A woman designs every room of a railroad millionaire's mansion, gets handed an envelope of cash and a goodbye on the night the work is finished, and makes him one promise about that house before she goes up to the library alone.
SONG SYNOPSIS: He builds the house and she designs it. She sets the library windows high so the light comes in without the damp, picks the oak for the ceiling beams, and gives every room the grace his money couldn't buy on its own, and the whole time she is building it for herself. On the night the work is finished he drives out to end things, tells her he never once said he loved her, and lays an envelope of cash on the table for services rendered. She won't touch it. She tells him the house belongs to her, that no other woman will ever sit in it without feeling like a trespasser, and that she'll be there forever, and then she asks him to leave because she has something to do. The watchman finds her at six the next morning, hanging from one of the beams she chose. The note she leaves promises that everything alive in her walked into that house at sunrise and stays.The house never opens again. A hundred years of paid grounds crews and heated empty rooms, a thousand acres and a private lake carried on the company books as an asset nobody will touch, because the men who own it know what the library did to the man who built it. She isn't grieving in there. She's keeping the place ready, she's counting the ones who share his name, and she has been hungry for a very long time.
SONG DESCRIPTION:
Inspired by "The Avenging Ghost of Kitty Morgan" by CBS Radio Mystery Theater from August 4th, 1978, as heard in the Weird Darkness Retro Radio episode of the same title: https://weirddarkness.com/wdrr0760/She chose the oak for the beams and set the library windows high so the books would keep, and she believed every board of it was going to be hers. On the last night of the work the man who paid for it told her he had never said he loved her, put an envelope of cash on the table, and called it payment for the woman's touch she gave the place. She left the money where it sat. By six the next morning the watchman had found her under the beams she picked out herself, and the house has stood empty and heated and swept for a hundred years since, waiting on the rest of his family. Services Rendered.
ABOUT ALENA INGRAM:
Alena Ingram is a solo vocalist on Weird Darkness Records – a voice built for the years between 1945 and 1965. Smoky, gravel-edged, and all attitude, she sings like she knows more than she's letting on. Sultry, guarded, and just a little dangerous, she doesn't have a single mood so much as a single presence: she becomes whatever the song needs. Candlelit lounge or packed ballroom, if it lives somewhere in those two decades, it sounds like it was waiting for her.
SERVICES RENDERED
by Alena Ingram
I chose the oak they cut for every beam,
I set the windows high to save the books.
You paid the men to build the thing I'd dreamed,
And gave it all the grace your money took.
You came out on the evening it was done,
Said you never promised me your vow.
You called me country, I was only fun,
I loved you but you left me anyhow.
You can’t disavow…
Services rendered – that's the phrase you used
The night you paid me off after leaving my bed.
You bought a woman's touch, you thought you'd paid your dues,
And I remember every word you said.
It's my house – every stair and every beam,I live in every room, every floor and seam.I won’t let another woman stay,I may be dead but I’m not going away.
My vengeance is tendered,Services rendered.
The money's where you left it, it’s all there,
I never touched a dollar of that price.
I stayed in this house, I’m everywhere,I warned you before with my advice.
They pay a man to walk the halls at night,They keep the furnace burning through the snow.
The deed says it's yours, but the deed's not right,
And every man who's signed it comes to know.
They end up below…
Services rendered – that's the phrase you used
The night you paid me off after leaving my bed.
You bought a woman's touch, you thought you'd paid your dues,
And I remember every word you said.
It's my house – every stair and every beam,I live in every room, every floor and seam.I won’t let another woman stay,I may be dead but I’m not going away.
My vengeance is tendered,Services rendered.
You'll send your sons and theirs to see the place,
They'll come up that long drive with your same face.
I'll leave a lamp on. I will set the chair.
I'll let them get so comfortable in there.
And one by one they'll learn what you still owe,
Because a debt this old does… not… let… GO!!!
Services rendered – that's the phrase you used
The night you paid me off after leaving my bed.
You bought a woman's touch, you thought you'd paid your dues,
And I remember every word you said.
It's my house – every stair and every beam,I live in every room, every floor and seam.I won’t let another woman stay,I may be dead but I’m not going away.
My vengeance is tendered,Services rendered.
Services rendered...
Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!
Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.
All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.