"What?" Molly said. "Why is my great-grandfather called Martin the Liar?"
"You don’t know? He didn’t pass down the story of how he tried to steal the family’s wealth for himself? How he tried to leave his older brother destitute?”
“No, Molly said. “I’ve never been told why my family left New York.”
The man laughed. “Then let me tell you a story.” He pulled a chair from his kitchen table and sat down, motioning for Molly to do the same. “This is how I heard it from my own grandfather.
“When your great-grandfather and his brother were still both young men they were set to inherit the family logging business. But Martin was insistent the family should give up the business. He believed the reason for the family’s problems was because of the logging. He wanted the family to sell the house or donate it to charity. He wanted them to give up their luxurious way of life. His brother Allen saw through this ruse. He realizedMartin was trying to bankrupt the family business so that he could make a fortune in investments in the competition.”
The man leaned back. “So Allen chased your great-grandfather out of the house, threatening to kill him if he ever showed his face again.”
“And where’s the family now?” Molly asked.
“Well, Allen had one child and the child only had one descendant. And with the passage of new environmental protection laws over the years the company collapsed anyway. Times got hard and the remaining VanKraft had to take up a smaller residence.”
“And where is that?” Molly hoped against hope it was nearby.
“Oh,” the man smiled. “I thought you had guessed. I’m the last VanKraft.”
Molly sat back and looked at the man. He didn’t look like a relation but they only shared great-great-grandparents. “I hadn’t guessed, you made it sound like were just a groundskeeper or something.”
The man shrugged. “I don’t let people from town know I’m a VanKraft when I can avoid it. Our family has a reputation for being strange, evil, or both. But you seem insistent to find me, or the family.”
“That’s because we need help,” Molly said.
“There isn’t money left to hand out,” the last VanKraft said.
“It isn’t about money,” Molly said. Billy stepped away from the phone and towards the table. “Something has changed the…”
“Molly, what are you doing?” Billy stopped her mid-sentence.
The last VanKraft smiled. “Let me put your fears to rest. The curse. You think something about the curse has changed.”
“Yes,” Molly said. “It’s become more powerful or atleast the effects have.”
“What do you mean?” The man asked.
“My little brother,” Billy said,” it used to be that things caught fire when he cried. Now it’s when he’s just upset. The same kind of thing is happening to me.”
The man frowned. “There is only one thing to do.” He stood up. “Come with me.” The cousins followed the man through his living room. Standing in the center of the room was the statue of a woman. He stopped and looked at the half-finished form. “Yes, this is my tribute to Gloria Groder, the poor wife of John Groder. The wife of the man who cursed us. I think we should take a visit to where this started. I’ll take you to the church where she died.”
