A Room in the House of the Ancestors Books One and Two

by Melody Clark

  “I haven’t told him yet,” Tad added, continuing to grin. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t.”

  “Besides,” James said from his own corner, “you must know how we feel, Eddie, we –”

  “Don’t. Please don’t. James, I don’t easily talk about feelings, okay?” Eddie covered his face with both hands. He shook his head hard. “This is exactly the incredibly embarrassing discussion I’ve been dreading. It was just a talk with my therapist. I’m not even sure where it came from.”

  “From the same depths that compel you to tremble whenever Dad so much as enters the room,” Tad announced.

  “This from the man who hides when his son arrives,” Eddie replied. “Can’t we just forget it was ever said? Who am I kidding? I’ll be hearing it repeated back to me on a continuous loop for the rest of my natural life.”

  “He’s really catching on now,” Tad said to the others. “On that note, I was telling the bros here about our earlier mind-reading of petrified wood and such. Fascinating research.”

  “It was an experiment for a child,” Eddie explained. “I showed Stewart how SAGE2 functions.”

  Andrew perked up. “Really? Anything come of it?”

  “No, nothing, of course,” Edward said, considering a moment before adding, “Not from the wood, though I did have something interesting occur when I touched the inside of the cap to stretch it out again. I had a flash of a young woman kissing my fingers. But they weren’t adult fingers; they were an infant’s fingers. Probably just a stray image from something I’ve seen, but it was interesting.”

  “Maybe not,” Andrew said. “It might have been crypto memory you have of someone kissing your hand when you were a baby. Mum perhaps.”

  “Maybe, I suppose,” Edward said. “But probably it was just a floating image.”

  Andrew nodded. “We’ve had more than a few of those. But it would be an interesting line of inquiry to follow.”

  “Maybe we can follow up on it toward the end of the month.”

  “Edward,” Tad said, “it is the end of the month. Tomorrow is Wilse’s birthday. The day after tomorrow is Halloween. On which we’re all going out to Raven’s Nest for our yearly revels.”

  “Speaking of my birthday,” Wilse said from his corner, “I have emailed all of you the information on some very top cameras. I mean, since my birthday is approaching.”

  “Yes, speaking of that, happy birthday,” Edward said, reaching into his pocket for keys. He lobbed them over James’ head to Wilse who caught them with a surprised grab.

  Wilse’s eyes widened. “What’s this?”

  “I’m buying a new car, so I thought I’d give you the old one. You need one.”

  Wilse’s jaw dropped open. “Thank you! I can’t believe it!”

  “Eddie,” Andrew said, looking across at him warily, “did you perchance discuss that idea with Dad?”

  “No,” Eddie said, shrugging. “Should I have?”

  “Well, he’s Wilse’s guardian and, well, he has said Wilse isn’t ready for a car –”

  “Oh, it’ll be okay,” James said brightly, “besides, we need a car. And Wilsey can drive me around in it. It’ll be less time that the Toad needs to drive us places.” James grabbed the keys from Wilse’s open hand. “Come on, let’s take it for a spin.”

  They were gone faster than Eddie could rethink his course of action. A sudden coldness overtook him. The growing crevasse in his stomach told him he was probably in serious trouble. Thomas Croftdon would not be happy.

  “I’m really screwed, aren’t I?” Eddie asked, sinking back against the wall.

  Tad nodded, finishing off his beer. “Undoubtedly. And there’s not a chance in hell of you getting those car keys back now.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d come with me to talk to Dad?” Eddie said, knowing the answer to his question before it was asked.

  Tad coughed out a laugh. “Ha! Not a chance, Edward. That is one lonesome valley all we Croftdon men must walk alone.”

  “Somehow I was afraid you’d say that.”

  “Well, this must be huge,” Thomas said, as he fully opened the ajar door past which Edward had just walked for the fifteenth time.

  Edward’s fist hovered in mid-air, as if he had been prepared to knock. He dropped the hand to his side, abandoning his last wave of resistance.

  Edward drew a deep breath. “I’m afraid I’ve done something you’re not going to – like.”

  “Is that right? Well, come in,” Thomas said, sighing, “let’s hear about it. Have a seat. Easier to slap at you from that position. That was humor, by the way.”

  Eddie swallowed hard. “I think I’d rather stand. Look, I didn’t think it through before I did it.”

  “That is usually the way of things before such talks.”

  “It was an impulsive choice. I didn’t think through the ramifications of my actions. I’m afraid I went expressly against your wishes.”

  “Well, then let’s have it. What has happened?”

  Edward grimaced, as if steeling himself for a strike. “I gave Wilse my old car. For his birthday.”

  Thomas sank back into his office chair, exhaling a little more as he reached the deepest point. “Edward –”

  “I know. I know.”

