Alive in the Basement Supernatural
By Eric W. Gershman
(Supernatural, 15 minutes | courtesy of Red Penguin Books)
In a spacious bedroom on the upstairs floor of a Greek Revival home, a wife (or what was left of her) sat by a window overlooking the property's courtyard. A stroke had rendered her unable to speak, move, or hear. What she could see with her eyes, no one could say.
A marriage of 52 years, however, had created other languages that spoke. It was this communication that kept the couple conversing, at least in the mind of her husband.
He called up to her from the base of the winding staircase.
"Hungry?" he asked. He heard no response.
"Alice, are you hungry? And will you be joining the conference downstairs?"
Seymour walked up the stairs past the portrait of the man who was the subject of today's annual symposium, John Dewey. Born in this Vermont house 150 years ago, it had been 66 years since the great man's death.
When Seymour hosts an annual debate in his home, the guests appear to have come from a different era. When they depart, he witnesses a whirlwind beyond belief.