The Smithwick House is a neat, two-story house located on Butterfield Lane in Night Vale.
The house used to be occupied by Mr. Smithwick and Mrs. Smithwick and their two children, Lisa and Jake. Today, it stands empty, with all the family belongings still inside.[1]
What Happened at the Smithwick House[]
Mr. and Mrs. Smithwick lived in a neat two-story home on Butterfield Lane. They had two small children, Lisa and Jake. Their lives were mostly normal, but Mr. Smithwick, a gloomy man, had an anger inside of him. He didn't use this anger to do anything, but it could be felt by Mrs. Smithwick and the children, and even the neighbours.
One day, after Mrs. Smithwick discovered she was pregnant, they found a hole in their former guest room, that was destined to be the new baby's nursery. The hole was square and lead into a square tunnel, leading somewhere far away, even though on the other side of the wall was just the outside of the house. It was too small to enter and there seemed to be a breeze and a humming coming for the other side. A few days after the discovery of the hole, Mrs. Smithwick disappeared, without packing her clothes, nor leaving any sign of violence. She was simply gone. The children, Lisa and Jake, were too shocked to cry. They realized that they had passed through a threshold that there would be no way to ever return. The police weren't interested in the hole. Instead, they interrogated Mr. Smithwick. But without any evidence a crime was committed, they had to drop the investigation.
Mrs. Smithwick felt as though he should search for his wife, but it didn't seem urgent to him. He did all the house chores, drove the kids to school, and cooked dinner. When he looked inside they hole, water started to pour out. Some time after this, Lisa and Jake disappeared. In response, the police stationed a car outside the house, and arrested Mr. Smithwick. But with a lack of evidence, they had, again, to let him go. Mr. Smithwick did not search his wife or children. Instead, he became seemingly obsessed with the hole in the wall, staring at it every evening. One day, when he put his hand inside the hole, he found a tree branch. He did not try to reach into the hole again. This discovery caused him to stop eating and sleeping and spend all his time looking in the hole.
Mrs. Smithwich no longer went to work, cooked dinner or even slept. He just stared at the hole all day long. The neighbors, noticing he that he didn't go out anymore and confirming their suspicions with each other, assumed the worst, and agreed it was only a matter of time. When no one had seen Mr. Smithwick for several days, the police in the car outside decided to investigate and searched the house but. There was no trace of Mr. Smithwick, but all of his things were still there, and there was no sign of violence. There was no hole on the wall either.
The timeline of the events at the Smithwick house is unclear, as Cecil says that he heard about the case just before reporting on it, but it also happened, in fact, four years ago. Carlos called Cecil and claimed he investigated the same case almost four years before that[1]. In First Date, four years before, Cecil says that Carlos told him to warn listeners about a "strange hole that might appear on their walls". He mentioned this was especially important, after what happened at the Smithwick house[2].
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Episode 105 "What Happened at the Smithwick House"
- ↑ Episode 27 "First Date"