Fallen Stones

by Thomas M. Malafarina

  "Unbelievable! This Washburn guy must have been a genius! He thought of everything!" Jason said.

  The lawyer grimaced slightly at this then said, "Well these weren't exactly Mr. Washburn's ideas. You see, he wanted the best garage and shop money could buy, and he put me in charge of the project. I hired a team of designers who specialize in this sort of thing and they came up with some truly innovative ideas. As you will see as we continue the tour, there are many other elements of this house, which you will likewise find quite intriguing. In each case, as with the atrium connecting the two buildings, a specific design team was brought in so I could provide Mr. Washburn with the best of the best, which is exactly what he wanted."

  "It’s so sad that he passed away before he even had a chance to enjoy his house," Stephanie lamented. Hearing her say this caused Armstrong to perk up and remember how Washburn had instructed him the previous night.

  As such, he chose to ignore Stephanie's comment and decided to avoid any further discussion where Washburn was concerned. He had deliberately not told the couple Washburn had committed suicide. This thought made Armstrong recall the details of the man's bloody death. He was suddenly hit with a vision of how the ravaged Washburn looked in the gore-splattered bathtub with his severed appendage bobbing to the top of the crimson water. The mental image immediately made Armstrong's stomach turn with revulsion, and his face transformed into to a grimace.

  "Are you all right, Mason?" Stephanie asked the lawyer noticing the displeasure apparent on his face.

  He replied, "Oh... um... yes... I'm fine... most certainly. Sorry. I just have a lot on my mind. You understand... There's always so much work to do, and so little time..."

  Having successfully regained his composure and simultaneously deflected the subject away from that of the late Emerson C. Washburn, Armstrong suggested. "Let's all go back out into the atrium and check out the loft upstairs."

  "Here, honey," Jason offered. "Let me take Sammy off your hands before we head up those stairs. I have a feeling you are going to want to look around." Stephanie couldn't help but notice how even Jason somehow seemed to know the loft was meant for her. Perhaps it was simply another coincidence, but she knew by the look in her husband's eyes, he was having many of the exact same thoughts she was having.

  The group exited the garage through the door by which they had entered, turned left and walked up the stairs to the elevated deck. When they reached the top, Stephanie discovered a large spacious area tastefully decorated with potted plants and a variety of thick-cushioned patio furniture. The outside wall of the loft was lined with three large double-French door units with lacy curtains displayed behind the glass multi-paneled panes.

  "These three doors can all be opened fully to allow for a spectacular view of not only the atrium but the outside as well," Armstrong said.

  Stephanie turned and looked out toward the railing of the deck and for a moment was hit with a minor attack of vertigo. The view of the atrium area truly was amazing, and when she looked out into the expanse of the back yard, the feeling could only be described as overwhelming. She teetered slightly and Armstrong grabbed her right arm, helping her regain her footing.

  "Easy there," Armstrong said. "It might take a while to get used to the view. You just have to be a little careful at first. After all, we can’t have anything bad happen to our new homeowner now can we? At least not on her first day in her house, Heaven forbid.” Then he chuckled strangely, and Stephanie got an odd and unsettling feeling, which she didn't believe came from the vertigo alone, but perhaps also from the odd way the lawyer had chuckled. If she didn't know better, she would have thought there might be a trace of madness in that laugh. Again, she forced herself to ignore the bizarre feeling and followed Jason and her kids into the loft area.

  Like everything they had seen of the house so far, the loft space was phenomenal. The room was well lit from a wall of large windows across the back. The ceiling was awash with illumination from skylights and the area was decorated with scattered sofas and chairs in a style exactly suited to Stephanie’s taste. “Wow, Steph!” Jason said. “It looks as if you decorated this place yourself.”

  The entire loft occupied an equal amount of square footage to that of the main part of the garage but the area of the loft above what would be the forth bay of the garage was dedicated to a small kitchen area as well as an additional room of some sort.

  Armstrong said, “The kitchenette is state of the art has everything you will ever need from refrigerator to dishwasher to stove to microwave oven.” Stephanie held back a laugh; the so-called kitchenette was actually larger than her present kitchen in their townhouse. If Armstrong considered this small, she couldn’t wait to see the real kitchen in the main house. The lawyer continued, “That room next to the kitchenette is a small bedroom and has a full bath and shower as well. I don’t know if Mr. Washburn planned on ever renting out the space at some time in the future, but it certainly would make a nice apartment or guest area someday.”

  Stephanie knew she would never be using the area for an apartment, as it would most definitely become her writing and art studio. The bathroom and bedroom would be handy for Sammy’s afternoon nap time while she was doing her creative work and the kitchen would be perfect for preparing his snacks. She suspected she would be spending most of her days in the space. It was then she realized she had made the decision, if it could actually be considered a decision; they would be moving into the home as soon as possible.

