Rose looked at her clock on the nightstand and it read 9:46. She closed the book that she was reading and put it on the nightstand. She turned off the lamp and scooted down under her sheet. As she lay there and listened to the crickets chirping. She couldn’t help to think about the body that was found in her basement though. And what the rest of her family is going to think when they hear about it. There was nothing that Rose could do, and she still doesn’t know for sure who it actually is.
“I’m worrying again before I even have any answers. There is nothing to worry about. What is done is done and I can’t change that,” Rose looked at the ceiling.
She rolled over to her right side and looked out the window. The moon was pretty bright tonight and it set off quite a glow. Uncle Ralph, if that was you in the basement, give me some kind of sign, Rose thought. She laid there waiting to see if anything would happen but nothing did. Everything was quiet and still, except for the crickets.
Rose laid still and let her mind focus completely on the sound of the crickets. It wasn’t too long before she drifted off to sleep. She slept quietly until around midnight when she started to dream about herself as a child there at grandma's house. Her grandma and she were planting flowers together by the front porch. An older man who she had never met before walked up and started talking to grandma.
Her grandma introduced him as Charlie an old friend of hers and they went into the house. Rose saw herself get up off the ground and watch them go inside. Just then she saw uncle Ralph sneak up behind her. The joy she felt when she saw him was like no other. Uncle Ralph showed Rose the new clay figurine that he had made. It was a rabbit with a butterfly on its nose. He told her that he was going to try and sell his figurines at the county fair that was coming up soon.
Rose saw herself standing in front of the flower bed looking at the cute figurine of the rabbit with the butterfly while uncle Ralph went into the house. A few minutes later Rose heard grandma and uncle Ralph arguing. It wasn’t long before uncle Ralph rushed out of the house. He stopped by Rose and took the figure from her. He said see you soon, kissed her on the forehead, and got back in his car. She waved to him as he pulled out of the driveway.
Rose woke up and was still facing the window. I must have been around six years old then, she thought about the dream.
“That was a really cute figurine. I wonder if uncle Ralph ever sold it? I’ll have to look in his stuff to see if he did,” she said.
Rose closed her eyes again and surprisingly was able to fall back to sleep. She slept through the rest of the night and woke up around seven am.
She heard the birds singing in the apple tree outside of her window. She sat up and stretched. Rose changed her clothes to a pair of blue jean shorts and a t-shirt with a sunflower on the front.
Trying to ignore everything that happened yesterday, Rose looked out the window and said, “It’s going to be a beautiful day.”
She went into the bathroom to brush her hair and her teeth. I think that I will start on those curtains today, she thought. Rose went into her sewing room and opened up the window. Then she went downstairs to get her coffee started. She unlocked and opened up the front door, and a nice breeze was blowing in. This is great having the screen door back on here, she thought as she gazed outside. She walked into the living room and picked up her cell phone from the coffee table and checked it. She walked over to the desk and plugged it in.
As she waited for her coffee to get done brewing, she looked out the bay window. It was nice to see the grass in the yard cut good and the flowers in the flower beds surviving. Well, if anything, grandma taught me how to be a successful gardener, she thought.
Please join me again for more of: Rose’s Ghost.