Robert and I both attended Seattle Pacific University from 2003-2007. Our senior year Robert was living off campus in an old large red house lovingly referred to as "the barn house". He had four roommates, Lukas, Garrett, Kyle and Mike, each with their own rooms. They all got along very well and overall was a drama-free environment. Garrett had signed up to go to a YWAM school in Australia for spring quarter so they were going to look for a new roommate after spring break. There were lots of friends that came and went from the house freely so it wasn't uncommon to see someone you didn't know in the house. Over spring break Robert and I came home and found a guy, Seth, sitting on the couch watching TV. That wasn't too strange except that he was the only one home. We got his name and figured he was a friend of one of the other guys so we didn't say anything else to him. The other roommates got home and he started hanging out and talking with him so it was assumed he had been over for them. It started getting late but instead of Seth leaving he went upstairs to stay in Lukas' room, who was currently in the Galapagos Islands for spring break. None of us said anything, again assuming that Lukas must have told him to stay there. He stayed overnight and kept hanging around the house for the rest of the week.
The day that Lukas got home we were standing around in the kitchen talking when we discovered that NONE of the roommates had invited Seth over. Lukas and Mike both knew him as an acquainted from church but had never invited him to come over, much less to stay for the week. No one really knew what to do so they decided to just let him keep staying till they figured out why he was there. The next day they found out that Lukas' mom had told Seth's mom that there was an open room at the house and so Seth could probably move in. Seth just failed to mention any of this. Since he was already there and they needed a roommate they decided that he could officially move in.
After Seth had lived there for about a month he received a very LARGE box in the mail. I was at the house when it got dropped off so I helped pull it into the house and it was heavy! Seth got home a little while later and I told him about the box. He kinda looked a little worried and said "oh, right." He took the box up to his room (which is directly above the living room) and started moving things around. When he came down again I asked him what was in the box. He just looked at me and said "What box?" I responded, "The box you just took upstairs". "Oh, that box. It's a secret" That was strange and I probably would have dropped it if it had just stopped there.
Shortly after that conversation Seth came downstairs and asked Robert (I quote), "Would you mind if there is a sound like a vacuum cleaner, that's not a vacuum cleaner coming from my room?" Robert and I just looked at each other and Robert responded, "No, but what's making the sound?" Seth looked worried again and said, "I can't tell you, it's a secret." We pressed him a bit more but he refused to tell us what the source of the noise was. After making sure we wouldn't care about the sound he went to the basement and then returned carrying a styrofoam ice chest and a wooden spoon. Our curiosity spiked but Seth still refused to let on to what he was doing.
After returning upstairs a series of strange sounds started to fill the house. First was a vacuum cleaner like noise followed by a loud banging noise and then a brief period of silence before starting over again. This continued for about a half an hour when Kyle got home. Kyle did not care much for Seth and is a very blunt person so if anyone could figure out what was going on, we knew it would be him. We filled Kyle in on what had been happening so far and Kyle took up the task of solving this strange mystery. He ran upstairs and started knocking on Seth's door demanding to know what was going on. Seth just kept yelling "Go away Kyle! It's a secret!" All of the bedrooms upstairs had spaces above the doors where windows should have been but were instead just open holes. Kyle proceeded to climb onto the banister next to Seth's room and poke his head through the open hole to see what was going on. What he saw was Seth sitting in the middle of his room with a large bag of grain to his side and home mill in front of him with the ice chest now half full of flour off to the other side. Kyle upon witnessing this said, "Seth, what the heck are you doing?!" Seth got angry and started yelling at Kyle to get out of his room. Kyle climbed down and ran back downstairs to tell us what he had seen.
Before Kyle could finish his description Seth came running down stairs, covered from head to toe in flour, screaming at Kyle for invading his privacy. Kyle responded with "You are invading my privacy with your noise!" Somehow this seemed a valid argument to Seth and he apologized. When asked why he was making flour he refuted it! We pointed out that he was covered in flour, which he had no answer for but still refused to admit what he was doing. He then retreated to the basement again for some unknown reason. While in the basement Kyle ran upstairs and retrieved a handful of grain and flour so we could see what the "big secret" was about. It appeared to us to be a normal mixed grain and flour. After doing some research (checking the label on the box it all came in) we discovered that it was exactly was it looked. Seth had a personal mill and mixed grains that he was using to make flour. As if that wasn't strange enough it got even weirder...
About a week after the "flour" incident I came over and discovered bread baking in the kitchen. The only two people home were Robert and Seth. I knew Robert wasn't baking bread so it must be Seth's. When Seth came downstairs I asked him about his bread. "What bread?" He responded. "The bread you are baking in the oven." "I'm not baking any bread in the oven." He said. "Well the bread you "aren't baking" is starting to smell burnt" I told him. He informed me that it couldn't be because he set a timer. He continued to bake bread daily for a few weeks, all the while refusing to admit that he was the one baking the bread. He also refused to share any with us.
Sadly, I never found out why his bread was such a big secret or what possessed him to make his own flour. Seth lived there until their lease was up with many more odd events occurring (including a 5am ritual of break dancing and singing praise songs). I have no idea where he is now or what became of his bread but I love to share the story. I hope you enjoyed it too!
So weird!!! I am so curious as to what good ol' Seth is up to these days... perhaps working in the world's most top-secret bakery.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, Jessie!
Xenia Katie