  The group left the loft and descended into the atrium, then across the space and back into the main farmhouse. The lawyer suggested they see the upstairs bedroom area first before touring the rest of the house. When they reached the top of the stairway, they could see a long hall leading back toward a closed door. On both the left and right sides of the hallway, there were three doors. Armstrong explained how on each side of the hall there were two bedrooms, which shared a bathroom located in between them. Access to either of the bathrooms could be accomplished from the main center doors in the hall. In addition, each of the bedrooms had access doors as well. He said the door at the far end of the hall led to a master bedroom suite which occupied the entire length of the back of the house over the expanded kitchen area downstairs. He explained how Washburn had added the back area to the original farmhouse as well.

  Pointing behind them, Armstrong indicated a door at the front right side of the house, which led to a space above the stairway. “That’s the door to the third floor of the farm house. It's the only area of the house, besides the basement, which has not yet been renovated. Although it's been insulated, it remains, as it originally was. The area is actually still pretty dismal looking. Mr. Washburn only used it as an attic for storing some of his personal items which he never found time to find a place for in the new home. I suspect with all the square footage available in this place you probably won’t have much use for it either."

  "The original basement or cellar as we old fogies call it, originally had a dirt floor and was only about six feet or so deep. When the renovation was done, the basement was dug further down for ten feet of head clearance and a cement slab was poured for the floor. In addition, the old stone walls paralleled on the inside by a cement block wall, so there is little chance of water seepage down there. It's dry and doesn't have that typical damp basement feel or smell. However, it too is just a basement with nothing exciting or thrilling done to it either.

  "When we go down stairs, I'll show you a door on the left side of the hall under the stairs, which leads down to the cellar... I mean basement. Other than to gain access to your various utilities such as the water heater, the gas furnace and air conditioning units, I doubt you will have any need to use the basement either. Although I suppose you could add some shelves and store boxes and holiday decorations down there rather than in the attic as that might be more convenient. Now let’s head down the hall and peek in each of the bedrooms. We will also check out the master bedroom, but I must preface that with a bit
of an explanation before we enter. In the meantime, let’s look at the other rooms.”

  Armstrong said he thought the couple would be pleasantly surprised by both the size of the assorted bedrooms as well as their tasteful decor. He explained how he had hired a “conservative” interior designer rather than “one of those weird post-modernistic wacko types". The first bedroom at the top right of the stairway appeared to be designed as a guest room with neutral, traditional colors and furniture; with very little or no personality whatsoever, but it was clean, very neat and orderly.

  The real surprises came when they looked into the other three bedrooms, each of which was decorated as if planned and designed specifically for each one of their children. On the left side of the hall the bedroom farthest from the master bedroom was decorated with Jeremy obviously in mind. In fact, it looked in many ways just like his present bedroom but with a lot more living space as well as furniture, including a television, desk and desktop computer with a large flat-screen monitor.

  "Woa!" Jeremy said. "I claim this room. This has got to be my room." There was no need for him to make such a statement however; as everyone knew instantly, it was meant for him.

  The same was true of the bedroom on the right located just outside of the master bedroom. It looked as if it was ready for Cindy to move in immediately with many of the same decorations and styles she already had in her own bedroom back in Berks County.

  "Mommy. This looks just like my room back home, only a lot cooler!" the girl exclaimed with a huge smile.

  Even more unusual was the bedroom, directly across the hall from the room they already thought of as Cindy's room. It was designed and furnished to be the perfect room for a toddler and being situated right next to the master bedroom, it made the location excellent as well. In addition, it shared a bathroom with the room Jeremy had claimed which would be perfect for when Sammy got older.

  “This is all so very strange,” Stephanie said with a noticeable tremor in her voice. “This place was renovated as if it were designed just for us. But how could that possibly be? I never met Emerson Washburn so how could he possibly know so much about us? And even if he did, why would he design his own personal living space with us in mind? After all it was his house, not ours.” She was suddenly beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable about how the tour was progressing.

  Once again, she had the bizarre sensation that she was losing control of her own destiny. She felt as if their privacy had somehow been compromised. She started to wonder what type of man this Emerson Washburn might actually have been. Then she began to speculate about the integrity of his lawyer, Armstrong, as well.

  How far would Washburn have gone to learn about Stephanie and her family? Armstrong had told them earlier Washburn had hired a private investigator to learn about them. Now she wondered if the so-called investigator might also have had the audacity to break into their home at some point and taken pictures of their living area so it could be studied. Would the obsessive old man actually hire someone as unsavory as to infringe upon their personal space? She suddenly felt violated, as if she had been left naked and exposed before the eyes of a stranger.

  Chapter 11

  The lawyer immediately recognized the discomfort not only apparent with Stephanie, but he could see it spreading to the rest of her family as well. He hadn't anticipated this sort of negative reaction. Now considering things in hindsight he realized perhaps he should have. Regardless of his miscalculation, he had to quickly take what was rapidly deteriorating in to a potentially bad situation and find a way to turn it around, to make it right. So, he did what he did best; and that was to talk persuasively, like a lawyer.

