this time led to a short passageway that turned 90 degrees to the right. This longer passageway went about thirty feet and then took another sharp bend to the right. The passageway continued sloping downward at a 15 degree angle and at some point I noticed that the walls abruptly changed from wood to masonry. Part of the walls looked to be made of natural stone, as if I was in some sort of a cave.

This passageway, the longest single section by a long shot soon leveled out and then began a gradual curve to the left. I noticed that the walls turned to masonry again at about the place where the walls started to curve. The exit at the end of this passageway was readily apparent. It was a doorway handle similar to the one on the inside of the door in the attic. I was hoping that this was the last doorway and would give me some answers as to why the passageway was constructed in the first place. At first I panicked when I pushed on the door handle and felt no movement. It took me a few moments to realize that the wooden handle had to be rotated, releasing a catch that allowed the door to open.

The room I entered looked familiar and yet was one that I had never visited. This small room was sparsely furnished with rough, sturdy furniture. There was a small bed that consisted of a wooden platform covered by an old mattress of sorts. There were three simple ladder back chairs spaced about the room. In one corner was a small rectangular table supporting an old coal oil lantern next to what appeared to be a ceramic wash basin. After surveying this I saw that the table was actually a desk and had a drawer in the center. Opening this drawer produced an old ledger book. Opening the book I found the first several pages filled with names and dates in an archaic flowing script. After those pages several pages were filled with diary like entries in a small tight handwriting. The remainder of the pages seemed to be blank at first. Upon closer examination the last few pages of the book were filled with writing that was barely legible but seemed composed of crudely formed printed words. The ink used had partially deteriorated to the point that it was nearly impossible to decipher exactly what was written. I took the book and looked around the room for an exit.

The exit was another door of the same design as the one in the attic. It seemed that at this point the builder was no longer trying to prove his ingenuity. The passageway on the other side of the door again seemed to be a part of some natural cavern. Places where the walls were constructed were of a rougher construction than those earlier. As I moved cautiously forward across the masonry floor I heard a click and looked back to see the door I had just exited slide back into place. A few more feet down the passageway brought me to a choice of three openings. There was no discernable difference in the three openings and so I took the one on the left.

Almost at once I noticed that this passageway curved gradually to the right. After what seemed to be a hundred feet I ended up back in the same room I had left coming out through the center doorway. It was obvious to me at that point that these two openings were part of some sort of delaying tactic. This time I took the doorway to the right and almost immediately I came to another small room with a wooden handle similar to the entrance to the last room. Operating the mechanism the wall opened again. Moving through this latest opening brought me into a room that I recognized as there were metal ladder rungs in the walls stretching upwards towards the bottom of the old well. Sitting there as if he knew where I would end up all the time was Mr. Whiskers. I reached down and picked up the old tom and quickly made it out to the basement and then up to the basement door. Upon reaching the top of the stairs I said, "Anyone home?"



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Chapter 7: An Attraction


Audra came boiling out of the sitting room and almost knocked me over as she bounded into my arms disregarding Mr. Whiskers who quickly leaped out of the way. Elise raised her eyebrows as she peered at us from the doorway of the sitting room. I certainly hadn't expected that reaction. Audra was blushing red as she disengaged herself from my arms. She did take me by the hand and pull me towards Elise and the sitting room where she had a pitcher of iced tea waiting.

I spent the next thirty minutes explaining my journey as Elise carefully looked through the book I had retrieved. No questions were asked as I recounted my passage through the walls of the old house. After I finished Audra said, "All the years I lived here, I never suspected that there may have been people walking around in the walls. I remember hearing sounds coming from the wall late at night, but I never thought..."

Elise touched Audra's arm to get her attention and said, "All wooden houses have noises. I remember Edward telling me that houses heat up in the daytime and cool at night, causing nails to pull loose and boards to rub against each other. Most likely that is what you heard most of the times."

I added, "I don't know how long it took for all of that dust to accumulate in the attic, but the footprints do indicate that one person in recent times did rediscover the passage and make it all the way through. It was also obvious, from the way the footprints went straight to the wall where the passage started, that whoever did make that trip knew that the passage was there..."

Audra interrupted, "Mother or father never said anything about a secret passage so I don't think it was either of them."

I looked from Audra to Elise and asked, "How much have you told her about what went on in the house?"

Audra answered, "You wanted me to clear the air, so I told her everything."

Looking towards Elise and then back to me she continued, "You were right. She thought I was being disrespectful. I was, but she didn't understand my reasons. So she knows about father if that's what you're asking."

I continued, "The thing I was going to say was that you didn't find out about the tunnel from anything your father said. You found that out by following him. So it's possible he could have been the one that made the footprints in the attic."

Audra looked puzzled and then said, "If he was the one that made that trip through the passageway, it must have been after he stole all the books because otherwise why would he have gone to the trouble of digging the tunnel from the garage?"

About halfway through Audra's question Elise fidgeted excitedly. As soon as Audra finished formulating her question Elise answered, "I can think of several reasons. If he managed to bring the books from the basement up through the walls to the attic they were still in the house. The stairway from the attic is in the main hallway. It would be hard to spirit books out through that hallway. Another thing is that we don't know if the passageway will work in reverse, because from what Joe said, opening one door in several instances closes another."

I nodded and added, "The mechanism that controls all of the passageway doors seems to be quite complicated. I was most of the way through and the entryway was still locked by the mechanism. I bet if we went back to the attic now we would find it reset. It's possible that there's some method of controlling which way the doors open that we have yet to discover."

Elise spoke again, "This book goes back to the time before the Civil War. Evidently this house was a regular stop on what was called the Underground Railroad. This ledger is a listing of all the runaway slaves that used this house as a stopping point on their journey north. I can't make out all it says because some of the words are very faint, but this seems to be a very detailed account of those times."

I shook my head, the enormity of what we had found just settling into my mind. I then said, "So here, in the middle of our quiet neighborhood, we have a house that is 160 years old and played a major part in American history."

Then something else hit me. I added, "This house may have been built with that in mind. I mean the passageway was an integral part of the house's original construction. That passageway can't be an add-on at all. The spaces in the wall would have to have been planned for."

Elise was excited and said, "Do you realize how important this house is? Have you ever heard of any place like this before?"

We all sat there digesting what we had discussed. No one seemed to want to offer an opinion. Honestly, I wasn't sure I was happy about all of this. I thought I had found a quiet place to call home, but now wasn't sure what I had. Could anyone be expected to live in a place with this much history?

Then Elise broke the reverie when she opined, "I think this is bigger than all of us. You should have a historian from the university look at this book. I'm sure it will set off quite a furor on its own. Unless I miss my guess it will end up being even more valuable than the house itself." After she said that she handed me back the book in question.

I smiled and queried, "So how do you find a historian late on a Saturday afternoon? I doubt they are listed in the yellow pages."

Elise thought a moment and said, "I'm sure Edward knows one or two. He's on the board of the club and mentioned that the president of the local university is also on the board. He should be home now anyway."

I suggested, "Why don't you use my phone and invite him over? He may have some insight as how best to approach this."

I was excited but a bit apprehensive as I attached the gas bottle to my new grill. The ledger had touched off a firestorm of interest from not only the history professors at the local university but a wide range of people in the local community. Somehow the press had gotten word and the president of the town's historical society had to be included in the mix. Elise had helped Audra and I host a get together of the more influential members of all of those groups.

Reporters were camped out on the street waiting for the local celebrities to arrive as if this were the local equivalent of the Oscars. Audra and Elise had fussed over the menu until I wondered if I was going to have to call a caterer to satisfy them both. Sipping on my beer I laughed as I thought back to the moment an argument over the menu threatened to dissolve their newly formed friendship. I still wasn't sure whether my stepping up and offering to grill steaks was a wise move. Still, they both seemed to quickly settle on a menu of steaks, baked potatoes and salad along with Elise's German chocolate cake. I thought any meal that included Elise's German chocolate cake would be more than adequate.

Audra stepped out the back door looking radiant as if all of the energy of the bright afternoon sun was being reflected from within her bright pastel summer dress. As soon as she was within hearing I said, "You look beautiful this afternoon."

She blushed slightly, as she seemed to do anytime I paid her a complement. She also seemed at a loss for words. Knowing the answer already I asked, "Is that the dress Elise helped you pick out?"

Audra sunny disposition briefly turned to a scowl as she answered, "Yes, I told her I should wear a uniform and serve tonight but she's as stubborn as you are."

I laughed; glad to have Elise as an ally. Audra scowl reversed into a sly smile when she heard my laughter. She tried to put a serious look on her face as she said, "Oh, you're no help. You're always on her side."

I laughed louder this time and said, "She's older and wiser than us both."

Audra admitted, "I never thought I would like her, but..." She let her thought trail off as she peered into the top of the old well.

I asked, "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking..."

"About?" I queried.

"Umm, do you suppose we'll ever..."

Audra then stopped as her face began to redden.

She started again and said, "Elise told me that she thought..."

As I realized that she wasn't going to continue without some encouragement I queried, "Is it animal, vegetable or mineral?"

"Huh!" She responded.

At that moment I realized teasing probably wasn't the best thing under the circumstances so I said, "Well, I know there's a thought in there somewhere and so I figured you wanted me to guess what it was."

She reddened again and said, "I know what I want to say but I can't figure out exactly how to put it into words without sounding stupid."

I asked, "We're friends, right?"

She said, "Yes, that was kinda' what I wanted to talk to you about, but now's probably not the best time."

Puzzled again I looked at my watch said, "Well, it will either have to be quick, or we'll have to wait 'til later. I hope you know you can tell me anything and I will listen."

She shyly looked at me and mumbled, "Maybe you should get dressed. It can wait."

Later that evening I was cleaning the grill after the assembly of experts had departed. I was thinking of what a bust the evening had been. The two history professors from the university had spent most of the evening huddled in deep discussion with the ledger. Occasionally they had excitedly conferred with the president of the town's historical association. The only time either of the professors had deigned to include me, Audra or any of the other guests in their conversation was during the tour of the house. I was stunned when I overheard their discussion of possibly ripping out the walls of the house to see what other documents might be found. At the end of the evening it was all I could do to pry the ledger from the hands of one of the rude professors. She seemed to have the impression that I had already donated the ledger to the university. The truth was that at that point I had already decided that, experts or not, those two particular academics were not going to be given access to the ledger or the house if I had anything to say about it.

