Ancestral

Discovery

I arrived home just before noon, and was greeted with enthusiasm. Mr. P. had already taken care of calling my boss and telling him about the accident. The doctor had told me I should stay at home and rest for a few days, so once I was settled I called in and asked for the time off. Mr. P. brought a sandwich to my room for lunch, something he never did, and asked if I needed anything else. I told him I was fine and would probably take a nap during the afternoon. Ben was busy at school today, having had to leave the hospital by eight thirty to teach a morning intro class and would be tied up all afternoon with tutorials, so I was on my own. I allowed myself the luxury of doing nothing, and sat by my window and letting my mind wander. The window overlooked the back of the house, and from the second floor I looked over the roof of the garage and could see some of the neighboring houses and their yards. The town was quiet. It wasn't high summer yet so there were no tourists, only students and locals going about their business in a low key kind of way.

The scene was so normal, so comforting. I opened the window and could hear the sounds of children playing in the playground a block away, Neighbors were greeting each other on the street and traffic was slow and quiet. It was idyllic. I was almost hypnotized as I let the scene wash over me. A squirrel scampered across a branch of a nearby tree, jumping onto the garage roof. He stopped and looked at me for a second, and then disappeared into an unseen opening. I was startled and chuckled to myself, wondering how many animals were finding refuge in the old structure. I had never really paid attention to the garage. The driveway was large enough to accommodate all our vehicles, and I had never even entered it. Then I had a thought. I wondered it the garage was originally the stables. I remembered that in my last dream there was a secret entrance to the basement from the stables. I wondered if it might still be there. This time my curiosity was greater than my need for sleep, so I headed for Mr. Phipps' apartment on the third floor.

I had never ventured up here either, never had any reason to. The landing was small, only about five foot square, with two doors on two of the walls. One had a tasteful spring wreath on it, while the other was a riot of colors and textures. I knew that Andi's room was up here as well as Mr. P.'s. I took a chance and knocked on the colorful door. I immediately heard the sound of someone caught by surprise shuffling around at this unexpected intrusion. “Who is it?” Mr. P. called in a distracted manner.

“Just me, Joey.”

“Just a ...I'm in the middle of...”

“I understand,” I said. I knew this would be his time for transforming himself into Miss McFiercesen. “No need to come to the door. I just wanted to ask if it was ok for me to take a look around in the garage. I've never seen the inside of it and I was curious.”

He opened the door just a crack so we could make eye contact, and said apologetically, “Of course you can, sweety, My only concern is that I don't want you to get hurt again. Are you sure you're steady enough? It's full of junk, just like the basement.”

“I should be fine,” I assured her, “Besides, I'm not the kind of person who can just sit and be idle.”

“I'd feel better about it if you didn't go alone. I think Helmut is about, why not see if he would go with you?”

I agreed and she promised to come give me tour before she started supper.

Helmut was much better at doing nothing than I was. He was sitting absently in the living room, flipping channels and generally acting like a bored teenager. He seemed happy for the distraction and we headed out tot the garage.

The large central doors swung outward and it was immediately obvious that it was indeed the old stables. There were individual stalls on either side of a central open space. On the side that touched the house there were a number of small rooms as well as some inexplicable nooks and crannies. The stalls were mostly filled with old furniture from the era when college students lived here. There were bicycles , boxes of books and various household items, and even a few footlockers and trunks. “It's all from the sixties and seventies,” Helmut volunteered as I rummaged around. “It was easier to just chuck it all in here when he bought the place. We couldn't afford to have it all hauled off, all the money was going into restoration. So here it sits. I suppose we could have a yard sale, but I don't think we could even give most of this stuff away.”

“It's kind of like a time capsule,” I said as I explored the space. After looking at the smaller rooms I asked, “Tell me, is there a door connecting this building to the main building?”

“There was one, right over here.” He started to shift some boxes and soon we uncovered an old door that had clearly not been used in years. “It used to lead directly into the kitchen, kind of a delivery entrance. It was already boarded up when we got the place.” He managed to lift the latch and pull the door open a few inches. It was indeed covered with boards from the inside. “I bet you never would have guessed there was a door right beside the basement door in the kitchen.”

