Stars

By Don Andrews, Sr

Don, a retired electronic engineer, is given a talking smart house by someone unknown. The mystery deepens when he starts exploring the house. His space adventures start after stepping into a very curious closet with swirling lights. He is soon joined by his next door neighbor. What will they see?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Don Andrews, Sr
• Release date: Apr 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311767899

Don Andrews, Sr

Don is a retired electronic engineer living in Florida with his wife, Edi.

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Chapter One

Don opened the front door to the house. He immediately remembered the first time he had opened this door a few days ago. Somehow this house had called to him while driving nearby. He was not in the habit of looking into strange houses or any house other than his own which was a short distance away. When he touched the doorknob it tingled and the door opened of its own accord. No lock was visible.

The house was a two story, unlike most of those in the neighborhood, with classic and yet modern style. As he opened the door he saw the stairway to the three bedrooms opposite the front door. The large living room was on his right, complete with large windows and a fireplace. The kitchen door opened in the back of the room. The kitchen occupied the back part of the house. On his left was the door to the study, which opened into the dining room toward the back of the house and then through a swinging door, into the kitchen.

While the house felt like it was aware of his presence the most peculiar feature was the coat closet underneath the stairs. Others had opened it before and since and seen the very ordinary assortment of coats and sweaters. When Don had opened it, he felt a tingling sensation and a swirl of tiny lights, which surrounded him, trying to pull him into the closet. That first time he jerked back in surprise. It did not feel like a threat exactly but it certainly was very strange. A more intense feeling compared to the front door knob.

He left the house with a feeling of regret but also with great wonder. This can't be happening, he thought. Things like this only happen in sci-fi movies or books, was another thought that went through his mind. The fully furnished house occupied his thoughts for the next few days until he became determined to find out who owned it and what was its story.

Wonders only continued when he checked the ownership of the house with the county clerk's office and found out the house were listed in his name! What? Are you sure? he asked the clerk.

It is right here in the book, she said. Your name is in black and white and the taxes have been paid ahead for five years, She added. A later check with the power company, water and other utilities revealed sizable sums on hand in each case to pay for several years of service.

Everything in the house seemed tailor made for him, including a ham radio tower and antennas in the back yard, ready for connection. All the rooms were furnished, including the bedrooms and all in perfect order. There was a security system in the house that Don was not aware of yet but it worked according to the DNA, his voice and anyone he would authorize.

So, Don is back now, determined to investigate every part of the place, tackling the closet last. The living room seemed normal, as did the completely stocked kitchen and study full of books. The bedrooms also seemed ordinary, and very comfortable. He still had the sensation of the house being aware of him. The garage opened its door when he had pulled up into the driveway but he did not park his Venza inside. After checking the large backyard with its tower and antennas, the back door entrance knob tingled when he reentered the house, just as the front door knob had. He found a door into the garage from the kitchen. Well, now for that peculiar closet, he said.

Chapter Two

The closet door seemed ordinary. All the bedroom closets were just that, ordinary. Don remembered the swirling lights and peculiar tingling from the time he had looked into it that first day. He half expected just an ordinary, dull closet filled with coats, boots and sweaters. If Aslan comes out, I will probably faint, he said. Here I am, afraid to open a perfectly ordinary looking closet under the stairs. I'm a six foot two inch tall chicken. Maybe it will open into the holodeck and Captain Proton will zap me or into the TARDIS and be attacked by the sonic screwdriver. Then again, maybe some replicators will jump out.

Don grasped the doorknob and felt the strange tingling sensation as at the front and back doors but more intense. He pulled it open and for moment all he saw was the contents of any closet he had ever opened in his life. Then the rapidly swirling lights began and the tug upon his body to enter the room. He went in and the door clanged shut. The closet contents slowly faded from view and he found himself in a great cavern dimly lit and a large silver spaceship in the form of a UFO some 30 feet away!

This is ridiculous!: A transporter in the closet and then an underground cavern somewhere with a spaceship in it? Not just any type ship but one that looks like a fugitive from the Lost in Space TV show?

Don continued to look around, believing he was in the Twilight Zone or maybe cameras somewhere indicating an elaborate hoax. Maybe there is a return gizmo somewhere so I can get back to the house. Ah, here it is. Just in time too, now I'm talking to myself. There was a knob on the wall near where he was, a duplicate of the closet door knob. He grabbed it, felt the familiar tingle and saw the lights again and was vomited out of the closet like Jonah being expelled from the whale. Don had an inkling of what Jonah felt on that beach so many years ago.

OK, that is it! I'm going back to my house and think this through! He practically laid rubber getting out of the long driveway but slowed down to normal once he got on the street, mumbling to himself all the way back to his house. The next door neighbor watched his exit and shook her head.

My house better not have electric doorknobs or crazy closets or I'm gone! he said in his car. But everything was normal, whatever that is. He settled down on the sofa with a cup of coffee and soon fell asleep, the house episode having drained his energy.

After he awoke, Don started thinking more rationally and calmly. He thought his best procedure would be to get a friend and go to the house with him. He thought of his Sunday School teacher John and gave him a call. John agreed to meet him at the address, supposedly to help Don look at a new house.

John was in the driveway when Don arrived the next