Elise and Edward both had apologized profusely for the behavior of the scholars during the evening as if it was their fault. Elise said Edward was embarrassed as he felt he had vetted the two. Later he assured me that he would speak to the president of the university at the club during the coming week. Lenora Wells, the president of the historical society had been much more sociable. I found that Lenora was as much an expert on local history as the two professors. She might not have a PhD attached to her name but she had a sharp, inquiring mind that held an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the known history of the local area. I had invited her back to tour the house, tunnel and passageway at a later time. We'd shared a laugh as we almost simultaneously realized that suits and cocktail dresses were not made for exploring dark hidden passageways. I also let her 'borrow' the ledger long enough to make copies of the pages and consult with the town librarian as to how to best conserve the valuable document.

Audra was dejected after the evening, as she felt that had she worn a uniform and acted in the capacity of servant rather than hostess it would have elevated my status and I would have been taken more seriously by the academics. I laughed and told her that the only thing that might have elevated my status in their eyes would be the letters PhD appended to my name.

The next week I struggled to keep up with an increased number of repos. Bob surprised me by asking my company to do all of his bank's cleanouts for a fixed price. The price he suggested was 20% higher than my average bid for those projects that I won. The down side was that I would have to accept those properties that I had avoided in the past. I talked to both Hector and Jorge who assured me that they could find as many workers as I needed. I accepted the offer with the stipulation that I could renegotiate the contract at any time if it didn't work out.

Although this removed one time consuming element from my business day, it didn't alleviate the need to estimate specific job requirements and schedule the work for Hector and Jorge. It was during one of our early morning meetings on a Thursday that I asked for one of them to find a crew of reliable men to help me move some furniture at my house. Jorge acted as if he was offended as he quickly said, "Boss, all my men are reliable. How long you need them for?"

I answered, "That depends on how many men you bring. I have a 300-pound desk that needs to be moved up a flight of stairs and then four rooms of other furniture that will need to be moved up two flights of stairs into the attic. Several of those pieces are pretty damn heavy."

Hector said, "Damn boss, I thought you lived in an apartment like me. When did you buy a house?"

I explained about the house on Bell Whistle, giving as few details as I thought I could get away with. Of course neither Hector nor Jorge wanted to let me get by with so few specifics but the press of the current day's work cut our talk short. I ended up with Hector and Jorge and some of their brothers coming over to do the job personally on Saturday morning. I knew that they were curious and so I promised beer and barbeque after we finished. Knowing what they said about their families I would need to buy a lot of beer and cook a lot of barbeque.

Because of everything planned for the weekend I decided to take Audra out to dinner Friday evening. I casually mentioned that fact to Elise during one of our almost daily conversations as I walked from the garage to my front door. Elise winked at me and said, "You ought to take her some place really nice after all the grief you caused her Saturday and Sunday."

I knew about Saturday so I asked, "Sunday? What grief did I cause her on Sunday?"

Elise gave me a look of exasperation and said, "Honestly, do you men have no idea of what goes on in the minds of the women around you?"

Totally confused I said, "I guess not. We're used to facts and straight thinking. What worry did I cause her on Sunday?"

Elise shook her head and said, "You had ten people at your house for a formal dinner you planned at the last minute. Poor Audra was confused about her status during the whole of that evening. You expected her to act as hostess and she thought it was more appropriate for her to stand back and serve the meal. Frankly it scared her to death. She confided to me that she had no idea what was expected of her as the hostess. Then those two assholes from the university pointedly ignored you all evening. She still feels like that was because of her."

I was surprised. I said, "I explained to her that she had done a great job Sunday night. I know that I imposed on her but never realized she was that uncomfortable with it. I guess that explains why she's seems a bit standoffish this week."

Elise almost laughed as she rejoined, "No, that's only a part of it. I probably shouldn't say this but if I don't you will blunder along and miss all of the signs. Audra is a bit confused with all that has happened. For the first time in her life someone is treating her as an adult. She is finding out how complicated that can be. On top of that to put it bluntly, she is falling in love with you."

Elise must have seen the look of bewilderment that spread across my face because she said, "Don't look so surprised, it happens. I'm not sure that she fully realizes what's happening, she's never been in love before but she knows something is different and right now it scares her. You need to decide pretty quickly how you feel about it, and unless I miss my guess you feel the same way."

It was almost too much. If Audra felt half as confused as I did well no wonder she had tried to put some distance between us. How did I feel? Elise seemed to think she knew. I certainly had nothing in my life to base my feelings on. I don't even remember the rest of the conversation with Elise. I stumbled into the house, half in a daze.

A routine is a good thing. When you have a habitual practice you can put yourself on autopilot and let that routine carry you along. My work was like that. So much of what I did was the same that the exceptions became very obvious. Love should have been like that, you know, something that jumped out at me, an exception. Instead it snuck up on me like a thief in the night. I was thinking about what Elise had said while I changed from my dirty work clothes to a clean outfit for dinner. I must have realized that I was smitten by cupid's arrow at the moment I pulled off my work boots. I don't know why it happened then but it did. I just sat there holding that boot in my hand. I don't know how long but eventually I heard a soft knock and a voice ask, "Joe, are you alright? Dinner is getting cold."

How could I answer that? No, I wasn't alright. So I said, "I'm changing. I'll be right down."

I finished dressing on automatic. I had so many questions going through my head. No experience in life prepares you for love the first time it strikes. Oh, I had thought about it plenty but when it happened I wasn't prepared for it. Still, prepared or not doesn't change the reality. The question then becomes 'Does she really feel the same way'? Elise had told me that she did but did she really? How could I know that?

I know I wasn't a very good dinner companion; too much on my mind. Audra had done an excellent job preparing the meat loaf, mashed potatoes and green beans. It wasn't the best that I had ever tasted but it was pretty damn good. At the end of the meal, realizing that I had practically ignored Audra during my introspection, I was almost too effusive in my praise. Because of that my praise came off sounding phony, and of course Audra picked up on that.

The next thing I knew Audra was tearfully apologizing for the meal, telling me that she knew she wasn't a very good cook. From then on out it is damage control, something I am normally very, very good at. For some reason it didn't work at all. Had it been an ordinary night, I would have done just fine but it wasn't and I didn't. The last words that I heard from Audra before her bedroom door slammed shut were "If you don't like my cooking you could at least have the decency to tell me."

Still thinking about all that had happened, I went down and started cleaning up the dishes. We had eaten in the kitchen so it wasn't hard putting things in the dishwasher. My clean up had become a habit and so Audra always had all of the actual cooking dishes in the dishwasher so I wouldn't have to deal with those. As I finished I sat down at the table and called Elise. If I was going to pull this off I needed help. What are neighbors for, right?

I explained the situation and had to spend a few moments listening to Elise's 'tsk tsk' of disapproval. I could almost see the wry smile on the older lady's face as she asked, "What do you think I can do?"

I grimaced and answered, "Well, you said I need to take her out to some place nice. I figured, really I was hoping, that you had a particular place in mind."

Elise said, "So let's get this straight. You want to take her out to eat the night after you insult her cooking? The first thing you have to do is to screw your head on right and convince her that you really enjoyed that meatloaf. That was my recipe and she worked all afternoon preparing it. Then after you straighten that out you can take her out to make up for the misunderstanding along with everything else."

Elise insisted that I take Audra to the country club and said that she would make all the arrangements. I could go as her guest. She told me that she would make reservations for seven sharp the following evening.

After I hung up I sat in the kitchen chair wondering how I was going to make up with Audra when she had locked herself in her bedroom. I was trying to think of something when the kitchen door opened and Audra walked into the kitchen. I didn't know what to say as it was obvious that she had been crying. She looked around the kitchen and seeing the dishes cleared silently turned to leave. Then just as abruptly she turned on her heel and said, "Thank you for cleaning up. You didn't have to do that. I'm sorry you didn't like your dinner."

I started moving towards her as soon as she started apologizing for the meal. I stood, put my hands on her shoulders and said, "Audra, I thought that your meatloaf was very good. It may have sounded phony the way I said it before but ... well, I had a lot on my mind during the meal and went overboard because I felt bad about ignoring you during the meal. That's the honest truth."

Audra stared straight ahead and said, "Joe you don't have to lie about it. Not everyone likes meatloaf. I can tell that you didn't like it. I told you that I wasn't a very good cook when you hired me."

I was exasperated. All of a sudden the whole situation struck me as funny and I started laughing. Once I started I couldn't stop. Audra looked up at me as if I was crazy and for some reason that made me laugh even harder. As the laughter overtook me I wrapped Audra in my arms and pulled her close to me. She stiffened for just a moment and that brought me back to reality and ended my laughter. I said, "I'm sorry you don't believe me but I really liked your meatloaf, honestly I did."

Slowly Audra put her arms around me and pressed her cheek to my chest. She quietly murmurred, "I've wanted to be in your arms like this again ever since that first time."



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Chapter 8

The smell of Audra's hair as I held her in my arms stayed with me for the remainder of that evening and colored my dreams far into the night - when I was finally able to get to sleep. Getting my mind to slow down so I could drift off to sleep was difficult knowing that she was lying there all alone with only two doors and 20 feet separating us. With my feelings towards her firmly settled, at least in my own mind, I could have and probably should have pushed things to the next level but for some reason I held back. I had good reason to believe that she felt the same way but I told myself that it was unfair of me to take advantage of her while her own feelings were so unsettled. Okay, I admit I am a coward, not wanting to face the possibility that she might not return my affections.

I awoke the next morning with all of those thoughts pushed to the back of my groggy and lethargic mind. From the golden hued evidence filtering in through my bedroom curtains my mind concluded that it was a beautiful, sunny day. Because of my lack of sleep I half stumbled down to the kitchen to find Audra humming as she worked at the large stove while Mr. Whiskers was making short work of a saucer of milk in the corner. My first thought was to reach out and hold her again but for some reason I held back. I settled on watching her dainty figure as she moved deftly from pan to pan as if in some type of a dance. So enraptured was I with her movements that I failed to hear her the first time she spoke to me.

She finally turned around and laughingly repeated, "What are you staring at, sir?"

I blushed, knowing that I was properly caught. Bravely I answered, "I was thinking that you looked especially lovely and sounded particularly bright and cheerful this morning."

Audra surprised me with a wink and said, "And why not? It's an absolutely dazzling day outside. I almost walked down to Dennon's myself and bought some donuts for us."

As I remembered the donuts from the previous week I asked, "What changed your mind?"

Audra's smile as she answered started my heart to racing. "I thought that you deserved to have a home cooked breakfast for a change. Every morning you get up before I do and rush out to work and I thought that for once I would get up early and show you that I can cook at least one meal well."

