29 | December | 2014

Two friends, both 12 years old, hung around together constantly. These two boys were always getting called-out on being too mischievous. They didn’t really get into trouble with the law; but they were constantly testing the waters.

It was a dreary day. In fact, it was January 1, 2014. School was on break and these two, Ryan and Mark were bored. They decided to go out on an adventure. They didn’t know where they were headed. All they knew was that they had to be back by the time their parents got home from work.

They headed down the gravel road. They kicked rocks. They tried to see who could throw the stone the farthest. The boys raced to see who was the fastest. They laughed and didn’t really notice anything about their surroundings.

Ryan and Mark came upon the old house. It was worn down. The story was, an old man went nuts and killed his wife years ago. There hadn’t been anyone interested in the property so it became abandoned. The paint was gone. Windows were broken.

Their parents told them to never go too close, because they could get hurt. Today was different. Having nothing to do led them closer to the front door. They both became quiet as they listened for any unfamiliar noises to shout out at them.

Hearing nothing, Mark turned the door handle. It was broken and the door slowly, squeaked open. Mark and Ryan looked at each other. Both pairs of eyes looking at the others for answers to their question; should they go in.

Mark didn’t go in. He went to the side windows and tried to see the best he could while his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Coming back, and knowing they were safe, they ventured in the front door.

Spider webs greeted them. Dirty, white sheets covered the furniture. Spots of old blood still rested upon a couple of the sheets. Ryan shivered, a little from the unknown. Mark ventured to each piece of furniture, lifting the sheets, trying to imagine what was in the mind of the detectives who had once hung out here.

They then explored the kitchen and the bathroom. Seeing nothing exciting they decided to go up the stairs. The long set of stairs looked warped and uneven. Their first step set off a loud creak. Both boys stopped in their tracks as if waiting to see if maybe someone had heard them.

Seeing no one they continued to climb the squeaky stairs. One stair caved a little and Ryan jumped quick to the next stair afraid he was going to fall through. Once to the top they saw four closed doors.

Opening each one they saw a bed and two dressers. One had a big oval mirror on it and the words murderer were carved in the dust. They left that room and walked into each of the others. They all looked pretty much the same; except this room was bigger and it had a fireplace in it.

They took the dusty sheet off the bed and laid down on it. It was pretty soft which led them to both use the bed as a spring-board. Laughing and tumbling they spent several minutes on the bed.

When they tired of this they sat down and they each pulled out wrapped sandwiches they had made earlier. Ryan had a bottle of pop that the two shared.

Afterwards they both went back down the creepy stairs and they saw a door that was nailed shut going off from the kitchen. They had to investigate this. They worked and worked and finally broke the board.

There were no lights but they could see it led to a basement. The stairs here were cement and both boys headed down. More spider webs attacked them and they were busily wiping them out of their faces.

When they got to the bottom they saw old pieces of chairs and broken picture frames. They saw things crawling on the floor as if to escape being stepped on. There were three basement half-sized windows that provided a bit of light.

One looked like it had held an old coal furnace. There were several black pieces of rock still laying in a pile. The other two rooms looked like they were used for storage. There was one small door that led off of the coal room.

Ryan tried the door handle and it too, was broken but opened with ease. He walked inside but there was no window so he could see nothing. Mark waited on the outside for Ryan to say it was clear to enter.

After a few minutes ticked by and Ryan saying nothing, Mark called out to his friend. ” Hey, Ryan, you ok? What you see in there?” There was no response. ” Come on, quit trying to scare me. You know I don’t scare easy”, he said with just a tiny quiver in his voice.

Still no reply. Mark’s legs became cement. He knew something was wrong. He realized he should go in to check on his best friend; but his legs wouldn’t move. He began cursing himself. He called himself a chicken for standing there and he argued with himself about going further in.

He finally won, and his feet began to move. He walked in the dark room but didn’t see anything or Ryan. ” Come on Ryan, joke’s over. This isn’t funny anymore. I think it is getting time to go home, come on, let’s get out of here.”

Nothing, no sound, no stirring, no Ryan. The door slammed shut. Mark jumped and about peed his pants. Before his heart could quit racing a hand came over his mouth and he was drug into a secret door he had not noticed.

Alright dear friends and followers of my blog; complete this story.

Today marks the third posting on my new advice column. What you need to do is read the problem and then offer your thoughts.

Mary and Jeff had three children. Their ages were 7,9 and 12. Both parents thought they had a hassle-free family. They were all loved in the community. They attended church regularly on Sunday mornings. The kids got good grades in school.

In fact, Jeff was a school teacher at the two younger kids school. He thought this was so cool that his kids waved to him in the hall and asked dad if he could go on school trips with them.

Mary was home one evening and was doing laundry. She was sorting clothes into different piles and checking pockets for anything that shouldn’t be washed. When she came to the 12 year old’s pockets, she pulled out a beaten up pack of cigarettes.

Her mouth gaped. Totally astounded, she put them in her pants pocket, and after starting a load of clothes she took the pack and showed it to Jeff. He didn’t know what to think. He said nothing for a moment.

Then out of his mouth the words came. ” I don’t think we should make a big deal of this Mary. What would people think if they knew one of our kids was smoking? Let’s just keep quiet and watch and see if we notice any more cigarettes.”

Mary said, ” Absolutely not. We need to nip this in the bud right now. We need to teach our children that smoking is bad for their health. Let’s call our 12 year-old in here right now and get to the bottom of it.”

Friends, what do you think?