The Life and Afterlife of Charlie Brackwood (The Brackwood Series Book 1) (5 page)

Mr Raven was the caretaker of the Bolton Abbey Estate and was feared by the village children due to his booming voice and intolerance of their trespassing.  But that summer we found Mr Raven’s soft spot.  He loved nothing more than to go down to the river early in the morning with a big bag of bread.  Mr Raven, the town grump, loved to feed the local ducks and geese. While he did this he wore the widest smile plastered over his usually sullen face.

Not exactly scandalous but it was the only time we ever saw the man look remotely happy, plus it made us feel as though we'd seen something others had missed.  A private moment, a secret nobody else shared but the three of us, something the adults would never know. More importantly, it was something old Mr Raven wouldn't want us to see.  He had a soft side, he cared for something, and that was bad for his reputation as a miserable man.

Mr Raven was like clockwork. He'd visit those ducks at the same time every morning.  They would be waiting for him and would become more vocal at the sight of him. He loved the sight of them all waddling towards him almost in greeting, I suppose it made him feel needed.

Lucy would come to the treehouse every morning to watch Mr Raven. "Have I missed him? Tell me I haven't missed him," she'd cry, desperate to see this curious, intriguing sight.  I'd pass her the binoculars and she would be in her element.

Maybe it was inappropriate for us to spy on this lonely old man, but we were kids and anything was more exciting to us than the normal routine.  What's more, if we had not have been watching him so intently he might never have made it to his next birthday.

It was a bright morning and the air was cooler than usual. Lucy and I were watching him as he made his way to the river.  He was smiling as he always did around his feathered friends, the bag of bread swinging by his side as he walked.  The ducks were making a raucous noise as they spotted their favourite visitor approaching.  I stared at Lucy in wonder as she peered through the binoculars and a joyful grin brightened her perfect features.

I often found myself watching her like this. She was naturally so quiet that she was a mystery to most people. By quietly observing her, I hoped to catch a glimpse of inner workings of her guarded mind.  A gasp from her alerted me that something was wrong.

"Oh, no," Lucy cried, panic in her voice, “There's something up with Mr Raven."

In one swift movement I grabbed the binoculars from her only to see the old man doubled over and clutching at his chest. He dropped the bag of bread, causing it to scatter on to the ground.

We ran inside and told my mum to ring an ambulance and explained to her what we'd seen.  Without any hesitation she did as we asked.  The ambulance arrived quickly and took Mr Raven away, leaving Lucy and me to stare helplessly after it.

The hospital staff took great care of Mr Raven, despite his difficult and stubborn nature, and he was out of hospital within a week.  During his recovery Lucy and I took it upon ourselves to carry on with 'duck duty', as Lucy called it.

We fed those ducks at exactly the same time every day, just as Mr Raven had, so they didn't miss out.  Lucy didn't like the idea of them waiting for someone who would never show up.  After only a short time the ducks grew to love us too and for months after giving up the role of 'duck dinner lady' we were followed religiously by the waddling waterfowl.  Some were so obsessed with food that they would follow us into our own homes, which always made Lucy squeal with glee.

When Mr Raven came home from hospital he visited my house and spoke to Lucy and me.  We were scared at first because he was such a stern man and up to that point we'd only ever heard him shout at children of our age.  He told us how grateful he was that we'd seen him in trouble, and how intelligent we were for asking my mum to ring an ambulance.  He told us we'd saved his life, and we told him about the ducks.  He was shocked and a bit surprised that we knew his little secret, but pleased that we had thought of them.  I felt proud of Lucy and her caring nature.  If it weren't for her Mr Raven's plight would have gone unnoticed.

After that we looked for more neighbours to spy on, seeking excitement and intrigue.  We watched Mrs Kane as she flirted with the postman, who appeared to enjoy the attention very much.  Mrs Kane was in her forties and was never seen without an enormous amount of makeup that made her look rather scary to children.  Her hair was always perfectly curled with rollers and her wardrobe must have consisted only of low-cut tops and miniskirts as that's all she ever seemed to be seen in, apart from winter when she would wear a floor-length fur coat.

