THE OLD FARMHOUSE YIELDS ITS SECRETS: Part 1
THE OLD HOUSE REVEALS ITSSECRETS
“Hey! You guys wearing combatboots?” Carla called to other twenty-somethings in the young couples Bible studyas they clomped single-file down the worn, wooden cellar stairs.
Many had bombarded Raul andStella with questions about their rambling old farmhouse, where the group metthat day. To satisfy everyone’s curiosity, the couple had invited them on atour from the cellar up.
Children’s squeaky voices, whining,and adult chatter added to the drumbeat of shoes on the stairs untilthe group gathered at their foot.Raul spoke over the crowd.
“My sister, Laura, right here with her husband, Chris, will help explain things. Most of you know we both grew up in this amazing house.”
She pointed to an overflowing laundry basket beneath a chute.
“There’s the laundry chute I was talking about. In the old days, it used gravity to get dirty clothes and linens from bedrooms to washtubs .”
"But of course, my lovely bride has a washer and dryer,” Raul added, his eyes drinking in his wife’s beauty.
The toned ballerina stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
Tiffany, the Bible study teacher’swife, shivered and pulled her sweater tighter.
“It’s cold in this cellar—justlike it’s always cold here in the Adirondack Mountains.”
The Florida native was havingtrouble adjusting to the recent move.
Raul motioned to an old, rustedchain.
“It’s a heavy chain, likelyused to hoist hay into a hayloft in the old barn. My Papa dug the chain fromthe ground, where a barn burned long before we moved here.”
Off to the side, Josh, abuilding contractor, was running his hand along the stone wall,
“Thesewalls feel sturdy. How thick are they?”
“Ourfather said at least two feet,” Raul answered.
ow th
Lauranodded. “They’re strong and sturdy but always damp.”
Thetour continued through the cellar, which was quite extensive.
Raúlpointed out a discarded pot-bellied stove and a long-abandoned wine cellarstrewn with empty glass bottles.
“Isthere a way out of here other than the stairs?” someone asked.
Lauraled the group to a worn door made of vertical wood planks. She unlocked andopened it, pointing up stone steps leading outside. The cool night air blew in.
Aseveryone headed back upstairs, Carla proclaimed with a good-natured laugh thatthe cellar had all the charm of a dungeon.
Theothers laughed and gathered for the next leg of the tour.
“Threefloors and fourteen rooms to go,” Laura said, motioning everyone onward.
Each step takes them closer to uncovering the secret that will change all their lives.
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** A fictional setting in my inspiration l thriller, Bibles and Bones in the Forest," coming soon from MillerWords, the old farmhouse combines an actual farmhouse in rural Virginia with the Victorian home on Staten Island, New York, where I grew up.
Watch for the book: MillerWords, https://www.facebook.com/
