Gone Home✔️

Chapter 13: The Basement - Part Two

Opening the door, it felt like I was walking back into the '50s.

The room I found myself in almost looked like a tiny apartment. There was a bed area that was actually built into the wall ahead of me and to the left a really old sink that probably didn't work anymore. Above the sink was a glass-fronted medicine cabinet. The door was open. I walked over, reached out, and swung it closed. I began to turn away when it slowly, silently began to fall open again. Frowning, I pushed it closed, more firmly this time.

Same thing, it fell back open.

I sighed. Whatever. I turned away, looking around, and my eyes fell on a jacket, Sam's jacket, abandoned in the corner on the floor next to an abandoned cassette. I found a piece of folded up paper in the jacket and checked it out. At once, I realized what it was: a form letter from a jewelry store. Sam and Lonnie had actually bought it! Or maybe just Sam...it seemed like a nice present. And whoa, it cost eighty bucks!

How long did it take her to save up for that?

She'd even had it specially engraved, which attributed to the extra high price. I smiled reading the line Custom Engraving "L+S".

I glanced over and saw a doorless entryway that led to a very dark area. Next to it was what looked like a place where you hang your keys at the end of the day, but instead it had several bells hanging from it. I frowned, studying it. Each bell was labeled something. Library. Kitchen. Front Door. Mr. Masan's Rm. Maybe these were like servant's quarters or something? I flicked one bell, then another. They sounded different.

Oh!

Whoever's job it was to take care of the house and the people in it had to learn the sounds of the different bells and memorize which sound correlated to which area of the house. Huh, that was a neat idea, even if the idea of a servant, even a paid one, made me kind of uncomfortable. But I guess it was a 'different time', as mom would say. I left the dark area well enough alone for now and instead moved over to the empty bed space.

I found a letter from Lonnie near another abandoned can of Ginger Ale. Apparently she'd been visiting family in Mexico and they were writing back and forth to each other. I wondered how long ago this was, there was no date. There was also another button on the floor that said X-ray Spex. I almost moved on when I noticed another piece of paper hidden both behind a wastebasket and half underneath the table in front of me.

Another journal?

Retrieving it, I thought it might be, but it looked a little odd.

It's like a drug...
The first time was in my room in the middle of the night.
I woke up and Lonnie was kissing me

Okay no, not reading any more of that. I put it back. I mean, hey, go Sam, but I really don't want any of the details. Looking around the room one more time, trying to get my mind off of...that, I found a yellow piece of paper taped to the wall with electrical tape and another journal entry stuck to the wall behind it.

The top paper was a list of bands, a setlist for a show, it looked like. The journal entry was, much to my relief, another one meant for me.

Feb. 11, 1995

"I Can Sing"

Todd's band lost their singer-- Todd says he sucked,
Lonnie says he got sick of Todd's shit-- and he was
complaining about needing a new singer, so Lonnie
was like, "I can sing!" We were all kind of like, "you
can??" And she was like, "probably!"

But she's been rehearsing with them for like a week
now, and I finally got to see them play in Todd's
basement today, and she's actually...really...amazing.
I feel so...PROUD, when she's on stage. It's incredible
being in awe of someone you love.