It is the first door on the left. You will have your own private bath until midnight, and your breakfast will be ready at seven a.m. sharp. Goodnight and sleep tight.”

As she slowly walked away, she turned and looked back at me with a worried look on her face and said, “I sure hope you get some sleep tonight Mason.”

I stood there completely frozen, and my mind seemed to go blank. What in the world, did Elizabeth mean that I would have my own private bath until midnight? What did she mean by until midnight? Not knowing what she meant by her last statement would be enough to keep me up all night.

I made my way up the stairs, opened the bedroom door, and observed my surroundings, thinking to myself that the person who had once occupied this bedroom had exquisite taste. The bathroom consisted of a lavish, sunken pear shaped, jetted tub that I surely would not be using tonight, or any other night, a travertine tiled shower stall that was enclosed with etched glass, a granite counter top with double sinks, and a very large etched mirror running the entire length of one wall that was framed in gold.

Holy shit, I thought this has to be a dream, and could not be real. I thought for a brief moment that I was in a hotel room in Cesar’s Palace.

In the corner of the bedroom, there was a massive walk in closet, which was as big as my old bedroom. I walked over to the closet door and opened it, and to my surprise, it was filled with very eloquent suits, ties, hats, and shoes. All in different colors and styles, like that of the fifty’s gangster era. Most of them looked as if they had never been worn before. I would be honored to wear them. Puzzled now more than ever, I closed the closet door and walked back into the massive bedroom where a very expensive silk robe had been neatly laid across the bed just for me. The silk robe looked so comfortable that I decided to take a warm shower to get the filth off my body from the airplane ride, as I smelled like smoke. It seemed as if I had been within a casino surrounded by a bunch of smokers, but I had been aboard an airplane, and I was not even in the smokers section. I was in first class seating, since that was the ticket that Elizabeth had purchased for me.

After taking a warm shower, I slowly slipped into the silk robe and jumped right into bed where I suddenly and unexpectedly became very tired. As I rested on the soft, pillow top comforter, I tried to make since out of everything Elizabeth had told me. I was determined to stay awake to see for myself just what would happen at the stroke of midnight. However, I had fallen asleep in spite of my best efforts to stay awake. I was awakened just after one o’clock in the morning by a tremendous shaking and a loud noise that made me think it was an earthquake. It was as if the house had been hit by a massive earthquake, a ten on the Richter scale.

I quickly got out of bed and I could not believe my eyes, everything within the room was in shambles. The once beautiful room from the night before had somehow been replaced by a much older version with the smell of rotten wood and mildew. The once beautiful canopy bed that I had fallen asleep on was now nothing but rusted iron that contained old and faded bed cloths. I quickly walked over, opened the bedroom door, and horrifically discovered that there was no longer a second story to the once magnificent Blackwood Manor, and I was now on the ground floor. I quickly ran outside, now dressed in an old and faded, moth eaten robe to get a better perspective on things from outside, and to my surprise, the once magnificent Blackwood Manor was no longer here. It had somehow vanished into thin air, and in its place stood a rundown decrepitated old shack.

Holly shit, am I going crazy, what in the hell is going on? This cannot be happening. I have never observed anything like this, at least not at this magnitude.

The next thing I saw was Elizabeth walking out of the house, now aged thirty, plus years, walking with an old hand carved wood cane, speaking out to me, saying, “Mason, if I would have told you last night that this was going to happen, you would have not believed me. I had to let you see it for yourself.