Back then I saw her as a joke, now I see her as a middle-aged woman who couldn’t let go of her youth.  She always seemed to be chasing the past in an effort to hold on to the younger version of herself.  As I grew older myself I began to pity her.

Mr Kane was a shy, scrawny man with thick black-rimmed glasses.  He always dressed older than his age and was never seen without a dickey bow. He was polite to anyone he passed in the village but he was not a talkative man.  Mrs Kane would talk down to him and often humiliate him in public but he would never defend himself against her.   I'd hear my parents talk about Mrs Kane's behaviour, how she was seen by others as quite ridiculous. She was often, much to her delight, the talk of the village.  Her outrageous behaviour led to chatter about sordid affairs with married men and she was always the centre of village gossip.

One day Lucy, Russ and I watched from the tree house as Mrs Kane got out of a taxi, wearing her usual attire.  She had her back to us as she bent down to lean into the taxi window and pay the driver, giving us a view of her backside that we would later try hard to forget.  She turned around and looked our way.  Russ had joined us that day so he was on binocular duty and therefore got more of an eyeful than the rest of us.

"Whoah... my god... what the hell happened?" Russ suddenly exclaimed as he bravely carried on with his spying, unlike Lucy and I who had lost interest after the overexposure-of-bottom incident.  Russ had nicknamed Mrs Kane 'Mrs Vain' for obvious reasons.  He liked nicknames, though he never had one for me. Lucy and I looked at each other, puzzlement in our expressions, before we swiftly took turns in looking through the binoculars ourselves.

Mrs Kane was wrapped up like a mummy. Only her eyes were visible, outlined by their signature black liner, giving her a likeness to an Ancient Egyptian.  She looked up and down the empty lane, presumably in search of someone from whom to extract sympathy, before her eyes focused on the bent-over rear end of the new, youthful-looking milkman, making the last of his deliveries.  She smiled to herself and her heavily made up eyes lingered on his pert bottom just a bit too long.  Then with a swish of her scarf she turned on her heel and disappeared inside her cottage.

"Jesus, has Mr Kane finally stood up for himself and walloped her one, do you think?" Russ asked us.

"Maybe she tripped and fell over."

"Maybe she's had a face transplant."

"Maybe it wasn't her at all. Maybe it was Mr Kane in her clothes, disguising his real identity with bandages, and Mrs Vain is actually under the patio," Russ said enthusiastically.

We both stared at him.  Lucy wrinkled her nose in displeasure.  Russ stared back and then held up his hands and shrugged.

"Could be true," he exclaimed.  We all burst into hysterical laughter then at the thought of Mr Kane dressing as a woman.  After that we were on a mission to find out the nitty-gritty on Mrs Vain and her desire to resemble an extra from a horror movie.  We asked around but nobody seemed to know a thing.  I suspect they did know but the fact that we were children was preventing them from speaking out.  Although there was one person willing to explain the bandages on Mrs Vain's face.  He was the oldest man in the village and known locally as a bit of a prankster.  He told us that Mrs Vain had contracted a rare disease that meant the skin on her face had become extremely wrinkled and was losing its battle to stay on her skull.  He walked away laughing after saying this while we imagined all sorts.

As time passed we learnt the mundane and unexciting truth that Mrs Vain had had a facelift, paid for her by her long-suffering husband.  After her facelift she became even more outrageous and ridiculous than she’d been before.  Her teenage behaviour was attracting attention from the villagers.  Russ's mum had seen her walking around the village dressed in just a vest top and hot pants.

Every year time seemed to gather speed. I watched my friends grow older.  Every day brought something new to look forward to.  We all had plans and couldn't wait for our futures to begin.  As the years passed Lucy enrolled in the same high school as Russ and I and we would spend our lunchtimes together.

