The old deserted beach house rose forlornly from a sandspur encrusted dune. Jagged panes graced the windows and the door hung at a crazy angle. No one had lived there for a long, long time. On one side and across the street were upscale, trendy dwellings. Wind socks flapped in sea breezes and fish shaped mailboxes dotted the streets. Some places had grass lawns that struggled in spite of fertilizer, sprinkler systems, and constant care. Here and there a dead palm transplant shot upward, looking gray and tired.
Most children that lived nearby knew about this house and would avoid it when walking home after dark. Rumor had it that there was a ghost that lurked inside the cracked and crumbling walls. Some folks claimed to have seen floating lights dancing past the windows at midnight on a full moon. Others claimed it was just vagrants using it as a place to spend the night. And some claimed it was teenage vandals looking for a hidden treasure that was said to be somewhere within those desolate walls.
A man who lived nearby said he’d seen the dancing lights several times when he was out night fishing by the bay. “Walk past it,” he said, “on a full moon around midnight. You’ll see!”
And even the elderly lady that lived in a duplex down the street was heard discussing "weird candles" floating around inside the dilapidated abode. “Every time I walk past it, a shudder passes through me, and chills my bones,” she declared.
Dead, brown vines climbed up through the windows and blew starkly in winter gales. Sometimes a pitiful howling was heard throughout the house, although it could have been just wind in the wires. On nights when lightning storms blew through, the windows looked like hollow eyes blinking and blinking into the darkness. Years ago, a drifter claimed to have spent the night in this ancient dwelling. He had been on the road for several days and needed a good night’s sleep, out of the elements. Instead, he was awakened by strange lights approaching his sleeping bag. Thinking that it was a neighbor looking for a pet dog or cat, he threw up his hands and mumbled some pleasantry.
When no one responded to his greeting, he became alarmed and got up to run away. But the lights kept coming and passed right through him, before swirling into the next room. He watched, spellbound as the lights dimmed and brightened and danced throughout the entire building. And as he grabbed his stuff up and headed for the door, he noticed a full moon blazing away overhead. Moonbeams lit up ripples on the bay and bathed the sandy beaches in a silver glow. And somewhere in the distance, a clock chimed midnight.
The stories went on for years, then became a distant memory that slowly faded away. Now the legendary house stands proudly upon a landscaped dune, remodeled and shined up like new. Oleanders bloom in pink and fuchsia splendor in the yard. Artwork adorns the fence and wind chimes sing melancholy tunes into winds that play softly across the bay. And sometimes, on a full moon, strange lights will dance dreamily in shadows of the old beach house on the bay.
