The Lodger at Button House

Getting to know the lay of the land

"So, would you like the grand tour?" Alison asked, softly stamping on the wooden floor, as if to shake the cold January air out of her legs.

"Yes that sounds lovely, thank you Alison".

"You two don't mind going off together do you? I'll stay here and man the fort and I will help you bring your things up when you have chosen your room" said Mike, giving his wife a pat on the back as he settled into the comfy sofa.

"Sure thing Mike!" Alison replied.

And so the pair started walking. It was funny, Ash thought, watching what looked like a 1980's scouts man guide them through the large house, spouting various knowledge about the history of the place and then Alison repeating him like a parrot. Of course, they had to pretend like the two were alone and it was quite difficult keeping a poker face whilst this eccentric character rambled on about King Henry 8th's visit and what rooms used to be used for in different time periods. He wore a face of sheer delight that he was able to give the tour, and Ashton was in no way complaining.

Throughout the whole tour, the two had seemed to have collected more faces that walked along side them to join in. Occasionally, Ash would catch some looking at them, as if they were checking them out, seeing if Ashton was a good fit for the house. One of the ghosts, that smart ww2 soldier from earlier, had a particular interest, it seemed, of Ash. He walked to the left of them the whole tour, Ashton had to be quite conscious that they didn't accidentally touch him as that would not have gone down very well. The ghost kept his hands tight around his swagger stick the whole time so it wasn't that big of an issue, though they did notice that he had a habit of twisting the stick whenever he was looking at them. Ash did try their hardest not to match the eyes of the man, however, they were not quite sure if they had totally succeeded. Once, they thought the two locked eyes, but it was too quick to judge if they were just being cautious or not. That was right. They were just being cautious.

Finally, Allison and Ash arrived back in the living room where they had started. All of the ghosts had left the room by now. Pat, the scout-leader as Ash now knew, (they had overheard Alison thanking him for the tour, badly disguised as sweeping up some dust on a bookshelf. So she COULD see them!) had mentioned something about 'Food Club' and 'giving the young person some peace" and so the other ghosts just sighed and followed him out of sight.

"So", Micheal asked, "which room did you pick?"

After doing a once-over in each bedroom, Ash chose the room that belonged to the lovesick poet. To be honest, Thomas didn't mind sharing a room with the newcomer, and anyway, he wasn't going to share one with any of the others. He would rather die all over again than share a bed with someone like Julian.

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Mike and Ashton gathered all of the newcomer's things, meticulously balancing boxes and bags in their arms and slowly climbing the mahogany stairs. Ash was very careful to not accidentally step on the wrong stair. By the way Mike was desperately swinging to and fro - trying his hardest not to fall or drop the stuff - there were a lot of loose floorboards. It seemed like this house needed so much repair work! Maybe the whole staircase needed replacing? Whatever the circumstances, Ashton was very grateful to have grasped this opportunity to live here. It was going to be quite a nice change from their usual surroundings.

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"Cool, that should be the last of it" said Ashton, skimming their eyes over the luggage that had been placed on the hardwood floor of their brand new bedroom. "Thanks Mike!"

"No problem! Glad to be of service. I'm quite glad your here actually, it was getting a bit lonely just to two of us and you seem to be a wonderful fit to the house." Mike replied, setting the last of the bags onto the end of Ashton's king sized bed.

"Oh, thank you! I'm glad to be here too! Such a lovely change from the town I grew up in. This place is full of countryside."

"Trust me" Mike said as he stopped to look at Ash, "you will get bored of it soon enough!"

The pair laughed, slightly with exhaustion, at the joke. The latter swerved to leave the room and join his wife back downstairs. "If you need anything, we'll be in the living room. I think Alison is ordering pizza for tonight, not our usual style but its been a busy day. What's your favourite type? I'll make sure it gets ordered"

"Okay, cool! I will eat anything, trust me on that" They replied with a laugh.

"Not a picky eater! That's good to know. I'm a wizard in the kitchen!" Mike turned and left with a quick grin.

Ashton returned the gesture with a friendly smile, collapsed onto the bed and just lay in silence, spending time to properly take in their surroundings. Which was difficult when eight pairs of eyes were watching them intently. They had obviously gotten bored of their usual activities and had come to bother the newcomer. So much for peace!