Inspired by the OLWG#417-Prompt Waukegan

No matter how small, no matter how big there is always a home like the Platt House hidden behind grand new houses or trailer parks or shopping malls.

Those houses always look weather beaten, the lawns are always dead. There are curtains in the windows and in a window close to the front door or on the lawn near the sidewalk there is a no trespassing sign, or a no soliciting faded by the sun but somehow,  despite their lack of vibrancy and life, those words still carry some weight because nobody ever walks up onto the porch and knocks on the door- let alone rings the doorbell.

In my town the Platt house is exactly as it was left when the ‘ tragedy’ as we locals call it, happened in 1964. What happened there has a lot to do with those particular words- someone wrote a cookbook featuring recipes favored by notorious people and houses and featured  what the author said was Wilone Platt’s favorite recipe.  I’m not sure if the author ever actually visited Waukegan Street, but I doubt it.

Back in 1964  Waukegan Street had three houses  on it- the Platt house was on one side and the  Samson and Finch houses were across the street. The lawns were always a lush dark green when they weren’t covered with snow during the winter and  each house had an oak tree on the side yard . Each family was sizeable- the Platts had four children and I believe the Samson and Finch families each had around five or six children.

On that day, the last day anybody set foot in the Platt House Mrs Finch said she heard a radio playing from the Platt’s place- and you can take Mrs Finch’s word for that because she was nosy and busy body and you couldn’t sneeze from your own basement without her knowing about it. The funny thing was, she kept hearing the same song playing over and over again- and she heard the same three commercials before and after the song.

It was making her a little crazy so she decided to go over to the Platt’s and ask Mrs Platt- or more then likely one of her children – to turn their radio down.

Mrs Finch walked up to the door ( because until that day people did that all of the time ) and she tapped on the screen door and then she called out for Wilone because the front door was open.

” Wilone, sweetheart! Are you there? ”

” We’re upstairs, Marvetta ”

” Oh. Okay. Say listen Wilone- could you turn the radio down? ”

” What’s that?”

Marvetta sighed. She pushed open  the screen and walked through the living room and then down the hallways to where the stairs going up to the second floor were.

” It’s the funniest thing!” Marvetta said as she climbed the stairs, ” I thought maybe one of your kids was playing the same record over and over again, but I heard commercials too- one for  Bucky’s Burgers and  Handymart and then Foreman’s Auto Shop- so it had to be the radio. Anyway Wilone, Darling, it’s so loud! I was hoping you could get them to turn it down. I mean, it’s not that it’s really loud- it’s just playing over and over again and it’s- well it’s getting on my nerves if you must know the truth.”

Just then, just as she set foot on the landing, Sunny, the Platt’s family cat strolled by her. He looked up into Marvetta’s face and blinked. He shook his head and then he trotted down the steps.

She watched him and then she saw that he was leaving a little trail of muddy paw prints behind him.

He walked back to the last step and looked up at her. He swished his tail from side to side and then he walked out the open door.

Marvetta saw those little prints and something told her that NOW would be a good time to forget the radio playing the same 5 minutes of over and over again. She could ignore it. Something was screaming in the back of her head that she needed to make every effort to ignore it and that she need to get out of this house now.

This instant.

There were family pictures- old ones hanging on the walls in the hallways and a clock. It was an old fashioned clock with weights that looked like pine cones and a lion on it’s crown.

Marvetta  said  she saw the time on the clock- it was 7:05- but she was it was past noon when she went into the house. Maybe it had stopped, she thought. Then the  second hand whirred around and she saw the minute hand jump ahead –

and then it jumped back again and the clock read

7:05.

” Listen Wilone, I have to get back to my place. I , I have something in the oven. Could you –

Marvetta went to the door at the end of the hall – behind it was Wilone’s and her husband’s bedroom and she heard the last few seconds of ” Bits and Pieces ” and then the commercials started  again. She was about to tap on the door when she looked down to her right and leaning against the wall was a brand new ax.

There was still a price sticker on the handle.

She reached out to touch it when the bedroom door swung open and Marvetta saw that it was empty.

Nobody was in there.  Not Wilone or her husband or any of her children and then she looked down and Sunny the cat strolled by her.

She watched him walk away from her leaving a set of muddy paw prints on the carpet.

When he got to the landing he looked back at her and then he climbed down the stairs.

” Wilone-” Marvetta whispered as Sunny walked away, she whispered because the air was gone from her lungs and she couldn’t manage more then a whisper.

The radio was on the vanity on Wilone’s side of the bed and it didn’t take Marvetta more then a second to realize that it was off.

She backed out of the room and when she saw the ax was gone she ran down the stairs and out of the house.

I don’t know what happened at the Platt house, nobody does – all we knew for certain was that the entire Platt family was gone. Nobody ever saw them again.

The police found Mr Platt’s car in their garage, his briefcase was on the front seat and the driver’s door was open. They found the kid’s school lunches on the kitchen counter one of them even saw Sunny the Cat stroll by them in the living room and out the front door.

Like I said, nobody has set foot in the Platt’s house for years- and you don’t need too.

I am pretty sure the clock in the hallways is still ticking and that it still jumping from 7:06  back to 7:05. I am sure that ax is still leaning against the wall and I am sure that Sunny The Cat is still strolling out the door as Dave Clark Five sings  Bits and Pieces and Bucky’s Burgers wants to sell you lunch.