Cindy stopped herself from screaming when she looked at the man's left hand and saw that it was just a mechanical arm. The ones that war vets get after their original arm had been blown off when they got tranferred over seas.

"I'm sorry...I...umm," Cindy stammered through her words.

"Cindy, what are you doing over here?" Thank God, her dad came to save the day. "I am sorry, is my daughter bothering you, sir?"

The man just laughed, "I don't know. Are you?" He looked at Cindy.

Looking at his face, Cindy didn't think he looked creepy at all. He was just an older man. His face was clean shaven and his smile was gentle. He only had a litte bit of hair left, but it was all he needed at his age.

Cindy remembered her excuse that she was going to use, and she decided to play innocent kid as well. "I was just heading back from the bathroom when I saw this man. I had heard about mechanical arms in science class and I was working up the courage to ask him about it." Cindy looked back and forth between her dad and the man, looking for some kind of reaction.

They both started giggling. Cindy's heart stopped racing in relief.

"It's ok dear," the man said. "Kids ask me about my arm all the time. It's actually kind of a pathetic story. I fell out of a tree when I was a kid. I broke my arm. It didn't heal right and it got so infected that there was no saving it. I've had a fake arm since I was ten. I call it my bionic arm." The man laughs at his own joke.

"I am sorry," Cindy says. "That must have been a horrible experience."

"Nah, it's just a memory now."

The man and Ray started talking. His name was Steve and he has lived in Northfield his whole life. He was retired now, but he used to work at the local library. He offered to show them around sometime and Ray accepted. They exchanged numbers and went their seperate ways.

"What a nice man. Do you think everyone in Northfield is like him?" Ray asked Cindy. They've both had their fair share of rude people in their lives. Maybe that was a Montana thing.

"I don't know dad. Can we go to the puzzle aisle now? Mom is waiting for us." Cindy was trying to stay in the twenty minute limit, but Ray didn't mind having Rose wait an extra ten. She probably dozed off by now anyways.

They walked towards the toys. Ray found some Star Wars swords, and like any other dad, he took it and tried sword fighting with Cindy. Cindy rolled her eyes at her dad playfully and picked up a sword as well. Was this even allowed here? Even though Cindy moved to this town, she felt like tourist causing mischief at an attraction.

"Mom is going to get mad that we are taking too long," Cindy said putting her sword back. "We still need to find the ice cream. Let's not upset a pregnant lady."

"You are right," Ray said, putting his own sword away. "But we are definetely getting these when your brother learns to walk. Why do you have to be so responsible?" Ray said sarcastically.

"Come on dad, it's getting late. The puzzles are over here."

Cindy found a flamingo 3D puzzle, just like she wanted. The found some ice cream sandwiches and headed for the check out. Cindy noticed Steve in the self check out lane and suggested that they get in line behind him.

"I don't want it to seem like we are following him," Ray told Cindy. "We'll just go to a different lane so we don't bother him."

Cindy glanced over at Steve while they passed him. He saw Cindy and waved. Cindy waved back. She noticed that all he was purchasing was a knife block. What we he doing in the shoe departement then?

They got in the car and Rose was still awake.

"What took you so long?" she asked.

"We met someone. Had to talk to him for a while, we couldn't be rude." Ray looked at Rose and she looked back in approval.

Cindy scanned the parking lot looking for Steve, but she couldn't find him. He was quick. Pulling out of the parking space, Cindy noticed him at the far end of the lot. It looked like he was walking home. Maybe a person can't drive when you have a fake arm. It could be illegal. I will look it up when we get home. Cindy thought.

There house was only two miles away, but Cindy does not remember the drive. She must have fallen asleep because she woke up in the middle of the night in her new bedroom. Squinting into the darkness, Cindy noticed that her parents left her 3D puzzle on her nightstand, still in the box. Crap, she missed having ice cream. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

She was about to fall back asleep when she noticed a light shining in through her window by the top of her stairs. Cindy got scared, it was a new room and a new environment for her. She told herself earlier that it would be scary at first, but considering what she saw earlier, she was more scared than normal.

Cindy got up, still squinting. Squinting now because of the bright light. She got closer to the window, her eyes getting adjusted. Cindy yawned and squinted through the foggy window. As soon as her eyes began to focus, the light went out, leaving the house next door completely black.

Cindy sighed in disappointment. Now she thought that she had dreamt the whole thing. She shuffled her feet back to bed and resumed the night in a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, storm clouds had rolled in, and it was raining. Cindy woke up to the ceiling dripping on her forehead.

"Really?" She scoffed and got out of bed to find a bucket. There was no way she was going to have a puddle forming on her bed throughout the day. She scurried around in her room trying to quickly find something to use to catch water. She gave up and ran downstairs to grab a bowl, each step creaking as she walked on them.

