As Usual, I Was Silent. --2. Snow--
#2 of AUIWS
Chapter 2
Life as usual now, I got up early, worked the whole day, had a meal courtesy of the caretaker, and went home again. This went on for about a month. However, as this time wore on, so did my curiosity about the other occupant. I usually holed it up in school but I was very inquisitive, always wanting to know more. That was part of the reason my brother and I got caught mating, I wanted to learn more ways to have fun and forgot about being cautious, so zealous was I to learn about sex. I can still remember their faces when they caught me happily sucking away on his penis, gulping down that tasty white stuff he'd started making about a year after we started having sex with each other. But anyway...
School wasn't going too well now that I spent all my time at work, I had to switch to nightly tutoring. I may not be educated to the highest degree but I'm still pretty smart, I was able to keep up. Education is no indicator of brilliance, some of the smartest others I know never set foot in a school while some of the dumbest received the highest possible levels of learning. Which made me wonder why I even bothered putting up with the tutors. I just did it because I acquiesced to everything. In the back of my mind at all times was that house and the sealed-off rooms. The caretaker seemed nice but distant, and sometimes he had a strange, almost eerie gleam in his eye when he looked at me. Once when I was showering there I caught him watching me. I didn't care, he can stare at my breasts all he wants, he's never going to have me. In fact my rebellious side took over briefly and, pretending I hadn't noticed him, I gave him a nice view between my legs when I went to clothe myself. I was pissed that he'd been spying on me, but I didn't let it catch on. Part of living through war here is learning to defend yourself; if he tried anything, I'd be prepared.
Prepared I was for him, but not for what lay in wait.
I'd finished cleaning most of the rooms in the left wing and the first floor of the right wing, and thankfully with the very few occupants there wasn't much dust to re-settle on the surfaces, so I had a pretty easy going. I did, however, have to scrub the floors and woodwork come summertime, which I wasn't looking forward to. It took me two to three days to clean one large room, the smaller rooms could take a much shorter time, but scrubbing was a pain in the ass. As the first flakes of snow began to fall outside I walked around the left wing of the house looking at bedrooms...something appealed to me about this side of the house, I don't quite know what it is even to this day, but I liked that left side. It did offer a nice view of the forest and the edge of the field, revealing a garden, but at that time everything was brown and dead so I can't really count that as a draw point for that specific time. As I stood in a bedroom on the second floor, I heard something move behind me. It sounded like sheets or a gown or cloak or something swishing along the floor. I turned around in time to see the end of a white cloth slither around the door jamb into the hallway. As curious as I was, I was also frightened, for I heard no footsteps. The caretaker, while quiet, always had footsteps even when he was trying to spy on me. Even the rats I'd sometimes seen would scritch their way along the floors or walls. This though made no discernible sound other than that fabric. My better judgement also told me that if it was the owner, I shouldn't go and look since he didn't want to be seen. But that made me wonder...had he been watching me, or was he simply going for a walk oblivious to me?
The next week went by without incident, although the snow kept piling up. After slipping on ice patches, enough was enough.
"I'll take a bedroom."
The caretaker jumped a bit, not knowing I was there behind him. "Pardon?"
"I said I'll take a bedroom," I repeated, hoping the snow clumped all over me would drive the reason home with him and prevent further discussion.
"Ah. Okay then. Make yourself at home in the room of your choice." He turned back to his work, which I'd found was restoring old paintings. Right now he was mixing paints, which he took unusually painstaking time and effort to do, measuring everything exact. Kinda made me a little suspicious, but whatever. I moved my stuff into the second floor main bedroom of the upper left wing. I would have to bring my pillows tomorrow and inform the stewardess of the orphanage of the change in abode, but that could wait. I had cleaned this room extra-well yesterday in preparation. As I set up my stuff though, again, I heard that slishy sound of fabric on the floor, and turned to the doorway to see not cloth, but a white-scaled hand pull around the door frame, as if a passerby was idly letting his hand run along the wall and whatever it encountered along the way on his walk. That creeped me out, but again, I resisted investigating, though barely.
