Home Sweet Home (2 page)

He could hear
voices on the other side and a thin strip of light was visible
through the cracks in the door. At this point his nerve finally
snapped like a twig and he half tiptoed and half ran across the
room to the broken door and exited the house at a gallop, coming
through the shrubs to the hole in the fence so fast that he failed
to hear or see his sister until he collided with her.

*****

The following
day, after school, they took a walk out along the main village road
to the house. It was a bright evening and the house looked as
cheerful as ever. They had hoped that they could scoot past quickly
without being seen, but Mrs Smith was weeding the front flowerbeds
and she called across to them. They dutifully trudged across the
road to her and after a brief chat Ben suddenly blurted out
“Are any of the houses along here empty?”
Mrs Smith didn’t give any sign that she thought it a strange
question and just flicked her head left and right and said “No,
they’re all fully occupied along here, after all, its such a lovely
spot you wouldn’t have houses standing empty for long would
you?”

They finally
managed to escape by saying that they had to get back for their
supper and as they walked, Ben scrutinised each house front
carefully and just as Mrs Smith had said, each and every one looked
properly cared for and lived in.

In the days
that followed, the events of that night kept going round and round
in Bens head like a nightmare that wouldn’t fade and he discussed
it over and over with his sister, but she seemed to be more and
more putting it down to an over active imagination. In fact
secretly she felt that he had most likely made up the story just to
try and scare her.

A Couple of
weeks passed and Ben had finally had enough. Jackie clearly no
longer believed him and his desperation to prove her wrong exceeded
even his considerable trepidation at revisiting the scene of his
terror and so one evening they set off together.

As they walked
apprehensively along the lower village road towards their goal, a
fine crescent moon hung low in the evening sky and smiled down on
them. This briefly cheered them up, but the harsh sound of the
crows circling high in the trees a couple of fields away sent
shivers through them both and when a bat flitted past their faces
they stopped altogether and almost turned back. Their well of
courage was almost dry.

Jackie
whispered, “Come on, this is silly; let’s go back now. I’m really
scared.” Ben wanted, with all his heart, to comply with her request
but some stubbornness within him refused to give up. Perhaps it was
the thought that he might never dredge up the courage to do this
again and so he just had to go on with it, so he tried to console
her. “I know it’s scary Jackie, but lets just carry on a bit. After
all, we’ve come this far and we can give up anytime we want to, so
lets go on a bit further and see what we can discover.”

After some
reluctance, Jackie agreed and they got to the fence with the Apple
Tree behind it. It only took a few seconds for Ben to find the
loose boards and they both crept through and then crouched
motionless behind the shrubs at the bottom of the garden. The air
about them was completely still and the garden was thick with the
fragrance of flowers. The rear of the house was ahead of them in
the evening gloom and Ben was quite sure that this was the very
same garden that they and their parents had visited some 6 weeks
before. The large apple tree was unmistakable and the shape and
layout were just as he remembered. He whispered right into his
sister’s ear “This is the right house isn’t it?”
“Yes, I’m sure it is. Everything looks just the same.”

This time,
instead of heading straight across the lawn, they skirted the
borders, stopping frequently, hearts pounding, until they came
close enough to see that the windows were empty of glass and the
door was hanging off its hinges just as Ben remembered. Somehow
this had a calming effect on him because it proved that he wasn’t
mad and that Jackie would have to believe him now. For her own
part, Jackie just wanted to flee back to the safety of the road on
the other side of the fence, but by a collective force of will they
crept forward and peered through a window. It was just as Ben had
described it and looked unbearably spooky in the almost total
darkness. “Lets go inside” said Ben. The words struggled to make it
out of his dried out mouth. Jackie just shook her head and so Ben
whispered “Wait there then while I go and have a look.”

