My TRUE ghost story, our haunted house part 4

11/15/2010

After the Christmas tour was over I decided I would indeed visit our elderly neighbor and see what I could learn. No one up to this point had been at all friendly in our neighborhood. Up until the tour most treated us like we were of a lower class than them and had no business in this historic neighborhood with its huge impressive mansions, brick tree lined streets of large oaks and Bradford Pear trees that put on a beautiful show of white blossoms in the spring. Although our house was just as gorgeous as the rest and in some cases much more ornate, the neighbors still were standoffish. In the beginning I didn't understand it and finally B said he thought he knew why and as we sat on the front porch watching the BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus and Lincolns roll down the street. I drove a Dodge Durango and had my baby in the garage, a Sebring convertible, B had a Dodge van and an old Ford truck. They were judging our wealth by the vehicles we drove. And we didn't fit in. The tour changed things, suddenly people were waving and calling out hello. They had seen the inside of the house and were impressed. I don't know what they expected, some cheap trailer furniture, a velvet Elvis and a Charlie Brown Christmas tree? I know we surprised them. So one sunny afternoon I saw the Judge's maid wheel him out onto the front porch in his chair. I decided now was my chance to find out what there was to know about our house. The elderly man didn't attend the tour but as I walked across the street he waved to me and I waved back and asked him if I could talk to him for a few minutes. He motioned me onto his porch with his cane and I shook his gnarled old hand which had a surprisingly firm grip. Even though he was in a wheel chair I could tell that he was a tall man with a shock of white hair and deep set, intelligent blue eyes. I began by telling him my name and he cut me off gruffly saying "I know who you are and I've wondered how long it would be before you came over asking questions about that house." He saw the look on my face and said "Go ahead, tell me what you have experienced over there, better yet let me tell you this, no one stays long over there and I tried to buy the place and have it bulldozed but the historical society wouldn't hear of it." He looked at me waiting for a reaction and I felt so dumbfounded that I must have been looking at him in shock as he chuckled a bit then his blue eyes narrowed and he said "Get out of there, that is an evil house with a dark history and you and your family need to heed my warning" Even though the sun was shining brightly on the wicker chair I was in I glanced across the street at our beautiful dream home and got a major chill, suddenly the mansion looked sinister to me with its towering turret and huge arched windows. That is the first time I really saw what all our friends and family were saying about it looking like a beautiful but creepy house. But as I scanned the neighborhood from the Judge's expansive front porch I thought, well all the rest of these old mansions have a lot of the same design, one even has gargoyles on the roof, but somehow doesn't look as foreboding as ours. Before I knew it 2 hours had passed as the Judge told me of his childhood in this very house that he still called home. He told me of his parents and his days as a young man in law school. And slowly he began to factor in his lifetime experience with the house across the street. When the Judge was about 5 he was best friends with a little girl named Marilee. She lived in our house with her parents who often attended and hosted parties with the Judge's family. Little Marilee had blond ringlets and large blue eyes. Her favorite color was blue and she had a constant companion, a little Jack Russell named Fred. Marilee and the Judge took piano lessons together at Marilee's house every Wednesday afternoon from old Mrs. Eckert who lived just a block down. Marilee played beautifully on her mother's new grand piano. The Judge on the other hand, not so well, he often looked up from the ivories to see old Mrs. Eckert scowling at him. Marilee would try her best not to giggle but she always would which would send a scowl her way from the elderly, and crabby old Mrs. Eckert. In fact, the Judge hated the lessons but looked forward to going just to spend time with beautiful little Marilee. The Judge's old eyes misted a bit as he told me what happened and how his heart was broken at the tender age of 6. One Wednesday afternoon after school the Judge finished his lessons with his teacher and went to the kitchen where he smelled the aroma of freshly baked sugar cookies. Clara, the families cook and housekeeper was baking cookies while the oven was hot with the families dinner. "You may have 2 cookies now and you may take some over to Marilee when you go for your lesson" Clara said as she loaded a freshly laundered dish towel with several cookies for Marilee's family. "The rest is a blur to me" he said. "As I walked down these front stairs to the walk, I heard a scream from Old Mrs. Eckert. I ran across the street and through the side gate into the back yard, the first thing I saw was old Mrs. Eckert with both hands over her mouth and when I turned to where she was looking I saw her." The judge dropped the dishtowel and cookies scattered across the brick patio when he saw beautiful little Marilee lying in a pool of blood directly below the majestic balcony that overlooked the back yard. Marilee was gone, and about that time Fred started howling from between the balusters on the balcony. All the judge remembers from that point on is the mournful howls of little Fred that seemed to last for hours. "I guess I passed out because the next thing I remember was being in my own room and waking to my mother and doc Goldstein hovering over me. Mother looked as if she were ready to pass out as well, she looked so old at that moment. I don't remember when I finally tried to resume life, or when I was told that old Mrs. Eckert died of a heart attack on the patio that day."