Ten year old Sara lived in an historic Elizabethan house up on the hill on the edge of town. She liked the house because it looked very much like her doll house that her Grandpa had built for her when she was seven. She also liked the house because she had her very own bedroom which she didn’t have in the other house that her family lived in over in Springland…the next town over.
Sara’s room had nice high ceilings and a huge window that looked out onto the back garden. Her parents had bought new lace curtains for her window and Sara loved to look through them out to the birds in the morning. In fact a wren had made a nest in the limb of the Sycamore tree just outside her window and the eggs were surely just about to hatch.
But one thing that Sara didn’t particularly like about her room was…well…the doorknob that sometimes would rattle and turn in the middle of the night when NO ONE was there!
Sara couldn’t keep her door locked, her parents forbid it…for safety they told her…so that made the turning doorknob even more scary. Sara told her parents about it but they said that she was dreaming or had awakened and was still drousy. They didn’t have any trouble with their doorknobs…so “don’t worry…just ignore it!”
Sara’s neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Carver and they were always on their porch when Sara got home from school and sometimes she would go and visit them in the afternoons.
Mr. Carver wrote children’s books and Sara thought that he was very funny and a bit silly too and Mrs. Carver made really good lemonade. One afternoon Sara told the Carvers about her doorknob and they grew very silent and looked at each other for the longest time. Mrs. Carver said…”Well Sara…I’m…ah…sure there is nothing to…ah…worry about!” But Sara noticed that Mr. and Mrs. Carver looked worried themselves.
“Maybe we should tell her Dear…” Mr. Carver said to his wife.
“Maybe…we should tell Sara’s parents and they can decide whether or not to tell her!”
Sara…was really intrigued now…”Oh…NOW you both MUST tell me…my parents don’t even believe me about the doorknob!”
“Well Sara…Oh I can’t tell Sara…she’s such a sweet little girl….” Mrs. Carver looked at her husband.
“It’s too late now we’ve already said WAY too much….tell her…I hope her parents forgive us if they ever find out!”
“Well…Sara…Many…MANY years ago…perhaps a hundred years ago a little girl named Gwendolin lived in your house…when it was new. And I’m pretty sure her room is now YOUR bedroom. Now mind you this is just what we heard when we moved here 30 years ago…”
“PLEASE…Mrs. Carver…did something bad happen to Gwendolin? Tell me.”
“Well…nobody knows for sure…one night her parents heard a strange rattling in her bedroom and then…she…was…gone!”
“Her toys were there…her cat was there and her clothes were still in her closet but no Gwendolin.”
“GOSH!” said Sara.
Then Mr. Carver said..”The town searched and searched for Gwendolin for weeks without success. Finally her parents moved away. We heard that Gwendolin’s Aunt Esmerelda had come and gotten her and taken her to the Aunt’s house but no one was ever sure exactly what happened.”
“GOSH!” Sara said again.
The family that occupied your house before you lived there, spoke about your doorknob and thought that it was the ghost of either Gwendolin or Aunt Esmerelda and decided to move away.”
“GEE!” said Sara deciding not to say Gosh for the third time.
“So you see Sara…it might have just been a close relative involved in Gwendolin’s disappearence…and, after all…it WAS over a hundred years ago. And of course…the whole story could have just been made up by somebody trying to scare us!” Added Mr. Carver.
“Yes Sara…I’m sure someone made up that story…there wasn’t any TV in those days and people told stories and played games for entertainment back then.” Mrs. Carver said.
“Still…there IS my doorknob!” said Sara.
“UUUmmm….” uttered Mr. Carver.
Sara slept through the nights for the next week with no doorknob rattling until on the eighth morning Sara thought..”Maybe I was just dreaming or sleepy or something…but then…how would the Carver’s know about my doorknob?”
That night there was a full moon and the baby Wren chicks and their Mother were sleeping and so was Sara…until about Two AM the doorknob started to rattle. Just slightly at first and then turning so much that Sara felt that it was sure to open it was twisting so far around.
Then Sara wondered whether to pull all the covers over her head or go TO the door and see exactly what WAS going on!
Sara was braver than most girls her age and MUCH more inquisitive and although she was shaking all over she decided to go to the door…and…open it to see who…or WHAT WAS THERE!
The doorknob kept turning and as Sara got within two feet of the door…the doorknob clicked and the door very…VERY slowly started to open. Sara stepped back…her heart beating surely as fast as it had ever beaten before and her hands shaking harder than they had ever shook before…and then a strange bluish white light shone in through the door crack. Sara stepped back another step but leaned around to peek at the door jam.
Then SUDDENLY the door FLUNG WIDE OPEN and Sara froze…not shaking not moving not blinking not even breathing…just staring at the two eerie figures standing in the doorway. It looked as if a little girl about Sara’s age and an older woman were…well…FLOATING in the doorway.
The little girl looked about the room and then looked up at the older lady and then instantly in a POOF!!… they were gone!
Sara’s heart was beating like a machine gun and her hands were trembling again but she took a deep breath and walked into the doorway and looked around…NOTHING! But it DID seem awfully cold in the doorway but got warmer and warmer as Sara stood there wondering if she really was dreaming.
After a minute or two Sara closed the door and went back to bed where it took her until way past three AM to get back to sleep.
Sara told the Carvers about the episode the next afternoon and they said that they thought that it was INDEED Gwendolin and her Aunt Esmerelda and that since Gwendolin’s parents had moved away…Gwendolin and Aunt Esmerelda not finding Gwendolin’s parents… left to go somewhere else to find them.
Mr. Carver said “Sara…I bet you a nickel that your doorknob will never rattle again!”
And he was right!
THE END…I hope!
