Knock Knock

By early June of 1973 there was no denying that there was something very odd about my room. Outside it would be a warm day in the upper 70's or 80's. But inside my room it was always noticeably cooler. It was anywhere between 5 to 10 degrees cooler in there then anywhere else in the house. When relatives came over to visit they would be taken up to my room . Everyone would laugh and joke about how it was "haunted." It's hard to explain but I wasn't afraid or nervous at all about staying in that room.
Only my Mom seemed concerned about my room. She wasn't sure she wanted her youngest son sleeping in a potentially haunted room. It didn't bother me any. I liked having my own room. However Mom kept making a fuss over it until I was moved out and John moved in. ( I thought it was funny that she didn't mind John sleeping in there.)
Luckily for me Geno and John had been getting into more and more fights recently. So it was decided to move John out of the room he shared with Geno and to move me in. I didn't mind so much because Geno's room was large and came with a color television and record player. I also knew that somewhere in that room was a canvas bag with a ton of dimes in it. John didn't mind because he was getting away from Geno. Also he got a nice cool room in the middle of summer all to his own.
Another big bonus for me was that Duke would sleep in my bed again. Plus it was still like having my own room. Geno spent a lot of time gone once summer started. He would go visit Steve in Davenport and hang out with old friends. Even when he was there we didn't have much trouble between us. So long as I minded my own business and he minded his we got along well.
For once.
Mom seemed even happier then she was just a short while earlier. And we all profited from that happiness. Mom ,always a good and plentiful cook , had kicked into overdrive lately. Every meal she cooked far more then we could eat. Not that we didn't try, but there was just no way we could keep up with that woman's cooking. My new best friend Paul was always begging to come over and visit since there was always a pie or two on the stove and cookies in the oven. After a visit from Steve Mom would load him up with plenty of food for that long 39 minute drive home.( Actually if it was a 39 minute drive for us it would have been more like a 22 minute drive for Steve. Maybe less.)
All that cooking from Mom meant I was going out and bringing in more water from the well. It also meant that we were doing more grocery shopping. At least twice a week Mom and Dad would drive to Kewanee for food. Dad would say she needed to buy the massive amounts of food because she wanted to fatten us up and eat us.
Dad really knew how to make a pregnant woman feel good about herself.
On one such trip my parents took me with them. Usually they would let me go with them only to make me wait in the car while they went in the store to do their shopping. However since it was hot out that day they let me go in with them. In the front of the store near the checkouts was a display with some stuffed animals. Mom stopped and looked at them for a moment. She made a comment about how cute they were. Dad just grumbled something about not liking "cute" things. Mom looked at one bear in particular for a while then put it down. After my parents moved off, I looked at the bear. The price tag said $3.95 .
I stood there lost in thought. Wouldn't that be a nice gift for the baby, I thought. I remember thinking that if I gave the new baby a toy before anyone else it might like me more.
The problem was I had less then a dollar left from my bribe money. I had spent most of it on candy.
All the way home I kept thinking about that bear. I asked Dad if I could be paid to mow the lawn. All he did was laugh. I asked him if I could borrow $4. He laughed even more. Mom asked me what I wanted it for. I said I wanted to buy a model of the Enterprise. Mom said that I didn't need a model.
I was afraid if I told her, the other kids would try to buy it first. I didn't trust my siblings.( Especially Rose. She was always trying to make everyone think she was such a goody two shoes. But I knew under that smile of hers lay a black heart of pure evil.) If I was going to do this I knew I'd have to be careful. Also I knew how I was going to get the money.
Somewhere in our house there was a bag full of dimes. I knew I'd have to find it before Geno and John spent it.
When we got home I redoubled my efforts to find that bag. I looked everywhere I could think of in Geno's room. I expanded my search to John's room. As expected they had moved the bag out of the trunk. I left John's room empty handed. In between our two doors was the door to the attic. No one went up there. Maybe they had hidden it up there? While I was up there I found a loose floorboard. I lifted it up. It was empty. I sat down on the top step. I was starting to fear that they had spent it all. Then I thought to myself,"If they spent it, where's the empty bag?"
I lay in bed late that night wondering where it could be.
Two days later while Geno and John were outside I saw a pair of Geno's pants laying on the floor. I picked it up and went though the pockets. I found 60 cents in dimes. He still had some of his loot. I took the money and went up to the attic. Taking the 80 cents I had left from before and the 60 cents I just found gave me $1.40. I pried the floorboard up and hid my money there. Outside I could hear the sounds of firecrackers and bottle rockets.
I went down the stairs. The smell of Mom's newly made chocolate pies filled the air. Mom was no where in the kitchen. Outside I could now hear Rose screaming. I went out the backdoor to find Rose yelling at John while holding a Barbie doll. Mom stood there with a disappointed look on her face.
It seemed John had put the Barbie doll on a low tree branch and was using it as target practice for some bottle rockets. From it's smoking condition I'd say he had hit it a few times. During all this commotion Dad pulled into the driveway. Rose immediately ran over to Dad and showed him the Barbie doll. Tears flowed from her eyes.
"Can't I even get in the house before I have to hear this?" Dad walked over towards John. "Don't you have anything of your own to blow up?"
John looked very perplexed. "Why would I want to do that?"
"Mow the yard," Dad ordered.
"I just mowed it two days ago!"
"Mow it again." Dad walked in the house. John shot Rose a angry glance. (John's attitude seemed to be that Barbie was asking to have bottle rockets shot in her face.) Rose smiled at him and went in the house. Geno and I stayed outside for a little ,listening to John moan about mowing the yard twice in 3 days. We were all starting to hate that push mower.( This was not a motorized mower. When I say push mower I mean Push mower.) John was still whining minutes later when Dad yelled out the back door, "I don't hear any mowing out there."
Later while John was still outside mowing we were all sitting in the living room watching television. We all jumped when something started scratching on the closed door of Dad's den. At first we thought it was Duke. But a quick look showed Duke sleeping on the dining room floor. The scratching became even louder.
"What is it?", Mom asked.
Dad looked at the shaking door. "Maybe one of the wild cats got in though the window?" The scratching stopped for a moment, then started up even more intense. The door was shaking. "It could be a raccoon." The noise had woken up Duke who was now standing in front of the door growling. After a couple more moments it stopped. Dad looked over at Geno.
" Open the door. See what's in there."
Geno shook his head back and forth. "I'm not going in there."
Dad glanced my way.
"Don't even look at me," I said. I wasn't going near that door.
Just then John came in from mowing. His shirt was off and he was covered in sweat. He was about to go upstairs when Dad said,"John get me a pencil from my office." John looked like he was going to say something , but thought better of it. He walked over to door and opened it. We all got ready to get up and run.
But there was nothing in there.
John walked over to Dad's desk , grabbed a pencil , and went to give it to Dad . We were all staring into Dad's office. John stood there holding the pencil. A confused look spread over his face.
"What's everyone looking at?"
Ignoring him we all went into Dad's office. Every window was shut. All the register vents were closed. Dad looked under his desk. I looked up towards the ceiling. We couldn't find anyway to get in or out of that room.
"What is going on?", John asked again.
"Maybe it was the wind?", Mom suggested.
Geno pointed at the open door. We all stopped and stared.
The bottom of the door was covered with scratches.
We never did find out what did it. Everyone talked about it all night. I was still thinking about it when I went to bed. For the first time in days I wasn't obsessed about Geno's stash of dimes. Finally I convinced myself that somehow an animal had gotten in and out without us noticing. Tired from a long day of fruitless searching I rolled over to go to sleep.
Just before I drifted off, something occurred to me.
My new room had gotten very cool.