2
It was Monday morning and Jim was eyeing the work order for a restoration job out of town. His reason for life was set, but Cheryl's reason was the love and satisfaction of taking care of her family and her role in the community. She felt good in helping others and it was no better felt than at home in taking care of her two daughters and her son, although at times she felt she had two sons if she considered Jim the biggest baby in the house. Jim appeared in the kitchen for his breakfast in his usual khaki pants and solid blue shirt ready to tackle his day. Cheryl met him with a loving kiss just after sending their progeny off to school.
"Hello there, wife-of-mine…" He kissed her back and took his seat at the breakfast table. The kids had left him plenty of bacon and sausage but not much scrambled eggs. "Oh man, big job today, big job."
"I know…" Cheryl scrambled him more eggs ahead of wiping out her frying pan to clean it. "I drive by that old house on Sycamore a lot. Do you think you can let me see the inside of it after you start?"
"I don't know, Cheryl." Jim ate his breakfast and sipped his juice. "It's hard for me to get any work done when you're there."
"What?" Cheryl turned round confused. "I never get in your way."
"It's not that, Cheryl…" Jim rephrased his message. "When you're there, the other guys get distracted, and I can't get any work out of them." His wife shined at her incredible power to distract men with her own looks. Beaming ear-to-ear, she tossed her hair back, grinned happily and kissed her husband for reminding her she was still hot to look upon by other guys. Not all girls had that power, and one of them was her very own sister. Turning to the kitchen sink, she noticed the back gate of her home to the alley in back open up and Dana jog herself through in dark blue shorts and a white t-shirt. She looked like an ad for an athletic spa with the sweatband in her hair and those brand new white sneakers. Right behind her was Ryan bringing up the rear in his gray sweaty sleeveless shirt and black gym shorts.
"You're… jogging?" Cheryl turned to her sister coming through her back door.
"Well, Cheryl, I have to…" Dana stretched and rotated side to side at her waist to try and lose the weight from the birth of her son. "I mean… some of us have to work twice as hard to look twice as good."
"Dana and I jogged all the way over here from our house." Ryan beamed to his beautiful wife and once he was out of her eyesight, keeled over wheezing out of breath. Jim patted his back trying to help, but his efforts only seemed to exacerbate his wheezing. Practically collapsing into a chair, Ryan poured himself some juice from the pitcher at the table. Jim leaned into him covertly.
"How did you get Dana into exercising?" Jim mumbled without moving his lips.
"I told her I wanted to get some exercise, and that I sometimes have young female joggers rushing out and joining me." Ryan confessed to a lie, but Jim recognized playing the jealousy card and shook his hand for his brilliant scheme. Looking back to his wife, Ryan once again turned into the loving husband and shined his steely grin to Dana who kissed him back.
"Hey, Jimbo…" Cheryl and Dana's brother, Andy, had come through the front of the house to the kitchen. "Let's get a move on… We got to get a crew ready for the job."
"Yeah, that's right…"
"Hey, Jim…" Cheryl wiped out a cup and turned round waving her dishtowel. "Tell them what house you're working on!" She wanted to impress her sister on the location of the landmark.
"It just happens to be 1364 Sycamore…" Jim beamed ear-to-ear. "You know, that big old house everyone sees from the highway that's been closed off all these years. I'm the first person to get inside it in over half a century!" She made his proud but privileged grin. Dana reacted impressed as Andy shined and basked in the afterglow.
"The Stoddard house, huh…" Ryan sipped his juice a bit more as Dana sat close to him. "You guys are going to be working on the old haunted house in town."
"Wait, excuse me…" Jim heard a word he didn't like. "What kind of house?"
"Haunted…" Ryan showed he had a bit more knowledge about the place. "Jim, the old Stoddard House is like one of the most popular legends in town. It's full of ghost stories."
"Wait, excuse me…" Andy heard a word he didn't like. "What kind of stories?"
"Ghost stories…" Ryan looked at them then over to Cheryl and back to his beautiful wife. "Haven't you guys ever cracked a book? Checked out a magazine? Read the newspaper?"
"You know, Jim…" Cheryl moved past her husband to tease him. "Those are the extra pages that come with the sports section." She beamed a little laugh at him.
"I read the newspaper!" Jim told her off with his voice a bit louder than usual.
"Ryan…" Dana looked upon her husband with a new look. "How do you know about this place?"
"What young boy doesn't like a good ghost story?" Ryan reverted a bit to his youth eager to tell the tale. "The Old Stoddard House is supposed to be one of the scariest places in town. Why do you think it's been empty for so many years? It's been empty ever since the last family to try living there in the Forties moved out after claiming they heard voices in the night."
Jim made a scoffing noise. "I'm not afraid of ghosts." He boasted as he strutted a little bit past Ryan and his wife through the living room. "And there's nothing to be afraid of either. Andy and I will be surrounded by plenty of guys keeping us company as we restore the place. Right, Andy?"
"You know, Jim…" Andy made a worried face and hedged a bit. "There's this little science fiction expo coming up that I'd really like to be a part of. I mean… you could certainly spare me for…."
"Andy!!"
"That's right…." Cheryl hugged her big but simple-minded lug of a husband. "My guy isn't scared of nothing." She kissed his face.
"Maybe…" Dana had well prepared her comment. "But I think Andy just filled his shorts." She mused a little laugh.
"I did not." Andy shot back then bent over a bit and checked the front of his khakis to be sure. He thought it over a bit then decided he was okay. "I'm not scared! I mean… it's just that the place is kind of old and I bet the floors are possibly rotten and weak. I wouldn't want to crash through them."
"I wouldn't worry about that, Andy…" Jim asserted his presence in the room by taking his place in his favorite chair n the house; it was sort of his throne where he could see the entire room. "I had a building inspector go check out the house, and he said the location was structurally sound and in good shape from what he could see through the windows."
"What did he mean by that?" Cheryl thought over that comment.
"You know… I didn't ask him!"