“No, no sign of it at all today.” This could not be the door I had heard of in my dream. It went straight into the kitchen, not the basement, and it was no secret. “Any other interesting quirks?" I asked.

“Not really, They stored hay for the horses up above, and the muck pit below was for...well, the other end.” It was amusing to hear Helmut use a euphemism, it wasn't like him. All I could think was that he was trying to be a bit more gentle with me because of my recent injury.

“What's down there?” I asked, motioning toward the floor.

“In the muck pit?” he asked incredulously. “Nothing, just dirt. Only been down there a couple of times, just the foundations of the barn and a dirt floor, and maybe a little old shit from some of the horses.” He smirked at this thought.

“How do we get down there?”

“What do you want to go down there for?””

“Just humor me,”

“Whatever you want,” he said with a shrug and led me out a small back door into the far side of the house. He led me around to the back and pointed to a small stone arch in the foundation. “It's only a crawl space really. You sure you're up for this?”

I nodded enthusiastically and we both slipped into the arch. The floor was a good eighteen inches lower than the ground around the foundation, but we still had to stay on our hands and knees. He sat back and let me explore to my heart's content. “I don't know what you expect to find here, but...”

“What's this?” I was trying to piece together the layout of the house in relation to the crawl space. In the corner closest to the front of the house, which would be behind the locked door in the basement, I noticed a slight curve in the stonework. “It looks like the top of an arch.” He crawled over and took a closer look. I was digging with my fingers to see if the curve continued. It did. Within a couple of minutes I had removed about six inches of dirt, and reached the top of a door.

He looked at me in disbelief. “I'll get some tools.” He returned quickly with a variety of gardening tools, “All we have, I'm afraid. Phil never was one to do the heavy work himself.”

“It'll do,” I said, grabbing a hand hoe. We managed to uncover about half of the door before we heard Miss M. calling from the main level.

“Come out, come out wherever you are.”

“We're down here!” Helmut shouted.

“Down...What the hell are you doing in the ...manure ?”

“He's found something. You've got to see this!” Helmut banged on the boards above us and I could see her jump as he did this.

“I'm not going down there.” She seemed disgusted by the thought. “I just finished my hair and my nails, and that place is filthy. You are both taking showers before dinner!” she insisted.

“It looks like it goes into the basement.” He was ignoring her protests. He was more interested in this long lost part of a building that he thought he knew so well. He turned to me and asked, “How did you know this was here? You knew, didn't you? You were looking for it.” He eyed me with suspicion. What else do you know?”

The exertion of digging was beginning to get to me. “I've done as much as I can for now,” I said weakly. “I need to lie down for a bit.”

Helmut instantly let go of his questions and helped me out of the crawl space. He took me directly to the study and put me on his bed. “My fault,” he said, “Shouldn't have let you do so much. You rest, I'll get cleaned up.” He left the door ajar as he headed to the shower.

I heard Miss M. berating him in the living room. "How could you?!"

“For god's sake, he's a grown man. He'll be fine.” She continued but he was clearly walking away from her and the shouting faded.

For once I didn't fall asleep. I just allowed my body to rest while I went over things in my mind. I realized that no one else really knew what I had been seeing since the accident. Even Ben didn't know it all. I knew I needed to help with all this, but where to begin? I heard the front door open and caught a glimpse of Heather as she crossed the living room. I sat up and called her name.

She came to the study door and peeked in. when she saw me her eyes widened and she asked, “What have yo been doing?”

I guess digging in the muck pit had left me dirtier than I had realized. “Not important now,” I started. “How is your class load right now? Almost finals, right?”

“Next week, but I don't have tests this year, they are all papers. They're mostly done, except for one, just some tweaking on the others.”

“What's the one that you haven't finished?”

“I haven't even started it yet, I just can't find anything interesting enough.”

“What's the class?”

“Socio-economics. Not my favorite. I'm going to have to pull something out of the air soon, though.”

I smiled. “I may have an idea to help you out. Have you considered looking at the rise and fall of the underclasses in nineteenth century seaports and the businesses associated with them?” She looked a little perplexed, perhaps I needed to be more direct. “The rise and fall of brothels in a town like this.”

Her eyes got wide. “Brothels? Here? I wouldn't know where to begin.”

“I think I may have a starting point for you. Are you interested?”