She laughed again as I started to protest and as I sputtered she said, "Gotcha!"

Her positive and confident banter brightened me. She seemed to be a completely different person from the shy and timid girl I had first met. My lethargy melted away as I found myself caught up in her bubbly manner. Thinking about this again brought me around to the inescapable conclusion that I loved this young woman. That thought brightened my heart and suddenly I felt as cheerful and as ready to face the day as Audra obviously did.

It occurred to me that maybe this was how two people in love were supposed to relate to each other. A failed attempt at love in my somewhat checkered past had shown me that the opposite was definitely true. Two people struggling to repair a relationship gone sour can end up living in perpetual misery until they face the facts that things will not work.

Still we finished breakfast without any formal declarations of our love. My heart was beating audibly in my chest by the time the meal ended. Every lapse in conversation seemed lengthened by my failure in pledging my love. There were many pregnant pauses during which I was trying to summon forth the courage to declare my feelings. All of my confusion and lack of response ended up wearing on us both so much that by the end of the meal neither of us was quite as bright and chipper as we had been at the start.

An uncomfortable nervous silence had settled over us by the time we rose to carry our dishes to the sink and I panicked as I realized that Audra might be interpreting my inaction as rejection. Firming up my courage I put my cup and plate in the sink and turned and took Audra's arms and pulled her to me. When my arms were wrapped around her and I felt the points of her small breasts meld into my stomach I let out my breath and ventured, "Audra, I have something I need to tell you."

Audra wrapped her own arms around me and settled into my hug as if she was a part of me. I knew at that moment that she was forever meant to be in my arms. That realization was so disconcerting that I blanked out for a moment. Finally I felt Audra sigh as she nervously asked, "What was it that you wanted to tell me?"

Her comfort was such that I felt I could freely express what was in my heart. There in the warm snug comfort of her hug I began to try to put the depth of my feelings for her into words. "Audra, I uh, well it's like this. You know how long I took getting changed before dinner last night. Well, that was your fault. I mean, I was thinking about you and how I felt about you. And, uh, you know how I was in a cloud during dinner last night. Well, that was also your fault. I was thinking about us. The meatloaf was fine but if the truth was known, I hardly tasted it. Then when I realized my ignoring you had hurt you, I felt like I was going to die. I couldn't sleep last night thinking about you and wondering how you felt."

She just hugged me tighter and tighter during my rambling explanation. At the point I started to repeat myself for the third time she interrupted and simply said, "Joe, I love you too."

Of course after she said that I couldn't think of anything else to say so I wisely kept my mouth shut. The silence was only interrupted by the sound of our hearts seemingly beating in counterpoint. We stood together in blissful union for some indeterminate period of time until our thoughts were interrupted by the discordant sound of the doorbell that I still needed to replace.

I opened the front door to find a porch teeming with Jorge and Hector and what seemed to be each and every one of their relatives. I realized at the moment that I opened the door that I had not said a word to Audra about my plans for the day. She shot me a dirty look as she stepped past me to greet each visitor and make them welcome them into our house. After a brief explanation she separated the women from us men and excorted them into the kitchen.

I started by giving the men a brief tour of the house describing what needed to be done. At that point Hector took charge of moving the items from the den and Jorge took a crew of men to begin transporting furniture from the servant's quarters. I did the only smart thing and got out of their way figuring to head to the store to buy the ingredients for the cookout I had planned for the afternoon.

Before heading out I peered into the kitchen to see how Audra was getting along with the group of Latino women. I was surprised to find my Audra sitting at the kitchen table prattling off something to Hector's wife Camilla in what sounded like fluent Spanish. Camilla and each of the other women in the room seemed to be hanging on her every word. One by one they turned to look at me as Audra chattered on seemingly oblivious to my presence. All of a sudden without missing a word, Audra looked up to see why everyone had grown silent. As soon as she looked up and caught my eye she stopped speaking and blossomed into the deepest wine red blush I had ever seen. Of course that started every woman in the room tittering which caused my poor Audra's blush to deepen even further.

In the middle of all this I explained that I was headed to the store for meat and beer for the afternoon cookout and asked if Audra could think of anything else that we needed. She shook her head no and said we still had a lot left over from last weekend's dinner party. As I moved out of the kitchen from the door I could hear the gossip begin again. I smiled to myself thinking that this gathering was going to be more to my liking.

I was still smiling about what was being said in the kitchen as I walked out onto the porch. It only took a glance from the porch to realize that I had to get Hector to move his pickup so that I could get out of the narrow driveway.

From the look of the effort in the den Hector seemed to be making short shift of the moving. I knew I needed to hurry in order to have the meat ready in time for the cookout. Hector accompanied me to the store, as his crew was almost finished. The trip to the store was uneventful and we soon had the truck loaded to the gills with steaks and beer. I knew I was going to enjoy this cookout much better than the last one.

In the afternoon after the meal I ended up giving Hector, Jorge and their brothers' tours of both the secret passageway and the connecting tunnel.

As we wound our way through the secret passageway Hector seemed surprised that the mechanism that operated the doors was as varied and complex as it was. By this time we had both had several beers and I was fumbling to remember how to activate one of the middle doors of the passageway. Hector laughed and said, "Hey Joe, this is almost like one of the computer games my son is always playing."

I was sweating at that point and didn't even think about what he had said. I answered, "This is way too old for that. This was built well over a hundred and fifty years ago."

Hector looking for the opening mechanism himself said, "What, you think people back then was stupid or son'thing? They found a computer in the ocean that the Greeks used to predict the date of the Olympics. They said it was 2000 years old."

I laughed and said, "I don't think this house is quite that old."

I was sorry for my laugh as soon as it was out of my mouth. Hector gave me a disapproving look and said, "I see. You don't think that I know what I'm talking about, huh. You think 'cause I work with my hands I don't read? A man that worked with his hands built all of this. He was pretty damn smart. He's probably laughing at us trying to figure it out right now."

When we finally found the forgotten mechanism and worked our way to the end of the passageway Hector pointed to the obviously unexplored branch of the tunnel still shrouded with spider webs and asked, "Where does that one go?"

I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I haven't had time to check that one out yet."

Hector looked at me in surprise. He said, "How about we do that now, boss?"

I laughed and said, "I don't think that's a good idea. We barely found our way out of a passageway that I had already worked through before. I want to be completely sober before I go exploring that tunnel."

Hector was disappointed and gave me a look that seemed to question my machismo but in the end ended up agreeing with my reasoning. I invited him and Camilla back the next afternoon and promised him that I would wait until then to explore the tunnel.

As soon as everyone had left Audra lit into me. "You can't just invite a dozen people over for a cookout and not tell me about it. The kitchen was a mess and I was so embarrassed."

I apologized and then said, "I don't speak that much Spanish but it didn't sound like you were talking about the messy kitchen with Camilla and the other ladies."

Audra blushed and answered, "It doesn't matter what I was talking about. I was still embarrassed. Promise me you'll let me know next time when you bring your friends over."

Although I hadn't thought of it as me 'bringing my friends over' I agreed to let her know about future visitors. Then I winked at Audra and asked, "Let's see, where were we when we were interrupted by the door buzzer this morning?"

In a voice so husky that it surprised me, Audra answered, "I was in your arms about to be kissed, I hope." She blushed after that bold statement.

I was so surprised by her statement that I laughed as I swept her into my arms and carried her giggling into the den where I plopped down on the leather couch. As soon as we were seated on that stiff formal piece of furniture I claimed my kiss or rather my kiss claimed me.

Writers have waxed poetic about first kisses. I have to admit that up until that point in my life I had wondered what all the fuss was about. In my mind a kiss was merely a prelude, a necessary preparation for that ultimate connection between man and woman. I was rather proud of my osculatory abilities but it was never a goal, only an interim step in a process that led to sexual union. That may sound cold and sterile and that sterility may have been at least a symptom of my inability to forge a lasting relationship with someone of the opposite sex

For that reason my first kiss with Audra confused me on more than one level. My mind blanked as I lost myself in that kiss. I found that I wasn't thinking past that kiss to what was to follow. I found all of Audra's heart and soul in that kiss and as it lengthened found that I was able to leave my mind and thoughts behind.

Had 'the kiss' occurred prior to Hector and Jorge's arrival I might never have heard the doorbell ring at all. I think that time ceased to exist during our connection on that couch. I didn't think about it at the time but I now realize that no sexual relationship will ever be as intimate as that, our first kiss.

In the first moments of 'the kiss' we surrendered our lives to each other, pledging our hearts and souls for eternity. In the early morning as I walked into the kitchen I'd still had a question as to whether Audra would return my love. That question was quickly and quietly answered by her as she said, 'I love you' but sometime during 'the kiss' she became the love of my life. I arose from that 'the kiss' an utterly married man, solely devoted to one very special woman.

That's not to say that I arose right away. Kissing Audra wasn't something that was a single event, done quickly and then left behind. Human beings aren't ever likely to admit perfection but rather are always seeking to better what has happened before. Audra and I spent quite a bit of time into the late evening trying to best the excellence of our first experience. Sometime during that interval various items of clothing were discarded as we attempted to connect even more closely. There was no embarrassment or body shyness between us. There was no discussion of 'limits' or whether we were ready for any next step because during 'the kiss' we had already pledged our love and futures.

Had the couch not been made of stiff leather we might have remained there. As it was, even though we were totally cocooned in our love and the splendor of our discovery we eventually surrendered to the practical need for a softer place to consummate our devotion. Our bodily fluids may have ruined the staid antique couch as a piece of furniture but that was something we would deal with tomorrow. Tomorrow the world could end but tonight was for us and our love.

Fortunately there was no Joe Jr. conceived during this night of passion. This was only because of luck and the timing of Audra's monthly cycle. We gave no thought to birth control, those thoughts came later. Only later did we discuss children and decide to wait. Had Joe Jr. been conceived that night or at any of the times in the early morning, he would certainly been conceived in love.

The next morning we were awakened by the sun streaming in through the drapes that I had again forgotten to close. I struggled to my feet to first remove some of the previous day's beer from my system and then to close the drapes. As soon as I had my feet on the floor Audra pleaded for me to close the drapes and come back to bed. I was quick to oblige.

Our next awakening was to the incessant buzzing of the doorbell below. Audra actually awakened to the sound of the doorbell and then moments later bravely began rescuing me from the jaws of slumber. I say bravely because I fought her tooth and nail. Later she asked me how I ever managed to get up on my own all the many years before we met. My answer, that gave her occasion to sport one of her more notable blushes, was that I had never had such an evening of exuberant love making before meeting her.

