Friday, January 30, 2009

Finish the Story


This is a story I started a few years ago. It features Eli Fitzpatrick as a sophomore in high school, his older sister Madylin a senior in high school and takes place in 2005. Some of the references I made in the first paragraph cannot be attributed to a 15 year old, but I liked them so I left them in.~John


Wadsworth Manor loomed over Cleveland Street like some long forgotten statue that had been there so long it seemed it grew out of the very ground it stood on. No one I knew could remember the last time anyone had been seen going into, or coming out of the old place, yet as I stood gazing at it, well behind the iron fence that surrounded the lot, I felt as though the broken windows were eyes peering into my very soul, sensing the tiniest bit of fear that resided there and mocking me for being afraid. The exterior of the house was weather beaten had more wood showing than Paul Ruben at a porno, and yard that had not seen the least bit of pruning since Nixon was president. In spite of the blistered paint and cracked boards I could still sense the past majesty that the old place must have held back in its day. The sun was sitting behind the old place casting a haunting silhouette against the autumn sky, and as I stood there lost in my thoughts I could have sworn I had heard some one call my name from inside the house. A whisper at first, and then a bit louder…

“ELI! Mom says you need to get home right away…she’s pretty upset that your not answering your cell phone, she’s tried to call you like a hundred times.”

It was Madylin my older sister. She was on her cell phone with mom, as she walked down the sidewalk toward me. “Here, she wants to talk to you…” Mady said handing me the phone. I answered the phone and proceeded to converse with my mother, but my thoughts had already begun to drift back to that dilapidated old house, and wondering why it was in its present condition, who had lived there and why did no one live there now.

“Are you listening to me?” my mothers voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Yes, I’m listening to you.” I said as I began to walk home. The sky was getting darker and the wind had picked up a bit as my sister and I walked the last few blocks to our house. I put all thoughts of the old place to the back of my mind as we walked in the back door.

II

“Eli wake up!”
I opened my eyes and saw my mother staring back at me. I looked around my room and quickly remembered that the last thing I did was to sit down at my desk and check on my My Space page. That was at 10:30 after I had finished my homework, now it’s light outside and my moms yelling at me.

Wha—“It was the only intelligent thing I could muster.

“It’s 7 o’clock in the morning” mom informed me “You’ll be late for school if you don’t get up now!” My mother was an invaluable source of information.

I got up and stumbled into the bathroom, the light was painfully bright.

Finish the Story