October Spooky Assignment

As the church bells were ringing in 4 o’clock in the afternoon, Tessa and Camille were just finishing up their girls afternoon of antique shopping. “Pull in there,” Tessa said quickly to Camille. Camille pulled her Jeep Cherokee into one of several slots open at the small store marked, “Aunt Ellie’s Antiques and Fineries”.
While her eyes adjusted to the claustrophobic darkness of the small, crowded shop, Tessa followed a ray of sunlight beaming in from the windows to a dusty and neglected ladies vanity. The mirror was aged and pitted, the table in need of a good dusting and possibly a coat of varnish, but otherwise in great shape. As she approached the small elderly woman reading a Reader’s Digest behind the counter, she called out, “Excuse me, ma’am?”. The woman looked up and replied, “Yes, dear. What can I do for you?”.

“This vanity over here, do you know when it was made? And how much are you asking for it?”, Tessa asked her. “That vanity, let me see.”, the woman came around to the area the vanity was stored and touched the item with thoughtfulness. “Why, this is one of the last items from my family actually. I started this business because of the number of antiques I had accumulated in my storage barn. This was my great-Aunt Rose’s vanity. Her husband bought it for her as a wedding gift or an anniversary I believe around 1912. She would have only been about 20 years old then, so that seems about right.” She paused to consider her long lost relative, or to gauge Tessa’s interest or to set a price in her head. Finally, after a moment, she said, “I think $100 should be a fair price; it does need some work”.

Tessa quickly calculated the price along with the dimensions of the space she was considering for this piece. She was thinking this would be an excellent vanity for her guest room and the shabby chic theme she had started in that area. “Camille, do we have room in your Jeep for one more large item?”, Tessa called out to her friend. Camille absently replied, “Sure, I think we can or I’ll strap you to the top; either way, we’re good.” With some team work, and $100 lighter, Tessa and Camille headed out with the vanity.

Later that night, after Camille had left, Tessa began to place her newly purchased antiques around the house. She placed a new old watering can near her arrangement of houseplants; a silver brush/comb set went on her guest bathroom counter, a wrought iron magazine holder in the master bathroom and the new old area rug in the foyer. The vanity sat in her garage until she could get some varnish. Satisfied with her day’s work, Tessa headed to bed around 11pm.

Distantly she heard the tinkle of a glass chandelier in the wind or maybe wind chimes. Then quickly following that she heard music. Faintly at first, then a bit louder, muffled yet distinctly music. Tessa’s eyes opened from her dream. She looked over at the clock which told her it was 3:06 am. Darkness shrouded her vision as she tried to figure out what woke her. Oddly, she heard the soft music again. Assuming that she was hearing a version of her ring-tone on her cell phone, Tessa forced herself out of her bed. It wasn’t until she arrived at the hallway between her bedroom and the living room that she realized the music was not coming from her cell phone. She stopped and listened and then the music was joined by a quick laugh or giggle. The hair rose on the back of her neck as she felt with certainty that she was not alone in the house. She pressed her back to the hallway wall and listened to the sound of her own breathing for several seconds trying to decide what to do. The soft, muffled music continued. Tessa tried to pinpoint the location of where the music and that one burst of laughter had come from. She strained to listen to the music, not able to place it. It was that moment that she realized the music was coming from her garage. Quickly, she ran to her kitchen and grabbed her Mag-Lite flashlight and her telephone.

Approaching her garage for a better listen, her eyes darting around her house, the music softened rather than getting louder. She was now listening as closely as she could but her own breathing was deafening compared to the faintness of the music. She began to wonder if she was hearing things or if she had somehow left something on in the garage. She remembered the vanity and thought maybe there was something inside it causing the noise. Convinced that she had overlooked something in the new item, she cautiously opened the garage door; peering inside the darkness for signs of either the mysterious musical source or, at the worst, someone’s presence.
Tessa’s heart was racing as she craned her neck around the garage for a better listen and look. The music abruptly stopped as she looked in the direction of the vanity. She walked nearer, now convinced that there had to be an item in the vanity; a music box perhaps. She sat down at the stool of the vanity and searched the contents of the drawers. Empty. She bent over and looked underneath the top of the vanity, nothing. Defeated and feeling a little silly, Tessa turned on the Mag-Lite and swept the flashlight beam around the garage, just for reassurance. She was, indeed, alone. Sighing, she got up to go back to bed.

Re-entering her house, she turned to look at the garage one last time; all was in order. She chuckled at herself as she shut the garage door and when she chuckled, a delightful giggle brushed past her ear and tinkling music began to sound from the garage again. Startled, she looked at the vanity only to see a beautiful young lady in the mirror smiling at herself as she sat in front of it. In the instant that she saw the glimpse of the woman, the garage door thumped shut on Tessa like the wind had shut it the rest of the way for her.

After a restless remainder of the night, Tessa nervously returned to Aunt Ellie’s the next morning, vanity in hand. “Ma’am, I have to return this to you.”, Tessa said. Armed with reasons of more logical basis, Tessa set the vanity back in it’s original location. With a knowing look, the woman, said, “Oh no, you met Aunt Rose didn’t you? I keep telling her to stay here but sometimes she likes to follow her things.” The little woman moved over to the vanity, running her hands over the top of it while she clucked at the item saying, “Tsk, tsk, Rose. I’ve told you people don’t like it when you just show up uninvited like that.” She looked up and smiled at Tessa in a way that said she’d had this conversation a few times before.