I didn't know it at the time but my friendship with her was changing.  She still had the same dreams and was passionate about the same things but I had developed a strong need to protect her from hurt and unhappiness.  This new development confused me and the strength with which I felt the need to protect her was often unsettling.

Lucy was shy in high school and known as a tomboy.  She always wore black trousers instead of the usual box-pleat skirt that was the girls’ uniform.  She was frequently bullied by the other girls, mainly by those who had a reputation for promiscuity and loose morals, who wore short skirts and too much makeup.  Lucy didn't wear any and was naturally pretty, which I suppose was what sparked the other pupils’ loathing for her.

She tried hard not to be noticed, was happy on the sidelines or in the background watching the others.  There was an advantage to observing, you learnt how to read people, and this was something Lucy did often.

She knew who was truly being themselves and who wasn't, who was untrustworthy, who gave the impression of being outgoing and confident but was secretly extremely insecure, and who the really strong ones were.  She enjoyed seeing the person behind the facade, and in high school there were plenty of pretenders striving for acceptance, and therefore plenty of subjects for Lucy to study.  But she also successfully worked out the people to trust and those to avoid.

Because of the snide remarks Lucy had to endure on a daily basis and the protective attitude that I had developed towards her, I often walked her to her next class after lunch.  Of course, this sparked rumours that we were more than just friends, but I genuinely saw Lucy as a sister figure in those days. Russ on other hand was a born flirt and would always find some way of getting girls to find him captivating and irresistible.  He was a natural charmer and would go through girlfriends like they were a change of clothes, an accessory that went in and out of fashion.

When Lucy reached sixteen Russ decided she’d be his new victim and he put a lot of effort into impressing her.  This new development amused me as Lucy made it quite clear that she thought Russ was an imbecile and only endured him because he was my friend.

Due to our childhood friendship, Russ knew Lucy pretty well and would often try to draw her into conversations he knew she had an interest in.  He would slyly bring up the next book in a series she had been reading or try and get her into a heated debate about fox hunting or mention the latest Jim Carrey film, knowing that he was Lucy’s favourite actor.  He knew that this was the only way in which he would get her to notice him.

Often, and to Lucy’s discomfiture, Russ would invite his latest brain-dead girlfriend to have lunch with us in the high-school cafeteria.  Most of them were so self-obsessed that they would remain blissfully unaware of Russ's need for Lucy's attention and would mistake the heated arguments between them for evidence of mutual hatred.

However, there was one girlfriend in particular who saw the truth behind Russ's sudden interest in Lucy.  Her name was Amy and she was the most popular girl in our year.  She would watch the two of them intently and would often come out with sarcastic comments aimed to belittle Lucy's views on a subject.  Lucy would always ignore her and continue her heated argument with Russ, who would also ignore the indignant comments of his bitterly jealous girlfriend.

No matter how hard she tried, Amy always failed to turn Russ's attention away from Lucy.  Her pitiful efforts to gain his attention only made me feel sorry for her.  That was until Lucy became her victim.

Chapter Four

Amy Hale led a privileged life.  She'd had the kind of upbringing other girls could only dream of.  Her parents treasured and adored her and she was idolised by her two younger sisters.  In return she was selfish and conceited and had an air of self-importance that only increased the entire village’s admiration for her.

She looked down on most people, was respected by the teaching staff, and thought of herself as powerful, admired, worshipped even by the student body.  In fact Amy Hale considered herself something special and aimed to destroy anyone who got in her way.  She was self-deluded to the highest degree and behaved as though the rest of the world owed her something.

I knew Amy better than Russ did, I felt.  I had observed her enough during our lunch hours together to see through her facade.  Though she wore a good mask there were always a few seconds when her real feelings could be seen.  Within those few seconds her true reaction could be read from the twisted expression on her face, but as quickly as they had crossed her features her true feelings would disappear once again.  This quick flash of emotion was where the real Amy lay, offering an interesting insight into her true character.   Like all naturally manipulative people, she had a crowd of followers who wanted to become pawns in her elaborate game. 

