A Wayne

8- The Boy in the Manor

-Martha-

I think my father told me when I was young that he hated our home. He never did mentioned why, but everyone had their ideas.

According to rumours, he grew up here alone. No parents or siblings, he was left in the care of Alfred. Any sort of human interaction was left to the children he met in his school days. However, that did little to help, as my father was know for fighting and was also sometimes caught smoking cigarettes behind the playground.

Even now there are no school friends of his that come over for dinner on occasion like most families. I suppose we are not like most families. We never were. The only people we have over here are either in secret, or business partners wishing to get a piece of the great Wayne dynasty.

I mean look at this place. Wayne Manor, our families ancestral home. My great great whoever's came over to Gotham to start new, and claimed this, in my opinion, sad ass plot of land in Bristol. Just far enough away from the big city to keep any trouble out, at least that's what my mother says. I think they chose this place to isolate any future generations of Wayne's. Almost like our ancestors liked the idea of us all being different, cast out in a way. They must have wanted us to be above everyone else; mostly because this place is way too big. I could not imagine being my father, growing up alone here.

The rooms sometimes feel empty, even with all of my family living here. I can not picture this place truly empty like it once was. Mother always mentions how when she first took over as lady of the estate, it was practically fallen apart. Alfred had decided to let most of the cooking and cleaning staff go. It was insisted that my fathers privacy was needed after the death of his parents. So most of the work was left to Alfred, which as told by my Mother time and time again, was not a good idea. She said that my father hardly ate at the dinner table, so most of the grand dining room was covered in dust and spider webs. Also, many of the rooms had been untouched. Including the section of the house which housed the master bedroom. My Father had never dared to live in that section of the mansion because it was once his parents.

Mother told us that it looked completed unchanged, you could even see the makeup my grandmother must have used the very night she died. This is probably why that whole section was the first thing to be redone when my parents were married. Mother made it brand new again. She made everything brand new in Wayne manor, at least the things she could. Some areas had to be left unchanged, which she hated more then anything.

The house was pretty much a historical site, which meant all the creepy photos and wallpaper had to stay up. She could however finally hire staff to give the place a proper cleaning, as well as cooks. I mean, she had to produce a lot of heirs, might as well have the staff to take care of them. She even could hire our own private nurses and doctors when needed. Which is what she did, given my fathers state.

The house did seem even more empty with out him here. However, with the amount of pacing going on, most people would never be able to tell. My brothers were all even more tense then they were before. Especially Thomas, who had grown accustomed to leaving the house most days. Every corner I took he was shooing a member of staff, new or old, into place. What was worse, was when he would find one of us.

Mike and I decided quite early on into Father's incident that we would remain very out of touch with the whole situation. This being that we would be either drunk or high. I mean, we had to be stuck in the manor with our entire family for god knows how long.
To make things worse, was with Thomas's newly found aspiration in life. Which was bossing us around of course. He would find us, even when we would hide in the most remote places of the manor. The funny thing is watching when his eyes get all wide. Like he could not believe that we could be sitting at this desperate time. What makes it even more amusing is that this sort of behaviour reminds me a lot of Mother. I mean, he is her little pet after all.