Who is in the barn?

[oneighty]

It is an old farmhouse near the Erie Barge canal in New York State. World War Two is still in the future. The depression is in full swing. The old house has no heat. It has no running water other then the pitcher pump at the kitchen sink. It has an outhouse for necessary things.

The three children of the house range in age from four to eight. I am four, Eunice is six and Lois is eight. We three sleep together in a bedroom on the second floor. I sleep in the middle between my sisters so I am the warmest on cold nights. They spoil me a lot my sisters do. It was that way for a while. Until the divorce.

But this is not about the divorce. It is about the barn. In the barn there are old things smelling of mildewed hay and dead things. There is a horse drawn buggy sitting empty, waiting. I had ventured into the barn on a number of 'sneak aways'. I would hurry to the house when my mother called; "Eddie Eddie where are you?" I did not tell her I went into the barn. We were forbidden to go there.

One day Lois went into the barn. She heard a voice cry out "Who?" "It is me ,Lois." she answered. The voice asked again; "Who? Who?" "It is me,Lois." The voice again asked; "WHO?" Frightened Lois ran to our mother telling her; "There is somebody in the barn asking Who?"

"Silly Lois, there is an Owl in the barn." Our Mother tells her.

Lois told me this story in a letter a few weeks ago. Lois is old too now as I am. Eunice has left us.

180