She watched as
he disappeared through the door and she could hear the sharp cracks
of splintering glass as he crossed the room. She was certain the
noise would be heard and that someone would come to investigate, so
she kept her body primed to sprint straight across the lawn to
safety. Through the narrow door opening she could see the
silhouette of Ben and in a burst of shock she realised that he was
standing in a pool of light. He had crouched right down and was
looking though the partially opened door to the front room of the
house. He briefly glanced back towards her and then, keeping low to
the floor he crept forward into the room and out of her sight. A
few seconds passed, during which every sense in her body strained
to pick up the slightest movement, or sound, from within the
crumbling walls of the house. Her entire body vibrated with the
tension of the moment and then she heard Ben scream.

Jackie’s heart
flew straight out of her breast and she sagged against the
crumbling wall of the house in a dead faint. The next thing she was
aware of was being half dragged across the lawn while she
desperately tried to fend off her attacker with feeble motions of
arms and legs - the most she could manage through the paralysis of
her terror. Then she was lying still, gazing into darkness and a
fuzzy shape appeared before her, which slowly coalesced into the
frenzied features of Ben, her brother. “Jackie, Jackie” he sobbed,
shaking her wildly. “Please wake up, we’ve got to go.”

But his voice
stuttered to a stop and he was gazing up at something. Jackie
slowly turned her head, and was dazzled by a piercingly bright
light that was shining straight into her eyes. She partially
shielded her face with her hand and with an audible gasp she
finally made out the familiar shape of Mrs Smith.

Before either
of them had time to react further, Mrs Smith stepped forward and
walked between them, completely oblivious to their presence. They
watched as the bobbing circle of light on the lawn passed away from
them and then back towards the house, before disappearing
altogether. “I can’t understand how she didn’t see us.” whispered
Jackie “She walked right past us and the torch was shining straight
at me.”

There was no
response from Ben and when Jackie turned to look at him, the sight
of him shocked her. His face was bone white, his eyes wild and his
lips were quivering silently. He was clearly in a worse state of
shock than she was in herself and so she tugged at him and just
said his name over and over “Ben, Ben, come on we have to get home
now.”

Eventually he
responded just enough that she could coax him along and slowly,
together, they crawled to the fence, scrambled through the gap in
the panels and started on their way home. As they walked along the
lower village lane in almost total darkness, Jackie kept asking Ben
what he had seen. Eventually he told her; one word at a time and
each punctuated by a shuddering intake of breath, he gasped, “I saw
two bodies lying in the room.”

“What do you
mean?” was all she could say, but he continued regardless of her
interruption. “I could tell they were dead. There was a young woman
and she was really pretty and then there was a man holding her and
his arms were wrapped right round her and they were kind of looking
at each other but they were dead.” His voice choked on the final
word.

“How do you
know they were dead, maybe they were just…”

“I just knew
they were. Anyway when I screamed they didn’t move at all. When I
saw them, I couldn’t help myself screaming and I couldn’t bear to
stay there, it felt so horrible. I just ran as fast as I could.
Then Mrs Smith came out but she couldn’t see us, perhaps she’s a
ghost.”
“But how can she be a ghost? We saw her before and spoke to her and
she seemed completely real to me.”
“I don’t know, or maybe she has really bad eyesight?”
Jackie responded, “Yes, maybe she has bad night vision, that could
be it.” But she didn’t really believe it.

Both children
then trudged on in silence for a while and then Ben said, “What are
we going to do?”

Jackie replied
“Well we’ve got to talk Mum and Dad out of buying that house for
one thing.”

“Yes.” said Ben
“but how can we tell them about it? They’ll never believe us.”

At last they
arrived home exhausted, only to find themselves in huge trouble
with their parents for being out so late and no amount of
protestation did any good.

As Ben lay in
bed waiting impatiently for the oblivion of sleep, all he could see
in his minds eye was the waxen face of the young girl. She was very
pretty he thought, very pretty, actually even quite beautiful. Her
face was turned in his direction and he could make out every little
feature in exquisite detail, from the long brown eyelashes to the
width and shape of her cheekbones, the fineness of her nose and the
gentle arc of each eyebrow. Finally, how had he not noticed it
before? How dark and beguiling were her eyes and how inviting her
smile. How could he have missed how very alive she was and that her
smile was for him and for him alone?

