Better on our own - English

Insights

I set the shovels down in the hallway and rubbed my hands as I made my way into the living room, where Sam had already sat Penny down on the dusty old sofa in front of the fireplace and was squatting in front of her, rubbing her arms that were wrapped around her vain attempt to regain heat. We had to get warm as quickly as possible. Cover! Old women always had blankets, didn't they?

There was still some old firewood in the corner. It was ancient and would probably just evaporate as soon as the fire has licked on it, but it was better than nothing and perfect for starting the fire. The whole house was still fully furnished, just as it had been when the old woman died. Apparently she have had no relatives or anyone who had any interest in or claim to any of her property. So we would definitely find one or two pieces of furniture that we could burn and I knew exactly what.

"Are you making a fire? I'll check the cupboards for blankets and get something else to burn," I then turned to Sam as I grabbed the box of matches on the mantel and he now looked at it skeptically as I held it out to him. To my surprise, Penny laughed quietly, which in turn made Sam look rather annoyed before he took the matches from me, a little offended, and went to the fireplace where I had already piled up the old wood.

I quickly searched all the cupboards in this room before going upstairs and rummaging through the cupboards in what should have been once the old woman's bedroom. I actually found two blankets - moth-eaten, but still! I shook out one of them and gasped for air as a cloud of dust enveloped me, as thick as the snow outside thanks to the storm. The only difference was that it was easier to breathe out there than in here. I fled the bedroom with the blankets under my arm and went back into the living room where Sam was still lighting the wood while Penny watched him with a smile.

He sat up a little and waited skeptically while small flames flickered along the wood and slowly grew larger - until they went out again and it looked suspiciously as if this had been caused by a gust of wind.

"That's the third time now. I'm telling you, things aren't going well in here!" Sam grumbled, offended, and pushed the matches into my hand in order to take the blankets off me. He unfolded one and looked at me through one of the three hand-sized holes in it. I just shrugged my shoulder. It was better than nothing, right?

"You've...never...been able to...make a fire, Sam!" I heard Penny say quietly to him as he put a blanket around her shoulders and covered her with the other one. I had lit the fire in seconds and the flames were eating greedily along the wood. "See?" I then heard her say and I saw a grin on her face as I turned around, while Sam just rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Pfff, it only works so well for him because of my good preparatory work," he said, a little offended and went into the kitchen.

"Yeah, sure!" Penny muttered after him and we shot each other a grin before I went looking for flammable things. I wasn't quite in the hallway when a scream made me jump, and even Penny managed to get back on her feet and followed me into the kitchen, where Sam was standing with his back against the wall, armed with a cooking pot, looking into the opposite dark part of the kitchen as if he was looking for something there. "Sam, what...happened?!" Penny finally asked him, as she apparently couldn't see anything there any more than I could.

"That was the old witch Nelson. When I reached into the cupboard, she hit me on the head with something soft!" he stated and didn't take his eyes off the corner as he pointed there with the cooking pot. "I saw something scurrying into the corner. That must have been her ghost. She's just waiting for me to turn my back on her like I did back then so she can shoot me in the butt again!"

"You were shot...by an old woman...in your butt..." Penny stammered and I couldn't tell if it was because she was still cold or wether it had something to do with the fact that she was couldn't help but laugh. She hadn't even managed to finish the sentence before she laughed like I'd never heard her laugh before.