Oscar Tweed: A String of Novelettes

Novelette 1: The Séance Part 3

I searched for the opposite side of the bed chamber. Outside the front window, it remained bright and sunny. I looked back to the window at the rear - a dark storm now threatened the graveyard. This made no sense at all. Was this manor too large for its own good? Did the laws of night and day not apply to something so divine? 

"Come here Crutchley, but first fill that basin with hot water." Mr. Tweed eased into the chair next to the window. 

"Yes, sir." I found the basin he was referring to and filled it under the tap in his private lavatory. I carried it into the open room and then laid my eyes upon the most horrific sight I had yet seen. Oscar Tweed bringing spoon to mouth, feet completely bare, wiggling his toes. The master required a foot bath. I could smell them from ten feet away. Ten! I cursed the number! Ten horrible and squirming flesh covered snippets of bone mocking me to rub and wash them. I summoned all the strength of Muffin's Academy and marched like a soldier into battle.  

"After the tour and the walk, the sores on my feet need a nice cleansing." Mr. Tweed winced in pain as fluid oozed from an open sore. 

I had not had lunch (my sole consolation at this point). Beyond the infected blistering sores, his feet looked like they were in an awful state. He knew! The old boy, and I mean 'old' in every sense of the word, knew that this one task was my greatest weakness. One of his eyes bulged in close scrutiny to see any deviation in my behavior. 

I resolved to stare out the window and lowered his feet in blindly. Crows, magpies, ravens, and every other sort of blackbird one could think of circled the sky, hundreds of them. They darted at each other and roosted on mausoleums. It looked like Lucifer's dream garden. It was all too much! 

"It doesn't get much better than this, huh Crutchley?" Tweed let out a comforting sigh. 

"Agreed, sir." I lied as I worked out a glob of lint from between his toes. The smell of mold made my eyes water and I continued to stare at the crow-filled sky. 

"Yes, it is beautiful. Brings a tear to your eye." His wistful demeanor mocked me. 

"Indeed." I bit my tongue. 

When I felt I could take it no longer I rushed to the bathroom and fetched a towel. I scooped up Tweed's devil hooves and patted them dry. 

"Do you require anything else, sir?" I said this quickly, unable to make eye contact. 

"Not until this evening, Crutchley. We have important business at the banquet and you shall attend as my valet. I have to do this wretched speech or something. I have donated one hundred dollars to their school, something wealthy men do. Unfortunately, the punishment is often having to speak at dreadful events like these. Why can't rich men just shove money at people and not make such a fuss over it?"  

"Very good, sir." 

I collected myself and decided I needed to speak to the staff straight away. My duties were uncertain to me and I had not experienced this level of peculiarity before. After scrubbing my hands clean, I went to the kitchen to find Teeker and Ms. Hobbs. 

"I must speak bluntly to both of you. Disturbing footbaths, cigar butt collecting, a small staff of three taking care of this entire manor, the gloomy cemetery! It's all a bit off, isn't it?" I raised my voice, I had the right! 

"Course it is, but me and Teeker just roll with it?" Ms. Hobbs wore a foolish blank expression. 

"What?" I replied. 

"What Ms. Hobbs is trying to say is that you get used to it. I mean, it's just following orders, right? We get paid to follow orders. First it was us two and now you're part of it also."