When Ben awoke
the next day, the exploits of the previous night seemed briefly to
be nothing more than a bad dream, but then he remembered and his
heart sank. He went and woke Jackie up and each confirmed to the
other the reality of what had happened, although, of course, Jackie
could only take Ben’s word that he had seen dead bodies in the
house.

Finally they
descended the stairs for Breakfast and found their parents sitting
at the kitchen table drinking coffee.

“Hi Kids.” said
their mother. “We’ve just had some fantastic news, the house
belongs to us now and tomorrow we’re moving in. Isn’t it
exciting?”

*****

The following
day the removal van turned up bright and early and soon a constant
procession of boxes and furniture were being ferried from house to
van. To keep them out of the way, the children were stationed in
their bedrooms and charged with boxing up the last remnants of
their possessions. They carried out this duty with a palpable lack
of enthusiasm. Most of the time they couldn’t even bring themselves
to talk and so the hours passed in virtual silence, with just the
odd coded glance at each other from time to time. Their parents
were far too preoccupied to notice any of this and if they read
anything into the children’s behaviour it was that they were tired
and maybe feeling a little unsettled. It was, after all, quite
understandable for children to take a little time to adapt to a
change of circumstance.

Eventually the
house was empty and they all took a ceremonial final walk around
the house, which had been their home for the past few months and
then slammed the front door shut for the final time, climbed into
their car and followed the removal van up the road to their new
house.

It looked just
as fine as ever in the late afternoon light and the slanting rays
of the sun lent to it a warm glow, whilst the well manicured flower
beds set the house off to perfection.
“Well children, here we are at last.” said their mother. “We won’t
fully unpack today. We’ll just get everything into the house and
then we’ll all get an early night and sort it all out
tomorrow.”

The removal van
was emptied surprisingly quickly and at last they were alone in
their new residence with heaps of labelled boxes and stacks of
disarrayed furniture for company. They sat at the kitchen table and
ate soup and bread in a silence that spoke of mental and physical
exhaustion, for it had indeed been a long day.
“Ok, children, you look absolutely done in.” said their mother
finally. “Ben, I’m afraid you won’t be able to sleep in your
bedroom tonight because we have had to use it as a temporary
dumping ground for all the boxes that will be going up into the
loft.”
“So where am I sleeping then?”
“Don’t worry; you’ll be perfectly comfortable. I’ve made you up a
camp bed in the front room.” Ben just stared back at her, slack
jawed and on the verge of tears. “But mum, I can’t; I just can’t
sleep in there its, its….”

But his mum was
too tired to argue. “It’s only for one night Ben, now stop making
such a fuss. We’re all going to have to make sacrifices until we
get settled in.” That was the end of the matter as far as she was
concerned.

Later that
evening the parents sat up talking, for although they were tired,
they were not yet quite ready for bed either.

Mrs Marigold
suddenly exclaimed, “You know darling, I had a little chat with the
woman down at the village shop today when I went to pick up the
bread and milk and she told me a fascinating story about this
house. She said that about 20 years ago there was a fire and the
house almost completely burnt down. It was quite tragic at the time
because apparently the daughter of the owners was shortly to be
married and it was only a few days before the wedding that the fire
broke out. The young woman was alone in the house at the time and
the fire brigade were desperately trying to tackle the fire when
the young woman’s fiancé arrived at the house. The blaze was too
intense for anyone to enter the house but, when he realised that
she was still inside, he screamed her name and dashed inside before
anybody could stop him. It was several hours before the fire was
finally put out and anybody could enter the house, but when they
did, they found two bodies charred beyond recognition, lying side
by side on the floor.”