The Old House

By Terena Powell

There is a house I have seen in a recurring dream. It is a stately house with curving twin staircases on either side of a larger foyer. Sometimes the house is in good repair when I see it... at other times, it is abandoned, dusty... chilly. I am in the foyer. The walls are white, the floor tiled black and white. I ascend the right hand staircase to the second floor. Though the walls look ordinary, there is a secret room behind the wall on the right. I walk to it... sure of its existence.

The door to the room can hardly be called a door. It is small - narrow - but I can squeeze inside. Once there, I can stand to my full height. The room is remarkable. There are letters, old letters, dated from the 1700's and 1800's. There are newspapers, a chess set, a trunk that is closed and lanterns made of brass.

There are photos of men with drooping mustaches and dark coats and something from the railroad - tickets, perhaps. The room holds many secrets and each time I visit it in my dream, I discover something new. I feel there is a secret there... something important that I should find, but what I don't know.

Sometimes I hear voices from the landing when I'm in the secret room, but not voices that I know. I stay quiet because whomever it is must NOT find the room. They must not know of its existence. Why I have no idea. The house appears in my dreams and seems to beckon to me to come there... to discover what the secret room has to share.

Sometimes I have the feeling that what I find there will make me sad. Sometimes I am scared to go into the house due to the feeling like something is there that brought me pain.

The house is situated in dense woods. There is another house close by - large, plain and dilapidated. It gives me the shivers. I feel eyes on me from that house as I walk the grounds. I come to a building made of brick. A mausoleum? A tomb? There is a plaque... a raised platform;;; made of brick in the front. It is a grave. It bears the name of some type of soldier. I see his image carved in the stone that tops this tomb. Some sort of hat, a long coat, and a long sword worn on his right side.

I try to read the inscription, but I am always interrupted by a strange woman in a long dress. She tries to divert my attention from the tomb.

At this point in the dream, I am extremely frustrated. I have the feeling that I am out of time - that I must go. Usually I wake up with so many questions.