Hamelton (Dr. Paul) Read Free Page B

Enough of that now, back to the Simon's house.
    I lay there fully clothed on the bed contemplating. Why was Maggie so long winded on some parts of her stories and so brief in others? Was she cleverly avoiding parts or just as nutty as our first impression? Was she nervous about something? Would the Simons have kept her around if she acted like that all the time? Why is Albert so cold? Why do the Simons really sleep downstairs? What did the house look like originally? How do I get into the upper floors? Do I want to go up the top floors? Why would a Hamelton, or anyone, refuse an invitation from the royal palace? Is that how they lost the house?
    II
    Handy's loud voice startled me out of a sound and deep sleep with dreams of sword fighting. I was slightly disoriented because I had not planned on sleeping, and for a moment I had to think where I was? Handy's playful face was looking down on me. "Can Chris come out and play?" Handy teased, "All the other kids are coming. ... Come on Chris we're going out. It's mid-day." He paused as I nodded to him. "We'll meet you downstairs in say... 10 minutes?" I nodded again.
    I sat on the bed as Handy left the room. I looked around with a smile, "I like this place," I said out loud to perhaps the room or the house, or maybe England. I wished I had time right then to look over the armor on the walls but I knew I had to get moving. I went into the bathroom and splashed water on my face. The sink, although porcelain with hand painted designs, seemed out of place. I took my first look around the bathroom as I dried my face. A sudden wave of "How stupid can you be?" came over me as I realized they had no bathrooms at the time this house was built. I changed my clothes and met my friends down stairs. We explored many of the parts of the house that were open. We ran, leaped and played for about two hours. I say "about" because we all agreed to leave our watches at home since time should not be a factor on our vacation. There were also few rooms that had clocks.
During our exploration, we found at the far end of the right wing on the second floor a library. The library was large even for this house. It reminded me of the Henry Higgins library in "My Fair Lady." On this floor the walls were all covered with book shelves made of oak. Brass ladders with wheels on the bottom went up the walls periodically. Many pleasant areas of comfortable chairs were scattered around the room. A few inviting full sized desks were just waiting to be used. The furniture did not seem to match; however, it looked good together. How enormous this room was. It was two tall stories high with an inside balcony completely surrounding the sides. Close to the entry door was a staircase going up. In two parts of the room were circular brass stairs. On the balcony level of the study, the walls continued to have shelves and rolling ladders. Some shelves protruded inward to create cubbyholes for privacy.
    The far side wall on the upper floor had a prominent stained glass window that must have been fifteen feet across. The window picture, I found out later, was named the “Garden of Eden before God created birds or animals”. It was of such quality it could be in the best churches of Rome. Around the sides was a border which was leafs in the fall season, or maybe just a design. In the center was a tree which wrapped itself around a gold colored circle. The morning sun light reflecting in through the diverse colored panels left sparkles around the library.
    As I walked past the window I glanced out clear pane. I saw a person in a black and white maid's uniform picking flowers in one of the gardens. She was too skinny to be Maggie, so I knew it must have been Hanna. This room, although welcoming, seemed rarely used and seldom dusted. Jeff wanted to see what kind of fleet of vehicles they had, so we headed out looking for them. Jeff is an interesting fellow; we had known each other for about ten years. Jeff and I, although we had