The House Next Door

I remember walking to school that day. I believe that I was in good spirits, skipping happily down the street with my pack bouncing against my back. I waved a cheery hello to Old Man Winfred, God rest his soul, to which he just grunted at. Never the less, I was happy and quite excited to be back to school. Ah, the joys of being seven and naïve to the horrors of the world.

Unfortunately, as soon as I arrived at the elementary school, I was introduced to a few of the horrors.

There was a slight girl with the palest blonde hair and skin that I had ever seen being shoved around by some boys a few years older than me. I recognized them from their frequent visits to my own house. They were friends with my elder brother, but I wasn't going to let that stand in my way.

I was shocked, appalled, at how those boys were treating that girl. For a few moments, I stood there shaking, all the joy in me had flown away. I hardly even noticed as my close friend Janelle hurried up to stand beside me.

"They've been doing that for a few minutes now. Why don't the teacher's do anything?" Janelle asked, gesturing to the Grade Two and Four teachers who were leaning against the wall and smoking. They appeared to be unaware of anything surrounding them.

"Well, if the teachers won't do something, I will," I announced with much bravado and marched forward. Janelle quickly scampered along behind me.

"You're crazy, Sherrie. You're going to get hurt. Maybe even a black eye," Janelle breathed, awed at my bravery.

"Don't worry. I know them. They're Shawn's friends," I reassured her.

"I don't know if that's going to help you, Sher," Janelle warned. I ignored her and continued walking towards the fray. When I got to the edge of it, I stood there, hands on my hips, chin up and my amber eyes flashing.

"Excuse me? What do you think you're doing?" I demanded.

"We're gettin' rid o' the freak, what does it look like?" The biggest one slurred.

"Leave her alone," I said darkly and with the force only a seven year old could manage.

"Who's gunna stop us? You're just a little kid!" The boy said arrogantly.

"I'll...I'll get my brother to beat you guys up!" It was an empty threat, and they knew it. The boys hooted with laughter and one of them choked out a few words.

"Yah, you do that girly," He spied a teacher hurrying over to us, "But we must be going now," The three boys hurried off.

"Sherrie! Janelle! What is going on here?" My teacher from last year, Mrs. White, was our saviour.

"Those boys were pickin' o-" I started.

"Nothing, ma'am. They were just showing me around, here," The pale haired girl said softly, her eyes unreadable behind her dark sunglasses. Mrs. White looked at the three of us suspiciously.

"You sure about that?" Mrs. White asked.

"N-"

"Yes," The girl said, just as softly. Mrs. White shot her a look as she walked off.

"Now why did you go off and lie to Mrs. White? That's not right, you know!" I cried indignantly to our pale friend.

"It's not a matter of right or wrong, it's a matter of keeping yourself safe," She said, in that same soft tone, "Now, excuse me, I have to go find my class," She moved off quickly and somehow managed not to look as if she was hurrying.

"Now come on! We can show you where your class is!" I hollered after her. The girl just kept walking.

"It's no use, Sherrie. She's a weird one," Janelle dropped her voice to a loud whisper, "A loner."

"Nonsense. Everyone needs friends," I proclaimed.

"Are you saying that we should be nice to her?" Janelle asked, wide eyed.

"No, I'm saying that we're going to be her friend."

"I don't think you can be someone's friend if they don't want to be yours," Janelle pointed out.

"She'll want to be our friend! After all, we saved her," I said cheerfully.

"Yah, you're right. Come on, let's go find her," Janelle was easily swayed to agree with me. The two of us hurried into the building, following in the pale girl's path.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find the girl. As Janelle aptly put it, it was as if she was a ghost. She sure was pale enough to be one. By the time the bell rang, we were completely unsuccessful, so we gave up our search and headed to our homeroom and settled down in our desks. After we went through attendance and started our spelling, we heard a knock on the door. All pencils stopped moving and everyone turned and stared at the door. Our fascination was obvious; we had yet to learn the secrets of hiding our interest to escape the teacher's eye. Sure enough, the teacher noticed our gazes and barked a swift order to get back to work. After a few moments of glaring over our small heads, he strode forward and gently opened the door.

