~Just This
Once~
By MichiganStorm™
Part One: December 6th, 2001
Christine Moore stepped out her front door into the bitter cold of the Michigan morning and looked hopelessly at the overcast sky as she pulled her coat tightly around her. Deciding there was no hope for the sun to shine today she would try to face another drab day with the best attitude possible; again she would put on that false smile and pretend life couldn't get any better. Maybe someday she'd actually feel that way. Doubtful, she thought. She walked briskly to her car parked at the curb where she'd spend the next five minutes trying to avoid inhaling every exhaust fume that came from the automobile as she let it "warm up" while scraping the ice off the windows. What a beautiful morning, she tried telling herself over and over. Ah hell, she looked at her watch, what a way to start this wonderful day, I'm late for work!
Her watch told her it was close to nine AM, which she should have known considering the sky was already as bright as it had gotten through the entire day yesterday. The thought of calling in sick struck Christine as the best idea she'd had since she crawled out of bed an hour ago. An hour. She could have been showered and on her way to work thirty minutes ago had she been able to motivate herself this morning, but it just didn't happen. The day was December sixth, her twenty-eighth birthday, and her life had gone nowhere. She was living day to day on what money she made in the office of the local factory; she could have so much more if she hadn't insisted on buying the old house she now stood staring at. If she had rented a small apartment or bought a small house or mobile home she'd actually be pretty well off, but this house had found it's way inside her mind and stayed there until she moved into it eight months ago.
Christine had researched the house before buying it and after looking into records and newspaper clippings she was more in love with it then she had been when she'd just looked at it. The house, built in the late 1800's, was once believed to be a small brothel and later used as a bording house for men who worked during the summers in the early twentieth century when the town was known for it's logging resources. Her newspaper digging had also paid off. According to one clipping from 1924 a man of about 32 had been murdered in the yard, 'the body of a thirty-two year old logger who had been searching for work with local companies was found stabbed in the shadow of the old boarding house on North Street.'
There were other stories about the house throughout the local newspapers history, but for Christine none compared to the continuing saga of a married couple. According to the newspaper a well off man in his mid twenties had moved into the small town and bought the house in the late 1930's. He closed the bording house doors as the customers had pretty much went out with the logging business. He quickly made friends throughout the town and within only months of living here he met and fell in love with a local girl who was a bit younger than he, but the two fell madly in love according to the story. Because she was the daughter of the man who owned the paper at that time there was a full write up about the wedding. They were wed in the house, the inside had been transformed into something out of a story book fairy tale, described in the article as 'something you'd imagine seeing in the gardens of the great heavens, nothing in this town has ever compared in beauty'.
Christine wasn't sure why this story appealed to her so much, perhaps it was because she had spent a majority of her life alone. Lonely is more like it, she thought. Or it could be because she was a romantic at heart.
There were smaller follow up stories on the couple as well, not because they were famous nor was it because of her fathers position in the community. The stories were based on events that effected the couples lives. Two years after they wed, when the young lady had reached about twenty-one, she gave birth to the first of their children. A girl. Another year later their second child was born, this time a boy. Not long after this child was born the man was jailed for being drunk in public and breaking out the windows of a small shop. By 1946 they had four children, two daughters and two sons, the birth of each announced in the newspaper of course and all four were born in the house.
The articles continued to show up in the paper. In 1951 the gentleman had purchased the newspaper from his retiring father-in-law. In 1958 he sold the paper to someone else. In 1962 the oldest of the children was married and moved out of town with her husband, later it was reported that they were killed in a car wreck in northern Missouri. In 1964 their second child, a son, joined the Army and was later reported to have died in Vietnam in 1968. The life of each of the four children seemed to have been shared with the public, but because the town was so small everyones life altering events seemed to be chronicled. In 1966 their third offspring, a daughter, ran off to Canada with a 'hippy who burned his draft card' and neither was ever mentioned in the paper again. In 1971 the house was put up for sale by the couple but it didn't sell until 1973, oddly enough the youngest son was never mentioned in the paper. Christine just figured that maybe he moved with his parents, who, according to the paper, moved to the mans hometown of Battlecreek.
