It was not an ordinary house. In fact, it looked very out of place on Green Street, Applegrove. Applegrove was a small little neighborhood with neat lawns and tidy houses. The house number of the strange house was not the strange part of it. The house number was quite random. It wasn’t lucky number 7, nor unlucky 13. It wasn’t a fun combo like 123, and it wasn’t backwards like 321. It was a plain 942. The house itself was the curious part. You couldn’t really call it a house. It was really a jumble of random things nailed together: a camper, a canoe, a trampoline, a huge bookshelf, and a small airplane, and it hadn’t been lived in for nearly 30 years. But one day a rumor swept across Applegrove: the not so ordinary house had been sold.

She was not an ordinary girl. Her name was Calista Igama, a very unusual name in Applegrove. She also, for one thing, half owned a very extraordinary house. Not exactly legal was her half ownership of the odd house, but she had paid 5 out of the 10 dollars for it. The man selling the house was tired of having it. He was so desperate to get rid of it, that he sold it for 10 dollars to the strange girl and her aunt. Calista was an orphan. She lived with her aunt in a cramped apartment until they moved to Applegrove. Her aunt was very busy. Even though she tried to make time for Calista it wasn’t always easy, and Calista quickly adjusted to the lonely life. In Calista’s mind, moving to Applegrove was a symbol of the change she hoped for.

He was a very ordinary man. And ordinary men made mistakes. Even perfectly normal Mr. Tom Smith messed up sometimes. Most of the time they were your small, typical mishaps, like leaving the coffee machine on, or misplacing the T.V. remote. Selling the 50 year old house of a famous and rich inventor for 10 dollars, however, was not a small blunder. Yes, he was tired of the cost for the upkeep. Yes, he could care less what happened to it. But he had intended to sell it for a large price, not the amount that would buy him a fun size candy bar or two. He was also nervous. He had nearly forgotten himself when that little girl and a hurried woman (was it her mother? He didn’t think so) showed up. They were so sly, so persuasive. It was their fault he sold the house for that small price. They reminded him of the sneaky, lying, good-for-nothing Orson Igama who stole the house from Sam Smith. For a flickering second, Mr. Tom Smith wondered if the tricky pair were related to the Igamas. No, probably not. They would be living in luxury if they were related to him. But how to get that house back? Mr. Tom Smith grinned like a child on Christmas; he had an idea.

It felt right to Calista, to be sleeping in the house of her forefathers. Well, she wasn’t exactly sleeping. The seats of the airplane had been laid back to make a bed, but they weren’t at all comfortable and there wasn’t room for anything else. She glanced at her clock on the shelf above the bed/airplane seats. 3:47 AM. There was no way she would be able to fall asleep. She slid out of the airplane, quietly shut the heavy metal door and padded softly to the kitchen to make herself some hot cocoa. Watching the mug in the microwave spin around, she for some reason, started to think about something her aunt had told her. When her aunt was a young girl, even younger than Calista, she chained herself to the Curious House when builders wanted to tear it down. Calista wished she could be as brave.
The microwave beeped, and as Calista was pulling her mug out, she heard a knock on the door. Although she knew that she shouldn’t answer the door without permission, and she definitely shouldn’t at 4:00 AM, she pulled it open anyway. Mr. Tom Smith grinned down on her. Calista kicked his shin. Hard. He stopped grinning, and told her that she and her guardian had better come to a trial. She slammed the door in his face, then hid under the couch.

Judge Garfield Hakam was a very ordinary judge in a very peculiar situation involving a house. Mr. Tom Smith insisted that he had never sold the very famous (and odd) house at all, much less for 10 dollars. On the other hand, Ms. Ariana Igama claimed that not only had she rightfully bought it, it was hers to begin with. Mr. Tom Smith accused Ariana Igama of theft, she accused him of lying, and so it went. “I do declare, I should just destroy the whole house!” the Judge declared, exasperated. Mr. Tom Smith, his face going crimson and then magenta, shouted on and on about how he needed the house to make his fortune. Ariana Igama defiantly stated that she would chain herself to the house again if she had to. The Judge’s ears pricked up at the word again. Upon his inquiry, she told him the date, and he found the newspaper article for that day. Indeed, there it was. The headline proclaimed “ IGAMA GIRL CHAINS HERSELF TO HOUSE”. That was all the evidence the Judge needed. Mr. Smith was beside himself with fury. He protested that the Igamas had stolen the house from Mr. Sam Smith, Mr. Tom Smith’s father. He gave the Judge a small leather notebook that was Mr. Sam Smith’s inventor’s journal. Unfortunately for him, the notebook told the truth: Mr. Sam Smith had stolen the Curious House from the Igamas, not vice versa.
So, to the grumbles of Mr. Tom Smith, and the delight of Ms. Ariana and Calista Igama, the Igamas got to keep the Curious House on Green Street.