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The Cole house

Being a handyman I get the weirdest jobs, my name is Roy Peterson and I live in Applewood. Anything people deem too difficult or disgusting to do themselves is what I get called out for. That's why it was not unexpected that Mrs Lilyanna Cole called me to clean out her gutters. The drawback to this job is that the Cole house is as a mansion. A gothic monstrosity hidden in the woods outside of town. The local kids think it's cursed, they say that back in the sixties, there was some kind of masacre up there but who knows, lots of things are exaggerated over time. It has gutters all right but they are way up high.

"What do you want me to do, turn into a bat?" I asked

My attempt at humour didn't even get a laugh.

"I heard you were a rock climber."

"Yes that's true."

Mrs Cole is a very serious lady, she's tall and pale and the last of her family living here. My instinct was to suggest she call a roofer but we are short on money and the holiday season is coming up so I took the job.

Arranging the date was another point of difficulty the only time Mrs Cole seemed to feel was appropriate was the afternoon of October 31st which would be alright if it weren't for the fact that I like to take my daughter's Jilly and Kate out trick-or-treating. I promised them both I would be back in time for us to head out. My wife gave me one of those dark looks that told me there would be trouble if I didn't.

I gathered my rock climbing gear and everything else I needed and headed through the forest to the house. Its wrought Iron gates were standing open so I drove straight in and parked in the shadow of the house. It has a tall central tower and casts a looming presence over its surroundings. There is an air of neglect about the house, the garden is overgrown and the paint is peeling. I know this is mostly because Mrs Cole is getting older and is not as rich as some imagine.

Mrs Cole was standing on the porch, she greeted me with a limp cold handshake and we walked together around the house necks craned eyeing off the guttering. We negotiated over the cost, I tried my best to be fair to both of us. When we had settled on a price she took me upstairs and she showed me the attic and the access from there to the roof. While we were up there in the dim dusty light a strange piece of story came to her mind.

"My great aunt Matilda killed herself up here, she went right through that window"

She indicated a circular window at the end of the attic,

"Poor woman she was so unhappy, married the wrong person, we should have seen it coming but we didn't"

"That's an awful way to go," I agreed

Mrs Cole nodded, "It was a long time ago but I remember her"

"You be careful up there." She left me to get on with things.

After Mrs Cole had gone I set about investigating the situation. Working cautiously I set up places to tether my gear and strapped myself in to abseil down to the gutters. I worked as quickly as I could all the time the thought of taking my girls trick-or-treating was at the back of my mind. Towards the late afternoon the sky above me began to darken and before I knew it drops of rain were falling on my head. Being on a roof in a thunderstorm is not where you want to be so I began the slow climb back up to the attic entrance. Before I could get there the wetness underfoot made me slip and I came down with a hard crack. I must have blacked out for a moment because when I came to the rain was pouring down in earnest. I groaned, rubbing my head. The rock climbing gear had saved me from a more serious fall and so I managed to ascend the roof and crawl back into the attic.

Un-clipping myself I looked around. It was even darker than it had been before but it lit up bright as day as the lightning flashed outside. The attic was full of unrecognizable shapes, old furniture and piled boxes. Between flashes of lightning I thought I saw the figure of a woman, she was strangely dressed in old fashioned clothes. Tremulously I called out Mrs Cole's name but as the figure came towards me, I realized that it was not her. The woman seemed to look at me but not see me for the next thing I knew she was running straight past me towards the round window. Reflexively I reached out a hand to grab her but she was gone and I heard the distinct sound of smashing glass.

As I stood there wet and breathing hard the story Mrs Cole had told me came back to me and I realized that perhaps I had seen her great aunt's ghost. Shakily I laughed and shook my head. I trudged down stairs hoping to find Mrs Cole and tell her the story but search as I might I couldn't find her in the great house. It was strange, an odd time for her to leave the premises especially with me still up on the roof for all she knew.

I went out to the front and noticed that an ambulance had pulled into the drive and the drivers were maneuvering a covered form into the back. It was suddenly clear why Mrs Cole wasn't inside. The old lady must have had an accident while I was up on the roof. Shaken I watched as the ambulance pulled away.

There was nothing for me to do but to return home. I don't remember much of the drive, I must have been lost in thought. It had been an eventful afternoon. It was only on the front porch of my own house that I took a breath. I was suddenly grateful for all that we had. Despite our money woes I had a beautiful family. I opened the door ready to call out and welcome my girls with hugs. Instead my wife rushed up to the door. She bumped straight into me and stopped. She looked around, looked right through me and said my name in a questioning way. Then she stepped back still looking puzzled and closed the door, leaving me there on the porch. I went to put my hand on the door knob but this time it slipped straight through. That's when I knew with a cold kind of dread that my fall on the roof had been worse than I thought.