Free Summer Shadows by Killarney Traynor

rested his head on her shoulder as she turned to the house.
    “Well, guys,” she said hopefully. “This is it. What do you think?”
    “It looks dirty,” Dana said, before Ron could stop her.
    Julia nodded. “I’m afraid it is. We have a lot of cleaning to do before we can start to relax, guys. Want to see inside?”
    “I need to go !” Jack reminded her.
    “Ron, run and get the wipes from the van. Don’t go near the grass. Dana, come on.”
    Dana followed her reluctantly. Ron darted back to the van as quickly as he could, grabbed the wipes, and made it to the house before Dana got through the door.
    Just inside the doorway was a staircase leading upstairs to a shadowed second floor. On their right was a closed, battered, and ominous-looking door. On the left were two steps that led up into the kitchen. They followed Julia as she turned a sharp right down a short hall and stopped just short of the door at the end. She turned to Ron.
    “Got the wipes?”
    He tossed them to her and she caught them neatly with her free hand. “I’ll take Jack to the bathroom. You two can look around, but don’t get into anything.”
    She and Jack disappeared into the bathroom.
    For a moment, Ron and Dana stood staring at each other. The house was cool, dark, and dry, with a hint of a musty smell to it. Shafts of mid-afternoon sunlight came in through the kitchen windows and made an effort to light the hallway. There were doors all around them, all of them shut.
    “Come on, Dana,” Ron said, suddenly filled with the urge to explore.
    He started with the door across from the kitchen. It opened up into a small room with a banged up desk, a sagging computer chair, an empty bookcase, and a window. There were marks in the dusty rug from where other furniture once rested, and dead flies decorated the window sill.
    “Boring,” Dana said. “Come on!”
    She opened the door to the front room. It was a larger room with a set of double windows, a wooden floor, cheery but peeling yellow wallpaper, and a stone fireplace. There was an old TV and console, and a tattered sofa, all covered with dust sheets. To their left, a pair of open double doors led into a dining room with a tiny chandelier, a scarred dining set with six chairs, and a hutch with glass doors. Another door led back into the kitchen.
    They returned to the hall. To the left was a little bedroom with a closet, a shabby dresser, and a cloth-draped bed with no mattress. To the right of the bathroom was a dark, creepy storage room of sorts, loaded with boxes and draped things. It smelled mustier than the rest of the house did.
    “Phew.” Ron made a face as he closed the door. “I’m not looking forward to cleaning that room.”
    “Let’s go upstairs,” Dana said.
    They darted down the short hall, back through the kitchen, and up the narrow staircase onto a railed landing. There were two rooms up here, one on either side. Both were long and rather narrow, with tapering walls. The larger of the two rooms held a cot and a night stand. A set of tiny windows overlooked the front porch.
    The other room had just a cot and a larger window that looked out the back. Both had closets that were dry, but in need of a coat of paint.
    It was much warmer here in these rooms than it was downstairs, but they seemed cleaner somehow, despite the layers of dust and dead insects.
    Dana stared out the window into the backyard; and after inspecting the closet, Ron came to join her. There wasn’t much to see. There was a good-sized, over-grown yard with fencing along the back, a weed-choked garden, and tall shrubs that protected it from the view of the neighbors.
    Dana asked, “Do you think we’ll be sleeping up here?”
    Ron looked around and shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s not too bad and it doesn’t have that funny smell.”
    “It’s hot.”
    “I don’t think Aunt Julia has the air conditioning on yet.”
    “I thought I heard you two up here.” Julia came in, holding Jack on her