*I originally wrote this story for a Story Through Media class for CCV in 2024, the images are AI generated*
Chapter #1:
As she pulled into the driveway, she stared up at her new home in amazement. “It’s beautiful and has so much potential,” she thought to herself as she opened the back of the U-Haul. Everything she owned was in there, and she just stood there staring at her belongings, taking it all in. Part of her still thought it was crazy to move cross-country. But it’s not every day you inherit a free house. Besides, she had always loved Vermont. She looked up at the house and started to daydream about what it previously looked like and what it could look like if she fixed it up.
The silence is interrupted by a loud howl.
“Oh my god, Crowley!” she exclaimed out loud as she stumbled over to the door of the U-Haul.
Her large grey cat furiously scratched at the cat carrier eager to be released.
“Shhh, We are home,” she whispered to Crowley as she stepped onto the creaky wrap-around porch and put the ancient key into the door.
Upon opening the door, she was greeted with stale air however, she was quickly in awe at the beautiful hand-carved woodwork and high ceilings.
Despite the torn and peeling wallpaper, she was still taken aback by the beauty of this home. There was something about this house that just drew her in.
She put down the cat carrier and opened it. Crowley stretched and then ran off to explore. As she walked through the rooms, she couldn’t help to think about what the estate lawyer had told her.
This house was built in 1700 and has been in her family for generations. Her great uncle John had recently passed away, and he left the home to her. She was confused as to why he had done so, as she had only met him once. However, she assumed that he wanted to keep it in the family. The family rumor is the house is also incredibly haunted.
“She loves a good challenge though, and a rumor isn’t going to scare me away,” thinks Emma.
Suddenly, a loud bang startles her as the front door slams.
“Emma?” she hears, Jackie, the estate lawyer calling out her name.
Emma responds, relieved to hear a familiar voice.
“I just wanted to stop by and formally welcome you!” Jackie says
“I also have something for you,” she says handing over a large envelope.
As she opened the envelope, a photo fell out, and she immediately recognized it. “Oh wow!” she exclaimed as she examined the photo closely. It was a black-and-white picture of the house. “John wanted you to have this,” she said, as she made her way towards the porch.
“Honestly, this house creeps me out. If you need anything, you have my number,” she says as she dusts off her skirt and begins heading towards her car. As Emma waves goodbye to Jackie, she looks across the empty field and notices that there aren’t many other houses around. It’s very peaceful here and she could get used to it.
Her grey cat rubs against her leg and, as Emma leans against the porch, she looks down, pets him, and says “I think everything is going to be okay.” before heading back inside.
She remembers the envelope and decides to sit down at the dusty kitchen table, and pours its contents out.
She notices a letter and begins to read it.
“Emma, I know you are probably wondering why I left you a dilapidated old house.
You have always been a determined yet stubborn woman like your Mother.
The truth is, the town is trying to tear down this home and I am putting my trust in you to save it.
I have faith in you.
All My Love,
Uncle John”
She leans back in her chair, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. This is a much bigger project than she expected. She also knew very little about home repair. But like her Great Uncle said in the letter, she is determined and stubborn, but she was curious why the town wanted to tear down the property.
Chapter #2:
The next day, she took out her phone and began to research the house. She came across several news articles that referred to it as a “blighted property” by the town, which explained why they wanted to demolish it. As she thought back to the letter her Great Uncle had written, she realized that it was now her responsibility to restore the house. However, she wondered how she would be able to afford it. She decided to go through the envelope again and found some old family photographs and even the original blueprints of the house. While looking through them, she came across a photo that seemed to be from the early 1900s. The photo showed the property as a tavern with a sign hanging on the front of the house that read “Millbrook Tavern.”
She began to entertain the idea of renovating the property and turning it into a Bed and Breakfast. However, the reality quickly set in that she couldn’t afford such an endeavor, as the house needed extensive repairs and her remote job didn’t pay enough. Disappointed, she got up from the kitchen table and walked to the sink, gazing out the window at the old barn. Suddenly, she spotted the “Millbrook Tavern” sign from the photo, nailed to the side of it. She placed her coffee cup in the sink and looked down at Crowley before saying anything.
“You know what boy, we are going to make this happen,” she says with excitement in her voice.
Sitting back down at her kitchen table, she pulls out her phone and starts to scroll social media.
“People DIY still all the time, we can do this!” she says out loud while Crowley stares at her.
She types “Old House DIY” in the search bar and a page of videos pops up. She slowly puts down her cup and stares at the view count on some of the videos.
“Seven million views?” she says out loud. “Do people enjoy watching this stuff?” She continues to scroll through the videos on her phone. “Oh my God, this one has 11 million views,” she exclaims, setting her phone down in disbelief. Could she pull this off?
Chapter #3:
“Hey there, it’s Emma and Crowley! I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve reached 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, and I wanted to express my gratitude to all of you for supporting us throughout this journey!” Emma says with excitement.
“Today, we’ll be showing you how to remove wallpaper and paint a wall, we picked a beautiful green shade,” she says while pointing towards a wall covered in peeling wallpaper.
Over the next few hours, Emma worked on removing the wallpaper and sanding the walls so she could paint them another day.
“Another project is done,” she says as she waves to the camera and turns it off. She stands for a moment, admiring her work. She wipes the sweat from her forehead and heads into her kitchen to pour a cup of coffee. As she stands at her sink, she recognizes a familiar face standing in the field.
“Great Uncle John?” she shouted out loud, struggling to focus. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw him. He gave her a wink and started to walk away. She quickly ran towards her front door, but by the time she made it to the porch, he was already gone. Despite feeling a little stunned, she knew deep down in her heart that his visit was to let her know that she was doing a great job.
