Chapter VIII
It rained all day. Hazel tried several times during breakfast and lunch to ask about the sounds she heard, but she didn’t want to be thought of as crazy. She was so tired that she almost fell asleep in several different chairs. She moved from one to another, trying to find some way to spend the day. She didn’t feel like doing much. The room with the bookshelves took her interest for a while. Each book was old and some were falling apart, but that only added to their charm. They covered a wide range of topics. Hazel tried to read about botany, but she couldn’t pronounce a lot of the scientific names and put the book back. Astronomy was a little easier because the book had so many drawings of planets and stars. She accidentally ripped a page and returned the book to its shelf, making sure it was in the exact location she found it in so it didn’t look like anybody had touched it.
She came to the book about the zoo that she had seen the first time she was in there. The pictures were nice, but she couldn’t help feeling sad that most of the animals in there were probably dead by now. There was a bear like the one that came out of the box, except bigger and meaner. There was a monkey with similar colors to the one that shrieked at her, and a bunch of other animals including cheetahs, horses, and alligators.
Several minutes later she was back in the living room trying not to nod off. She didn’t feel like taking a nap. She wished there was a television. At least then she could mindlessly watch it for hours instead of having to think of something to do. It would take her weeks to catch up on all the shows she liked to watch. And how was she supposed to get news? Anything at all could be happening in the world. She normally didn’t watch news, but at the time the lack of it seemed like a legitimate thing to complain about.
Dinner came and went. Hazel took to watching the rain as day changed to night. Lightning was now mixing in. She stared out of the window for some time, thinking about anything and everything other than the house. She wondered if it was raining at home, if her mother was doing alright, what her friends were doing, what she would be doing at home at that time in the evening. A bolt of lightning halted her thoughts. It had illuminated the now darkened forest for only a second. Hazel thought she saw someone standing by a tree. She didn’t get a good look at them, but that didn’t matter. There wasn’t anyone out there. She nodded and went away from the window . . . just in case.
The boring day came to a close and Hazel couldn’t wait to get to sleep. Unfortunately it didn’t last long. For about the fifth night since she had been in that house something woke her up. Her first instinct was to think it was thunder, but that wasn’t it. Instead it was the little brown box. And something was inside it again. Hazel only wanted sleep and thought about tossing the box out the window. She thought better of it. Her head hit her pillow and she was out. Sometime later she heard another strange noise, only this one was coming from right beside her. She opened her eyes and let out a cry. A tiny horse was only an inch from her face. It neighed playfully as she jumped off her bed. Where were these things coming from?
The horse jumped off the bed, and like the two animals before it, ran to the door. When it was opened the little horse ran into the hall. Hazel quickly changed into the same clothes she wore the last time, they were now officially her “adventure clothes”. After the things she saw and heard outside the past few days, Hazel was hesitant to go out. But that strange energy that had her running after the bear and monkey returned. She opened the front door without a thought for her own safety.
The rain was torrential. The horse ran into the wet night, she followed close behind. The wind whipped and pushed Hazel this way and that. The rain soaked her through within seconds. The little horse was only visible during flashes of lightning. Hazel was strong willed and despite the weather, continued. The horse ran all the way around the house and into the forest. The ground was soft and wet. The mud and water went straight through Hazel’s socks, giving her a sudden chill.
The short flashes of light illuminated the forest in strange ways. She saw trees and low branches only seconds before running into them. Bizarre shadows had her seeing creatures and people that weren’t really there. This spooked Hazel and she thought of turning back several times before deciding to see the adventure through. She was now certain that those little animals were somehow connected to the strange sightings at the Swansberry Hill House.
The little horse stopped. Hazel ran past it. The animal whined like a normal horse and she turned back. A bolt of lightning showed them to be in an alcove of some sort. The trees were close together with vines and ivy meshed together to form a wall. There were two ways out, a path ahead and one behind, where they came in. The horse took the path ahead. Hazel followed slowly.
Rain could be heard pounding on the canvas of leaves and ivy above them, with only a few drops reaching the ground. The light shined through the small holes in the ceiling and walls of this natural tunnel. The little horse neighed for her to follow. Lightning struck and Hazel saw something ahead. It appeared to be a small wood house, the same size as she was. It was overgrown and the walls were coming apart, but it could still clearly be distinguished amongst the trees. The horse went in through a hole in the wall. Hazel opened the door and went in.
The house was filled with bugs and spider webs, but also with small toys and dolls that had been long forgotten. Hazel waited for the intermittent flashes of light to see everything. The horse stood by a small something that stood apart from everything else. It was a small piece of metal with a flat bottom and a wooden handle connected to the top, it was an old toy clothes iron. It was the only toy that did not look old. The metal was as sleek and clear as if it were brand new.
Hazel started to look around, but the horse whined at her until she went over to the iron. She picked it up and the whines ceased. It was heavy for something so small. The next bolt of lightning showed that the horse had vanished. She waited in case it came back, but it did not. She was alone in the old play house. For the first time since she left the house she felt an acute fear of being alone and lost. She started to panic. She left the small house and ran back through the corridor of trees, always expecting something to come out and grab her.
The path was easy to follow until she got to the normal part of the forest, and then she was really lost. The rain felt harder than ever, the thunder made her jump every time. Every tree looked the same; she wasn’t sure what direction to go in. Hazel wandered over here and over there, hoping to see a light source of some sort, but none were visible. Sadness set in, followed by hopelessness.
Hazel had just about given up hope of finding a way out when a particularly powerful bolt of lightning revealed what looked like a person some distance ahead of her. Instead of being afraid, the sight was comforting. She went in the direction of the figure, only to see that the person had moved a little to the left or right with each new flash of light. The person never appeared to be moving when the light shined on them, and yet was always in a different spot. Hazel followed it for some time until, to her immense surprise and relief, the Swansberry Hill House came into view. Hazel waited for the next light to say “thank you” but the person was gone.
Getting back to her room was going to be a hard task. Hazel was covered in mud. Surely her grandmother would see that the floor was wet and muddy in the morning. Hazel removed her shoes and socks and rolled up her jeans and then ran to the basement door. She had made a mistake the last time by washing her clothes in the morning. This time she went straight to the basement to wash them. The rain and thunder would hide the sound perfectly. Hazel was glad to find clean clothes sitting on the drier that she had forgotten to pick up the day before. She switched into them and washed and dried her dirty clothes, cleaned her shoes off in the sink, and made it up to bed before dawn. In her exhaustion she had forgotten the toy iron in the basement.