Mysterious House Part 2

Several weeks went by and Evelyn found more and more she was staring at the house across the street.  She had never seen anyone there.  No lights were ever on in the house, except the foyer light.  She had never seen anyone come to the house or leave it.  She might have simply passed it off for an abandoned home or a bank owned home, except the lawn was always mown and the bushes always trimmed.  What was odd, though, is that she had never actually seen anyone mow the lawn or that the lawn grew at all.  Phillip had mown their own lawn every Saturday since they had moved in.  Of course, she did go to work during the day.  Evelyn assumed that the owners had a lawn service that came each week during the day to care for the home's grounds.  But she couldn't stop thinking about the house.  If anyone did come during the week, no vehicle ever went up that driveway.

She shared her observations with Phillip.  He was interested in her observations, but it wasn't odd to him.  He figured, as she did, that a lawn service took care of the lawn each week while they were at work.  The house was probably a foreclosure, owned by the bank and kept in nice condition in case anyone wanted to see and buy the house.

But Evelyn noticed, there were no signs on or around the house.  Usually if  a home was bank owned, there was a notice in a window, but this home had none.  If it was bank owned, why hadn't their realtor told them about that house at the same time she showed them this one.  Perhaps she figured it wouldn't fit their needs and so didn't even bother to tell them about it.  Still, it was odd that she hadn't mentioned it, if it were available for purchase.

Why was the foyer light always on?  Phillip said it was to keep burglars away, but Evelyn didn't find that very convincing.  It was the same light.  It never went off or on.  If there was a burglar who had been watching the house for the perfect opportunity to break in, they would have noticed that nothing ever changed at that house.

Evelyn decided she had had enough of the house across the street.  It was silly to spend so much time and thought on it.  She would focus on projects around the house.  Her and Phillips's sixth anniversary was come up.  Evelyn decided she needed to do something special.

A week before the anniversary, Evelyn was given a surprise vacation from work.  She wasn't happy about it, but a small fire had broken out in one of the cubicles and had blown a large number of circuits in the rest of the building.  Everyone was cleared out and a team of electricians were being brought in to re-wire the entire building.  Evelyn was not happy to lose that income, but decided it would be nice to have so much time at home to work on the various projects she had going.

The days were nice and pleasant.  Evelyn threw open all the windows in the living room and kitchen to let in the fresh breeze.  The sounds of birds and street traffic were all she could hear from outside.  Evelyn liked the birds.  She wished she knew how to identify which birds made which sounds.  Phillip joked with her in the evening about how Evelyn was now the perfect little housewife staying at home each day.  That joke had earned him a punch in the arm. 

Saturday, Phillip mowed the lawn, like usual.  She was rather annoyed that while Phillip was out mowing, she had to shut the windows in the house to block out all that noise.  After he was done and taking a shower, Evelyn opened the windows again.  She looked out at the house across the street.  It looked exactly as it had since the day they had moved in, two months ago.  The lawn the perfectly mowed and the bushes neat and trimmed.  The light in the foyer shown its usual orangy-yellow.  Evelyn realized she had been home every day that week and had never seen anyone go to the house nor even had heard anyone using a lawn mower on its front yard.  She had noticed when her neighbor on her right had mowed his lawn, but as far as she could recall, she had never seen or heard anyone across the street.  Evelyn shivered.  What was going on across the street?

She would ask the neighbors tomorrow.

Mysterious House Part 1

They met the realtor at the house.  How many homes had they looked at that day?  Evelyn couldn't remember.  Some of them had been nice, but nothing had really jumped out at them yet.  She didn't expect this one to be any different, but as they pulled into the driveway, already Evelyn could tell this one was different.  The lot was larger than any they had seen that day.  The home was a two story with lovely windows.  It was made of wood and brick and not covered in the plastic-looking siding.  The realtor opened the front door and showed them into a home unlike any they had yet seen.  It was old looking.  Rustic.  It had character and personality.  The banister was real carved wood.  The kitchen was a good size.  Not small like the apartment they were currently renting, but not the huge over sized kitchens Evelyn had seen in so many of the new homes.  The cupboards were real wood, not laminate. 

