A Peaceful and Quiet Place
A gray SUV stopped by a white house in the countryside. The garden was a bit overgrown; the grass and trees were starting to claim more land than they had been permitted. Five people came down from the car and looked around.
‘This place looks nice.’
Said a tall blond girl with green eyes while taking a deep breath.
‘Yeah, it’s a nice place. Grandpa loved this: fresh air, the forest extends for ten kilometers, and there is a river down the hill; we used to bathe there as kids.
A dark and tall man in his thirties said as he looked towards the forest with a nostalgic face and a little smile.
‘Sorry to ruin the moment, Kendric, but I really need to use the bathroom.’
A petite Asian girl was crossing her legs in a desperate manner.
‘Sure, come.’
Kendric fumbled in his pockets for the keys to the house. The lock was a bit tricky, and once opened, the door creaked.
‘There is a bathroom at the end on the left.’
The Asian girl ran in the signaled direction. Kendric went back out.
‘Where is Sam?’
‘Oh, he went into the woods with Nela.’
Answered the blond girl.
‘Those two are just trying to get away from carrying the luggage.’
‘Nah, they are just horny.’
‘Well, let’s move our stuff.’
Kendric and the blond girl took out the luggage from the trunk.
‘So are you going to sell it?’
‘I think I will. Mizuki said she got an uncle that might be interested; that is one of the reasons she came on this trip.’
‘I see.’
Right at that moment, Mizuki came out of the house. She looked around.
‘Did those two?’
‘Yup,’ answered Kendric.
‘Jesus, they really need to see a therapist or something. They are sick.
‘Well, at least someone is having fun. I haven’t seen any action in almost a year.
‘Well, Yen, maybe if you lower your expectations a little,’ Mizuki countered.
‘I’d rather be dead.’
While the girls argued, Kendric was carrying the bags.
‘Thanks for the help,’ he complained.
‘You are welcome,’ Yennifer retorted, acting conceited.
‘Don’t worry, we will help you clean,’ Mizuki promised.
‘I won’t hold my breath. Go get those two; I will open up the windows.
As Yennifer and Mizuki went away, Kendric went back into the house and opened the windows and doors. He stood around looking at the old pictures, two old people hugging each other or standing side by side. Then there was a family photo. Kendric took one of them; his grandfather and grandmother stood in the middle while four adults surrounded them, and up front twelve kids smiled.
‘That is your family.’
Kendric turned around; Sam and Nela were back. Sam was a giant white man with black hair and blue eyes, wide shoulders, and thick arms. Nela was a petite mulatto girl with long black hair and brown eyes.
‘Yeah. These are my gramps. To the left, my mom and dad. To the right are my two uncles. These are my eleven cousins; they all left for Australia like twenty-five years ago.’
Mizuki came over.
‘Which one are you?’
‘This one in the middle.’
‘Oh! You were cute.
‘I’m not cute anymore.’
Mizuki looked at him.
‘Nah! Not really.
‘Thanks.’
‘You are welcome.’
‘So, where is our room?’ asked Sam.
Kendric put the picture back in its place and turned around.
‘Follow me.’
They moved to the second floor; he opened a room.
‘Mizuki, this one is for you.’ They stopped on the first room after going up the stairs. ‘Yen will be right in front.’
Kendric turned around.
‘As for you two, you will take the last room to the left.’
‘Why so far? What is wrong with the other rooms? Complained Sam.
‘We want to sleep, Sam. We don’t want to hear you two getting it on in the middle of the night,’ answered Yennifer.
‘I am hungry; what are we eating?’ Asked Mizuki.
‘The fridge should be loaded. I asked a friend to clean up the house and bring some provisions yesterday.
Kendric went down the stairs towards the kitchen. The fridge was full.
‘Well, let’s cook.’
Kendric and Mizuki cooked while the others sat on the sofa in the living room looking at the TV. After dinner and doing the dishes, they sat there and watched some series while drinking wine. It was late at night when they went to bed. The next morning they had breakfast and then went for a walk.
‘Wow! This place really is nice. Appreciated, Yennifer.
‘Told you. Great place to live; let’s go down to the river.
As soon as they got close, Kendric took his clothes off. His lean, muscular body got Mizuki’s and Yennifer’s attention. Kendric jumped into the water without a second thought.
The others followed his example.
‘Oh! It’s cold,’ complained Yennifer.
‘You will get used to it in a minute.’
They played in the water for a while and then went back home in their underwear.
‘Now I am hungry again,’ Mizuki said.
‘Me too,’ Nela added.
‘I don’t get it. You girls eat a lot; where is all that food going into? How is that even possible’? Asked Sam.
‘One of the greatest mysteries of the universe, my friend,’ answered Kendric.
They cooked and ate. In the afternoon a truck brought a container. A man in working clothes came over.
‘The container has all the boxes you might need. Fill them up with whatever you want to throw away, and we will take care of it later. We will be back in ten days. Is that enough?’
‘Yeah, should be,’ answered Kendric.
They shook hands, and the man left.
