Thomas Ch. 01

His name is Thomas, not Tommy or Tom but Thomas. He was never allowed out to play with the other kids, has never seen another kid, and has never been to school or to church. Never has he been outside the mansion. There is no need; the mansion has a library on the scale of any large university. Only, he cannot read and can only look at the books that have pictures. It was for his own good they felt, not to educate him. How better to control him. Besides, even if he wanted to go out, which he does not, there is no one around for miles in every direction. Their closest neighbor is fifteen miles away and they don't own a car nor have a license to drive.

The estate encompasses hundreds of acres and is surrounded by an iron gate too tall to scale. There is only one road in and out, the mountain road and it is as steep as it is treacherous and in dire need of repair. The gate is opened remotely. It is the perfect hideaway for someone who wants to hideaway. Anyone approaching could be seen from the upstairs suite of tower rooms from a great distance away. Yet, no one came unless summoned to deliver needed supplies.

The distance of their hideaway from the endless road kept away the curious. With all the overgrown shrubbery swallowing the grounds, the forest reclaimed the land all around the mansion years ago, but for the main road that was now in need of repair, too. Few knew a house was even back there and those who knew about the mansion did not know that it was still inhabited. Why would they? No one dared venture that far into the woods. There was no need and rumors abounded that the woods were haunted by ghostly ghouls and scary spirits. Besides, the road was on private property clearly marked with signage everywhere.

"No trespassing. Poachers will be shot."

In all his twenty-five years on the planet, Thomas has never been past the front door and has never been outside. He has never seen the sun, the stars, and the moon, but for whatever glimpses he can catch of them from the interior outside courtyard of the mansion. They keep the doors locked and hide the keys and, with the shutters closed and the heavy drapes drawn, not even sunlight gets inside. Really, there is no need for him to leave the mansion, now, that they are self-sufficient and have been for so many years. They grow their own vegetables and have a deep well with clean water all of which is contained within the interior outside courtyard of the mansion.

Thomas has everything that he could want and he wants for nothing. Because there is no television, radio, Internet, newspapers, magazines, or mail, there is nothing to make him want anything outside the four walls of the mansion. His world is everything that is within the house. He's happy because he doesn't know any better.

There are three of them, Irene, Maureen, and Kathleen striking examples of descendants from the Emerald Isle. Red haired, fair skinned, and freckled with blue eyes ablaze that color their faces like the blue sea colors the earth, as seen from outer space. They are sisters. Only, they are as crazy as they are beautiful. Before they were born, their father, along with his six brothers, migrated here from Ireland so long ago to make it big in America and they had. It was prohibition. It was the roaring twenties with booze, broads, and gambling making them rich.

Before income taxes, there was plenty of money everywhere until the crash of the stock market heralded the deafening sound of poverty and despair and the end to their unlimited money machine. Only, Thomas O'Riley had already accumulated vast wealth, he had as much money as did George Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and John Rockefeller, only without the overhead. He only had this one house after all and lived alone with his daughters and without servants. He was rich beyond his wildest imaginings and he left everything to them, his three crazy daughters who were his sole survivors.

They told Thomas that they were his aunts, but they were not. Besides, illiterate and uneducated, he is unsure what an aunt is, anyway. Like Thomas, no one knew that Irene, Maureen, and Kathleen existed. Every day, they wore a different dress. There are several hundred dresses from which to choose. Their father stocked the house with everything needed before he passed and before he passed he put the fear in them, too.

Their father told his daughters that strangers murdered their mother and that they were outside looking to murder them, too. Never are they allowed outside the house. Never are they allowed to open the door, open the shutters, draw the draperies or to open a window. Yet, he assured them over and again, so long as they stayed in the house, and only went down to retrieve the supplies together and to take the gun, they would be okay. He was crazy, too. When they were born, he gave them more than wealth, their inheritance included lunacy, too. It was a bittersweet inheritance to be so wealthy and, yet, so nuts.

To be continued...