Audra made me answer the door in a t-shirt and pair of shorts while she dressed. I shouldn't have been surprised to see Hector and Camilla decked out in their finest clothes standing on my porch as I had invited them both back. I was just surprised that it was already after church. You see, the only church I had ever attended was the Rockport Holiness Church during my youth. Services at the Rockport Holiness Church had no actual ending time. Services ended either whenever Pastor Bob ran out of inspiration or whenever the last snake was rounded up. No one was ever in a hurry to go home as none of the shows on television were ever quite as interesting as Pastor Bob waving an angry rattlesnake while preaching redemption of our sins.

I ushered an apologetic Hector and Camilla into the formal living room, as I didn't imagine the odor in the den was appropriate for someone returning from church. As soon as I had them ensconced in a pair of matching Louis 14th chairs I excused myself so that I could finish dressing. Audra passed me on the couch looking radiant and I stopped to steal a kiss in passing. She headed for the living room while I headed for the bathroom.

I showered, dressed and returned to an empty living room in record time. I think Audra had found a true friend in Camilla because when I entered the kitchen they were chatting like sorority sisters at a slumber party. Of course the Spanish they were rattling off to each other made them seem more like barrio sisters. Hector stood as I entered and shook my hand as I approached the table saying, "Congratulations, mi amigo."

All I could think of to say was, "Thank you my friend."

I was a bit embarrassed as I had obviously been the topic of conversation until I entered the room. They could have continued talking about me in Spanish as my knowledge of that language was limited to a few key phrases that I used around the workplace to keep things moving. I could see that I might need some language lessons if this friendship deepened.

Camilla said something to Audra in Spanish and Audra blushed and then got up from the table and set a cup of coffee in front of me. I thanked her and then turned and thanked Camilla as well. I asked Hector if he had eaten and he admitted that he had come straight from church. I grinned at him and said, "First things first, then; how about some steak and eggs for brunch?"

Hector shrugged and said, "Don't go to any trouble for us. A sandwich will do just fine."

Camilla nodded her agreement. Audra jumped up and started for the stove. I beat her there and asked her to get the left over steaks and a carton of eggs from the refrigerator as I pulled a large cast iron frying pan from under the counter. We had a half dozen steaks left over after the cookout yesterday even with the hearty appetites of all of Hector and Jorge's relatives.

Soon, amid Camilla's complaints to Audra, I was scrambling eggs, cooking frozen biscuits and reheating steaks. Evidently Camilla was old fashioned and believed that the kitchen was strictly a woman's domain. I had been a bachelor too long and might have starved or gone broke eating out had I subscribed to that belief. I carefully explained all of that to my new friends. I also told them that Audra was an excellent cook who deserved a break once in a while.

The meal was not haute cuisine but it was filling. During the meal we talked about what we would need to explore the older section of the tunnel. Hector seemed to have some experience spelunking, although he said it was long ago. He said the two tips he remembered was to dress warm and have backup light sources. I had several flashlights and Hector had an extra in his car.

Both Camilla and Audra wanted to go with us, which surprised me, especially Audra with her fear of spiders. Hector and Camilla had both brought old jeans and t-shirts with them. While Hector and Camilla changed clothes I went out to the garage where I found an old rake handle that I could use to sweep away the cobwebs from the entrance to the tunnel. I also brought my Maglight and compass from the truck. After they finished changing we rounded up enough additional flashlights so that each of us had one and headed down into the basement to begin our quest.

Hector stepped on one brown spider that scurried across the floor after being knocked from its web. Audra shivered at the sight of the spider. She was cautious going through the opening into the new tunnel from the small room even after I had carefully swept aside every spider web and inspected the area for other spiders. Camilla held back from the entrance until the area was clear and I suspected that she was almost as fearful of arachnids as Audra. The passageway was surprisingly clear after we passed through the cleared opening.

The passageway seemed straight and level for what must have been fifty or sixty feet. The tunnel was the same masonry construction as the main section of the tunnel that went from the house to the bottom of the well. The only discernable difference was the presence of rusted iron rings spaced along the wall every twenty feet or so. The rings were at eye level and did not obstruct the passageway. We stopped to examine the first ring and Hector pointed out the soot above the ring and explained, "I think there was a torch or lamp hung here."

I could see that it was perfectly positioned to hold a burning torch or lamp. We didn't stop for long but continued pushing forward. Audra followed closely behind me with Camilla following her and Hector bringing up the rear. I kept feeling Audra's fingers slip into my back belt loop as if she was attempting to maintain even closer contact. We were all nervously looking around at the walls and ceiling as we traveled.

In some areas small pieces of a plaster-like material had fallen from the ceiling or wall but for the most part the tunnel was in excellent condition considering its age. Hector stopped us to examine the walls at one place where a larger chunk of plaster had fallen away. Hector said, "Look at this. This wall is smooth and wet. I bet that's why the plaster fell off."

I ran my hand over the wet rock and said, "It feels like the wall of a cavern that I was in when I visited Kentucky as a boy."

Hector pulled a strip of loose plaster off of the wall. It was apparent that this part of the wall, next to where the plaster had already fallen off, was a man-made addition. Even in the dim light we could see the mortar between the large stones. After a few moments we continued down the tunnel in silence.

About fifty or sixty feet from our entry point we came to another small room similar to the room where the tunnel branched. This room had a slightly higher ceiling and we could see a roughly eighteen inch circular hole in the center of that ceiling. There was an occasional drip of water from the ceiling to a damp area in the middle of the floor. While we all had our flashlights pointed at the hole I said, "What do you think? Maybe it's a vent of some kind."

No one said anything until Hector said, "Everyone turn off your flashlights for a moment."

We cut out off our flashlights and the space was eerily and completely dark. When we cut our lights back on Hector commented, "I thought we might be able to see some light from outside. We can't be more than seven or eight feet underground."

I didn't say anything but knew that the hill that we lived on was higher in this direction. I figured that the original owner must have built the house behind the small hill to protect it from the fierce winds that would occasionally blow in from the sea.

The tunnel changed direction as we left the room through the only other exit. Hector and Audra turned off their flashlights as we moved forward in case we needed them later. There was also a noticeable downward slope to the tunnel floor from that point on. Every twenty or so feet we would come across another iron torch ring in one of the walls. None of them held any torch remnants. We had passed three of those rings when we came to another small room. This one was larger than the other two rooms.

Three walls of this room had three smoothly plastered walls, as if they had been hollowed from the rock itself. The fourth wall was a crumbling rough rock wall that had at one time been plastered over. The plaster and about a third of the center of the wall itself lay crumbled on the floor, having long ago fallen away. I noticed that the circular vent opening in the ceiling had been directly above the section of the wall that had fallen apart. Stepping back and looking at the room it looked as if the crumbling wall was a later addition. Before I could say anything Hector climbed up onto the pile of rubble at the bottom of the wall and managed to pull himself up onto the wall itself. As soon as he shown his light over the wall he exclaimed, "Ah! Look at this!"

Of course I couldn't see anything from where I was but I noticed that the wall itself seemed to be cracking as if Hector's weight was too much after the water and neglect of the many years. I hollered, "Hector, get down now."

Hector could feel the center of the wall start to crumble as I shouted and managed to jump clear just as parts of it began to fall. Luckily no one was hurt from the small avalanche of rocks and loose mortar. After the dust had cleared we could see what had caused Hector's exclamation. Inside of the opening was the other half of the original room. Within this hidden portion was another wall constructed of heavy, rough wooden timbers. There was an oversize wooden door set into the center of that wall that was locked with a large rusted iron padlock. After we all warily crawled through the opening, watching for further falling bricks, we tried without success to open the large lock.

There was a lively debate at that point. Audra wanted us to go back up and get tools to open the lock on the door. I thought we ought to finish exploring the tunnel and come back and open the door later. Camilla and Hector shrugged as if it didn't really matter to them which way we proceeded. Finally I flipped a coin and we headed off into the tunnel again.

The floor of the tunnel was becoming a bit slippery and the tunnel continued to slope downward. I noticed as we left the room that the tunnel also started bending gradually to the right and was not as regular and straight as it had been earlier. After we passed two more rings in the wall the tunnel disappeared as we emerged into a large underground limestone cavern.

Camilla summed up all of our feelings when she exclaimed, "Ay Caramba! This is huge!"

Our lights seemed to only be small points in the chamber that was easily thirty or forty times larger than the house itself. The floor of the room was littered with debris, some of which were evidently rock fragments remaining from the construction of the tunnel. Lying around the cavern at irregular intervals were outcroppings of even larger boulders interspersed with stalactites and stalagmites.

One section of the floor seemed to have been smoothed over and it became our pathway. Our mood became almost reverent as we followed this pathway across the stone grotto towards the opposite wall. Hector voiced what we were all thinking when he said, "I don't know what I expected but this is wilder than anything I could have imagined."

As we approached the far side of the cavern I could dimly see the tunnel entrance in the far wall. Scattered around the cavern floor near the tunnel opening was what appeared to be a large amount of rough wooden planking similar to that of the wall in the room above. Hector examined some of the planks closely and said, "These seem to have been blown apart, look at the splintered edges."

I said, "Are you sure."

Hector gave me a hurt look and answered, "I used to work for a demolition company. I cleaned up stuff like this all day long. There was an explosion here."

We stirred around among the debris but found nothing of value but an old rusty and corroded flashlight. This certainly didn't come from hundreds of years ago. It was obviously a cheap flashlight. The only other things we found were some ancient barrel stays and nails and a few twisted, rusted antique door hinges. There was some evidence of blast damage in the tunnel but it was passable. I could see where posts had been set into the floor at the tunnel entrance. Moving through the new tunnel we immediately noticed that the floor of the tunnel sloped downward at an angle of about 15 degrees. Again we began to pass torch holders. Almost as soon as we passed the second torch holder we noticed the water.

It was apparent that the tunnel continued but that it gradually became completely filled with water. Camilla bent down and tasted the clear water and said, "Salty."

After that everyone had to taste the water to verify Camilla's observation. The water was indeed brackish, clear and cold; too cold to enter without some type of wet suit. This exploration would have to continue after we were better equipped.



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Chapter 9: Proposal


By the time we made it back to the house it was six o'clock. It was hard to believe we had spent over six hours exploring the tunnel without finding its origin. Hector seemed sure that the tunnel ended somewhere in the bay. Hector and Camilla agreed that they would say nothing to anyone about our discovery and remained with us for a hastily thrown together supper. Hector and I both expected a busy week as banks repossessed even more houses. Both Hector and I had to stay on the job so others wouldn't be put out of work, many of whom were related to Hector. We all agreed to wait until next Saturday morning to explore the locked room. Our second goal was to accurately measure and map the tunnel to try to determine where it entered the bay.

