Wrting Prompt Short Story-Selling Your House

I love writing prompts. I get one every week from a newsletter and they are a lot of fun. This week was I am supposed to be selling my house and on the first day an old lady shows up with a chilling tale of something that happened there when she lived there as a child. Wow, did I have fun with that! Oh, and it has to be 500 words or less. Here's what I came up with.

What Happened Here?

I was so excited. My fiancé and I would be married soon and he had a new job about a hundred miles away in Memphis. All I had to do was get rid of the house my parents left me. I lived here after they passed away and it is comfortable, but it is also very old and needs updated. It isn't going to bring me a fortune, but it might get enough for a down payment on that new house we've been looking at in Memphis. The sign is up and the realtor assures me I'll have a lot of interest. People are buying in this area and fixing up the older homes. That is just what I wanted to hear.

A knock at the door stopped me in my packing. I need to get things ready to go, so I might as well start, right? I opened the door and there stood the cutest little old lady I've ever seen. Her white hair was in a tight bun that gave her very pale face the effect of having had plastic surgery to get rid of wrinkles. It didn't quite work. Her eye lids were red rimmed and practically lash-less. She wore a baggy white dress with pink stripes, sagging stockings, and flat brown well worn loafers. Her large flowered purse was held tightly under one age-spotted arm.

"May I help you?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't mean to bother you," she said. "I saw you have the old place for sale and I just had to see it one more time."

"One more time?" I asked, my eyebrows raised.

"My father built this house eighty years ago young lady. I grew up here," she explained.

"Oh, well do come in then. I'm glad to meet you."

She stepped carefully across the threshold and her eyes gazed around the room in slow sections. "It has certainly changed since I was a girl."

"Well, my parents bought it and remodeled it about thirty years ago. I guess it had been through several people before that. They put up a swing in the back yard for me in an old oak tree."

"I'll bet I know just the one," she said with a smile.

"Would you like to see it?" I asked smiling. There were several oak trees out there, but there was one that looked especially old and flowers never would grow there.

"Why, yes I would. Thank you."

I helped her out to the tree and she said yes, it was the tree she was thinking of. She knelt slowly down and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "It's just been so long. You see I've kept a secret since I was twelve. This is where my father buried my mother after he caught her with the milkman. He swore me to secrecy and I was too afraid to tell."

I fainted on the spot.