It's Just the Dark

The House

"Fine," Lewis sighed as he stepped towards the doorway. As he suspected, his large frame completely blocked out any possibility of light getting into the room. He dug in his pocket for a little penlight he had and always kept with him. It was a gift from a friend. When you turned it on it flashed a light with Superman's symbol in it. Like the Bat-Signal, only cooler. That helped a little bit with the light problem, but not at all with the butterfly problem. That there was a full-blown aviary going on. He shone his light around the room a little bit. Not much to it. White paint all around. Probably a shelter. Although, he figured if he saw a pentagram painted on the wall he would probably run faster than he ever did...even when he was in his prime in high school.

"What do you think," Jim asked from beside him with a chuckle.

"Yes, very nice," Lewis replied dryly. "Tornado shelter, I take it?"

"Probably. Or...it could be where they kept the 'bad children'."

"Well, I don't see myself having much of a use for this room. Let's go back upstairs." Lewis pushed past his friend and went up the stairs and to the kitchen, taking deep breaths to calm himself and slow his heart-rate down to a more manageable level.

Jim followed shortly afterward (maybe after another flirty chat with Marie) and while he was smiling, he did ask in a concerned voice,"Are you OK?"

"I'm fine," Lewis assured him. "I'll be fine." He took a breath. "So, not to change the subject, but I'm changing the subject. It looks like the only real work that would need to be done here is in the basement and outside. I did notice a crack in one of the walls down there and noticed some buckling in the sidewalk outside. Everything else is pretty minor and cosmetic. This place is in remarkably good shape."

"Yeah, it is. So what do you think?"

"No, Jim," Lewis corrected. "What do you think. You know that while I can help, you are more knowledgeable about fixing things and would end up doing most of the work. Forget what this place could mean to me and tell me what you think of the place."

Marie stood back respectfully while they talked. She probably knew where the conversation was going to lead and she didn't need to push any further. At this point it was either a "yes" or a "no".

"You're right. We'd have to get a professional for the basement problem and everything else we can work on together. And," he added, "I can't not think about what this place could mean to you. I think it could be a great opportunity for you to get a new start and I'll help with that in any way I can."

Lewis looked fondly at his friend. "OK then." They started to walk towards the entry way.

"So can I move forward with this at all?" asked Marie with only a hint of expectation in her voice.

"Miss," Lewis said to her over his shoulder, "You go ahead and start doing some math so we can see what's happening. I think," he added, with a sly wink to Jim, "One of us will be contacting you real soon."