Greenbriar Manor

Sultan's Song

Brooklyn ran to the house with its ivy and bramble covered windows and slung open the door at the first signs of daylight. "Mom.  come quick! Mom, he is home!"  Fern and her mother walked in the kitchen holding rags and soap they had been doing laundry. His mother was no where to be found. He asked them in frantic whispers if they had seen her and Fern said they had seen his sister early this morning heading for the treehouse. They mentioned his mother had gone to fetch water early this morning and they had not seen her in several hours. Brooklyn thought about the pond. How dangerous it could be in the early hours of the morning. He had something surface in his mind only briefly. He shook it off like a bad dream. A still picture in his mind. A sharp light. A scream. A  tiny porcelain horse with a broken leg. Something the boys had shown him that Fran found hidden in an old attic drawer made him shudder. Where was his family?

He ran outside and climbed into the tree house. His sister was there throwing jacks. He hugged her tightly to his chest. She was safe. But did she know? Had she seen their father come in the night like a thief to bring back the horse for the tiny boy? She was humming that song Bridgette taught her on piano long ago. Low, monotone. Something was off.  She turned to him and for a brief moment her skin looked blotchy and red. She smiled. She was holding something. A tiny porcelain horse with a repaired right leg. She told him that the horse had returned. She mentioned hearing Fran talking to a man about riding them. She asked him if she could watch. He smiled and nodded. She had always loved horses and she was too little to remember any being here before. She said she had seen their mother disappear in the woods early that morning. She  was waiting here for her friend to come. She suggested he go check on mother. That last night she was acting strangely. Pacing and crying and staring at the barn. No one could soothe her. So, she had known. He told her to stay put and he would find their mom. 

Before he climbed down he saw  in the cubie sat  her doll.  How had it gotten there? He had always tried to hide it from her. But it was changed...the side of her face that was cracked had begun to mend slightly. The cloudy green eye was a little less so than the last time she had been here. He carefully grabbed the doll and buried it beneath the tree on the side facing the barn. He would move it as soon as possible. After his mother returned safely, one loved on at a time. The Green Manor had a way of things and he was hoping that Fran had not been too early. That he was not too late.  He ran down to the pond and saw his mother with a bucket. He felt relieved for a moment until he realized she was not walking toward him. She was llfting water with a ladle over and over until the bucket overflowed and then poured it out. As if in a trance. Staring ahead past the trees to the barn. Outside was the great black horse and a man running it around in circles. Teaching it to mind leading. He walked up to his mother and hugged her. She did not move. Just stared like his sister had. The lullaby she hummed to them in her throat low and monotone. In her pocket was a handkerchief and a piece of a bridle. Something he had thought  was lost to time. Every tear that ran down her face made her song a little sadder. A little further away. He held her against his chest as she drifted off to sleep. He carried her back to the house and put her to bed. She smiled as he closed the door.  Their father was home. Her heart was mended and broken. There could never be another horse like Sultan here and there could never be a family whole. What the manor kept it later cast off. He had to find his dad and tame Ingrims horse. A better horse for their family than his own. No more broken hearts. Only love. That was how the house grew and family returned. He had waited a long time to see his father. He knew Ingrim would understand. So he headed to ask Fran again about a job and hoped that time had healed wounds in the man inside the stables heart. He placed a bet in the air for them all and hoped it would hold. Fern and her mother watched after his mom and sister that evening and the boys visited the stable until sundown. Then he would see his father. The tide would turn or drown the happiness he held. One was or anotherhe would see the horse and love it as he did all powerful animals. 

One day soon they would see things change as they often do....