I leave the restroom into the dimly lighted hallway. I almost call out for Sam, but I notice someone sitting down on the floor a few yards away. I walk over to the spot and sit down beside him.
"I thought you'd be here sooner or later. I heard you guys searching for me. After Jim went by, I knew it wouldn't be much longer before you found me." Sam says.
"What happened? Jim said he though he saw you poking your head form the ladies' room."
"After I left the dinner, I ran to the elevator. It had just arrived when I got there. I rode it down to the first floor, thinking I would just run out to the car, or possibly just across the street. As soon as the door opened, the lights flickered in the hall. I saw a man running to the stairs we took earlier just as the lights came back on, before they went off again and he was gone. I ran to the doors, but for some reason they were locked. That's when I noticed the clouds. Then there was the lightning. I ran back to the stairs to the bottom floor, but that door was locked too. I wanted to hide from you, so I felt that the ladies' restroom would be a good spot. I was pretty sure it would be empty, and I was right. I hid in there when the power cut off completely and the storm started to shake the building. I stayed in there until I thought I heard something come through the glass."
At this point, Sam points to the main entrance. One of the rather large planters, about thirty pounds, that had been beside the door had been thrown into the hall. I guess it was possible it was the wind, but I suspect it was Jim.
"I saw Jim when I poked my head out to check. I didn't know if he saw me or not, but if he had, you would be coming soon after."
"So, you knew we were in the other restroom?"
"Yeah," Sam answers, "I heard the four of you yelling when the storm started. I was just glad you didn't have the time to look in there. Is Jim alright?"
"A few cuts and soaking wet, but I think he's fine."
"No, about me ruining his life by thinking that the two of you..."
"It's too early to know about that yet. However, you should apologize to him later. And to everyone else at the dinner. Why did you do it, Sam? This is so not like you."
"Yes, it is." I can barely tell that Sam has turned his head to directly look at me. "You and your fiancé tricked Dad into selling the house. We were doing fine until you two decided to leave everything I knew behind. How could you!"
It was time to tell Sam the truth.
"Do you remember how Dad's mother died?'
"What?! What does this have to do ..."
"Just humor me Sam. It'll make sense."
"She died of cancer. Woman cancer, I guess." Sam sputters.
"Uterine. Grandfather insisted that she should stay at the manor as long as possible. When she got too sick to climb the stairs, he moved her to the servant's quarters downstairs. Now, they had a live-in housekeeper at the time. She stayed there through the week and went to her own place on the weekends. Grandmother insisted that the housekeeper take one of the upstairs bedrooms. Dad was at school at the time, so grandfather was the only one up there. There was plenty of room, and grandfather had the master suite to himself. After one week, he told the housekeeper that she would be moving to one of the smaller downstairs rooms, and that she couldn't tell grandmother anything about it. 'Servants stay downstairs,' he said. The housekeeper refused. She decided to stay at her place from then on, only coming it to do her job and check in on grandmother. There was also a stay-in nurse, but she was only there for grandmother. After she died, the housekeeper quit. Dad found out all of this at the funeral."
"What happened next?" Sam asks.
"After that, grandfather just hired a cleaning crew to come in on a regular basis and did much of his own work. When Dad inherited the place, he refused to hire any staff because of what his father did. That's also when he got sick, he refused to use that room where his mother spent so much time before she died, at a hospital mind you. He just associated that room with too many bad memories. The same thing holds true for his brother's and sister's deaths."
"What do you mean by that?"
I continue.
"When Dad's baby brother got cancer, Dad had just been allowed to move his bedroom further away, to the room that became his art studio, the one of the far left end of the hall. He was about six and his brother was four. Maybe seven and four."
"I know."
"Anyway, grandfather had insisted that Dad's brother stay in the nursery as much as possible, only going to the hospital at the end. Just before our sister cam along, Dad had the nursery remodeled into a walk-in closet and made the sewing room a new nursery."
"Wait, my old room, it was once something else?'
"Yeah, Dad didn't want his kids to be sleeping in the same room where his brother had been suffering. That's why you and our sister got a new room. With monitors and such, it was safe enough to be that just across the hall when you were old enough. Do you remember how Dad's sister died?"
"Yeah, she had hit her head while playing in the backyard or something. Right?" Sam responds.
"Dad's mother had taken him and his brother for a doctor's appointment, leaving Dad's sister to be watched by grandfather. He had stepped inside to take a phone call, landline, this was years before cells. When he went back outside, a few minutes later, about the same time Dad got back, there she was lying on the grass near the pool. She was in a coma for three dies before she finally died. For decades, that was what Dad believed, but it was a lie."
"What really happened?" I noticed a slight trace of sarcasm in Sam's tone.
"A few weeks before grandfather died, he told Dad the truth. He had been on the phone for over an hour. There was no way of knowing how long she had been lying there. Grandfather had felt so guilty, that he tore down the playground and doubled the size of the pool."
"Wait. The pool wasn't always that big."
"No. Dad actually had liked swimming in it, until he found out. When he got the house, he didn't use it for years until your mother insisted that it should be used for you and our sister. Every time he saw you two swim, all it did was bring back bad memories. The entire house is that way for him, especially after the deaths of your mother and sister. He never wanted to live there after his father died, and with you out of school, this seemed like a good time."
"Why did he stay then?
Time for the second shoe to drop.
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