Oct 18 Freestyle Brainstorm

He knew all the rumors, knew all the gossip that surrounded the building. He could remember visiting his Great-Uncle and Great-Aunt when he was four, when the family gathered there Christmas Eve to celebrate the upcoming holiday and to meet the newest members of the family, children born and weddings during the year. He was told to never go into the cellar beyond the flimsy wall. He was told the reason for it being constantly cold in the laundry room was due to there being no heater and no light access. He knew all about hauntings.

Yet, Longfellow loved that Great-Aunt Cecile bequeathed him the brownstone when she passed just before his 17th birthday, and how it made only HER children mad.

“You should not have begged me for money,” is the reasoning her attorney told the family as to her reason for giving him it and an equal share of cash, stocks, bonds, and insurance money. “He never asked me for anything other than to hear the stories.”

He moved in once the Charlotte County Community College soccer season ended. He thought living with his mother and her roommate was better than learning to be a homeowner while beginning to be a college student-athlete. Stability was the word used.

The ghosts he came to know – the Bride, the Gangster, the Hussar, the Mother and Child in particular – welcomed him home, whispering their thanks for not selling the property and for sharing their stories with the public. Though most passed on, several stayed, and now they were ready to give him comfort and advice when it was needed.

They left him notes, using copier paper and pencils he left in the library, in the media room, and in the kitchen. Little things, well wishes and story ideas mostly. When visitors questioned the reasoning behind all the paper and notes, he’d just tell them that ideas would come to him, and he needed to put them down before he forgot. No one noticed the different styles of writing.

They cried, too, when he lost her. And they cried, too, when she would not come back, so he could tell her that he loved her.