It didn't dawn in me that my parents were really getting a divorce until a few months later when it was a blistering day in October when the cold winds of winter was reaching into my mind. I was walking home from school. My best friend, Jake, was next to me. He was talking about a girl. He was always talking about some girl he liked or was dating.
The neighborhood had always been the same medium size home to large mansions. We parents or my mom lived in an affluent area, but that was going to change next year when the dreaded divorce proceeding were in full swing and my parents started to fight over custody over me and my sister.
They walked up a paved street with several large trees dotting they walkway. I had moved along the streets many of times going home from school. I usually never pay attention to the homes except for one which always gave me the shivers as they walked next to it.
I said, "Let's go across the street."
"No way. My house is on this side of the street," Jake said. "You shouldn't be scared about that abandoned house."
"I'm not scared."
They stopped walking and I glanced at the mansion. It had been abandoned for as long as I could remember. Staring at the walls and the brown grass, I also sensed somebody was watching me from inside the dark windows.
"Come on. The sooner we walked past it the sooner we'll be home."
I readjusted my backpack and trudged forward. Jake didn't say a word while they moved passed the abandoned structure. I felt my hair raise as I saw the large stain glass window in the front entrance. I had heard through my sister and Jake that this mansion was built some Hollywood starlet from the 1930's.
I couldn't help it and scanned upwards to a small window portal and saw somebody standing there. It was a small girl and she stared back at him. I fell and banged my knee.
Jake said, "Hey, are you ok? You tripped on your own feet."
I stood and felt a little foolish. "I thought I saw somebody up there."
Jake knew about his little talent about seeing and feeling specter. "Is it the little girl who was killed there?"
"I don't know and I don't want to find out. I hadn't seen a ghost for a while and want to keep it that way."
I kept moving without looking back. Jake stop moving and looked up at the house. "She might want you to help her."
"No, lets go."
They walked the rest of the block and I kept thinking about the girl in the window. She didn't look like a ghost from his vantage point and I recalled the many stories about the mansion. The Hollywood Starlet was named, Olivia Dunne. She was the top star back when the movies were silent and black and white.
I saw a picture of her once and thought she was really pretty. But she has a falling out with some hotshot Director. I really didn't know. But it had to do with her kid. Olivia had kid who was always sick. I think she had polio or something. The story always changed from polio to scarlet fever to cancer. It depends on the storyteller.
Olivia always had to go home to watch over her child. It was a young girl. Supposedly as all the stories end, the young girl disappeared and never was found again. There was also wild tales that Olivia sold her soul to the devil and to seal the deal she had to give up her daughter. Either way Olivia never made another picture and she killed herself a year later.
Jake said, "I heard somebody almost bought the home but the people back out."
"How did you hear this?"
"My mom told me."
As I came closer to my house, I thought about the last time my family went out together. It was a few months ago. We went to a restaurant and it was nothing special but my parents seem to generally in love. My mom was holding my dad's hand and I thought I wanted a marriage like that but now I realized he was already cheating on my mom.