The Wonderful World of Tre

                                    The Wonderful World Of Tre

                      Chapter 1: "The Monotony Of Life Interrupted..."

It had been two months since Tredesca's untimely death. Although her Last Will and Testament had given Tre's friends closure in that they knew how she really felt about them, there was still a big empty void in each of their hearts and lives.
Stephanie was not as jolly anymore. She hardly said anything to anyone, It seemed she had been drained of any kind of happiness. She was completely lost without her pillar of support in Tredesca.
Lance didn't joke, he didn't dream anymore either. They had no meaning without Tre to Laugh at his jokes and sometimes his crazy dreams. But mostly she would share them, her dreams were so similar. He had moved back north, one dream they both had. Now though, instead of being excited for winter it was just another season. Instead of the snowflakes brushing against his face and his inner sense of adventure being sparked, the snowflake felt only of coldness.
Corrina had looked forward to catching up on the phone with Tre, talking away the hours about how their lives were going. Now she would look hopefully at the telephone, waiting for it to ring, but it was never Tre that was on the other line.
Life was moving along fast, faster since Tre was gone. Each one felt robbed of their friend, but the memories were there, and so was her world...somewhere.......

                                      ......Two years later......


Corrina, living in Tennessee, now a busy paralegal, made her way out of bed for another day of work. Her phone rang while she was in the shower and someone left a message. "Probably a bill collector. I'll check it when I get home tonight."........

Stephanie walked down her New York street to catch the subway to work. She was working at the local hospital as head nurse in cardiology. The train stopped  at 73rd street and Stephanie got off.......

It was a normal October morning in Minnesota for Lance. He owned a drafting business and was in the middle of a project for a company that was expanding........

    All three friends lived in separate states but stayed in contact with eachother. The day went by fast for all of them and before soon, Stephanie was back home about to make dinner. Lance had plans with some friends that evening. Corrina walked in her house and played her messages as she put her shoes and briefcase away. She only had one message, and it was an unexpected one.....

Stephanie answered her cell phone to hear: "Hey Steph, it's Corrina. I got a phone call today. You're never going to believe it."
Stephanie shifted for a second. She couldn't stand it if it was bad news.
"Well," Corrina started, "I don't know if it's good or bad. I'll play the message for you to hear it for yourself." Corrina played the message on her home answering machine again:
    "Hello...Corrina....This is Matthew, Tredesca's father. Uhhh, I was looking for one of her friend's phone numbers and I found yours in her old phonebook. I'll be brief. My mother's house was bequeathed to Tredesca, and, well, the house was then in Tre's will to go to one of her friends. I'm not sure which one it is, but since I found your number first. None of the family wants the house, it's destroyed and not able to be lived in but you're free to take it. I just thought I should let you know. I'm heading to North Carolina now to get some stuff I left, I'm on the road now so I'll be there in about 3 hours. I'm gonna leave a key for you or whoever under the mat. Let me know when you get this message. My number....."


    Stephanie bit her lip. "What do we do?"
"I don't know about you, but I'm going to call him back and leave first thing tomorrow."
Corrina said. Steph agreed.
"Should we tell Lance?"
"It's only fair." Steph said. "But he's not gonna want the house."
"Never know, he might."
"I know Lance. He won't."
"Well, I'll see you soon then ok?"
"Yep, I'll be there." Steph said and hung up the phone.
    Corrina sent a text message to Lance: THE SECRET OF TRE. MEET ME AND STEPH TOMORROW.
   

    Lance won the card game. He got up to check the pizza in the oven as his phone went off. "Five more minutes to cook guys," he said as he read his text. He raised an eyebrow. He didn't ask why. Whatever the reason, he'd be there.

    The next evening, Corrina got there first. Nobody would have guessed that someone had just been there a few hours earlier. Matthew had come to get any last minute things before the house was turned over to new owners, and he had left already.
    The earthquake from Tre's secret had cracked her grandmother's house apart. The grass had grown tall before she got there. Matthew was kind enough to take the old mower out and clean it up a bit. Corrina knelt down to get the key from under the mat. He had put it on Tre's favorite key chain. Corrina remembered Tre for a second. Then she turned the knob and walked inside......






                                               
                                            Chapter 2: "Riunione..."


