The world is a large place. So large, in fact, that you can live all
of your life in an average sized city and not know every person that lives
there. This isn't, of course, implying that all cities are as such. On
the contrary, there are reasonably large numbers of places where the whole
population of the entire town knows one another as old buddies. It is in
one of those towns that our journey begins.
As we near the town square of this previously established small town, it becomes very apparent about one thing, at least: if something should occur that is not normal, or that is interesting enough, the whole town will know about it before the sun goes down on the next day. Which is, as you can imagine, a nuisance at times.
So it is understandable for us to state how out of place one house, and it's occupants, are in this simple town. No one knows for sure what they do, aside from their public lives. It IS known that there is a long roster of servants, one daughter, and two parents, a mother and father. The family is considerably wealthy, and very high in social status. It wouldn't be far-fetched to label them as upper first class citizens.
The father is a psychiatrist who is widely known and much respected for his work, not to mention his good looks.
The mother is perhaps the most public of the family, as she is known to host parties often at the house, or at certain halls in town. She is a very beautiful, and elegant, woman.
The daughter is the smartest resident of the town, excluding her family of course. Not only is she a genius at schoolwork, but also at music, and many other forms, including anything having to do with cooking.
Not much is known of this family's history before they moved to this town. But what is known is the obvious. They came from a large town, they often take vacations to places the public is not privy to, and they are very much in love with one another.
We go now to their extravagant, yet elegant, mansion overlooking the river.
The father and mother are enjoying their daughter's impromptu concert in the well-furnished music room. (Which holds one of the most beautiful harpsichords the town has ever seen, whether in print or in real life.along with other notably beautiful instruments.)
Michelle or Mischa as the couple commonly calls her, ends the piece and stands to her parents' enthusiastic applause. They embrace as the couple stands, and the father smiles proudly. A servant enters the room quietly and softly, almost as a whisper, announces dinner is ready, as per Master's instructions. The Master of the house often goes hunting, and will cut and dress the meat himself, most commonly cooking it himself as well. On the rare occasions that he does not cook, the cooks prepare meals from left over meat from the previous nights. Tonight, it is another meat which only the Master and Mistress, perhaps, know the true contents.
As they sit in their places at the table - Father of course at the head, Mother at his right, and Mischa right across from Mother - The servants wheel in the meal. Mischa looks up expectantly, but knows better than to ask what is being served as the night's dinner; her father always insists that you never ask what it is, because you'll ruin the surprise.
He serves Mother, then Mischa, and then himself before taking a seat. Mother bites into the wonderfully colored light brown meat, and closes her eyes. "It is especially sweet tonight, Hannibal." She says to Father- Hannibal - with a twinkle in her eyes.
"As it should be, my dear Clarice. Misused meat is always better the second go-round, as much as leftovers pain me. Ah well, it is for the better. His tasteless advances were quite aggravating. Eat up, Mischa darling. It never does good to leave food on your plate" he winked at his daughter as she laughed softly at his joke and continued eating.
The once Dr. Hannibal Lecter, now Dr. Jonathan Hannah, smiled at Clarice, rather Mrs. Cheryl Hannah, and gave her hand a light squeeze before taking a sip of his wine.
As we near the town square of this previously established small town, it becomes very apparent about one thing, at least: if something should occur that is not normal, or that is interesting enough, the whole town will know about it before the sun goes down on the next day. Which is, as you can imagine, a nuisance at times.
So it is understandable for us to state how out of place one house, and it's occupants, are in this simple town. No one knows for sure what they do, aside from their public lives. It IS known that there is a long roster of servants, one daughter, and two parents, a mother and father. The family is considerably wealthy, and very high in social status. It wouldn't be far-fetched to label them as upper first class citizens.
The father is a psychiatrist who is widely known and much respected for his work, not to mention his good looks.
The mother is perhaps the most public of the family, as she is known to host parties often at the house, or at certain halls in town. She is a very beautiful, and elegant, woman.
The daughter is the smartest resident of the town, excluding her family of course. Not only is she a genius at schoolwork, but also at music, and many other forms, including anything having to do with cooking.
Not much is known of this family's history before they moved to this town. But what is known is the obvious. They came from a large town, they often take vacations to places the public is not privy to, and they are very much in love with one another.
We go now to their extravagant, yet elegant, mansion overlooking the river.
The father and mother are enjoying their daughter's impromptu concert in the well-furnished music room. (Which holds one of the most beautiful harpsichords the town has ever seen, whether in print or in real life.along with other notably beautiful instruments.)
Michelle or Mischa as the couple commonly calls her, ends the piece and stands to her parents' enthusiastic applause. They embrace as the couple stands, and the father smiles proudly. A servant enters the room quietly and softly, almost as a whisper, announces dinner is ready, as per Master's instructions. The Master of the house often goes hunting, and will cut and dress the meat himself, most commonly cooking it himself as well. On the rare occasions that he does not cook, the cooks prepare meals from left over meat from the previous nights. Tonight, it is another meat which only the Master and Mistress, perhaps, know the true contents.
As they sit in their places at the table - Father of course at the head, Mother at his right, and Mischa right across from Mother - The servants wheel in the meal. Mischa looks up expectantly, but knows better than to ask what is being served as the night's dinner; her father always insists that you never ask what it is, because you'll ruin the surprise.
He serves Mother, then Mischa, and then himself before taking a seat. Mother bites into the wonderfully colored light brown meat, and closes her eyes. "It is especially sweet tonight, Hannibal." She says to Father- Hannibal - with a twinkle in her eyes.
"As it should be, my dear Clarice. Misused meat is always better the second go-round, as much as leftovers pain me. Ah well, it is for the better. His tasteless advances were quite aggravating. Eat up, Mischa darling. It never does good to leave food on your plate" he winked at his daughter as she laughed softly at his joke and continued eating.
The once Dr. Hannibal Lecter, now Dr. Jonathan Hannah, smiled at Clarice, rather Mrs. Cheryl Hannah, and gave her hand a light squeeze before taking a sip of his wine.