Ghost Eyes: The Old

Chapter 2, Wet Clothes

Hearing the blaring alarm next to me, I slowly open my eyes while rolling over in bed. I turn off my alarm clock and look over at the windows. I've always woke up after the sun rose, so seeing how much darker it was outside was surprising. Checking the clock beside me, it said it was still 6:00 am. But why was it so much darker? Checking my phone to see what the time actually was, I open my browser. Searching up the time in North Dakota, my jaw drops when I see that it's actually 5:00 am. Realizing that I forgot to change the timezones on my phone and clock, I throw my head back in frustration. 

should I just go back to sleep for an hour?  I wonder. 

Not much of a point now. I might as well get up since I'm not tired anymore. Standing up out of bed, I head to the kitchen hoping that everything stayed in the cupboards last night. Walking down the hallway to the stairs I cross my fingers. Since it's still dark outside, I walk over to the light switch and flip it up. Slowly turning around towards the kitchen, still crossing my fingers, I have a sigh of relief when I see that everything is still where I left it last night. Crossing the kitchen I stop in front of the fridge. I open the fridge only to see a barren wasteland. I drop my head and instead of another sigh of relief, it's a sigh of disappointment. 

"Of course I have, again, forgotten that I haven't gone to town yet," Closing the fridge door, I walk back up to my room. Entering my room, I stop when I realize how cold it had gotten in there through the night. Shuffling over to the fan, my teeth chattering, I see the setting it was on. 

Five? I never turn it on five. Even if it's boiling outside I never turn it on five! After turning the fan off , I step over to where I left my clothes last night, I pause when I see that they're drenched in water. Moving to grab them, I retract my hands as soon as they make contact with the clothes. 

They're freezing! What happened to them overnight? I absolutely know that I didn't dunk them in the tub before bed. And of course, they're cold because of the fan. Trotting out to the bathroom, I grab a towel and go back to the clothes. Wrapping them up in the towel I grabbed, I stand there not knowing what to do with them.

It's only a light plaid jacket, white t-shirt, and jeans, I can't just wash them alone, it's not enough to wash. I guess I have some other clothes I could wash? But should I just throw them in there if they're already wet? How did they even get wet? Noticing that the towel is starting to leak, I start to panic. No, don't go off-topic right now. Just throw them in the washer. 

Taking the wrapped up clothes over to the washing machine, I throw them in. Walking back into my room, I grab the dirty clothes from yesterday and a few extra ones from the previous days. I throw them in with the wet clothes and start the washer, wondering how the clothes got wet. Returning to my room for the fourth time, I walk to where my clothes laid. Examing the area, I don't see anything that could've made them wet. Not even just wet, they were as drenched as if they sucked up the ocean itself! I don't know, let's just ignore it for now! Maybe I could visit Mike today and ask him. 

My brother, Mike, used to be a plumber back when he still lived with us in Warren. That means he's gotta know something about this, right? Well, if I'm gonna go visit him today, I'll have to pick out a new pair of clothes. Walking over to my suitcase, I crouch down and unzip it. Roaming through the arrangement of clothes, I pick out some regular dark blue jeans, a grey short sleeve t-shirt, and a black and white letterman jacket that stops at my elbows.

 Picking up the grey shirt again, I hold it up in front of me. Seeing an old band logo on the shirt, I realize that it's one of my sister's old hand-me-down shirts. Most of my clothes actually came from her old closet. She was always the most different from the rest of our family. My aunt thinks it's because she was adopted, but she still felt like she was born into the family. It was actually quite refreshing to have someone who was so different from everyone else at most times! Both of my brothers went through a sports phase, my sister went through a grunge phase, and I didn't go through a phase. I really didn't have much of an opportunity to go through one. A lot of the kids in my school thought it was weird that the nice, quiet kid wore shirts with bands like My Chemical Romance, Nirvana, and stuff like that. Turns out it was just my sister's old shirts. I didn't mind it at all, I actually wanted to be a lot like her when I was young. I admired her courage, rebellion, and how brave she was. Holding the shirt close to me, I realize how much I miss my family. Well, thankfully, I'll be seeing Mike today.

