Greenbriar Manor

Dreams and Destinations

Brittany's dad ran frantically to the front lobby of the hotel when he got the call from the paramedics. Lou, the man who was sent to demo had only gotten half the job done before he collapsed. The house would have to be finished tomorrow and the beams and debris removed the following day. Until then, it would be considered uninhabitable. He grew more upset by the minute. This was HIS HOME! Daniel had given it to him to take care of, and yet every time he tried, it made things so much worse. He thought of being a child and how his mother carted him to all her events, which usually meant he slept on couches and in closets. His father was away alot for business and was a hard man so Salem took liberties. She had never responded and it had been days since he heard from her what would they do now? Where was she? Why had he done this? He would go down to the Manor and check on things himself. He left and drove there as fast as he could. When he got out he was surprised to see a woman standing in the thicket. Her face cross in a sneer. He had enough of ghosts and bad turns. He just wanted somewhere he could raise his daughter in peace. He yelled at the old woman, "Do you know who I am?" Myrna sneered yes she knew exactly who he was the man who came to collect on debts and who got away with anything as long as his mommy wrote fancy checks. He would only keep this land as long as the child wanted to stay here then it would go up for sale. Salem was gone. Daniel was done with this blight and Vera was hurdling through time chasing something else entirely. The child would be okay wherever she ended up. But the house and all its shadows was hers. She remembered the heft of the rolling pin and how it felt to knead out dough in the kitchen. How it felt to see Vera win and wed and then return to look after her house. But this man was insolent. Brittany had brought with her a mind to wander and she had let Vera and Bridgette go. Still someone must watch this gated place. It was too careless to do it alone. There were no housekeepers in the ruins of a memory. She spoke to him in broken English. "I came here long ago to live and to make my family successful. The girl she came here and worked and found a life. She got a husband and went on to be great things. One stayed but no one knew what her heart desired. You follow?" He nodded almost entranced by this strange distressed women. Why had no one arrested her? "They come to tear down my dreams" "YOU" "Come to build on things you did not earn you are not a Greene you are yellow. Your mother is the one who has made this place safe for me as long as I pay her. She not tell you?" He shook his head. Just like his mother giving someone a break while making his life harder so she would not have to do anything difficult. He thought about the way it looked when he drove in. How the house had seemed strangely clean given the fact his distant cousin never came here. How Daniel could not give him and explanations as to why someone else had been a part owner at one point years ago that he did not recognize. Someone not a Greene. it must be this woman. "Who are you?" he asked with anger in his voice. Myrna smiled knowing her response would land a barb, "I am someone who your mother loves and has known a long time. When she left home she came here broken and I made her bright. She had you and brought you here as you bring your child but could not stay for long. She needs the cold and the mystery a shadow. Your mother. Vera knew the rule: This is not a house for children." So she stayed here letting me keep the other house for myself. Now you come and tear down it all and build on things you know nothing about. Your mom came here to see me and she went away she does not desire this life with these wayward children. You  have inherited her ache. I believe you knew this already...Yes?" 

He thought of his mother's strange sounding voicemails as the house was being sold. How Daniel worked with him quickly and how the other owners never did any meeting with them at all just through accounting and acquaintances. How the other children treated Brittany at the Manor house. How Daniel always gave him what he deserved and kindness he did not. He stood looking at the house where he came back after all those years on the road. It had never really been his at all. But it would be now. He would give this sour woman a chance to make peace with her strange dark ways and bring Brittany here when the time was right. He held up his handkerchief waving it like a truce flag. "What if I give you the land where the house sits to build a tiny home and we live in the other house until we can find another suitable dwelling place?" Myrna almost had him. "But no children... you have daughter yes?" She will not like here dark and dusty and lonely for children. They need care and attention. I teach her like I taught your Mama and you can stay." He had a feeling something was not right but what could he do? He had entered an agreement on his own fitfully and it had already brought more headache than balm. At this point he would do anything for them to have a somewhat normal home. Plus, Brittany needed some structure. He would have to talk to Daniel maybe he knew about this strange old woman. But right now he agreed not knowing that Myrna never did anything without a price. Brittany would succeed like Salem and Vera before her and for a summer she would learn more about the original homestead. But what Myrna wasn't counting on is a child made to survive with stories and simple pleasures as long as she had was also one who could outsmart people who hand them boxes of darkness. She did not have to take her See See's secrets into her heart. Just her strength and wit. 

Meanwhile: Mabel woke up to a phone call from Mack he had requested that they go to the Greenbriar Manor next month and stay a while. Things there were in bit of change as some of the people in the house had been sick or left and  his mom could really use some help. Her mom agreed. Since the old Manor had sold there was not really anything to keep them close by. She had noticed late last night that a taxi cab had pulled up and Brittany's grandma had gotten out of it. She looked worried about something. Vee was not the kind to ask for help but Mabel knew she needed it. She made a note to go upstairs and have tea with her one time before she left for her cousin's home. Of course her mother would never agree to it since the last strange letter came to them after her and Mack went last time. She waited for her mother to start her morning calls for work and tiptoed upstairs. She knocked on the door and it opened. Somehow Brittany's grandma looked younger. She smiled and invited her in to have tea. The cups and saucers were placed and cookies. She could always sense when Mabel was coming for a visit. She told her friend about the Manor and she reminded her that the place was full of people that she did not know and that anytime they went on a long trip to remember to honor the home of who they went to see. She told her she would look in on her friend while she was away and hugged her tightly before she ran down the steps and to meet her mother for lunch. Vera would stay here long enough to see Brittany to her home and then she would leave for somewhere brighter that did not have the family attachments. She would always miss Bridgette but there was more out here for her than what she had lost and it was Daniel who had freed her to find it and Brittany. She owed her this kindness. 

At the Original Manor: 

 The local police chief had given the demo crew a stern talking to and was ready to nix the job all together and put them up at a local apartment complex. Noone needed this kind of headache. Susan was well respected in this town and Vera and her husband had been too before the grief had turned her inward. When Bridgette had come and gone so quickly everything changed for that whole Greene family. Strange bunch as they were. Old money and peculiar. Sending a man and a little girl to live in a maid's old house while the Manor itself was left to rot. Seemed a tragedy even for them. He was hopeful that by the end of this strange occurance and demolition of  that storm battered estate that the angry owner and  Lou would be back to normal. This town deserved better than what that old house had wrought. Maybe someday long after this round of Greene's were grown and gone the secrets would die down and all would be peaceful on that old cattle farmland once and for all. He thought of that strange woman and dog and the things in Vera's house wrapped in plastic and how it all just seemed like they were keeping things for some brighter day. He remembered Bridgettes beautiful haunting piano recital and her long dark hair if he had ever loved a girl in his younger days it was her. What a shame he thought as he left the hospital to go home and watch his favorite television shows. Being alone sometimes was safer he thought. How wrong he was.,,,some one was about to come calling.