No sooner had Hector and Camilla driven off than the doorbell rang again. My first thought was that perhaps Hector had forgotten something. I was surprised when I opened the door to find Elise smiling at me. I invited her in and as I led her into the living room she asked, "Been busy?"

Before I could answer Audra met us coming from the kitchen, where she had been loading the dishwasher, and warmly greeted our neighbor. I finally answered, "A bit. We have been moving stuff around and exploring a bit."

Elise said, "Ah, I wondered why nobody answered the door all afternoon."

I answered, "You could have called my cell. I had it with me all afternoon."

Elise frowned and said, "I could have, I suppose, but I didn't think of it."

Trying to make small talk I asked, "How have you and Edward been?"

Elise answered, "Same as always."

When I gave her a look that conveyed some confusion she smiled and added, "Bored as hell. I'm more curious than ever about this house and wondered what else you had discovered. Edward is still embarrassed about those two snobs he brought out last weekend. He told me that we'll be lucky if you even speak to us after that."

I laughed. "Tell Edward I don't hold last weekend against him. He tried and he's definitely not responsible that the dean sent over a couple of elitist academics."

I was somewhat troubled that the number of people that knew about at least some of the secrets of the house was growing. I had asked Lenora Wells, the president of the town's historical society, back to see the passageways and tunnels some time in the near future but didn't want her present for the opening of the locked room. I had no idea what was in that room and certainly didn't want someone from the outside to share in that discovery. Elise was another matter and for some reason I felt she could be trusted. I was surprised that I felt that way given my initial impression that she was a curious busybody. I caught Audra's eyes with a questioning glance. Her nod and smile led me to believe that she agreed with what I was going to say next.

Elise noticed the silent interchange and adroitly remarked, "Things certainly seem to have changed between you two."

Audra surprised me when she spoke up. She glowed as she answered, "They certainly have. I need to thank you for your part in that."

Elise said, "It was only a matter of time."

I quickly said, "Yes, but you certainly sped things up and for that we're grateful. Not to change the subject but how well do you know Lenora Wells?"

Elise answered, "I only know her by reputation. She has been president of the historical society for several years. She seems to have a genuine interest in local history even though her family is not from this area. She serves on the board at the club and so we have chatted several times at the annual board dinner. Beyond that I don't know much about her. Oh yes, she's divorced, although I must say she's not the type that makes married women nervous."

I laughed at her assessment. Audra looked at Elise and asked, "How about girl friends?"

Elise said, "I haven't seen her show any interest in any men at the club. I probably shouldn't say this but from what I've heard she might be more apt to try to steal you away from Joe." Elise then almost fell off the couch laughing when she saw the shocked look on Audra's face.

Elise was still chuckling when she said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh but the look on your face, it was priceless."

I cleared my throat and said, "Well, hopefully we don't have to worry about that, although..."

Audra punched my and asked, "Although what?"

"I was just going to say that you are irresistible."

Audra smiled and blushed lightly.

I turned to Elise and asked, "What are you and Edward doing next Saturday?"

Elise answered, "Nothing that we can't get out of, why?"

I went on to explain to Elise about our exploration of the tunnel today and in a few words told her what we had found. She was curious but refrained from asking questions even though I could see that she wanted to. In the end I invited her and Edward over to see the tunnel and to be present along with Hector and Camilla when the room was opened the following Saturday. I explained that in the interim I planned to use my compass and tape measure to map out the tunnels and passageways. I hoped that by laying the route of the tunnel over a topographic map of the area I would have a clearer idea of where it really ended up.

After work, during that next week, Hector and I spent the evenings measuring and laying out the contours of all of the passageways and tunnels on graph paper. We made many mistakes but by the end of the week we thought we had an accurate depiction of the entire system. I found a topographic map of the area on topozone.com on the internet. Along with the topographic maps I also found detailed aerial maps. As suspected the dry end of the tunnel was at the edge of the bay. I didn't know how far into the bay the tunnel extended nor why the entrance was under water. After reading as much as I could find on the history of the area I thought that it was likely that the shoreline of the bay had shifted some from when the tunnel was constructed. To prove this I was going to need some early maps of the area and these were not available online.

Life with Audra during the week settled into something of a routine. Audra was evidently comfortable enough with our relationship that the bed in her own bedroom remained untouched during the week. Like many new lovers we occasionally showered together and her toothbrush and toiletries competed for counter space with mine in the master bath. Our lives seemed to have merged although she held off moving her clothes into my dresser and closet. I was somewhat ambivalent in my own feelings about our relationship. For the most part I was confident enough to allow things to move forward at their own pace but I had occasional bouts of insecurity when I wondered how someone so wonderful could be attracted to me. My only answer was that somehow she was.

Work on the other hand was more of the same. Although I no longer needed to bid many of the projects I still had to expend almost the same effort planning and setting up each job site. There was no way that I could standardize things without either having too many unnecessary expenses on one job site or not having enough resources on another. The jobs that I had one time managed to avoid with my deliberate overbids ended up taking much longer than the others. It was enough additional work that I ended up adding Jorge's cousin, Manuel, as a third sub-contractor.

Having three subs meant that there were always more jobs going on at any one time. Not knowing Manuel that well also meant that I spent more time checking his jobs. It all added up to me arriving home much later on some evenings than I was used to. Audra was very understanding after I explained why. She patiently held up the final preparations of supper until she heard the sound of my truck pull into the driveway. This meant that her days were longer and with the house empty most of the time she had a lot of free time, free time she spent either on the phone with Camilla or next door with Elise.

The bright side of all of this was that the money continued to flow in. The bank was never slow with the checks and the checks were always good. Of course since some whole subdivisions had almost been completely repossessed by the banks, I couldn't look for this to continue forever. I felt empathy for those who had lost their jobs and homes, especially since many had to leave the area. The only bright side was that I was employing 23 men that would have been out of work otherwise.

The bank was actively trying to sell off the houses that were being foreclosed but at the moment there were no buyers. Vandalism and burglaries at the repossessed houses meant that the bank also had to hire security guards to patrol the neighborhoods. Lately I was also being asked to look at reworking some of the vandalized homes.

The week slowly wound down, even though Friday was one of those hectic days. Friday was not the most productive day of the week. Even with Hector, Jorge, and Manuel's constant urging, men, especially the young bucks, seemed to spend more time on Friday anticipating their paycheck and talking about weekend plans than working. All of that added to me arriving home sometime south of seven Friday evening. I had called Audra early in the day and explained the likelihood I would be late. I told her not to cook; I would take her out so we could celebrate the end of our first week together.

Audra could see how exhausted I was from my day and insisted that we stay in and order take-out. Dragon Express was a small Vietnamese / Chinese restaurant halfway across town that made the best General Tso's Chicken I had ever eaten. Mrs. Li, the owner, was a Vietnamese expatriate of Chinese descent who was the hardest working woman I had ever met. She ran the small restaurant with the help of her daughter Kelli and an occasional part-time waitress. Mrs. Li was always teasing me, trying to get me to order something different but, I loved that chicken and why mess with success? Audra said she had loved Chinese cuisine the few times she had sampled it. She also told me she enjoyed hot and spicy dishes but also loved sesame chicken and so I ordered a double portion of the General Tso's Chicken, a single order of sesame chicken, several Shanghai eggrolls and two orders of Wonton soup.

I showered while Audra sat on the lowered seat of the toilet and regaled me with the short version of her day's activities as we waited for the food to arrive. After exactly two sentences she became quiet again. After a moment she got up and walked over closer to the glass shower door and almost whispered, "Joe, don't take this wrong, okay? Honey, I don't think I can be your housekeeper any longer. I'm so bored sitting here all day long with nothing to do. You hired a lawn service for the outside so I can't do the yard work. The house is spotless; any more cleaning will ruin the finish on the furniture. I can't sit around and just watch television all day long, even though there are some educational programs I enjoy. I'm not sure what I want to do with my life but this isn't it."

I momentarily panicked but then understood she was right. I would be bored with her job. As I thought about what I could do she continued, "It's not that I'm not grateful for the job, it's just that I feel bad taking your money for so little work. There's one other thing..."

My heart was beating in my ears so loudly that it almost drowned out the sound of the water from the shower as her words brought me closer to the unthinkable reality that I could lose her. Trying to fight back the desperation I felt I asked, "What's that honey?"

Audra pressed her cheek against the glass as she said, "Please don't misunderstand me Joe. I love you but I can't take a paycheck from someone I'm sleeping with. I need to pull my own weight in our relationship. If I can't do that then I can't feel good about myself."

I opened the shower door and reached for the towel outside. I gave Audra a weak smile even though my insides were churning. My mind was trying to grasp at what she wasn't telling me and I searched her eyes for further meaning. Finally, as I continued to towel myself off, I responded, "Audra, I can understand how you feel. The past week has been awkward for me as well. I don't think of you as an employee but more as my life partner. I want to make that arrangement permanent. I had hoped to do this at a fancy restaurant on bended knee, but here naked in the bathroom will do just as well. Audra, I know we have only known each other a very short time but I know what my heart is telling me. Will you marry me?"

Audra put her arms around me and pressed her cheek to my chest. She pulled back, looked up at me and said, "Joe, you don't have to marry me. I'm not trying to push you into anything like that. I love you and I appreciate what you are trying to do for me but ... well ... you need to marry someone closer to your social standing."

At that moment despite everything that was happening I started laughing. At first Audra was surprised to hear my laugh but quickly her surprise turned to anger. I realized almost too late that she thought I was laughing at her. Still, it was so ridiculous that I had to laugh. Gradually I began to realize that timing was everything and my timing sucked.

I pulled Audra to me, trapping her with my arms as she fought to get free. Naked and still wet I pulled her onto my lap as I sat back on top of the closed commode. As I caught my breath I said, "I'm not laughing at you. Calm down."

Audra was still squirming when I heard the doorbell buzz. Audra renewed her efforts to escape from my grasp. Thinking someone had to answer the door I reluctantly let her go. As soon as I released her she headed down the stairs. I hurriedly dressed in the shorts and t-shirt I had brought into the bathroom and headed down the stairs. Audra was sitting on the couch deep in conversation with Kelli when I arrived.

