Chapter 13: Family Ties
Hello there! Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Lucas Landgraab.
The last time you saw me I was just a kid, but, I aged up outside alone in the dark. I don't mind, I am the youngest of five. And my parentage, well, if you've ever read my Dad's best selling novel, "A Simple Fisherman" You'd know all about that.
The man who raised me, Jean Landgraab, is my Dad. But my Father is his twin brother Phillipe. I know, kinda confusing, but in the end, I will always think of Jean as my true Father.
You see, my Mom Christran Landgraab, Christen for short, was never right in the head. She was a Goth by birth, her father marrying late in life. He and his wife passed on while Mom was just a kid herself, leaving her alone in the Goth manor with noone but ghosts to keep her company.
She is okay now, Dad helped her a lot over the years, but she was still easily confused by my Father Phillipe. I guess I could hate him, but I have long forgiven the pain he caused my parents. Who was I to blame him really? Otherwise I wouldn't be here right?
"You're such a good guy" my sister Zappa would always tell me. "Always seeing the good in others, even if it doesn't exist."
Like my older brother Teddy. He was really into painting and writing books, but we all knew he was just as evil as my father. He loved sneaking around and scaring us, or taking candy from me when I was a baby.
I don't blame him, he had learned so much from my father when he was a kid.
It wasn't long before my twin brothers grew up into young adults. It was decided long ago by Mom and Dad that neither would inherit. They did throw a big party for them to celebrate though.
Since Teddy had always been a big loner, he moved out the next day with barely a goodbye.
"I need quiet to write my masterpieces." He would say if we called asking him to visit.
Bear, on the other hand, stuck around for a few days. He had decided he wanted nothing more then to marry his high school sweetheart Annielynn Ferguson.
After a few dates, he invited her out to the park to propose. She accepted right away.
The two had a quiet ceremony in the park, and then moved in with Annielynn's mom. Seems she was an elder now, and really needed help with a lot of the day to day things. Dad insisted they take $20,000 with them to get their new life started.
Over a mutual love for chess, Zappa and I became closer then anyone else in the family. We would spend hours and hours talking about life and what we wanted.
Zappa confessed to me that she really liked this older guy named Bryan Anchor. Ever since she had read the notes to an interview Mom had with him a while ago for work, she's been calling him and even seeing him at the park a time or two.
She also confessed she was really worried about marrying him. What if he cheated or hurt her like Mom had Dad?
At Teddy and Bear's birthday party she had found out he wasn't working, and that worried her. What if he was a freeloader? I told her he seemed like a really decent guy, and she should give him a chance.
I told her I was really worried about Moonbeam. She was a really sweet sister, but also a little strange. She seemed to hear voices just like Mom.
She loved reading books about gardening, which wasn't a big deal really. It would help her with her future job as a robot cross breader, but it was the staring. Just like Mom, she would stare at the dead fish mounted on the walls for hours.
I even came upon her strangling herself a time or two. I think it was those things that caused Mom and Dad to decide that Zappa would be the heir to the Landgraab Legacy.
Then why am I the one writing the story? Well, it comes down to two things.
While playing chess, Zappa told her great idea. She wanted to have kids, but never wanted to marry. She figured since we were both geniuses, and loved logic, we could raise a family of kids together without worrying about messed up emotions like our parents had to.
I teased her about incest being against the law, and she laughed at me.
She wanted to try and raise kids in a home filled with logic, not emotions. With two Chess Masters like we both wanted to be, there would be no pain or wrecked marriages like with our parents. "No lies."
At the time, I agreed with her. We could each have a few kids, and who knows, perhaps the next generation of Landgraabs would be as great or greater then our ancestors.
Seems all so innocent and niave when I look back on our plans. How little we realized the evil that really ran through my father's vains.
How the resentments of past mistakes could shape a person beyond normal feelings and recognition? A mistake made by my Mom would shape a sweet girl into something far more sinister.
Which is the second reason I'm telling the story. My 'other' family would play a major rule in all our futures.