Winthrop House Read online

  Grabbing Ben by the arm, Naomi led him back to the stairs. “Nah, forget it. Let's go.” She was about to descend when she spotted something at the bottom of the stairs and suddenly lost her balance. It was only a last-minute grab of the handrail that saved her from falling face-first down the stairs.

  There was someone standing below, looking up at them, rendered partially in shadow.

  Stepping past Naomi, Ben cursed under his breath. “Jesus, Sam! A little warning next time!”

  It was Sam standing near the edge of the stairs, a paper clutched in his hand and a seasick grin on his face. “Sorry, I didn't mean to scare ya.” Glancing nervously around the room, he gave the paper in his grasp a little shake and then held it out for the two of them to see. “This was sitting in the mailbox. Looks like it's been there a while. No one's delivered mail here for months, by the looks of it.”

  Still shaken, Naomi snatched the paper from his hand—a flyer for what appeared to be a local pizzeria—and marched into the living room to have a look at it. “It's a a generic flyer, addressed to the 'Current resident of 100 Winthrop Road'. So, what?”

  “Yeah, but it's months old. Look,” said Sam, turning the flyer over and showing it to her. “The coupons expired in the autumn. Whoever was living here... they've probably been gone since before winter. Plus, there's an address for that pizzeria. It's in Cutler, see? Which means we're probably close to the town... maybe just outside of it. We should go back down the street in the opposite direction. Maybe that'll take us into Cutler.”

  Ben stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked out the window, into the backyard and at the waterline. “You might be onto something.” He knocked on the wall with a grin. “Shame there's no one living here, though. It's a nice house. Wouldn't mind owning one just like it someday.”

  Naomi rolled her eyes. “Yeah? And how do you plan to afford that? Last I checked you were going to have to go on the run to avoid repaying your student loans.”

  Ben rolled his eyes. “Oh, I'm sorry. Not all of us are lucky enough to have some dead parents to leave us inheritance money.”

  About to slug Ben in the gut, Naomi was guided through the living room by Sam. “Cut it out, both of you. We'll start driving down the road. I'll bet we'll find ourselves in town before too long. We'll have something to eat there. Maybe then you two will stop being such assholes.”

  Naomi shrugged him off, making a beeline for the back door and stomping out across the backyard. “Oh, yeah? And if we don't?”

  Sam chuckled. “Then I guess we'll run out of gas and spend the night on the roadside, sleeping in the car.”

  “No,” countered Ben, closing the back door behind him and jogging towards the sedan. “No, if need be, we can bring our sleeping bags in and crash here for the night. It's a big, empty house. A little dusty, but I don't think anyone would mind us taking shelter here until we can figure something else out.”

  The three of them packed into the car and Sam took the wheel. Pulling out of the driveway, he pointed the car at the opposite end of Winthrop Road. “Let's hope it doesn't come to that,” he said as they drove off.

  3

  The discovery of a shuttered convenience store some two miles from the house provoked in the three travelers a mixture of excitement and dismay. Passing the dilapidated structure by, they were pleased to find a seemingly thriving business just a short distance away; a boat shop, called Gillman's. Just beyond, they found evidences of a populated town, and a wooden sign hammered into a median told them they'd arrived in Cutler.

  They chose to stop at the first gas station they found, both because they hoped to fill up the nearly empty tank, and because they wanted to speak to someone who knew the area. They were thrilled to return to civilization after hours of driving on winding and unmarked roads, and when they'd filled the tank of the sedan at one of the three run-down pumps, they entered the adjacent store, greeting the cashier with wide smiles.

  Ben and Sam wandered the aisles, picking out cheap snacks with which to quell their growing hunger while Naomi approached the register. “Hi,” she began. “My friends and I are just passing through here. We got lost on our way through Maine and we're looking to head back south. I don't suppose you could point us in the direction of the nearest highway entrance ramp, could you?”