Kelli looked up at me with fire in her eyes. Up to that point I had always thought Kelli to be somewhat submissive. She always called me Mister Joe when I ate in the restaurant and treated me with deference and respect that I noticed was different than the way she treated the other customers. When I lived in my apartment I would eat at the restaurant as many as two or three nights a week, partly for the food, but partly because of the connection that I felt to the diminutive Asian-American.

Kelli looked at me with exasperation as she hugged Audra. "You laughed at her? Why you do that? You crazy Joe?"

No 'Mister Joe' just 'Joe' this time. Both women looked at me expectantly. I wasn't about to laugh again at the absurdity of the situation. No use firing up the two women any more than they already were.

Looking at them both I said, "Hello, Kelli. How much do I owe you?"

Kelli jumped up and said, "You no owe me money. You answer my question, Joe. Why you treat her with no respect? That not like you Joe."

I answered, "You don't understand."

Kelli quickly answered, "You explain Joe."

Looking at Kelli, I started to explain, "Well, it's like this."

Kelli quickly said, "You explain it to her, Joe."

Ignoring Kelli, as I should have in the first place, I dropped to my knee in front of Audra. Looking into her eyes I said, "Like I said upstairs, I wasn't laughing at you. I was laughing at the ridiculousness assumption you made."

Pivoting on my knee I looked at Kelli and asked, "Did she tell you what she said to me?"

Turning back to Audra I said, "Tell her what you said."

Audra looked puzzled and flustered. After a moment she answered, "All I said was that you didn't have to marry me."

Kelli gave me a look of pure fire as she said, "And you laughed at her, Joe?"

I shook my head. "That's not all you said. Tell her the reason I shouldn't marry you."

Audra looked even more mystified as she proclaimed, "All I said was that you should marry someone nearer to your own social standing; and you should."

Now here I have to explain that Kelli knew me back when I had been a struggling renovation contractor. Sometimes at the end of a long workday I would almost be embarrassed to show my face in her mother's restaurant. Sometimes I would be a white apparition, covered in sheetrock dust. Other times I would be caked with mud and saw dust. What I didn't know was that the 'Mister Joe' that I took for a sign of her submissiveness was really a teasing nickname brought on because of that appearance.

This time it was Kelli who burst into laughter. She turned to me and said, "Joe, you good guy. You just not smart about women."

Turning to Audra, Kelli said, "Joe no big shot, he just good guy." At that point she began to regale Audra with stories of me coming into her mom's restaurant looking like an escapee from a disaster movie. As I listened to her I was almost embarrassed realizing that I had done all of those things.

After Kelli left, still refusing to take money for the meal she had delivered, we ate almost silently in the kitchen. Audra did enjoy the General Tso's Chicken, agreeing with me that it was the best that she had ever tasted. She also, somewhere between bites of a cold Shanghai eggroll, agreed to become my wife. Cold or not it was the best meal I ever sat down to.



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Chapter 10: The Treasure Room


As day broke the next morning thoughts of the exploration were the furthest thing from my mind. Our evening had extended into the early morning as we planned our future together. Agreeing to be married and agreeing on the circumstances of that marriage is not necessarily the same thing.

Audra was adamant that her parents were not to be invited to our wedding. She had no other relatives that she knew of, as her mother and father had run away and married at an early age. As soon as Audra told me that she suddenly became introspective and then with some trepidation said, "Joe, I've never told you this but ... well, I'm not like you expect."

I was puzzled and, seeing the possibility of another road block popping up, a little irritated. I waited and when she didn't say anything I said, "You're right, every time I think I know you, you surprise me. That's a good thing, right? Every one of the things I've found has given me another reason to love you."

Audra hesitated and then said, "This one won't. It doesn't make a lot of difference to me now, but it did to a lot of people while I grew up. It may make a lot of difference to some of your relatives and friends."

I was curious and totally puzzled as to what she meant. I had to clear up one thing for her so I said, "Unless you're a mass murderer I can't think of a single thing that could change my opinion of you. You know most of my friends and they all love you. I'm not close to what's left of my family and their opinion is irrelevant."

I looked at her, hoping that I had resolve her problem. I was still curious but in my mind it really didn't matter. I knew her and accepted her along with whatever shortcomings she perceived. I could only hope that my loving gaze across the pillow communicated that to her. Looking into my eyes she almost whispered, "Joe, I'm not white like you."

It took me a moment to sift the mean out of what she had said. Of course she was white like me. The first thing I thought was that she was going to tell me she had some trace of Indian blood but what she said next surprised me. "Joe, my grandfather was a negro. My mother looked white but my father once let it slip that they had worried that I might be dark skinned."

I interrupted her at this point and asked, "Do you think that matters to me? I thought you knew me better than that."

I didn't know what else to say. It didn't matter to me. That was something that did mean something to some people. I was almost ashamed to think that it would have made a difference to my parents and probably would make a difference to some in my family. My family consisted of various aunts and uncles and were scattered out across five states. None were likely to make the trip to attend the wedding of a nephew they hardly knew. My mother had died less than a year after my father's passing several years back. I honestly could care less what any of them thought.

Audra weakly smiled at me and said, "I just thought I needed to mention it. It was obviously more important to some 'friends' that I had in high school than I would have thought. I didn't think it was important and mentioned it to some of them and suddenly several of my 'friends' started avoiding me. It wasn't just white 'friends' either."

I could tell that talking about it had affected her deeply. I hugged her to me and just held her. After a few minutes we kissed and the kiss ended our discussion of the wedding for a while. Later when the subject of our pillow-talk returned to the wedding, Audra was unyielding that her parents not be invited. She was also resolute that her parent's former employers be extended an invitation. She still felt the need to mend fences with them and hoped that this would help.

We both agreed that our neighbors, Elise and Edward be invited. I added Hector and Jorge and their immediate families. When I stopped there Audra insisted that I also invite Kelli and her mother. Audra later talked to Hector and Jorge, trying to find out if they felt anyone was being left out. Hector mentioned Angelo and Maria from the diner. He winked at me as he said something to Audra in Spanish. I later found that he had told Audra that Maria was sweet on me and might want to fight for me.

As I said, we were up until the early hours of the morning. So late that again we found the rude door buzzer again acting as our alarm clock. I dressed quickly and went down stairs to find Hector and Camilla standing on the porch. Hector was quick to exclaim, "Boss you need an alarm clock. You should be up way before ten in the morning."

I invited them both in saying only, "Late night."

Camilla made her way to the kitchen and started preparing the coffee while I ran back upstairs to finish dressing. Audra had a head start and so was in the kitchen excitedly talking to Camilla in that rapid fire Spanish that I still needed to learn when I opened the kitchen door. As soon as I opened that door Hector jumped up from the table and said, "Felicitates! You are one lucky hombre."

I couldn't help but grin as I answered, "Don't I know it."

Both Hector and Camilla hugged me as I eyed the coffee pot. I struggled loose from their embrace and finally got a cup of my morning eye opener. About that time the door buzzed again and of course it was Elise and Edward. I introduced them to Hector and Camilla and soon there was a discussion about the most important topic of the day, which was not unlocking the room. Both Audra and I took congratulatory hugs from Elise. Audra also got a hug from Edward but I settled for a handshake. The three women began to converse in Spanish. Elise's Spanish was not as rapid fire as Audra and Camilla's but it was obviously understandable.

As soon as we all had a cup of coffee in hand we started making plans for the day. My stomach was growling and so I offered to drive down to Dennon's for a box of donuts. Audra nixed that idea after Camilla said something to her in rapid fire Spanish. Hector and Edward both shrugged and before I knew what was happening Camilla, Elise and Audra were pulling out frying pans and cooking breakfast.

Hector took both Edward and I aside and apologized for Camilla's decision about breakfast. Neither Edward nor I understood what she had said to Audra so it really didn't bother me. Hector explained that Camilla was old school and wouldn't even let him near the kitchen at home. He then grinned and told us she was a very good cook who was responsible for almost all of the extra pounds that he carried.

While breakfast was being prepared we went to the garage to scout out the tools that we would need to open the door of the room we had discovered. Hector had never been in the garage and began drooling when he saw the selection of tools available. I had assumed that we would use a hacksaw to cut the shackle of the old padlock. Hector told me that he had seen some antique padlocks in worse shape than the one locking the room sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay. He suggested that rather than destroy the lock we cut the iron staple on the door catch instead. It made sense and would take about the same amount of effort. We also managed to find several eight foot two by fours and several near half-sheets of plywood to use to stabilize the brick wall. I smiled when I realized that these were probably leftovers from Audra's father's tunnel construction.

We didn't tarry long in the garage as I was still hungry. By the time we returned to the kitchen Elise and Audra were setting breakfast on the table. My first surprise was that the eggs had been scrambled southwestern style with bacon, jalapeños and onions. Hell, I didn't even know we had bought jalapeños when we were at the grocers. Biting into one of those hot pepper bits will certainly wake up your morning, especially when you aren't expecting it. Audra was snickering after my first bite. I tried not to show any affects from the hot peppers but the more I ate the more my lips heated up. Finally I could stand it no more and I rushed to the cupboard and grabbed a water glass.

Audra laughed and said, "See, I told you he was stubborn."

Hector, who didn't let the heat stop him from devouring his plate of food, said, "He's not used to Camilla's cooking. This only has Anglo jalapeños in it. Wait 'til she uses some of her home grown habaneros. They'd set el Diablo himself on fire."

Audra, Elise and Edward seemed to eat the eggs with no apparent outward reaction as I finished my water and massaged my sore lips. Looking at Camilla I said, "Just warn me before you serve me anything like that so I can have plenty of water nearby."

She laughed and said, "Water don't help. Bread and milk help some but it's mainly something you have to get used to. Don't worry; I'll warn you before I cook anything really hot."

I managed to finish off my eggs, which except for the fireworks were quite tasty. I tried to get to the sink to do the dishes to show my appreciation but Camilla was having none of it. While Camilla, Elise and Audra jostled with each other to wash up the breakfast dishes Hector and I gathered up the industrial gage extension cords that I had brought in from the work site and began laying them from the basement down the tunnel toward the locked room. It took all the cords that I had brought to reach that far. We draped the cords over the torch brackets to try to keep them off of the floor, which was damp in spots.

Edward had carried down a halogen stand light that we put into place facing the door of the room. When we plugged in the extension cord and turned on the light the area was almost too brightly lit. Edward was fascinated as we explained how Hector had climbed the wall and almost been buried in the rubble as the wall collapsed. Next we retraced our steps and with the ladies' help brought in the plywood, two by fours, and other tools we needed. After two trips and an hour's work we had the brick walls shored up to where we felt more comfortable and began work on the door.

