It's Just the Dark

The House

The kitchen and the living room were much the same as the rest of the house. Only remarkable in the fact of their good condition. There were a type of pine cupboards and these cubbies with sliding plastic doors on them all over. A old, but well kept, gas stove, a new refrigerator and nowhere did the floor tilt or have bumps.

The living room was big. Maybe a little bigger than the master bedroom, which is why Lewis kept on thinking of the house as a mobile home that didn't quite make it. It was very symmetrical. Big room in the front. Big room in the back and put the rest in the middle.

The one bad mark on a list of "Wow, this is really nice" was the size of the bathroom. It was a little small. It might pose a problem if there were more than three people living in the house and they happened to have schedules that clashed. But, everything could be worked out. Lewis looked at the bathroom sink and was taken back to almost 10 years ago when he had a little stint in the manufacturing business – making cultured marble sinks. He didn't remember ever making one that small.

All the while, Jim was remarking on the house and the technical, constructy type aspects of it, because Lewis didn't know too much about that sort of thing. Occasionally he was backed up by Marie who had mostly stood back and watched the two friends go through,offering advice or other Realtor Legalese where needed.

"Let's go to the basement. You have to see this." Jim was so enthusiastic about the house. It was almost as if he was buying it for himself. In a way, he probably was since he knew that Lewis had fallen on hard times of late and was looking for something affordable for his friend and a lot more safe than the bouncing around from rented room to rented room that he knew he had been doing. Jim looked after him much like his own brother would. It also could be that he knew that he would be spending a lot time here sitting around the table with a beer and a cribbage board. So, in a way, it was going to be as much his house as Lewis'.

They left the living room, went through the kitchen and past the two smaller bedrooms on the way to the entry way to go downstairs to the basement. As they passed the long room Jim said, "Oh, by the way,it's 'Wow! This is a big, round room,' not 'long'. From the first X-Men movie. Wolverine said it. I can't believe you got that wrong."

"Oh. Right," replied Lewis. "I figured I was close and it was some kind of movie."

Jim stopped them in the hallway. "So, wait a minute. Did I  just correct you on a sci-fi movie quote? Is this a first?"

"Yeah, keep on walkin'. Enjoy it while you can."

Jim chuckled as he continued on to the basement. "Watch your head here," he warned about halfway down the stairs. "We are entering a short-people area."

Lewis really had to duck his head and stoop his shoulders at that point and it continued on into the basement. When he reached the landing, he stopped, amazed. There was a cement floor, a few rooms off in different directions and a pool table in the middle of one of the rooms.

"Oh, my. This is just like my grandma's basement," Lewis remarked.

"You mean the one in Kenosha? Yeah, I thought you'd get a kick out of this. Kind of takes you back, doesn't it?"