Room at the Back of the House
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"You are going to be good for your abuela, right?”
“Yes, Mom,” Fay and I said in unison.
“And I won’t be getting phone calls about how you are making her life difficult?”
“No, Mom,” we said together.
“And if you do, you know the punishment is that I will pack you in a box and send you to Mars, right?”
“Yes, Mom,” we said, but this time, I could only pretend to be annoyed. Fay shot me a look when she heard the smile in my voice, and I shrugged.
“I will miss you both,” Mom said, turning around in her seat to look at us as the car stopped. “But your grandmother is very much looking forward to having a house full of children for Christmas. It was her only wish. And your father and I could use some time together. OK?”
She wasn’t really asking a question. She was asking for acknowledgment of what she said, not if we were actually OK with any of it. The decision had been made. Fay and I would spend the Christmas break with Grandma Maria, our cousins would spend time there too, and Mom and Dad were going to spend some time alone together. Which meant they were going to try to figure out how to love each other again.
Fay and I had listened to enough arguments to know that was the plan. Mom had even started dressing up again recently, and Dad was buying her flowers all the time. According to Fay, who at twelve was a whole year older and clearly much more in tune with adult behaviors, they might even try to make another baby.
When I had asked if that was the plan, Mom had gotten very red in the face and told me to go play outside. I wasn’t sure if that was a confirmation or not, but I decided not to be too shocked if Mom had a baby in her stomach after Christmas. I wasn’t too familiar with the process of how it all worked, though I’d heard rumors, but I assumed there was some mathematics involved. They needed a couple of weeks to make it happen. So Christmas break it was.
At least I liked Abuela’s. She loved me, doted on me even. She said I looked just like her Antonio when he was young. I liked that I carried on the family resemblance of my long-gone grandfather, and I felt special that as firm and cold as Grandma Maria was, she treated me like the apple of her eye. I especially liked how it aggravated Fay.
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About the Book
Just like every other Christmas, eleven-year-old Eric is looking forward to visiting his grandmother during winter break along with his sister and cousins. After he arrives, Eric mistakenly believes that this visit will be just like all the others.
One night when Eric notices his grandmother acting strangely as she emerges out of a secret room she keeps locked in the back of the house, his curiosity about the room ignites. After he enlists the help of his sister and cousins, Eric sets out to unearth the truth behind the secret room and his grandmother’s connection. In their quest to learn more, the children unwittingly open a gate that has been holding back dark spirits for thousands of years, and then realize that the spirits have been using his grandmother to lure children into the shadows. Now it is up to Eric and his companions to try to save his grandmother from being possessed by the spirits, and hopefully more children from meeting a dark fate.
In this horror tale, an eleven-year-old boy, his sister, and cousins set out to discover the dark secrets hidden in a room in the back of his grandmother’s house.
About the Author
E.B. Borbón was always fascinated with history as well as different cultures and customs while growing up. While finding beauty in things forgotten and abandoned, he began writing short stories about the people, practices, beliefs, and places throughout history that fall between the well-known events. The Fate of Eleonor is his debut novel.