Find It Inc.

Chapter 11

Frankie arrives at the first haunted mansion (the one that they could find) and as she expected it looked different from the photos she was given. The front garden still looked breath-taking and she thinks she has even spotted some new statuses and birdbaths. She guesses some ghost is really into art. Frankie has spent so much time researching this mansion and the people that used to live here that she feels as if it is slowly becoming her third home, the first home being hers and the second being the office. The fence that is made up of trees with writing on each of them encircles the mansion and there is a path made of blue, gray and black pebbles leading to the front door. Oh, by the way the front door is on the floor this time and not on the roof as it was once before.

Frankie walks towards the mansion which is redone in a more Gothic style, she guesses the ghosts have become Halloween inspired except instead of using black and grays it is bright colors so it is a lime, bright green Gothic mansion with limo pink doors and window frames. As Frankie is walking through the garden she walks past a ghostly gardener who does not look up from his plants. He is planting red roses and seems to be keeping with the color theme of warm colors such as reds, yellows and oranges. Frankie approaches the old man who is in worn-out garden clothes and introduces herself. The man takes no notice of her so she walks into his eye line. The man does notice this but he keeps his head down and turns his back towards her. Frankie tries again and this time speaks a bit louder but she gets the same reaction as before. She decides that she will try her luck inside the mansion and hopes (in a rather sick way) that there is a child inside that is more likely to talk to strangers (true children should not talk to strangers but they also tell the strangers they should not talk to them and is that not talking to them in itself? Exactly.).

She enters the bright mansion and is greeted by a long corridor. Frankie was kind of expecting and hoping for this to happening since she figures that it would be easier to go from room to room if everything is in a straight line. The first room in locked so she just walks through the door and something is thrown at her which (of course) goes through her. Manipulate objects go through her and they are being thrown by an old looking woman dressed in a formal silk dress that rich people wear at rich events to show off how rich they are around other rich people. Frankie could not get a word in because the woman was also screaming but the words were inaudible thanks to the hoarse of her voice. Frankie decides to come back later and maybe try to help this very sad lady.

Frankie made her way to many rooms and many rooms were empty. She called out hoping that anyone would respond but no one ever did. The corridor had different painting on it and they all fit with the 18th century theme of the interior. However, there was one painting that was not a painting but a photograph with the faces blurred out. Frankie figures that this is the puzzle to the map that she needs to solve and she is hoping it is not some “bring a family together and that in its self is the treasure” high school special rubbish. She really hated those movies but Thomas loved them. He said it made him feel cheerful but then again dried blood made him feel cheerful because it belonged to someone who was (or is) alive. Frankie took a mental picture of the picture and began to walk away from it but she changed her mind and decided to take it off the wall and carry it with her in case the mansion decides to move it somewhere else.

She hears a sound like a car vrooming by but the sound is coming from a child who is playing with his/her toys. Frankie begins to fly around and follows the sound hoping that her theory of getting answers from children is true. She pokes her heads in every door she passes by but still has not spotted a child or anyone else. Where is everyone? She ponders to herself while floating from room to room and door to door. The sound gets louder and therefore she is close since that is how sound works. She feels as if she is getting close and she pops into one more room and there is the child playing with its toys.

The child is a small boy about ten years old and moving a toy car against and across the wall. He has an out dated bowl cut hairdo but his cloths are quite modern compared to everything else in the mansion. Frankie goes up to him and grabs one of the other toy cars that are on the floor. She joins him in his little game without him protesting. They race and drive into each other plus the child does not seem to mind. Frankie is taking her time hoping that he will speak first and that can be her gateway to ask him some questions. They play for a while and Frankie’s energy runs low while the child’s is still high. Children never seem to lose their energy and this makes it difficult for adults to keep up even if they have all their after-life to do so.

