Keeper: Chapter 15

Sorry for the longer delay than expected.  Things ended up getting shaken a bit more than I planned.  I was recently offered a new job and I decided to take it.  So in January I will be leaving Louisiana and moving to Wyoming. I still plan on aiming for 2 chapters a week but the days they get posted may be a bit sporatic as i try to pack up and move. v

Chapter 15

Jamie picked up the notebook where he had scrawled the notes of what he had learned about the current situation. It was a depressingly small amount. He shrugged as he tucked a pen into the spiral binding of the notebook and a second as backup into his back pocket.



“Least I’m not bored,” he said to himself. “House?” He asked aloud.



“Yes Keeper,” came the response. Jamie thought the house sounded jittery and he frowned.



“Are you all right?”



“Yes Keeper. I am just unaccustomed to such…activity.”



“I see. Sorry to keep disturbing you.”



“Not at all Keeper, it is I who should apologize. Several things that should not be now are.” The house sounded slightly distraught.



“Somehow I don’t think that is your fault,” Jamie told it. He looked around at the shelves. “I don’t suppose you know if there are any books relating to you on the shelves? Or maybe an esoteric volume on house repair?”



“There is a book dedicated to me,” the house told him somewhat proudly. “One of the earlier Keepers wrote it as I was being built.”



“Really? I don’t suppose you know where that book is at the moment.”



“I believe it was put away safely.”



“As in not stored in the library or study?”



“Yes Keeper. Visitors are often entertained here.”



“I wonder if it could be with the other journals?” Jamie mused.



“It is possible,” House answered him.



“Do you know where that is?”



“No keeper I am sorry, only living beings can be tracked.”



“I see. I don’t suppose you know what room is called Storage room 3 in the inventory?”



“I am afraid not Keeper,” The house sounded disappointed.



“That’s not a problem,” Jamie assured it. “That just means I’ll have to look for it.” Jamie tapped his notebook against his leg and thought for a second. He hadn’t heard the mini hazmat team climb the stairs so he figured he was alone on the floor. “Might be a good idea to search this floor first.” He stepped into the hallway and began opening the various closed doors lining the hallway. He didn’t have much hope of finding a store room on this floor however as he had been through most of the rooms as a child. As he remembered, most of the closed doors revealed unoccupied bedrooms. Jamie thought about Albe’s journal entry and wondered any of these rooms had been occupied since the mourners had gone home. It was a sad thought and he wondered how the house felt about it. Did House miss having people running up and down its halls? Did it miss large gatherings for holiday meals? Or was it happier to be left alone to sleep and dream whatever dreams a house dreamed. Jamie closed yet another bedroom door and wondered if houses actually dreamed.

“Maybe there is an answer in the book,” Jamie thought intrigued by the concept. Mentally he tried to figure out when the house was built and who had actually been the Keeper to take notes. He quickly gave it up as a lost cause however as he didn’t know enough about architecture to hazard a guess and he was fuzzy on the names from Albe’s family tree.



“Going to have to remedy that,” he muttered. After all if he was going to be reading their personal journals, Jamie figured knowing their names might be helpful. Jamie finished with the quick search of the floor as he heard footsteps on the main staircase. Figuring the clean up crew’s arrival was eminent he ducked into the back stairwell and took a short corridor to another level. He shook his head. Somehow the house seemed more maze like today than at any time he had explored it as a child. He opened a door and found trunks stacked against the wall while dust cloth covered furniture dominated the center of the space. Jamie frowned.



“I don’t remember this room,” he said aloud. Jamie ducked back into the hallway and looked down the corridor. Nothing looked familiar. The framed prints even looked odd. While he had no illusions about seeing the entire house before he was fairly certain there was not an entire floor he had missed. His eyes narrowed.



“House?” he asked.



“Yes Keeper?”



“Was this floor here before?” He asked feeling vaguely silly.



“Yes Keeper the floor has always been here.”



“Do you remember me ever coming here before?”



“No Keeper you would not have come here before.”



“I wouldn’t?”



“No, when you explored the house before you were not the Keeper so there were places you could not go.”



“I see. So you hid an entire floor from me?” He thought of the house’s exterior and tried to puzzle out how he had missed a floor when driving up. “Would I see the floor from the outside?”



“No keeper, I always look the same from the outside.”



“Is there more than one floor I haven’t seen?” Jamie thought hesitantly of the inventory and wondered how it was ever completed let alone checked.



“Of course Keeper.”



“I don’t suppose someone thought of making a map?” Jamie smiled hopefully.



“Of course Keeper.”



“Great,” Jamie said, sighing with relief. “Do you know where the map is?”



“Of course.”



“I don’t suppose you would mind telling me?” Jamie asked when it was clear the House had no plans to continue.



“It is with the book that was written when I was built.”

“Of course it is,” Jamie said. “Of course it is. Thanks.”



“Happy to be of service Keeper.” Jamie assumed an additional sarcasm would be lost on the house and so continued his search.