It's Just the Dark

The House

"This is incredible," Lewis said. "Does the pool table stay?"

"I'm not lifting it out of here. We'll just have to ask the seller." Jim started showing him around the spacious basement.

It was what Lewis would call "semi-finished" but he didn't even know if that was a real term. There wasn't any carpet and the cement floor looked like it had been painted once, but it had worn and there were only patches of color. The walls were cinder-block. So not finished with drywall or carpet, but not an uncomfortable place to be. Except for the low ceiling. "Yep, just like Grandma's place. Low ceiling and all," he said.

There was only a little bit of standing water in one corner of one room. A little workshop it looked like. Marie assured him that the water would be taken care of. That was when Lewis noticed little"gutters" (for lack of a better word) running along all the walls. There was some water in them, but it looked like it kept the water from getting all over the floor – unless there was a major leaking event.

"Is that a gutter?" Lewis asked.

"Yeah, it's kind of neat," Jim said. "Of course, we would want to make it so there isn't' any water at all coming into the basement. Or a dehumidifier would also take care of some of the moisture, but I don't think I've ever seen a setup quite like this before."

There was a little door which opened up into a small, shelved area. It looked like where someone would put their canning. The basement was cool enough that homemade canning probably kept very well down here.

Lewis could see that there was a little work that needed to be done in the house, and that the basement would be a majority of it, but didn't think it was something that couldn't be done. It didn't seem an impossible task.

"OK, come this way," Jim directed.

They walked towards the last area of the basement. Lewis started to get a bit of a twinge in his stomach. Like one tiny, little butterfly trying to get out. What the hell? He thought.

Jim led him to another spacious room in the basement. "If you were desperate enough, another renter could probably go here in this room."

Lewis wasn't really paying close attention to what Jim was saying. He was more focused on the little cubby-hole off to his left. It had an entrance-way, but no door, and looked like it made a small room off to the right of the entrance. But he didn't see a light at all.

"What? Is this where they kept the 'bad children'?" Lewis joked. He could hear the weakness in his small laugh.

"Go ahead," Jim said. "Go in that room."

"I'm not going in that room," Lewis insisted. (OK...more than one tiny, little butterfly now)

"Why not?" But Jim knew him as well as – probably better than– anyone. He knew exactly why not.

"Because I cast a big enough shadow that it would make the room completely dark. Not just a little dark."

"So?" Jim said with a playful grin. "It's just the dark."