Anastasia Maria Leonhardt
"Annie…"
"Annie."
"Anastasia! Anastasia Maria Leonhardt!"
The girl looked away from the changing scenery of the car window, meeting the cool eyes of her mother. The iron-colored irises were knitted by thick eyebrows and folded skin, scowling. They looked back to the road ahead.
"Are you listening now, Annie?" She asked sternly, returning to the hypocorism her daughter preferred.
"Yes, Mother." Annie replied tonelessly, although not disrespectfully.
Her mother motioned beside her with a gloved hand, bidding her daughter to move forward. Annie stepped into the front seat with a single fluid motion. Her mother fiddled with the radio and tuned down the patchy music coming through.
"You are spending the rest of the school year with your two uncles." She announced without animation. "Just for the last couple of weeks, I promise. I will come and get you before summer starts."
"That is what you said the last time." Annie said with the edge of a bite. "When you left me at that Girl Scout camp. And the time with the convent. And the time before that…"
"Watch your mouth, young lady." She warned. "There is no need to get saucy. You need to learn to trust people or you are going to grow up bitter and disappointed."
I am already bitter and disappointed, Annie thought, but said nothing, staring at the window. She could see her face in the reflection of the glass pane. She tucked a stray hair behind her ear.
"Where are you going now?" Annie asked after she simmered.
"The Trost City School of Court Reporting. The guy I met last night said he could pull some strings." She then sighed, wistful. "Judges, lawyers, policemen… An array of good husband material."
"And criminals," Annie added. "Don't forget criminals."
"Your tongue is going to get you in trouble one day." Her mother said icily. She then checked her beehive in the rearview mirror, plumping it with her free hand, oblivious of the road. Annie spotted a silver hair nestled among its ash blonde brethren.
"You are going to have fun with your uncles, Annie. You'll see."
"Mother, you are an only child. How could they be my uncles?"
"Well," She said, stopping her unnecessary preening to shoot her daughter an irritated look. "In fact, they are your uncles. Your great-uncles. My mother's brothers."
Annie nodded once, satisfied.
"I still do not understand why I cannot come with you."
"Because I am going to be working day and night to learn court reporting!" She said, raising her voice slightly. "Annie, I am trying so hard to keep this family together and you are not making it any easier. How about a little help, hum?"
The girl mumbled, slinking back in her seat. Her mother sighed in exasperation.
"Look, Annie… You can at least try to make the best out of this. They say these two have millions stashed away. They disappeared for forty years and just now turned back up in Texas. They do not have any kids, no one to leave their money to… We're the closest family they got."
Annie got a sour taste in her mouth.
"You want them to like me so they'll die and leave us their money?"
Her mother made a nonchalant motion with her shoulders.
"Why not? We could finally settle down, buy a house…"
Annie hummed at that.
"But, Annie…" Her mother said in a more serious tone. "You need to watch out for other relatives. They're a bunch of crooks and thieves and backstabbers…" Her lips twitched in a grimace.
"I am sure I can handle them." Annie said without any inclination of doubt in her voice. "Dad taught me how to take care of myself."
Her mother scowled once again.
They traveled silently down the backwater road for a long while, kicking up dust in their wake. Annie watched the world move by in spite of her from the window and rubbed the hem of her dress with her fingers. She was surprised when her mother turned abruptly, the car skidding down a gravel driveway.
The first thing Annie noticed were the signs. They were set at certain intervals, speaking things such as Turn Back Now! and Go Away or Else! and, her favorite, Warning: Rabid Attack Dogs.
"I do not think they will appreciate our company." Annie said, her mother more optimistic.
"I am sure it will be fine. Look, there it is."
An ancient house waited in the distance. The wood upon it was weathered and fraying, the windows smoky with dust and warped with age. The tower of the house loomed a shadow over the porch. Chickens pecking at the barren earth mulled around a rusting truck, clucking with conversation.
Annie's mother stalled her car beside the old truck. She checked her hair again before exiting, parasol in hand.
"Come on, Annie, don't loiter around."
The rabid attack dogs met her as she exited the car. The baying bloodhound, the howling Labrador, the wailing schnauzer, and the yipping bulldog charged her together. The pack circled her while barking their complaints, the bulldog nipping at her heels. She walked forward and through the ring of dogs fearlessly, leaving the canines confused.
A snorting pig suddenly appeared and joined the gathering. Annie observed how he mingled with the dogs, squealing softly as his bark.
"Are you part of the pack too?" She asked.
