Category: Fiction Factor

Duff and Lifesaver huddled at the bottom of the stairwell, which, Duff figured, was probably the safest place in the house.

A tornado warning had been issued, and all those in its path were urged to take immediate cover. The voice coming through the television was insistent.

Stay away from windows, go to a basement if you have one, or shelter in a hallway, closet or bathroom if those are your only options. This is a serious situation.

The stairwell leading to the garage at Duff’s house was 13 steps deep and covered by walls on either side. The bottom step was a favorite spot for Lifesaver, a small, ginger cat who was mostly fearless but always put aside his bravado during inclement weather. The first clap of thunder would send him slinking to his safe space, where he would curl into a ball and rhythmically twitch his ears.

When that happened, Duff would lean over the railing and talk to the cat in a calm, soothing voice.

“It’s OK, buddy,” he’d say. “We’ll take care of each other just like we always do.”

Duff’s wife had been gone for 10 years, and Lifesaver came along three years later. As the calendar kept flipping, Duff was less inclined to go out and socialize, and instead preferred the company of his feline. Once he became a “cat person,” he couldn’t imagine life without a furry friend.

And the kitty seemed to like the arrangement, too. He loved shadowing Duff as he went about his daily routine, and always snuggled beside him when the old man reclined in his easy chair, cracked open a cold one and watched baseball.

As the wind howled mercilessly and the hail pounded the metal roof, Duff gently stroked Lifesaver from head to tail.

Take immediate shelter. If you are in the counties of Douglas, Lincoln and Buchanan, you are under a tornado warning. Extensive damage has already been reported.

“I guess we should probably go to the garage, but I really don’t want to,” Duff said as Lifesaver looked up at him and slowly blinked. “Nah … we’re gonna stay right here unless we have no other choice.”

Duff had groceries delivered and used a ride-hailing service when he went out, so his 2009 CR-V had been sitting idle for several years. It most likely still ran just fine, but now it was simply 3,500 pounds of melancholy. When Duff looked at it, he thought of that spring day in 2018 when he grew so despondent he decided he didn’t want to see another day.

With the garage door closed, he planned to get in, crank it up, close his eyes and quietly slip away.

But as he opened the door and plopped down in the driver’s seat, he heard a noise coming from the corner where his tools were stored. He walked over to inspect, and saw the head of a small kitten peering at him from behind the mud-caked blade of a shovel.

Duff reached in and grabbed the puff of orange fur, who just barely spilled over the palm of his hand.

“Where did you come from, little one?” he said as the cat meekly mewed. “How did you even get in here?”

Duff pulled the kitten close to his chest, kissed it on the head, and then walked over to his car and closed the door.

Since then, the pair had been inseparable, and Duff figured this was the ninth or tenth time they had ridden out a tornado at the bottom of the stairwell.

Just as Lifesaver rolled over to get a belly rub, the hail stopped, and the roaring wind had settled into a whimper.

The tornado warnings for the counties of Douglas, Lincoln and Buchanan have been lifted. The tornadic activity has moved to the west and these counties are now under a severe thunderstorm watch. The dangerous weather should be moving out of the area within the hour.

Duff stood up and Lifesaver took a big stretch. Both headed up the stairs.

“We survived another one, buddy,” Duff said. “Why don’t we celebrate by watching some baseball.”

The old Queen Anne-style house situated just off the Highway 149 was definitely a fixer-upper, almost to the point of being an eyesore.

The dark grey eaves were in immediate need of major repair, with the edges frayed like a block of cheese that had been nibbled by a rat.

The faded white wraparound porch seemed fine at first glance, but a closer inspection revealed badly damaged spindle work and several rotted boards that made for hazardous walking. The porch columns needed reinforcement, and at least one had to be completely replaced due to a large crack that started at its base and ran all the way to the top.

Some of the bay windows were broken, all of the window treatments were a mess … there was a laundry list of  renovation and restoration needs. Frankly, it was a miracle that a This Property Is Condemned sign hadn’t been tacked to the door.

Still, the house could certainly be restored to its original glory, but it wouldn’t happen overnight. It was going to cost a whole lot of money – and countless hours of work – to make it both presentable and livable.

Frederick and Nettie were hopeful, though; they had seen a realtor come by twice in the last week with two different parties. Whether the potential buyers were looking for a place to live or a place to flip didn’t really matter to the couple as long as someone fixed it up and moved back in.

“It’s been what, 12, 15 years since the Williams family lived here?” Frederick wondered aloud.

“Fourteen years,” Nettie said. “They moved out on March 17, 2011. I hated to seem ‘em go. I’ll never forget waving goodbye to that little girl – Marcy was her name. Such a sweet child. The whole family was good people.”

“They were, they were … Jane and Daryl Williams,” Frederick said wistfully. “Remember that funny dog they had? Dipper. Ol’ Dipper would just stand there and bark and bark at us and Mr. and Mrs. Williams never could get him to quiet down. But Marcy would walk over, look at us and smile. When she did that, Dipper would walk away and go about his business. Course, the next day it all started up again. I guess dogs have short memories.”

A car slowed down in front of the house, and both the driver and the passenger leaned in to take a closer look. They talked among themselves briefly, pointed at the property, then slowly eased back onto the road and drove away.

“Don’t guess they were interested in buying,” Nettie said. “You never know, though. That’s how the Carters found this place, you recall. They rode up in that fancy looking Packard Caribbean and she had on those big sunglasses and that polka dot bandana, and her little bitty husband was gobbled up in that velvety sport coat. It tickles me to even think about it. She walked right up on the porch and decided right then she wanted the place and he just laughed.”