Two of these were Sarah Brown and Stephanie Duff, Amy’s closest allies, both attractive girls with carefully styled hair and perfectly applied makeup. Sarah and Stephanie were devoted to Amy. She only had to click her fingers and they would do whatever she wanted. It was a loyalty that Amy would never return.  She thought of other people only in terms of how they could help her.  If they weren’t useful to her, she would discard them like yesterday’s leftovers.

Among the many friends Amy had acquired, Sarah and Stephanie had managed to linger the longest, but even they knew how fragile their friendship with her could become if they annoyed her, which was why they always tried their best to please her.

I never fully realised how deep Amy’s jealousy of Lucy ran or just how evil she could be.  That all changed one day as the end of the school year came ever closer.  It was also the day of Lucy’s last GCSE exam and she was nervous.

“What if I fail? This is the most important one for me,” she mumbled through her nail biting.

We were outside the sports hall, which was currently being used for exams.  Small wooden desks were lined up in neat rows, all facing the same way like soldiers on parade.  Lucy peered through the doors as groups of students exited the cold, musky-scented room.

“Just the sight of it is causing my stomach to churn,” she said, looking at me with huge worried eyes.

“Which one is it? Biology?” I asked the back of her head as she continued to peer in.

Lucy’s mass of black curls shook as she nodded.

“Hey, what's going on here then?  A meeting without me?”

I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder as I heard Russ’s loud voice. 
Just what Lucy needs
, I thought to myself, angry that my time with her had been interrupted but not understanding the reason for that anger.

“Lucy’s a bit panicked about her exam, which is pointless because we know she’ll get great grades in all of them,” I said, ignoring Russ and looking straight at her.

“Didn’t you bring your anxiety pills with you, Luce?  Just pop a few of them,” Russ suggested light-heartedly.

Her eyes widened.

“Of course,” she said, scrabbling in her bag for the box.

Lucy had suffered from anxiety attacks ever since Gilly’s death, but it had only been diagnosed by a doctor in the first year of high school.  It was something she was ashamed of and it wasn’t often spoken about by us due to the need for secrecy.

I handed her my bottle of water so she could take the pill. 

“Thanks,” she said gratefully.

“How long till they call you in?” Russ asked.

“About twenty minutes,” she said, looking at her watch.

“So I hear Stephanie Duff has the hots for you,” Russ said, nudging me with his shoulder.

I sighed.  Russ often liked to embarrass me with these nuggets of information.  I looked at Lucy and shook my head. She rolled her eyes in response.

“According to Amy your name is all over her pencil case... lovingly scrawled,” he added, grinning.

“Come off it,” I said, embarrassed.

“Just say the word and I can set you two up.”  Russ’s tone was serious.

Lucy looked at me with an expression on her face that said:
don’t you dare
.  I guess she hated the thought of losing another friend to a member of the ego brigade.

“Definitely not,” I said sharply.

This reaction caused Russ to start listing Stephanie’s so-called qualities, and reasons why my dating her would be a good idea.  It was while he was in the middle of stating that the whole male student body would be envious of my relationship with her that I saw Lucy start to wobble. 

“Whoah!” I said, catching her before she fell.  Her eyelids were drooping heavily and I tapped her cheek lightly while repeating her name.  Still no response.   Had she fainted?  Did she need some fresh air?  With Russ’s help I managed to exit the foyer of the sports hall and lay her on the grass outside.

“What’s wrong with her?” he said, appearing uncharacteristically concerned, “She was fine a minute ago.”

We both looked at her then, unsure what to do.

“If she’s fainted she should come round in a minute or so,” I said hopefully.

“I hope you’re right.”

As our attention turned back to Lucy her eyes were still firmly closed but she started to groan.

“Sleepy,” she said in a soft voice.

