Chapter 17: Technical Support

Present Day

“I’ve got one stop to make before we can go home,” said Mike Dubois as his daughters climbed into his car.

His oldest daughter, Tamara, groaned silently and rolled her eyes. Her father didn’t normally take them on work calls, but it had happened in the past and would probably happen again. At sixteen she was surprisingly mature about that sort of thing.

Her one-year-younger sister, Samantha, was not as sympathetic. She groaned loudly and complained, “Daddy!”

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea! It’s right here in town, so get over it,” he replied.

Samantha groaned again, pouting and sulking in the back seat. She just hoped nobody saw her. It was bad enough being picked up at school by her father. Being picked up in a Honda Civic hatchback with big signs on the sides saying ’Springwater Document Solutions, Your Xerox Partner’ was worse! The worst part was that Jimmy Strathmore had offered her a ride home instead, but her father had ruled she was too young for dating or driving around with boys. It was so unfair!

In the front passenger seat, Tamara smiled at her father and rolled her eyes. Mike rolled his in turn. “I know, life is so unfair!” he commented. “It must be so embarrassing to be seen anywhere near your father! How will you ever survive the humiliation and degradation?”

Tamara laughed at that, and Samantha stuck her tongue out at them.

Mike laughed again. “Listen, it’s just over at the distillery. Somebody is having a problem printing. I’ll go and take a quick look, and then we can go home.”

“What’s for dinner tonight?” asked Tamara.

Mike shrugged as he pulled away from the curb. “Burgers? It’s Friday, so I wasn’t figuring anything special.”

“Razor is coming over. We’re going to the movies and a party. We’ll probably get something while we’re out,” she said.

Mike nodded, though with a certain degree of displeasure. No father wanted his daughter seeing a boy nicknamed ‘Razor,’ not even if the boy in question was an honor roll student. On the other hand, he also knew that he had just about zero influence over the boys his daughters found interesting. Once again, he found himself wishing his wife was still around to handle that. Kacey had died three years before, in a stupid car wreck.

“And I’m going to the mall with Karen and Ricki!” piped up Samantha.

Mike just nodded. Karen and Ricki - and whatever boys were trailing around after them. He sighed and shrugged silently. His little girls were growing up.

Mike drove across town to the base of Culverin Hill, turning into the driveway of Culverin Hill Spirits. He stopped at the gate and lowered his window to speak to the security guard. The guard asked, “How can we help you, sir?”

“I got a call to fix a printer,” answered Mike.

The guard glanced at a clipboard and said, “You’re not on my list. Hold on a second, please.” He went back into the guard shack and picked up a phone. A minute later he returned, smiling. “Okay, slight miscommunication. The problem isn’t here at the distillery. It’s up the hill at the mansion. The boss called his secretary, his secretary called you guys. Just turn it around here and turn right after you leave the driveway. You’ll go up the hill to the big house. She’s letting him know you’re on your way.”

“Thanks. Much appreciated.” Mike raised his window and turned around his car as the guard directed.

Tamara looked back at her sister. “Culverin House! Cool! Think we can go inside?”

“That would be so cool!” agreed Samantha. The Culverins were the richest family in Springwater, and their house was hundreds of years old, and supposedly haunted.

Mike shook his head. “Forget it. I’ll probably be going through the servant’s entrance. You two peasants will end up mucking out the stables or something.”

“Cool! Maybe I can be Cinderella and the Prince will want to marry me!” responded Samantha.

“Or maybe the Prince will just want to fool around,” added Tamara.

“Gahhhh!” finished Mike. He turned at the end of the driveway and headed up the hill. Along the way they passed a sign that said, ‘No Trespassing Allowed - Entrance By Invitation Only!’, underneath which was a second sign, ‘Go Ahead! Try It! Coyotes Have To Eat Too!’

Samantha looked at her father. “You don’t think they actually have coyotes, do you?”

Mike smiled. The legends surrounding Culverin House included tall tales about feeding people to coyotes. “Maybe that’s what happens to peasants who ask too many questions.”

At the top of the driveway the woods opened to a large open hilltop. A very large meandering-style house sat in the middle, with a circular driveway in front of it. Several barns were around back. Not knowing where to go, he pulled up to the house. A man came out, smiling and waving. Mike lowered his window again and stopped.

