The Remainder Family

"Childhood Friendships"

Philippe stood before his closest friends and family in the dining room of his medieval Château in Brittany, France. The lights were dim, and they flickered against the hundred-year-old tapestries and medieval flags that were adorning the walls.

He picked up his wine goblet, "Let us all celebrate with my childhood friend, Sophie. Now my best friend has moved to France and has bought her very own Château in Loire Valley."

Philippe's girlfriend, Ingrid, turned her head away from everyone as she rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's remarks. The news of the brand-new Lamborghini Philippe gifted Sophie was not settling very well. The only other person who noticed the eye roll was Sophie's boyfriend Hans.

Philippe declared, "Please everyone, join me as we toast Sophie and her family. May they find happiness living in France."

Later that evening while Philippe and Ingrid were lying in bed, he bent over and kissed her, "Darling, I'm going out on the deck to have a smoke. Why don't you go downstairs and have a drink at the bar?"

Ingrid eagerly got out of bed, "Good idea. I'm a little restless. I'll meet you back here in fifteen minutes."

Philippe watched as Ingrid left the room, then he opened a secret door in the back of his closet. It took him down a flight of ancient stone stairs inside the turret of his family's Château.

A few minutes later, when Ingrid was downstairs at the bar pouring herself a strong drink, Hans entered the room sans his pajama top.

She turned around, smiling broadly, greeting him, "Well, the night is looking better already."

He laughed while he glanced around the room, then he replied, "What are you doing down here?"

She gave him a sexy smile as she replied, "Philippe is having a smoke and a few minutes of personal of time, so I thought I would have a nightcap. It's been a long day. Where's Sophie?"

Hans was busy checking out Ingrid's bare legs and low-cut, short yellow negligee. He looked up and replied, "She's saying good night to her dogs in the kitchen."

Before Ingrid could say anything more, Hans set down his post-surgery crutches, and took the drink out of her hand. He turned off the lights as he slowly embraced her.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Sophie was sitting on the floor, hugging her two four-month-old Neapolitan Mastiff puppies, Zeus and Venus.

"Tomorrow we'll be in our own home and you can sleep anywhere you want." (Kiss, kiss.)

Then she hugged her largest dog, Charles, the three-year-old African Mastiff. "My main man, Charles. Please take care of your brothers and sisters tonight." (Kiss, kiss.)

She bent over one more time hugging her two Dogue de Bordeaux French Mastiffs, two-year-old Rocky and Daisy, "My babies, we're almost home." (Kiss, kiss.)

She blew them all a big kiss as she turned off the lights, walking in the direction of the main foyer. But as she entered the hallway, a secret door slowly opened, and a hand slowly reached out to touch her arm. She froze.

Now she quietly laughed, "You can't frighten me, Philippe, I've been in this castle many times before."

She giggled as the hand firmly grabbed onto her arm, and slowly pulled her inside the hidden hallway next to the turret.

"The Château"

It was an early and cold autumn morning in the Loire Valley. The leaves had already started turning the colors of red, burnt orange and brown. There was a light layer of dew on the ground covering the trees and the roads.

Now, two cars have taken a left turn off of the main road, and have now stopped at the Château's entrance. An eight-foot tall iron fence with a ten-foot-high decorative iron gate. The ornate top of the gate has an engraving of two wine bottles with a large initial of "V" in the center.

Slowly, the driver's door of the powerful white Maserati sedan opened, and a tall, dark-haired woman wearing a blue jacket with tight black pants and boots, slowly emerged. As she walked to the gate, the three canine passengers in her car all stuck their heads outside the windows. They kept a watchful eye on their mother.

Hans was in the second car, a silver Porsche Cayenne. He rolled down his window, "Sophie, Honey, I'm sorry I can't help you with the gate."

She waived back at him, then, she slowly pulled one side of the heavy iron gate open. She grunted and groaned as the old gate opened up enough for the cars.

After kissing Hans on the lips, she walked back to her white sports car with the bright red leather interior, and drove onto the 18th Century Château's grounds. She drove slowly past the mini-forest of trees that lined the long driveway, and past the gîte buildings that lined both sides of the road. She looked around admiring the wonderful stone work of the buildings as her car purred down the private road.

Finally, she reached the magnificent main structure, built in 1786, a few years after the American Declaration of Independence was signed. It's a two level neo classical structure, plus a large basement-cellar and a large attic. Other people might describe it as a 'serious fixer-upper', but blindly, all she could see was its beauty.

As she exited the car, she wiped the tears of joy from her eyes as she opened up the car doors for her dogs, "Come on kids, let's go see our new home."

But now a third car has now turned onto the private road, and the Range Rover raced past the mini-forest to the main building. He jumped out of the driver's side, and hollered loudly to his best friend. "Wait for me, Darling."