“Oh, yeah, Dee and Desi Carter,” Frederick said. “Now, he was plenty nice and friendly but she was something else … she was something else entirely, and I mean that in a good way. Lordy, she loved to have those big parties, didn’t she? All those people would come around from all over, dressed to the nines, drinking whiskey sours and having a big time. Thing about her, it was like she knew what kinda music we liked and wanted to make us part of it, too. Every Halloween she’d put Down Hearted Blues and Memphis Blues on the gramophone. Every single Halloween, long about midnight. It made me think about those days when you sang and I played and we toured all over the country with W.C. Handy and Bessie Smith. That was awfully nice of her, I think. She’s another one I miss.”

Several families had come and gone, all making an impact on the couple one way or another. Nettie peered outside one of the windows on the second floor and watched as several more cars whizzed by – but not one gave the house a second look.

“Frederick, you think maybe it’s the stories that keep people away? You know, the stories about the murders. Everybody had pretty much forgotten about it, but then those ghost hunter shows started popping up and the next thing you know people start talking about the evil in this house. It ain’t right.”

Frederick glided over to Nettie and put his arm around her.

“Well, sugar,” he said. “The man that killed us was evil, but he’s gone now … went to prison first and now I’m pretty sure he’s in a place I don’t think anybody wants to go. But you and me? We’re just regular ol’ spirits, and this is where we belong. Little Marcy knew it. Mrs. Carter knew it, too. Don’t think anybody was ever really afraid of us, except maybe ol’ Dipper.

“No, this is a happy place. It’s our happy place. If we can just get another family in here, you and me will make sure they’re looked out for. Our house seems more like a home when we have company.”

“Hey, Brenda,” Chandler said, holding the porcelain figurine in his hand, “is this yard sale material?”

Brenda moved in for a closer look, took it from Chandler, and examined it carefully. It was a sad tramp clown holding a red umbrella.

“Honestly,” she said, “I have no idea where this even came from. It seems pretty nice, though … shiny, undamaged. Lots of people like knickknacks so, yeah, we can sell it. Put a $5 tag on it.”

The couple had spent much of the morning in purge mode. They were preparing to move to a smaller house after a decade at their current abode, and like many people had collected far more things than they could ever want or need.

While some were headed straight for the dumpster – cracked lamp globes and a vacuum cleaner that would cost more to repair than replace, for example – others still had enough value to be placed on a folding table and snatched up by pickers and browsers. They’d spend the rest of the day gathering them up and prepping for Saturday’s sale.

So far, Chandler had discovered more than 30 lightly-worn ballcaps, several old but still usable softball gloves, and five wristwatches he was willing to part with because, well, he’d given up wristwatches shortly after smartphones were invented.

Brenda had set out dishes, dresses, a few gardening supplies and a microwave. Still, there were plenty of other items that weren’t going to survive the relocation, and the pair wanted to lighten their load as much as possible.

As Chandler prepared to look in the basement for more treasures, Brenda emerged from  the hall closet.

“Looks like I found an old friend of yours,” she said with a laugh.

Among some of the items she had placed in a cardboard box was a 1970s era plush football doll, complete with a rosy-cheeked cupid face. The helmet was dingy white with a green stripe and the jersey – emblazoned with a green number one – was faded yellow, with cotton coming out of a busted seam on its left side. It was 50-plus years old and looked it.

“Oh, wow,” said Chandler, pulling the doll from the box. “Good ol’ Bruiser … I haven’t seen him in years.”

Chandler eased down to the floor and laid the doll in front of him. He couldn’t remember the last time he had even thought about it, but its reemergence brought back a flood of memories.

He decided around the age of seven that he loved football, and enjoyed sitting next to his father on Saturdays and Sundays watching college and pro games on their boxy RCA console.

“Dad,” he’d ask, “will you take me to a game someday?”

“You bet, kiddo. I promise.”

Chandler remembered the promise was made in 1974, and the promise was kept that same year. The local college team – the Goldenrod State Yellowhammers – was taking on the Carolina Poly Pioneers at Memorial Field.

More than half a century later, details of the experience remained vivid. The game was played on September 8, Goldenrod State won, 35-6, the hot dog he scarfed down was prepackaged in a foil wrapper, and his dad bought him the toy while they were getting soft drinks at halftime.

“It didn’t look like they had any pennants,” he recalled his dad saying as he handed over the doll (along with a watered-down cola), “but ol’ Bruiser here ought to do. He’ll look good on your dresser.”

For years, Bruiser served as a reminder of Chandler’s first in-person college football game, and occupied various spots in his bedroom – not unlike the “Elf on the Shelf.” It shifted from the dresser to the nightstand and – at one point – found itself on a table by the window, nudged between a red, white and blue football on its left and a plastic football helmet on its right.

But like most kids, Chandler grew out of his toy phase, and Bruiser eventually lost his honored spot in the bedroom. Ultimately, he was placed in a closet and eventually buried under other “fossils.”

Somehow, though, Chandler managed to keep the doll. Despite moving away for college, moving back home to get married, moving away again and residing in three different apartments, two different states and four different houses, Bruiser remained – out of sight and out of mind, but always close.

“Hello,” Brenda said in a sing-song voice. “Earth to Chandler, do you read?”

Chandler looked up and shook his head.

“Sorry,” he said, clutching Bruiser in his right hand. “I guess I went on a sentimental journey there for a minute. Dad got me this when he took me to my first football game. It always makes me think of him.”

Brenda smiled.

“Well,” she said. “I can stuff the cotton back in him and sew him up. Make him good as old again – vintage, even.”

Chandler pulled the doll to his chest.

“Thanks, but … as silly as it sounds, I don’t think I want to sell it.”

Brenda knelt down and gave Chandler a kiss on the forehead.

“Good grief … I wouldn’t expect you to sell it, doofus,” she said. “But if you’re gonna display Bruiser in our new house, we need to patch him up. I want him to look good on our dresser.”