"Yes?" Our teacher asked roughly.

"A new student for you, Colin," The school secretary said cheerfully. There were a few whispers as the children debated over the new knowledge of our teacher's first name. Some of us were unaware that teachers actually had more than one name. But, by the end of the week, Mr. F's first name was forgotten, just like his full last name was.

"Fun. Where is this student?"

"Hello sir. My name is Nora Fielding. I hope I am not of any bother to you," Imagine our shock when we saw our pale friend speaking demurely to our homeroom teacher. Mr. F's shock was nearly as great. I'm sure the prospect of a soft spoken seven year old pleased him immensely.

"No. No trouble at all," Mr. F turned to the rest of us, "Now, which one of you wants to be Nora's buddy? Sherrie, you do not have to make such a show of things."

I was half jumping out of my desk in excitement, my hand waving frantically in the air with a huge grin on my face. I was, and still am, I guess, the exact opposite of what Mr. F looks for in a student. Loud, excitable and always talking back. I had spent quite a lot of time in the principal's office that year.

Mr. F was scanning the room to find out who else wanted to be Nora's buddy. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for him, I had a very tight control over my class. They knew that if they took away my prize, a few days later a frog or a snake would magically end up in their desks. Some of the boys were even terrified of the harmless animals. Well, some snakes are poisonous, but I'm only talking about the common garden variety here.

Mr. F sighed, "Fine, Sherrie. You can be Nora's buddy," I grinned happily and patted the desk between Janelle and I (Mr. F had previously angered at our delightful conversations and split us apart rather poorly. The poor man was obsessed with alphabetical order. In fact, I swear I saw him twitching at the prospect of an F sitting in between an N and an O. Fortunately, the secretary liked me and interrupted Mr. F before he could even open his mouth.).

"That is a brilliant idea! Now, go along Nora. Sherrie and Janelle are nice girls; they'll show you the ropes," Janelle and I beamed happily at the praise as Nora slowly made her way over to us. She delicately sat down, smoothing her ruffled black dress in a prim and perfect manner.

"This buddy system is a waste of time. You do not have to show me around, be nice to me or anything. I wish for you to leave me alone," Nora said softly to me and after a few moments of staring into my shocked eyes, she turned and began to put her school supplies in her desk. Over Nora's head, Janelle and I shared surprised glances.

"Ugh. What is with that girl?" Janelle asked hypothetically.

"I know. We were only trying to be nice," I complained back. It was Friday, and normally the two of us were as happy as larks when that day rolled around. Janelle always came over to my house that day to spend the night. But the events of that day put a damper on our spirits; Nora had thrown her worse rejection yet at us, using words we had never heard of and some that we had heard of; we just weren't allowed to use.

"I just asked her if she wanted to spend the night. I can't believe that someone could be that mean," Janelle was close to tears, again. Nora's comments had hurt her the most; they were largely based on Janelle's weight.

"Don't worry. I'll put a snake and a frog in her desk on Monday," I vowed.

"But the last time you did that the frog disappeared and the snake had a lump that wasn't there before," Janelle pointed out.

"Hmm. Good point. There must be a solution to such things," I pondered and the topic moved away from Nora to the more frivolous matter of snakes and frogs. But our conversation came to an abrupt halt when we came to the edge of the property next to mine. The yard was so full of dead and rotting leaves, one could not see if there ever was grass on the ground. The small old wrought iron gate hung stiffly from the rusted hinges. The odds of it opening looked quite slim. One could travel up the desiccated and leaf covered path onto the rotting porch to the front door. Of course, one would also manage to navigate the porch in such a way that you do not fall through the rotting boards. If one ever got close enough to the porch, one could see that there were several holes in it from previous people attempting to reach the front door. The door itself hung open in an almost inviting way, which was unfortunately betrayed by the thick, clinging darkness of the house itself. The fact that it was a bright day did not make the darkness lighter, en contra; it looked as if it made the darkness darker.