Knowing the fate of all the other children Christine couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the youngest son. He would have been close to her age at the time the house was sold to the couple she'd purchased it from. What a couple they were, Christine muttered to herself as she climbed in her car. She often thought about the stories they told her about their time in the house. The couple, Mr. & Mrs. Brody, had bought the house as newlyweds in 1973. He had just returned from his tour of duty and she was a fresh college graduate who worked as a nurse in a nearby hospital when they wed. She'd waited for him for the entire four years he served his country, saving any money she could while he was away. Upon his return he'd went to work for his father and together they were able to make a down payment on the house. They were married and moved in shortly after making the purchase.
The stories they'd told her ranged from romantic to just plain strange! The reason they were selling the house topped all though; they were selling because a strange man often appeared on the lawn below one of the guest bedroom windows that faced the backyard. Mrs. Brody claimed it wasn't as if a man was using the backyard as a shortcut, it was as if the man just appeared and was usualy gone again just as quickly. Christine, who held no belief in ghosts or anything else of the sort, simply shrugged off these stories figuring that it probably was a man just cutting across the block through their backyard.
So deep in thought about the house and the stories told to her by couple she'd bought it from, Christine didn't see the man until it was almost to late. She was pulling away from the curb, tires spinning slightly on the wet snow, looking out her back passenger window to be sure there was no traffic from that direction when a movement in front of the car caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head just in time to see a man walking across the street right in front of her, she could have hit him. Dear God don't let it be icy under this snow Christine prayed as she slamed on her breaks.
The man turned and looked in her direction as the car stopped. He's beautiful, she thought to herself briefly, but then rage took over and she stepped out of the car. "What in the hell are you doing just walking out in the street in front of a moving vehicle? Are you stupid?" She shouted at the man who was just standing in the street staring at her.
"Are you speaking to me?" he asked her.
"No, I'm talking to the other idiot I just almost ran over! Of course I'm talking to you, you're the only reject standing in front of my car aren't ya?" Christine was angry and although most of her anger was at herself for being so careless she still took it out on the man standing in front of her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you could... I didn't know you hadn't seen me," his words were soft and polite. "We could go inside and I'll make you a cup of tea, that always seemed to settle my mothers nerves," he gestured towards her house.
Christine felt like his wonderfully bright blue eyes had some kind of control over her temper, she was suddenly feeling very calmed although she tried to grasp what little anger was left. "You want to go inside my house and fix me a cup of tea?"
"This is your house?" He caughed to clear his throat, "of course it's your house, I wouldn't offer to take you in a strangers house and fix you tea and I certainly can't expect you to come to my house considering I don't have one."
"Are you trying to tell me you're homeless?" Christine felt awkward as soon as the words parted her lips but pushed on, trying to find that anger she had felt only seconds ago. "You're dressed very well for a bum, did you steal someone's laundry?"
"I'm not homeless, I'm simply not from around here. I realize that you had a fright seeing me there, but do you have to be so rude? You'd think I purposely did something to upset you! And as for the tea, it was an offer, I would make it and you'd relax, that's all! It was no ploy to get in your house!" He was obviously becoming annoyed by her attitude.
Shaking her head, Christine couldn't help but smile. "I don't normally let strangers into my house."
"Fine. My name is Adam," he extended his hand.
Christine took his hand in a firm grip as she looked him over. He appeared to be about six foot tall and rugedly handsome. He obviously hadn't shaved in a few days and his nearly black hair was windblown, but his eyes were what held her attention. A bright blue that reminded her of the warmest summer sky and sparkled like the stars. Judging by his appearance she guessed him at about twenty-seven, possibly younger. Finally she spoke as she pulled her hand back, "My name is Christine."
"Are you off somewhere or shall we have tea?" he grinned at her.
No more feeling sorry for herself she decided right at that second. Sieze the moment, just this once girl, do something for yourself! She mentally scolded herself.