The Invited(65)

“Why’s that?”

He looked around, lowered his voice. “You couldn’t pay me to live here.”

The skin on Helen’s arms prickled.

This was it, she thought. This was why she’d come.

“Yeah, I had a whole crew, the HVAC contractors, quit on me last week. These weren’t wimpy guys, and they weren’t stoned teenagers—not the sort to get spooked easily, if you know what I’m saying.”

“What happened?” Helen asked.

“They were down in the basement, the lower level, working where the turbines used to be. They came tearing up the stairs, screaming. Three big dudes—they’d dropped their tools; they were pale and shaking and totally flipped out. They said they’d seen someone down there—a woman. Her face and arms were all burned up, skin just hanging off like loose wallpaper. That’s what they said.”

Helen said nothing, just waited. He went on.

    “We went down to look, me and some other guys. There was no one down there, of course. But you could smell something. Kind of like burnt hair…or burnt flesh. No reason for a smell like that down there.”

“Wow,” Helen said. “Incredible.”

“Yeah, that HVAC crew never came back. And lots of other freaky stuff has happened. Guys seeing and hearing things. Tools going missing. Lights turning on and off. The place is haunted. No doubt.” He looked at the building long and hard. “I mean, when you think about it, how could it not be?”

Helen looked, too, then her eyes moved from the newly rebuilt section to the junked materials from the original mill.

Helen took a few steps forward, picked up one of the discarded bricks that hadn’t made it to the large pile. It was old and worn, most likely made from red clay and kiln fired, and one side was stained black. She could almost smell the smoke. Feel the heat. Hear the screams of the women as they beat on the latched door.

“What are you going to do with all this?” Helen asked, gesturing at the rubble, still clutching the brick, not wanting to let it go. It felt almost alive to her: alive with history, alive with the things it had seen and heard, the tragedy it had been a part of.

He frowned, surprised by the change of subject, or maybe by the stupidity of the question.

“Have it carted off to the landfill.”

It seemed terrible to her, to have materials with such history just thrown away. They should be in a museum. Or used to build a memorial for the people who died in the factory fire. Not just thrown in the dump.

“Even the bricks?”

“All of it.”

“Mind if I take some? My husband and I, we’re building a house, trying to incorporate local materials—things with history. These bricks would be perfect.”

He gave her a puzzled, slightly amused grin. “Sure, Madame Historian. Knock yourself out,” he said. “Take ’em all if you want. I guess they are a one-of-a-kind item.”

“I appreciate it.”



* * *



. . .

    Nate came out of the house to meet her when she pulled into the driveway. He looked excited. “Look what I found in the hunting area at the general store,” he said, holding up a box. “I walked into town to grab a sandwich for lunch and spotted this.”

Helen looked. “An outdoor wildlife camera?”

He nodded enthusiastically. “It’s got night vision! It’s motion activated. And I can set it up so that it sends the images and videos right to my laptop.”

Helen looked at the orange price sticker: $110.

“Great,” she said, thinking that she could only imagine the rumors going through the town now. Witchcraft books, night-vision cameras—she could almost understand why people were freaked out by the two of them.

“Oh, and I got most of the plumbing finished in the downstairs bathroom,” he said. “All that’s left is the flange for the toilet.”

“Fantastic,” Helen said. She’d been amazed by how fast Nate had picked up working with the copper pipes. He had a real knack for soldering—all his joints were perfect every time. “I think maybe you were a plumber in a past life!”

He grinned at her. “How were your errands?” he asked.

“Look what I got for us,” she said, showing him the pile of bricks she’d loaded into the back of the truck.

“Wow! Where’d they come from?”

“An old mill. They’re renovating it, turning it into condos and offices. I got the bricks for free.”

“Cool,” Nate said. “How’d you find them?”

Hattie sent me.

“Craigslist,” Helen said without missing a beat. “I thought we could use them for the hearth for the woodstove.”

“I thought we were going to use slate from the quarry in town,” Nate said, frowning a little. They’d visited the quarry, and Nate had loved the texture and gray-green color of the stone.

“We can still get that and use it for something else. Maybe the kitchen floor?”

“I think that might be a little pricey,” Nate said. He was already worried that they were over budget. The money they’d inherited from Helen’s father had seemed like so much at first, more than enough to build with and live on for at least a year. But there had been unexpected outlays: the price of lumber up here was higher than they’d originally budgeted for; the professional furnace and water heater install took a huge chunk of money; the ongoing expense of all the beer, wine, and take-out food because cooking in the trailer was depressing and difficult. The money was going fast. Faster than they’d imagined and planned for. Helen looked at the accounts and was sure they’d have more than enough to finish the house, but she worried that Nate might be right—if they kept going at this rate, they wouldn’t have much left over to live on. They hadn’t thought much about what they were going to do for income when the time came—it seemed so far away.