    Stephanie got there a few hours later, around dusk. She parked next to Corrina's car and jumped out quick as lightening. She couldn't help but chuckle at the condition of the house. Corrina was standing in the door way, ready to hug her friend. Steph kept walking to the huge crack in the house. "No, I'll go in through here." She joked. "I can't believe he left a key, when...hahahaha!" She gained her composure again and hugged her friend.
    "I can't believe it's been two years." Corrina said, dusting off a chair for Steph to sit. "Lance should be coming soon hopefully."
"You told him anyway? He's not gonna want this house! Haha, look at it! I wouldn't!"
"Well, then," Corr stated blankly, "It's settled then. I'll keep it."
"Well wait a sec. I thought we could all just share it for whenever one of us wants to come for vacation or maybe use it for a practical purpose, like, uhhh, using her...land to...grow crops or something."
"I think we should just wait for Lance to get here first before we talk about anything." Corrina said.
"Fine. But I doubt he'll even come, he won't want this place. It's..."
    Stephanie was interrupted by knock at the door. She opened the door to find the neighbor from down the road. An older woman, short and round with straight blonde hair was looking in behind Stephanie at Corrina. "Ok," the woman said firmly, "I know the homeowners, and I've never seen y'all before. Who are y'all?"
    "Friend's of the LATE homeowners. Who are you?" Steph snapped.
    "Well, then, what are their names? Can you tell me their names hun?" The woman snapped back. Corrina came marching forward with her legal stance and serious eyes. "This house was given in will to Tredesca Belanger, Granddaughter of Maria Belanger. Do you know where her ashes were spread? Because we do."
    The woman stared cooly at them both and made a remark in defense before turning and leaving. The girls stayed up as long as they could, waiting for Lance, but he didn't show. They were asleep before they knew it.


    By morning, the house was humid from the mountain dew coming in through the impressive cracks in the house. Corrina got up and opened the windows to air things out. Steph went out to the well on the side yard to bring some water in, since there wasn't any running water in the house. It smelled of sulphur, but at least it was water. "So, I guess Lance isn't coming then. I tried calling and texting him but no answer. Not surprising, I knew he wouldn't come."
    "Hey!" A familiar voice from behind her said. "I got here last night and had to stay at a crappy bed and breakfast, thank you very much rudy McRude!" Lance put his bag down and accepted Steph's flying leap of a hug. Corrina came out to greet him too. He looked around. "Man, two years can age a place badly." He said. He nodded his head in the direction of her secret. "You guys been in yet?"
    "No." Corrina answered. "We got here last night too. Well, Steph did, I got here mid-afternoon."
    "So, what's up?" Lance asked.
    "Well, Matthew called me and left a message that, to make a long story short, Tre willed this house to one of us."
    "Or all of us." Steph corrected her. "But now that you're here, we can talk about it."
    "Wait, seriously?" Lance stared wide-eyed.
    "Yep."
    "This is gonna be awesome!" Lance said happily.
    "What!?" Stephanie yelped. "You seriously would want this junked up house? It's more than condemned Lance."
    "We can fix it up. Start over new." He said.
    "And how do you suppose we go about doing that?"
    "Hello...Bethel Architecture...Owned by...who? Wait, who owns...Oh yea!...Me."
He grinned.
    "You're serious?" Steph said, not blinking.
    "I am."
    "No, Lance I mean, are you serious? Because, if you are truly for real about this, then I'm in too."
    "Corrina?" Lance looked at her.
    "Let's do it." She agreed. They all walked back to the house. Lance took a look around in each room to see what he had to work with. He opened a can of sodapop, and after taking a swig, set it down on the fireplace mantle.
    "Hey guys look what I found." Corrina called as Steph came up from the basement covered in dirt. Corrina pulled out a large portfolio. "This must have been Tre's..." She started as she looked at Steph. "What happened to you?"
    Steph rolled her eyes. "Basement. Spiders. Ran. Tripped. Then these ninjas came out of nowhere and threw dirt all over me. But I fought 'em off. So, that's Tre's what?"
    "...Yea, anyway," Corr finished, "This must be Tre's portfolio. Looks like house plans." Lance leaned over to look at it. "Hey!" He said happily. "I did those. Man that was a long time ago, can't believe she kept them all this time."
    "This is perfect then." Steph said. "Now we know what we're gonna build, so we can get on with it."
    "After I make some modifications to it. These plans are almost 5 years old."
    "You already did most of the plans anyway, why don't you let me make some modifcations to it?" Steph said. She looked at Corrina, "Oh yea you can help too."
    "That's ok, I got my own project I'm workin on." She said gracefully.
    "Fine." Lance said, walking back to get his soda can on the mantle. Or where he thought he left it. It was gone. He looked around the room, thinking he had misplaced it. "Where's my pop?" He asked confused.
    "I think you put it on top the fireplace." Corrina answered nonchallantly.
    "I know I did." He said walking back to the mantle again. His eye caught the can spilled over in the potted plant on the floor next to the fireplace. 'That's weird', he thought.
    "Find it?" Corrina asked.
    "Yea." Lance said, having a hunch. He put the can back on the mantle where it was and watched it. His hunch was realized when the can went sliding sideways off the top. He looked in the mirror above the fireplace and saw the wall behind him. His mind got quiet until Corrina's voice interrupted his thoughts like a British Cascade on a silent river...."What is Steph doing in there?" She said loudly. They heard what sounded like stones being thrown at the glass windows. Then the sound of a metal rod hitting the concrete, as if it fell from up high somewhere. "Steph! What are you doing?" Lance shouted.
    Stephanie was standing right behind them. Her voice scared them as she answered, "Nothing. Why?" Everyone was confused.
    "Who's in the back of the house making all that noise then?" Corrina asked wide-eyed. Silence came over all of them, when suddenly the window in the tv room next to them shattered from pressure. The house moaned loudly. "Oh my word!" Corrina shouted grabbing her purse from the table. Lance ushered them both out, just seconds before a large part of the house collapsed to the ground. The three stood on the other side of the street watching the plume of dust rise heavenward.
    Stephanie stood, confused about how she should feel. The truth was she was kind of glad it was gone. But she didn't know if she could show it on her face, as next to her was Corrina with wide eyes and Lance with his hands grasping the back of his neck. Nobody said a word. They all knew they could have been trapped in that. What if they had? What if the events leading up to that moment had not happened and they were stuck in the house?....."Lance," Corrina started, still wide-eyed, "I'm glad you were thirsty.".......