As he walked by Hans, who was still inside his sports car, Philippe called back to his girlfriend, "Ingrid, will you please help Hans get out of his car? Thank you."

When Philippe caught up with Sophie near the front door, he hugged her, "I'm so glad you have moved to France. Now we are neighbors once again." He hugged her even closer. But before releasing her, he whispered in her ear, "Don't forget, I want to the be the 'first' in your new home." Sophie laughed at him because he was such a tease.

When they released their grip on each other, Ingrid hollered very loudly, "Do you guys mind? We're right over here watching you."

Sophie giggled like a teenager and not the 50-year-old that she really was. Phillip hollered back, "Oh come on now, Sophie and I have been friends since we were ten-years-old. We're like brothers and sisters."

Hans quietly lowered his head and remarked, "That's sick."

Ingrid leaned down to help him out of his car and quietly whispered, "I'm going to leave him very soon. When he bought Sophie that Lambo it was the final straw. I'm looking for my exit now. He was lucky to have me in the first place."

Hans managed to climb out from his car, but was still limping so Ingrid took the opportunity to grab him by his arm, squeezing it,

But Philippe was preoccupied, taking photos of Sophie walking up to her new home, and even more photos of her posing with her dogs near the front door.

But now, she has the big, black, iron key in her hand, and she was slowly, inserting the key into the ancient lock. The red velvet ribbons tied to the key ring were swaying back and forth against the heavy wood door.

Sophie stopped, and turned around, "Philippe, I'm so excited. I'm opening the door! One, two, and ..."

But before she could say three, the door was suddenly pulled open from the inside.

Shocked, Sophie stepped back and loudly hollered out, "What the Hell! What are you doing in my Château?"

Charles, who was already standing at her side, lunged inside the foyer, and pushed the man backward. The man now had his hands up in the air and was backed up against the foyer wall while Charles growled at him.

The man shouted, "Help! Call off your dog. We are the sellers. Did you buy the Château?"

But too late, Daisy and Rocky the French Mastiffs, already entered the foyer and after the lights went on in the stairway, they saw more people standing at the top of the stairs. They were fiercely barking at them, and ready to run up the stairs.

While Sophie was preoccupied with the man at the door, Philippe ran past her and shouted at the dogs, "Stop. Stay. Sit down." And the dogs obediently sat down.

Hans loudly said to no one in particular, "What is happening, who are they?"

Sophie was standing in front of the stranger with her hands on her hips, and she aggressively told him. "Well, you have my money so why are you still here? I'm moving in today with my family and my five dogs. The shipping containers with my furniture will be delivered in two hours, and this place is a mess and has to be cleaned up!"

An older man standing at the top of the stairs now called down, "Can I come down, I will explain the situation to you."

Sophie hollered loudly, "Philippe, what is happening?"

He shook his head, "I don't know."

But now, he noticed Ingrid still grabbing tightly Hans' muscled arm. Irritated at her, he politely said, "Ingrid, you can let go of Hans' arm now."

When the older man came downstairs, Philippe politely introduced himself, "I am Philippe, Claude, François, and this is my friend from America, Sophie Greene, who recently purchased this Château."

The man shook Philippe’s hand but he looked down at Charles who is still standing in front of his mother, and so he decided to waive at her instead.

"My name is Maurice Vinet, and my mother, Lady Blanche Vinet, sold the Château to you. But now, it appears that under an obscure French law, we cannot be moved out until our juveniles complete the school year. One child is 17 and one is 16. We also have an elderly woman over 90 years old.

We are prepared to share the Château with you until the end of December. We mainly live on the upstairs floor, and we only come down to eat our meals in the dining room. My mother prepares all of the meals in the home."

Philippe was scratching his head. "Yes, Maybe I have heard of this law before, but no one uses it any more. But, you should have notified Sophie before today, rather than shocking her."

Sophie snapped back, "Well, I want to see every single person in this Château right now. You could be lying about this ridiculous law."

Philippe replied, "Yes, I think that is a fair request. Will you please assemble your family members and we will wait for you in the dining room."

The dining room was very large, and there was an old table and chairs that easily sat 14 people. Sophie sat on one the end of the table with Charles sitting next to her on the floor, and the other large Mastiffs were all lying around the floor nearby.

Sophie was fanning her face with her hand, "Oh, now I'm having a hot flash because I'm so angry. That damn real estate broker is going to get a piece of my mind."

Ingrid was smiling a little too much at her comment making Sophie react, "Oh shut-up Ingrid. You'll get here one day as well."

Finally, Hans said something, "Ok, Honey. Everyone calm down." Then he took her hand and started massaging it, repeating, "Calm down."

Philippe leaned over in his chair rudely across Hans to get Sophie's attention, "Don't worry, I'm going to contact my lawyer and see if this is for real or if it's some game these people are playing. We don't even know if they are the real sellers. They might be imposter squatters."