The staple that went through the hasp that held the door in place was hand made out of a wrought iron rod that must have been a half-inch thick. The bent piece of iron had threads that were secured through a quarter inch thick iron plate on the inside of the wall with heavy bolts. The hasp on the door itself was also hand made of iron, with the hole for the staple punched through by a blacksmith. It was state of the art security two centuries ago.

We found that the iron of the staple had not lost its hardness during the intervening years. We went through three hacksaw blades and my entire range of vulgar epithets before we finally made the cut that allowed us to bend the staple enough to free the padlock. Elise made several pithy comments about my language before it was over with. Audra was for the most part silent as each of us men took a turn cutting the piece of iron. When I made a rather indelicate remark after breaking the second hacksaw blade she remarked, "I didn't even know he knew words like that."

Hector smiled at her and said, "He hasn't even got started yet. Sometimes I have to look up words that he uses when I get home at night."

At that point I handed the hacksaw back to Hector and said, "Here, you can use some of your own colorful expressions when the next blade breaks."

Hector broke his blade and then passed the hacksaw to Edward without making any colorful comments. Edward managed to finish the job without breaking our last blade. Finally we had the prized lock off of the door. I looked at my watch as we took the hasp off of the door. Teasing everyone I said, "Well it's time for lunch. We can wait and see what's inside this afternoon. I'm hungry."

Audra was the only one who didn't see that I was teasing. She immediately exploded and said, "Oh no, you don't. I've waited all week to find out what's in that room. You're going to open it up now or you'll be cooking your own meals from now on."

I laughed and said, "Gotcha!" That wasn't the smartest thing to do in a fairly confined space where I couldn't escape her small fist.

I glibly retorted, "We're not even married and already she abuses me."

After I apologized Hector and I slowly muscled the door open. The door protested, creaking loudly on its rusty wrought iron hinges. The light, which was on the other side of the wall, only dimly lit the interior of what I estimated was a twelve by fifteen foot room. As we entered the closed space I was immediately assaulted by a powerful astringent odor that almost overwhelmed my senses. The rest of the party must have also been affected by the smell as one by one they covered their noses. Working together it only took us a few moments to bring the light stand over the wall where it provided adequate light to view the contents of the room. The room looked to be some sort of a storage area. It was at least half full of an assortment of wooden barrels, chests and wooden boxes.

I don't know what I expected to find in the room but this wasn't it. Why would someone undertake such enormous expense in terms of labor and other resources to store what looked to be common merchandise when any ordinary warehouse would have served the same purpose much more cheaply? Even if someone had simply discovered the cave and tunnel why would they go to the trouble of storing stuff this far out of the way? I was hoping that some of the material here might provide the answers to my questions.

Elise was the first to voice the other question that was on our minds. She asked, "What is that god awful smell?"

We found out later that that 'god awful smell' was barrels of rotted processed indigo. At one time indigo was a valuable plant — it contains a rich deep blue dye that is brought out by a chemical process involving lye. After processing the plant was cut into small cubes and shipped to textile towns in large barrels to dye cloth.

Actually the rotten indigo was only the strongest smell. There were casks that contained thickened residue that proved to be the remains of Spanish wines and Jamaican rum along with boxes of what were dried spices. Of course we also found some more conventional treasure. There was an intricate silver service complete with an inlaid crest that we later found was the Duke of Northampton's family Coat of Arms. Along side the casks, trunks and boxes were piles of slave chains giving us reason to believe that some of the stolen cargo had been slaves on their way to market.

Although these items had been valuable in their time there was very little of what we traditionally think of as pirate's booty. Edward suggested that coin and jewels would have been portable and wouldn't have needed storage. Perhaps that was true, or perhaps the true treasure was buried elsewhere. We did find almost an entire pirate armory on the left side of the room. There were twelve common pikes, seven large cutlasses, and a small chest filled with daggers and pistols. We even found an assortment of what at first looked to be ancient flintlock shotguns with barrels ending in strange bell shapes. We later found that they were musketoons. There were also rolls of dyed silk and other cloths stored in one section of the room.

Our most prized discovery, though, was none of the above. The most important find was a chest of ship's logbooks for five ships that had been plundered and evidently sunk by the pirates. I can only assume that this was the case as I eventually learned that each of the ships had gone missing and presumed lost, and if the ship had been renamed and kept by the pirates the logbook would likely have remained with the ship.

Of course we didn't figure all that out that Saturday morning nor even over the course of that entire weekend. I was divided as to what to do with all that we had found. On the one hand I was sure that the snobbish professors from the university would give me no privacy in my own home if I shared the discovery with them. On the other hand I couldn't expect to keep something like this a secret for very long, or could I?

I wasn't even sure if the items were mine to give. Just because they were reached by a tunnel from my house didn't mean that I still owned the land that the cave was under. I knew that the land toward the bay side of my house was undeveloped, but had no idea who actually owned that acreage. Certainly it would be extremely valuable as it was prime waterfront property. Had the trees behind my house been cut I could have seen all the way to the bay from the rise on the hill directly behind my house. Those trees were 50 foot pine trees that must have grown pretty much unimpeded since the last hurricane tore through this area in the late 1880s.

I imagine that similar trees were on that property before the hurricane. I would need to check the county property tax map to find ownership of that land.

And there was one other small item that we found in the chest with the logbooks; a treasure map.



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Chapter 11: Reconciliation


The flight into Phoenix was not a pleasant one. Audra was excited as it was her first flight and she gripped my hand until I almost thought that I was going to lose circulation during takeoff. Audra quickly calmed down after we were in the air but two squabbling pre-teens in the seats behind us made it impossible to rest. Landing in Denver, an airport I had never been to before, added a touch of anxiety as we had only 25 minutes to deplane, run halfway down a concourse to catch the airport subway, ride it to a different concourse where we had to run halfway down a different concourse to our departure gate. Then after finally making it on time we found out that our flight was delayed for an hour on the ground due to other traffic. All of this tension added to Audra's anxiety during the ensuing take-off and I just managed to regain feeling in my fingers when the aircraft began to be buffeted by updrafts which continued for most of the flight.

Elise smiled at me from the other side of Audra where she too was massaging her wrist. When we announced our intention of flying to Mesa, Arizona to meet Mrs. Anderson, Elise had insisted on accompanying us. Audra had quickly accepted Elise's offer as she was more nervous of with meeting her parent's former employers than she would admit. Clearing the air between Audra and Irma Anderson was only the first goal of the trip. Second was delivering the wedding invitation.

Actually we were hoping that our trip would tie up a lot of loose ends. It turns out that the land over both the tunnel and cavern was still owned by the Andersons. The more than thirty acres of land had been purchased after the house. An internet search had determined that the acreage was almost three years in arrears for property taxes. There was no mortgage on the land but the two tax certificates had been sold giving the buyer the right to apply for a tax deed on the property if taxes remained unpaid a third year. The deadline for that tax payment was drawing near. The owner of those tax certificates was an entity called Acorn, LLC; a well known large scale condominium and hotel developer.

I also had two cashier checks. The first obtained from a certain seller of rare books. This check was for the full value of the books that were stolen and sold. The check was in the amount of $300,000. The book dealer had screamed and cursed but when faced with most likely going to prison had come up with the cashier's check as a settlement.

I also had a rather large check from the sale of the antiques from the den and the basement of the house. Three prestigious antique dealers had bid on the items at an auction held the previous week. I was shocked when the total proceeds were over a million dollars. The auctioneer took ten percent of the proceeds leaving me with a separate cashier's cheek in the amount of $945,000.

We also carried a wedding invitation and a more personal invitation for Mrs. Anderson. Our initial contact with Irma Anderson had revealed that Chad had died less than a month earlier. His death had been almost welcomed to Irma as his illness had quickly left him ravaged and without memory or control of his bodily functions. The cremation had quickly followed with only cursory announcements made in the local papers. The small ceremony was only attended by a friendly nurse from the sanatorium and Irma herself.

Truth be known, Irma Anderson was miserable and the call from Elise and the new owners of the place she still thought of as her home brought a moment of joy into her life. Her thoughts after the funeral had been dark and somber. Always an outgoing person who valued her friends and neighbors she felt isolated and cut off from both. Several times she had come close to picking up the phone and calling Elise but had not. When she received the phone call from Elise it took her last bit of reserve to keep from squealing with joy. The information that the new owners of her home wanted to meet with her was met with puzzled delight.

She looked around at the living room of her sterile, modern ranch home. The room was spotless, bright, and cheerful and yet it was empty. The furniture was modern, clean, new, and efficient but had no history. She would trade it all in a minute for just a week in the comfortable surroundings of her old home. Chad had brought her to that home on Bell Whistle as his bride almost 45 years earlier. Her first weeks in that home had been a series of seemingly endless and foreboding days; days that would have her counting the minutes until Chad's return. At first she could not find anything to keep her interest. She had never been a television person and the mixture of soap operas, game shows and mindless trivia on TV at that time was never enough to keep her mind occupied.

Then she had discovered that the house itself could be an avocation. Her boredom led to consideration of what this new home could become. She knew their home had a history even if it was only a history that she could imagine. It was as if sometimes the home spoke to her. She had never voiced this feeling to Chad; he would have thought she was crazy. Still he supported her in renovating and furnishing the older home. As Chad advanced in the company she had poured more and more time and money into her efforts. Chad's interest had always been his books. She had to admit that the books helped transform the den into an impressive room but she had to draw the line when they began to stack up all over the place. Finally she and Chad had compromised. He could continue to collect with the excess going into the basement. What she didn't see wouldn't bother her. And to think that after all of those years, those books in the basement would cause such a ruckus.

She knew that Chad was really sick when he didn't object to their chucking it all and moving. He had only insisted bringing with him the book he was reading. She had quickly noticed that that one book would be enough if he didn't wear out the pages as he read and reread the same passages over and over. She had lost hope almost as soon as they arrived. Then a few months in her near desert house and it was all over. Chad was gone. Her home was gone. Her life was gone. She had reached the land of no hope and just as she was about to give up on her existence someone from her real life was coming here, coming back to see her. She couldn't help feeling excited.

The house was a cookie cutter companion to all of the others in the large residential complex. The sign said Mesa Retirement Villas. Each yard was well manicured and yet a mirror of its neighbors. That sameness enabled the groundskeepers to maintain the properties with minimal effort. To Joe even the homes he spent his workweek cleaning out had more character than these lifeless monuments to efficiency. How could someone retire and spend their remaining life in such a sterile environment without ending up depressed? He wondered what it was like for Irma Anderson to move from the rich old world feel of Bell Whistle to this almost barren environment. The navigation program in the rental vehicle brought him out of his reverie as the unit's female voice signaled in a sickly sweet voice that they had reached their destination.

