THE GREGSONS, a serial tale

By Erosscribe
 (nosex,  history, intro)


Copyleft 2007 No Rights Reserved


 This story carries a copyleft. It can be modified and reprinted anywhere and in any form the reader feels would be appropriate. I would prefer that no one do so for profit, as I am giving this freely. Any published reprint or reinvention of this work must be copylefted as well, and I must be cited. Personally, I would be grateful if you dropped me a note at erossscribe@mac.com, as IÕm fascinated as to where the work might go and how it might be reinvented. Thanks. 

This work is dedicated to Shannon, Cass, Karly, Kayla, Danielle, Britt, Jess, Alanna and last but certainly not least, Nikki.


 Story Characters 

Elmer Vanderhoven, 68
Gudrun Vanderhoven, 62
Richard/Sunbird Smith 1945-1982
Susan Henderson/Moonflower Smith 1945-1982
Mary Smith (nee Vanderhoven), 41
Bob Smith, 45
Me (John Smith), 18
Abigail Smith, 43
Adam Grossberg, 46
Lauren Smith-Grossberg, 20
Lisa Vanderhoven / Anneliese Gregson, 35
Archibald Gregson III, 63 
Amelia Gregson, 15
Amanda Gregson, 13
Melinda and Melissa Gregson, (twins) 11
Llewellyn Gregson (Lil), 9 
Rolf Pflaumzeit, 38
Clara Pflaumzeit, 36 
Ione Pflaumzeit, 14
Hannah and Heidi Pflaumzeit (twins), 10 
Almut Berg (Pflaumzeit former Nanny), 52
Olga Teufelhausen (Gregson former Nanny), 57
Robert aka James aka Alfred Harrington, 66 (Chauffeur)
Reginald Butler, 55 (Butler)
Jacques Bellamont, 33 (Chef)
Brynja Bjartursdottir, 22 (Housekeeper)
Unnur Bjartursdottir, 21 (Housekeeper)
Soleil Bingham, 19 (Gardener)
Zoe Griffiths, 20 (Islander/Gardener)

Characters In This Chapter:
Me (John Smith), 18
Lisa Vanderhoven / Anneliese Gregson, 35



CHAPTER I: A Smith/Gregson History Lesson


Hi. IÕm John. John Smith, actually. No, really. Honestly. Anyway, IÕm sitting here in my dorm room at Hampshire College. IÕm a first-year student and orientation hasnÕt even started yet. IÕm a day early. Guess I read the arrival date wrong. Whoopsie. There are very few people on campus, my hall is empty except for one other person, and my roommate isnÕt here yet someone about the most. I know I should probably be going over the orientation booklet again, but I think I have it memorized by now. Besides, I have to tell someone about the last two months -- the most incredible summer of my life. 

It didnÕt start out that way. I graduated from The Bay School (an alternative private school in San Francisco) on Saturday, June 9th, 2007. My plan had been to chillax for the summer and get ready for my for my move cross-country and my first year of college. Hang out with friends. Bum around the city. A nice, mellow couple of months. I got up late on Sunday and found a note on the dining room table. ŅWent out jogging and shopping. Be back when I get back. Congratulations, High School Graduate! Love, Mom.Ó Cool. I have the place to myself. I go into the kitchen to nuke a couple of Pop Tarts (is anything better than an entire breakfast ready in three seconds?) and make myself some chai. The microwave clock lets me know itÕs just past 1 in the afternoon. I sat down in our lovely breakfast nook with my Pop-Tarts and chai and the book I was currently reading (The Dancing Wu-Li Masters by Gary Zukav. If you havenÕt read it - pick it up. ItÕs definitely worth a read. To oversimplify horribly, Zukav asks whether there is a difference between post-Einsteinian Physics and Zen Buddhism- and canÕt find one,. According to him, they seem to be different expressions of the same idea. My Dad turned me onto it, so I figured IÕd pass on the favor.) 

Just as I was relaxing, the phone rang Ņ May I please speak to Jonathan?Ó Now, thereÕs only one person in the world who calls me Jonathan. My Aunt Lisa, or Anneliese as she now prefers to be called. Before I can begin to explain the level of weirdness that Anneliese calling represented, I have to share some family background with you. 

