Basement Dwellers

We had spent the day trudging through an abandoned

ghost town, in the Rocky Mountains.

but there were no ghosts to be found.

nothing but the wind and the howling

from that wind.

empty log cabins sat on the mountainside

keeping their secrets to themselves.

we made it back to Longmont by

nightfall.

exhausted, we went to bed

in the basement.

Sophie went upstairs to the kitchen for

a glass of water.

two minutes later, the door slammed

shut.

I was startled.

I opened the door and called out

here name.

no answer.

a little later, when Sophie returned,

I asked her if she closed the door when she went

upstairs.

“No,” she said. “I was wondering why the door was shut.

Did you close it?”

we got into bed then and could hardly sleep, wondering

about the land and

those who inhabited the land

then and now.