That was when they heard the Ford sputter into the narrow driveway it barely fit in. Mackie Bloom stumbled into the door, his dark eyes nearly popping out of round spectacles. He clutched a perfect, velvety vermilion rose, swaddled in paper like a newborn child in his trembling fingers. His breathing was hard, labored, and his normally rosy, plump cheeks were whiter than the snow outside.
“Father?” Hilary hurried to his side, the other three following. “Are you all right?” He thrust the rose into her hands. “It’s beautiful, Father! I’ve never seen such a gorgeous rose, especially in mid-January. Where did you get it?”
“Well,” Mackie panted, “It’s like this, Hilary. You see, I got to the Liberty Theater late two days ago, and…er, it wasn’t there anymore. Turns out they canceled the performance when the theater was declared unfit for human occupancy and condemned.”
Maple’s face fell. “You didn’t get the job? No dress or books?”
“I think we’re beyond that right now, Maple.” Betty glared at her sister, then rubbed her horrified father on the back. “Go on, Dad.”
“I was driving home in the snow storm last night.” He saw Betty and Hilary’s annoyed looks. “Ok, so I shouldn’t have been driving in a snowstorm. I, well, with all that snow blowing around, I kind of got lost. I thought I’d pull in at the nearest house and ask directions, but I was in one of those swanky parts, with all the really big mansions with the tall round towers like castles they were building fifty or sixty years ago, you know? Anyway, I pulled the Ford up the driveway, and the old gate just…creaked open. No one pulled it open. It just did. Creepy as hell, let me tell you!”
Hilary didn’t like the sound of this at all. “How could it just open by itself?”
“I had no idea, and at that point, I wasn’t exactly asking questions.” Betty went to the kitchen and brought him a glass of orange juice from the icebox. “Thanks, hon.” He gulped it before continuing. “I thought maybe these obviously loaded people could give me somewhere to stay for the night. I wandered around, but…well, I swear I heard voices, but I didn’t see anything.”
“No one?” Hilary raised an eyebrow. “How could you just wander around and see no one?”
Mackie’s eyes were getting bigger by the moment. “I don’t know! I could hear them. I heard voices. I swear, I heard an organ playing somewhere. I thought I heard a cat purr, but when I turned around…nothing.” He shrugged. “Well, to make a long story short, I did stay there for the night. Nice place, for there being no one around. Fed me like a king. Chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and carrots…I dined like a king and slept in a feather bed with a silk coverlet three times the size of my old one in New York.”
C.J frowned. “Dad, get to the point. Where did the rose come from? It’s January.”
“Well, I went wandering around the next day after breakfast to find someone I could thank for taking me in. Went out in the garden, and that’s when I found the hot house. They were cultivating roses in that glass mausoleum. He had thousands of them! I didn’t think he’d mind if I picked one for Hilary!”
Hilary raised a perfectly sculptured eyebrow. “He?”
“He! It! That…that THING!” Macke waved his arms, his eyes wide with horror. “It just…jumped out at me! Like it came from the corner of my deepest nightmares. It was…slimy and horrible, with horns out to here,” he indicated a long curling line from his balding head, “warts everywhere and this greenish skin, like a troll from those fairy tale books I know Betty reads before bed.”
“A monster?” Maple was actually grinning. “Wow, a real monster, like in the movies! I didn’t think we had real monsters in Pittsburgh! This is kind of neat!”
“Neat?” Hilary’s eyes widened. “Father, surely you imagined it!"
“Hilary,” Mackie’s voice raised nearly ten octaves, “you think I could IMAGINE something like this? I know what I saw. It was…dripping with…stuff, moss, I don’t know, and the claws…those claws were sharp like razors! It growled and said I was stealing and I had to pay the price. He said he’d call the cops on me for taking his rose! I just…panicked and said I’d send you right over. Anything to get out of there before he sliced me into lunch leftovers!”
