Live and Let Drood

then. I’m sensing disapproval from you, Molly. This isn’t the wild woods; it’s a garden. We’re always changing things in the grounds, because you can get bored of anything if you have to look at it long enough. Wouldn’t surprise me if all thiswas gone some years or decades or centuries from now, replaced with something completely different. Maybe an equatorial rain forest…”
    “I am changing the subject now,” said Molly. “Before hitting happens. I remember there being swans on this lake. Or did someone get bored with them, too?”
    “No,” I said. “Whatever happened to the swans, it wasn’t us. Come on. Let’s go take a look at the waterfall.”
    “An artificial waterfall?”
    “Of course! It was all the fashion.…”
    “Words fail me.”
    “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m sure you’ll get over it.”
    I walked her down the side of the lake to the jagged stone cliff that towered over the farthest end, where heavy flowing waters cascaded down the craggy surface with endless noise and fury. A gentle mist of water drops gave a hazy, mystical look to the waterfall, and slow steady tides pulsed out from the water’s impact, pushing across the lake’s surface. There was even a dainty little cave cut into the cliff face, tucked away behind the tumbling waters. Very popular with courting couples. Nothing like a dark womblike setting to loosen clothes and dissolve inhibitions. Molly looked over the waterfall coolly.
    “Your family built a whole cliff face here, out in the middle of the grounds, just so you could drive a waterfall over it?”
    “Yes,” I said. “You didn’t think views like this just happened, did you? Does look rather fine, doesn’t it?”
    “Where does the water come from?”
    “The lake,” I said. “We recycle it, through a Möbius loop, so the water just goes round and round forever. This whole thing, the lake and the cliff and the waterfall, are what used to be called a folly back in Queen Victoria’s time. They were great ones for re-creating all the grandeur of nature in their own back gardens, so they wouldn’t have to travel to see them.”
    “And you Droods had to have a lake and a waterfall, because you were no one if you didn’t?”
    “Exactly!”
    “But these are private grounds!” said Molly, just a bit loudly. “No one else is allowed in! Only your family would ever get to see them! No one else would ever know you didn’t have them!”
    “We’d know,” I said. “Don’t get so overexcited, Molly. You know it’s bad for your blood pressure.”
    “Sometimes your family makes no sense at all,” said Molly.
    “I know!” I said. “Why do you think I left home the first chance I got and ran away to London?”
    “Because you’ve always had a problem with authority figures,” said Molly. “Even when you were one.”
    “Well, yes. That, too,” I said. “But mostly because my family could provoke the Dalai Lama into a kickboxing duel while drinking gin straight from the bottle.”
    “Why are we here, Eddie? You didn’t walk me all this way across the grounds just to admire the artificial scenery.”
    “We’re here because there’s an undine in the waterfall,” I said grandly. “No one else has got an undine in their waterfall. She’s been here for ages; keeps herself to herself, mostly. But whatever happened here, she must have seen it. Hell, she’s got the best view of the Hall and most of the grounds. We know what must have happened, but there are still far too many unanswered questions for my liking. Like: Where’s all the wildlife that should still be running round the place?”
    “You’ve always had a soft spot for animals,” said Molly. “Anything soft and cuddly turns up, and your heart just melts.”
    I looked at her and started to say something, and she raised a hand to stop me.
    “Do not even go there, Eddie. Talk to your waterfall.”
    I grinned briefly, stepped forward and called out just a bit self-consciously to the rushing waters. There was no response. I hadn’t expected it would be that easy, but you have to try. The undine hadn’t been on a talking basis with anyone in my family for generations. Except for Jacob…and she only talked to him because he was dead. I said as much to Molly.
    “If she’s so mad at your family, why is she still here?” said Molly, getting right to the heart of the matter, as always.
    “Good question,” I said. “The undine is another of the Drood family’s many little