Pop-Pop Elmer and Nana Gudrun met growing up in Holland (Den Haag.) Nana was 6 and Pop-Pop was 12. She was the younger sister of one of his best friends, and at first was just annoying, always wanting to tag along. By the time he was 16, Pop-Pop realized his friend was an idiot and stopped communicating with him, but little Gudrun still came over. Pop-Pop began to treat her as the little sister he never had, helping her with homework, taking her to the zoo, and teaching her how to row on the lake. Older brother activities. They slowly got to be friends, but it wasnÕt until Pop-Pop was 21 and engaged to marry another woman that he realized he was in love with 15 year-old Gudrun. It turned out she felt the same way, and had been in love with him since she was 12. He broke off the engagement, and they dated in secret for 2 years, until he asked her father for her hand in marriage. They got marred the next year, and moved to Minneapolis. Pop-Pop first worked as a clerk in a tobacconists shop, and then got a pretty good job as a tailor at Dayton's, a local department store, working in the Men's Department. In 1966 they had their first child, Mary, (my Mom) followed by another, Lisa in 1972. They struggled for a bit, but by the time Aunt Lisa was born they were living a solidly middle-class life in a small house in a nice section of town. Mom once described her childhood as nice but ordinary. No crises, no screaming, no big arguments. Just a simple, pleasant existence.

 My Aunt Lisa, on the other hand, thought both the family and city she was born into were provincial and narrow-minded, and wasnÕt shy about sharing her opinion. At 18 she left home and moved to NYC to find her fortune. IÕve seen pictures of my Aunt Lisa when she was 18 and she was hot! Blonde hair, green eyes, built, gorgeous smile Š she was a fantasy come to life. Playing off her looks, she quickly got a job as an escort and used it to search for a sugar daddy. My Aunt always found a way to get what she wanted, so it wasnÕt surprising that she landed one. She met Archibald (never Archie) Gregson IIII, after working as an escort for approximately a year. They were married by a Justice of the Peace six weeks later. She was 19 and he was 47.

Born in 1944 in Corpus Christi, Texas, Archibald Gregson III was just 10 when his father, Archibald Gregson Jr. invented the automatic sliding door. Archibald Jr., born in 1919, was only 15 when his father, the original Archibald Gregson, became one of the founders of the Taylor Refining Company, which ran one of the first oil rigs in Corpus Christi. I tell you this by way of explaining that my uncle was born into more money than he can ever spend Šand believe me, he tries. HeÕs s not a bad guy, just very stereotypically Texas. Big cigars, cowboy boots, and backslaps that will send you flying across the room. Loves to pontificate. Imagine Foghorn Leghorn come to life and you have a pretty good idea. HavenÕt seen him in over 6 years, though- (more on that later) so that all could have changed. 

On the other hand, Bob Smith (my Dad) grew up in Ann Arbor, and went to the University of Oregon in 1980. Graduating with a degree in physics in 1984, he worked for a year and was then accepted to the UC Berkeley dual -degree graduate program in Architecture and Structural Engineering in 1985. In 1984, when she was 18, Mary (my mom) went away to school at Mills College in Northern California. Mary and Bob met at a Holly Near concert on the Berkeley campus in 1986 and were married in July of 1988, after Mom graduated from Mills. Mom got a job for a year so Dad could afford to concentrate on grad school, but then she was accepted to the University of CaliforniaŠSanta Cruz PhD program in History of Consciousness beginning in the fall of 1989. On April 15th, 1989 I was born into the world. Not only was I born on tax day, but our family mythos posits that I was conceived during their weekend-long Napa Valley honeymoon. In June of 1990, Dad finished his dual- degree program, graduating from Berkeley. Mom graduated in from Santa Cruz in 1997 and is now a Marxist labor historian, teaching in both the Economics and Sociology Departments at Berkeley and writing her second book. Dad, on the other hand, is a safety consultant to firms that build skyscrapers, a job that takes him all over the world.. Right now heÕs in Shanghai, which is supposedly the city of the 21st century. We live really well. IÕll admit it. We are definitely upper-middle class in a pretty expensive part of the world. Most of that is due to DadÕs salary, as assistant professors donÕt make much money and MomÕs books arenÕt exactly best sellers, but that isnÕt the point. Mom and Dad struggled and worked really hard to get where they are, and they work just as hard to keep what we have. 
Aunt Lisa (excuse me, Anneliese) and Uncle Archibald have worked a total of one year between them- and one year of interest from ArchibaldÕs combined bank accounts is more money than my parents will ever see in their lifetimes. 