‘Well, let’s get to it,’ said Sam.
They started cleaning rooms. Taking out old and worn-out furniture, old clothes, and other belongings.
‘Put the pictures in this box; I am taking them home.’
There was some sadness in Kendric’s voice.
‘Hey, how about the basement?’ asked Sam.
‘Let’s do it tomorrow morning. It is getting late.
They had dinner and went to sleep soon after. The next morning they continued the work. Sam and Kendric went down to the basement. There was a hole in one of the walls and a few bricks on the floor and other construction materials.
‘It seems your grandfather was building something.’
‘Maybe repairing something; he was working down here when he died. A friend of his came over and found him dead. Maybe it was too much for his heart.
The two men started looking around. There was a lot of stuff covered under plastic down there.
‘Jesus, this is my old bike.’ Kendric recognized the rusty object with tears in his eyes.
‘You okay, man?’
‘Yeah, I am fine.’
They took out old lawnmowers. Old bikes and other equipment. Sam’s huge body proved useful; the giant could lift up almost anything.
‘Hey, Ken, come check this out.’
Kendric came closer; Sam found an old green metal box. The lock was in good condition.
‘What is this?’
‘I don’t know; I’ve never seen it before. Let’s open it.
The two men took a crowbar and a hammer from Kendric’s grandfather’s tool kit and forced the lock open.
‘Wow! Your grandpa was in the army?’
‘Looks like, I didn’t know.’
The box was filled with military stuff: an old uniform, a helmet, a metal compass, lots of letters, pictures, and a discolored, worn-out puppet. One of the pictures showed a group of young men standing in a destroyed forest dressed in uniform with their guns. In the middle was a soldier holding out the puppet. Kendric turned the picture around.
‘First Cavalry Division, Drang Valley 1965’
‘That was Vietnam. Your grandfather was a veteran?’
‘It seems like, I didn’t know he was in the American army.’
Kendric looked at the picture again. Then I looked at the puppet and cleaned the badge in its chest.
‘Lieutenant Happy’
Although the colors were wearing out, the puppet face had a sad clown painting and was dressed in a military uniform. Aside from that, it was just a regular puppet. Kendric closed the box.
‘Throw it away.’
‘You don’t want to keep the pictures or read the letter?’
‘Grandpa never talked about this; I don’t think he wants us to know.’
‘Okay.’
Sam took the box out of the basement. Soon the basement was clean, except for the construction materials and tools. The rest of the house was almost empty of all personal belongings. They made dinner and were doing the dishes. The faucet broke out of nowhere, and the hot, almost boiling water splashed all over Yennifer’s face, making her scream.
‘Fuck!’ Kendric closed the water valve under the sink. ‘You okay?’
‘Yeah, I just feel my face hot.’
‘Well, you look a bit red.’
The other came down from the second floor.
‘What happened?’ Asked Sam.
‘Just the faucet that broke and splashed Yen with hot water’
The others looked at Yen.
‘I am fine.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yeah, I am fine’
They went to bed; the next morning they woke up early. After Kendric fixed the faucet, everyone was waiting for coffee.
‘Men, I slept like shit,’ complained Sam.
‘Me too,’ added Mizuki.
They looked at each other; they all had the same face; Yennifer’s was still a bit red. Kendric opened the drawer to take out coffee spoons and was surprised.
‘Where the hell are the forks!?’
The others looked at him with puzzled faces and then got closer. The container holding the forks was empty.
‘Did you guys throw the forks away?
‘No’ answered Mizuki.
‘That is weird, but let’s take our coffee, shall we?’ Sam took a spoon, put on some sugar, and moved to the sofa. After putting his cup on the coffee table, he let himself drop on the sofa.
‘Fuck!’ Sam screamed, jumping up.
Everyone looked at him. Sam removed the cover from the sofa; the forks were all there. Sam took one and showed it to the others.
‘Very funny!’
The others looked at each other, then all eyes focused on Kendric.
‘What? I didn’t do it.
‘Let’s just drink our coffee.’
Mizuki took a sip and then spit it in the sink.
‘What now?’ Asked Kendric.
Mizuki pointed towards the sugar.
‘That is salt.’
Kendric took a pinch of the white powder.
‘Yeah, it is salt.’
With even worse humor, everyone waited for the next batch of coffee. Things kept happening: water pressure fluctuated, cold turned hot in a second, things were out of place, and the television changed channels or turned on and off on its own. The fridge stopped working, and smartphones turned off and on on their own. Finally the day came to an end.
‘What a fucked up day,’ said Kendric after dinner.
‘Yeah, it’s an old house; things break. Let’s go to bed now; I want this day to be over,’ proposed Nela.
Early in the morning, the television turned on its own at maximum volume, waking everyone up. Sam, Nela, and Kendric came down to the living room. The television was on a cooking channel.
‘This is impossible.’
Lena and Sam looked at Kendric.
‘I disconnected it last night.’
