Down Dury Lane

Part 2- As it Appears

It seemed strange to Jack, only a moment ago you could hear children playing and cheerful laughter now the street was bare and silent. Walking down the driveway where his dad's ford model T that usually took its place sat but was gone because of work, Jack peered his head right then left seeing nothing there, no one.
A small red ball almost similar to his own rolled across the road as if it resembled a tumble weed from the old westerns with the cowboys. Jack imagined himself as one of those cowboys, walking along in the dusty desert before his mind came back to reality. Jack turned his head back to the right as he walked to the road, a white and blue police cruiser was parked in front of Matthew's house. His mother and Father standing there, his mother's arms crossed her body, his father holding her on the front lawn as they talked to the policeman. Jack's mind started to wonder through possible answers to why.
"I think it was Mrs.Muffin" Jack heard this familiar voice, turning his head to where Andie stood, scuffing her feet against the red ball on the road.
"Huh?"
"I think it was Mrs.Muffin who took my brother,"
Her voice was natural and almost unfazed as she picked up the ball and rubbed her hands against it. Jack ran through what she had said over and over again, not believing it.
"Mum thought he was out playing in the forest with you but when he didn't come home for lunch she called the cops" Jack came closer as he listened to the little girl in front of him, about half his age and knew more than him.
"Matthew wasn't with me this morning though''

His ball hid under his arm as the little girl soon started skipping down the street back to her family not answering him but instead singing the old nursery rhyme the Muffin Man, tilting her head to each side back and forth as she went.
. "Oh, do you know the muffin man, The muffin man, The muffin man, Do you know the muffin man, muffin man. Who lives down Dury lane?"

Little by little Jack realized what had happened, his best friend gone without a trace. Mrs. Muffin? He thought, why would it be Mrs.Muffin?

Jack now stood in front of the Muffin Manor. It was a nice Victorian style house, a white picket fence surrounded by roses of pink, white and red hues. Mixes of tulips and hydrangeas sit beside the big elm and oak trees in neat beds. Next thing Jack knew he was looking up at the wooden door after ringing the doorbell, holding a handful of blueberries that had been picked on his way through her yard. Small chimes rang through the house until the sound of footsteps could be heard coming closer to the door. Jack chewed on the blueberries as he waited feeling a little more anxious than he has ever been before. The door opened wide and there was Mrs. Muffin who lives down blueberry lane.
"Well hello there," Her lines of age stretched as warm hearted smiles appeared showing her yellowish white teeth "Your Jack Chandler from down the way, if I'm correct"
Jack thought he saw something, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. The look in her eyes said something different then what the smile on her face says. Her eyes peered down to the handful of blueberries that was now almost gone as Jack was to respond.
"Yes I am ma'am" He said with a smile on his face, remembering what his mother taught him.
"You look so much like your mother. You have her beautiful blond hair and her sharp yet delicate features, oh how could someone not notice how tall you are for your age"

Jack sat down peering around the room. It's what he expected from an aged woman, almost what he'd expect from his mother. The sun peeked through the window that was covered in bright yellow and white curtains that sat on ugly floral print walls that covered all the walls around him.. Looking over the room, eyes landing on a painting of dogs playing poker, one he swore everyone had in their house at some point. Eyes trailing down to the matching peach chair similar style to what he sat on now, he felt like he needed to laugh. Laugh at Mrs.Muffin and her house, laugh at how stupid he was for believing a four year old and thats what he did. He laughed. Before this Mrs.Muffin added after letting him in that she would be right back after making some tea, this was now a good time ago and silence had taken the space.
This didn't sit well with Jack, he never cared for silence. Jack was the type of kid that would constantly talk during reading time in school or ramble on about something during movie night.
"Hello?"
Jack had gotten up feeling curious, he felt almost like he was walking through a fun house at the fair, someone could pop out with a "boo!" or some paper bat that came down from the ceiling. He peered down the long narrow hallway plastered with striped vertical wallpaper that made it feel even more small. The floor creaked with each step Jack took, looking curious to what was around feeling like he's in his own movie. Him as the main character waiting for the villain to appear with some kind of disguise that looked even more fake on the television than you would think.
At the end of the hallway there were two rooms on either side, Jack stood there looking from one side to the other trying to decide which way to take his adventure, he did what only a reasonable person would do.

"Eeny,Meeny, Miny, Moe," He bounced his finger back and forth to each of the door ways as he continued "Catch a tiger by his toe, if he hollers let him go, Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe," Jack continued to bounce his finger back and forth as he finished the rhyme "...And you are not it" His fingered landed on the open hallway to his left similar to the one he was standing in now, turning to the opposite direction of where he pointed standing in front of a plain white door without a door knob.