Trapped in a Very Old Mansion!
I’
Amy raced up the back stairs towards the scream thinking Penelope went up the front stairs.
At the top, she ran to her room only to find the furniture was completely different.
After standing there in shock for a few minutes, she began to hear footsteps coming up behind her.
Wishing she had a weapon of some kind to defend herself, alas all she had was her cell phone... she had left her purse in her car.
Quickly she turned around hoping to push her way past whoever it was and then find a place to hide.
“What are you doing going into my room!” the young woman demanded.
Amy stood there... frozen.
“Well!” she demanded again.
“My name is Amy. What’s yours?” she asked hoping to distract her.
“Did my mother send you to help me?”
“Yes!” Amy lied to protect herself.
“Are you related to my mom’s friend, Becky?”
“Yes!” Amy lied again.
“Great!” she said, then added, “I need a Halloween costume for the dance tonight.”
With that, she went to her wardrobe and started throwing all of her clothes on her bed and on the floor.
* * * * *
When the officer recognized Greg, he told him to put his hands down.
What time was it when Amy left the party?”
“10:30!”
“Then what did you do?”
“I went home and at 10:45, I called her. When she didn’t answer the third time I called, I got worried and drove to her house. That’s when I found out she never made it home, so I went looking for her, found her car and called the police.”
Several other police cars arrived and the search began.
Greg and the officer where the first to come upon the house with the lights on. They walked up to the door and knocked hoping to find out if the owners had seen her.
First the officer knocked.
No answer!
Then Greg knocked.
Still no one came to the door.
When the officer was about to leave, Greg pounded on the door in panic mode.
The door opened and Greg raced inside when he saw Amy lying on the floor just below the stairs.
The officer stood in the doorway and used his two way radio to call for an ambulance and backup.
The paramedics said she was unconscious, but still alive. They got her in the ambulance and took her to the nearby hospital.
Later the doctor determined she was in a coma due to a head injury.
“How long before she wakes up?” Greg asked.
“There’s know way to tell. It could be soon or it may take even weeks or months,” the doctor said not wanting to commit to anything definite.
“Months?” Greg repeated.
“Is she a relative?”
“No! We just met at a party this evening.”
“You can go and sit with her if you would like.”
“I have to get home. My parent’s will be worried,” Greg said as an excuse. In fact, his parents were on vacation and wouldn’t be back for several week.
As he turned to leave, a couple hurried past him to talk to the doctor.
“Must be her parents,” Greg thought as he walked towards the exit.
He turned in their direction and was sure the doctor had told them he knew their daughter. Quickly, he went straight to his car and drove home.
The next day, Greg called to see if Amy had woken up... but she hadn’t.
* * * * *
The young woman’s room had become a shambles. Clothes, shoes, scarves, hats and belts were thrown everywhere.
Amy wanted to scream, “Stop!” but she was afraid of what the young woman would do. After all, she was an unexpected intruder.
“What am I going to wear?” she yelled and began to cry.
From the look of the clothes that were scattered around, Amy decided that it must be around the late 1910’s.
That gave her an idea. She began to pick up each item and putting it back in the wardrobe, laying aside those thing that she was sure would make the perfect Halloween costume.
When she was done, the young woman looked puzzled.
Amy knew the outfit would become all the rage in the next few year, but she didn’t want to reveal that she was from the future.
Piece by piece, she had her put on the clothes.
First, there was a black lace dress which had a bad stain at the bottom.
When Amy picked it up, the young woman became angry.
“I forgot to throw that away. It can’t be cleaned” she complained.
“That’s true, Amy agreed, but if it’s alright I need a pair of scissors.
Amy went to work and cut off about 10 inches from the bottom of the dress being careful to follow the lace pattern.
When the young woman, who refused to tell Amy her name, saw what she had done to her dress, she became even more angry.
“Please, try it on!” Amy pleaded.
Reluctantly, she put it on and looked in the mirror.
“It’s too short!” she declared.
“It a costume, remember?”
“Oh, that’s right!” she agreed and then smiled and reached for the belt which Amy got to first.
“No belt! You’ll see when we finish.”
Again, she reluctantly agreed to let Amy design the outfit.
“Do you have any fancy tights or nylons?”
She went to her dresser and pulled out a pair that look like fishnet and put them on and slipped on a pair of evening heels.
Next, Amy asked where she kept her jewelry.
“Why do you want to know that?” she demanded.
“I need some for the costume... please!”
Again, she reluctantly agreed.
When Amy saw all of what she had, she was in awe.
The armoire was filled with expensive looking jewelry of every kind... necklaces, bracelets, brooches, and ear rings.
Amy began accessorizing the dress with strands of pearls and a very ornate bracelet, however the ear rings were to short... none of them dangled so she combined two so they hung down.
