House hunting
House hunting
The alarms had me cracking an eye open. No signs of ghosts. Always a good start to the day. I hated waking up to the sight of a guy that went through a windshield. Or worse my grandmother in her orange puffy vest. No good day ever started that way. Last night my BFF Violet had texted about two houses she wanted me to check for spooky activity. She wanted to exploit my ability to see and hear the dead. No one told me growing up that part of being a ghost translator meant giving up sleep. As I laid there trying to convince myself to get up, I could hear cartoons playing in the living room. My early bird husband had probably already had a full day since he got up as soon as the sun peeked over the horizon. I rolled out of bed at the ungodly hour of nine am on a Sunday. There were days I wondered why I had married a morning person. At least he wasn’t singing this morning. I hated waking up to him singing happy songs. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go was one of his favorites. He was lucky he was cute.
Groggy, I threw on some jeans and a black tee shirt with a little mummy gnome on it. A quick trip to the bathroom to do my hair and put on my fall latte earrings before slipping a pair of black sandals on my feet. Still not fully awake, I wandered out to the kitchen where my family awaited me. My loving husband was at the stove scooping up some kind of pancake wrap thingy that smelled like it had sausage and eggs in it. Oh right, this was why I married him. He of course was already dressed for the day in a flannel shirt and jeans. He stilled smelled of his bath gel, yet his dark blonde hair and goatee were both dry. He’d left some stubble on his jaw line. Briefly I wondered if the sun was even shining when he showered. Our teen daughter Savannah was sitting at the table, still in her dancing kitty pjs, nibbling on a small pancake with a side of eggs. Her long blonde hair was pulled up in bun on the top of her head. It was refreshing to see her bare face. Girls today wore fake lashes constantly it seemed. Her green eyes didn’t need any enhancements in my opinion.
“Are you sure you don’t need me to go with you?” My husband Jesse asked as he handed me my pancake wrap in a paper towel.
“So far there’s been no soul of any kind. I’ll call if I need you.” He looked relieved. I knew he would have come but also knew he had a poker game scheduled for later in the day. Thankfully the child had plans to go to the outlet mall with friends which kept her from begging to join me. I loved my offspring but Vi and I needed to discuss what kind of debauchery she had gotten up to lately. Ever since her husband ran off to California, she was working her way through the most eligible bachelors and other hotties she found along the way. “We can pretend you saved me from the evil demon later. Heads up. Your reward will be dirty.”
A devilish smile spread across Jesse’s face. Then he planted a kiss that left me breathless on me. Our child ewwed. I giggled out a goodbye on my way to the garage.
Twenty minutes later I pulled my purple Jeep up to a white stucco monstrosity of a house in Flower Mound my GPS led me to. Multiple cars were already parked along the street. A huge sign proclaimed an open house today. There were a couple of cars that I didn’t recognize the emblem on. Guess I wasn’t ready to run with Vi’s crowd.
If memory served, the neighborhood now sat where a horse farm used to be. Despite my vows to never grow old, I was now to the point of saying I remember when this was nothing but fields and trees. Sighing, I looked at what might be my BFF’s new home. The lantern sconces were bigger than the tires on my car. The front was just a huge wall of white stucco and black trim. Little awnings over the windows made it slightly interesting but ultimately soulless. As I stood there, I realized that every fourth house had the same facade, I shuttered. This had to be one of the creepiest neighborhoods I'd ever been in. Master planned cookie cutter homes. Creepy. I opened my inner eye to see if there were any souls on the inside. Sighing I leaned against my Jeep drinking my golden eagle frozen coffee from Dutch Bros.
Momentarily Vi came out of the eight-foot double front doors. Sashaying down the walkway that gleamed like it had some kind of product mixed into the concrete to make it look like granite (given the neighborhood, it might actually be some kind of fancy shiny stone.), she was the picture of grace. Long honey blonde hair flowed down her shoulders covering part of her gauzy orange sleeveless shirt. Black shorts and Halloween themed slip ons encased her feet. Once she got close enough, I saw she had little black cats with witch hats earrings on with a matching necklace.
“What do you mean you aren’t coming in?” She waved her phone at me that also had a Halloween case on it.
“Oh good. You got my text.” I was still leaning against my Jeep. Receiving the kind of annoyed look only a loved one can give you, I decided to expand on my comments. “There’s a clinger in there.”
Vi looked back over her shoulder with concern. A clinger was a lonely ghost that liked to chat and didn’t believe in alone time. A Velcro ghost if you will. If I went in there and they realized I could see them, it could take me weeks to shake them off. She joined me in leaning against the car after I handed her the fancy lemonade I had picked up for her.
“This one was gorgeous on the inside. Could you just exorcise it?”
“Not a good idea. That might invite other things in. Best to buy in a different neighborhood.” Looking wistful, she nodded before dusting her backside off from any dirt my Jeep might have had on it. Slipping her designer sunglasses on, she headed for her Astin Martin parked on the curb in front of me, calling for me to follow her.