McConnell House

1938 Part 1

I was tending bar when I first heard the news.

“So did you hear some nut bought McConnell house and is planning to move it across the river?” I overheard one patron saying.

“Is he crazy? Doesn’t he know to leave that house alone?” his pal sitting with him answered.

“Crazy yes. But he has a theory that the land the house is on is cursed, not the house itself.”

“What a moron. And how does this guy plan on moving a house across the river, even if it wasn’t cursed?”

“Modern engineering feats no doubt. He even invited a writer from Popular Mechanics to view the whole thing.”

“What a moron.”

I didn’t say anything, but he was all for moving that house across the river. If they got lucky it would fall in and be swept away. Somehow he thought that wouldn’t happen.

After spending the night at the King Eddy, I was ready to leave Calgary as soon as I could. Like Karl had told me, the train yard was infested with Rail cops. That left me with hitching a ride out of town. But I didn't know where I should head. Should I go back to B.C., or back home to Sudbury. I hadn't talked to mom in years, ashamed that I had to go to the relief camps to work. The last letter I got from her was her pleading for me to go back for my father's funeral. I didn't know how she would react if I showed up now.

Karl provided a good reason to choose neither of those options. He got me a job, an actual real job. I would be tending bar at a place called the Iron Lady. It was a dive, and the pay was a joke, but I could stay in the back room, and meals were free. Karl said him and the owner were long time friends, and he owed Karl a favour. I don't know why he would use that favour on me, considering that he still didn't have a job, and still didn't have one to this day that I could see. But in these hard times you didn't say no to something like this out of politeness.

I haven't met the owner yet. When he needs to contact me or leave me instructions, he either gets Karl to tell me or he leaves me a note at the bar. Even with me staying here, I have never caught him leaving a note.

Things were finally looking up, for me at least. Even if the rest of the country was about the same. I thought once Mackenzie King was back in power, things would change for the better. They hadn’t, for the people out west anyway. King was heard saying ‘it was part of the U.S. desert area. I doubt if it will be of any real use again.’ He instead concentrated on improving the economy in Ontario and Quebec. He was mad because western Canada had voted in what he considered radical political parties. Maybe they wouldn’t if they felt part of his government?

King also alienated English Canadians when he stated he would not go to war if Britain did, unless Britain was attacked directly. He admired Hitler, if not Nazism and its policies, and even visited him in Germany, the only North American leader to do so.

Of course all of that was nothing much to me. I had a job, and I ate regularly. All thanks to Karl.

But if I had one thing to complain about, it was the proximity of the house. McConnell house. Ever since I first saw it, I had avoided it as much as possible. It was hard considering that it was only a few blocks away from the Iron Lady.

I could almost feel an aura that it had. The closer I walked in its direction, the more I would sweat; get stomach cramps and an all around feeling of badness. Even in the Iron Lady I could feel its presence. There were many times I would take off, and walk in the opposite direction to feel better.

It was all completely crazy. But I was not going to let it chase me off. I was here to stay as long as thing were going my way.

Now they were moving the house across the river, which would make it closer to the Iron Lady. It would be harder to avoid, and I’d be living right next to it. It was all in my mind, but I couldn't stand that thought.