Untitled (CWJ #3)

Start!
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Crrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaakkkkkk! The door opens with a groan. Soft footfalls patter across the wooden boards.

Upon reaching the half open entrance, the flurry blue monster stops. "Awwww, who made the door noisy again? I just oiled it." One might be frightened of the 8 foot tall, four armed and sixed legged beast that looks like it could crush a person, except that this one has a giant toothy grin that crosses its face.

Without any identifying traits of either gender someone could only guess that this thing is a guy from his deeper voice which is in the tenor or alto range. He pulls off his backpack from his back and holds it with one pair of arms while sorting through it with the other.

Pulling it out his prize he raises it with pride, "Ah Ha! I found it!"

It's an oil can with trigger action pump and adjustable nozzle for getting just the amount of oil you need in just the spot you want it.

He uses it quickly and deftly to re-oil the hinges. Then he places it back in the back pack and slings on his backpack.

Smack! Whack! Shutters in another room open and close banging against the wall and the window frame. Turning around the many limbed creature complains, "Really? Who unlatched the window? I just locked those!"

He pads out of the room. Finding the open window is the easy part. They're flapping in the breeze in the living room. The monster looks around for the culprit. Seeing no one, he calls out, "Come on. I know the house is old, run down and spooky looking, but if you keep this up, the repairmen won't come and fix it."

Before closing the windows in the living room, he follows the moving air to the second floor. In the third bedroom, the door and window are open. Not only that, but there is a lit candle on the left hand side near a curtain. As a gust moves past the flame flickers towards the curtain before it gets caught up and moved away. "Awwww, come on! This isn't funny. If we burn down the house, we'll have nowhere to live. Just let the men come and do some repairs," he pleads with the air.

SLAM! The front door, no longer creaking, closes. He closes the window, squelches the light, and hurries back downstairs as fast as his six legs will take him.

Upon reaching the first floor, the boards under his feet make noise. Squeak, Squeak, Squeak He works his way back to the living room to close that window, too.

There he finds a man with eyes wide in fear. He has a tool belt and a hammer at the ready. The monster gives a little wave, "Uhhh, hi. When did you get here?"

"Just before the door slammed shut?"

The monster's eyes go wide at this, "Oh! I'm so sorry about that. I'm the one who called you." The man, still not sure about all this, nods. "I've been trying to keep this house up, but apparently we need more 'hands' around here." The monster lifts his four hands up with a nervous smile.

The man nods again. Apparently the joke hadn't taken away his fear.

"Oh! Where are my manners?" The blue fluffy monster extends his upper right arm before realizing that it is above the repairman's head. He switches to the lower right and finds it descends to shake the man's hand. "Hi, I'm Manny. Well, actually, it's Mano, but everyone calls me Manny."

The greeting does a little to ease the man's fears. "And you are?"

"B-b-b-b-Bob."

"Nice to meetcha, Bob."

In the other room, they hear Squeak, Squeak, Squeak. Over his shoulder Manny calls as he heads back to the main room, "I like to think I am handy around here. I already fixed these floorboards once, but someone keeps pulling out the nails." Seeing Bob still behind him, he continues, "We need some repairs around here. You can do that?

"Y-Y-Yes, I-I-I c-can."

They enter the room and find that the noises have stopped and no one is there. "Figures." They head back to the front door. Squeak, Squeak, Squeak "So, here's what I was thinking for Stage One --"

The door opens silent. Mano smiles that it is still untouched, until he step through the porch. The rickety wooden porch no longer supports weight. Any normal man, like Bob, would have fallen through, but Manny with his four other legs and four arms, steadies himself and keep him from falling through the porch.

With his addition appendages, he straddles the hole and lifts the repairman over the gap, and then continues his sentence, "-- We need lights and a new outside. No one is even going to approach this place if it looks like an old, haunted house." Turning to Bob, he sees the repairman relaxing a little. "Are you seeing it?" The monster gestures across the front of the building."

"Y-Yeah."

"I guess that'll mean repairing the porch too. I think that's beyond my skill level." The man continues nodding. "By the way, are you just a ...wood working guy? An electrician? Or do you do it all?"

"I'm a contractor. I'll get my team in here once I get you a quote and you sign the contract."

"Great. The master left us plenty of money for renovations." They head around the side of the house. "Now for Stage Two, I was thinking that we could work on the inside of the house." Manny leads Bob in through the back door. There they find a translucent butler with hammer and cloth in hand. "Reginald! What are you doing?"

The butler becomes intangible and flies through the wall. Manny turns to Bob and says deadpan, "Figures. The Butler did it."

After a beat, he charges after the spectral being. "Reggie. Reggie, come back." They reach the next room to find the ghost disappearing through the upper half of the stairs. "Quick. He's going upstairs." CreeCreeCree They scramble across the floor to the stairs.

At the top of the stairs they find a hall with doors on both sides, all open. "You take one side; I'll take the other. If you spot the butler let me know. Can you do that?"

With more confidence this time, "Yes, I can." They reach the end of the hall after checking in all the rooms. Nothing.

"Where did he go?" Manny watches Bob walk the length of the hall. "What are you doing?"

"Measuring. And if I'm not mistaken, This floor is shorter than the first floor. I'm not sure but I think there is extra space at one end of the hall. Probably closet sized."

Mano looks at the distance between them, "If there is, then I don't know about it. But hey, we are at opposite ends. You check that one--" He watches Bob feel along the wall, trace a line to a nearby end table, and then lift a vase. A door in the wallpaper appears.

Once the door is open, the ghost begins to phase away. "Reggie, wait!"

The butler returns in full spectral glory, "My name is Reginald." His face is passive, but his ghostly body is rigid.

"Reginald, why are you undoing all my fixes?"

In his uptight British accent, he answers, "I believe the Master wanted his home to be left the way he left it."

Manny's eyes go wide as he stops halfway, "I hadn't thought of that."

"Didn't you say that whoever owned this house left money for its repair?" Bob looks back and forth between the two residents of the house.

The many limbed creature considers this, "I. Thought. So."

Bob scratches his head, "So, what are you going to spend the money on? I mean, I don't see a monster and a ghost needing jewelry or cars or something like that. No offense."

Sinking deeper into mental processes, Mano looks over to the butler, "What would we use the money for, if we don't use it to fix things up?"

"Well, I'm sure I wouldn't know."

Manny's face brightens as the thoughts click into place, "So, why don't we spend it to make the house a place people want to come to?" He looks to the butler who's thinking it over. "And wouldn't it be nice to serve someone again?"

Bored expression on his spectral face, Reginald replies, "Well, I suppose we could do that."

"Great!"

Epilogue

Several kids run down the padded hall on the second floor and dive onto the slide that used to be stairs. It curves them through the living room where they slide to a stop in the hall by the kitchen. There they race down the hall to the new back stairs to go again while others in the kitchen make faces at the stoic Reginald trying to make him smile or laugh. Still others grab refreshments from his tray and the counter nearby.

A tour of the house shows that the various rooms are used for different things like the art room complete with finger paintings on the walls and interactive floor room and Bounce House room.

Mano turns to Bob and starts to offer his upper right but switches to his lower right to shake the contractor's hand. "It was great working with you. I hope we can do an add-on soon."

"I'd like that."