Beyond Midnight: The House Was a Sphinx (Episode Information and MP3 of the Show)

A locked door can cause a great deal of curiosity, but some doors are locked for very good reasons. The central character in The House Was a Sphinx learns this the hard way when the turn of a forbidden handle sends him on a journey into and beyond midnight.

David Snowdon is a very good looking man, but he comes from a poor family and, at 22-years-old, has no real prospects. But that doesn’t matter anymore because he has a new bride and in a couple of years, she will inherit enough money for both of them. Her name is Bonnie and, the evening after their secret wedding, she shows him the house she grew up in.

It has been empty since her father died, eight years ago, and it will not be legally hers until her 21st birthday, buts she still has a key, so sees nothing wrong in showing him around. When they reach the fourth floor of the house David finds the aforementioned locked door and, curious to know if it hides something valuable, he wants to knock it down. Bonnie will not allow this. She doesn’t own the house yet so it doesn’t seem right, and she has always been scared of the door. Her father warned her never to go near it, and her mother always appeared nervous whenever it was mentioned.

Bonnie never gets to inherit the house because she dies not long after her wedding, and Davey discovers that Bonnie’s mother—who has always considered him a gold digger—has seen to it that he has no rights to Bonnie’s estate. The young widower appears to be back where he started. Things take a turn for the better when his mother-in-law decides to make him a gift of the house, its land, and all that is inside it. This suits Davey very well because he is still curious about the contents of the locked room, so the first thing he does is open it up and look inside—bad move. Very bad move.

Beyond Midnight Radio Show: The House Was a Sphinx

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