A gunshot sounded and the pack took off before an answer could be given. A cry of happiness carried from the lake.
"They must be down by that lake." Her mother said, fixing her parasol. "Come on, Annie."
The trek through the meadow was not easy on her mother's heels. She stumbled and made jerking steps as she walked. Gunshots and whoops accompanied them down to the lakebed, two outlines protruding from the water. Upon closer inspection, Annie could distinguish two men with shotguns firing into the water, yelling a bunch of nonsense.
"Where did he go?"
"Ah, Reiner! Between your feet!" Two gunshots.
"I wounded him! He's running for it!" Another gunshot.
"Reiner…"
A dead click.
"Damn, empty! Bertholdt, you go get ammo, I'll cover him!"
"Hello!" Annie's mother called out, startling the two men. The blond man glanced at the taller one suspiciously, eyes narrow.
"Did you send for a hooker?"
Annie coughed on a snicker.
"R-Reiner!" The other cried in despair, a blush covering his dark cheeks. "Reiner, no…"
"Uncle Reiner, Uncle Bertholdt, it's me, Rico." She continued. "Your niece. Maria's daughter. And I brought Annie, your great-niece."
Annie offered a wave.
A disgusted look pinched Reiner's face.
"Relatives."
.
Face to face, Annie decided both elderly men were quite handsome, in their own way. Reiner was heavily muscled despite his age with a barreled chest and thick arms. The wrinkles complimented his golden eyes and his blond-near-white hair was a pretty shade. Bertholdt retained a healthy natural coloring to his skin and dark, grey-speckled hair. His eyes drooped with charming wrinkles.
"Goddamnit, we're old! Leave us alone!" Reiner flung off his boots by the porch door as he spoke. "We do not need a little girl hanging around us all the time!"
"Reiner, try to be more understanding…" Bertholdt tried to soothe as his brother swung the screen door shut.
Rico huffed and flushed her parasol closed. "Annie, why don't you stay out here for a minute?"
She followed the men inside and left Annie standing alone. The girl looked out across the farmland, waiting.
"She can help out! Do chores! She will be at school most of the time anyway!" Her mother tried to reason, her voice forceful.
"How could she help out? She is just a little girl!" Reiner counteracted.
"She can do something, I am sure." Rico argued. "Annie is not a sissy, I assure you. You can teach her!"
The pig reappeared to greet Annie. The girl tussled his ears and he grunted in pleasure, bumping against her hand.
"Go play with your friends…" She suggested as the hounds came around the house, the pig running to follow behind. Annie dusted off a step and sat upon it.
In the end, (and much to the kindheartedness of Bertholdt), Annie was allowed to stay.
Annie gathered her bag from the car and went around to the driver's seat, her mother starting the engine.
"This will be a good experience for you, Annie, you'll see." Her mother said. She then showed one of her rare smiles. "Finding the money can be just like finding buried treasure! You like books about that, don't you?"
Annie shrugged.
Her mother sighed. "You can try being a little more positive, for one. Maybe you can smile a little more. More people might like you if you do."
Annie got an odd look on her face. Her upper lip twitched and her mouth curled into a crooked, grimacing grin. Her mother looked appalled.
"… You are going to have to work on that." She said when Annie's face fell. Annie said nothing.
Rico blew her daughter a kiss and set off in her convertible, leaving Annie in her floral dress and pigtails. The howling pack of dogs tailed the car down the long driveway. The girl paused for a moment, eventually turning to look at her uncle's upon the porch.
"… Well." Bertholdt said, clearing his throat. "Lets eat supper, shall we?"
.
Supper was positively revolting. It was fish full of lead pellets which Annie had to spit into a bowl less she be poisoned, with greasy sausage and half-cooked eggs. She did not voice her abhorrence, however, keeping her dissatisfaction to herself.
"We raise our own pigs." Bertholdt said as Annie nibbled on her sausage, gifting a gentle smile.
Annie hummed as a response. She saw the pig and pack of dogs spying into the windows, the hog unaffected by the people eating the meat of his kind. Annie nudged the link off her fork.
"I do not like pork very much."
Bertholdt and Reiner looked at one another, having a silent understanding, Reiner shaking his head.
The rest of the meal was quiet.
.
Annie soon learned that old Texan men who boycott televisions and telephones do not have much to do. A popular past time for her uncles happened to be sitting on the porch and sipping iced tea, enjoying the light and air. The only activity was when a lone car and salesman pulled up, Reiner thinking it a fun sport to fire his gun above the poor soul's head and sending him fleeing like a startled rabbit. Annie thought it quite entertaining herself.