  The cashier was a tall man who stooped over an ancient cash register. Bearded, with greying red hair and some faded freckles peppered across his cheeks, he looked almost like an older version of Ben. “Certainly. You'll want to keep going down this here road and hang a right when you get to the post office. It's three or four miles down. From there you should be able to find signs pointing you towards the interstate.” Sam and Ben dropped several bags of snacks onto the counter and the man began to ring them up. “What brings you out to this area?” he asked. “We don't get a lot of tourists out here. Visiting family, maybe?”

  “Sort of,” replied Naomi, patting Ben's arm. “We were visiting with his cousin in Kennebunkport, but got turned around after we left this morning.”

  The cashier arched a silvery brow and whistled, his jagged teeth emerging as he grinned. “I'll say. You're a long ways from Kennebunkport.” He finished ringing up the snacks and accepted the twenty that Sam offered, making change.

  “Say,” said Ben, drawing the man's gaze, “do you know anything about that house?” He pointed out the window, in the general direction of the abandoned house. “We were lost, and we came upon this big, empty house in the middle of nowhere. Down the road, that way. It's right on the harbor.”

  Suddenly, the cashier's smiling face grew solemn, and he dropped a palm's worth of coins onto the floor. Startling, he bent down to pick them up with evident trouble, and then slid them across the counter with a metallic clack to Sam. His gaze traveled between the three of them, brow furrowed. Then, shutting the drawer to the register, he frowned. “Yeah, I know it. Wouldn't go near it, if I were you.”

  Uncomfortable for the man's sudden change in demeanor, Ben and Sam gathered up their snacks and took a step away from the counter. It was only Naomi who was interested in continuing the conversation. “W-wait, why is that?” she asked. “The big, two-story house at the end of Winthrop Road... we are talking about the same house, right?”

  Nodding slowly so as not to be misunderstood, the cashier leaned forward. “We sure are, and like I told you, I wouldn't go inside. Stay far away from it. It's empty for a reason. The people who were livin' in it before bailed on it, and its history before all of that ain't exactly good.”

  “Please,” replied Naomi, “tell me more.”

  Requests for more information were met with shakes of the head. “Not much interested in talking about that place,” he said, all but shooing the three of them out of the building. “Y'all stay safe. Highway's just a few miles off. Can't miss it.”

  Filing back into the car, Ben, Sam and Naomi sat in contemplative silence, the only sound being the rustling of snack bags. Reaching over and stealing a handful of Reese's Pieces from Sam's haul, Naomi funneled them into her mouth and then leered at the gas station shop, the window of which was filled by the cashier, who looked out at them furtively. “Now, what do you guys think that was about?”

  From the backseat, Ben loosed a laugh. “Guy's off his rocker. He talked about it like it was the House of Usher, about to split in two and crush us. Some paranoid townie, that's all.”

  Sam hesitated in bringing a piece of candy to his lips and turned around. “Nah, he claimed that the people living there before ran out on the house. So that's why it's empty. I dunno about you, but if I could afford a house that nice I sure as hell wouldn't abandon it. What do you think made them do it? What ran them out?”

  “Seriously? Who says anything ran them out? Maybe they decided they didn't like it and moved someplace else,” challenged Ben.

  “That makes literally zero sense,” said Naomi. “Anyhow, he also mentioned that the house has a long history—that things were bad there before these peopl
e moved away. I wonder what that was supposed to mean. I wish he'd told us more.”

  Ben rolled his eyes. “Look, all three of us have been in that house. Did either of you feel or see anything wrong with it? Be honest. Because I sure didn't. It was shut-up, dusty, but a fine house. Nothing wrong with it at all.”

  Neither Sam nor Naomi could argue with this, but still their curiosity persisted. “It's just strange that a nice house like that could be so... feared by someone in town,” finished Naomi, siphoning yet more of Sam's candy.

  “What, do you want to go back there?” asked Ben. “Spend more time looking around that house? I tell you, I wouldn't mind. I'm tired of being in the car. A night in that house sounds awesome, and you can't beat the price. I'm sure the motels in town are great, but none of them are gratis.”