                                                  Chapter 3


    Corrina walked back to where the pile of house was and found the Tre's blueprints under an enormous piece of wood. "What would Tre do if she had been here to see this house fall?" She said. Nobody answered.
    "She would go in her secret and talk to someone there about it probably." Steph said. Lance raised an eyebrow. "You guys wanna go in?"
    "That's OK." Steph said.
    "I'll go." Corrina said. Steph crossed her arms and watched them go in, until she finally gave in and went in after them.
    The Secret of Tre was dark. "Is there a light anywhere?" Steph asked. The sun began to rise slowly in the east of the sky. The shadows of the trees began to move taller, as light started unveiling her world minute by minute. They could see that her world had been dying. There was little color anywhere and there was still some damage from the last storm.
    Lance looked around. "Hello?" He said, waiting a response. There was nothing but silence. The sun, which was still rising, finally answered, "Are you Tredesca's family?"
    "Uh, no actually, we're friends of hers. And you?" Lance said respectfully.
    The sun was silent for a minute and then said, "I was her friend too."
    The trio of friends looked around and Lance said, "It doesn't look like anything is living anymore here."
    "Besides the celestial luminaries, you're correct. There's nothing left living. No way to change things either." The sun sighed. Lance walked over to the nearest tree looking for a sapling near it. There was no new growth, no new weeds, not even any underbrush. He broke a small twig off of the tree looking for any sign of green inside it. Nothing. "Why is it this way?" He spoke.
    The sun was about to speak when a familiar voice interrupted. "The door was left open." Sir said. His voice was deep and frail. Corrina looked up at him wide-eyed. "The door we just came through?"
    "No. The final door Tredesca went through." Sir looked in the direction of the hallway that led to that very door. Stephanie and Corrina both walked over. They could see down the hallway the large door with its hinges still broken off by Tredesca's father when he stormed in to save her. Corrina went in first, Steph followed cautiously. As they stepped through the doorway, the room was dark.
    "What is that horrible smell?" Stephanie said, covering her nose. Corrina pulled her collar up over her nose and mouth. "I think it's mildew." She said.
    "Mildew? or mold? Is that what we're stepping in too?" Steph yelped. Lance hurried in behind them. "Ugh! Get out of here, don't breathe it in." He rushed them out again and spoke to Sir. "I can take care of that mold problem for you. That may be why the world is dying here. I think that if...."
    "That is not why we're fading away young man." Sir said firmly.
    ".....Pretty sure it is. Mold and mildew are among a lot of..."
    "That is not why we're fading away young man." Sir said again. Lance squinted, hands on his hips. Sir continued, "Stop reasoning like an answer from a new text book. Your mind may be fresh but you don't know the hidden roads within the heart of this secret. You knew Tredesca as a friend didn't you?"
    "I knew her as a sister. More than she'd probably say she knew you." Lance snapped.
    "If you want to honor her by bringing life to this secret again, then I suggest you find the correct source of the problem.