Rick's Free Write -- Abandoned House
I had passed the house several times before I realized it was abandoned. The weeds growing thicker and higher each time were a clue. It was odd, considering this was in one of the wealthiest communes in Switzerland.
I decided to buy it, knock it down, and build a complex of apartments. I figured I could make millions after the initial investment.
What I hadn’t figured on was the family inheritance laws in which just about every shirt-tail relative had a vote in the sale of a property. It took me months, actually a year and a half, to locate all the 100+ ‘heirs’ and then another year to convince the last ones to sell. At a huge cost in attorney and investigator fees.
Finally the property was mine, the architect plans were filed with the commune, the environmental impact studies approved, and the backhoes poised to knock down the structure.
Smugly satisfied, I folded my arms to watch, when I heard a sound, a whimper. ‘Wait,’ I called out to the machine operators, holding up my hands.
Following the sound to the basement, I found an emaciated black labrador and five tiny puppies. She had claimed the property as her own.
D-L's Free Write
Jemma shifted the weight of her backpack as she faced the house thru the trees.
The word desolate came to mind, nothing like her childhood memories with the rubber swimming pool, swings and slide. She remembered making mudpies and sand castles in the sandbox.
Twenty-five years had done a job on it. Strange that her mother had left the house to her and her sister, although they hadn't seen their mother for years. Her father had custody of both girls.
The lawyer had given her the key. Should she wait for Andrea, who was alway late.
"I'm here," a voice said.
The sisters hugged.
"Bamboo in Switzerland, weird," Andrea said.
Jemma had forgotten the bamboo but remembered the brown door.
The key stuck, but Andrea had been able to get the door open. Jemma almost wished she hadn't.
The inside would qualify for one of those TV shows where people come in to clean a hoarder's house. Papers, books, clothes, dishes, six shovels (they'd need those to shovel things) covered every inch of space.
"We should hire someone," Audres said.
Jemma agreed. They'd have to clear it out and redecorate it to sell it.
She wished she had some feelings for the house where she'd spent her first eight years.
She didn't.
She was out walking one day, no direction, no purpose other than to be alone and mull over her life.
Julia's Free Write
She was out walking one day, no direction, no purpose other than to be alone and mull over her life.
It wasn’t bad her life, just rather too full at the moment what with friends here, friends, there, tasks to be undertaken, never mind a spate of incidents requiring professional attention. Minor in themselves, taken together it was all a bit much.
She meandered, sticking to the shade and watching her feet as she was prone to tripping over most anything, including said feet!
There was the odd clearing, then back into the woods.
She stopped to look around and listen to the birds.
Then she saw it: an abandoned house. She traipsed around the mostly hidden fence and came to a rusting gate.
It suited her mood – how wonderful it would be to have this house as a retreat.
Hugging her secret to herself as she returned to “civilization” she started the search for the owner, determined to rescue not only the house, but herself with it.
Julia has written and taken photos all her life and loves syncing up with friends. Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/
Rick is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices. com
D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at: https://dlnelsonwriter.com
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