Sam and Kendric walked slowly towards the television; the cable was disconnected from the electricity, but the appliance was still on. A scream came from the upper floor. Sam and Kendric ran up; Mizuki was trying to open the door while Yennifer screamed.
‘Move aside!’
Sam kicked the door in. The door fell to the floor. Inside the room, lights were turning on and off, and the wardrobe door opened and closed while the clothes were dragging themselves around the floor and walls like worms. The sheets were wrapping Yennifer and tightening. Sam jumped on the bed and started wrestling with the sheets, trying to free the girl. Finally the things calmed down, the sheets got loose, and the clothes stopped moving around. Yennifer hugged Sam and cried. The sound of dishes breaking and pots crashing rose from the floor below.
‘Nela’
Kendric ran down, and Sam followed behind. Yennifer and Mizuki came after. The kitchen and the living room were a mess. Broken dishes, pots, and pans on the floor; the furniture had moved around, a terrorized Nela was cowering in a corner of the room.
‘What happened?’ Asked Sam.
‘I tried to leave, and the house attacked me,’ answered Lena, crying.
‘Are you hurt?’
‘No’
‘Okay, get up, we need to leave this place.’
As soon as Sam said those words, the noise inside the house increased. Every door, window, and drawer started opening and closing violently. Suddenly, it all stopped. One of the kitchen drawers opened up, and all the knives, forks, and any pointy metal pieces jumped on top of the counter. Everyone stood still. A voice called from outside the house by one of the open windows.
‘Where is the puppet?’
Kendric turned towards the window; an old white man was standing on the grass. Kendrick’s eyes opened up in understanding.
‘In the green metal box in the container’
Kendric barely had any time to dodge to the side; some of the knives flew towards the window; the old man was already walking towards the container. The furniture moved on its own and blocked the door. All windows closed. The old man came back a few minutes later holding the puppet in his hand.
‘You better open up.’
Again the whole house started rumbling as internal doors and drawers and everything that could move made noise.
‘I warned you’
The old man took a rock from the garden and smashed one of the window’s crystals and then launched the puppet in. The toy fell to the ground and stood there, and then there was silence. The old man put his head through the window.
‘You can open the door now.’
Kendric and Sam got closer to the door and moved the furniture out of the way. The door creaked as they opened it. Everyone ran outside.
‘It’s okay now, don’t worry,’ the old man assured them.
‘Who are you, and what is going on? Asked Kendric.
‘Let’s talk inside,’ said the old man.
‘No way, I’m not going in there ever again.’
‘We have to,’ answered the man. ‘I am a friend of your grandfather. We have things to do; it is safe; trust me.’
The man walked into the house; Kendric looked at Sam.
‘Girls, get in the car; if something happens or we are not back in fifteen minutes, leave.’
Sam turned around and walked towards the house alongside Kendric. The old man was waiting for them with the puppet in his hand.
‘Come’
The old man walked straight to the basement.
‘So who are you?’ Asked Sam.
‘My name is Donald. I was a friend of your grandfather; we joined the army together. Sorry it took me so long to come; I just found out Martin was dead two days ago.’
They walked down to the basement. The old man saw the bricks, materials, and the hole in the wall.
‘Oh, Martin, you almost made it’
‘What is going on?’ Demanded Kendric.
‘Back in sixty-five, Martin and I joined the army with our friends; two of them were drafted. All for one, one for all. We were not Americans; still, we joined for our friends. We got sent to Drang Valley. It was a meat grinder. We lost most of our unit over there. It was as bad as bad can be. We met this weird guy over there; his name was Melvin; he never spoke unless he was using his puppet. He used to say that speaking breaks the peace; that was the thing he valued the most: peace and quiet. That was his dream: to live in a quiet place, in peace. His puppet was silly, and his name was silly, but this Melvin guy was a force to reckon; a man who took no bullshit. We followed his lead, and we survived everything: Drang, Khe Sanh and then we got sent to Hamburger Hill. We made it back every time. Then one day at the base, a gun dropped from a table and blew his brains out by accident’.
The old man looked at the puppet.
‘We checked everywhere; he didn’t have a tag, we still don’t know his last name, and there was no one to call. The army had no registry of this guy at all. All we had left was this puppet. A soldier came back to deliver it five minutes after Melvin’s death. He took it away from the base in his jeep by accident.
The old man put the puppet into the hole in the wall.
‘You are going to put that thing in there?’ Sam asked.
‘We have to. Your grandfather bought this house cheap; it was supposed to be haunted, and it was. But he found out that whenever he brought the lieutenant in, things calmed down. In my opinion, it makes sense; there is no way some random house ghost can put up a fight against a seasoned veteran. With the years we learned a few things about the lieutenant, he is just like Melvin; he wants peace and quiet, and he gets it. This ghost are scared, Lieutenant Happy doesn’t fuck around and they know it.
The man saluted the puppet and started mixing the materials.
‘Your grandfather told me to check and make sure his job was done if something happened to him; I think he knew his time was up.’
After warning the girls of their delay; Sam and Kendric helped the old man seal off the wall and with it the secret of this quiet house in the countryside.