Descent of A Great House (Story)

Once upon a time, two brothers inherited a sprawling mansion from their parents. The brothers took great pride and care of their home. This is a story of the house.

It was humbly furnished, but everything worked as it should and the furniture was crafted with care to last for a long time. Tom lived in the South Wing, and Dick lived the North Wing.

Over time, the family grew and prospered. When the brothers died in a hunting accident, a power struggle came into play, splitting the family into two.

Tom’s family, who wasn’t as familiar with the laws of inheritance as Dick’s family, lost claim to the inheritance. Henceforth, they went from being a family to being The Family (Dick’s) and The Cousins (Tom’s family).

The Cousins continued to live in the South Wing of the house and work at the family farm for a low wage.

The Family loved their things. They weren’t happy with the sensible decor. Every week, they’d add new things to their home and give what they no longer wanted, or what no longer worked properly, to the Cousins, thinking their poorer Cousins can work magic with those things.

The Cousins benefited from this relationship for a while. They sold some of the better stuff and repaired the malfunctioning ones.

But the stuff kept coming and The Family indulged in more things of ever poorer quality. Sometimes, the things came to the Cousins dirty and broken.

The Cousins, already occupied with their daily duties, found themselves unable to cope with the constant stream of stuff. It got to a point where the Cousins would find a pile of things in the hallway to their wing every few days.

The controlling Family didn’t allow them to put these stuff on other areas of the property, and they weren’t rich enough to send the stuff away. So the stuff accumulated in the Cousins’ modest but tidy South Wing.

Eventually, it became impossible to clean the rooms in the South Wing with all the clutter in the way. The stuff began to accumulate dust and grow mold. Mice and roaches appeared and settled in the rooms.

The Cousins talked to The Family about this problem, but The Family didn’t care.

“I gave those things to you. They’re yours now. It’s not my problem you can’t manage your things!” The Family declared.

The less powerful Cousins could only allow the stuff to pile up in their home. The stuff took up entire rooms and began spilling out into the hallways. Their beautiful South Wing, once bright and airy, became dark and claustrophobic.

Realizing that they ran out of space in the South Wing, the Family began to throw their stuff in the Cousins’ yard.

The stuff, piled up and exposed to the elements, turned into junk quickly. The Cousins burned some of it. The resulting fumes were black and acrid and burned everyone’s eyes and throat. Moreover, animals, rain, and strong winds would cast bits of junk all over the Family’s side of the yard. The Family was furious.

“How can you people be so irresponsible with your stuff? These things were resources! Yet you’ve turned them into trash and polluted the whole estate! Get your acts together!”

The Cousins argued that they never asked for those things in the first place, but they were ignored.

Still, the Cousins worked hard in the fields to earn their keep. At night, they trudged through their littered yard to return to their unsanitary home, unable to eat safely because the roaches and rats have taken over.

They couldn’t even rest or sleep properly. Their beds had been reduced to small circles of space surrounded by heaps of clutter. In their sleep, roaches sometimes crawl over their faces. Their health deteriorated.

At the same time, the beautiful woodwork in the South Wing began to rot away, contaminated by the rats’ urine and feces.

The Cousins tried desperately to deal with the situation, but between their chores, their own trash, and the family’s stuff, they simply couldn’t keep up.

Little by little, the pests ate away at the house and became bolder and stronger in numbers.

The Family began to spot them around their part of the mansion. They heard them in the walls and smelled their traces. Wheels of cheese started missing chunks, while bread regularly disappeared. Rats drank from their water and mysterious droppings appeared in the pantry.

Yet, the Family couldn’t stop buying. How can they? They need things for their happiness and well being and convenience!

So they bought, and they used, and they bought some more.

The Cousins looked on wearily. The future is bleak, and the mansion no longer great, but this is the only home they’ve got. What should they do? What can they do?

With the South Wing filled up, the Family had no choice but to deposit the stuff in their own rooms. The rats took it as an invitation and took over those spaces as well.

Slowly and surely, the entire house descended into a state of squalor. The air in the house, once fresh and clean, became foul from the stench of rat waste, mold, and rotting food. Access to water became blocked as their bathrooms filled up with clutter. Food became contaminated once they were brought into the house.

On a hot summer day when the house was smelling particularly riped, the walls along the eastern side of the house collapsed with a loud groan and a crash. Freed of its restraints, an avalanche of stuff tumbled out of the great house.

The Family screamed in fear and spilled out along with their stuff. The Cousins who were working at the farm ran back home to see what the loud rumbling noise was, only to find that home was gone.

The once sprawling mansion looked more like a massive junkyard than a house. Thousands of rats scuttled all over the heaps of stuff beneath a thick plume of dust that had not yet settled.

The Family and the Cousins looked on, huddled in two separate groups. Tears streamed down their dusty faces.

They’ve lost their only home.

If you’ve read this far, you’ve made my day! I hope you’ve enjoyed this simple story of a house and its occupants. This may seem like a very random story, but it was inspired by an article I read recently.

Can you guess what this story is about? What would you say is the moral of the story? Leave your guesses in the comments!

Also, stay tuned for the next blog post, and it’ll all become clearer!