Chapter 12

It was Sunday morning. Craig was sitting at the kitchen table preparing a list of things that needed to be fixed around the house on a blank sheet of paper. He listed general things like sanding and painting the wooden window frames, mowing the lawn and patching up some cracks and holes in the walls.

Sarah and Emily were busy inside the house. They had vacuumed the carpets where they were present in some rooms. The floors had been cleaned, and the cupboards had been washed out. All the cobwebs had been removed from the corners and dust washed off the window sills. It was not an easy job cleaning the windows which had been opaque because of the salt in the sea breeze. Sarah had her doubts that the windows had never been cleaned before, but Craig had to remind her that no one had lived in the house in over eight months.

The boys had finished mowing the lawn whereupon Craig asked them to clean the garden beddings as well as sand and paint the window frames. They were not too happy with their chores, but they realized that the house could look better with a few small cosmetic improvements to give the house an immediate facelift.

Craig made sure there were no leaking pipes and electrical short circuits in the ceiling. That was when he found that the house had an extra room. He wondered how he could have missed such a thing, but then again, they had only just moved in. The previous owner did not mention this to him. Craig retrieved a wooden ladder from the garage and propped it up underneath a large wooden trap door. When he pushed the heavy door out of the way, he could see a large attic that had a better view of the ocean. Inside it was dusty, and the air was stale. The wooden floor squeaked when he crossed over it. The only window in the attic made it possible to see small dust particles floating in the dull beam of the sun flowing in from the outside. The ceiling was low which made the attic not suitable for a bedroom. It was empty and somehow a little scary. Craig thought that this was probably one of the older houses in Saldanha for not many would have attics. He felt the urge to find out more about the house and the history behind it.

Craig noticed something in the far corner where it was almost hidden. If he was not inspecting the ceiling, he would have missed it. At first glance, he could not see what it was. A weird contraption had been nailed to the side of one of the roof beams. It seemed more like the remains of a small rodent. The creature, whatever it was, had been spread open on a wooden plank where it had been dissected many moons ago. The only thing that kept the bones on the wooden board was the furry grey skin. Mounted next to it, was a small brown bag stuffed with something. Craig took a closer look but did not really want to touch anything. He had heard of black magic and voodoo in the past and this seemed exactly like that sort of thing, but why was it hidden in the house? What happened here? Craig walked down to the garage and got his hammer from where it was stored in wooden crates. He went back and pulled out the rusty nails that held the wooden plank in place. He laid it down on the ground and poked the bag with his index finger. It was firm. Craig opened it by pulling a small string that was attached to the top of the bag, almost like those bags the pirates kept their gold in. Inside he found some hair, teeth and more bones. They almost seemed like human teeth. Craig realized that it must have been the work of a sangoma or voodoo doctor but he was not an expert in the subject of black magic. Whether it was meant to inflict evil upon the previous family or prevent evil from happening, Craig did not like it at all. What the fuck is going on in this place? What else is going to happen? Craig turned the plank around and found some scripture he did not understand engraved on the back. He promised his wife many years ago that he would share everything with her, especially after she had found out about the affair, but this he knew would not form part of that criteria. Something like this would cause quite an uproar in the household. To Craig, it seemed like Saldanha had more secrets than he initially thought. He was eager to find out what those secrets were.