Seriously -- It's Real

Over the past few weeks I’ve written about including reality in fictional stories. What happens when the reality, well, doesn’t seem real?

 This is the real house, bullet hole in the screen and all

In What Are the Odds? I wrote about a house. A lot happened in and around this particular house. While the story is fictional, the house is real and so were most of the things that happened there.

Imagine one single house with a history that boggles the mind. There really was a murder committed in this house, although it’s not the murder in the story. There was actually a bullet hole in the screen door, but it was too small to show up on the cover of the book, so I had to use a graphic.

The place had remained empty for a number of years, and the condition of the house was the same as in the book. I have friends who bought the house and had to put a lot of work into making it functional again.

I don’t really want to give the story away, but all of the carpets had been removed and there was something on the living room floor that had to do with the real life crime.

And it goes way beyond that. Thieves had broken into the vacant house and stolen sinks, wiring and all kinds of things.

Let me back up a little. We’re not talking about your average house. This one was two stories with an attached apartment on a third level and a huge basement. The fireplace opened into two rooms. There was a barn and there were odd rooms included, along with a hired man’s apartment attached to the aforementioned barn. At one time the place was an ostrich ranch.

Okay, back to why the realities of this house might make a reader wonder about how all of this could possibly be true.

Something fell in the garage and punched a hole in the wall. I won’t tell you what we found behind the wall because it’s a part of the fictional story, too. However, let me just say that we found something behind it that went into the book. It just took a few twists and turns.

There was a hole in the first floor ceiling where a thief fell through while trying to steal wiring. He left his tools behind, and I have a feeling he was in a lot of pain when he made his getaway.

How about an odd water stain that ran from the first floor all the way to the basement floor? It was interesting that there was no leak in the ceiling of the room where the stain started, or in the floor above it.

Spiders? How about a tarantula migration across the property? Lots of the little critters, and most of them were young. You could barely touch them with your shoe and they’d roll over on their backs and curl into little balls. Who’d have thought a tarantula could be cute?

Snakes? You bet. There was a rattle snake in one of the rooms attached to the barn. I’ll never forget someone flying out of that room like lightning was chasing him.

This house was located out in the desert, near a town, but far enough away for privacy. And, yes, there were some odd neighbors.

Most of the things we found in the house and on the property could be explained away, but not all of them.

It was an interesting house and inspired an unusual story.

So sometimes reality isn’t always believable. You just never know. Something might seem outrageous, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. And what you've read above isn't nearly everything that happened or that we saw on the property.

Just thought I’d mention it. I’m sure you’ve run into some oddities along the paths of your own life.

Until next time, remember that what you read might be fiction, and then again, maybe not all of it.

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Coming Soon: Black Butterfly - A Bogey Man Mystery