  “I specifically asked you to not do anything like this, and then in short order, you did –”

  “Believe me, I realize that now. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “I do, I’m afraid. Yet again, you use money and objects to win people over –”

  Edward winced at the words. “Please don’t make me sound so pathetic. It was nothing like that. It was a foolish, stupid, rash decision I didn’t think through. That’s all.”

  “That you thought might gain you some inclusion into a family you believe you don’t otherwise –”

  “Don’t! I get the picture.” Edward flinched even harder. “Do you really see me as that pitiful?”

  “I see you as that human,” Thomas said, folding his arms to think. “I must admit I’m very disappointed in you. I need you on my team, as my eldest, Edward. I need you to follow my example very closely. Heaven knows Tad never has. I know you’re only following the one example you had and it wasn’t a good one.”

  “Please, I’m not blaming this on anyone but myself. It’s no one’s fault but mine.”

  Thomas laughed to himself, shaking his head. “Yes, you solitary man, you. The problem now is my late brother, your uncle, was too much like you – he was away all the time, so he gave Wilse all the material things to substitute for his attention. That boy was a ruddy spoiled cadger when he came here. He still bears traces of it. It took me years to get him to respect my word. And now you’ve done this.”

  Edward nodded heavily. “I don’t know what else to say but I’m sorry.”

  “Well, first of all, there’s the mission that is easy to say and very much more difficult to accomplish. You can’t do it by yourself. However, you are going to assist in the enterprise.”

  “Which is?” Eddie asked, smiling contritely.

  “Getting the damned keys back.”

  They found the boys where Edward suspected they would be – skulked down in the car in a conspiracy with investigating the august sound system. He felt a sharp pang of guilt at the sight of them, and what he knew was about to transpire.

  Thomas walked around to the driver’s side and reached an arm through a window to yank the keys from the ignition. He was met by loud and plaintive cries of indignation.

  “I knew it was too good to last,” Wilse said, sulking as he scowled over at Edward. “You told him.”

  “Don’t scold your cousin,” Thomas said sharply. “This is my doing.”

  Edward nodded, looking down. “I’m sorry, but your uncle is right. I shouldn’t have overstepped his authority.”

  Thomas kept focus on Wilse. “You knew very well I didn’t wa
nt you to have a car yet. You’ve barely survived your motorcycle and bicycle attempts. Now get out of there and go up to finish the rest of your report. James, you have errands to run.”

  “That’s where we were going, Dad!” James shot back as they climbed out of the car.

  “Yes, and you’ll get there equally well on your bicycle. The exercise will be good for you. If James hadn’t wrecked his own car, you’d still have it. And one last thing.”

  “Yes?” the boys said in unison.

  Thomas held up the keys. “I will place these in a secret and secure location. Once I have the car examined, stem to stern, and pronounced mechanically fit, and I have determined that you are responsible enough for your own car, you can have the keys back. I will appoint a driving advisor to ride with you for the first couple of months.”

  “Really?” Wilse asked, his eyes brightening.

  “Yes.” Thomas scowled at the keys before he pocketed them. “Frankly, I didn’t like the bucket of bolts when Edward bought it. If he hadn’t purchased a new one, and I hadn’t thought he was using this one in trade, I would have already had it trundled off for a thorough inspection. And he’s a grown man.”

  Wilse’s pout diminished slightly. “That’s a little better.”

  “Now go, both of you,” Thomas said. “Dinner will be delivered in two hours. You’re both there, no excuses. We have a family discussion tonight.”

  “Yes, sir,” the younger Croftdons said, in unison, before trundling off toward the house in plodding synchrony.

  Edward waited a moment before speaking or moving. “Is that it? No being sent to my room? No hickory stick? I get off that easy?”

  Thomas laughed. “Not easy in the least. Guess who Wilse’s twenty-four hour, seven days a week on call driving advisor is going to be.”

  “Me?”

  Thomas nodded. “You.”

  “Go fetch Eddie for dinner,” their father had said, as if Tad might scamper over, scratch an itch, then drag Eddie back in the knit of his teeth.

  After the details of what had happened, Tad knew where his older brother would be. Given similar circumstances, Tad knew damned well where he himself would have been. Hiding. In his room. Staying silent. Playing possum. Hoping they would decide he had turned in early and therefore wouldn’t be wanting dinner at all.

  Their father, who was also like them, of course foresaw Eddie’s plan of action. “Tell him there will be no excuses,” he said, “it’s an important family meeting.”

  Thaddeus first attempted a series of comic invention summons including the requisite “candy gram” and the simple and to-the-point “land shark.” This resulted in no internal response. Just a deep, vigilant silence.

  “Edward,” Tad intoned loudly, after knocking for another time, “resistance is futile. Abandon ship. Accept your fate.”

  After a long silence, during which Tad knocked once more for an extended period of time, a voice finally answered, “I can’t appeal the decision to Dad?”

