The Curse

THE CURSE

         "Oh my God Candy, the curse came true!!", I screamed frantically as I peered out the window at the smoldering remains. Candy stared up at me with her sea green eyes and purred.  She had no clue what I was yelling about.  As I stared out the window, my mind flashed back to that fateful Saturday afternoon two years before.
         It was a typical warm Saturday afternoon and I was rushing to get to work. I was fully dressed in my manager's uniform with a handful of employee evaluations tucked under my arm. I had 15 minutes to get to work by 3pm, so I was literally running out the door.  I slammed the door behind me and headed for the car. I reached into my pocket and FROZE. I had my store keys, but no car keys! Panic set in. I hurriedly ran to the back door to see if possibly I had left it ajar; it wasn't. I ran to the front door, praying that I could break in somehow, but it was locked up tight as a drum. I glanced around at all the windows and  they also were locked securely.
         "I can go across the street to Mr. Evans, my neighbor's house ,and call my mom to bring me a spare key" I frantically thought.
         As I crossed the street, I noticed a large black cloud floating across the sky and felt a little spittle of rain splash in my eyes. I groaned. I anxiously knocked on Mr. Evan's door, but there was nobody home.
         As I was walking away, I looked down the street to the left of my house and noticed a car parked at the 2nd house on my road. I hurriedly ran down the road towards the house; still clutching my papers while raindrops splattered all around.
         The house that was built there was a new one and it resembled one of those "cookie cutter" manufactured homes that could be purchased off a lot. It looked like every other cheap pre-fab home. It arrived in pieces but was built like a regular house. I think I hated it because it was built on land that was formerly my family's land for hundreds of years, but it had been sold. Sadly, I lacked the funds to purchase the land next door, so now it was occupied by a strange unknown family that had no clue as to the history of my family's plantation days.
         I ran up the perfectly manicured lawn and stepped onto the clean concrete stoop and rang the doorbell. It made one of those typical DING DONG sounds like all the other doorbells in most cheap, brand new homes.
         After a 2nd and 3rd ring a short teenaged black girl peered through the LOCKED storm door. "Hi" I said, "I'm Charles and I live in the 2 story house over there." I pointed towards my 1940's ancestral home on the hill.
         " I locked my keys in my house and I need to use your phone to call my mother to bring me a spare key" I said, as the rain pelted down on my papers.
         She glared at me, as if I were a rapist or serial killer. Her lips were tightly mashed together in a nervous frown. "I don't know you and I can't help you" she said.
         I was shocked and in disbelief! Here I was, fully dressed in my neatly washed and pressed manager's uniform. My gold name tag with "Charles Hockaday-Manager", was sparkling from the reflection off her kitchen light. She could see it clearly!
         I looked at her and spoke again, "See my name tag, I am Charles Hockaday."
         I pulled out my wallet and showed her my picture through the glass. "See, 898 Everettes School Road, that is 2 houses up the road from your house. My family graveyard is behind your house. You bought this piece of land from my cousin Wade Hockaday. Before you bought this land, it was Hockaday land for 300 years! All I need is just to use your phone for 5 minutes. If you have a cordless, you can hand it to me out the door and I will stand in the rain and make a call!"
         "Sorry" she said, her lips still clamped tightly together, "I don't know you and I can't help you!" She then slammed the door shut.
         I was standing on the stoop, dripping wet from the rain and madder than I had ever been in my entire life. Now I am basically a kind, loving individual. I rarely wish bad things on others and try to be charitable to everyone; but this girl had brought out some hidden evil creature that I had suppressed my entire life. She would pay! As I walked across the now soaked lawn, I cursed the girl and her manufactured house with the cheap doorbell. As the rain dripped into my eyes, I prayed that the house would catch fire and the only phone available to call the fire department would be mine.
         Some strange electrical malfunction would occur, possibly from the cheap doorbell. The fire would start in the kitchen and burn out all the phone lines. The girl would panic and run down the street to my house. I would be sitting in the parlor, sipping vodka and listening to Collective Soul; when I would hear a frantic knocking on my front door. I would very slowly peer out of my LOCKED storm door at the desperate young girl and frown.
