Inspired By The Bancroft Manor Prompt: Will You Visit The House of Usher?
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My Aunt has a room
at the top of the stairs
where she does all of her writing
and all of her dreaming
and most of her plotting.
The door, at the top of the stairs with the not very rusted hinges is never locked.
No matter what the weather is like her windows are never shuttered.
The unbleached muslin curtains are always tied away from the windows with ribbon she saved from a Christmas present she got from my Grandmother when she was a girl.
The present was a doll that disappeared a few days after Christmas and my Father says my Grandfather asked about it a few days later and my Aunt looked out the window towards the lake and shrugged.
And then she laughed.
In my Aunt’s room
at the top of the stairs she always has a fan running in the corner, it sounds like someone sharpening knives we have decided.
The fan ( an old fashioned one we presumed ) relentlessly whispers,
when you are trying to sleep or decide what to wear or when you are trying to watch TV or fall asleep, in it’s a smooth metallic voice interrupted by a clink and a thunk and then silence for a mere second before it started up again.
My Aunt has a room at the top of the stairs.
and there is a
welcome signed nailed to the door.
The sign is made from pressed tin and has tiny bluebirds stamped around the edges.
But something about that fan whirling relentlessly in the corner,
makes the friendly, delicate sign seem less inviting.
It is hung on the door with a nail that was far to big
for such a small sign and it had been driven in so deep the sign was slightly folded and it looked like the Blue Birds were going to fly into each other.
My Aunt has a room at the top of the stairs
where she does all of her writing, all of her plotting and some of her dreaming.
and we admire her as much as we fear her
because to do what she does, takes talent and dedication and I must say, frightening amounts of supernatural focus and drive
when you consider
she is buried a good ten miles away from our house.
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