Lullaby | Brahms Heelshire |

Chapter 2

In the sky stars are bright.

"Oh Danny! I can't wait to see it." My sister's ecstatic voice sounded through the phone. I held the land line in my hand since my cell service did not work out here. "It is amazing Jen! How soon can you be out tomorrow?" I asked checking the time.

     I had moved in to this house three days ago and I had asked for some help moving in from my family. Everyone decided to make a big event of it. My whole family had scheduled to fly out here to spend three nights in my new house while they helped me. We were also planning to hold a yard sale to get rid of some old furniture from the Heelshires, and make the house more me.

     I could hear Jen breathing heavily on the other side of the phone. She must have been last minute packing, running back and forth from room to car. "I should be out of my flat by 6:00 and I will head straight to the house. I should get there around 7:30ish." Jen answered.

     Jen wanted to get here before the whole family, so she decided that waking up at 5:30 in the morning was a good Idea. And I couldn't complain. I could use the extra help pricing the furniture before the craziness of my family arrived. "Okay Danny, just to let you know, I am packing up everything that you have in the flat and bringing it down with me." My heart melted. "Thank you so much! You are the best." I heard my sister's cute giggle on the line. "Okay well I have an early morning tomorrow. I better go. Love you." Jen said. "Love you too. Bye."

     I hung up the phone and picked up a notebook. I headed out to town earlier today to look at prices for some of the Heelshire's furniture and had jotted down the numbers in my notebook.

     I sat myself in a large chair and began to copy the numbers in the notebook to the price tags I had bought in town. The setting sun began to cast shadows on the walls. When my hand began to cramp I decided to go place some tags on the furniture. I started on the bottom floor and worked my way up to the top. I got creeped out walking through the house with all the severed animal heads staring at me. They had to go.

     I finally made it to the last room, which I had decided would be the room that I slept in. I decided to check the closet just in case I missed anything.

     I opened the door and nearly screamed.

     It was the doll.

     It sat on the floor, looking up at me. Its empty eyes gleamed. I sighed in relief. This must have been where the realtor set it when we walked in here last week.

     I reached down and lifted it from the floor. It was much lighter than I had expected it to be. I held it in my arms like I was holding a child.

     I looked at the dolls face, so carefully put back together. My thumb grazed the doll's pocket and I heard something crumple. I looked down to find a paper in the pocket. With my spare hand, I reached down and pulled it out. I gingerly unfolded the little wrinkled ball, careful not to rip it. I smoothed the paper back to a rectangle. Black ink had been stamped onto the paper's surface.

     Two words sat in the top center of the page that sent chills down my spine. They read 'Brahms's Rules'. My eyes shot to the doll. "Wait." I whispered to myself, piecing the puzzle together. Then it hit me. The painting of the Heelshires flashed into my mind. The little boy Brahms. I felt stupid for not noticing the resemblance. The doll that I was holding was
a sculpture of the Heelshires lost son Brahms. I looked at the dolls face recognizing the features of the sweet painted boy. "You must be Brahms." I said out loud, as if the doll was listening to me.

     I looked back to the paper of rules. My eyes skipped across the list of words. There were things listed like, 'Never cover Brahms's face' and 'never leave Brahms alone'. Were these for the doll? "Sheesh" I blew out through my cheeks. This must have been one expensive doll if they had to have rules for it. I continued to look down the list and became very confused. There were rules that said 'Save meals in freezer' and 'Only Malcom brings delivery'.