Every room Evelyn went into had more surprises.  It was such a lovely home.  It was perfect.  The right number of bedrooms, a perfect sized yard and most importantly, the house was the right price.  It was perfect.  Too perfect?  Why had no one bought it yet?  Evelyn asked the realtor.  It had only been on the market for two days.  Evelyn knew they needed to get working on the contract immediately.  Such a home would not stay unsold for long.  Her husband Phillip agreed.  They went back to the realtor's office and wrote up their offer.

Two days later, they heard back from the realtor.  Their offer had been accepted.  The home was theirs.  After a house inspection and some repair work, they finally moved in. Evelyn kept re-arranging the furniture, trying to find the best position for it in the new rooms.  Under her direction, Phillip had repainted the living room and bathrooms.  She like the colors, but they were looking a little old and dark.  The new paint was very close to the old one, but a shade or two lighter.  It certainly made a huge difference.  After four weeks, the house was ready and they had their open house party.  Friends from the old apartment complex were invited.  Friends from work and church were invited.  They also invited the neighbors on either side of them, whom they had met while moving in. 

They barbequed in the spacious back yard and had drinks on the patio.  Several hours later, the guest began to leave.  Evelyn took a tray of dirty dishes to the kitchen.  Her best friend, Lucy, followed close behind with another tray of dishes.  Evelyn thanked her.

"Evelyn, I love your new home," Lucy said.

"Thank you.  So do I," Evelyn laughed.

"Just out of curiosity, though, who lives in the house across the street from you?"

"Oh, I don't know," Evelyn said.  "I haven't met all the neighbors yet.  We've been so busy balancing work, the move and updates to the house that I haven't had much time for neighbor watching.  Why do you ask?"  She turned away from the sink and the piles of dishes to look at her friend.

"It's an odd house, isn't it?" Lucy said casually.

"Is it?  I haven't really noticed," Evelyn said.

"Well, yes.  It's old and looks a little run down."

Evelyn laughed.  "This house is old and looking a little worn down.  It's an old neighborhood."

Lucy chuckled, "Yes, I suppose it is.  Well, let me know when you meet the neighbors."

Evelyn plopped down on the oversized recliner after the last guest had left.  She loved having parties and was especially proud of her new home, but it was always such a relief when it was over.  Phillip sat down on the couch.  "Glad it's over?"

"Yes.  I don't want to get up, but I guess I should take care of the dishes.  I can at least get the dishwasher loaded."  Evelyn pulled herself out of the recliner.  Phillip went back outside to clean up the patio and barbeque area.  Evelyn loaded the dishwasher.  Forcing herself to continue, even though she only wanted to sit back down, she finished washing all the dishes.  When they were done with the clean up, Evelyn and Phillip sat snuggled together on the couch and watched some TV.  When there was nothing else on to keep them entertained, they headed up to bed.  Phillip turned out the light and climbed into bed.  Evelyn went to the window to make sure the curtains were pulled closed.  She didn't want the morning sun getting through the curtain before she was ready to be woken up.  Evelyn looked out the window to the house across the street.  It was dark and she could see nothing of the house except a single light shining in the foyer of the home.  She closed the curtains and got into bed. 

******

The next morning was a Saturday.  Oh how she loved Saturdays.  No work to go to.  Today she planned on spending the morning in the front yard, cleaning out the flower beds and planting some new flowers around the porch.  The sun was shining and the sky was clear.  Evelyn was glad for the tree in the front yard to provide a little bit of shade.

She had been out front many, many times since moving in and had knew there was a house across from theirs, but she had never taken the time to really notice it.  Today she did.  The home was two storied and similar in size and shape to their own home.  Probably built around the same time, Evelyn thought.  However, the home across the street didn't look like it had been nearly as well cared for.  The roof was metal and rusted.  The gutters were bent and broken in some places.  Ivy grew up one side of the house.  All the windows were dark and covered on the inside by dark curtains.  The front door had a large piece of glass at the top and the door frame was surrounded by panes of glass.  She could see the foyer light was still on.

The lawn of the home was well cared for.  It had recently been mown and the large bush that sat in the middle of the yard was trimmed and neat.  Evelyn noticed the driveway, or what was left of it.  It was a rock path, like their own driveway, but the rocky path of the other house was completely grown over with grass after the first three feet.  No one had used that driveway in a very long time.  Evelyn shrugged her shoulders and went to work in the flower bed.