 So thatÕs part of the underlying tension between our two families. That isnÕt the majority of it, though. That came out of ŅTHE VACATION.Ó Anneliese and Archibald and their r family always go somewhere fantastic for a week or two during the winter. When I turned 6, they started inviting us along. The covered all the costs, of course. I got to see some pretty fantastic places, too. Bali, Fiji, St. BartÕs, Goa, and The Seychelles, to be exact. Money was no object, so I got to do pretty much anything I wanted when we got there. A kidÕs fantasy. So that lasted up until I was eleven, and then my parents realized IÕd never been to New York City. So Dad decided to switch things up, That year, instead of going on vacation to an exotic island for a week in the winter, we would go to New York City for Thanksgiving and stay with my Aunt and Uncle. This was a big decision for my Dad, because Thanksgiving was our big holiday. DadÕs parents didnÕt celebrate it for political reasons (Dad is a descendant of Lieutenant John Smith, who came over on the Mayflower Š looong story) and MomÕs folks didnÕt get it, being from the Netherlands, so Mom and Dad decided they were going to make up for all of those missed years. While they were in grad school, both Mom and Dad made friends with a lot of the international students, most of whom couldnÕt go home for Thanksgiving. So it became a tradition- no matter how poor we were, we always did something on Thanksgiving. It was a good time to bring friends together, debate, laugh, play music and generally enjoy each otherÕs company. Over the years its grown and grown. Last year it was a 30 person, potluck extravaganza. People crammed in every corner of our apartment. You could barely breathe. We have all sorts of little traditions. One is that we all sing along to AliceÕs Restaurant, and the person that gets the furthest wins a yam and a can of pineapple rings, representing our first, poverty-stricken Thanksgiving celebration, when that, a salad, a jug of red wine and red what and blue ice pops comprised dinner. As I said, Thanksgiving is our big holiday. 

So Dad was giving up a lot just so I could see Manhattan. We get off the plane in Newark and are met by a chauffeured limousine., which drives us to my Aunt and UncleÕs place. They were very proud of the address: 10 Gracie Square. Apparently itÕs one of the most desirable places to live in Manhattan, partially because itÕs an Astor building. IÕm not quite sure what that means, but Dad seemed impressed by this, and heÕs the architect in the family. So we get there and find out that they started with an 11-room apartment, but as Anneliese kept having children (they have five daughters, who at that time ranged in age from 3 to 9. DonÕt worry, youÕll meet them later.) the apartment just wasnÕt big enough, between the kids and the servants. So they bought the 9 room apartment next door, knocked down the dividing wall and created a 20 room floor though apartment which is at least three times the size of our house. Once they were done with the remodeling, they had an 8 bedroom, 6 bath apartment with a formal dining room, a gorgeous huge kitchen with a pantry/laundry room, a dining room, a library, a family room and a den/playroom. The den was the coolest. It had a ping-pong table, a pool table, a player piano, a jukebox and really comfortable couches. Totally unlike the rest of the house, which was just Š trying too hard, if you know what I mean.. (Mom and Dad beg to differ about the couches, as they slept on a foldout king-size futon couch. I guess they should know. Well, they were comfortable to sit on, anyway.) I slept on a raspberry-colored velour couch in the library. It wasnÕt bad, until I realized that they seemed put out by having to put us up, as if there was barely enough room in their apartment. But everything was hanging together Š we were all doing ok until Thanksgiving Day came.

 It turned out that my Aunt and Uncle give the servants Thanksgiving Day off, so they donÕt actually make Thanksgiving Dinner. Instead, they go to a restaurant called Tavern On The Green in Central Park. None of my cousins saw anything strange about this, but it got my parents very very upset. During dinner, Archibald kept ordering champagne for the table, and my mother kept drinking it. More than IÕve ever seen her drink before or since, actually. Anyway, at some point in this evening she said something to Aunt Lisa. To this day she wonÕt tell me what it was. Lisa started crying, told us she never wanted to speak to any of us again, and ran out of the restaurant. We stayed and finished dinner, figuring she just needed time to cool down, but when we got back all of our things were neatly packed up and put outside the door, with a straight pin shoved through the pocket of my motherÕs coat and a note on the end that said.Ó You are all dead to me.Ó And thatÕs the last time any of us heard from her.