  He said to the perplexed couple, “Look, Stephanie and Jason. It’s not really all that strange, although I can see why it might seem that way to you at first glance.

  “You see, as I mentioned earlier, your Uncle Emerson was never married and had no children of his own. I also must confess he led a somewhat unsavory life as a younger man. There is no need to discuss the details of that at this point, however; perhaps another day. Suffice to say, Emerson was probably searching for something that was missing in his life: the family he never had."

  "When he left his former life, he decided to settle down and do his best to lead a normal life. He also wanted to learn more about his own relatives. He once told me, this interest was sparked a decade ago when his brother and sister-in-law, your mother and father, Stephanie; were killed in a car accident. He apparently had been estranged from them for many years and actually learned about their tragic deaths by seeing it on the front page of your local newspaper, while he was passing through Berks County on business. He felt the coincidence of him learning of their deaths was more than simple happenstance. He believed everything in life happened for a reason."

  Stephanie and Jason both glanced at each other obviously finding it shocking how an uncle she had never known believed exactly as Stephanie did; everything in life happens for a reason.

  The lawyer continued, "As I brought up briefly in our meeting this morning, Emerson then hired a private investigator to track down family members and to learn as much about them as he could. He also had the investigator attempt to trace back his family history. That was how he learned about you and your family. He also discovered a few other family members such as your brother Charles and maybe a distant cousin or two, but for some reason which still remains unknown to me, he was fascinated by you, Stephanie as well as Jason and the kids; hence the reason he left his estate to you.

  “Knowing Mr. Washburn both professionally and to a degree personally as I did, I suspect the reason the house appears to have been decorated with your own tastes in mind is because that was exactly what Mr. Washburn wanted. I think he wanted in his own way to know what it was like to be part of a family again, part of your family.”

  Then Armstrong further explained, “Although he never told me so directly, I suspect before he became ill, Mr. Washburn hoped at some point in time he might have been able to introduce himself to you and perhaps even invite you up for a visit. I believe he may have wanted to make the house look as much like home as he possibly could for you both."

  Not a single word of his last statement had been true. It was all a pack of lies the lawyer had dreamed up on the fly to win over the Wrights. Armstrong was operating in full damage-control mode and was making things up as he went along, based on either the positive or negative reactions of the couple.

  He said, "I realize the behavior might be perceived as a bit eccentric, but that was Mr. Washburn’s way. He was somewhat reclusive and as such didn’t interact with many people other than myself. And when he got an idea stuck in his brain it seemed he would obsess about it and was unable to think of anything else.”

  “I suspect that was how this property was for him. It should be obvious to you, that he put more money into the property than the resale market in this area ever would tolerate. But, since he had no intention of the property ever being sold, as you know from the stipulation in the will, I suppose it didn’t matter very much to him. Just so you are aware, neither he nor anyone else ever used any of these bedrooms and he kept their doors closed. His room, his personal space was that room behind the door at the end of the hall."

  Then the lawyer realized he had better prepare the family for what they were about to see in the master bedroom. He assumed if they had been caught off guard by the unexpected familiarity of the decor in the other bedrooms, they might truly be shocked by what they would find in Washburn's private chambers.

  "Once again," Armstrong insisted, "please allow me to point out that toward the end of his life, Mr. Washburn was getting increasingly eccentric by the day. I suppose he could very well have been suffering from Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia, but he often seemed so alert and lucid at times that I never knew for certain what his mental state might be.

  “Oh, and in case you are wondering, Mr. Washburn refused to see a doctor." Then after a moment of planned hes
itation, Armstrong said, “So, does that seem to make a bit more sense to you, now?” Armstrong asked. He could tell by their expressions he had been successful in his persuasive monologue.

  Jason cautiously replied, “Well… um… yes… I suppose it does.”

  Looking a bit sad and perhaps even somewhat guilty, Stephanie said, "Yes. I think it makes perfect sense now. But you know I actually feel bad for my Uncle Emerson. We were only fifty or so miles away, and yet we had no idea he was here. It's so tragic that he had to die alone."

  Armstrong liked how she had referred to the man as "Uncle Emerson". She was starting to accept the man as part of her family. He also found it all a bit amusing. The phrase conjured up an image of a kindly old uncle, rather than a notorious gangster and thug who ended up sick, rail thin and lying dead in a blood-spewed bathtub, reeking with the stench of his own self-mutilation.

  This image made the lawyer wince as he suddenly recalled not only how Washburn had died, but also the horrid undead creature the man had since become. And here Armstrong was lying through his teeth to convince these people to move into the house when he suspected, no knew, something bad awaited them here. He was struggling to keep his own game face in place knowing he was about to put the innocent family directly in harm's way. He didn't know exactly what Washburn and the other as yet unseen entities inhabiting the house had in store for these people, but he knew his own soul would likely rot in Hell for the part he now played in convincing the Wrights to move into the house. Regardless of his discomfort, he had no choice but to continue with an assuring and convincing air.