The House At Sunset (part 1)

By Jesse Edwardson

 

“Bullshit!” Max blurted.

“No, it ain't bullshit. I saw it with my own eyes,” Eddie said.

Max rolled his eyes, shook his head and said, “There is no fucking way that some old house can only be seen after sunset and can't be seen after sunrise.”

“It's not that it can't be seen. It's not there at all during the day. I walked around the lot and through the space that the house stands in at night.

“You've seen the house too?” Max asked.

“Kinda. One time my parents and I drove by it coming home from somewhere and I looked out the car window as we passed it. All I could see was a dark house shape behind a bunch of thick, over grown bushes and trees. We went by pretty fast but I'm sure I saw something there.”

Max crossed his arms over his narrow boy's chest. He looked into his best friend's face, waiting for the crack of a smile that would give away the joke. Eddie makes up fantastic lies all the time and can't be believed about anything. No smile came. Eddie was telling the truth.

“How can a house, a house, be there sometimes and not be there other times?”

“I don't know, but it is,” Eddie said. He sat on the edge of Max's bed with an Iron Man comic dangling from his left hand. Max sat at his desk, across the room and in front of the window. Their backpacks lay on the floor near the door, forgotten. Max and Eddie had gotten out of school half an hour before and were just hanging out together. It's Friday afternoon and they plan to go to the mall and the arcade after dinner.

Max stared at his best friend doubtfully.

“Ok, so how did you even find this place?” Max asked.

“My brother told me about it. Kyle said he actually watched it as it appeared. It was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen.”

“Kyle's been dead for a couple years now though.”

“It was before he died, dumb ass!” Eddie said.

“Oh, duh. Sorry man,” Max said. Eddie's brother Kyle had disappeared three years ago. The family had only recently given up hope that he was still alive and would return to them. Kyle would have been sixteen years old by now and was two years older than Eddie. They were as close as brothers could be although they tended to drive each other nuts most of the time. Mostly it was little brother wanting to do everything that big brother did and big brother not wanting little brother constantly in his shadow.

“No problem, I've just been thinking about him a lot lately and I remembered what he told me about that weedy lot down on Delavan Street. He had heard about it from a friend at school and thought it was cool story. I think he told me about it just to be mean and give me nightmares,” Eddie said as he looked down at the floor.

Max was silent for a moment and then said, “Did it work?”

“What, the nightmares? Yeah. I was only eleven. I still slept with a night light then.”

This busted the tension. Max laughed so hard that tears came to his eyes.

Eddie looked up surprised by the laughter. He was slow to figure out what was so funny. But when he realized what a big baby he must seem to Max, he started laughing too.

“What a pussy! A fucking night light! Really?” Max cried through his tears and laughter.

“Yeah, I guess I was,” Eddie said amidst his own laughter.

“Was?! ARE! You're still a big pussy!”

“Hey now, I'll kick your ass any day of the week!” Eddie threatened, still laughing.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever...” Max said while wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his Quiet Riot tee-shirt.

“So, do you want to go check out this magic house?” Max asked.

“Yeah, the thought of the house has been nagging at me, it's like I'm supposed to look for it,” Eddie said.

“Whoo Ooo Oo! How mysterious,” Max said smiling.

“I know, it sounds stupid, but I want to find it. I've been dreaming about it,” Eddie said this last part a little shyly.

The truth is Eddie has been dreaming about the house, a house that doesn't exist, almost every night since Kyle disappeared.

“I don't know why, but I feel like I need to see it. But, I'm too chicken to go alone.”

“That's awesome,” Max said with a hint of laugh still in his voice. “Call your mom and ask if you can spend the night. We'll go check it out.”

“Shouldn't you ask your mom too?”

Max raised his chin and shouted at the top of his lungs. “HEY MOM, CAN EDDIE SPEND THE NIGHT?”

“WHAT?” his mom yelled from somewhere in the house.

“CAN EDDIE SPEND THE NIGHT?!”

“I DON'T CARE!”

“THANK YOU!”

No reply came back. Max looked at Eddie with one eyebrow raised. Eddie shook his head and smiled.

“I'll go call my Mom,” Eddie said.