  Sam glanced at the clock on the dash and sighed. The afternoon was nearly spent. Soon, evening would be setting in and the three would be getting tired. Spending several hours more behind the wheel obviously didn't appeal to him, because he ultimately agreed. “That's actually not a horrible idea. Free lodging is hard to come by, and I don't wanna drive more today, either. It'll be getting dark soon. That house has been abandoned, apparently, so no one in the world is gonna give a damn if we spend a night there.”

  Naomi paused mid-chew, eyes wide. “Look, I'll drive. No complaints from me. But I don't think spending a night in that house is wise. If it's got some kind of reputation, then—”

  “Why not?” countered Ben. “We've stayed in worse. Remember that empty apartment building in West Virginia? We stayed there for two nights before the cops found us. Saved us a lot of money. This is the same thing. It's not like we're rolling in cash, Naomi. Staying in that empty house for a night or two will help us save so that we can stay on the road longer. Unless you're looking to bring this trip to an end sooner?”

  “Oh, so now it's a night or two? What the hell, Ben?” replied Naomi. “Why don't we just get on the highway? We can sleep at a rest stop if need be. That's free, too.”

  Sam crumpled the empty bag of candy in his fist and motioned to his surroundings, demonstrating the lack of legroom. “Yeah, sleeping in the car is fine in a pinch, but I'd love to stretch out. Let's give the house a try, Naomi. Why not? We've been in there. It's a solid house. Nothing unsafe. We could even go swimming in the morning.”

  Ben continued from the backseat, chewing loudly. “And where are we planning on going next, anyway? We didn't really discuss it and we don't have much of an itinerary.”

  Naomi fumbled. “W-well, I dunno. I guess we haven't talked about it much, but...”

  “Exactly!” declared Ben. “So, let's spend the night in that house, get our plan straight. Sound good? If we don't like it there for whatever reason, we can leave at a moment's notice. But I reckon the shower in that place still works, and there's plenty of floorspace for our sleeping bags. This is what the trip's been all about! Making things work in our favor, making due with less. The important thing for us has always been to stay on the road as long as possible—to see as much as possible, right?”

  The two in the front seats nodded.

  “It'd be criminal to pass this up,” concluded Ben. “Let's head back to that house and relax.”

  Sam started up the car and maneuvered to the edge of the gas station lot. He looked to Naomi and pointed in the direction of the house. “You cool with this, Naomi? I could drop you off at a local motel or something and pick you up in the morning, if you'd rather.”

  Snatching a bag of Doritos out of Sam's haul, she tore it open and looked out the window, nibbling in silence till her frown was orange. “It's fine. We'll stay the night in that house. It's important we save money. The more we save, the longer we can stay on the road.”

  “All right,” said Sam, turning back onto Winthrop Road and putting the town behind them. “Here we go, then.”

  4

  Benjamin Reed, at twenty-six years old, was every bit as lanky and freckled as he had been when he and Sam Carroll had first met on the playground. His time in college had been spent shifting almost schizophrenically between majors. He'd gone for journalism first, and then medicine the semester after that. Anthropology credits, courses in Asian history and an ill-advised enrollment in the culinary program had rounded out his first two years. For his third, he'd signed on for a thrilling—and exorbitantly priced—year abroad in Austria, gaining an elementary grasp of German language before returning to the States and realizing he was closing in on 60K in student loans. Lagging academic performance had made it difficult for him to get enough loan money to continue his frenetic education. And so he'd dropped out. From there, he'd moved onto a string of odd jobs, living with his parents and fearing the day—not so far off—when his loans would come due for repayment.

  Sam's story wasn't so different, except that he'd quit college after only a single semester, choosing instead to take a job at his Uncle's car dealership. At twenty-seven, he was set to eventually inherit the business from his uncle, who was only a few years from retirement age. Though he had no interest in selling cars or in one day owning the lot, he would have been hard-pressed to say just what he intended for his future instead.

  One Friday during the autumn, now many years ago, Ben and Sam had attended a meeting of the Moorlake University Japanese Club in the student union, where a number of old Japanese cartoons were being screened. It was there that they'd first met Naomi Orzolek, an English major, who was minoring in Japanese. By night's end, only the three of them remained in attendance at the screening, and they bonded well into the night over a cheesy 80's cartoon called Armored God Tiamat. From that moment on, the three had maintained a close friendship.

