The Birth of Bane Read Online Free Page A

but he was a hard read. I knew there was reason he drove a
Cadillac. He was no slouch when it came to selling homes. And, it
appeared he was no novice at playacting either.
    My mom bit her
lower lip.
    “ Mom,” said
Valerie, trying to get her attention, but my mother was in deep
thought.
    I could tell the
place was “creeping” my sister
out.
    “ You said it had
a sunroom?” she asked her one-time, high school squeeze, tilting
her head to the side. She was in a considering mood, it
seemed.
    Jessie smiled.
“Yeah, Pilly, I told you, the house is magnificent. It just needs
someone to care for it, to restore it to its’ former glory, so to
speak.”
    “ And you’re not
bull-shitting about the old lady, right? I mean, it was a peaceful
death, correct?”
    Jessie gave my
mother a mock salute, even went so far as to stand rigid. “Scout’s
Honor.”
    Oh jeez, forget what I said earlier, this guy
was a double-douche.
    “ Well, I guess
it wouldn’t hurt to have a look.”
    “ Mom, no!” commanded my
sister, fists clenched at either side. “The house is too scary. I
don’t want to live here.”
    “ We’re not moving in just yet, Val. We’re only ‘looking’ at the property,” explained my mom, using her fingers to
make quotation marks at either side of her head.
    “ I don’t want to
look,” said Valerie, petulant.
    My mother’s lips
pursed. “That’s fine with me, young lady. You can stay out here and
keep this over-grown front yard company.”
    My sister
glanced about quickly, nervous. “Are you kidding me?”
    “ No, Valerie,
I’m not.” Then, she turned to look at Jessie. “Come on, you old
trickster, let’s see what you’re trying to get me into.”
    Her friend
merely chuckled and led the way.
    “ This had better
not be like that time in ’65,” said my mom as an
afterthought.
    Jessie was
stricken in an instant, his eyes darting from me to Valerie to
Elijah like a housefly trapped inside jar, everywhere at once,
unstopping, trying to get away. He was actually
blushing!
    What had he
“tricked” my mother into doing back in 1965? My face screwed-up when it hit me. Eeeew! Mom!!!
    We came up to a
good-sized patio, laid out directly below a pair of large windows
seeing into the kitchen. The area was covered with
weathered-looking, lattice-work. Some virulent vine had weaved its’
way so thoroughly through the crisscrossing wood, hardly any light
made its’ way through. And, this was light already made dim because
of the combined canopy provided by the two gargantuan trees
dominating the front of the house.
    Jessie turned
left and walked up six wide steps onto the porch that stretched the
remaining length of the house. The farthest end of it was actually
screened in, a rickety card table and four folding chairs could be
seen from our vantage. It would make a nice place to sit, bug-free,
in the warmth of a California summer night. There would be no
mosquito bites while sitting in there.
    The man walked
up to the front door, which was almost six feet wide, clearly the
largest door I have ever seen used as an entryway into a someone’s
home. And, to our surprise, he knocked.
    He must’ve
noticed our shock, because he said with an errant chuckle. “Once
the house fell under my purview, I hired a caretaker of sorts.
Only, he’s a little eccentric.” He said the last sentence behind
the back of his hand as if he were telling a secret. “The last time
I brought a potential buyer over; we walked in on him and his
girlfriend -.”
    “ Jess! There are
children here!” cautioned my mother. It was more for Valerie’s sake
than mine. She was deathly afraid of her only daughter losing her
innocence before the proper time, which probably meant sometime
during her 40’s.
    My mother’s
friend caught himself, straightening his tie as he cleared his
throat. “…Um, sorry, about that. It’s just we didn’t expect to see
anything in happening in the living room, you know -.”
    “ Jess, we get