Greenbriar Manor

Mabel's Mystery

Vermont: The Next Day 

Fran had driven all night. She had forgotten how long it took to get to the Manor when she had left Vermont years ago. Mack had not been here since he was a baby. This would be good for him to meet their cousin and her daughter Mabel.  He had asked her alot of questions and she felt bad that she could not answer most of them. Either because she had forgotten or did not want to reopen things any more than they had been recently. She hoped that Mabel had grown up a normal little kid since she had a psychologist for a mother. However, the Greene family had some things that seemed to follow them wherever they went. She hoped little Mabel had not found any ghosts lurking around real or imaginary. She thought about her strange dream and tried to push that girl's face out of her mind. She just needed some rest and a long vacation. Managing a house is too much for anyone without a break even if it is her family. 

Mabel and Ruth had prepared for their arrival as best as they could. The guest room was fixed and Mabel's top bunk was clean and ready for her cousin instead of full of stuffed animals and other toys. Mabel had always wanted a sibling but that was not to become a reality any time soon. She laid in her bed and wondered what Mack would be like. Would he tolerate her friends upstairs or would be afraid to go on adventures. Did he even like tea or reading books? Was there something he could tell her about their family since he lived in that big house her mom refused to talk about? What had made her mom refuse to let her have birthday cake for the last 7 years? She had overheard that her cousin could play piano. The woman upstairs was trying to teach her but when she mentioned it to her mom she shuddered and went into another room. Brittney's mom loved cake and had promised her one but then they had gone too. Would everyone she loved leave? Would her cousin stay in Vermont or go back to the Manor after two weeks? She did not have any answers but she did have hopes and the woman upstairs told her that if she believed hard enough for something that it would come true. So every night she had wished with all her might that Mack would stay in Vermont for longer than two weeks. Even if no one else knew it yet. She had told the neighbor upstairs to expect a visitor for tea. 

Mack felt like something was different the moment that they drove into the complex where his cousins lived. He was dreaming about playing a big sonata piece in a drafty house with old yellow lace curtains the color of nicotine tar. As he finished the piece he had a coughing spell. Then the lights were blinding in the dream so he could not see the music. All he could see was a taxidermy of a moose on the wall. It's huge dark beaded eyes staring him down. It almost seemed like his nostrils flared. All the sudden a large bang came from the other end of the piano. He saw a plate of cookies or something hit the floor and break in a millon tiny shards like glass and a scream. He woke up in a cold sweat. His mom had parked the car and from the street he could make out a strange shadow peering from the corner second story townhome, It looked like someone covered in very thick clothing which he thought was a bit odd even for winter in Vermont.  Maybe there were people here with stories too like Brooklyn and all his friends back home. Maybe he would finally get to play that song for his cousin and go to a real baseball game instead of play catch with his friends at the farm. He wondered what Ingram was doing with that horse and how things were holding up since his mother was not in charge. He was thankful he had some time away but underneath his desire to see Mabel he had a sinking feeling there was something wrong. It passed as soon as he saw Mabel and she asked him if he wanted to play checkers. He loved that game and she was very good. They got along immediately. He thought of Brooklyn and Meri had they ever gotten along this well? Mabel felt like that her hopes were already working as he played three rounds of her favorite game, brushed out all her dolls matted heads and showed her how to correctly play "Three Blind Mice" and then "Rock A Bye Baby" using keys made out of construction paper. She could not hear any melody but she felt like she was accomplishing something important. When she finished it on paper her cousin handed her a tiny piece of cloth and inside it was a perfect piece of doll china. It was a saucer like the one that mother had broken and this one was more beautiful than Brittney's. It had a tiny tree design and a letter V on it. She would cherish it always as a prize for learning something new. 

Just out of sight, the woman upstairs was waiting to meet the tiny boy who could make music with his heart and the tiny girl who so desperately needed to be whole but was missing some of the pieces of her family. She would have them over soon and they would begin to understand some of the perils of age and time and believe in things like beauty and magic that only vacations bring into lives of others. 

Fran and Ruth stayed up talking  into the early morning hours about all kinds of things. But Fran could not shake the sound of coughing coming from the room above her or the strong smell of almond extract like a perfume bottle had been broken on the floor. That smell always gave her a headache even when she was young and coughing reminded her of Vera's deep raspy voice and cigarette stained  walls and vinyl squeaking as she sat on furniture in a house not made for children. She was glad that there had been many playmates for Mack even if he had some strange encounters. Now he was with family that loved him and here they were safe for a while...

Mabel pulled out the piece of china and ran her fingers over it protectively as she drifted off to sleep..this was her gift. They had a few more days of fun left ahead and come the weekend she would take her cousin to tea.