Chapter 1

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Chapter 1

Some people swore that the house was haunted.  The red house had been there for a very long time.  Some say it was the first house built in Taylorsville.  No one had lived there in at least fifty years, and no one knew who even owned the place.  It was a three story Victorian, with a cellar, it was made of bricks, blood red bricks.  The yard was over grown and surrounded by an iron fence six feet tall.  The shutters were all closed tightly, except for the window on the widows walk, some claimed that they had seen weird lights in that window.

The town folk stayed away from the house except for the guy that the city sent over to cut the grass three or four times each summer.  The only one who would go was an old man named Larry.  He was nearly 80 and had lived in Taylorville all his life.

One day in October of 2008, Larry was cutting the grass for the last time before winter.  When he finished, he raked up the yard and put the cuttings by the curb.  Then Larry loaded up his equipment and was just about to leave when he heard a noise inside the red house.  “Crap” he said.  “Now I have to go inside and chase out hobos!”  He quietly walked toward the back of the house; he put his hand on the knob of the back door and gently tried to turn it.  To his great surprise, it turned easily and the door opened.  He gingerly took a step through the door.

Larry found himself in what seemed to be a mud room and he was very surprised to find that it was clean.  All the dust and grime that he had expected to find was not there.  Now he was very intrigued.  He opened the door of the mud room and entered the kitchen.

There was a soft light coming from the floor, all around the perimeter of the room.   The room itself was beautiful. He felt as if he were in an Italian villa, polished wood cabinets and stone flooring, herbs hanging from the ceiling and a huge fireplace at the other end.  There beside the fireplace was a rocking chair and in the chair was and old woman.  She looked at Larry and scowled, “Who are you and why are you in my house?”

Larry was stunned and it took him several moments to find his voice, but finally he answered her.  “Ma’am, I am very sorry to disturb you.  I didn’t know that anyone was living here.  The city sent me to mow the grass and I heard noises in here and I wanted to make sure that everything was OK.”

“Everything WAS OK, but now things are not OK at all!” shouted the mysterious woman.  “And now I have an extremely difficult decision to make.  You have no idea how complicated this situation is and now I shall be forced to deal with the consequences!”

Larry was beginning to feel a growing sense of alarm.  “Ma’am, I can walk out that door and forget that I was ever here, you have my word!”

“Well, sir, you will never know how much I wish we could do just that, but I am afraid that it is not possible for you to do that.  Now please be quiet, I have to think through the possible solutions to our mutual problem!”

Larry was now gripped with terror; he turned and stumbled into the mudroom.  He grabbed the knob and turned, but nothing happened.  He pulled and pulled on the door but it wouldn’t budge.  He turned around to look for another way out, when suddenly the old woman was standing in front of him.  “You, sir, are trying my patience!  You cannot leave this building; I have already told you that!  Why do you try my patience?  I do not want to do you harm, but if you continue with this asinine behavior I may be forced to do something that will be distasteful to us both!”  She turned abruptly and went back to her rocking chair and sat down hard.

“I have come to a decision” she declared after several tension filled minutes.  “And this is what I have decided will become of you.  If you agree, I will tell you who I am and what I do.  After that has been done, you will have to become my assistant.  There are benefits for you if you accept this position.  You will no longer be subject to the aging process of Earth, and you will get to travel with me to various times and places throughout the universe.  What is your decision?”

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