Like so much in my neighbourhood the old door left standing at the front of the block where Casey’s house had once stood had generated its own legend over time.

The Casey house had stood on the block a long time and one night it burned down.  By the time help had arrived the house was all but gone.

There was not much anyone could do but try and locate relatives and inform them of the tragedy.

That’s where the mystery started. Everyone who could remember recalled the Casey children. Good Catholic family, lots of children, the two went hand in hand back them.

But despite every effort no children could be found. It seemed they had vanished from the earth.

And so the block was left to look after itself.  All that remained to remind us that once someone lived there was the door.

Over the years the door faded, it even began to wobble as the hinges weathered and rusted. But through all weathers it stayed resilient.

Many in the town wanted to tear the place up and redevelop it but it was pointed out that Mr. Casey had made a will and the house on his death was to go to his children. So every effort was made over the years to find the surviving children but to no avail.

It was true the Casey’s was a big block, the money hungry saw the potential to make a lot of money from the land but the stumbling block was the existence of the will.

So the Casey’s was left to rot literally as an impasse had been reached over what was to be done with it.

Council passed a motion to give the search another year before acting an old law that allowed them to repossess an abandoned estate and sell it off.

It was around this time people started to notice the door was shut tight, locked even. You’d notice it at night and by morning the door was again ajar.

No one knew what the reason was but the door each night was locked tight.

After a year nothing had come of the further searches and so the Council took possession and sold the place off to the highest bidder. Within days the land was cleared and plans begun to build town houses on the site.

What flummoxed everyone was the door. It remained locked. It was removed and overnight would reappear in its usual place. What disturbed us the most was the day the developer set fire to the door only to find it back in place the next morning.

Then a man driving a big excavator dug the earth from under the door and uncovered the mystery of the Casey children.

Written for: https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/2016/07/15/microfiction-challenge-5-the-door/