It Rains When I Cry

Zack answered the door and an eyebrow rose when he saw the woman standing there with her daughter. He stepped out onto the porch to talk to her.

“Hi, can I help you with something?”

“Uhm, I just thought I would introduce myself, you know meet the neighbors.”

“I’m Zack”

“Ana, this is Kaila.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too, I was told you’ve lived here for six years, would you be able to tell me anything about the people that, well the woman that died there?” Zack raised an eyebrow.

“I was gone when it happened but I’m pretty sure Gena was here when it happened, come on in, I think she’s upstairs.” He led her into the living room. “Have a seat. I’ll be right back.” He ran up the steps and Gena was walking out of the bathroom dressed in shorts and a tank top.

“Hey baby, what’s up?”

“New neighbors here, she wants to know about the woman that died next door.”

“She’s not scared?”

“No”

“Well this should be interesting, I was here, I’ll talk to her. Where is she?”

“Living room.” Gena walked downstairs and saw the woman talking to her daughter. She smiled as she walked in “Hi, I’m Gena.”

“Ana”

“Kaila…you’re pretty.”

“Thank you Kaila, so are you.” Gena said to the little girl. Then she looked to Ana, “Zack said you wanted to know about Mrs. Applebaum?”

“Yeah, was that here name?”

“Yeah, she was home alone her husband had gone off with a friend to some island or something. Uhm why doesn’t Zack take Kaila to the kitchen so that we can talk.” Gena asked. Zack shrugged.

“Go on, sweetie, I’m in here alright?”

“Ok mommy.” the little girl took Zack’s hand and walked with him. Gena sat down on the couch across from where Ana was.

“She was depressed, her husband was cheating on her. They were only a little older than me at the time. 24. They had just gotten married about six months before they moved in. It was their first house together. Much like me and Zack, who moved in here together when we were 21. It was weird at first they seemed so happy and then he would just keep leaving. She would come over sometimes and we would talk. Well I got used to her coming over all the time and well when she didn’t I started to worry. The next day I figured that I would go over and see if she was alright, I heard a gun go off, but I didn’t see anything. Everyone says it was her husband but he wasn’t here at the time.”

“I heard that he killed himself?”

“Yeah, he flew to home and when he heard that something had happened, he then flew to the house in the Bahamas’ and killed himself.”

“Did they ever figure out what happened to her?”

“No never. Some say she went crazy and killed herself, others they say he somehow did it. Others say that something in the house killed her.”

“What do you think?”

“I think it was one of the first two. That superstitious shit is stupid.”

“Not for some people. They like to believe in it.”

“Yeah, well I don’t.”

“So that’s why no one will buy the place?”

“Until you. People say that she’s still there, and has thrown most people off of buying the place for one reason or another, but that’s impossible.”

“Anything weird ever happen over there?”

“Shadows on the wall and lights turning on then off, but kids have been prone to break in and pull pranks and claim to see her ghost. It’s no big deal.”

“Yeah, thanks, well I better be going I promised Kaila I would get her lunch.”

“It was nice talking to you.”

“Yeah, good to know you’re not crazy, which is what most assumed around here when you bought the place.” Ana went and got Kaila and Zack let her out the back door and she just walked through the yards to the front door. She pulled her key out of her pocket an unlocked the front door. The minute they walked in Ana closed her eyes and wished everything was fine. She felt something strange coming from the house. She walked around with Kaila on her hip and her eyes welled up with tears when she walked into the dining room. Her mothers dishes were all on the floor broken. Glass was everywhere and even the table was broken. She hadn’t heard any noise earlier and she was pretty sure that her neighbors would have told her if something happened. As she started to cry Zack looked out the front window and raised an eyebrow.

“Gena, was it supposed to rain today?”

“No, why?”

“It’s raining. Really bad out there. It was sunny one minute and the next it just started pouring down.”

“That’s weird, want me to check the weather channel?”

