Dinner at the Addams Place

Posted on Tue 21st Feb, 2017 @ 11:27am by Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller & Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant Commander Lanis Dhuro MD

2,085 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night
Location: Deck 1554, Queen Anne Villas

The tree which stood in the yard appeared to be dead, and the crows perched within its bare branches, all too alive. A pair of marble foo dogs, no more than a meter tall, stood facing each other at the bottom of the stone steps. The paint on the moon gate which stood at the public end of the porch was flaking. The door on the house end of the porch was stained glass depicting a woman being burnt at the stake. As four people, each carrying a covered dish, assembled on the sidewalk, the gate slowly swung open of its own accord, creaking rustily.

"This is the correct address, right?" Paul Graves asked the other three guests who stood at the circular gate, even though he also knew that their presence at this location implied that the address was indeed correct. Addams was always very tidy and organized in Sickbay; he had not thought that she would keep her own home in such a state of evident neglect. He took it all in, thinking--the dead trees, the crows, the flaking paint, the creaking gate. Only then did he notice the--rather shocking--stained glass window and at last understood.

"Mood music. Interesting," Paul muttered under his breath as he shifted the Espra cheese and uttaberry pie he was holding in a warming dish.

"I don't hear any music," Dhuro Lanis said. He cradled a casserole dish of steaming ramufta. The state of Addams' home and yard made little impression on him. He was used to seeing long-abandoned homes and uncared for yards; that had been the norm on Bajor during his childhood. That the garden still looked neglected, despite Addams living here, simply indicated to Lanis that Addams' work kept her too busy to tend a yard during her off-hours. "She ought to have that old gardener come by here," he said. "He'd have this plot producing vegetables in no time." He made no further comment about the yard, though. That was Addams' business, not his, and it would be rude to remark further.

Paul chuckled. "Figure of speech. I'll have to ask Dr. Addams if she likes sonorous organ music."

Lanis gave him a very confused look at that remark. "I must be interpreting that comment wrong. Or did you really mean to say that you wonder if Chlamydia likes the sound of loud flatulence?"

Paul sputtered with poorly restrained mirth. "Lanis, don't make me drop this pie! Among other things, an organ is a musical instrument native to Earth. I'll play a recording for you sometime." He glanced at Jasmine and Jade Lantz. "What did you ladies bring?"

Jasmine lifted the lid of her casserole to reveal an old Bajoran comfort food. "It's called Raixen." It resembled a pasta salad made with spaghetti and vegetables. "My mother made it much better than I ever could, but I thought it would be appropriate for our dinner."

"Looks good, and smells better. I'm not sure, really, what's in my dish. I told Marin where I was coming and she whipped up something. No doubt it's delicious. It always is. The club had such a rush that I felt lucky to get away at all, and as it was, I brought in two extra people so I could." Jade looked around and smiled as she waved a hand to indicate the yard. "There's something very ... Chlamydia about all this, don't you think? Thing fits right in, too."

She glanced at the odd contraption on top of the fence and said, thoughtfully, "Not for anything would I stick my hand in that, uh ... mailbox? I would say it's a good thing mail is not letters delivered by hand any more. I would not volunteer to be postal delivery service!"

Walking through the gate that had so obligingly opened in front of her, Jade added, "Actually, all we need are a few black cats grooming themselves on the porch." Two green eyes blinked in the dark off to her right as she set her foot on the bottom step. "There!" she grinned. "What did I tell you?"

The bell-pull beside the door caused an odd, fog-horn sound inside the house. A moment later, Addams answered the door wearing a black velvet evening gown on which holographic stars sparkled, flared, and faded. "Enter freely, and of your own will," the Doctor invited her guests.

Paul wondered why Addams always said that phrase and decided it must be some Earth custom he was unfamiliar with. He stood aside to let Jasmine and Jade precede him and Lanis. "You have a fascinating home, Dr. Addams. I look forward to hearing the story behind it."

Jasmine gave a nod to Paul as she stepped inside. She wasn't ready to say anything at the moment but gave a slight smile to Addams in greeting.

"Good to see you outside of Sickbay, Chlamydia," Lanis said. "Thank you for having us over."

"I apologize for the state of the place," Addams said, gesturing at the warm, comfortable interior with its polished hardwood floors. "I've just moved in, and am still putting things to rights. I did manage to get some orb weaver egg sacks from the landscape department, so there should soon be beautiful cobwebs, at least."

As Jade entered, she paused for a closer look at the stained glass depiction. There was no arguing it was a beautiful piece of art, well executed, but slightly chilling in spite of the bright orange and yellow flames. The glass seemed, for a moment, to be an actual fire consuming a woman who looked calmly out of the midst of what should have been agony. Startled, she realized the features of the flesh and blood Addams in front of her were remarkably like those of the woman in glass.

Her eyes met the doctor's. "You modeled for this?" she asked, stepping inside, past the door which ought to have been far more disturbing than it was.

