the old house

by timothy t jones

back in the day every town had a road and the road ran through the town and on to the next town in the town there was always another road that ran up the hill and on the hill was a house an old house where nobody lived and nobody lived since anybody could remember sometimes the old house had a name like “the old johnson place” and sometimes it did not the windows were always broken and cats crawled around the front yard and looked at the broken windows birds flew around the windows and sometimes bats, at dusk every town had a sheriff and the sheriff would drive up the hill and look at the old house and drive back down the hill again every sheriff had a friend named mike and mike would ask the sheriff anything going on up at the old house? and the sheriff would say, nothing much and mike would say, no kids hanging out, getting into mischief? and the sheriff would say no, not any more they don’t get into mischief now they just sit home and watch tv and mike would say, that’s too bad and the sheriff would nod and they would look up at the sky the darkening sky at the clouds and the old house and the birds and the bats and the moon and the trees back in the day