Bonus Fiction: A surprising welcome

Fictionistas Flash Fiction Meetup provides heartwarming inspiration

At the Fictionistas September Let’s Write Together, Nicole Rivera provided the following prompt:

Character – Person In Love. Ghost.

Story – Family curse.

By Vince Wetzel

Copyright 2024 Vince Wetzel and OT Press

A rustling of the key woke me. I must have dozed off doing my crossword, one in which I had seemed to be completing for years. It must be Elise. She usually came home every week for college.

I shook off the cobwebs in my head and by the time I entered the foyer, Elise and a man walked in, wet from the rain I hadn’t noticed had begun. As Elise raised her head and slid off her hood, I noticed she had a new haircut and had aged since I saw her last week. Studies must be rough, but she was growing into the features of her mother, and she never looked so beautiful.

“So, this is your place?” the man next to her asked. He was older than her, much too old, and he looked suspicious to me.

“Not yet,” I said. “I still pay the property taxes.”

“Yep, Dennis. It’s been in my family for generations. My great grandparents built this, and we’ve all lived here,” Elise said. “It’s a little old…”

“But it’s got character,” Elise and I said at the same time. We both laughed. Dennis laughed too. Well, if he laughed at that little joke, then maybe he wasn’t too much of a jerk. “Sorry, inside joke with the family.”

“I guess I say that a lot,” I added. “Well, stay right here. I should get your mother so you can introduce us to this fella.”

Elise was too busy showing off the grand staircase and the chandelier to respond, so I bounded up the stairs, faster than I had in years, searching for my wife.

As I got to the top of the steps, I began looking for Yvonne. She always kept the house so dark. I should encourage her to keep at least one light on up here. That’s how my father died, by mysteriously falling down the stairs late at night. It was just before my nap, in fact, that I slipped too focused on my puzzle. Thankfully, I came out all right.

“Yvonne, Elise is here,” I called. “She’s brought a male friend. She says his name is Dennis.”

I searched all of the rooms and no Yvonne. She was just here, I thought. Yes, she helped me with Four Down – ten letters, actor who was partial to Roy Rogers and sequin suits. She laughed for five minutes after shaking her head at me.

“William, it’s Bruce Willis,” she’d said through her laughter. “You know, Die Hard?”

But where was Yvonne now? I looked down the hall. It was dark and no stirring. Why had she taken all of the pictures down? She must have started Spring cleaning as I was taking my nap and was at the store. I wandered back to the foyer. Elise was going to be disappointed her mom wasn’t here. And Yvonne would miss meeting this Dennis character. My gain, I guess.

I drew a breath, ready to walk and introduce myself and establish myself as the to-be-respected patriarch of the family. I know Elise would roll her eyes. So would Yvonne in solidarity. But Yvonne wasn’t here. So tough luck.

I reached the staircase and looked down. Elise and Dennis had finished looking in the living room and were heading back to the foyer. I called down to her.

“Elise, sorry to tell you, but it looks as though your mom stepped out while I was taking a little nap,” I said.

Elise looked up at me but frowned. I knew she’d be disappointed with her mother’s absence, but this was more than disappointment. This was sadness tinged with grief.

“Elise, what’s wrong honey?” This time it was her friend and I saying the same thing at the same time. We didn’t laugh.

“It’s nothing. It’s just that I always feel melancholy when I look up at the top of the stairs. That’s where three generations of McMurphy men have died.”

“Two” I scoffed. “Don’t exaggerate.”

Elise buried her head into Dennis’s chest and began to cry. I hadn’t meant to dismiss her and make her upset. And now Dennis was comforting her instead of me? Sure, Elise had boyfriends in the past, but this looked a bit different. She was somehow older and more mature. This relationship was far more progressed than a week. Why hadn’t she mentioned this Dennis before?

“I miss him so much,” Elise said. Her grandfather died when she was two. He was my age at the time. How did she even have memories of him? “And I was the one to discover him right there.”

She pointed to the base of the stairs.

“He was doing a stupid crossword puzzle. He somehow slipped and fell. I made a surprise trip home, and he was just lying there. My mom was in the other room and hadn’t heard. It was just…”

She began bawling again. Dennis pulled her closer. I was trying to make sense of this fiction she was saying.

“It’s ok,” Dennis said. “These last five years must have been tough. You were just a freshman in college. You didn’t know.”

My eyes went wide. I looked at the crossword, then through the house. All of the furniture was gone. The pictures hanging on all of the walls were missing. The newly finished hardwood was dusty. This was an old, abandoned house, and I was an old, abandoned ghost.

“I just don’t know if I can sell it,” she said through tears. “With mom gone now. What’s left in this place?”

I had to tell Elise I was here. I could hear her. I turned and began to descend the stairs. But my foot caught on a small lip on the top of the stairs, and I slipped and fell. That’s when I remembered when I fell the first time — Tumbling, hitting my shoulder, then a pain in my head, then a tinge in my neck and it all went black. And just like that time, my world went dark.

A rustling of the key woke me. I must have dozed off doing my crossword, one in which I had seemed to be completing for years. It must be Elise. She usually came home every week for college.

I shook off the cobwebs in my head and by the time I entered the foyer, Elise had walked in holding a newborn baby, followed by a man holding a diaper bag and luggage. Elise ignored me and looked around the house.

“Dennis, I’m so glad you convinced me to not sell this house,” she said. “You’ve helped me make it our home with you, me and now little William.”

Thanks for reading

If the Fictionistas writing prompt party brought you here, stop on by:

Salted Wetzel with a Side of Mustard

• Original Fiction: All of my novels and short stories take place in the same universe. The novels are the tent poles that come out every couple of years and these stories will fill out the tapestry. I’ll be updating you on characters you know, while introducing characters from future work.

• Fridge Philosophies: What started as a passive-aggressive way to provide some helpful advice to my teens by placing inspirational quotes on the refrigerator has become a weekly mantra for me to work better, live intentionally and be present. I’ll be sharing these Fridge Philosophies along with what they mean in my life.

• The CHOW: Either it will be my own Clueless Hack on Writing, where I will provide updates on projects and my struggles and triumphs… Or it will be Creative Heroes on Writing with writing friends sharing their perspectives on the creative process.

• Extra Mustard: A roundup of podcasts, shows, books, and movies I’ve enjoyed the past month, plus additional thoughts and ideas to share.