“Do you have any black elastic?”
The young woman said, “Just this!”
She held up a garter belt.
“Do you have one I can cut?”
She handed her one that was black and silky looking.
"Perfect!” Amy exclaimed.
Using the scissors, she cut it apart and then looked for a sweater clip with a pearl brooch inlay in the middle.
Piecing the two together, Amy placed it on her head.
“Great! It fits!”
“I need one more thing... A feather!”
“Feather?” she questioned.
“Yes. about 6 inches long.”
Complying with Amy’s request, the young woman took one from off a hat and handed the sleek black feather to Amy which she slipped behind the headband.
“All done!” Amy announced.
She stood back to admire the flapper dress she had just recreated from memory.
“Go look in the mirror,” she encourage the young woman.
Slowly she walked to see what she looked like.
Her eyes got big and her mouth dropped open.
“Wow!” was all she could say.
“You look fabulous!” Amy told her.
“I’m going to have the best costume at the party!”
“Yes, you will!”
“Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,” she kept repeating before noticing the time and started racing down the hall.
Amy raced after her as she went down the stairs.
Halfway down, Amy stopped in a panic.
Before she could get to the door, it closed with a bang and like before there was know handle.
* * * * *
After Amy’s parent’s had gotten the bad news from the doctor, they went to her hospital room and began talking to her, hoping that would help her to come out of the coma.
It had been several hours since they had brought Amy in.
The house had been empty for two months and was up for sale... a fact Amy did not know because the sign had been knocked down.
The police found the loose carpet at the top of the stairs where Amy’s shoe had caught. They gave it to the paramedic, Since no crime had been committed, they ruled it an accident.
For the next few weeks, Greg called the hospital to see if she had woke up. Each time the answer was, ”No.”
College was to start soon and he was busy getting ready for his freshman year, so he stopped calling. By then he had convinced himself she was never going to wake up and had decided to move on.
Amy’s parents took turn going to visit her every day, talking to her, reading to her and praying for her.
They were careful never to talk about her maybe never waking up either while around her or even to each other. It was just too much to bear.
Instead they read happy books with happy endings and talked about all of the fun they had together at home, on trips, movies they had seen together and parties they had... especially for her birthday.
They even talked about all of the holidays they loved to celebrate in such a grand fashion, especial Christmas... How they made yearly trips to cut down their tree and spent hours decorating it. There was always a huge family gathering with relatives coming in from different parts of the country... a thought that now only brought them sadness.
* * * * *
Meanwhile back in San Diego...
“Yes, Josh,” she called from across the street. My parents just moved here.”
They raced to hug each other.
“I thought I would never see you again,” Josh said holding her tight.
“Neither did I until the next morning when I woke up and my parents told me we were moving here. I would have called but I didn’t have your number.”
Josh immediately pulled out his cell phone a asked for her number. After he dialed it, he announced, “Now you do!”
Since Josh was on his way to work, they made a date for dinner and a movie.
Zoe, not being to afraid to ask, “What movie?” they agreed to see the latest action film.
“See you at five,” Josh said with a quick kiss on the cheek.
“I can’t wait,” Zoe said with a big smile and then Josh was gone.
That evening, Zoe was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with the logo of the movie they planned to see.
Josh had done the same.
When they asked each other where they wanted to have dinner, they said, “Burger’s and More!” in unison.
The evening went more than great. They both had so much in common... they seemed to have a wonderful time together... no surprises... no conflicts... just a super time.
When they got to Zoe's front door, they stood there for a little while talking about their first dinner together and the movie they both enjoyed so much.
Then it was decision time... kiss goodnight?
They did and it was sweet, though it did lack passion which left both of them a little confused.
Maybe their adventure in the “Maze” was too intense to compare with reality.
During their senior year at high school, they were as the cliché says.. “An item”.
Spending most of their free time together, they did all of the things they both loved to do. There were never any surprises like in the “Maze”, something neither of them wanted to admit, “They missed!”
They both did everything alike. Halloween Costumes... the same action movie characters. Thanksgiving was always with family. They went to each others dinners and met all of each others families and relatives. Christmas traditions were the same! Even Valentine’s had no surprises.
Easter Sunday was “Their yearly church attendance.”
By the time graduation was nearly here, Zoe and Josh found out they were going to attend different colleges.
Zoe was going to go to the University of Kansas, and stay with one of her cousins who live there and Josh was going to the University of Portland where he wanted to major in computer technology.
Each of them were both sad and happy.
They would miss each other and promised to keep in touch, but they were glad for the new and exciting adventures they had to look forward to. This would be their first time away from home and a chance to discover what was going to be next in their futures.
They spent the remainder of the summer preparing for their moves to Oregon and Kansas.
Their final kiss goodbye was sweet.
This story will continue!