I just love the guy with the disney video. My wife says the guy with the socks and sandals remind her of me. I can only hope to be that cool(the 60 inch cut ya know).Ok, now for the real fun!
Last Stop Part 2
The couple spent the afternoon wandering around the large house, admiring its beauty. They discovered the library which was actually two bookcases containing about eighty books in all, hardly a library. David had scanned the titles. A lot of classics, all of them fairly old, a few non-fiction titles, most popular the everlasting Dr. Spock’s baby book and other out dated volumes, and none by ‘Mr. Wright’. The books themselves were quite dusty on the top edges; as though someone dusted the spines, not the tops, and showing that none had been read in some time.
The two also found the dining room, a twenty by twenty square with a large rectangular table with seating for eight, three on each side and one at each end. A crystal light fixture hung above the center of the table. There was no other furniture in the room, and it was sans any windows as the room was centrally located on the first floor. A doorway led into the room from the hallway alongside the staircase, and another at the opposite end which David and Carrie exited through.
This doorway opened into an expansive great room, the grandiose of the first floor. The high, vaulted ceiling made no sense with the layout of the rest of the house, and David thought this room must have been added on at a later time. It had a more modern look about it, decorated a little more contemporary than the rest of the house, although still out dated. Like 70’s chic. There was a floral print sofa with oranges and browns, several wingback chairs, a desk in one corner, and a few tables, all arranged to face the focal point of the room. A cavernous fireplace, large enough to crouch in, surrounded by rough cut stone that ran all the way up to the eighteen foot high ceiling. And still there was no television set, let alone a plasma or LCD. David was impressed nonetheless and thought the room had to have been an expensive addition, more than what this seemingly hit-or-miss business could afford.
David heard a rumbling sound, loud enough that Carrie heard it too and looked at him. It took only a moment for him to realize it was his stomach. They hadn’t eaten anything since their breakfast on the road on the way to the Last Stop.
“Yeah, I’m a little hungry too”, Carrie said smiling,” shall we try to find the kitchen? A snack before dinner?”
“Good idea,” David replied. The pair ventured off to find the kitchen and after wandering the entire first floor, was unable to locate one.
“That’s odd isn’t it?” Carrie had asked David concerning the fact that there seemed to be no place for preparing meals. They searched a second time, a little more carefully just in case they passed a door that they overlooked. They walked down another long hallway with old photographs of people from long ago, many in the process of butchering, men and women both, wearing aprons and holding long, scary looking steel objects. The people in the picture seemed proud of their craft, and David assumed it was the family’s heritage.
Again there was no kitchen but they did find a few doors that were closed. David opened each one, yielding mostly closets. A small closet under the stairs contained an unusual and somewhat disturbing find. It was full of stuffed animals of all sorts, bears, bunnies, cats and dogs. Some seemed brand new, and others were old and tattered with the stuffing rupturing from their fabric bodies. Some of these older ones were stained with what could have been mud or coffee perhaps.
Carrie had given David that confirming look that asked at what point he would agree that this place was bizarre and a bit scary even. David only shrugged and shut the door. On their quest they came across another door which upon opening led down a dim, steep stairway. All that could be seen at the bottom was what appeared to be a cool, occasionally flickering light, like a fluorescent bulb going bad. David looked to Carrie and held his increasingly growling stomach.
“The kitchen perhaps?” he said.
“Go ahead if you want,” she answered,” but I lost my appetite two closets ago.”
David sighed and shut the door, then checked his watch.
“Well, its five-thirty, dinner’s in a half hour.”
“I don’t think I’ll be eating much,” Carrie said, and looked at the closed door, then up and down the hallway. A door opened further down the narrow corridor and William came through it. He was holding a stuffed giraffe and his big hand squeezed it tightly. He glanced at the pair with nothing but a blank expression. He just locked eyes with them, held the giraffe to his chest, as if to hide it, then turned, shuffled down the hall and disappeared around the corner.
“David,” Carrie said, “do me a favor.”
“What?”
“Don’t leave me alone here.”
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