Sleepy?  What the hell was going on?  She had been wide awake and perfectly lucid a few minutes ago.  Russ and I looked at each other in confusion.  We felt helpless and unprepared for this situation.  Students were being called in to the exam hall. If we didn’t wake Lucy up soon she was going to miss it.  The biology exam was the most important for her as she needed a good grade to be accepted on the university degree course she had chosen. 

“Looks like Sleeping Beauty is going to miss her exam,” a passerby said snidely.  I looked up in time to see the cold expression in Amy’s eyes as she grinned at us.  The group she was with laughed robotically as they took in the scene.  I glanced at Russ, puzzlement on my face.

“Could she…?” I stopped short, because surely Amy couldn’t have done this. 

My mind drifted back to a few hours before, lunchtime in the school cafeteria.  As expected Amy had sat with us instead of her usual gang of sycophants, and as usual Lucy and Russ had got into a debate over a topic Lucy was particularly passionate about.  At first Amy sat quietly, watching them with her usual venomous expression.  After a while she reached under the table. I’d assumed she was retrieving her backpack, she often doodled on her pencil case when bored.  She spent some time rummaging under the table and I’d thought she was having trouble locating it.  Now I found myself wondering if all was as innocent as I’d first thought. 

“What?” Russ asked.

“The pills.” I stared at him, not wanting to believe what I was about to say. “Amy switched them.”

“Amy?  She wouldn’t…”

“She switched Lucy’s anti-anxiety pills for sleeping pills,” I said as I desperately searched for the packet of pills in Lucy’s bag.

“But Amy wouldn’t do that. She would never be capable of something so…”

I stopped searching and looked up at Russ in exasperation. Surely he wasn’t this delusional?

“Russ, Amy hates Lucy.  Anyone with half a brain can see that.  Maybe if you’d paid more attention to your girlfriend none of this would have happened,” I said continuing to search.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Russ had raised his voice to a level that indicated trouble ahead.

“Don’t you see?  Amy is jealous of Lucy because of all the attention you give her.”

“So you’re saying this is my fault?” Russ said, straightening up and puffing out his chest in a manly fashion.

“No… look… we need to concentrate on Lucy. There’s no way she’s going to make that exam now and I don’t think accidental ingestion of sleeping pills is an acceptable excuse for missing it.  Not when your girlfriend’s got all the teaching staff wrapped around her little finger.”

I was starting to feel angry about the way Lucy must suffer thanks to Amy’s thoughtless game-playing.

I pulled out the box of pills from Lucy’s bag and examined them.  I could see from the small print on the packet that they were sleeping pills and not Lucy’s usual medication.  In her haste to ease her nerves she must have missed the writing.  The pills themselves looked exactly like her usual ones.

I looked down at Lucy’s innocent, peaceful face and decided to stay with her until the pills wore off.

“Right, I’ll see you in a bit. You staying here?” Russ asked, his tone and body language giving away his anger.

“Yeah... hang on, where are you going?”

“I need to get the truth from someone,” he said through clenched teeth before walking in the direction of the library, where Amy helped to stack shelves for extra points.

I sat by Lucy on the freshly cut grass and watched the sun highlight the colours in her hair.  There were various red hues that would glow when the sun came out, as well as deep black and honey-toned browns.  I had never taken much notice of her hair before, always seeing it as a mass of curls on top of her head, but on that day, for the first time, I could see the beauty in it.  Her milky white skin was flawless as she slept, not one wrinkle or crease on her smooth forehead. 

I stayed by her side for the rest of the afternoon, watching every delicate intake of breath, all the time battling with the thought of telling her she’d missed the exam.  I knew she would have the opportunity to re-sit the following year but I also knew how strict her mother could be about Lucy's education.  If Lucy had to re-sit a subject the drama that would likely ensue would make Lucy miserable and her confidence would be shattered.

As I watched her long eyelashes flutter softly while she slept, I realised that I was about to shatter her hopes and dreams into a million tiny shards.