Day 190 - Museum

MUSEUM

Prompt - Museum : Take some time to visit a nearby museum with your journal.  Write about one of the pieces that speaks to you.

Edward never made a sound.  Until he hit the ground. Thumpsquelch. I waited to see if there was any more noise, but nothing came, so I left the room and started to make my way downstairs.  Unseen.  I knew unseen was best.  I stopped when I heard the scream.

Edward had been with us for two months.  It felt like a lifetime.  Edward had changed my world.  Mother, Nurse, the rest of the servants, aunts and uncles who came visiting, everyone wanted to see me, hear me sing, watch me run and play hoop and spin my top.  Everyone was happy to pick up one of my wooden swords and fight to the death, falling down, with loud cries, when I pierced their hearts with my quickness.  Everyone loved me.  Why wouldn't they?

Then mother started to get fatter.  Much fatter.  I was told to leave her to rest.  Nurse would keep me from her, which only made me want to see her more. How could she not want me with her when I wanted to be?

It got worse.  She rarely left her room, I was told to stay out.  She wasn't well and they didn't want me to catch anything.  That put me off going in, I didn't like being ill.  Although it did mean lots of attention so...  But Doctor Harris was coming in every couple of days. so clearly she wasn't well at all, maybe with something so horrid that I wouldn't even know that people were making a fuss over me.  And what would be the point of that?

 But I did as I was told, and Nurse and the servants told me what a good boy I was and how pleased mother would be with me when she was better. Then one day the doctor, and a big nurse woman, arrived in a hurry, rushed up the stairs to mother's room, and everyone looked worried.  There were cries for hot water and towels, and much muttering, though nobody would tell me what was happening.  Nurse kept me occupied in the study for hours, and had my tea brought to me there.  She kept me there until I fell asleep, and when I woke it was morning and I was in my bed.  The house sounded so quiet it wasn't like home at all.  Nobody came to get me up, so I did it myself, put my own clothes on, and went to see where everyone was.  

The first person I saw was Father.  His fave and eyes were dark and he was till in is dressing gown.  This never happened.  He smiled when he saw me, put a finger to his lips to usher silence, and bent down to whisper.

"Would you like to see your mother now?  She's got a surprise for you."

"Is she better now?  Will I not catch anything?"

"Yes, she's much better, but still tired.  But she'll be pleased to see you after so long.  Come on in."  He lifted me up into his arms, something else that never happened, and carried me into the room.

"See who I've brought with me - I think he needs introducing to the new arrival."  He carried me over to Mother, who smiled, waved feebly at me, and looked much paler and less pretty than usual. Nurse was washing down her legs and feet,something I'd never seen her do before.  On the other side of the bed was a wooden boat I hadn't seen before.  It was mounted on a stand which brought it up to my mother's level, and had a strange curved yellow canopy at one end, and a quilt where the deck should have been.  As my father carried me round I could see a round red face, bonneted, asleep under the deck quilt.  Where had that come from?

"Saw hello to Edward, Gavril.  He's your new brother.  Isn't that a wonderful surprise?"

Was it?  Why?  I had never needed a brother before, so why did I have one now?  

"Where is he going?  When's he leaving?" I asked  They seemed the obvious questions.  My father and mother looked at each other.  Eyebrows were raised. 

 Nurse tutted.  I awaited my answers.

"He's not going anywhere, he's staying with us.  He's your family now, and your job will be took after him when he's a bit bigger.  Won't it be lovely to have a little brother to play with?"  Father looked at me, encouraging, expecting.

"No!  I don't want a brother.  Take him back.  I want Mother to be well again."

My mother finally spoke.  "I am well now darling, just a little tired.  Having Edward has made me so much better, and you have to be nice to him.  You can do that, can't you?"

I knew enough not to,say anything, knew that anything I did say would displease her, and I wanted her to be like she was before.  

"Can I go now?"  My parents exchanged the same looks as before, Nurse repeated her tut, and my father put me down.  I ran from the room and thought about what it all meant.  I knew that life had changed, but wasn't sure how.  It didn't look good though.

I didn't like Edward.  He cried whenever I came near.  I was immediately shooshed out of the room f I disturbed him. Mother hardly looked at me, Nurse was too busy to play, the servants all wanted to be near him.  Edward had stolen my life from me.  

He was never left alone.  And then, one day, he was.  I went up to him  He didn't cry.  I touched him.  He giggled, held his arms out.  I pulled him up, he laughed like the water swirling in the sink after the dishes had been washed. I picked him up, he clung to me.  Heavy.  Heavier than anything I'd carried before.  But not too heavy.  

I carried him to the door, peered out.  Nobody.  Voices came from downstairs, I heard my mother say she must go up, my father call her back 'just for a minute'.  The stairs to the attic, the servants' rooms, were a few feet away.  I took him with me.

It was hard going, but I did it, step by step  And still nobody came up.  Got to the top.  Edward gurgles again.  He seemed to be enjoying himself.  More than I was.  Made my way over to the small back room where Bessie and Cassie, the Scullery Maids, slept.  The window in their room was low down, the sill only a short way off the floor.  It opened easily.  I picked Edward up, looked down into his trusting blob of a face, and threw.  Thudsquelch.