Early winter mornings gave me a fresh new start since it’s our first month here at Uncle Adam’s house. The building itself is not bad though, although kinda old. It looked more like the house of the Professor stated in one of C.S Lewis’ books, disregarding the many rooms and the wardrobe though. I don’t think I would be transported to some unknown snow world and meet a faun just because I hid at the back of the closet, nor will any paintings come to life and find myself in a mysterious ocean. It’s just a plain, old, nice house, with a backyard.
As for my room, well there are two beds. The left one is for me and the right one is for Andrew. At my side, I hang up some posters of Stryper, tobyMac, Eminem (where the heck did that poster even came from!?) and the most favourite Adam Young, which people call him as Port Blue, Sky Sailing, Swimming with the Dolphins, Novel, Nuclear Suplex, Brother Reed, and most commonly Owl City. I have no idea why he would create so many projects wherein Owl City alone would be fine nevertheless, even though he could just name the project after himself. Well, no one really knows his full intentions. Let Adam be Young.
As I woke up, I slid across my bed and gazed through the window beside me. All I see is snow and snow everywhere. Christmas is coming sooner or later and the winds get colder and colder, so I’d better prepare myself for the winter season.
“Seems like someone else is still dreaming”, I said pertaining to Andrew which was at my right.
I went downstairs to have some breakfast with Taya and my uncle. I sat on the chair to eat until I noticed that Adam was out of plain sight.
“Taya” I asked, “Where’s Uncle Adam”.
“At the basement, arranging old stuffs” she answered, putting some blush-on and getting ready for work.
“Yes, they are quite old but they’re still exquisite!” said Uncle Adams as he appeared from the basement downstairs. “These are precious memories my parents, grandparents, even the grandparents of my grandparents left us before they passed away. Now, I’m selling it so people can heed from these tiny objects how our past was.”
I finished by breakfast quickly. “Gotta eat fast” I said to myself. “Uncle Adam have some interesting story here.”
“You see, kids our days are not like kids today. You see four or five year olds having these techy gadgets and stuffs. All we have back there are sticks and stones, then we use our imagination and creativity to have something out of nothing. That’s what we have before, and I presume you have this during your kiddie days, right Joshua?”
“I think so.”
“Follow me downstairs.”
I got up and went to the basement with him. It was dark and dusty but there was a small light bulb over another door in the basement.
“Ah, this basement has been in the family for centuries” he exclaimed. “It started when your ancestor came here to America from Israel (yes, we all have the Jewish blood). He exiled himself because he was hated so much. So he started a family here. Before he died, he pleaded for all of the things in the basement he left back at Israel to be brought here on the very same place.” He pointed out the door under the glowing bulb. “This door used to be in Israel. I don’t know why your great fathers asked to place it here but oh well. They’re already dead.”
“Now as I tend the shop upstairs would you kindly do a favour and arrange everything here? Your uncle here is forgetful these days so you’ll also be making a list of anything that is related to something. Clocks go under the stairs, paintings and photos beside the closet, and anything else anywhere else. You got it?”
I nodded as I took a piece of paper and pen and started to work. After a few minutes, Uncle Adam left me alone downstairs.
“Clocks, uhmm…five of them. Paintings go right here” I said, organizing things. “Wow, I can’t believe that Uncle Adam has my medals. All of them were from my Science and Journalism contests. Too bad they’re all old now.”
I picked out one medal that says “1st place: Science” from the stack of medals.
“This used to be a gold medal, now it’s more of a bronze.”
I laughed at my successful past as I heard a thumping nearby.
“Wh-who is t-the-there?” I said nervously.
The thumping came out again but this time it was softer. It came from that door under the light bulb, probably. The thumping sounded unusual. It sounded like what it would sound like if bone and wooden floor meet. Something like the sound of two coconut shells clacked together.
Something like…the sound of hooves!
But why would it sound like hooves? Unless Uncle Adam has a pet horse that is! But would a horse fit inside a small space in the basement behind a door?
I grabbed any weapon I could find: a thin iron pipe that is. And as I approached the door, my knees shivered and I started to sweat. Slowly, I touched the doorknob with my cold bare hand and opened it quickly. I reacted suddenly as the door flung open and to see that it was only two more brooms and a mop.
“Whew!” I laughed and sighed in shame and relief. “And I thought there was some sort of horse behind this door all along. That’s pretty creepy.”
So I went back to my work quickly because I don’t want to start hallucinating about fake hooves anywhere. I’m not sure if the house is crazy or I’m the one crazy. In fact, I don’t even know who the haunted one is: me or this spooky basement?
After I made my list, I went upstairs to see Uncle Adam polishing some old figurines while entertaining some customers. I just placed the list beside the cash register and went upstairs.
“Hey, Drew” I said as I entered the room. “You’re not going to believe what just happened lately?”
“What is it?” he asked, eating some strawberry muffins.
“I heard a loud thump coming from the basement door that sounded like hooves but when I opened it there’s nothing there, not even a horse.”
“You must be listening to your own footsteps then.”
There was silence for a few seconds.
“Should I laugh or something?” I said sarcastically.
“Let’s just go downstairs” Andrew replied.
“Anyway, where did you get that muffin?”
“Downstairs.”
“Then why are you still here when you could just be downstairs.”
“Too lazy to stay downstairs.”
“Fine then, you little lazy bone. I’ll be downstairs helping Uncle Adam polishing the grandfather clocks.”