The child does not say anything except make vroom sounds. But he does not even make the sounds. Frankie takes a closer look at his lips and sees that there is no sound coming from his month. This makes her look around and in the corner of the room there is another adult sitting there and she is the one making the vroom sounds. This surprises and confuses Frankie who stops moving her toy car around. The other person looks to be a lot older than the child and just keeps making the car sounds without stopping even while she watches Frankie staring at her. The child nudges Frankie to carry on playing and she does. After a while the child finally yawns and takes both of their cars to put in his toy box. He takes out a book and sits down to read it. The old woman has stopped making the car noises and the whole room is silent. Frankie approaches the woman and opens her month to speak but she indicated with a finger not to say anything. A few moments pass and Frankie turns around to look at the child who is lying down to sleep. Frankie looks back at the old woman who is on her way out of the room and she follows her. The old woman is walking down the corridor and Frankie catches up to her. They are walking side by side. After a moment…

“He is mute but he likes to hear the sounds I make while he plays,” she says out loud, “he wrote down that if helps him to imagine his play world a lot better and as a grandmother you want your grandson to be happy.”

Frankie nods and begins to open her month but stops herself. This is the first person she has seen that is talking to her (not counting hoarse, screaming, throwing lady) so she does not want to risk it. They walk for a bit and it is now that Frankie sees that the mansion is one large single floor and that there are no staircases. On the outside the mansion stenches up into the clouds but that is not at all the case.

“Thank you.” says the old woman which catches Frankie off guard. She gives a puzzling look at the old lady who returns her look with a smile, “he never has anyone to play with and I am not able to make noises and play at the same time. I never could.” Frankie smiles back and does one nod with her head. They walk through the back wall into the back garden which is a mess of a forest.

The back garden is in shadows and is also cold, even for a ghost. The old woman walks to the shed that looks the same as it does in the photos that Frankie was given. They walk inside to see the whole tiny shed is filled with ghosts. So this is where everyone is and as she expects no one is talk to each other. The old woman that Frankie came in with does not say a word to the others and just walks past to go out the other side of the shed. Frankie follows her more out of curiosity than anything else. They are now in the grave yard and the woman stops in front of a tombstone.

There is a toy car on the tombstone and Frankie sees that this must belong to the child that she saw inside. The child’s name is Peter. The old woman is looks at the stone and does not say anything. She turns around and heads back to the shed but Frankie stays behind. Frankie wants to take a look around and may be figure something out. All the tombstones (except for Peter’s) are worn out and it is difficult to make out any name. Peter must have been the most recent to be added to this curse but who buried him here? Did the grandmother? Frankie takes a look at the picture that she has been carrying around in her hands and upon looking closely at it she sees a small figure that could be the same size as Peter and even has the same bowl cut hairdo. Could this child in the photo be Peter?

Frankie, while being lost in thought, floats into the shed where the other ghosts are. They look at her strangely and she hears the old woman saying something but cannot make out what it is at first. Frankie snaps to attention and asks the woman to please repeat herself.

“You are here for the treasure are you not?”

Frankie nods her head, “as well as to help you all” she quickly adds. There is a grunt coming from one of the ghosts standing in the corner of the room.

“She played with Peter which is something you never did so I suggest that you keep your grunts to yourself” says the old woman and the man who made the grunt mumbles back that Peter has not been here for long.

“Many have tried but as you can see we are much more the grunting types than the talking types. I, too, only began to speak again when Peter arrived” explained the old woman.

“If you guys do not like each other why are you all in this tiny shed? Together?” asks Frankie which is a reasonable question to ask.

“None of us know what to do with such a young soul like Peter and we came in here hoping to make a plan. But we did not since we do not talk to each other. I have put a spell on this shed so that no one, except I, can leave in the hopes of motivating them to actually talk.”

“So talk to each other?” says Frankie while scanning the room and making eye connect with everyone but a lot of them avoid her eyes.

The old woman shakes her head and says it is not as easy as that. She then walks out the shed back to the mansion with Frankie tailing behind her. Frankie knows that this is the one to get answers from since she is the only one who is talking. I guess she (the old woman) has peace with the others while the others do not with her or each other.