The others had politely decided to wait for us outside of the house as the final car pulled up. Cory, who hadn’t visited before, gasped audibly upon seeing the front of the house which everyone else was sure to be accustomed to by now. 

“Wow, it’s huge!” he exclaimed and mother and I laughed a little at him. 

“It has to be, dear,” Mother said. “How else would we all fit?”

Cory spun his head to nod vigorously at my mother. “Of course. Thanks again for letting us stay, Mrs Cross!”

Our holiday home was situated right at the end of a large hill and had a beautiful view overlooking the valley below as a result. To the east were tall mountains (the mountains used by skiers) and to the west were dense forests. South headed back into town and north was the aforementioned valley. At the bottom of the valley was a small lake which had already frozen over but the area was considered protected wilderness and so we could only appreciate its beauty from afar. The house itself was also beautiful: graybrown wooden walls and cobblestone chimney. White was in fashion for house exteriors but given the location, darker colours helped it define its own silhouette against the white snow of our surroundings. The front of the house was adorned with a beautiful garden in the spring and summer, but the covering of snow and harsh temperatures left many of the decorative plants either dead or dormant. We Crosses were fancy enough people to buy and plant new flowering plants each year just to upkeep a garden that may not even be seen by one of us while in its full bloom and beauty.

Once we were all together, Mother unlocked the front door and let us all in before quickly hurrying into the kitchen to put away any perishables in the fridge. Jacob nodded at us before following in after her, something that drew the disapproving glare of Andrew as he walked off. Perhaps because of this, he shot off on his own, Christina following behind. I realised the torch had been passed to me to give everyone a tour and I took a deep breath to prepare myself.

“Alright, everyone! Leave your bags here and I’ll give all the first timers a tour! We can put everything away later.”

Everyone was gathered in the foyer for now, a relatively small room that the front door opened into directly. I{t had a high ceiling, coat racks and small benches where people could sit and take off their shoes if they wanted. Considering that the heating had not yet been turned on and the house was still quite frigid, nobody opted to. However, Sybil and Iris decided to sit down anyway. Iris ran the flat of her hand along the abolished wooden slats of the bench and hummed to herself.

“This is the foyer,” I explained, although that much was already obvious. “Please put your coats on the racks and follow me.”

The foyer had two exits, one into the main hallway and one directly into the kitchen, they were side by side at the far end of the room from where one enters. Mother had taken the right exit to the kitchen when she had arrived but I decided to take everyone down the hallway first. The main hallway was wider than one you might imagine to find in a regular house, there was a royal red rug with gold trim lining it in its entirety, giving a warmer alternative to walk on compared to the cold hardwood floors and the walls were adorned with wall-mounted lights to brighten up the place. Paintings also hung neatly on either side.

Rebecca stopped in front of one of the paintings toward the entrance of the hallway and asked, “What painting is this, Walter?”

Turning to look at her and the painting in question, I became excited at the prospect of explaining the art to her. Painting was , after all, one of my passions!

“That one is called ‘The She-Wolf’,” I explained. “It’s a replica, of course, the real one is in New York, but the artist did a fantastic job mimicking Pollock’s style, don’t you think?”

Everyone blinked at me as if I was speaking a different language and Rebecca flashed me an apologetic smile. “It’s creepy,” she said with a bit of a laugh.

“I guess it is a bit,” I admitted begrudgingly. “But the way this painting evokes the otherworldly is one of its charms! The chaotic, almost violent composition and brushstrokes, it makes me wonder what kind of turmoil this wolf has had to deal with!”

There was a long pause before anyone said anything else.

“How do you even know it's supposed to be a wolf?” Asked Iris and I gave up explaining.

“It’s one of my favourites too,” Alison chimed in pensively - my savior at last! “I feel like I can relate to her...”

“Why? Because you both chase chickens?” teased Cory.

Alison made an exaggerated gesture of rolling her eyes but she smiled back at him. “No, because we’re all animals. It can be hard being a human when the wolf inside you wants to escape and run free in the night.” By the end of her sentence, her tone indicated that she was joking.

“Yeah?” Cory responded. “Well my inner wolf wants to put his bags away!” Nobody laughed at that.

As you traveled down the hall, the first exit was on your left and led into another hallway: the south wing of the house. There were several bedrooms down that way and not much else. There was a bathroom for this wing of the house, situated close to the entrance, on the right and a door at the very end of the hall which originally functioned as a side entrance. Mother had had it permanently closed for a while now, as there was not much use for it. Even if one were to acquire the key, firewood had been stacked in front of its outer side, so opening the door would be difficult without knocking everything down.

I took everyone through and encouraged them to look into the rooms, as half of us would be staying in them, namely: the girls. They all excitedly discussed who would stay  where as we walked to the end of the hall. The choice would be negligible though, as all of the rooms were practically identical. Ornate furniture, a double window with gold curtains, a large bed with white sheets and blue-grey duvet cover. Mother liked everything in the house to look neat and in order, a trait that Andrew clearly inherited. The only real difference was the view you got from the window. The south wing didn’t get the best views in the house though, with the south-facing rooms viewing the front yard and driveway, and the north-facing rooms viewing an internal courtyard area with a clothes line and some pot plants lining the far wall of the house. If you are having trouble imagining it, picture the house from a bird's eye view as being shaped like a reversed “C”. The south wing at the bottom and the north wing at the top, separated by a gap which was the aforementioned courtyard.

After everyone felt satisfied that they had explored enough, we returned to the main hall.