The transition went well, though the children broke out in tears when they were told I was leaving. That was probably the first time in years I'd ever thought of smiling...it touched me that even though they didn't know me well, I was still like a big sister to them. In fact, as badly as I'd wanted away from that place for years, that night was the hardest because I knew I was missed. I guess I got over it, though I think that softened me up a tad, because now I felt so bad that they were stuck there and I now had somewhat of a better home.
The caretaker somehow found out I liked to read and learn...I suppose he had consulted with my tutors behind my back, but when I got to the mansion I found cart tracks in the snow, and upon reaching my room I found shelves of books of all sorts. Fantasy stories, science and nature books, histories, biographies, dictionaries, art books...there weren't a lot of each, but it was enough to keep me busy if I needed a distraction. At first I didn't quite know what to think but deep down I was grateful. The caretaker made no mention or indication of it though, and as usual, I was silent.
A few nights later, I guess I wasn't quite used to sleeping in the old house yet because I couldn't sleep well. Maybe it was the lack of boisterous kids running around, or the creaking and groaning and echoing as the house settled during the night. Whatever it was, I went upstairs to the bathroom I preferred, listening to the caretaker cooking in the kitchen. In this spot I could hear everything he did through the vent shafts, but all he really did was hum to himself a bit, or grumble, or sigh, or mumble snippets of a recipe. When I'd finished my business, however, I spotted a stairwell leading to the roof that I hadn't noticed before. In fact, part of the wall had been slid aside to reveal it. Curious but cautious I headed up those stairs, trying not to make any noise. I ended up arriving on the roof under a glass lattice, some snow sticking to the old frames between the glass panels. It was very dark up here, only lit by the moonlight, which shone a pretty blue through the snow. Enough blue to illuminate a white-robed figure seated at a desk at the far end of the roof, looking through a rather large telescope and apparently scribbling some thing on a piece of paper by him. His white wings slowly furled and unfurled with his breath, that much I could see from all the way over here. I stayed still, hoping he hadn't noticed my presence. He looked exactly like the caretaker...which didn't make sense, wasn't the caretaker in the kitchen? Wanting to go see for myself, I quickly but quietly left and headed down to the kitchen, finding it vacated for the night. Maybe that was him up there and I'd lost track of time... Since I was downstairs I grabbed a small snack and ate it while gazing out at the snow-covered back field.
I'd never really stopped to look at snow...it was calming. Peaceful. I'd always been scared of the dark but the blue aura of moonlight on the fresh-fallen snow outside was absolutely breathtaking. Literally, I was so awed that I'd stopped breathing for a bit. The trees, the field, everything under a soft, thick, fluffy, glowing blanket of pure, unadulterated white. Factor in the snowflakes gently sifting down from the clouds...it was gorgeous. That night was the night I fell in love with winter's majesty.
The next day was business as usual though, back to cleaning. It was a little harder now though with the house being drafty, making my hands cold and clammy. Very uncomfortable to have to work with, but I managed. I'd have to or else I'd lose my right to stay here. In the evening I stayed outside bundled up and just watched the colors gradually change as the sun set in the other direction, the shadow of the mansion stretching further and further into the field a dull mauve amid the gold yellows and oranges of the snow around it. The clouds above were a dark orange set against an increasing twilit blue. It was very picturesque, and the one memory that really stands out in my mind for that time. Not only for the beauty, but also for the fact that I wasn't alone. The caretaker was painting, but someone was behind me admiring the scenery as well. I knew he was there. For a short while anyway, but I knew he was there. There was definitely someone else in this house. The caretaker and I had our meal in the usual silence, though he seemed a little distracted. Most certainly not by me, I hadn't seen him most of the day. Night though held a surprise for me.
Music floating down the hall.
A sad, sweet, haunting but beautiful melody of a Human instrument called the glass harmonica, or as Benjamin Franklin reinvented it, the armonica. Slow, careful, precise and perfectly on key. The notes were strange and alien to me, there was absolutely no staccato effect of strings being plucked, nor the plunk of keys being tapped, nor indeed the sound of wires or strings or plates vibrating. No sound of air passing through carefully sculpted holes in a flute or pipe. It was a vibration kind of sound, but at the time, I couldn't place it at all. Now I know it's generated by wet fingers running over moving glass but back then all I knew was that it was a creepy sound.
I don't know what it was, but it shocked me. Not the actual creepiness of the notes, but the tune itself.