“But I heard them with my own ears!!  There were children upstairs in the bedroom.  I heard them calling to me, Bob!  They must have jumped out the window because I couldn’t find them when I went to look for them.  Are they here?”  The agitated elderly lady looked up at her middle-aged son, anxiously wringing her hands in worry. 

“No, mom, they’re not here,” Bob said rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, “There are no children.  Let me drive you back home so that we can all get some sleep.  It is late.  We will discuss this more in the morning over a cup of coffee.”

Slipping his brown loafers on his feet and tying his robe tighter around his robust belly, he gently took his mother’s elbow and guided her out the door towards the car. 

The almost full moon hovered in the velvet canvas of stars, cascading light upon the Minnesota farmland.  To the south, soft waves cascaded upon the shore of Lobster Lake. 

            “I am telling you that I heard them.  I was not dreaming.  I was wide awake.  They were giggling and whispering, like when your sisters would have sleepovers.  Oh my God, Bob, what if they are by the lake?  Or lost in the cornfields?  We have to go look for them!”  Bob’s mom’s eyes glowed crazy with worry.  She darted away from the open car door. 

Bob lightly caught her shoulder.  “I will look for them after I take you home, mom,” he said with a yawn, “Promise me that you will call me instead of wandering out in the night.  Karen and I worry about you.”

Dagny reluctantly sat down in the car and let her son close the door. 

During the short drive to the old farmhouse, Bob’s mom looked out the passenger side window into the darkness, searching for signs of the missing children.  Any sign.

“There, Bob, there they are!” Dagny exclaimed pointing to the field in front of the old farmhouse.

Bob stopped the car just before the driveway.  Looking towards where his mother pointed, he opened the car door slowly and got out to investigate.  Bright eyes shined back at him from behind a large oak tree. 

“Stay there,” he whispered to his mother.

With careful, quiet steps, Bob walked around the car to the edge of the road, adjusting his eyes to the darkness. 

“Hello?” Bob called out, taking one more step towards the woods, listening intensely for a reply.

Dagny rolled her window down in the old blue Buick.  A giggle heard from the distance carried to Dagny’s ears.  She opened the car door quickly and exited.  Running towards Bob, she grabbed onto his cotton robe sleeve.  “There.  Did you hear it?  A child laughing.  We need to call the police, Bob!”

“You are trespassing on private property.  Come out now,” Bob yelled into the trees.

From behind the leafy brush a doe peered out at the pajama clad pair and pranced across the road into the cornfields, toward the lake.

Bob sighed heavily again as he quickly walked back in to the car.  “C’mon, Mom.”

Dagny continued to peer out into the blackness as she climbed next to her son.

Promise me, mom, no wandering.”

“But I heard…….”

“I mean it!” Bob said this time in a harsh tone.

“I promise,” she wearily agreed. 

****

“Everything ok, hon?” Karen said snuggling up to Bob as he crawled back into bed.

“Mom again,” he said.

“Is she still hearing voices?”

“Yes.  It seems to be getting worse.  We have to find a place for her.  I just cannot take anymore chances.  She could fall into the lake or hurt herself running over here or ……who knows what else!” 

            “We’ll call around in the morning,” Karen mumbled sleepily.

*****

            “There it is,” Charlie pointed out the front of windshield, “There’s Aunt Karen and Uncle Bob’s house!”

“And there is the haunted farmhouse!  Dagny’s old house,” Corie spoke up pointing to the white farmhouse that stood east to the more contemporary home that Charlie had pointed to.

“Haunted?” Sarah smirked, “It looks like a cute house. Not spooky at all.”

“Just wait,” Charlie warned with a grin.

            The crackle of the stones under the car tires signaled their arrival and the homeowners met them in the driveway.

            “Aunt Karen.  Uncle Bob.  Meet my new girlfriend Sarah and her kids Samantha and Colin.”

Sarah offered a hug to each and proceeded to stretch.  After the long trip from Michigan to Minnesota everybody in the car was stiff. Charlie’s kids, Corie and Melissa, scooted out of the car and “how big you have grown” remarks were shared along with more hugs and kisses. 

“Can we take Samantha and Colin down to the lake?”  Corie asked her dad.

“Yes, but be careful,” Charlie warned the kids as they ran off down to the water, barely waiting for his approval.

The adults went into the house and sat down at the dining room table, overlooking the rolling farmland out the door wall.

“So, Sarah, Charlie tells me that you are a psychic.”  Aunt Karen said looking inquisitively.

“I prefer intuitive, but yes…I am a psychic.  Not professionally, mind you.  I have a real job too,” Sarah laughed, pouring a soft drink into a glass and taking a sip.

“Well, I cannot wait to take you over to Uncle Bob’s mom’s house, Dagny’s, to see what you think.  The kids think it is haunted.” Aunt Karen laughed.

Sarah laughed with her.  It seemed that once people found out she was a psychic, everybody had some haunted story and Sarah remained a skeptic.  Intrigued, but still skeptical.  Charlie and the kids had told her stories of the abandoned farmhouse, or Dagny’s house as they called it.  There had been no scientific evidence of a haunting, merely just a feeling that they got when they were in there.  But since Dagny had been taken to a nursing home for dementia the previous year, nobody would stay in her house because of an eerie feeling. 

Later that evening as dusk set in, the family walked through the cornfields towards the large white farmhouse.  Cascading trees from the apple grove shadowed the windows.  Sparks of vibrations in Sarah teased her to look up at the second story windows where two small dark shadows observed the oncoming group, giggled and vanished.

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