In August 2018, N and I moved to the US for about 9 months. We were to move in to our rented apartment by the end of August. But due to certain paperwork issues with the previous tenant, the apartment wasn't available to us till the first week of September. We had to find intermediate accommodation for about 10 days. N suggested that we book something on Airbnb as the hotel rooms seemed slightly expensive.
Being the last minute and given that it was the beginning of a new academic year in the university town, most apartments on Airbnb seemed book or beyond our budget. We were also conscious about the neighbourhood that we rented in as we had heard about the high rate of crime in NH. However, we did find a room in someone's house which was available. The only concern was that the owner had clearly mentioned that she had several pets - two dogs and two cats at home, and one cat who lived in the backyard but wasn't allowed into the home.
Never having had pets, N and I were a little apprehensive. But, "How bad could it be?", we thought. After all, the listing had many good reviews and ranked quite high. Also, it was in a not-so-bad neighbourhood.
After having spent a few days in New York city, sight-seeing and stuff and being slightly underwhelmed by it, I was feeling ready to explore NH. The first time our confidence in NH wavered when the cab driver who took us from the train station to our AirBnb asked us "Do you know the people who live in this house?" with genuine concern on his face. N replied that it was booked on AirBnb and didn't personally know the people who lived there. The driver seemed visibly worried now and he said, "Be careful in this neighbourhood", before he drove off.
Eliana, the owner seemed quite friendly and welcoming, although she had a bit of a Wiccan look about her. Her two dogs and cats followed her everywhere she went. We were shown the guest bedroom, which seemed quite nice and clean. The rest of the house, though, I was not so sure. It was cluttered with knick-knacks and most of them weird. There were old grand-father clocks in the dining room, which weren't working. The dining table had half-melted candles on antique, dusty looking candle stands. There were mannequins in the bedrooms. It certainly had the feel of a house from a novel where a young and naive couple move in and nobody hears from them again.
When Eliana showed us our room, we felt slightly better. It had a comfortable bed, a cosy arm chair and a nice little rug. Nothing fancy, but just comfortable. It did have a couple of antique-looking cabinets though. Well, we could ignore that bit. Just as N and I were settling into the room, Barry - one of the cats creeped into room and jumped onto the bed. Neither N nor I had ever dealt with cats and we were terrified. It looked like Barry was unhappy that we had encroached upon his room and was going to scratch my eyes out for that. He glared at me, while I was trying to coax him out of the room. Dogs, I could communicate with. Dogs respond to you. But cats, we had no clue. No matter what I said or did, he just stared at me. After a few minutes of getting blankly stared at, we decided to give up and called Eliana to rescue us.
Now we had to be additionally careful every time we went into and out of the room. We had to make sure Barry didn't make his way in. Once, after an exhausting walk back from Downtown, N and I sat down to relax. The next second, I felt a pair of creepy eyes on my back, only to realise that Barry was hiding under the bed all along.
The other pets didn't bother us all that much. Of the two dogs, one was really old and sick. He had a diaper on and was taken to the vet a few times during our stay. The other dog, a friendly but a harmless boston terrier, seemed quite busy following Eliana everywhere. She would come into the kitchen a few times that we were cooking, hoping to get something to eat. She would come into the kitchen running from the living room with her paws tapping on the floor and tiny little bell ringing. It usually gave me enough time to mentally prepare for her coming in. Mrs Graylady (the second cat) was aloof and gray, and she couldn't be bothered to acknowledge your presence. I walked past her a couple of times in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. She didn't give me a second look, even.
But Barry was a lot more attention-seeking. Every time I was in the kitchen preparing dinner, I had to be very careful while moving about because Barry would come in unannounced and lie down about a millimeter away from my feet. He jumped up onto the dining table while N and I were having cereal for breakfast one morning and he sat with his face at my face-level staring into my eyes. One morning I was lying in bed, while N was getting ready to go out to the University. Before he opened the door, I reminded him to look out for Barry. But Barry being too quick and nimble for us, squeezed his way in and sat down just below the bed. I was hoping he wouldn't jump into bed. But too late! The next minute, he was in my bed. I froze with fear, I couldn't move. N tried to catch his attention, but was totally ignored. This was the day that my face was going to get attacked by a cat and my eyes gouged out. But thankfully after a few minutes of having a staring contest, Barry lost interest and walked out of the room. I almost felt insulted and rejected.
By now I was getting tired of all the hide and seek. If it wasn't Barry, it was the large orange cat in the backyard that I had to look out for. Eliana had warned us not to let him in. And every time N and I went into or out of the house, we had to make sure Orange wasn't going to get the best of us.
Once N and I went down to the basement to do our laundry. And kid you not, the basement was a degree or two lower in temperature than the rest of the house. Even in the August summer, the basement had a nip in the air and a damp chill that one only feels (apparently) when there are ghosts around. Needless to say, the basement was full of clutter and boxes covered with dirty bedsheets and other strange things lying around. I didn't have the courage to look into any of the boxes for the fear of discovering a body or two.
As always, we went into the basement carefully locking the door behind us and making sure that no cat followed us in there. I put the clothes into the machine and was looking for the switch when I spotted a pair eyes staring at me. Taken aback, I gave a little yelp. And again, satisfied that he managed to scare me, Barry jumped out of the basement window and went away. The window was at least six feet above the ground and he jumped up with one swift move. And I was standing there counting the days I would get away from the phantasmal house and its haunted basement.
Over the next few days, Barry made sure he was around all the time, creeping up everywhere silently and scaring the daylights out of me. On the last morning, N and I packed up all our belongings and called a cab. I was excited about moving to our own apartment - with no cats or apparitions of any sort. It was early in the morning and the household wasn't awake yet. Eliana had told us to leave the keys on the counter before we left. As I was getting into the cab, Barry was at the main door looking up towards me. The only living creature in the household who bothered to be awake as we were leaving. And as I looked at Barry, for the first time realised that perhaps he was being friendly all this time. And I felt sad to leave him. I knew I was going to miss the attention.
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