I certainly hope this gets read and someone here can come up with something better than my only plan. I’ll start at the beginning.
As a kid and even into adulthood, I’ve always had a fascination with secret rooms behind hidden doors. You know, the kind where you can pull on a specific book and the shelf moves to reveal a dimly lit cozy sancutary that is filled with treasures for only you and your closest friends. Movies and a vivid imagination had me making my own secret alcoves in the back of my closet where I could escape reality and do some reading in a cramped space made entirely of pillows and blankets with only a flashlight to read by. That was the closest I could get to having my dream room.
So imagine my excitement when at the age of 34 my husband and finally bought our first house.
And that house came with a hidden room.
When I bought the house I had not actually had the chance to go through it properly first. Only seeing about 15 pictures of it and speaking with a realtor over the phone. I was moving about 6 hours away for work and my husband could do his job from anywhere. The town we were moving to was very family friendly with a good school district and I was looking forward to the idea of settling down and hopefully having kids soon.
The description of the house noted it was 3 to 4 bedrooms and 2 baths.
3 to 4 bedrooms seemed strange to me so I texted my realtor and asked what that meant. She replied that the people who built the house years ago had included a hidden room within one of the bedrooms but didn’t give any more information than that.
She couldn’t tell me where it was inside the house and “good luck finding it.”
So I bought the house, new challenge and a childhood dream about to come true. Even my husband was thrilled by the idea. Quoting everything from Young Frankenstein to The Addams Family.
We ended up living in the house for almost two years before I found the hidden room. The lightbulb in the ceiling fan of the nursery I was preparing for our unborn daughter had gone out. When I removed the light cover to replace the bulb I noticed a switch next to the bulb.
Now my husband and I spent almost every evening becoming private detectives just trying to find this hidden room, to no avail. We made many discoveries that ultimately led to home improvement projects and finally decided we would find it when we find it and stop searching for it.
Heart fluttering with hope and long endured anticipation, I flicked the switch.
A sound came from inside the closet. Walking over to it I saw that the far right wall had separated from the back wall. I pulled it open and was stunned to find a narrow brick set of stairs leading downward. My husband was away on his annual guys fishing trip for a few more days so I braved the stairs myself, only pausing to get a flashlight.
Now I’m thinking everything from secret hidden treasure, to old tomes, family secrets, possibly even a dungeon. Anything besides what I was actually greeted with.
A stark white clean room with a single lime green couch pushed against the back wall and a Tiffany lamp standing to the side of it. I turned on the lamp and had a look around the room. It was directly below the nursery room and exactly the same size. Nothing on the walls. Nothing on the concrete floor. Just a brick staircase to a hideous couch. I sat down for a minute, thinking of what to do with this hidden chamber and how disappointed my husband is going to be when he finds out its not filled with torture devices.
Back upstairs I closed the passage door, changed the lighbulb and went to the kitchen to make a sandwich for lunch. I found turkey and Swiss cheese in the fridge and stared at it confused.
“That’s weird” I said aloud. I knew I bought Blackforest ham and cheddar when I went to the store only about an hour ago. I didn’t think about it for long and chalked it up to baby brain. Turkey and Swiss would do just fine, anyway. The next day folding laundry I found a shirt in the hamper that I had never seen before. It was a maternity top but I couldn’t remember ever buying it. Baby brain again, I assumed.
My husband came home the following day…in a blue pick-up. Not a black one. I froze in the driveway and knew this couldn’t be baby brain. So I did the sensible thing and asked my husband.
“You got a new truck while you were fishing?” I said, a little too high pitched. He kissed my cheek and gave me an odd look, then glanced back at his truck.
“Um, no? Same truck as always. You feeling okay?” He immediately put his hands to my cheeks and started checking me for a fever. “I’m fine. Maybe I’m just tried.” I replied, trying to shake the confusion off. The worry was still prying at my mind and I wondered if I was actually going crazy. Then remembered the hidden room.
“Hey, do you wanna see what I found?”
He knew instantly what I was talking about and followed me to the nursery with a goofy grin on his face. I showed him the switch in the ceiling fan and watched as he pulled the door open to the staircase. I followed him into the hidden room and watched as he plopped onto the green couch.
“Well this was a let down” he said before amending “still cool though. We could set this room up for when our daughter gets old enough. She can do whatever she wants with it.”
Back upstairs in the nursery we both paused as we closed the passage door. The room was no longer pink, it was blue. We exchanged looks which, long story short, led us to my doctor, which led us to an ultrasound, which confirmed I was having a baby boy. Not a girl.
I don’t remember us sleeping much that night. And the next few days that followed were strange. Dish sets were patterned differently. The spices where in the cabinet to the left, not the right. Our entire bedroom was arranged differently and the couch was now leather. My Hundai that I remembered having was now a Honda. Both of us felt like we were going crazy yet somehow learning to live with the changes since well, we kind of liked the new dishes and couch and car. And even though we had gotten used to the idea of having a girl, we were just happy to be having a baby at all.
Then this morning happened.
My due date was coming up fast and my mother had sent a hand-made monkey stuffed animal that she crocheted herself. I gathered a few more items, some children’s books and a few throw blankets into a box and took them down to the hidden room. I set up the couch to look cozy, staked some books next to the lamp and placed the monkey on top of them. As I rested my hands on my belly, I couldn’t wait for our son to come of age and turn this space into his own sancutary. Clicking off the Tiffany lamp I walked back up the stairs and closed the door behind me.
The nursery was gone. In its place was a queen sized bed with tables on either side and a small lamp on each table. A picture of a landscape hanging above the bed and sheer white curtains over the windows. I gasped and felt at my stomach only to realize that I was no longer pregnant.
I tried to call my husband but the number connected me to some lady. Panic was setting in and my mind has been racing. I haven’t been able to cry. Everything is different. There are still signs of my husband’s taste around the house though. I reached out to my mother whose number had thankfully remained the same and asked her for my husband’s number.
“Oh honey, Mike died last year on his fishing trip with the boys…” I couldn’t say anything as she offered to come stay with me for a few days. I’m afraid if she comes here, she might disappear too so I told her I was fine.
I think that room has sent me to another reality. Like a portal or something. I don’t know what to do. I just want my husband back. I want to have our baby. I’m going to keep going to the hidden room, keep filling it with things for my child until I’m pregnant again and Mike returns. I don’t know what else I could possibly do.