Chapter 02: A home

A week later, not a day had passed that Melody could not think of the words of Charles Xavier. Mutant… Was she really not a normal person? She never felt different?

But she was still curious now. She requested a short-term leave of absence until the end of the semester and travelled to the address written on the business card. A huge mansion was building up in front of her when the taxi dropped her off in front of a wrought-iron gate. With her backpack and a small travel bag, she pressed she rang on a bell button on the gate, which made a buzzing sound and the gate opened as if magic.

Slowly she walked along a gravel path, at the end of it there was a villa. Which was almost an understatement. Melody already shot the word castle through her head.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped up the steps to the front door and pressed the bell button. A young men with glasses opened the door. "Yes, please?"

"Hello", began Melody, "I'm Melody Johnson. Professor Xavier invited me."

"Ah", his eyes lit up and he opened the door completely and stepped aside so she could pass by. "Then walk in. Professor Xavier isn't in the house right now, but he told me to come if you should appear."

Melody entered the spacious hallway – or rather the entrance hall. Somehow it had something of a railway station… Huge windows, high rooms, in the middle a big staircase that turned right and left into the individual wings. She was very impressed.

"I'm Hank, by the way," said the young man next to her, took her travel bag and walked up the stairs in front of her.

She followed him in silence and he explained to her that it went right and left at the end of the stairs to the individual living areas. They turned left and before the third door on the right, Hank stopped. He opened the door and told Melody to go inside. "This is your room," he said. Melody entered the room and dropped her backpack on a chair. Across from the door were to large windows, one of them ground level with a view into the garden. In front of t was a desk. On the right wall was a large bed in front of a wood-panelled wall, next to it was a door leading into a small bathroom. In the left part of the room there was a small couch with an occasional table and a white vase on it. It looked like a bright spot, otherwise the walls were dark and the carpets thick and dark red. She took a deep breath and smelled wood, leather and a little bit dust. It was cosy. Hank put her bag on the bed and waited a moment until she turned back to him so they could continue their tour of the house.

Each student had their own room, some had their own bathroom, others shared a bathroom. On the ground floor were the classrooms, as Hank called them. However, it reminded Melody of various salons she had seen in old movies. They all looked alike, yet differed in so many details. The wood paneling on the walls showed different scenes from mythology and history. She was fascinated by the carved marquetry and knew already that she would enjoy looking at each and every picture carefully. Then they came into the common area. Here, the first thing to mention was the large dining room. It had something of a huge eat-in kitchen. There were two large wooden tables, which stood on heavy, thick carpets. The ground level windows of the room pointed out into the adjacent park, so that in summer you could certainly dine outside. Right next to it was the kitchen. Here she met other people for the first time since the beginning of her tour of the house. Two young women were cleaning vegetables for lunch.

Hank nodded at them and said, "Tamara, Emily, this is Melody, she's new and she'll be living with us from now on."

"Hello," said the taller of the two. Melody estimated her to be in her early twenties. She had blond hair reaching down to her shoulders and friendly eyes. The smaller of the two, Emily, smiled kindly at her and then turned back to the carrots on the table.

"Hello," Melody replied and leaned over to Hank. "Are they mutants too?" she whispered. Hank turned to her and nodded. "Yes, Tamara is fast, very fast. And Emily can make things float. They are students and they are on kitchen duty today. We also have a cook, Vivian, she's out grocery shopping right now. But we consider that everyone should help out. That's why we always have to students on kitchen duty for a week, which mean they help with the preparations and later on with the washing up." With a wave of his hand Hank said goodbye and left the kitchen. Melody followed him in silence. They entered a spacious living room with adjoining conservatory. On one side of the room there was a stately filled bookshelf. Melody approached and skimmed the titles she could recognize on the spines of the book. Tolstoi, Jane Austen, Shakespeare and many other famous authors. She enjoyed this abundance and continued to look around the room. There was a fireplace on the opposite wall and many free-standing armchairs and a large couch in front of the window to the garden. Cozy, Melody concluded.

Hank stepped to one of the windows of the conservatory and pointed to the large park. "Well, and that's the end of our little tour. What do you think?"

Melody stood next to him and watched the meadows under a grey cloud sky. It would probably rain in a moment.

"A really impressive facility. It doesn't look like a school."

"Yes, it should be a home."

Melody nodded. "Well, I can imagine." Lost in thought, she looked out the window. When Hank cleared his throat briefly, she asked him to take her to her room. Once there, Hank said goodbye and left.

-…..-

Melody stood at the room door and still had one hand on the doorknob when she turned around. It was dark in the room, and a glance at the windows told her it was raining. She pressed the light switch and the light of a very modern lamp hanging in the middle of the room came on. She looked at the lights and wondered if this structure was not a little too modern for the furnishings. Everything was kept in a rather Victorian style, only some details like the lamp, the vase and the chair at the desk deviated from this pattern. On closer inspection, however, Melody found that she liked it. She took off her jacket and hung it in the wardrobe. Then she opened her bags and sorted the few things she had brought into the individuals drawers. Since she had not yet completely decided if she really wanted to stay here, she did not et see the necessity to bring all her belongings. If she really did, Joan cold send the rest of her things after her. At first, all this was just an adventure for Melody and she wouldn't rush to commit.

She put her favourite books on the bedside table. One look at the clock radio told her that it was almost lunchtime. A good opportunity to explore the area again. She had hardly seen other people here before. Wondering if they were all in class? Probably.

She threw on a training jacket and left the room. On the way downstairs she looked out of the big window above the stairs. There was a gravel path behind the house and a square where a car arrived. A young man with red curls got out. He opened an umbrella and went to the back of the car. After he had unloaded a wheelchair, the passenger door opened and she saw Charles Xavier slip onto the wheelchair that was now beside him. What had happened to him being in the wheelchair, she wondered? He had mentioned an accident. Well, perhaps in time she would find out.

When the two people disappeared from her sight, she went further down the stairs to walk into the group room. She devoted herself calmly to the large bookshelf. She finally got stuck on a copy of Hemingsway's "The Importance of Being Ernest". Closing her jacket tighter, she sat down on an armchair and read a few pages until she heard noises coming from the adjacent dining room. The dinner.