The man, a middle-aged man with gray hair came closer. “You must be the copier guy.”

“Springwater Document Solutions, your Xerox partner. I’m Mike Dubois. They told me to go to Culverin Hill, so I thought it was the distillery.”

“Yeah, I’m Jack Culverin. Don’t sweat it. You’re here now. I’ve got a home office and my printer is making a lot of noise and leaving streaks on the pages.”

“Where should I park?”

“Here is fine. Just pull to the side of the driveway,” said Jack. He looked inside the car and saw Mike’s daughters. “Feel free to come in. It’s a lot cooler than staying in the car.”

“Thank you,” said Mike, parroted a moment later by both girls.

Mike gathered a tool case from the back of the Honda as Jack went to the front door of the mansion. “You two behave. Touch nothing, got it?” he said quietly. “Or I’ll be feeding you to the coyotes myself.”

Jack ushered the Dubois family inside. “My office is just down the hall,” he said, pointing. “Can I get you girls something? Coke? Water? Anything?”

“Is this where you make the whiskey?” asked Tamara.

Jack laughed. “No, that’s back down at the bottom of the hill.”

“Can we have some of that?” asked Samantha.

Mike turned red and began coughing, but Jack just laughed. “Just how old are you two?”

“Twenty-one!” answered a quick-thinking Tamara.

“And I’m a well-preserved eighty-two! Come back in a few years and we’ll talk, but for now, you two can follow me to the kitchen. I keep the whiskey elsewhere!” Jack was laughing as he led the girls away.

Mike shook his head. He turned and found the printer and began diagnosing the problem. After a few minutes he forgot his teenage daughters’ latest antics and concentrated on the problem at hand. An hour later he was finished, after replacing a drum and fuser assembly and rebooting the machine several times while running diagnostics. He packed up and went back to the foyer of the mansion, where he heard his daughters sitting in a side parlor.

“Dad! This place is so neat!” gushed his older girl. She and her sister were sitting at a long bar, with their host behind it.

“It’s pretty cool, Dad,” agreed Samantha.

Mike glanced at the glasses of dark liquid Tamara and Samantha had in front of them, cocking an eye at Jack Culverin. Jack smiled and said, “Coke. I’m fairly decadent, but I’m not quite that decadent. Not yet anyway. Can I get you something?”

“No thank you. I was just finishing up.”

“Are we up and running?”

Mike nodded. “We’re good.” He detailed what he had done and had Jack sign for the service, and then finished with, “Time to go girls. Sorry to have bothered you, Mister Culverin.”

“Pretty girls are never a bother. It was nice meeting you all.”

Tamara hopped down off her barstool. “Thank you, Mister Culverin.”

“Thank you,” chimed in Samantha.

“It was very nice meeting you.” He reached across the bar to shake their hands, and then led them out through the front door.

As they climbed back into their car, Tamara asked her father. “How much does a place like this cost?”

Mike snorted. “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”

“Daddy! That’s no answer!”

“Okay, millions of dollars and two hundred years.”

“Huh.”

“It’s really cool!” said Samantha. “There’s a library and two dining rooms and the bar and a pool out back. They even have horses in a stable!”

“Well, maybe they have a son who’s available,” laughed Mike. “You can do that Prince Charming and Cinderella thing.”

“Heck, maybe they have a Princess. For this place, I’d be willing to play for the other team!” commented Tamara.

Mike just groaned at that, even as his daughters giggled. There were simply some things a father should never learn.

Jack Culverin watched as the Dubois family drove away. He knew the stories about Jacob’s Ghost. He wondered if Culverin House’s strange influence would affect them, but then dismissed it. That only seemed to happen when an entire family was in attendance. Jack had only seen the father and two daughters; no brothers or mother were around. He put it out of his head and didn’t give it another thought.

Mike slowly drove around the circular driveway and headed back down the hill. Then he braked suddenly, seeing a young man in strange, old-fashioned clothes preparing to cross the driveway near the bottom. Curiously, when he got to where the man was, he couldn’t see anybody.

“What’s up, Dad?” asked Samantha.

“Nothing. I thought I saw somebody, but I don’t see him now.”

“So, what are you doing tonight, Dad?” asked Tamara.