“Yeah.” they watched moments later as the weatherman was as confused as they were about the rain and where it had come from. They curled up in front of the Television and watched movies the rest of the cold rainy afternoon.

Johnny was sitting at his house thinking about the conversation that he had had at the store earlier that day. He thought it was kinda neat that she didn’t bury the fact that she believed in superstitions and all that. He had never met a girl like her. She seemed nice. He wondered what else there was about her. Why was it he was pulled to her. He decided to do a little bit of research. He got online and was researching families that left New Orleans after Katrina and discovered that she had been one of the many evacuees. She had moved out this way with her mom and dad and apparently she had gotten pregnant and the guy was a jerk. Her mom had been killed a year ago. A year ago yesterday according to the reports that he found. He read them and discovered that Kaila, her daughter was nineteen months old and had only been seven months when her grandmother was murdered.

Johnny stood and walked to the kitchen. He made himself some coffee and as he was waiting he stared out the window at the rain which had settled down to a gentle sprinkle. It hadn’t been supposed to rain that day but hey weather wasn’t as predictable sometimes as they thought. He poured his coffee and went back into the den. He looked at his computer for a moment and sat down. He was pretty sure he hadn’t looked up anything about the house beside Zacks. He closed the window and a few minutes later it popped back up. Johnny shrugged and scrolled down reading the article on the house and the woman that had died there. She had died pregnant. He hadn’t known that. He printed out the article that was on the website and figured he would take it over and show Ana, it gave him an excuse to see her anyway. After all she had been asking about the house and who had lived there. Johnny turned the computer off put the papers in a file and grabbed his car keys. He was out in his car moments later and suddenly the street went dark and lighting flashed across the yard. As he pulled out he thought he saw the silhouette of a man standing in his window but it was just a flash and when he glanced back it was gone.

When he got to her house, he saw a flashlight cross over the window in the front of the house. He parked in Zack’s driveway and knocked on his friends front door before he decided if he was actually going to go through with this. Zack let him in and he saw that their electric was out as well. Thank god for candles though. They were all over Zacks living room and apparently the couple was going to be spending the night on the floor in the living room where the fire was lit in the fireplace because there were blankets on the floor and pillows as well. Johnny was willing to bet that they would’ve dragged the mattress down as well if there had been enough light.

“How long until the electrics back on?”

“You out too?” Gena asked.

“Yeah, what’s with the freak storms?”

“No clue, weather station was baffled about them. Then the electric flickered a few times and just went out.” Zack said. Johnny shook his head.

“Hey so we got a visit from the new neighbor.”

“Ana?”

“How’d you know?” Gena asked.

“I ran into her at the store.”

“Really…”

“Don’t start Zack.”

“Anyway since she ran into you, I’m guessing you’re the one that mentioned we’d lived here for a while.”

“Yeah I was Gena.”

“Well she was just curious about the previous owners.”

“the ones that lived there for two weeks?”

“Nope, the one that died.”

“Ah, well makes sense.”

“Mhmm, I told her what I knew…”

“Hey speaking of have you ever heard any of this about her? The one that died there? I was online and this site kept literally popping up on the screen.” Johnny handed Gena the printouts and she read it. She made comments while reading it but she was just as confused as Johnny was about it.

“I’ve never heard any of this about her. I didn’t know that she was even pregnant. And we talked all the time.”

“Exactly, so what the hell?”

“No clue, hey is someone else here Zack, I thought I just saw someone walk in front of the window.” Johnny and Zack stood and each took a flashlight and walked toward the door. “Hey wait for me…” Gena said and took Zack’s hand following the two out the door. The stood out there in the rain looking around and found nothing. They saw a light flash on next door and then turned to Zack’s nope lights were still out. They turned back in time to see the light flash out next door.

“Hey, I’m going to go check on her.” Johnny told his friends. Zack raised an eyebrow at him.

“Be careful.” was all he said to the man. Johnny made his way next door and knocked on the front door.