Two cars rolled to a stop in front of an old house; soon four girls emerged and looked upon the house with some dissatisfaction. The house was in need of some repairs, and there was a sort of eerie feeling about it. It looked like a place one might see in a horror movie.
Brandi looked at her friend and began to question her to make sure they were at the right place. Katy assured her that they were and even showed her the paper in her hand, which had the address on it. Katy had been to the house before; she had fallen in love with it despite its flaws. Kim looked the place over while the other two were sorting things out. She made a mental note of the work that was going need to be done.
“It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, don’t you think?” Brandi asked. The air around her smelled of pine and grass, it was certainly miles away from the cities that she had grown accustom to over the years.“Yeah I kind of thought that was the point, wasn’t it?” Katy questioned making her way up the steps and to the front door. She carefully placed the key into the lock. She looked back at her three friends. That is when she realized that one of them was staring off in the wrong direction. She watched Mandy for a second and then asked her politely if she was coming. “Would you look at this view?” Mandy replied. Her eyes fixed on the horizon and the mountains around them. The house may have made her nervous but the view in this direction was very peaceful. Katy looked toward the sun and agreed with her friend, it was after all pretty amazing and kind of picturesque. Then she proceeded to unlock the door, she pushed on it slightly but it didn’t move. She laughed nervously and took a step back before kicking the door as hard as she could.
The door flew opened amidst a swirl of dust. Katy protected her face as she made her way inside. Her friends hesitated to follow her but eventually did. The house was fairly big on the inside, and in much better shape that the outside had been. They entered into a fairly spacious living room which opened up in to the kitchen and a dining room. There was a stair case leading up to the second floor and a door beside it leading to the basement. The bedrooms were both located on the second floor.
Kim asked her if the furniture had come with the house. Katy nodded as Kim took a seat on the sofa; care not to touch it any more than she had to. Katy added that they could get whatever else they needed in town at the thrift store. Then join Kim on the sofa, taking the time to dust off the spot first before sitting.
“You know this place has sort of a rustic charm to it.” Mandy pointed out making her way around the room. She poked at a few oddities on the walls and smiled.
“Not so sure I would call it ‘charm’” Brandi explained. She moved to open one of the kitchen cabinets. It creaked loudly as she moved it, the sound made her cringed.
Katy explained that she knew that the house was not perfect but that it did meet their most important needs. Plus, some changes needed to be made any way. She pulled a note book out of her bag and placed in on the coffee table. Brandi smiled, then realized that she had left her laptop in the car and ran to go get it. Katy motioned for Mandy to join Kim and herself. Mandy smiled sweetly and sat down on the love seat adjacent to them.
Soon Brandy return, laptop in hand, and took a seat beside Mandy. She set the laptop down on the coffee table and brought up some stuff on the screen. Katy pulled out a list of things that they needed to do and laid it out on the table. Kim picked it up and read it to herself. She glanced around the room for a moment before stealing Katy’s pen and at the top of the list she wrote the word ‘clean’. Katy yanked her pen away from Kim but then nodded in agreement. Cleaning the house was defiantly on the top of the list.
They looked over the plans and discussed a few outstanding issues, like sleeping arrangements. Then Katy laid out a plan of attack for the cleaning, divide and concur was going to be their best bet. She offered to clean the main level if Mandy would take the upstairs and the other two could tackle the basement. Brandi hated cleaning with a passion but at least she and Kim would be together, surely they would be done first.
Katy reminded them that the basement was very important in their plans. Kim nodded letting Katy know that she understood. Mandy picked up the list and looked at it for a minute. Some of the items on the list didn’t make any sense to her and she wanted some clarification once they were done cleaning. The others smiled at her and agreed to explain it to her later. Mandy was such a sweet girl after all so it was easy to go the extra mile for her. Brandi glanced over it as well but most of it made sense to her.
The cleaning stuff was still in the vehicles so the girls rested a minute then went to fetch it. They made trip after trip to and from the cars; after all they weren’t sure what all they were going to need to make the house presentable. Kim wasn’t sure that they had even brought enough to get the job done. Mandy neatly placed the stuff in piles on the kitchen floor. Brandi sighed heavily setting the last of the stuff down. She really hoped they had enough.
Kim turned and suggested to Brandy that the two of them go and check out the basement and see what they were going to need first. Brandi followed her over to the basement door. Kim opened it slowly and then flipped the light switch. The lights flickered a few times and then finally stayed on. She slowly made her way down the steps, which creaked under her and made her nervous. At the bottom she stopped and peered over the railing into the seemingly large room. She turned to Brandi, who was about half the way down the stairs.
“You know Brandi, the next time we agree to something maybe we should look into what it is exactly we are getting ourselves into.” Kim explained. Brandi got a worried look on her face and rushed down the last part of the stairs and peered into the space.
“I am so going to kill her.” Brandi snapped. The room was large but full of broken furniture, boxes and some other things that the girls couldn’t exactly identify, all of which was cover with dust and spider webs. Kim finally got brave enough to step off the landing. She went over to one of the boxes and opened it, sending dust flying as she did.