"Is everything OK Cindy?" Ray was sitting at the table, already drinking coffee.

"The roof is leaking onto my bed." Cindy started sifting through the boxes labeled 'kitchen' to find a big bowl.

"I am sorry Cindy." Ray started sorting through boxes with Cindy. "The roofers are coming next week to fix it. I didn't think it was going to rain this much."

They found a huge salad bowl, one they used for a party, another medium size bowl, and ran upstairs. Creak creak creak.

"You have to fix those stairs dad, they are annoying," Cindy said as she was getting out of breath.

"First things first dear. I think the roof is more important."

They get to Cindy's room and the roof was leaking so bad it was like a mini waterfall coming from the ceiling. They ended up having to move Cindy's bed in order for it to dry and for the bowl to sit without tipping over.

"This bowl is going to fill up quick dad. Is it suppose to rain for a long time today?" Cindy asked as she watched the bowl fill up with rain water.

"I don't know Cindy. Let's check the weather on your Ipad." Ray grabbed the already full bowl of water and went downstairs to dump it down the drain while Cindy looked up the weather.

When she turned on her Ipad, the news stories of the abandoned house appeared. Cindy quickly shut them down so her dad wouldn't see that she was trying to snoop. She pulled up the Google bar and typed in 'Northfield, MN weather' and a radar of Minnesota popped up, Cindy studied it.

By the time Ray came back upstairs with the empty bowl, the replacement bowl was almost overflowing. Ray switched bowls and head back down the stairs.

Coming back up the stairs, Ray asked, "Did you find anything out?"

"It should only last a half hour," Cindy said squinting at the screen.

"Awesome. Do you want to teamwork this?" Cindy looked at her dad and laughed. The front of his shirt was completely soaked from carrying an awkward bowl of water down the stairs.

For the next forty five minutes, Ray and Cindy carried bowls of water down the stairs only to come upstairs and drag more water down. Rose was downstairs cleaning, while the two upstairs were trying to prevent a flood in the attic.

When the rain finally slowed down and the water diminished to a slow drip, Ray and Cindy both sat down on Cindy's bed with a sign of relief.

"Put er there partner," Ray said giving Cindy a high five.

"Do I still get ice cream from last night?" Cindy asked.

"Normally not for breakfast, but I will sneak you some. Be right back." Ray got up and went downstairs on his tip toes. Cindy laughed at his actions.

This was the perfect time to peak outside at the abandoned house. Cindy checked to make sure her dad was all the way downstairs. She turned around to look out the window. At first she saw nothing, but stared anyways.

Then she saw it. A shadow. It walked back and forth in the attic window. It was morning and still bright outside, but this shadow was darker than dark. Cindy squinted, but she couldn't see much. The shadow didn't stay in the window long enough for her to observe who or what it was.

When she saw the shadow move from left to right, all she saw was darkness. It looked like someone was pacing, like the man she saw in the yard. When the shadow moved from right to left, she saw something shiny glinting in the minimun light from the window. The shadow was using the rain clouds to hide its true self.

"What are you looking at Cindy?" Ray came sneaking up the stairs behind Cindy. Cindy jumped and bumped her head on the top of the window sill.

"Shit!" The word slipped out of Cindy's mouth before she could stop herself. She looked at her dad's face and he surprisingly didn't look mad. Cindy had learned the word from her parents a while ago. When Rose found out that she was first pregnant and one day she accidently slipped on ice outside in the cold Montana winter. So Cindy assumed it was just a reaction to use when someone got hurt.

"Cindy, you know that is a bad word right?" Cindy knodded her now bumped head. "So we shouldn't use it, even in situations like this. Are you OK?" Cindy knodded again.

"I am sorry dad. It just slipped out. I won't say it again."

"Good. Do you want me to get you an ice pack?"

"I think I will be fine after I have some of that ice cream." She pointed to the ice cream in her dad's hands. He gave her one and opened the other for himself. They sat on Cindy's damp bed and enjoyed their hard work's reward.

"Are you sure you are OK? You seemed to hit your head pretty hard. What were you doing staring out the window so intently like that?"

"It's nothing dad. I was just looking at the abandoned house, wondering what could have happened to it. I am fine, really."

Ray sighed. "Can you keep a secret between the two of us? Like, not even telling your mom kind of secret?"

"What is it dad? You know we can share everything with each other."

"Well your mom thinks that you are too young, but I think that you are mature for your age. I think you are mature enough to know what happened in the abandoned house behind the fence." Ray looked at Cindy in a serious manner. Cindy opened her ears.