A few minutes later Maurice returned and was now standing in the dining room doorway, "Everyone is coming down now, I'll get my mother, she sleeps in the room off of the kitchen."

Philippe nodded his head, "Yes, thank you Maurice."

Sophie was still wiping her eyes with a handkerchief, when Maurice returned with an elderly woman, much shorter with dark peppered gray hair. She was wearing a white Chief's jacket over a dress, and sneakers. In one hand she was carrying her large leather bag.

Maurice said, "Everyone, please meet my mother, she is 91 years old and her name is Lady Blanche. She does all the cooking at the Château and she graduated from chef school in Paris in the 1940's. She's an excellent chef."

He asked, "Mother, can I take your identification and show the gentleman?" Without looking at her son she handed him her bag, turned around and went back into the kitchen.

As Maurice was rifling through her bag, he said, "She is really very nice, but we are all a little stressed now."

Sophie stopped sniffling, now realizing she may actually have to live with these people until January. Nicely, she asked Maurice, "I apologize for hollering at you and your son in the foyer. But, my family will be arriving very soon, and I don't know if we can all fit?"

Maurice responded, "There's plenty of space Madame. Down the hall you will find the main bedroom suite plus two small bedrooms, plus the petite and main salons and the library. Behind the kitchen are my mother's room. Upstairs there are 6 bedrooms and a large salon room. Plus, the attic space that is empty except for our personal belongings. You can easily build up there as well."

Sophie was still trying to be nice as she said, "One more thing, all of my furniture will be delivered later today. Will you have a problem if we move all of your furniture upstairs?" She was watching him carefully. This was the deal breaker.

He replied, "Oh, no problem at all. This table and the cabinet will fit in my mother's room. The only item we cannot move is a medieval bed that has been in the house since it was built. We believe it has been secured to the wall and to the flooring. We have tried to move it before, but we will need a professional team to take it apart."

Hans replied enthusiastically, "Do you mean a giant wooden bed with drapes like kings used?

Maurice was grinning from ear to ear, very proud. "Yes, exactly like that."

Hans and Ingrid started to get up but, Philippe put his hand out, stopping them, looking at Ingrid crossly. "Please wait until Sophie is ready."

Philippe looked over at Maurice, "Oh, by the way, this is my girlfriend, Ingrid, and Sophie's boyfriend, Hans. Ingrid is a model and Hans is a soccer star for a German team. He recently had knee surgery in Paris."

As Maurice was nodding his head, Blanche returned pushing a cart filled with pastries and mini-tarts, plus a small pitcher of coffee. She announced, "I know Americans like coffee more than tea."

Then, she grabbed her purse from Maurice's hand, and slung it over her shoulder, walking out and leaving Maurice to serve the coffee.

Sophie nicely hollered to Blanche as she was walking back to the kitchen, "Merci."

Finally, the rest of the family entered the dining room, with glum looks on their faces.

When Sophie saw the two young teenagers, she slumped down into her chair.

Maurice commented, "Allow me to introduce my son, Jean, his wife, Adrienne and their two children, Aimee is 17 and will graduate in June, and their youngest, Henri, who is 16 years old."

Sophie replied, "Well, thank you for that information.

The family members were all starring at the dogs, and Sophie responded, pointing to each one, "I have five Mastiffs. This is Charles, Daisy, Rocky, Zeus and Venus. Don't worry about them, they will stay with me in my room and they follow me around all day."

No one was talking after the introductions, then Maurice added, "Jean must take the kids to school now, will you excuse us?"

Sophie hollered, "It was nice meeting you all."

After the family left the room, Sophie said, "OK. Well, that is that. Philippe will you help me get my things out of my car, please?"

Hans asked, "Which way is the bedroom with the giant bed."

Sighing loudly, Sophie replied, "Ok, let's go look at the bed first."

And as Maurice promised, it was indeed giant.

When Hans saw the bed he immediately said, "Come on, help me get up the steps." And soon he sank down into the feather bed, but Ingrid suddenly hopped up onto the bed next to him. Luckily, Daisy and Rocky helped themselves up on the bed, and in doing so chased off Ingrid with their sloppy kisses.

Wiping her face, she replied, "Yuck! I'll sit over here."

Philippe replied, "Ingrid, will you please come with me? We'll be right back with the luggage, plus the case of wine." Looking at Sophie, he said, "For you darling."

Finally, after the movers left and everything was quiet, Sophie walked back into her bedroom. Now she noticed the drapes were pulled shut on that giant, gaudy looking bed. She tiptoed over, quietly whispering, "Hans, are you awake?"

Slowly the curtain opened and the handsome king gently took Sophie's hand. In a low voice he said, "I've been waiting for you my queen."

She laughed as she slipped off her shoes, and climbed onto the big king's bed as the drapes were pulled shut behind her.