"Oh, no," Addams said, following the restaurateur's intent. "It's after a portrait in the family collection. That's my many-times-great-aunt Wendolyn, who was burnt at the stake no fewer than forty times. Died of pneumonia, poor dear." She waited for everyone to finish entering, and closed the door. "Would you like to set your dishes down before we take the tour?"

Forty times? How does anyone survive once? Jade wondered. Probably best to move right on. "This is starting to feel heavy, so I like that idea ... and the idea of a tour," she said. "If the inside is as interesting as the outside, we're in for a unique evening."

"Sounds good to me," Lanis said. "Where shall we set the food?" He too was wracking his brains to figure out how someone survived being burned alive 40 times--as well as why anyone would do such a thing to a person. Aside from, say, Gul Darhe'el or perhaps Breloc Tejar, he could think of few people insane enough to do it. He shrugged mutely at the questioning look Graves gave him when Addams wasn't looking. He had weeks ago concluded that there was no explaining the oddness that was Chlamydia; you just had to go with the flow and enjoy where the ride took you.

"Ah, this way," Addams said, leading the way past the mahogany staircase and through an open doorway. The dining room was mostly filled by a long table of ebony wood, surrounded by five chairs on each long side, and an additional chair at each end. The chairs were likewise black, with padded seats and backs covered in a black-on-white brocade which showed a pattern of skeletal cherubim frolicking. A fireplace on one of the short walls offered a glimpse through into the parlor, and a sideboard stood under the windows on one of the long walls. Purpleheart was inlaid in the top of the mahogany sideboard, spelling out "Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc." Addams gestured to the sideboard, "Just place your dishes there?"

Not 'mood music,' Paul thought at the sight of the upholstery, "more like 'mood symphony.' He set his uttaberry pie on the sideboard. "You have some beautiful furniture, Chlamydia. I have an aunt living on Earth who would love to do business with your antiques dealer."

Jasmine set her bowl down. Her comfort level was growing slowly and she managed to look to Chlamydia and ask. "The script in the buffet. What does it mean?" It looked very familiar to her but she wasn't able to place her finger on it. She knew her nerves had something to do with it but she couldn't even pinpoint the language at the moment. "Is this an ancient Earth language?"

"Indeed it is," Addams said, pleased that someone had noted it and asked. "Latin. The language of a culture which conquered a significant portion of the world, and the language of learning and scholarship for a millennium thereafter. That," the Doctor gestured at the inlay, "is my family's motto. 'We gladly feast on those who would subdue us.' Not just pretty words." She smiled, and fierce pride spiked within her. "As for the furniture, Paul, it is of course all replicated from things that have been knocking about the house back on Earth for who knows how long. My family, you see, has lived in the same house for... several generations."

Paul nodded. "That much ebony would have to be."

From somewhere in the recesses of Jade's mind came a quote, but she couldn't identify the source. "Curiouser and Curiouser," she murmured, setting her dish down on top of the inscription. A vision of Chlamydia-looking women, with wild hair and long dark furs, long knives in hand and enemies kneeling before them flashed across her mind. She banished it and wandered over for a closer look at the brocade on the chairs. She turned away, after a moment, and noticed that the top of the fireplace held a wreath on a stand, a wreath of bright greenery with dried black roses, tied with orange bows and tiny white bones.

"Your home has interesting decorative touches, Chlamydia. Your own work, or did you hire an ornamenter?" Lantz asked

"Oh, it's just things from the old home that I missed, living out of a fleet duffle bag," Addams answered breezily. "Would you care to see the rest of the house? Or are you all hungry enough to eat now?"

"I'd enjoy seeing more of the house, unless others are hungry," Paul said. "And I wouldn't want the food to get cold."

Lanis set the ramufta on the sideboard and studied the interior decorations with a puzzled look. "Chlamydia, how is it that you decided to go into medicine and not something like forensics? The way you decorate, I'd think you'd be a natural." He saw no reason to avoid the topic around which everyone else was so delicately treading in their efforts to be polite. Even Graves who, as a Betazoid, could be expected to just come right out and say what he was thinking, wasn't. Apparently, they taught Counselors better manners than one saw in the typical overly-candid Betazoids.

"Ah, Lanis," Addams said, feeling tired and disappointed. "You make a common mistake. You look at the trappings of the culture in which I was raised, at the macabre images and veneration of ancestors, and you see a fascination with death. And you're wrong. We are... I am fascinated with life. The memento mori," Addams gestured to the brocade of the chairs, "even the family credo, they're not about longing for death. They're a reminder that death exists, and we but hold it in abeyance. We live joyously in good times. We survive the bad times. It is our duty to do with life what we can, to squeeze each drop from it before the drops are gone."

"Ah, good," Lanis said. "It's a sentiment I can appreciate, then." He eyed the upholstery. "Though not necessarily how I would express it."

"I would love a tour." Jasmine smiled.

"So would I," Jade said. "If this part of the house is so interesting, I can't imagine the rest isn't equally so." She was mulling over the things Chlamydia had said about her family's attitude toward death and life. It was a different perspective, and she always found differences to be interesting. As a story collector, she hoped to hear more about the Addams family.

 

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