The first time she saw it happen was when a pink vehicle pulled before the house. She knew something was off when she heard the cock of a loaded gun. The car stopped shortly, a man beaming with an overly-bright smile exiting the car.
"Gentlemen!" He greeted as he walked around the car. "It is known far and wide that you are two sophisticated men of means. However, I am sure you worry about the future. That is why my insurance company…"
The shotgun mounted against Reiner's shoulder fired. The man yelped, ducked, and scrambled back into his car faster than Annie's eyes could follow. Bertholdt's sympathetic gaze watched the car as it nearly flipped with its haste, blazing down the driveway. Annie hid her face in her knees as her lips tugged upwards.
Not long after that, another car appeared. It followed a similar routine with the grinning salesman getting out of his car, making a pitch.
"Rumor has it that you have millions in cash stashed away! Why not have that money returned by investing in gold and silver?"
The gun was shot again. The salesman dropped behind his car fearfully. He held up a booklet in his shaking hand.
"Can I at least interest you in a pamphlet?"
The paper was shredded by the bullet that whizzed through it. Bertholdt turned to Reiner as the salesman hightailed away in his car, expression disapproving.
"That was a little too close, Reiner."
Annie smiled into her knees again.
.
Annie leaned into the stairwell, her lantern held forward. The stairs were dusty with misuse and the railing was rotting away. She looked back to her uncle's patiently.
"You have the tower all to yourself." Bertholdt said with a stiff smile.
"I like it."
"Good." Reiner said with a dismissive expression. "Because it's all we got. Look, we don't know nothing about kids, so if you need something, find it yourself. Or go without."
"I am sure I can manage." Annie assured.
Bertholdt and Reiner looked at each other once again. They hesitated until Annie ascended the steps to speak in low tones.
"I think she is a nice young girl." Bertholdt said. "Not troublesome at all."
"Better than our other relatives, at least." Reiner said stand-offishly. Bertholdt shook his head and sighed.
The tower was stuffed with junk. Annie clambered around leather chests and trunks, finally making it to the bed. She plopped her own baggage on the duvet.
After wrestling her hair from her two ponytails, Annie decided to pry, examining the various cases. Some contained old clothing boxes, others books and moth-eaten linen, nothing very interesting. The most eye-catching trunk, the one dotted with travel stickers, was the only locked one. Undeterred, Annie yanked at the heavy padlock, only proving its effectiveness at holding fast. Sorrowed and frustrated, Annie kicked at her bedpost. The crowing atop the pole wobbled minutely. Annie investigated the unbalanced knob with a curious eye. She found that it detached with a twist, a key raining onto the floor. The girl did the logical thing and fitted it into the padlock. It turned.
Free of the lock, the lid raised. It reveled that its insides were coated with sand.
"Sand…?" Annie questioned, dipping her fingers into the grains. The trunk smelled of dry leather and stale perfume, causing Annie to wrinkle her nose. She shifted around some of the sand to check for artifacts.
When her nails scrapped wood she began to dig. She soon found a picture frame. Inside the wooden frame was an aged photo. Annie lifted up the article to get a better look, eyes narrow.
The photo was of a woman. It was very old and faded, the paper tea-colored. The woman had her head turned towards the camera, a smile on her lips. She was very pretty and youthful with a round face and wide, light eyes. Her hair was long and of a soft hue, everything about her petite and wonderful. Annie raised an eyebrow.
She nearly dropped the picture when she heard the door slam. Placing the photo safely atop her suitcase, she rushed to the window, peering out. There, in the light of the white moon, was Reiner, broomstick raised in attack. He was running into battle with the wooden sweeper. Annie hurried to chase after him.
Annie found herself by the lake. She looked through the darkness, searching for her uncle. It was not until he cried out behind her and she jumped out of his way that she discovered him.
Reiner began an intense battle with the lake. He parried, thrusted, and began a brutal overhead swinging. The water splashed and showered about the man fighting the water. Annie sat below a tree and watched this display. She thought it funny, for the man looked like a ghost in his nightgown. The dogs came to join her, entertained by the sleep-walking man as well. Annie tilted her head, trying to imagine what the man saw in his dream. Perhaps soldiers crying with the thirst for battle and thudding hoof beats, perhaps the men he killed with his ruthless sword, perhaps something else entirely.
She asked the dogs and they had no answer.
