SOMETHING BRAND NEW (#fridayflash)

Please click play for some mood music

My five year-old daughter Lexi and I were making a fresh start.

With her mother finally out of the picture, I wanted to make sure she had nothing but tranquility around her. We needed to get out of our urban jungle and enjoy our newfound freedom.

There needed to be trees and grass. I wanted her to smell wet leaves in the fall and charred wood from cozy neighborhood hearths all winter long. I managed to find a an old fixer-upper buried deep within wooded Northern New Jersey, far removed from the industrial smokestacks Lexi had come to recognize.

The new house, located in an old town known for its revolutionary lore came complete with a charming mailbox by the small road and a babbling brook near the back porch.

# # #

I don't think we were there two weeks before I noticed it. I was in my study unpacking books (Lovecraft, in this case) when I heard Lexi's voice. She was laughing and utterly engaged in a conversation. I smiled at her sweet voice and basked in the comfort of our new home.

The next night, Lexi was at it again and I called her into the study.

"What'cha laughing at, sweetie?"

"He taught me something funny, Daddy," she answered.

"Who did?"

"The ghost... He taught me a funny dance. Wanna see?"

Keeping my cool, I instantly chalked up her new buddy as an imaginary friend as she showed me some silly contortion.

I laughed it off and she went back to her room. I heard her giggling some more, super engaged in a conversation. One that I was even able to follow. I called her back into the study and a few seconds later she came bopping in.

"Honey..." I said trying to play along, "Why don't you ask your ghost friend his name."

After a moment she returned and said, "Regulus..."

That was no ghost name.

We were in the land where Washington marched his patriot army and if it were a ghost, shouldn't it have been something like "William" or "Thomas" or some old fuckin' name like "Nathanial"?

I shrugged it off and told her that she should hang out with me for a while and she helped me with my books.

# # #

I didn't sleep that night.

The rain kept me awake while the wind whipped against the house. That's when the footsteps started. It wasn't Lexi because she was with me in bed snuggled in a ball.

They didn't start from far away but from right outside my bedroom door. Chronic creaking. Floorboards wailing. A door squeaking. This happened all night.

At dawn, I got up and opened a few hallway lights, thinking that could possibly matter and as I walked by my study, I saw them -- all of my books on the floor - except that Hawthorne.

# # #

"Why are you moving," the realtor asked me. "This house is just so..."

"Charming..." I said nodding. "It's just too damned quiet up here."

"Where you headed," she asked plunking the sign into the dirt.

"Back to the city," I said. "Something brand new..."

ART: Courtesy of morguefile. MUSIC: Composed by choplin, can down be downloaded HERE.

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