“Ok, something is seriously wrong here.” C.J’s own eyebrows were raised even higher. “Monsters like that are only found in Lon Chaney movies and really vivid nightmares.”
“I agree.” Hilary squared her shoulders. “I’ll go, Father. I asked for the rose. You stole it for me. This is my fault.”
“Hilary,” Mackie wailed, “I don’t want any of my children anywhere near that..that house of horrors!”
Maple grinned. “Hey, why don’t we all go? Hilary shouldn’t be alone on this! If this monster is really that scary, she might need back-up. Besides, it sounds like a real adventure! Haunted house, monster, voices in the night. It’s better than a mystery on the radio.”
“I don’t think we should all go.” Betty gently took Mackie’s arm. “At least one person should stay with Dad. He’s had a terrible shock.”
“I’ll do it.” C.J nodded. “I have my electrician job, anyway. I can’t leave it…but I can ask questions. Be discreet. See what people say about a mansion where lights have been flickering, people have been heard, but not seen. Dad, I’ll need the address.”
“I’ll give it to you, if I can remember.” He made a face. “Girls, I really don’t think this is a good idea.”
Hilary dropped the rose in a cracked earthenware jug. “Father, it wanted me, whatever it is. It couldn’t hurt to find out what it’s after. C.J’s right. I can feel it in my bones. This ‘monster’ is far from what it seems.”
“I can’t go, either.” Betty pulled away. “I have scripts to work on.”
“So you can work on them there.” Maple grabbed Betty’s hand. “Come on, sis! It’ll be fun! Better than the movies. We’ll live our own movie, and you’ll really have something to write about then!”
There was a clear glint in Betty’s eyes. “Well…I could use some research for my next story…”
“It’s settled, then.” Hilary turned to her father with finality. “The three of us will leave soon as we can pack and catch a cab. We’ll leave you two the Ford to run errands and get C.J to work.”
C.J hugged his sisters in turn. “Be careful, all right? There’s something dangerous here. I just know it.”
Mackie gave all of his children a group hug. “If you’re determined to do this crazy thing, I can at least give you a good send-off.”
They all laughed and leaned into his arms. Maple giggled, cuddling him. “Oh Dad!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It didn’t take long for them to pack their bags. Betty was perfectly capable of packing on her own, but Hilary did have to supervise Maple. If it was up to her middle sister, she’d bring a pile of movie fanzines and one shoe. She was so eager to see this “movie monster” for herself, it was all Hilary could do to keep her on track. Hilary, of course, needed a…few…boxes. Mackie had to help her carry her bags downstairs.
“What did ya do, bring everything ya own?” Maple raised an eyebrow when she saw the six suitcases and flowered hat boxes piled at her sister’s feet on the stoop. “We’re not exactly going to the Waldorf-Astoria here. We don’t know if this place even has runnin’ water or nothin’.”
“Even when one is going to a decaying mansion, one should always be prepared for anything.” Hilary dusted off her best dark blue suit and the dashing cloche hat with the feather she bought at that smart little woman’s shop in New York. “We don’t know how long we’re going to be there or what we’ll find. Who knows what we’ll need?”
“Who cares?” Maple dropped her two mismatched flowered suitcases on the front stoop. “I just wanna see the monster.”
Hilary’s eyes widened at the tight blouse and clingy emerald skirt her sister had on under that green coat. “We don’t need to be giving Lon Chaney an eyeful.” She immediately drew the coat over Maple’s heaving bosom and pulled her green winter hat over her bouncing shoulder-length copper curls. “Where’s Betty? We need to get going.”
“I’m here!” Betty came out in her old black coat and shapeless gray dress, her short flyaway chestnut curls thrown back with a headband under her gray felt cloche. She carried a worn carpetbag, a battered leather valise, and her beloved typewriter in its carrying case. “I called the cab. They said they’ll be here in five minutes.”
