Many Mansions

Chapter 2.

By Pharoahs'Cat

Authors note: I was going to try and mash up the next 3 chapters, which feature Blue, Mano and Buck, because I struggle so with the site upload song and dance. ( For instance, I forgot to go back in and add the scene breaks in Chapter 1 and It makes it tough to read.) But it just got too unwieldy. Anyway, here is Chapter 2 of 5.

A week or so after his nights under the stars, when he knew Victoria was deep in dinner preparations, John told Blue he had a job for him. Blue warily followed his father upstairs…'wariness' pretty much being his default position when it came to dealing with this father.

Without preamble, John said, "I am going to move your mother's trunk to the storage room. But before I do, I want us to go through it and I want you to take anything from it you want. All right?"

Blue nodded nervously and felt tears gather…any mention of his mother still did that…but he shook them off and helped his father move the trunk to the center of the room.

He sat on the chair and his father sat on the edge of the bed, with his mother's trunk between them. Very fitting, Blue thought...but said nothing.

The first thing that came to hand when John opened the lid was one of Annalee's few good hats. Her Sunday church hat. John put it aside and together they carefully lifted what seemed to be simply a few of her nicer dresses, folded between layers of thin linen cloth. A pair of long gloves and some old fashioned shoes. A soft wool shawl, in a perfect shade of blue. And to both their astonishment, her wedding dress… so carefully protected it still glowed white. John stood and held the dress out and smiled at how small it seemed to him. Gently, he folded the dress back up and slipped it back into its protective coverings.

"You should keep this boy," he said handing the dress to Blue. Blue looked up, surprised. "The girl you marry someday might like to have it."

Blue couldn't possible imagine such a situation but he dutifully took the dress.

Working their way through the trunk, the next surprise was some drawings. Some childhood scribbles of Blue's but also some delicate drawings of flowers and landscapes; even one of what could only be an ocean view; dunes and cresting waves. It was lovely.

"I didn't know Ma drew." said Blue

"I did." responded John, sadly "But I had forgotten."

"I think I would like to keep these," Blue said hopefully.

"That's fine."

They had almost reached the bottom of the trunk. Annalee's Bible was there...with some eastern wild flowers pressed in its pages and Blue's birth carefully recorded in the front.

Two other births were recorded as well. A daughter, Sarah Louise, born 2 years before Blue, who had died after only a year. And another birth…when Blue was 2, also a daughter, who had been stillborn. She had been named Emily Claire.

Blue looked up at his father in astonishment. "Why didn't you ever tell me that I had sisters?" He demanded.

John had winced at seeing the names and the dates. The deaths had been especially difficult blows. For both he and Annalee. The stillborn daughter had sent Annalee into a period of such deep and long lived sadness he worried for her sanity. But finally, she had broken through…come back to he and Blue …and though the memories of their daughters still haunted him occasionally, he knew they had haunted Annalee more.

But to Blue, he merely said. "You didn't. They didn't get a chance to be your sisters."

Blue persisted. "What did they look like?"

John sighed as if he was going to brush the question away, but then said, "Emily Claire was stillborn. She looked like a sleeping baby. Sarah…well, she…she looked like your mother. They way you do."

Blue nodded and seemed to accept this. "I'd like to keep the Bible too."

"Fine."

The last item…at the very bottom of the trunk…was a framed sampler; tiny blue and green stitching depicting flowers woven into a border. And in the center, larger and in a darker blue, was "In My Father's House are Many Mansions." And then, in smaller letters, "John 14:2-3. "

"Look", said Blue, pointing to the corner, "there is her name...and a date! Wow - how old would she have been then?"

John did the quick math…"oh, just about 10."

Blue looked up and smiled. "That's pretty good work for a ten year old."

"Yes it is", John agreed.

"I want to keep this too," Blue said. "Pa! Wait..I remember.., this is what Uncle Buck read when we buried"…he stumbled over the word buried.. "Ma." Quickly he thumbed though the Bible until he got to the right part of the Gospel of John…

He read aloud. "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."

"Do you think he knew about this?!"

John considered that for a bit, but finally shook his head. "I don't think so. I think he just picked that verse because…well because it was like your mother; kind and loving.

"Yes" Blue agreed. "Just like her."

Slowly, the two began to repack the trunk. First out was last back in…Annalee's hat.

"Pa?"

"Yeah?"

"That's about the silliest looking hat I ever saw." Blue said with a laugh.

"Yes it is," John agreed…it most definitely is," joining in his son's laughter.

The two of them took the trunk to the storage room and then went back for Blue to gather up his keepsakes. As he was leaving with them, his father suddenly said, "Take this chair as well."

John picked up the small upholstered chair and headed off towards' Blue's room.

"Your room is a little bare…and this might come in handy. Spruce it up a bit."

Blue's eyebrow's shot up. He didn't think he had ever heard his father use the word "spruce." in any context other than that of a tree.

Victoria knew that John and Blue had been upstairs together. (She was not so deep in dinner preparations to miss that.) But she had no idea what they had been doing. She almost went up to find out, but managed to keep away and was pleasantly surprised to hear Blue…AND John …laughing together about something. The simmering tension between them rarely seemed to leave any room for laughter.

So she was genuinely surprised when she entered her bedroom and discovered Annalee's trunk gone; as well as the chair, the placement of which she and John had spent a ridiculous amount of time arguing about.

"I thought you might like to be able to make it more..." He hesitated. "…more your own."

John had come up behind her quietly and was leaning on the door frame as he spoke.

She turned to face him with a hopeful smile. "Si. Thank you."

"Maybe you could even find room for some of the things you brought with you from your father's?" He suggested, tentatively. "If you do, well, Buck and Blue and I could get them out of storage."

Victoria struggled to contain her emotions. He heart was leaping to her throat with joy over this sudden acknowledgment of her needs or even just her presence. But she felt she must tread gently…as if John were a skittish horse who might easily bolt. She knew something was changing with him, some elemental shift was underway and she didn't want take a chance on somehow saying the wrong thing.

So she simply said, "That is very thoughtful of you. I will think about what might be right for here…for High Chaparral."

He smiled at her and then left her alone with her thoughts …and her hopes.

A few days later, Buck and John and Blue moved a small dressing table and an elegant armoire from where they had languished since their arrival at Chaparral, into John and Victoria's bedroom. In the dining room, the blue willow breakfast dishes found themselves in the company of a more elegant dinner set. A new sofa and sofa covering appeared in the living room, as well a few small prints and one larger painting on the walls. Curtains fluttered in the warm wind, letting in more light.

And a lightened mood as well took hold in the house. More and more often, Blue, Buck and Mano deserted the bunkhouse to join Victoria and John at dinner and breakfast. "Besides," Mano pointed out, "my sister is a much better cook than Pedro."

"Much, MUCH better," Buck agreed.