  “The declaration is from Dad. There’s smoke out the chimney, son. Alea iacta est. The die is cast.”

  “I gave at the office?” Edward’s voice replied.

  “You should know that by now you don’t have enough money to avoid a summons from our father. He cannot be leveraged from his position. Believe me, if I could have bought him off, I’d have been sliding for years. Open the door.”

  “I could just keep it locked?” Edward suggested.

  “And I would go fetch the key to the room, which I have. And do not delude yourself, Dad is not above ordering me to tote you down physically. So be prepared for total abject humiliation.”

  After a lengthy sigh, the sound of a bolt being drawn reverberated. Edward opened the door. He stepped out and shut the room behind him.

  “I guess it’s official,” Eddie said, shaking his head. “I’m dead.”

  “That’s nothing. Wait till you hear the rest of the glad news. Grandfather is joining us. To tell us about this miraculous funding he has received to rebuild this old house. Yes, it’s going to be very strained and unpleasant for you on all levels. And no picnic for the rest of us, I might add.”

  Edward’s eyelids slid shut, as he knocked his head back once against the door. “Wonderful.”

  “Yes, my brother, but take heart. I shall be right behind you,” Tad said, patting his shoulder. “Sniggering mercilessly, but behind you.”

  He had hoped to slip into the room unseen, but Tad’s pronounced cough behind him made certain that he couldn’t. James and Wilse had returned to scowling a little while slumped in their own chairs. Andrew handed out fish and chips to each place setting. Their father look resigned and accustomed to the fact; their grandfather looked emboldened. None of it augured positively.

  “Since I was a one-man party preparation assistant, and with everything else that happened, including working on SAGE2,” Andrew said, patting Edward’s shoulder supportively as the man filed past to sink into a side chair. “I didn’t have time to cook.”

  “This will be more than adequate, Andrew,” John Croftdon said, his voice, as ever, as precise as a sounding clock. “As most of you know, the home we now inhabit is in need of its own update. The old estate is undergoing preservation, of course, all thanks to Edward’s great generosity.”

  It was at this point that Edward realized he was toast – or flambéed, fricasséed, poached, what have you. He was DOA. A dead parrot. A flaming Peking duck of death.

  He knew what his grandfather was about to discuss, and he also knew his father, especially following their earlier testy conversation, would not fail to miss the implications.

  Edward leaned his head back and quietly groaned. In fact, he had always believed there was supposed to be a kind of inner calm that settled over one in the wake of realizing one was totally screwed. But the screwed over subject had never been the son of Thomas Croftdon.

  Eddie rubbed at his eyes. “Christ, I’m dead,” he muttered to Andrew, as his brother sat down beside him, patting his arm again in sympathy.

  “Really, Father,” Thomas said suspiciously, “and how are we to arrange for the enormous funds to do this?”

  John said, with absolutely no finesse, “I have sought out and gained a grant from a historic preservation society.”

  Thomas folded his arms and looked over at Edward. “Have you now?”

  “Yes,” John said, “it will be enough to complete the work that has been long needed on this house. We should be very grateful.”

  “I am so toast,” Edward muttered.

  Tad snickered from beside him. “Yes, yes, you are, brother septic,” he murmured in reply.

  “And where is this generous society headquartered, may I ask?” Thomas said, continuing to stare at Eddie.

  “Elsewhere. I would hand these to you individually, but I’m unusually exhausted this evening,” the old man said, passing along a copy of the diagram for each of them. “See to it everyone receives one.”

  The diagram copies were handed down to each person. Edward peeked out at his through the fingers of a hand.

  “What is all this, Father?” Thomas asked.

  “A two-part diagram,” John said. “You will note the layout by the room names. Thomas’ office, my office, Andrew’s room and so on. The clear layer stapled over it has the new additions that have been suggested by the architect.”

  Tad hid a snicker behind his hand as he regarded his own copy when passed down to him. “Well, isn’t this something? And so conveniently timed, too.”

  “Will you please stop enjoying this so much?” Edward whispered.

  “No, I won’t,” Tad replied.

  “Now that we all have a copy before us, are there any questions?” John asked.

  “No,” Thomas said, “but I will certainly have questions for Edward after dinner.”

  Eddie nodded in understanding. “I know you will,
” he replied, staring dully down at the diagram, only to see something that took his mind off his imminent fate. “Wait, I didn’t realize I’m using your room, Dad.”

  “You aren’t,” Thomas said, sighing patiently. “I’m still in the room I shared with your mother.”

  “Then why does the room I’m using on this diagram say Thomas?” Eddie asked.

  “Because when your mother and I finally married, we wanted there to be a room for you, so that if you ever returned, you would know it had always been there,” Thomas said.

  Edward sat fully back in his chair. All concerns about the previous information disclosure set aside, he was more stunned than he had ever believed he could be. Nothing had prepared him for this.