THE OLD HOUSE
By Carolann Crowley

     It was Monday morning and Angie sat in the lawyer's office. Her mom had passed away and it was time for the reading of the will. She knew, basically, what was in it. All her Mom had was the old house and some personal belongings which did not really amount to much.
     She'd grown up in that house and hated the old place. As a child, the house had frightened her and she'd seen and heard things at night. The lake that was on the property she knew was haunted too, by a little girl who had drowned in it years before they'd bought the place. Angie's mom had always put what Angie had experienced off as her imagination, but Angie knew what she'd seen and heard and knew she had not imagined it.
     She wanted no part of the old house and, as soon as she could, she'd put it up for sale. The quicker the better, she thought.
     She asked her best friend, Dawn, to go with her to clean out the old place and Dawn agreed to help her. Bright and early that Saturday morning, they began the drive up to the house and made plans to leave on the same night as Angie really did not want to spend the night there.
     As they drove, Angie told Dawn the story of her first sighting of the little girl in the lake. She had been swimming on that day when she thought she'd felt something touch her foot. "It's just old weeds from the bottom," she told herself while floating in the water. But, there it was again. A touch on her foot again.
     Angie looked down at her foot, but there was nothing on it. She peered through the water and still nothing. That's when she decided to get out of the water and swam to shore. Once out of the water, Angie stood on the shore, looking around, but still saw nothing unusual except a small circle forming in the water.
     "That's it," she said to herself. "There are fish in the water and that's what I felt touch my foot."
     Angie dried herself off and began walking toward the house. Unseen by her, from the water, a little girl watched her walk away.
     Being extremely tired, Angie thought that she would fall right to sleep. At about three in the morning, a tapping sound woke her. Still, partially asleep, she heard another tap. Sitting up in bed, another tap was heard. Angie pulled the covers to her face, afraid to look at the window where the taps seemed to be coming from. Another tap and still she did not look at the window.
     Waiting for what seemed eternity, Angie finally pulled the covers from her face. As she did, she saw the little girl right next to her bed, her hair soaking wet and dripping on the floor.
     Angie screamed, yanking the covers back over her face. She heard her mom come into the room, asking her what was wrong. Angie knew her mom would never believe her so she told her that it had just been a bad nightmare. The second her mom left the room, Angie looked at her floor but it was as dry as a bone - no water and no wet spots. She did not sleep the rest of the night.
     Angie told Dawn that this had happened on many nights. First, the tapping, then the little girl would appear. She never spoke, she just smiled, and Angie said she never spoke to the little girl either. She just wanted her to go away. When she was old enough, she moved out of the old house and that was that. She hadn't been back since. Whenever she wanted to see her mom, Angie would have her stay at her apartment. Her mom never saw or heard anything while she lived in the house.
     As the house moved closer with each mile, the hairs on the back of Angie's neck began to stand up. Finally, they were there. They unpacked the boxes she'd brought with them and entered the house. The old place looked the same as she'd remembered it. Nothing was changed. They started cleaning the downstairs rooms first, but it was getting dark by the time they were ready to clean the upstairs. Angie started in her mother's room first. There was not much to do in it, just to pack up some old keepsakes she wanted  as reminders of her mom.
     "Okay," she exclaimed. "Time for my room."
     That's when she heard the first tapping sound.
     "Did you hear that?" she asked Dawn.
     "Yes," Dawn answered. "What was it?"
     "That's the tapping sound I used to hear at my window at night."
     "Oh my God," Dawn said. "Now, I'm scared. Let's just get this over with really quick!"
     Slowly, they opened the door to the room. As the door swung open, a little girl's voice said, "I've been waiting for you for a long time to come and play with me. Oh, good. You've brought a friend along."
     The bedroom door slowly closed. Angie and Dawn were never heard from again. When the house was searched, two empty boxes stood in the room and people say that at night, you can hear a child's laughter coming from the lake!

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