Page 26 - October 2022

A SEASON OF STORIES

“I’m sure they’ll be here any minute.
Carl stepped into the hallway and
Carl’s the Toastmaster tonight. Hey, where
closed the door behind him. The color had
is he anyway? He has been in the basement
drained from his face, and he was sweating.
a long time,” reminded Laura.
“Carl are you alright?” asked Rich with
Rich looked up from his papers. “He
concern in his voice. “You look like you
must still be downstairs. I’ll get him.” He
just saw a ghost.”
moved quietly down the hallway to the

stairs and took them one at a time, not
wanting to make any noise that would call
attention to himself. His long ago learned
skills as a detective had kicked in. It felt
good to put them into use.

When he reached the bottom of the
stairs, the layout of the basement came
back to him. To the right was the wine

cellar. On the left he saw the laundry room
and the boiler. No Carl. Straight ahead
was a long hallway with a series of storage
rooms on each side. A shaft of light escaped
from a partially open door at the end of

the hall. He heard a grating sound coming
from the room. He peered in and saw
Carl dragging a large metal trunk from

a closet. With significant effort he pulled
it into the center of the room and slowly
opened the lid. He bent over the trunk in
such a way that Rich couldn’t see what was
inside. Carl stared into the trunk for two or

three minutes without touching anything
inside. He closed the lid and pushed the
trunk back inside the closet.

Rich tiptoed back to the stairs, took
three steps up, and turned around. He
called out to Carl and stomped down the
hall.
“Carl are you down here?”

26 ONE COMMUNITY