         "Please let me use your phone" she would tearfully scream, "My house is on fire and I need to call the fire department!"
         I would look at her soot covered clothing, take a swig of my cocktail, and then calmly say, "I'm sorry, I don't know you. I can't help you."
         She would beg and plead, but I would slam the door in her face. I would then step over to the parlor window, pull back the lace curtains and marvel at the glorious orange flames as they licked at the second story windows. I would light a Salem Light as I watched the front dormer window crash to the ground. Revenge would be sweet!
         My daydream soon ended as the rain stopped abruptly and the sun began to shine. I glanced across the highway and a car was parked at a tiny graveyard. A tall, well dressed black gentleman was stooped over a grave, pulling weeds from around a headstone. He had placed a metal vase of freshly cut red tulips in front of the headstone.
         I quickly crossed the street to the graveyard. "Hello" I said, "Can you please help me? I locked my keys in my house. Can you drive me up the street to my mother's house to get my spare key? I can't find anyone to help me."
         He stepped up, wiping the dirt from his pressed black dress pants. " Sure, no problem, I was just putting some flowers on my mom's grave. Where is your mother's house?" he asked.
         "It's about a mile up 158 on the left" I said, as I hopped into his late model BMW.
         As we drove he told me he was from New Jersey and was visiting his mom's grave to place flowers on it for her birthday. I gave him my condolences.
         Soon we arrived at my mom's house and I finally got my spare key. I thanked the stranger and he drove away; never to be seen again. Mom drove me to my house and I was able to get inside to get my car keys. I called work and explained the situation, but they thought I had made up the whole strange story. I grabbed my keys and headed to work, only an hour late.
         Two years passed, and the curse I had placed on the house was all but forgotten. The day was just another Saturday afternoon, like so many others. I was still rushing out of the house, at the last minute. I had to be at work at 3pm as usual. I jumped in the Plymouth and headed down the dirt path to the highway. As I pulled out the driveway, I noticed a large black cloud looming over head. A few splatters of rain appeared on my winshield. I remembered back to the day I had locked myself out of the house, but the curse never even crossed my mind.
         The day flew by and I returned home late that night around midnight. It was raining heavily and several lightening bolts streaked across the summer sky. This was followed by many earth-shaking claps of thunder. I rushed into the house, shaking off the rain on my coat.
My cat, Candy was standing on the kitchen table. Her eyes were filled with terror and her tail was standing straight up. I scooped her up in my arms and held her shivering body. A large flash of lightening struck something nearby. I felt the house shake, then the kitchen lights flickered and went out.
         "Well Candy" I said, "There's nothing left for us to do but go to bed."
         I lit a candle and climbed the creaking staircase up to my bedroom. I climbed into bed and quickly drifted off to sleep. Candy curled up beside me, shivering.
         The next morning I awoke around 11am and smelled smoke in the air. It was a wet, damp smoky smell. I pulled up the venetian blinds and peered out the window over at my neighbor's house. To my horror, the entire top of the house was gone! A lone chimney with a few charred pieces of vinyl siding was poking up out of the ruins! The dormer windows had fallen down and crashed to the ground below. Only the back of the house was left standing. The fire had long since been put out, but the smell of wet, charred wood was still drifting through my window. Yellow police tape was surrounding the house.
         As I surveyed the damage, I then remembered back to that rainy Saturday two year's before. I remembered being treated so rudely by the girl, and cursing her house as I angrily walked through the rain.
         "Oh my God Candy! The curse came true!" Candy just looked at me with her sea green eyes and purred. "What had I done?" I thought.
         I later found out that a lightening bolt had struck the house, knocking the owner unconcious while he lay on the couch. My next door neighbor had broken down the door and dragged the man to safety. Luckily, nobody was hurt in the fire.
         I prayed to God to forgive me for the awful curse that I had placed on the house. As time went by, the house was rebuilt; much larger and finer than before. Things in my neighborhood eventually returned to normal. Now I am much more careful when someone is evil to me. I just take a deep breath, and relax. I don't want that evil power deep inside me to come out again. Like a wise old woman once told me, "Be careful what you wish for, because it might just come true!"