Brandi joined her after much hesitation. She eyed a large animal head that was in the corner and then asked Kim if that was in fact a moose. Kim just nodded to her, she believed that is what it was but then again she had never actually seen one before. Kim picked up a book out of the box and thumbed through it as Brandi wondered around more, finally stumbling onto what appeared to be a bathroom. She covered her nose and mouth as she pushed the door open, just in case there were any surprises. It smelled musty but otherwise not too bad. Kim noted that there was some pretty neat stuff down here as she tossed the book back in the box.
“I feel like I need some kind of shot in order to be down here.” Brandi replied. Kim just laughed then suggested that they head back upstairs to get the vacuum so they could suck up some of the dust. Brandi rushed after her, afraid to be down there by herself.
Katy was in the kitchen wiping down the cabinets and counter tops. She crawled inside one of the cabinet to get to the back of it. Kim leaned over the bar and watched her work for a moment. She informed her that they were taking the vacuum to the basement. Katy had figured they were going to need it before they had even gone down there to check it out. She had been the one that had come out to see the house before the sale was finalized.
“Why didn’t you tell us that it was like a dungeon down there?” Brandi snapped kicking one of Katy’s shoes. Katy didn’t move from her spot under the counter. Katy had thought that had been implied by the fact Kim had been sent to help her. Katy felt something move near her in the cabinet. Brandi jumped when she heard a loud thud. Kim peered at her friend with some concern, thinking maybe she might have hit her head or something. There was exactly a hospital nearby, so any accident could be problematic for them.
Katy crawled out and tossed something into the trash can. Kim flashed a concerned look to her friend; Katy just smiled and washed her hands. After all it was just a bug and now it was dead. So there was really no point in bringing it up. Katy promised the two of them that after her and Mandy were done they would come and help out down there as needed. After all the rest of the house was not packed full of stuff. This seemed to pacify Brandi so she grabbed the vacuum and headed back down stairs.
Kim stayed a bit too ask Katy what to do with all the stuff that was down there. She thought for a minute then told her that they should keep anything useful; the rest could be taken out back and burned as far as she was concerned. Kim smiled recalling the box of books she had already found; surely there were other treasures down there.
The girls slaved away for the remaindered of the day cleaning and clearing out the house. Brandi and Kim carried box after box up from the basement and tossed them into a big pile in the backyard, minus a few items that they deemed worthy of saving.
Mandy paused for a minute after she ran the mop over the last spot of dirt on the floor in the second bedroom. She looked around, admiring her handy work. Both bedrooms where about the same size and where completely void of furniture. So her job had been pretty easy, but she had been in no hurry to join the others in the basement. She was not fond of spiders after all. She reached down and picked up her bucket, then headed down stairs.
When she got to the kitchen she realized there wasn’t any one there. The house was empty and that kind of scared her. As she was pouring her dirty water down the drain, she noticed out the window, her friends were gathered around a pile of junk in the backyard. Brandi was working to try and start a fire. Kim was flipping through some books, stopping from time to time to chuck one onto the pile. Katy was trying to put an old end table back together again with little success. Mandy smiled, she loved her friends. No matter what they were doing, they were always having fun.
High school seemed like so long ago now; they had all grown up and grown apart. They had always worked best together though. This was their chance to be great again. They were on an adventure of sorts.
Mandy finally set the bucket down in the sink and ran out the back door to join her friends. There was a burst of excitement as Brandi finally got the fire started. The whole pile quickly erupted into flames. Kim joked that Mandy had to be the slowest person in the world when it comes to cleaning. Mandy smiled at her, she didn’t care if she thought she was slow.
The fire was nice and warm in contrast to the cool mountain air. The girls sat there for awhile lost in the glow of the flames. No one said anything for some time; it was just the sound of the crackling fire and the crickets. Suddenly something moved in the distance. Kim jumped and latched on to Mandy’s arm. Kim questioned as to what it was, after all she was not used to being out in the woods like this. Katy laughed at her and told her it was probably a moose like the one they had found in the basement or maybe a bear. Mandy asked her if it was safe to be out there. “How should I know? The fire should keep whatever it is away.” Katy replied. She was a little annoyed by them implying that since she had been camping as a child, she might actually know about wild animals. In reality she had never seen a moose before, how could she know what they are like. Brandi could tell that Katy wasn’t scared and then put her at ease, until of course Mandy had to ask her why she wasn’t scared. “Because I don’t have to out run it, I just have to out run you guys.” Katy replied.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Kim asked.
“Whatever that animal is, it can only get one of us and that would probably be the first person it catches when we all take off running. So as long as I can out run at least one of you, I can make it to the house.” Katy explained with a smile. Kim playfully tossed a book at her. She dodged it and then stuck her tongue out. Katy was not about to lie to them after all they were her dearest friends, but she didn’t believe in fear or regret. She wasn’t sure what any of it was good for.