Janelle and I shared fearful looks and both took off, our feet slapping the pavement as we hurried to get past the feared house. Somehow, for me, the house was less scary with Janelle running beside me. When we got to my house, the one next door, we didn't stop running until we got to the front door where I opened the door as fast as possible and we both rushed inside. I closed the door with a loud slam behind us. As we both leaned panting against the door, pulling off our shoes, my mother walked in with a large smile on her face and a plastic margarine tub full of cookies in her hands.

"As soon as you both wash up, you can have some of the shortbread cookies I've just baked," She smiled gently at the both of us. Our fears forgotten, the two of us grinned at each other and raced off to the main floor bathroom. As we put our hands under the warm running water, my mother called out to use soap. Scowling, I swiped my hand across the rounded white bar and rinsed my hands under the sink. Janelle followed suit and we both dried our hands on the fluffy cream towel above the sink. Of course, we did have to stand on tip-toe to reach it, and in the end it just slid off the rack anyway. I attempted to put it back on the rack, but I lacked the height. Shrugging, I tossed it down on the counter and raced off to the kitchen for the cookies.

As Janelle and I carefully selected the three largest cookies, my mother began to speak.

"Sherrie, Janelle? I hope you do not mind that I invited another girl over for the night. You might know her; she goes to the same school as you," My mom said cautiously, yet in control.

"Oh, it is no problem. We do not mind, don't we, Janelle?" I said cheerfully.

"Nope, it's all cool," Janelle said through a mouthful of cookies.

"Well that's good. Her name is Nora," Mother said, relieved. Janelle started coughing, "Janelle, are you alright."

"I-" cough, "think so." Cough, "But Nora? She hates us!"

"I'm sure you're exaggerating," My mother attempted to console us.

"We're not," I said blandly.

"Well, she'll be here after supper," Mom warned.

"Okay."

And so supper passed with much anxiety from Janelle and I. After we had our dessert, the two of us sat nervously in front of the TV, not entirely taking it in. When the doorbell rang, we both exchanged nervous glances and slid off of the couch, slowly making our way to the door. By the time we arrived, my mother had already opened the door and greeted Nora and her mother.

"-Very much for letting Nora into your home," Nora's mother was saying. Her voice dropped to a loud whisper, "She has such a hard time making friends."

"Oh, it is no trouble. No trouble at all. We're glad to have you here, Nora. Aren't we, girls?" It was partially a warning, so the two of us nodded our heads vigorously. As soon as the adults eyes turned from us, Nora's polite and pleasant face transformed into an ugly sneer. Her pale eyes glittered angrily at us. She obviously blamed us for her presence here. I shrugged to show that it was none of our doing, but she obviously didn't understand.

"Well, I have to run. Bye Nora! Kiss kiss!" Nora's mother bent down and air kissed both of Nora's cheeks. Janelle and I suppressed a few giggles. Nora's mother frowned at us and then turned to leave, "Thank you so much, again," She left.

"Well Nora, just put your shoes here and come into the kitchen for a few cookies. You too, Janelle, Sherrie," The three of us meekly followed my mother. As soon as Nora was settled and munching on a cookie, my mother bid us adieu under the pretence of leaving us along to "get to know each other."

"So," Nora said after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, "You think you're so tough, eh?" Janelle and I shook our heads 'no' vigorously, "Well I might just like you a little more if you go and touch the door on the house next door."

"You mean Mr. Farley's house? Oh, that will be easy. He's nice to us, shares the cake his wife made for him with us and-" I began to ramble.

"No," Nora interrupted coldly, "The other house. The old, rundown house."

Janelle and I swallowed.

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