56 Water Street first chapter

Chapter 1



On. Off. On. Off. The lights in the kitchen flickered. On the opposite side of the street, Derek and Ravine stood still and stared, temporarily paralyzed by the lights in the old house.
If anyone else had been paying attention, they might have wondered what the kids were staring at. But no one noticed them.
Water Street was noisy and alive with the hustle and bustle of summer and the anticipation that school would finish in a few days. Soon, the streets would be filled with kids all day, not just in the evenings.
Off. On. Off. On.
Without a word between them, and without looking at each other, Derek and Ravine slowly began to cross the street. Their hearts were pounding loudly against their summer shirts as they reached the sidewalk in front of the old place.
A few droplets of sweat trickled down Derek's face. He looked at Ravine. If she was trembling, he couldn't tell. She seemed calm but intensely focused on where they were going. Her hands were shoved deep into the pockets of her shorts.
All around them, young girls were busy skipping rope and playing hopscotch in driveways. Boys were playing catch on the front lawns, close to their houses but far enough away so they wouldn't break any windows. Kids of all ages were riding bicycles along the sidewalk, swerving up onto lawns or down into the road to avoid the grown-ups out for a pleasant evening stroll.
         On. Off. On. Off.
Derek and Ravine stood at the edge of the unkempt lawn, watching the weeping willow sway as if beckoning them toward the house. Neither of them said anything about the tree waving wildly even though there seemed to be no wind. Derek looked behind him and noted the trees across the street were not moving. Then he glanced again at Ravine. Her hands were still shoved in her pockets and she looked even more focused, if that was possible.
The sounds of tag, hide-and-go-seek, street hockey, and kids shooting water pistols filled the air as they had most evenings since the weather turned warm.
Off. On. Off. On.
Derek and Ravine now stood in front of the living room window.
Other residents of Water Street didn't notice the flickering light. They didn't even glance in the direction of the house. Number 56 wasn't a house that got any attention these days.
         The lights flickered off in the kitchen. And then back on again.
Derek and Ravine stood up tall on their toes, stretching to see over the sill and peering through the dusty window. Then, as the light flickered on again, a figure appeared suddenly, as if out of nowhere.
Instinctively, Derek and Ravine both trembled and stepped back, looking at one another with wide eyes. Turning their attention back to the flickering light, they saw the tall figure was now coming toward them. Their next move was an easy one.
Run.
With no hesitation, they ran as fast as their ten-year-old legs could carry them, down the ragged lawn of Number 56 and back to the safety of the sidewalk on their own side of the road.
         
Water Street was a well kept, well maintained, neatly manicured, and respectable place to raise a family. And even though some of the residents had heard there was a black period in the street's past, none of them knew anything about it. The rumour said it had all started about a hundred years ago. Or had it been further back? But no one knew what kind of trouble there had been. After all, a hundred years, or maybe longer, was enough to bury the memory of what had happened. If anything ever did.
Whatever trouble had happened, local residents figured it had been swept aside. If the street really held dark secrets, people didn't give it much thought.
"A fine, fine place, that Water Street," is what people would say if they drove through the neighbourhood. The residents considered it a nice place to live. Many people envied them.



When Ravine and Derek were finally a safe distance from the house, they bent over, trying to catch their breath.
"Who do you think was in there?" Ravine puffed, her eyes still wide.
Derek shook his head. His wavy blond hair was now stuck to his forehead, and sweat was trickling down the sides of his face.
He and Ravine had been best friends as long as he could remember. To him, she wasn't a girl; she was just another one of his buddies. But his best buddy.
Anyway, you couldn't really call Ravine a girl. She had shiny, shoulder length brown hair and usually wore brown rimmed glasses, which she swore she didn't need. She was almost always dressed in jeans and T-shirts, like all Derek's buddies, and she was the only kid he knew who could hit a baseball right out of the park. He had only seen her in a dress once, and he wondered if she only wore them when something bad happened. She didn't fuss over her hair like the other girls he knew. Heck, she even had more dirt under her fingernails than he did. Ravine was definitely the coolest girl he knew. In fact, she was the coolest person he knew. Period.
"I have no idea," he replied, after catching his breath. He checked his watch. "I better split. I was supposed to be home ten minutes ago, and if I don't want my mom screeching my name up and down Water Street for the whole world to hear, I should get going now."
Without looking back, Ravine and Derek walked away from the house that nobody talked about. The house that no one went near.
Neither of them asked the other why they had run because neither would ever have admitted to being scared just because there was someone in the house. Or some thing.
As they walked, Derek wondered what the big secret about this house was. Why didn't anyone ever talk about it? What was everybody trying to hide?