“Yes, we’re at a mansion called Prominent House, here in Odessa Texas but I’m not allowed to send any photos, sorry” Helen repeated for Kelly.
“Oh that’s fine honey, you can tell us all about it when you get back from your trip,” Kelly replied soothingly.
“Yes, it was Danny’s house,” Helen said, almost as an afterthought.
“Sounds wonderful dear, Danny was such a nice man, I see what you’re saying now,” Kelly said again.
“Just keep me in the loop alright? Helen asked.
“We will Helen, it’s time to administer Diane’s brandi now, doctors orders,” Kelly said.
“OK, we’ll call you later from the hotel, give Mom a hug for me” Helen instructed.
“I will,” Kelly said as the two ladies clicked -off and Helen replaced her phone into her purse.
Later at the hotel? We’re getting on the plane in a few hours, I now thought to myself with some alarm. Helen was up to something but I wasn’t quite sure what it was yet. I really didn’t think Diane was Helen’s mom but what did I know?
“You’re Mom OK?” Andrea asked”
“She’s hardheaded as hell but she’s a tough old broad” Helen said, running a hand through her hair and closing her eyes.
“Will she be OK?” Kendall asked.
“It’s just some periodic anxiety that she deals with sometimes but the meds and brandi help her; when she remembers to take them. Helen sighed.
“I didn’t know Diane was your mom, Helen,” I said.
“She has been for sixty years, so far” Helen replied dismissively.
Somehow I didn’t think any of this was true but I kept my mouth shut…
“Let’s venture into the kitchen now, at least I think that’s the kitchen,” Andrea said, leading us and nodding her head toward a set of double doors.
Walking toward the kitchen now, we stopped beside the piano.
“OH my God, this is a Steinway D-274 Concert Grand Piano! This is the Cadillac of pianos!” Helen suddenly exclaimed as she ran her hand along the dusty wood.
“How would you know anything at all about pianos?” Andrea asked Helen.
“Danny learned how to play the piano on one just like this; when he was a little kid. He used to talk about it all the time with his next-door neighbor, who’s a concert pianist. I couldn’t shut them up whenever they’d get together, they’d talk about pianos the same way some guys talk about cars and motors” Helen replied, rolling her eyes at me.
“It’s so sad to see it in this condition,” I said, looking at all the dust and rodent droppings within the felt hammers and strings.
“I don’t think it’s beyond restoration and I never would have thought you’d be sentimental towards an old piano, Tim,” Helen said, a little surprised.
“I’m not, Helen, but I do know a quality piece of equipment when I see it. Playing this piano would have had the same feeling, for some people, that driving a long-nose Peterbilt has for me, it’s indescribable….This thing must weigh a ton” I speculated.
“It’s an instrument, Tim, not a piece of equipment” Andrea corrected.
“I guess it’s all in a person’s perspective, Andrea,” I said in reply, as all of us began walking toward the kitchen again.
…The kitchen was the size of a used car lot and had a set of large double swinging doors on each end of the huge room. Pots and pans were hung neatly along the white-tiled walls in chronological order according to size. There must have been sixty or seventy of them along each wall. Looking down, I noticed that there was a small amount of desert sand on the floor which had undoubtedly found its way into the kitchen over the decades during Texas dust storms – but otherwise, the entire kitchen was immaculately clean in every way.
“My God, just look how clean this place is, and it probably hasn’t been used in sixty years or more,” I said in awe.
“These people were all the absolute very best within their respected fields and they earned every damn cent they were ever paid, I can assure you of that, Tim,” Andrea said seriously, looking all around the spotless kitchen.
“This place must have had at least, twenty or twenty-five full-time employees, cooks, housekeepers, and so on,” I said.
“Sixty full-time servants were working here during the house’s hey-day, I do know that much” Kendall replied.
“That probably doesn’t even include all the plumbers, carpenters, masons, and electricians that were always on-call” Helen interjected.
“Money was no object to this guy, whoever the hell he was. I’ll bet he was an arrogant sonofabitch” I answered sternly.
“Not all people with money are arrogant, Tim,” Andrea said.
I now looked all around me. “Try to imagine the chaos that took place in here whenever there’d been seventy or eighty snobby guests invited to a four-course meal. The waiters and cooks must have worked their asses off and those double doors probably never stopped swinging for hours. Imagine the clean-up time it took to wash all the dishes and utensils. They didn’t wash the dishes here, there must have been a separate room for that.” I said, speculating.
I reached for the door of the dumbwaiter.
“Ah-Ah-Ah, we’re not in Alaska anymore, Toto! If you’re going to open anything in this house, then use a stick, Tim. We already know birds are living in this house, there’s probably more critters living here too” Andrea said as I quickly pulled my hand back from the door of the dumbwaiter.
Helen handed me a long metal spoon which I rapped sharply on the door with and then slowly slid the dumbwaiter door open with the concave end of the spoon, first looking for snakes and then glancing downward.
“…Looks like the dumbwaiter crashed at the bottom of the wine celery,” I said, sliding the door closed again.
“I wish we had brought flashlights,” Andrea said.
“How could we have known?…Did Danny ever mention this place to you, Andrea?” Helen asked.
“Never, I wonder why? Did he ever mention it to you, Helen?” Andrea asked, doubtfully.
“No, and if he had, I would have bugged him until he brought me here.” I love this place! It’s a perfect setting for a romance novel – but I read too many of those, at least according to some people” Helen said, looking at me and rolling her eyes again.
…Helen was starting to warm up to me, a little more than I was comfortable with, although I didn’t think she was really conscious of it….Andrea and I were getting on a plane within a few hours so I decided not to give it any more thought. In the morning Andrea and I would be thousands of miles away from Helen which would give all of us time to reboot and start all over again. I genuinely felt that Helen was a wonderful person but she was also lonely and confused right now, concerning romance.
This combination made Helen Lunsford very dangerous…
“Let’s go up the grand staircase and check out the first floor now ladies, Andrea and I need to be on a plane soon,” I said, leading the way.
“Which grand staircase, Tim? There are two” Helen said sarcastically.
“Whichever one your heart desires, dahling” I said, returning Helen’s sarcasm.
In a way, I didn’t want to get on a plane now, I wanted to explore this amazing wonderland of grandeur that had been frozen in time for decades. I knew that Andrea would have YouTube’d this place if she’d been allowed to.