Souvenirs of Starling Falls

No response.

“Come on,” I tried again. “Don’t fight with me! Let’s get along and have fun with this big old house!”

Silence.

“Pretty please?” I called down the dumbwaiter.

People have accused me of being annoying. It’s true, I guess.

“I’ll be up in a minute,” he finally yelled.

I went back to flipping through the calendar. March 1 said Eleanor. April 11 said Charles. I rubbed at the goosebumps on my arms.

“Tom, come on. You have to see this,” I yelled. He ignored me. I heard the washing machine door close and the click of the dial.

July 14 said Teddy.

“Tom, what’s today’s date?” I called down.

“It’s Saturday.”

“I know that, but what’s the date?”

“The fourteenth. I’ll be up in just a minute.”

“That means it’s Teddy’s birthday!”

“Seriously, Courtney, I have no idea what you’re saying. Just give me a minute.”

There were no other names throughout the rest of the calendar except for October 28, which was marked Emmaline. “Emma-line? Emma-linn? Emma-leen?” I whispered, guessing on the pronunciation. “Emma-line,” I said again, deciding that was it.

I heard Tom clomping up the stairs. “Okay, I’m back. So there are birthdays written on there? That’s pretty cool.” He held out his hand to take a look at it.

“Careful,” I said. “It’s super old and fragile.”

“I’ll be careful. By the way, I just remembered the locksmith is going to be here soon. Good thing we didn’t go bed shopping,” he said as he checked out the calendar.

“So, you’re saying I saved the day by sleeping in?”

“If that’s the case, then we owe it to the McGhees, because you wouldn’t have slept in if you hadn’t stayed at their place.”

“Hilarious. Do you remember what the last name of the family that used to own our house was?” I asked.

“Something like Strassmore. We got a packet at the closing that has information about the family and the house.”

“Really? Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” My heart jumped at this piece of news as a light, shimmery tickle of electricity brushed over me. A packet of secrets about our house. How exciting.

“I thought you knew.”

“I don’t remember any packet. I would have been all over that. Where is it? I want to see it.”

“Uhhhhh. Hmmm. I think… the last time I saw it… it was on the mantle in the dining room.”

“Well, let’s look at it!”

He didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm, but at least he followed me and made a small show of scoping out the nearly empty room.

There was no packet.