Irma Anderson was a small, pleasant woman. She reminded Joe of the cartoon granny in the Sylvester & Tweety Bird cartoons of his youth. Joe could just imagine her thumping Sylvester with an umbrella and saying, 'Stop that, you crazy cat.' Of course she wasn't dressed like that granny, her olive green blouse and khaki shorts not totally unexpected in this forever hot environment. Irma had greeted them warmly, hugging Elise and Audra close within seconds of their arrival, and after their introduction making a point of hugging Joe in the same manner. She insisted that Audra and I call her Irma.

Conversation at first was awkward, no one quite knowing how or where to begin. Finally after they were seated in the comfortable living room Audra began talking as Joe sat next to her holding her almost imperceptibly shaking hand. She recounted the story almost exactly the way she had to Joe, breaking down several times in the process. Several times during the telling Irma Anderson interrupted with statements like, 'it's no matter child' or 'that's water under the bridge now.' By the time Audra came to the end of her story Irma's pride and admiration for this girl that she had had only a small part in raising was transformed into deeper feelings of love and kinship. Audra left the comfort of Joe's hand as she finished telling her tale and went across the room and knelt at Irma's feet, begging her forgiveness.

Irma, normally a model of decorum, was near tears herself when she asked Audra, "What am I supposed to forgive you for? I am the one who wronged you. I was so wrapped up in what was happening to my dear Chad that I allowed you to be tarred with the same brush as the rest of your family."

Audra answered, "I should have told you what was happening as soon as I suspected but I just couldn't bring myself to betray them."

Irma held Audra's face between her hands and said, "Get up, honey. You did what 'most anyone else would have done. No matter what else they are, they are still your family."

Audra shook her face free of Irma's hands as she vehemently said, "Not any more. They are greedy and selfish and I refuse to be like that. I felt so empty after you and Mr. Anderson left. When I thought about my feelings I realized that my heart was telling me who my real family was."

Irma was openly weeping as she pulled the younger and larger Audra up next to her in the chair. She said something that we could not hear at the time but which I later learned was, "My child, of course I forgive you. I'm just happy to know that I'm not alone anymore."

Elise and I were brushing tears from our own eyes as we observed the tearful reconciliation. I leaned and whispered, "If nothing else comes of this trip, this has made it worthwhile."

After a few moments Audra cleared her eyes and gave Irma a hug. Since the chair they were sharing was not built to seat two she returned to my side. I hugged her and with her hand in mine announced, "Irma, I explained to you on the phone that I bought your house from the bank shortly after it went through foreclosure. The most precious thing that I found in the house was Audra. Together we have found a surprise around every corner and almost every day we spend in the old house we discover something else about the place. Audra's telling me about her father's stealing your husband's books solved a mystery as to why the basement had stacks of cheap book club books mixed in with priceless first editions. I donated the book club books to the local library and while I was there had a talk with the librarian. Mrs. Bradshaw gave me the name of the man that I suspected was Audra's father's accomplice in stealing your husband's books. He was careless, as we found his shop's name in the flyleaf of several of the book club books and then upon a visit to his shop found several of your husband's books on display. I guess he thought he had gotten away with everything since you had moved. With Mrs. Bradshaw's help we put a value on those books. My deal with the thief was that if he paid a full restitution to you we would not prosecute. It was mostly an empty threat as without your husband we didn't have much real evidence. Anyway, he was sweating bullets and fairly easy to bluff."

At that time I took an envelope from Elise and gave it to Audra who handed it to Irma. "This is a cashier's check for $300,000 in this envelope. This covers the market value of the books that were stolen. I just wish that I could have given this to your husband."

Edna didn't even open the envelope. She put it down on the table next to her and said, "I never thought that all of Chad's books were worth that much. I guess I owe him an apology for all the bad things I said about them cluttering up the place. Who would have thought..."

I smiled and said, "That's just the ones that were stolen. The others still in the house are probably much more valuable. I had a state of the art security system installed in the house before we left to fly out here. It was quite a challenge to the security company."

Irma said, "I bet it was. I expect there are still a few ways in and out of the house that you don't even know about."

Elise spoke up then and said, "Really, Irma. You knew about the tunnels in the house? You never said anything when Chad hinted to us what he had found."

Irma responded, "I didn't want to steal his thunder. I explored that tunnel when I was bored after we first got married. Chad was too busy then during the week to explore it with me and we had other priorities on the weekends. He forgot about it until he rearranged stuff in the basement years later."

I exclaimed, "Then that was your flashlight we found?"

Irma laughed, "You found that old thing? I was scared to death when I dropped it. It was busted up good so I just left it. I had to find my way back in the dark. I must have wandered around in that old cavern all morning until I found the tunnel exit. I swear I tripped over what felt like human bones more than once. I was so terrified of not being able to get back out. I promised myself that if I did get out I would never go back down there and I didn't. I wouldn't even go down in the basement after that and I didn't say anything else to Chad about it because I didn't want him getting lost in there."

Elise clapped her hands together saying, "Another mystery solved."

I said, "Before we get talking too much about the mysteries of the house there is one more thing I have for you."

Elise handed me another envelope that I passed to Audra who handed it to Irma. "I cleaned out the basement and auctioned off all of the furniture that I found there along with the furniture from the den. We remodeled the den into a more comfortable family room. We felt that you deserve the proceeds from this sale as you were the one that bought all of those wonderful pieces many years ago."

Irma's hand trembled as she took the check. She tried to hand the check back to Audra who refused it. She said, "I don't know what to say. This money is rightfully yours. You bought all of that stuff that we left behind when you bought the house. I couldn't bear to think of selling it then and I don't know if I can take the money now. I didn't pay that much anyway for most of the stuff in the basement."

No one said anything for a few moments. Unlike the earlier check we hadn't said anything about the amount of this check and I think that finally curiosity got the better of Irma as she slowly opened the envelope to reveal the amount of the check.

When she looked at the check her eyes got wide and she fell back in the chair, not saying anything. Finally she looked at both of us and shook her head and said, "I can't take this, it's too much."

Elise spoke up and said, "Irma, that's for your years of work scouring shops and estate sales. Actually the auctioneer took his 10% off the top. The furniture sold for over a million dollars. The auctioneer told Joe and Audra that if he were to guess the value of the remaining items in the house, it would be a minimum of three to four million."

Irma said, "This is still too much. I bought that stuff a piece at a time. I didn't pay over $2,500 for anything and I thought Chad was going to have a heart attack when I did that. He put me on a tight budget after that. Land's sake; who'd of thought? Still I'd give this all back if I could..."

Irma stopped there and just stared at her hands and laughed, "At least I won't worry about going broke any more."

Elise looked concerned and asked, "Irma, we're all friends here. Finish what you were saying?"

Irma said, "I can't. It's impossible anyway."

Audra spoke up and said, "Nothing's impossible. I never thought you'd forgive me. I never thought I'd be happy again. I never thought Joe would..."

I put my fingers to my lips and put the quiet to what she was going to say. That and the invitation to the wedding were supposed to be the last thing we talked about. We had all agreed to the order before we had landed.

Audra continued, "Anyway, nothing is impossible. So tell us what you would give all that money back for."

Irma finally relented and looking downward towards her hands she quietly answered, "I was just going to say that I would give it all back to live out my life in that house. I know it sounds crazy but all my good memories are in that house."

As soon as she said it she looked up at us, glancing from one of us to the other.

We were all smiling. I nudged Audra and whispered, "You ask her."

Audra beamed as she said, "You don't have to give back a cent. You can come back and live with us as long as you like. There's plenty of room in the house. I need someone to talk to while Joe is at work every day. I'm lonely just like you said you were after you first moved there."

At that moment Audra looked into my eyes as she added, "I also need someone to help me plan our wedding. Joe and I are going to be married in a few months."

Irma started crying, nodding her head 'yes' as Audra again rushed over to her and embraced her. Audra fumbled as she went inside her clutch purse and got her ring which she put back on my finger. She pointed at me and accusingly said, "He made me take it off so we could surprise you."

Irma agreed over the next few days to pay off the tax certificates on the property behind the house. She revealed that after she found the tunnel and that entrance to her home she had talked Chad into buying the property for their protection. In the early 1970's when they bought the property there was an abundance of bayside property available and few takers. In the end, even with all of her antique purchases this might have ended up in being her smartest acquisition.

Irma willing packed up and left with us when we flew back to our home three days later. She was less nervous on the airplane than Audra as her flight out had been much less stressful. During the trip home she, Elise and Audra sat together in a three seat row planning our wedding. I sat in the window seat directly behind them trying to sleep while an obviously overexcited five year old boy ignored the sometimes shouted pleas of his mother and climbed all over my legs trying to peer out the window. Eventually I moved to the center seat where I spent the trip listening to the boy's mother regale me with her own top ten list of reasons not to have children, especially boys.

Remembering the problems that we had in Denver on the trip out I spent extra money to make sure that our return was on the same airline and that both planes docked at the same concourse. Our hour in Denver was much more pleasant and we were even able to spend a few moments in the small gift shop in the concourse before resuming our flight. Irma was so excited about returning to her home that she seemed to almost be in a world of her own. She had spent time quizzing Elise on any changes in the neighborhood and at the club. I smiled as I thought that Irma was not going to be one who sat quietly at home with her knitting.

Irma was as excited as that five year old boy had been when we finally deplaned at our own airport. The glistening in her eyes let all of us know that she was anxious to be home. As I thought about it I realized that I too was happy to be here, that this too was my home. Edward gave Irma a hug before escorting us all out to his waiting car. The large Lincoln was crowded as we all piled in for the trip across town. Edward remarked that we were smart to have most of Irma's possessions shipped separately to Elise's address.

Irma was looking at each landmark on the way home as if seeing it the first time. As we drove up stately Bell Whistle Drive she started crying again as she exclaimed, "I never thought I would see this place again."

Several of the neighbors, including many that I had not met, were at Elise's to welcome Irma back home. Edward introduced Irma to Hector and Camilla. Hector had taken my place supervising the various jobs while I had been gone. He also supervised a crew that had begun transforming the old servant's quarters on the first floor of the house into a mother-in-law's suite so that Irma would not have to negotiate the stairs as she grew older.

It was good to be home.


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The End
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Posted:  2009-06-13
Last Modified: 2010-07-15 / 02:38:21 pm
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