Greenbriar Manor

Fire Sales and Fortunate Sons

Meanwhile in Vermont: 

The next morning Mabel woke up feeling anxious. She had a feeling Brittney was back from Nova Scotia. She had not heard from Vee since Mack left for Greenbriar. Her mom had taken on more remote clients and spent alot of her time on the phone. She refused to talk about what the letter said and gathered up all her teaset pieces and placed them in the attic. She had mentioned that her aunt's house had sold and that they never would have to go there again. This thought had given Ruth a bounce in her step. She had received a letter in the mail from Mack. Brittany had shown up at Greenbriar.  Her father was buying the retched estate. Ruth had not told her daughter since she had finally begun to heal from her sudden departure. The apartment above them was empty and everything was working out in their favor. Fran had promised that Mabel could see Mack this summer and she would soon head to Greenbriar. It would do them good to put some seperation from her fear and old family heirlooms. Ruth had not remembered much about the original estate since she had only visited as a child herself but Mabel needed to know her people. Too much time had passed. She phoned the Manor to speak to Fran. The phone made a strange tinny noise and the dial tone went dead. She could hear breathing maybe one of the boys picked up and was playing a prank.She would call back later. 

Brittney and her dad arrived at the tiny guest house the next day and as she got out of the car the warm familiar feel of the house her See See loved did not come. It was cold and soggy wet. The tree stump she had played around was hollow and as black as ink. Her dad surveyed the property and gasped as he noticed the damaged middle of the original house. It had fallen in on the piano like a crumpled piece of paper. All of the priceless antiques Vera had kept hidden in plastic had been destroyed. A bright yellow piece of paper Condemned was on the front glass. It was fine he thought who needed a house full of secrets anyway? However, he thought of his mother and sighed. She could not come here afterall. The guest house was only big enough for he and Brittany. How would he tell his mother or his daughter that the plan he had so cunningly set in motion had failed? Salem Greene was a force. She would not take kindly to uncle Daniel's oversight or Ruth's discretion in telling them how badly it had decayed. Even the old tree out front would have to come down. No magical tree cottage for Brittany here as he had promised. But anything was better than the cold quarters they shared with his mother far away. At least here they were home. Brittany unpacked the car and wandered into the guest house. She looked around for her friend and found only cobwebs and dirt. Where had she gone? Where was See See? She held the bunny to her chest and read one of her narwhal stories. As she sat in the small room she was born in she remembered See See standing in the window of the house watching as she left for the plane to that old house she grew up in...and the strange woman looking after her as she left the Manor that begged her to turn around. She thought of that room in the closed off section of the Manor Mari had kept her in those three days. She thought of all the strange deep places that house and the large one See See had forgotten here melded together. She feared Mari's anger had pushed her away. That her father's dreams would be as empty as this tiny walled guest house that seemed so much larger when she was smaller. She curled up in her jacket and thought of her mother and the song her father strummed on his guitar and they sang to her when she was small: 

"Someday someway the sun will shine in the shadows/ The spaces dark will be dawn/we crouch here in the meadow and we sing our freedom song/the hare jumps happy and stronger than wolves claw and birds caw/we will take back the hollow and one day we will make it our home." 

Outside of the gate beyond the ruined house they would call their own...stood a woman with a broken ankle and a gold dancing dress. She looked in on the children from beyond the hollowed out stump. As she moved toward the Manor a stinging pain surrounded her feet and her chest like being stung with bees. Unwelcome fears ran up her spine. In a desk drawer in a courthouse sat a deed passed overnight from one line of Greene's to the other. A home for the wandering outcast boy and the troublesome child. The trade off was cold and distance. They did not know yet what they had bought. She surveyed the land for signs of a dark haired little girl with a forlorn reflection. No ripples. No pings. Silence deep as a grave. What had happened to Bridgette?  As dawn came calling she boarded a bus and headed back to the place she was born. She had at least seen them home. 

At Greenbriar: 

Daniel woke to a sound he had not heard in many years halls full of children's laughter. Mack was running around the yard with Brooklyn. He waited in the estate room listening for signs of life. Fran's voice was on the phone talking to someone in excited but hushed tones. He looked out the window to the treehouse. The trees were almost covering the thicket between here and his old best friends homestead. His parents gone from the house and unable to return for a while. Mari was likely in the library where her and Fern went through his collection and family pictures. Replacing and retrieving old things to their original state. The house was rearranging the dark energy for some peace. He thought of the deal he had made with his nephew and wondered what it would bring and take back to Vera's old homestead. Sick and stuck in the careful kept secrets that Greenbriar had so long sought to forget. He worried for Jake and for Ingrim as they had sampled the sweets that Myrna had made in that kitchen. Working no doubt to repeat the past. Fran was supposed to be here and Jake and Vivian would still watch over this place until he came home to stay. Today was his last morning in his old room and he would take his time. All his other siblings had traded away the beauty within the broken pieces of the past. He thought of the horse in the stall beyond the house resting after the storm brewed last night. He hoped that the steed would allow for the return of his friends family. Greenes and Greys kept each other safe. But not even he could make the Manor obey his will. His sister's family had gone on to something else. He hoped that Fern and Lorna would also find their own space soon. She had spent too much time trying to keep peace here. It had almost cost her everything. He woke up and opened the window. He noticed a woman walking through the underbrush he thought it was Vivian she was motioning frantically toward the gate. Fran ran into the yard. Something was wrong. Ingrim was sick and so was Jake. He thought of his promise to Brooklyn. He prayed for the little boy who had become a beacon of hope to the place. They needed the horse and the boy to bring back the family his friend had been waiting on. That woman came through the underbrush her hair wild and face cross. Carrying something a rolling pin. How had she come here? He needed to fix this and quickly. He placed a call to his brothers somewhere warm and bright. They had to work quicker to tear down that house and burn that wretched piano to kindling. Dark things could not stay wandering and waiting for the house was not safe until the dark left here completely. His brothers agreed and sent a sheriff to sign a demolition order careful to only include the large house. He sent a copy to Ruth and waited  in his library listening to the sounds of his heartbeat  and happiness. However, shortlived it would be. 

Brittany's dad heard a siren blare through the gate. He woke up and hid Brittany forgetting that he was not squatting anymore. He met the deputy with a gun pointed at the house. He handed him a summons. They had already made plans to demolish the Manor as quickly as he returned. Daniel and his other uncles names were emblazoned on the document in red pen. It would come down in three days and they had been given orders not to fell the tree or touch any other domicile on the property. He was listed as the owner under a name he had used in Nova Scotia. A new start indeed everyone else but their family thought he had died long ago. He had to notify his mother. He tried the house he had the number for. No one answered. The dial tone made his heart tumble in his chest where was she? What was going to happen if Salem and all her silver tongued swindling could not keep back the tide of changes here and tamp the secrets down...they were alone in the dark and weary world for the space here was frought with shadows that he now owned. His father long gone and his mother disappearing again in the night like a nameless spectre. Brittany's mother a figment of his past. This old house was coming back to its roots and they wound around him like thorns piercing his daughter's heart. What had he done?