At the Window

Dana writing challenge

“Why that little girl is in that house and what happened”

For Dana…..

Hey mom you can see for miles from up here this is cool mom, mom, hey mom, where you go mommmmmmm

Pardon honey what you say

You can see miles from up here mom

I know that’s why I love this place, so high up on the hill always used to come here myself when I was small with my parents your grandparents, when the place wasn’t like it was now of course back then it was beautiful no weeds grew in the garden, the walls covered in a pretty wallpaper and red curtains hung at that same window you are at now magnificent rugs covered the floor and almost every weekend they held huge parties carriage loads of people arrived, the grooms in their red uniforms leading the horses away and bringing them back at the end of the night

“Careful honey you might fall”

The girl leaned a little further out of the window

Part of the windowsill suddenly broke away and fell onto the floor, startling her and making her fall back into the room tripping over the broken slate floor

“owwwch, mom I hurt my knee”

Told you to be careful didn’t I

“Yeah I know mom I know” the girl cheekily grinned back “what happened here anyway mom why is this house like this now?”

“Well honey I’ll tell you come sit here beside me and we can eat our picnic right here in this room, this is where it started you know the fire caught hold from a dropped lantern the oil spilling across the rug and over the curtains there was nothing anyone could do the interior of the house was almost totally destroyed in a matter of hours this part the shell was saved but no one wanted to live here any more.”

“Well I can see why, there’s nothing much left now apart from the view” the girl said sadly

“See there was a scandal in this house the master of the house was caught in bed with one of the downstairs maids, the girl of course was dismissed but Mister Smith got into a huge fight with the lady of the house I’m not sure exactly what happened but I heard that he killed her and buried her in the cellar” her mother whispered.

“Oh mom he did not she’s still alive and living by the sea, Miss Melissa told me that”

“By the sea well then she can’t be buried in the cellar then can she I do know that they did have a huge fight because I was told you could hear it all the way down into the town then there was a crash and after that the house could be seen on fire.

Do you think its Mr Smith that’s buried in the cellar? We could go look you know” her mother asked her tipping her head to one side and raising one eyebrow.

“No mom I don’t think so, you can but I won’t be I’ll just be very careful and look out of the window again I want to think about how this place was back then, the parties the dresses and the music it must have been a wonderful place”

“Yes it was wonderful honey unless of course you where murdered and buried in the cellar” her mother said giving her a wink.

“Oh mom you are such a joker” the girl laughed as she helped her mother pack up the picnic things
”its just an old half burned down house now but I kinda like it as it is I can imagine what it was like all those years ago and look out of the window and ….

Hey mom I can see our house hey mom, mom where you go MOM “ the girl yelled but her mother had gone.

Gone out through where the magnificent wooden main entrance doors once stood but now where just an archway covered in the leaves of some vine, her mother was walking home it was almost time to start getting dinner ready

She knew the girl would come running up after her shortly, she always did.