  One night, after too many drinks, they'd begun considering a lengthy road trip around the US. Though none of them would've come out and said it outright if prompted, the idea of a long trip to parts unknown so appealed to them because they'd grown tired of their lives. They'd wanted away from their families, their responsibilities. Possibly, they'd always joked, they would set out on this grand tour of the country and never come home.

  Ben, drowning in debt and arguing constantly with his parents, had wanted to leave everything behind. Sam, fed up with his job and feeling a spot of remorse over the years he'd wasted out of school, had wanted to find a fresh start somewhere far from sleepy Moorlake.

  Naomi's situation had been a bit different from the others. She'd been on the verge of completing an advanced art degree and hoped to one day make a living drawing comics, however her father's death the previous year had taken her out of school temporarily. Raised from an early age by her father, a strict man with which she'd never seen eye-to-eye, Naomi had been left reeling by his passing. She'd been left, too, with a sizable inheritance, which she'd chosen on a whim to put towards travel. Deciding it was time to take a semester off, she'd gotten together with Sam and Ben and had suggested they set out in the Spring for their oft-discussed trip, starting with a leisurely tour of New England. She'd had a lot on her mind, many feelings to make peace with, and hoped that she might hash things out on the road, away from her hometown which was so crammed with memories.

  Life on the road was proving to be hard, though. They weren't experienced travelers, and the costs of cross-country travel had been higher than expected. They cut corners wherever they could, but their first few nights sleeping out of a car had been a rude awakening for them, far from the idyllic scenario they'd spent years imagining.

  As they brought their bags into the empty house on Winthrop Road, setting them down in the living room, they said little, all of them absorbed in their own thoughts. Once settled, it was decided that one of them would run out to pick up some proper food for dinner, and it was Sam who drew the short straw, cursing to himself as he started back out towards the car. “First drive-thru I find, that's what we're eating, got it? I don't want to drive an inch further than necessary. I'm going to be so happy to be out of that damn car tonight.”

  The grey
sky was slowly turning black. Night was on its way, and with it was coming a peculiar chill to the air, which they figured was due to the wind coming in off of the harbor. Nevertheless, the windows in the lower story were opened so as to let the house air out a little, and when that was through, Ben and Naomi rifled through their bags for their hooded sweatshirts to insulate themselves against the nocturnal chill.

  “Where should we go next?” asked Ben, mostly to break up the silence. He leaned beside the window and canvassed the living room. The wall near the front door looked especially dirty, smudged up, and he ran his fingers against it. “Maybe we'll set off for Florida next?”

  Naomi wasn't in a talking mood. Hands tucked into the pocket of her Sailor Moon hoodie, she smiled disinterestedly, her mind elsewhere and her eyes fixed on the ceiling. “I dunno,” she said, a hint of resignation entering her voice. “I've been thinking about the trip a lot these past few days. It's been almost a month since we set out. And, you know, it occurs to me that maybe we ought to call it quits now.”

  “What?” asked Ben, standing upright. “You want to end the trip? Just... just go home?”

  The dreamy smile didn't depart from Naomi's face, and she shrugged weakly, like she was tossing off an invisible shawl. “Would that be so bad?”

  Ben began pacing, the wooden floors beneath him singing a discordant tune with each step. “Why, Naomi? We've been planning this trip for, like, years now. I thought... I thought it meant something to us. To all of us.” Like a child scorned, he shot Naomi a sad look, but then firmed up. “Not that it has to go on forever, of course. I just thought we'd see more of the country is all.”

  Naomi chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so. It's just that money's getting tight already, you know? And...” She licked her lips and laughed harder, her face reddening in embarrassment. “I was on FaceBook the other day, right? It's so silly, but...” She took a deep breath. “There's this girl I went to high school with. Her name is Ginger Collins. We haven't actually spoken in years, but I was looking through her pictures and status updates, and I guess she's getting married next month. In Cancun. Her husband's some kind of lawyer, or something. She looks... really happy.”