Does that begin to explain the remarkable quality of this phone call? It was all I could do not to say ŅConversing with the dead, now are we Aunt Anneliese?Ó IÕm very glad I didnÕt because hereÕs what I heard: Ņ Our ancient Nanny, Olga, has just informed me that her even more ancient mother, Almut, is very ill back home in Recklinghausen, and that she (Olga) will not be able to take care of the children this summer. I know itÕs very short notice, but we are pretty desperate and I know youÕre going off to college and could use some pocket money. WeÕd need you from 14 June Š 17 August. IÕm prepared to offer you $350/wk plus room, board and food.Ó I just stood there dumbfounded, which Anneliese must have mistaken for playing hardball, because she said Ņ Ok, what about $500 a week?Ó It was at this point that I managed an ŅumÉÓ, still stunned at the fact that the conversation was taking place more than anything else. Lisa began to chuckle on the other end, saying ÓYou remind me of me. You canÕt tell anyone this -- but what about $750/week plus I pay for your plane tickets?Ó The thought of 6000 and some dollars for hanging out with 5 girls in a beautiful vacation home unlocked my brain enough to say ÓYes, IÕd love to.Ó Anneliese said, ŅGreat. IÕll fax over a contract. Why donÕt you give me your bank account information now, and when you sign the contract and fax it back IÕll wire the first installment Šit will probably be around 1200 dollars or so. The final language will be in the contract. OK? After I stammered out a yes and gave Anneliese the information she asked for I sat down to wait for the fax, my mind still reeling from what had just occurred. No more than five minutes later, hereÕs what came popping out of the fax machine:
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 CONTRACT FOR SERVICES
1. The position is that of live-in Chaperone to our five (5) daughters: Amelia, Amanda, Melissa, Melinda and Llewellyn, ranging in age from 9-15. 

2. Per our previous discussion, the term of employment will be for 9 weeks - from 15 June 2007 to 17 August 2007 inclusive. The pay scale is $750/week, or $6750 total. The money will be disbursed directly into your bank account on the following payment schedule : $ 1350.00 upon receipt of a signed copy of this fax. Three (3) payments of $1800.00 each, the first installment to occur on 6 July 2007, the second on 27 July 2007, and the third and final on 17 August 2007. Your contract also provides the following benefits : Free housing in a single room for the length of your employment, 19 meals per week (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Monday through Friday, Brunch and Dinner on the weekends).and coverage of any extraordinary medical expenses that might arise. As well, transportation to and from your home is covered under the terms of this contract. 

RESPONSIBILITIES

You are to insure that my daughters have an enjoyable summer. You are to cater to their every desire. If they want something, you are to facilitate it. No matter how extreme or odd it might seem, you are to see that all of my daughtersÕ needs are met. Punishment is not your domain, it is the domain of their father. Archibald Gregson III. Under no circumstances are the girls to know this. They are to believe that you have the final say in all matters concerning them, as Olga did. 

One of your major responsibilities will be driving the girls around the island, whether it is to the club, to see friends, or the video store to rent videos on a rainy day. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are the girls to get behind the wheel of any vehicle. You will be driving the Gelandeswagen to begin. If you show you can handle that safely, perhaps my husband will allow you to drive the other vehicles as the summer goes on. 

As we have been going to the island for a number of years, the girls have a great number of friends. They will inevitably want to have sleepovers. This decision is entirely up to you. If there is to be a sleepover, you are responsible for those girls as well, so think carefully before you say yes. You will get no extra help from the staff simply because more girls are staying over. Sleepovers/slumber parties are to take place either in the girls rooms or in the backyard, NOT in the living room or anywhere else inside the house. I refuse to have my house turned upside down by a group of riotous girls. 


Above everything else, you are to keep the girls safe so they can enjoy their summer. Whatever rules you feel you need to set to do so are up to you. Bedtimes are also up to you, though I would suggest 9PM for Llewellyn, 10 for Melissa and Melinda and 11 for Amelia and Amanda. 



Rules:

You must be appropriately dressed. While short-sleeved shirts are allowed, they must have collars. Shorts, while allowed, are frowned upon, as are jeans. Khakis are preferred, though I realize you might not own any. The girls are to be appropriately dressed at all times, but I leave the definition of appropriate up to your discretion. Remember that we live in a very upscale development on the island, and news travels quickly.

Dinner is at 6 PM sharp, and it is required that everyone be there. There is a hot breakfast from 7:30-8:30 AM, followed by a cold buffet until 10 AM. The girls are always to have some sort of breakfast, and you will always eat with at least 1 of them.

Amanda and Amelia are allowed to go to the club unsupervised -- the others need you to chaperone them. 

If any of these responsibilities are not shouldered, or rules broken, your pay will be docked accordingly. 

 Below was her signature, and a space for mine. I signed it, faxed it back, and an hour later $1350.00 appeared in my bank account.

End Chapter I

To Be Continued
