Lucy was 11 when the need for a long business trip to a not entirely safe area meant her parents needed to leave her with relatives. She would have preferred to stay with friends but that didn’t seem to be an option this year. So it was off to the huge, fascinating house in another state. She was not really sorry. On the short visits her family had made to the house, she was fascinated and would have loved to explore it, but was never given the chance. She wasn’t particularly pleased to hear her mother say to a cousin of some sort when they dropped her off, “And be careful”. She presumed that meant not allowing her to rush outside during thunderstorms, raising her hands in greeting and laughing at the lightening and dancing with joy as the thunder rolled. Such as that. Well, she would try to behave.

During her first day there, she met nothing but cousins. There seemed to be an enormous horde of them. After a while, she asked, plaintively, “Aren’t there any aunts or uncles? Or a grandparent or two?”

“Of course,” said the cousin. Cecily, she thought the name was. ”Actually, some of the people we call cousin may really be an aunt or uncle.:

This sounded very peculiar to Lucy, but she decided to pursue it later. Maybe when she was back with her parents. What she was most interested now was in exploring. She sidled away from this collection of maybe-cousins and set off.

It was an enormous house. She passed through room after room with furniture that looked old and elaborate. And the stairs! Flight after flight. How could they keep going up. How many floors did this house have, anyway? She didn’t remember it looking that tall from the outside. Come to think of it, the weather had been raining heavily when they arrived, so she hadn’t seen much of anything. But if this house really was a skyscraper, here in the middle of nothing, you’d think she would have noticed. Odd, too, that she wasn’t at all tired. It just seemed natural for her to keep going up, and she felt fine. Very energetic, in fact. And delighted to be here.

Finally, she seemed to reach . . . somewhere. AT least not another staircase. She looked around. Corridors stretched of in two directions, with closed doors. She went to one and opened it. Must be a bathroom—at any rate when she saw was an odd porcelain configuration, with a shiny faucet. Not interesting. She went to the next door, opened it, and saw the same thing. She even looked back to check that she had indeed entered a different door. She had. So she tried a third one. Again, porcelain and a single faucet. Very shiny and glowing. Almost as if it were gold, which was, she told herself, a ridiculous ides. Intrigued, she went to it and turned it. It resisted briefly, then cooperated. Nothing came out. But outside the window, which she hadn’t noticed until now, there was suddenly the mother of all rainstorms. She gaped at it.

The door flew open and three of her cousins charged in. “Lucy what are you doing? It’s too soon, and it’s not yours anyway.”

Cousin Philip nudged her out of the way and turned it off She stared at him, not sure what to say. Then she blurted out, “What’s the matter?”

Cousin Cecily placed her hand’s gently on Lucy’s shoulders. “She’s still too young[f1] , Philip.”

“Too young for what?”

“Sweetie, you will find out in due time. Meanwhile, enjoy your youth.”

She was aching to get loud and demanding, but something told her that wouldn’t be a good idea just now. She obediently followed them out the door and down the stairs. Except it was only two flights this time until they were back in familiar territory?

“Hungry?” said Cecily. ‘It’s almost dinner time.”

Yes, suddenly she was, so she followed them to a small dining room. No other cousins joined them. She looked around,” Are we all there is?”

“No, just who is here now?

“Rhonda. I met her several times at home. Is she here?”

They looked sad. “No. She’s gone into a different type of work. She’s going to college for it now.”

“I’d like to see her again. She’s nice.” Meaning perhaps they weren’t? She hoped they didn’t take it that way. But they all smiled.

“You probably will. When you go back to your parents. I think they were planning on working together.”

“On what>’ she almost yelled that our, but no one seemed disturbed[f2]

“Financial stuff. Wall Street and all that.”

“My parents?” She’d never known. “I thought they did research or something.”

“It’s all one, isn’t it?” said Michael vaguely She supposed it might be and thought of another question.

“Who built this house? Great Grandmother Aurelia?” A very significant ancestor and the only one she knew anything about.

“No, it’s older than that. But not as old as the first Aurelia,”

“The first  . . What do you mean?”

“Lucy,” said Cecelia. “Ours is a very old family. We should leave it up to your own parents to tell you.”

She was getting mad. “That’s silly.”

“Is it? All, right, just think of what happened today.”

They had finished eating and were exiting though a door now, into a garden. It was a beautiful, luxuriant garden, trees, bushes, flowers and all.

“What do you mean, what happened?” And come to think of it, she had meant to ask.

Philip began to sing, “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” Michael and Cecily both snapped at him to be quiet.

“It didn’t look like diamonds.” She remembered a moment when the sun had struck the raindrops. “Maybe they sort of did. But I don’t have kaleidoscope eyes. Don’t want them either.”

“Just as well,” said Michael.

“Anyway, who did build this place. It’s so huge.”

“Maybe it just sort of grew.”

“That is very silly.”

“Is it?

Again, she had no answer.

“OK, so who was the original Aurelia. And when.”

‘Oh, a long, long time ago.”

She actually snorted. 

“Look,” Philip said. “You’ve got to tell the kid something. She’s bright. She’s found things. So ?”

Cecily sighed. “I suppose you are right.”

“You are senior. You tell her.” Cecily a senior? Did the mean a senior in high school. Somehow Lucy didn’t buy that. Cecily looked young but something about her didn’t seem young.

“Lucy, our long-ago ancestress . . . married a water spirit.

In the silence, Lucy distinctly heard Philip snort. “Married!” he said.

“Philip!” Cecelia snapped. “Lucy, that’s enough for now. Think about it. Get used to the idea.  It will help you adjust to some of the thigs you’ll learn here.”

 [f1]

 [f2]