Contract Work...

Lori stood on the back porch with the surveyor.  Her dream yard stretched out in front of them. Rolling hill of grass leading to a tree line that sloped down to a creek. She swore to her husband she had dreamed about it all her life before seeing it in person. Not dreamed of something like it, but of this exact yard. This exact space. They had gotten the house and the land for a great price. It was destiny. Her dream.

Now verging on nightmare.

"Yes, you are right, there is a problem."

"Shit, sorry, excuse my language." Lori said.

"Nah, that's probably about the right reaction. It's not the worst I've heard, and to be frank with you it's probably not the worst you are going to say."

"So it's bad?"

The surveyor nodded, "Yeah it's bad. You've got a definite structural weakness. You can see the bowing. It's pretty thin. You could have a breach at any point I would say."

"So can I do something to shore it up? Some plants maybe?"

"Rosemary or mint might help, but then you've got a different problem. Unless you plant mint in a container it tends to spread like crazy. And if you are pulling up the mint and hit a weak spot? The whole thing could go. And what if you get an infestation of bugs? What you really don't want is another mass die off in the area."

"Well I could just make sure I treated for bugs religiously."

"And what happens to the bugs you are treating?"

Lori sighed, "Right. They die. No massive die offs. So what do you suggest?"

The surveyor let out a long sigh then tapped her front teeth with her pen. "Hmm, well, you've got a thin spot for sure, you are close to a breach from the way it's bulging, how quickly can you move?"

Lori laughed a little then realized that the surveyor wasn't joking. "Move? Seriously? It can't be fixed?"

"I can put you in touch with a few experts but here is the problem as I see it. You're dealing with at least three issues and they are conflicting issues. You've got two that are in direct conflict with each other, so you fix one and the other one gets worse. And then you've got the underlying issue that started the whole thing, as far as I can tell, and that one is in conflict with the other two so you try and fix the other two and you are possibly making the first one worse."

"As far as you can tell? Do you mean there could be even more damage than the three issues you can see?"

"Well there is more damage than the three main issues. Right now things are kind of pooling in the area. You are drawing in things that on their own wouldn't be an issue, but because they've all joined..."

"Fuck."

The surveyor nodded, "Yep."

Lori could feel a headache coming on. "So three main issues, plus added damage because of the pooling effect, a bulge, and a weak spot?"

"Technically the bulge is from the weak spot. So I'd count that as one thing. You shore up the weak spot and the bulge doesn't matter anymore. A thick bulge is just a bump, not a problem. It's the thinness that you are concerned with. That breaks and you've got more issues."

"Do I? I mean, is that guaranteed? Could the flood just spread and clear out?"

The surveyor looked at her like she was nuts. And maybe she was, but really what was the damage from a breach? Could it be nothing to worry about?

"Ma'am, I understand you really want this to not be a problem, but you've got at least a thousand ghosts pressed up against that barrier waiting to come out. And they aren't happy ones. You've got a Civil War battle still being waged on top of a Native American massacre. Nobody in there is happy. Nobody is going to be Casper. You're looking at a Class Two invasion."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck. So what would you suggest if it were just one thing?"

"Well, you only get thin spots like that when there has been a mass die off. A natural disaster, or a war, or a mass murder. You've got at least two. There might have been a natural disaster that started it that I can't see. The Native American massacre happened to claim the land." The surveyor flipped through her clipboard notes, "There aren't many records of it, but there was a tribe here and then there were settlers. So you fill in the blanks and understand what happened. If that had been it we might be able to find some descendants of the settlers to apologize and some descendants of the tribe to show they survived. That can sometimes bring peace to those still wanting to attend to business on this side. But it's more complicated when you are dealing with tribes. For instance, there often aren't descendants to find. Entire tribes were wiped out. And if you find them and they aren't doing as well as the descendants of the settlers? Well..."

"Okay, we'll come back to that. What about the Civil War battle? Maybe if we clear them out that would relieve the pressure while we figure out what to do about the other?" Lori was thinking that her husband was part Kickapoo so maybe he could appeal to them as at least a Native American owned the land again, maybe. Of course, that would only work if they hadn't had conflict with the Kickapoo, she was going to have to try and figure out who was on this land a few hundred years ago.

"Battle deaths are complicated. Each side is in conflict with the other." she gestured toward the yard, "They don't even know who won. So you bring in descendants and you might get some that are still angry about the outcome. Right? Now you've got one half that is fine and one half that is not. And you might even end up with a fight on your lawn between the descendants. We're still fighting this war, after all, we just fight it with words and flags now."

Lori closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "So you suggest moving? Doesn't that just shift the problem to the next owners? And don't I have to disclose that in the sale anyway?"

"Supernatural phenomena? No. You don't have to disclose that. Most people don't believe in it, so it's not a category. Just price it under market value and get out."

Lori smirked. "At least now I know why it was so cheap."

The surveyor nodded. "Next time call us when you get the home inspection done. You don't have to say why we are inspecting, but it's always a good idea. For now, stay out of that area of the yard. Salt your thresholds, plan your move." She held out a card to Lori.

"Thanks."

The surveyor walked back to her car after telling Lori to move one last time. Move from her dream location. How in the world was she supposed to just let it all go? Lori stared out at her dream yard and watched as a squirrel ran across the grass carrying an acorn for his stash. She loved her yard and her house. She was still smiling when the hawk crashed through the trees and snatched the squirrel from the ground. As the hawk screamed, the squirrel died and the breach opened...