The house guests

We're giddy with excitement, best buddy and I; a wealthy, mutual acquaintance has hired us to house sit while they're off to Spain for a month. Because it's out in the country, an hour from where we live, they've agreed to let us simply move in. We'll have the run of an enormous, modern, architectural showpiece of a home with upper story deck views over the river valley. The dense woods surrounding the structure are home to white tail deer, fox and the occasional black bear.

It's been a while since we've been to the house and the landscape has changed a bit. Driving up the winding, wooded path we discover that the house has also undergone some changes; they've added a towering glass atrium entryway through which you can see quite a bit of the modern interior; white walls, huge tapestries and massive sculptures. The key they've left us is hanging right next to the front door; two massive slabs of carved wood, inlaid and adorned with hammered metal and a brass door knocker the size of a dinner plate. The key is enormous and heavy. I use both hands to insert it into the keyhole and when I turn it, it makes a loud, echoing sound.

After dropping our things in two of the guest bedrooms, we set out to reacquaint ourselves with the layout, exploring the kitchen area first, marveling at the size of the serving island and the ultra modern chandelier that hangs over it. It's when I'm looking at the clusters of dangling glass that I see a brief shadow pass in the peripheral view of my right eye. When I turn, there's nothing there. Best buddy is taking stock of the contents of the refrigerator and planning dinner so she missed it. She dismisses my announcement of there being another person in the house. We each grab an apple and walk over to the tall window that overlooks the south side of the garden. A glorious sunbeam is pouring in and catching the crystals of the chandelier, throwing small prism dots on the walls.

When we turn around, a handsome young man is standing in the doorway to the hall that leads to the rest of the house. We both exclaim our surprise and greet him calmly. He has a wide, friendly smile but his eyes are cold as ice. An older, burly man with a goatee and olive colored bush jacket appears behind him. We greet him as well but he doesn't respond. It's when a third and then a fourth person appears from the hallway that I realise with a sickening feeling that something is very wrong. I somehow know how this will turn out; I've seen stories like it before, how they'll read about us in the paper tomorrow. I take my friend's hand and squeeze it. She squeezes back.

The young man wants to know if we're there by ourselves. I say no, we're just the first ones but the rest of the party, four couples and two other girlfriends are moments behind us. In fact, we need to go get the rest of the stuff out of our car but they're welcome to stay and join us. They are standing between us and the only way out of the house so I start toward them and request cheerfully that they let us through. They step aside reluctantly and we walk out with a chirpy "be right back!" It is taking every ounce of restraint to not run to the car and I am suddenly acutely aware of the fact that neither one of us grabbed our purses...or the key to the car. We get in anyway as if the vehicle will provide us with some protection. I look down to the ignition and draw a sharp breath. In our excitement to get inside, I turned the car off and left the keys dangling.

It's when we get to the bottom of the long driveway and hit the slight rut in the main road that I wake up. It's light out and I can hear Mr. M stirring his cup of coffee.

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I attended a fundraiser silent auction this evening with the express purpose of bidding on and bringing home a small, decorative tile wall hanging that was created by someone very dear to me. My written bid was the highest up until the moment when a young couple upped it AFTER the bidding was closed. Completely unlike me, I walked over, pushed my way in and wrote in a higher bid and when the young man made a disapproving sound I pointed out how he had also done it after the bidding closed. The attendant looked a bit nervous at the possible altercation but my nemesis skulked off with his wife and let it go.