A Short Story by Cody Craig
"Here she is," said Sam as he pulled his sky blue Mercedes into the driveway.
Melissa sat in the passenger seat, silent, stunned, her exotic green eyes glued to the windscreen. Sam studied his fianc�es face, searched deep into her eyes, looking for even the smallest glimmer of an emotion. He was hoping to see excitement or at the very least something more than the total indifference that he was now witnessing.
Finally she broke her silence, "It needs a lot of work." It seemed to Sam like the words had found their own way out of her mouth as her facial expression had not changed from the apathy that had been there since they had pulled up in front of the big old house.
"That's half the fun," rebutted Sam, "It has great potential."
Sam had found the dilapidated house five weeks ago, while Melissa was out of the state visiting her Aunt Mable in Wisconsin. He had fallen in love with it the first time that he laid eyes on it. It had occupied his mind every waking minute and at night when he was able to drift off to sleep he dreamt about nothing else.
He had returned to the house daily. At first just sitting in his car in the driveway staring at the run down building for hours on end. In the pursuing days, as his courage rose, he ventured from the safety of his sports car and into the yard which was a jungle of over-grown weeds and grasses. On the fourth day the house beckoned him. On the rickety front porch he tried the door, locked. He tried a window, also locked, as were the back door and all of the windows that were accessible from the ground.
He had to take a look inside, it was his destiny.
Sam returned to his car and reversed out of the driveway, he spotted a grimy old real estate sign in amongst a stand of weeds. Stopping the car he jotted down the details on a discarded envelope that he had found in the glove box.
That afternoon Sam rang the Estate Agent's number and spoke to a salesman that knew nothing about a listing on that street. He however referred Sam to Peter Briggs, the proprietor of Briggs Real Estate Agency. Peter was somewhat taken back when Sam mentioned the address, he had almost forgotten about the old Simpson residence but did reluctantly agree to meet Sam there tomorrow afternoon.
That night Sam couldn't sleep, he tossed and turned as visions of the house played across the silver screen in his mind, over and over again.
At two thirty the next day Peter Briggs pulled up outside the house, Sam was already waiting, he had been there since ten that morning. They inspected the house together and later that afternoon Sam had handed over the down payment and signed a contract to purchase the house. Peter now had the task of locating the current owner, last he knew Randolph Simpson was in a State run mental asylum.
So that was the story of the house, the contract went through without a hitch and four weeks later Sam was the new owner of the Simpson residence.
The Simpson residence, a name that the house will never shred. A name that will only be heard in the faintest of whispers around the neighborhood, as if merely saying the name out loud would bestow untold terrors onto the gossipmongers.
On his way over to pick-up Melissa, Sam had swung by the Estate Agent and picked up the keys. Melissa had no idea that he had purchased a house. It was to be her surprise, when restored it would be their matrimonial home.
"Come on, let's go inside," said Sam enthusiastically.
"Do we have to, it looks dangerous and ..... and dirty."
"Come on, don't be a spoil sport. We're going to live here once we are married."
"Well you'd better have it fixed up real nice if you expect me to live in that dump."
"It'll be just perfect, just you wait and see."
They left the property a few minutes later, Sam knew that no matter how hard he tried to coax Melissa into the house, he would fail. She was as stubborn as a mule, but he also knew that once the house was tidied up she would change her mind.
Sam spent most of that summer at the Simpson house, night and day he would toil away, fixing this, mending that, painting here, cleaning there. Eventually in mid Autumn the house was ready for occupation, two weeks prior to the planned wedding ceremony.
From outside it looked like any other house in the street, white picket fence, painted clapboard exterior, front porch over-looking a manicured lawn, as normal as the word normal would permit. But deep inside, well hidden by the normal exterior the house harboured a dark secret.
The morning of the wedding day came and Melissa still hadn't ventured into their new abode. She had said that she would wait for her surprise, not wanting to ruin their wedding night by taking a peek at the house before time. She had however, over the past couple of months, committed to Sam that she would move in once they had been married.
"So here we are." said Sam holding his bride's hand. His heart beating at a hundred miles an hour, nervously anticipating her reaction. Finally, after many months of hard labour by Sam they were standing together as a couple on the freshly renovated front porch.
"You've done wonders with the yard and the exterior. Who would've thought that you could transform that dump into this."
Sam smiled, he was pleased with Melissa's reaction. Over the past few months, Sam had started to doubt their compatibility. He resented her for not wanting to visit the house while it was undergoing renovations. It was more than just resentment, he actually started to loath her, early on in the piece he had decided that if it came to the crunch and he had to choose between the house and Melissa it would be no contest. Melissa would have to go.
Sam picked up Melissa and carried her over the threshold.
"Wow!" exclaimed Melissa, "The inside is even better than the outside." She was impressed with the interior decoration that Sam had painstakingly completed by himself.
The walls were painted in refreshing pastel colours and the house was furnished throughout with brand new modern furniture. It was roomy and bright, and looked like it had been taken straight out of the pages of a design magazine. The age and previous squalid condition of the building had been totally hidden under the skin-deep facelift.
They moved through the house until they came to the master bedroom, it was their wedding night after all, and this room would be host to most of tonight's activities.