Picking up the other clothes I picked, I put them on and look in the full-length mirror on my closet door. It doesn't look too bad for something that was quite literally picked out last minute. Checking my clock again, I see that it's only 7:00 am. Remembering that I still have a lot of time left until the repair shop opens, I start to unpack the rest of the boxes in my room. By the time I'm done, It's around 10:30 am. Perfect timing, I think to myself. Picking up my phone, I dial the number for the repair shop. 

After the call, I sit down on the edge of my bed. I have to wait for about forty-five minutes for them to get here. I just unpacked everything, so there isn't anything for me to do in the meantime. Thinking about what to do as boredom slowly washes over me, I notice that I haven't yet seen the backyard. Jumping off my bed, I bounce over to the door. Before heading outside, I go over to the washing machine and switch over the clothes to the dryer. Once that's finished, I continue going towards the backyard. Opening the screen door, I walk outside. As the sun hits my face, I squint and hold up my hand to shield my eyes. As my eyes adjust to the brightness outside I see how messy the backyard actually was. Walking towards the yard, I stop when I reach the middle. Surveying the small landscape, I notice a little area in the corner beside the fence where a raised log square with dirt inside lays. Walking over to the square, I crouch beside it. 

"It seems perfect for a small garden. Looks like I'll have to buy some seeds that are in season." Starting to pull the weeds and grass out of the dirt, I smile. I've always loved gardening. My mother and I had a small one where we grew stuff like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and cauliflower when they were in season separately. And if we had more than enough for the family, we would sell the rest. As time passed, I stopped when I heard a car pull up to the front of the house. Getting up off my knees, I brush the dirt off my hands. Striding over to the backdoor, I open it and walk quickly over to the sink. While washing my hands, I heard the doorbell ring.

"One second, please!" I yell as I dry off my hands. Padding over to the door, I open it to see a scruffy man holding a toolbox. He had overalls on with a nametag stitched on in the upper middle. He had a grey mustache and had a hat on, switching the toolbox from his right hand to the left.

"I'm Stan from Doug's Repair Service. I'm here to fix your air conditioner." He held up his right hand. Lifting my right hand to shake his, I smile at him.

"Yup, I called! It's just this way if you follow me." Letting go of his hand and closing the door behind me, I walk around to the side of the house. Knowing he's following me to the AC, I continue. Once I reached the destination I stop and turn towards him. Moving my arm towards the AC I start talking.

"Here it is! I don't know if it needs to be fixed, turned on, or something, but my landlord said I'd need to call you guys. " Moving my hands into my back pockets, I stand there awkwardly. 

"I'm sure I'll be able to find it out." He says as he gets on one knee in front of the air conditioner. 

"Well, I'll leave you to that. I'll just be in the backyard if you need me. The gates right there by the way!" I point behind me towards the gate as I walk to it and open it. Going inside the backyard I continue puling up all the weeds. 

-

"Hey, your air conditioner should be working again. It seemed something like a mouse just chewed through the wires," I heard the repairman say from the gateway.

"Oh, that was faster than I thought. So how much would the bill be?" I say as I get back up again.

"Just about 125 dollars," He says.

"Alright. Let me just go inside and grab my wallet."  I said walking to the door. Opening the door, I walk inside and head to the kitchen table. I grab my wallet and open it. Seeing that I don't have enough cash on me, I grab a twenty-dollar bill. Heading back outside, I open the door.

"So, I thought I had enough cash on me but apparently I don't. Do you think you could just mail me the bill? Here's a tip, by the way." I say walking towards him handing the tip. 

"Doesn't sound like a problem. And thank ya', miss. Have a good day." He said walking back towards the front of the house.

"You too," I said waving. 

Finally, I can go to Mike's. Grabbing my keys from my back pocket, I wait until I hear the guy drive off. Once I'm in the clear, I close the gate and head to my car. Putting the keys in the ignition and turning them, I drive off to finally go see my brother.