My moms house has moved on.
The lot next to hers, where that house burned down, killing everyone inside, has a new house on it. Its bigger and encompasses the entire area of the foundation that was ripped up to keep the stories at bay.
I remember getting in trouble for going in there, though I never did. You could hear the knocking around and smell the burnt wood though it happened before I was even born. You could see the shadows through the broken windows and knew it wasnt raccoons. ALL the neighborhood kids stayed out of there. Even the brave ones. Even when it was just foundation, they were still there, pacing their imaginary walls. I would watch them from the patio. Nights always smelled like a bonfire.
My sister and I will talk sometimes at night about that place. My aunt too when shes had too much to drink. About my Aunt Clara, who everyone said was clairvoyant and read tea leaves and used to brag about an executed witch in the family. Somewhere in Canada. Who would ring a bell to call the kids in to avoid going down to the lake. My family found her floating one day and that was the end of it for her.
We talk about the Jackal. We talk about the panther that was said to stalk the woods. We talk about the boys that fell through the ice and though folks could hear their cries, no one found them or the hole they made, it was back in my dads day. He would take us to where he thought the epicenter was. He called it a snake. He believed that the place itself was evil, but was held back by a guardian who was a woman dressed all in white. He used to take me to properties and ask me to read them for him.
He’d take me to haunted houses and warn that if you weren't strong enough to banish them completely, the nasty ones would come back with 10 of their friends. We don’t talk about Michael. And I never believed in his guardian. Most of the time there is no great rectifier. And the only significance to Haleys Comet in my head is that he announced it to be and I was confused.
These mythologies are still in me. But the place they lived in is gone. I didn’t go back to the graveyards, but I don’t think I had to.
Im going to dig up this root ball, drill it full of holes–and be done with it.