Travelling down the main hall from the foyer, if you passed the first exit to the left which led to the south wing, the next exit was on the right and led to the living room. Before we were able to reach it, conversation on another of the paintings began, Matthew noticing it this time and I wondered if I shouldn’t simply keep my mouth shut.

“This one’s just scribbles! Actually, so was the other one. I could do this in my sleep.”

“Does your mum exclusively own creepy paintings?” Sybil asked.

They were talking about the Rothko replica, “Archaic Idol”. This one was avant garde! Not that these simpletons cared.

“What do you say this one’s about?” Corey asked in mock curiosity. Alison seemed unfazed by his teasing.

“I don’t know...” she said honestly as she stared into the depth of the painting. To everyone else, Alison was simply looking at a painting, but to me, who knew her so well, she seemed to be deeply troubled by something. It made me wonder what in that painting spoke to her so. It would be rude and unproductive to call her out on this publicly though, so I was left alone with my curiosities.

Soon everyone grew tired of Samantha Cross’ weird paintings and we finally moved into the living room.

Our living room was vast and had one of its four walls made entirely of glass, the north-facing one, to maximize the view. The east-facing wall had its north quarter consist of a set of glass sliding doors which lead out to the house’s main courtyard and the rest a wall of white plaster where our fireplace was situated. The main courtyard was surrounded by a brick wall and could not be accessed from outside the house. It had a tree at its centre as well as a decorated garden and cobblestone path. It also had an outdoor dining set up, although it was rarely used in winter. The west-facing wall was the wall the living room shared with the main hall, and the south-facing wall separated the living area from the kitchen. The west-facing wall had some low cabinets lined up against it for storage and on top of them was a record player. In the middle of the north half of the room was a set of lounge chairs that connected in an “L” shape, both facing the fireplace. In the middle of the south half was a dining table, covered in a decorated white cloth with a lace hem.

Really this room was a combined living and dining area but we simply called it the living room.

Sybil, Iris and Rebecca made a beeline for the fireplace and stretched their ice-cold hands out toward it to warm them up. The boys looked around at the decorations, Matthew becoming immediately excited by a mounted moose head hanging above the fireplace. Andrew and Christina had rejoined us at this point, so the group was back to its full size again.

“The kitchen is next,” I announced.

“We’ll wait here,” Matthew explained. “That room’s only going to be interesting to the girls.”

I felt a pang of offense. While I knew it was proper for a woman to cook, surely the boys were being a bit close minded to refuse even to enter a kitchen. I decided to bite my tongue, to keep the peace and I led the girls into the kitchen, where Mother and Jacob were still deep in conversation.

The kitchen itself was beautiful, with pots and pans hanging from a rack on the far wall, and cloves of garlic and other dried herbs hanging by the window and mint green tiling on the walls, accented by the warm brown of the window frame. The fridge was also a mint green and the marble countertops were a dark gray. Mother really had a sense for colour and this room was probably the best testament to that! 

Once she noticed us, mother turned her attention from Jacob who was still in the middle of saying something and told us, “Oh there you all are! Walter, dear, I’m going to stay and make dinner before I go, is that okay? Jacob can join us, can’t he?”

Jacob turned and looked at me placatingly. Pleeeaaaaaassse, his face seemed to say. I briefly thought of Andrew’s feelings before responding but ultimately decided that the best thing to do was to act in the spirit of hospitality. “Of course, mum!” I declared happily.

After viewing the kitchen, (including a walk-in pantry that Iris, in particular, got a kick out of and a lattice shelving unit for storing wine bottles which Rebecca seemed to fixate on) we met back up with the others in the living room. 

“Did you enjoy your time behind enemy lines?” Cory asked me as we walked towards the entrance back into the main hall. I didn’t dignify his comment with a response.

Further down the main hall was another left exit which led to a laundry area and another bathroom. And at the very end were stairs leading up to the north wing on the second story. Next to the stairwell, was the house’s north exit and the only other exit that led outside as the main courtyard was enclosed. 

Only the north half of the house had a second story although mother had considered expanding the house multiple times. As you walked up the stairs you’d be met with a wall at the top with an expanse of window giving an awesome view of the valley below. In order to get to the north wing proper from the top of the stairs, you have to make a u-turn around the railing in order to walk up a small corridor on the stairwell's west side. Walking down this corridor yielded several rooms on your right, the west side of the north wing, a room directly at the end of the hallway, on the south side of the north wing and the master bedroom to your left, on the east side of the north wing. There was a third bathroom in between bedrooms one and two on the west side and a fourth as part of the master bedroom’s ensuite. 

The rooms in the north wing were the ones the three of us usually used, so they were decorated more lavishly than the ones in the south wing were, a detail that did not escape the girls’ attention nor prevent their complaining. I felt a pang of guilt but Andrew didn’t seem to mind much. His face seemed to say “too bad for you”.

“And that concludes the tour! Girls, why don’t you head back to the living area while we get set up here. Or maybe you want to go back and put your things away?”

Whatever they decided, the girls disappear down the stairs. 

In the spirit of hospitality, I would have insisted that neither Andrew or I take the master bedroom and instead leave it for either Cory or Matthew. Andrew had other ideas, apparently, walking directly into it without saying anything to the others. I decided to take the south room and told the boys they could take their pick of either room on the west side.

I returned to the entrance to gather my bags and found that the girls had already retrieved their belongings, suggesting they finalized room placements. When I had successfully gotten my various belongings into my room, out of my suitcase and into draws and wardrobes, I flopped down onto the bed and let out a gentle sigh. I was exhausted. The night was young, however, and I didn’t plan to turn in just yet. Maybe just a quick nap, though.