As she stares into the field where she is standing, she places her hands over her heart. Suddenly, it starts to rain and the sound of the rain on the tin roof is soothing to her. She feels that it’s a sign from her Great Uncle John.
Her car rubs against her leg and for once, she feels at peace. Everything she is doing has a purpose.
Chapter #4:
“Emma, please share with our viewers about Uncle John’s Inn,” the newscaster turns towards Emma and asks. Emma responds with a sense of pride in her voice, “Sure Rebecca, I inherited the house from my Great Uncle John. I created a YouTube channel, which went viral, and that allowed me to fix up the property.”
“I never would have been able to save this beautiful house if it wasn’t for our subscribers. I also have some really exciting news,” Emma exclaimed.
“Oh! Do tell us,” Rebecca leaned in closer out of curiosity.
“Well, we are officially booking rooms for stays now,” Emma said, holding up her hotel license.”
“Great!” exclaimed Rebecca as she gazed into the camera. “Don’t forget to visit Uncle John’s Inn located off Route 5 in Weathersfield,” she added while shuffling some papers in front of her.
“Who knows, you might even get a chance to meet Great Uncle John,” Emma chimed in, winking at the camera.
Chapter #5:
mma stretched as she sat up in her bed, the sun shining through her window and the birds chirping outside her window.
Something caught her attention, a reflection of a little girl in her vanity mirror, she gasped but before she could collect herself, the little girl was gone.
She rubbed her eyes and got up out of bed, just assuming she was overtired, and her eyes were playing tricks on her.
As she headed down the stairs, she swore she could hear a child laughing, as she rounded the stairs and came into the kitchen, she saw Uncle John sitting at the table. His ghost likes to hang around these days and his hair is grayer than ever. As he sat reading his paper, he noticed that Emma was not her usual peppy self.
“something wrong kid?” he asked, as he flipped the pages of his newspaper.
Emma hugged her coffee cup close to her and sighed
“yeah, I think I am just over tired,” she said as she took a long sip from her cup
She placed her cup down and faced Uncle John,
“I saw a little girl this morning,” she said as she stood bewildered
“Oh, that’s just Mary, she’s shy and harmless,” Uncle John said, not even looking up from his paper
“What does she want?” Emma blurted out, hoping that Uncle John had the answer
“Beats me,” he said as he folded his paper and sat it down on the table.
Emma turned towards the kitchen sink window and when she turned back around, Uncle John had vanished and all that was left was the old newspaper he was reading, still folded neatly on the table.
Emma looked over to the whiteboard on her refrigerator, today was demo day and it was time to remove a gigantic bookshelf that was rotting and falling apart. She didn’t feel like setting up her camera today to record so she just quickly got to work.
As she removed board after board with a crowbar, she noticed an old picture sticking out from behind a shelf.
She pulled the photo out and instantly recognized it, it was the little girl she saw, another girl and a woman, whom she assumed was their mother.
The photo was tattered and old, she flipped it over, and handwritten, barely visible was “Mary, Maggie and Catherine, 1909”
Emma soon felt she wasn’t alone in the room; she slowly turned around and was face to face with Mary.
The little girl’s face was filled with sadness as she grabbed the photo from Emma, she didn’t know what to say and just stayed silent”
“Momma left one day and never came back,” Mary said as she looked at the photo
“Dada said she had the sickness and she had to go away to keep us safe, I miss her so much,” Mary said as she handed the photo back to Emma.
Emma was filled with sadness, she stared at the little girl and her heart just broke
“Will you be my new Momma?” Mary said as her face lit up
Emma looked down at the ground and then up at Mary
“I am sure your Momma misses you very much too,” Emma said as she looked again at the photo.
“If she did, she would have come back,” Mary said as tears began to stream down her face
Emma put her hand on Mary’s shoulder, thinking how she could explain this to a child, a ghost child at that.
“Your mother was sick, she left to protect you and unfortunately, a lot of people got sick,” Emma said trying to reassure Mary.
“I am sure your mother loved you very much,” Emma said staring back down at the photo
“Uncle Johnny says if I leave here, I can see my momma again, but I am scared,” Mary said as she wiped the tears from her face.
Uncle John suddenly appeared behind Mary, putting his hands on her shoulders
Emma stood up and began talking to Uncle John
“It’s true,” he said, Emma handing him the photo
“I can take her to her mother,” Uncle John said
“But that also means, I will have to leave too,” Uncle John said handing the photo back to Emma, she tucked the photo into her pocket and knelt to speak to Mary.
“Listen, Mary, I know you are scared, but if you go with Uncle John, He is going to bring you to your mother,” she said brushing Mary’s ringlet hair out of her face.
Mary suddenly stopped crying and Uncle John extended his hand out to Mary, and she took his hand.
Uncle John smiled and they headed towards the porch door, Uncle John quickly turned around and smiled at Emma.
“Emma, I am proud of you, your mother would be too,” he said as he turned back around.
Emma watched as Uncle John and Mary walked down the steps and headed into the very field that Emma had seen him standing in before. They soon disappeared out of view.
Emma sat down in her white rocking chair on the porch and began to rock. The windchimes blowing in the wind. As she rocked, she remembered the photo in her pocket, she pulled it out and began looking at it. She noticed all three faces were now smiling, she took it as a sign that Mary, her mother, and her sister were all reunited.
As she was rocking her rocking chair, a beautiful red cardinal landed on the railing of the porch, she smiled as she remembered the saying her mother always told her “Any time you see a cardinal, it’s a sign that someone who has passed is visiting you”
Emma smiled as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the birds chirping and the windchimes blowing in the wind. She opens her eyes, and the cardinal is still there, just staring at her. It flies off and it begins to lightly rain, the rocking chair next to her begins to slowly rock on its own and Emma remembers, that even though someone has passed on, doesn’t mean they are gone forever.