Greenbriar Manor

Tea time and Travail

Fern woke up to a strange sound outside the apartment. It  was just passed dawn.  Her mother was asleep and there was no other noise in the house at all. Yet she felt uneasy. Living back in the city had been a larger adjustment than she had bargained for when she returned. Her mother was just fine but she missed the quiet of the Manor life. Part of her wanted to go on to school but she worried the clamor she had left behind would further cause her anxiety. She looked in a catalog for correspondence courses maybe this was a worthwhile solution. She thought of Daniel and smiled. She would ask him about it. She poured a cup of coffee and held that strange invitation in her hand. She felt like she had to make this appearance for her mother. There were long held secrets in the Manor of that she was sure. Brooklyn was one of them but he would never give up his post. She thought about how each family member seemed to have a space on the walls of the great foyer. Frozen in time. How even Daniel kept on aged as he was to what end? There was someone who cared enough about her mother to reconnect and she so needed more friends. Martha had been so preoccupied with the horse trainer and Fran with her cousin Susan and Mabel that they had not even visited. Even Brooklyn had been suspiciously absent from town and she had not seen him sulking about like he usually would at work. She reread the cursive handwriting and decided she would go.  She was the historian afterall. Maybe someone had a piece of GreenBriar history to share and maybe she would know the whole truth. Daniel trusted Fern but not even he gave up all his secrets. 

Chessie waited at the bus stop outside Lorna's apartment. Her friend had not sent word back yet. She did not like not knowing what to expect but she realized everything had changed so much from her last time here. Maybe her friend had as well.  She was not like Brooklyn nor Vera. There were places she could not go. It was the way she had been given story tellers often were watchers but rarely the stars themselves. She hoped that she was not too late. She knew Mabel would find the piece of the puzzle everyone else had forgotten. She had carefully left her a trail of clues.  Mack had wandered into the piano room just after dawn and noticed a piece of music waiting for him. There was a note attached to it in a flowery purple script"from a friend". He waited until his mom and some of the others came to breakfast before he began to play. As the music filled the house he felt happy and then some other emotion. He noticed that his aunt Susan's demeanor changed. She shifted in her chair and suddenly got up from the dining room table and rushed out. Fran ran after her unsure of what to do. What Mack did not know was long ago in that same Vermont house now owned by Brittany's dad was a record player and every week Vera would set that record to come on at dusk. A party song from long ago. A dirge and memorial to Bridgette her cousin. That one day long ago Susan had been washing her hands and saw the same little girl in the mirror smiling sadly. Bridgette was here again... he had played piano with her in this very room months ago.  Susan had changed her name afterwards and since that strange day she had spent every year since trying to rationalize it away. But as things often did coming here would leave a mark on her. Bridgette had come home as well. 

As he finished the piece Mabel rushed into the room and almost knocked him down. The piano bench clattered open and out fell a skeleton key as gold as sunlight. She picked it up and shoved it in her pocket. Blueberry juice from breakfast all over her hands. She had been having fun chasing tag with Ingrim and that little dog that lived here. She really enjoyed this place. She did not understand why her mother always had to be afraid of mirrors and music and things she would not explain. She remembered the letter Vee sent last year in Vermont. She knew Brittany had been born in the mansion there and that somehow, she had gone back. But her cousin's home even in all its corners was not the same. She had already found a key and even if her mom was afraid of attic monsters she was going to see where it led. They owed it to Vee and Brittany and each other to search for the answers their mothers denied. Mack smiled at her and pointed to a door down the hall. She snuck down to the edge of the stairs after all the adults had gone to work for the day. Fran was still busy comforting her mom. Daniel had gone outside for his morning walk. She pushed open the wooden door and slid between strange old antique furniture and musty suitcases. On a far wall she saw a birdcage and thought of Vee's apartment upstairs. Two old mirrors and a straight back chair in a dusty green colored velvet. Where would the key go? Mack helped her clear away cobwebs at the corner of the room