THE OLD HOUSE REVEALS ITS SECRETS
“Hey! You guys wearing combat
boots?” Carla called to other twenty-somethings in the young couples Bible study
as they clomped single-file down the worn, wooden cellar stairs.
Many had bombarded Raul and
Stella with questions about their rambling old farmhouse, where the group met
that day. To satisfy everyone’s curiosity, the couple had invited them on a
tour from the cellar up.
Raul spoke over the crowd.
“My sister, Laura, right here with her husband, Chris, will help explain things. Most of you know we both grew up in this amazing house.”
She pointed to an overflowing laundry basket beneath a chute.
“There’s the laundry chute I was talking about. In the old days, it used gravity to get dirty clothes and linens from bedrooms to washtubs.”
"But of course, my lovely bride has a washer and dryer,” Raul added, his eyes drinking in his wife’s beauty.
The toned ballerina stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
Tiffany, the Bible study teacher’s
wife, shivered and pulled her sweater tighter.
“It’s cold in this cellar—just
like it’s always cold here in the Adirondack Mountains.”
The Florida native was having
trouble adjusting to the recent move.
Raul motioned to an old, rusted
chain.
“It’s a heavy chain, likely
used to hoist hay into a hayloft in the old barn. My Papa dug the chain from
the ground, where a barn burned long before we moved here.”
Off to the side, Josh, a
building contractor, was running his hand along the stone wall,
“These
walls feel sturdy. How thick are they?”
“Our
father said at least two feet,” Raul answered.
Laura
nodded. “They’re strong and sturdy but always damp.”
The
tour continued through the cellar, which was quite extensive.
Raúl
pointed out a discarded pot-bellied stove and a long-abandoned wine cellar
strewn with empty glass bottles.
“Is there a way out of here other than the stairs?” someone asked.
Laura
led the group to a worn door made of vertical wood planks. She unlocked and
opened it, pointing up stone steps leading outside. The cool night air blew in.
As
everyone headed back upstairs, Carla proclaimed with a good-natured laugh that
the cellar had all the charm of a dungeon.
The
others laughed and gathered for the next leg of the tour.
“Three floors and fourteen rooms to go,” Laura said, motioning everyone onward.
Each step takes them closer to uncovering the secret that will change all their lives.
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** A fictional setting in my inspirationl thriller, Bibles and Bones in the Forest," coming soon from MillerWords, the old farmhouse combines an actual farmhouse in rural Virginia with the Victorian home on Staten Island, New York, where I grew up.
Watch for the book: MillerWords, https://www.facebook.com/
