[ WP ] You have the rising suspicion that the house next door is in fact , not really there .

`` Charlotte, have you seen the cat?'' I asked down the hallway. We got the cat last week from a shelter and she's still pretty shy. 
 
 `` No, did you leave the backdoor open for the dogs?'' 
 
 Shit. I did. Groan. 
 
 I head out the back calling for Astro, open the gate to the alley, and walk across the wooded lot to the neighbors' house. We've been here almost two years, and are friends with most of the neighbors. But this house, which is a smallish gray Victorian with a wrap-around porch, never seems to have any activity. There are lights on sometimes at night, but I've never seen anyone come or go. It's the last house on the street before the lake, and has a lot more trees around it than the others. Frankly, if I ever thought anything about it, which I can not swear that I ever did, I guess I thought an elderly person lived there who only went out while I was at work. 
 
 I cross through the little woods calling out and making that little clicking sound people seem to make at cats, as though it does any good. I hear a meow from around the back. At this point, I feel a bit uncomfortable going onto my unknown neighbor's property, but I ca n't let this cat get lost or Charlotte will kill me. 
 
 So I head into the backyard. On the porch, sitting on a lounge chair, is a woman. Black hair, blue eyes, a prominent chin, a mouthful of teeth. A white top with a linen shawl and dark fitted pants. Pale bare feet. She cocks her head as I approach and looks at me. What was it about that look? Assessing? Bemused? 
 
 `` Hi! Hey there. I'm Peter from next door. Have you seen a cat wandering back here? I'm sorry to just barge into your backyard but she's new to the neighborhood and I am worried she will get lost.'' 
 
 The woman just stares at me and after a moment smiles. She points behind me. I turn and look and there is Astro, just staring at the woman. Astro's back is arched, perfectly still. I walk over and pick her up, she's rigged as a board. I turn back to say thank you and ask the woman's name. She is n't there. She must have walked inside. 
 
 `` Ok nice to meet you too,'' I grumble. So I found the weird neighbors. 
 
 Back in my house with Astro, I turn to Charlotte. `` I found the cat. She was at the neighbor's house. There's a weird woman lives there.'' 
 
 `` Which neighbor?'' 
 
 `` The one toward the lake. That we have n't met? Odd black-haired woman.'' 
 
 `` What are you talking about? Across the street, the Morrisons? I think Clair is a blonde. Well a bottle-blonde anyway.'' 
 
 `` No, on our side, just past the woods. The little gray house with the big porch.'' 
 
 `` Peter, what are you talking about? There's not a house between us and the lake.'' 
 
 `` What? Of course there is, I was just there, Astro was in the backyard. I literally just walked over there.'' 
 
 `` Very funny. Come show me this house.'' Charlotte turned and marched toward the front door. 
 
 Charlotte and I walked outside. We walked down the street. We walked to the lake, then back. We walked through the woods. Then back. There was no house, there was no yard, no porch, and no black-haired woman. I became pale, confused, and unsteady. Neither of us said a thing for a moment. Charlotte looked at me, somewhat teasing, somewhat concerned. 
 
 `` You're either messing with me or you're a complete loon.'' She laughed and walked back inside. 
 
 Neither of us ever mentioned it again. I think Charlotte chalked it up to me being a joker, and probably forgot it ever happened. I think about it often. Either I had an acute delusion, a complete and vivid mental break from reality, or something otherworldly was going on. I remember the way Astro looked and felt, though, and that had seemed very real, as though she too witnessed what I saw. In 16 years, I have never seen the house again, nor the woman. But everytime I walk by, it raises my hackles just a little.