Mackie shivered and sneezed in the cold January air. “I still think you girls are crazy for doing this! This…thing…could kill you!”
“I don’t think it will.” Hilary gave her trembling parent a kiss on the cheek. “Father, there’s a mystery to all of this. Maple and I certainly aren’t doing anything useful. It wouldn’t hurt to find out what this is all about.”
“If it’s that scary,” Betty added, giving him a quick hug, “we’ll turn right around and come home.”
Maple threw her arms around Mackie for a far more crushing hug. “But we won’t be home too fast!”
“I wish,” Mackie gasped under his daughter’s strong affection, “that your brother could have been here, too, but he was called to a tech rehearsal at the Nixon.”
Hillary looked up as the yellow cab pulled behind the Ford. “That’s our ride, Father.” She leaned over and gave him another kiss. “We’ll call you when we get in and have something to tell you.”
Betty gave him a much smaller hug. “And we’ll make sure to write every day.”
“Good bye, Dad!” Maple hugged him again, then started loading up the suitcases. They had to tie most of Hilary’s on the top of the cab, but they did manage to get everyone in and on their way. Mackie ran past the Ford, waving to his daughters until the cab turned a corner and disappeared down the street.
Hilary, of course, claimed shotgun. Betty and Maple squeezed in with her bags in the back seat. Maple exclaimed over every lavish shop and extravagant mansion on Fifth Avenue and Millionaire's Row. Betty looked out the window, but her face was more pensive, and she clutched her typewriter case like a lifeline.
For her part, Hilary wondered what she was getting herself into. All of this fuss over a rose seemed a bit ridiculous. What in the hell did some…monster…want with her? It wasn’t like she hadn’t dealt with the human variety of beast before. Certainly, she’d met many animals when she was acting in New York who pawed her dresses and panted over her body, before she reminded them who was in charge of the zoo.
As they continued, twisting and turning past larger and older mansions, the mansions gradually thinned out. Maple oohed as thick, ancient old elms and oaks and sprawling snow-crusted lawns replaced the close-together stone homes. The snow picked up, making navigating the increasingly narrow, rutted roads more difficult. Even Hilary winced as they went over a particularly large pot hole. First thing she needed to do with this…whatever it was…was encourage it to fix the roads outside its home.
Even she drew in her breath when they came to the end of the road and the man turned down a wide, tree-lined drive. The spiked wrought-iron gates that wrapped around the property opened with a slow, menacing creak, with seemingly no one touching them and no electronic box nearby. Even Maple’s continual chatter died to silent admiration as they passed endless snow-frosted gardens, with fountains and bare landscaping. Hilary thought she even got a glimpse of a glass building - likely the hot house that held the rose bushes - through the soft white flakes.
The manor itself took her breath away. This was a true Gothic marvel, with its ivy-covered stone walls, Gothic towers that stabbed the sky, wide shutters framing curving windows, and sweeping staircase leading to a front door wider than the entire front of their current house, even as the tires crunched over the falling snow. The cab driver let them off at the foot of the stairs, helped them get their bags to the door, and beat a hasty retreat the moment Hilary gave him the largest tip she could afford.
“Lady, I hear things about this joint,” was all he’d say, in hush, guttural whispers. “Ghosts. Voices in the night, when there ain’t nobody there. Moans, cryin’ like someone’s heart were breakin’...only there ain’t nobody there. Good luck with this joint, girls!”
“Oooh!” Maple grinned ear to ear. “I always wanted to live in a haunted house!”
Hilary shivered and rubbed her arms. “They could have sent someone around to greet us, or at least help with our bags. Really, this…whatever it is…is very rude.”
As her sisters gathered their luggage, she leaned on the door bell, hoping someone, anyone would answer. “Hello? Is anyone there?” Giving up, she finally rapped as hard as her wool-gloved hands would allow. “Miss Hilary Booth-Bloom and her sisters Miss Anna Bloom and Miss Elizabeth Bloom have arrived!”
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