The House at the End of Magpie Drive (Aug 2020)

Part 2

I started to worry; someone could have stolen those boxes. No one ever came out here, but the sight of a newcomer could have enticed some teenager to play a prank or get away with a small crime. I searched around the car, the front yard, and the porch. I even went to the back yard and looked under the back stairs. Nothing.

Just as I considered calling the police, the front door shut. I was over the porch rail and in the front door in a flash. No one exited the house, so they had to be inside.

Right in the middle of the rug sat the three missing boxes, neatly labeled 3, 4, and 5. I opened them up. 3 had all my everyday dishes, 4 had pots and pans, and 5 had a collection of tabletop decorations. Nothing was missing. I got up and looked around. No other doors had been shut, and none were left open. That left the stairs. I went up, heart pounding.

No one was in the hall, and all the doors were shut except the study, which I forget to close on my way out. I tried to creep softly towards the door, but the squeaky floorboards gave away my intentions. Funny, the floorboards hadn't squeaked when the intruder went over them.

The ladder stair was down. The intruder did not pull it up after them. It did not budge 15 minutes ago when I tried to pull them down. I took my phone out of my pocket and turned on the flashlight. Then I ascended the staircase.

The attic was filled with the fading light of day and dust. The dust rose up in the air when I walked in and settled slowly, catching the last rays of light. There had been no dust in the air when I was climbing the staircase, so I began to question if the intruder was up here. The attic had randomly placed objects covered in heavy blankets that I couldn't lift. Just as I was about to head back down, the sun lined up with the window directly behind me, and all the other windows on that wall.

Red, blue, green, yellow, and purple light filled the attic, streaming from the six stained glass windows. Shards of glass in various sizes hung from the ceiling, reflecting rainbows. The blankets rose from every object in the room, revealing chairs.

I rapidly counted three dozen chairs, no two alike. There was a chair to my left that looked like a replica of an upper-class French chair from the 1700s. On my right, there was an old armchair with the stuffing falling out. The chairs were placed in six rings, with six chairs in each ring. Each chair floated off the ground an inch. One by one, each chair gently rocked as if someone had just sat down.

The rings of chairs began to rotate slowly, like gears. Chairs switched circles, noiselessly falling into line with the others. I pressed myself to a wall between two windows, completely awestruck.

After exactly one minute and six seconds, the chairs were exactly back in their original locations and they all stopped at exactly the same time. In the same order they rocked earlier, they rocked again. Then the chairs landed on the floor without a sound. The blankets followed, the prisms disappeared, and the light faded. The only light left was my phone flashlight.

In a daze, I walked to the ladder stairs and nearly floated down. As soon as my foot left the last step, the staircase folded back into the ceiling. I exited the study, leaving the door open, and went downstairs to the kitchen.

A stove and fridge had appeared, brand-new and out of place in the old kitchen. A hot plate of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and brussels sprouts sat on the round kitchen table. As if pulled by strings, I sat down and began to eat. Poison or not, it was the best meal I had ever eaten.

After I ate, the dishes floated to the sink and were washed by an invisible force.

"Thank you." I said, startled by my own voice.

"No problem," came the reply. "Now go to bed, it's getting late and you've had a long day." The voice seemed to come from every corner of the kitchen and it had a warm, chocolaty sound to it.

Automatically, I obeyed. My bed was assembled and made, and my toothbrush and toothpaste were on the bathroom sink. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and returned to the bedroom to find my pajamas neatly folded at the foot of the bed. I undressed and fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.