The Well (11 page)

Hester and Katherine did not speak much on the long drive home. At first it was a moonlight night, very dry and clear. The chill air carried the fragrance of the ploughed earth. Liking this but wishing for the sharp scent of rain on the paddocks Hester reflected, as she often did, that the nights in the wheat were either moonlit or quite black. She settled herself in the passenger seat and noticed that the moon was sliding into dark ribs of cloud. She shrugged and yawned.

Katherine, elated with the evening, had insisted on driving. ‘Yew sit back and take a rest Miss Harper, dear,' she had tucked the small tartan rug over Hester's bony knees. ‘If I'm to get my test next week,' her purring voice soothed, ‘I'd better get in some practice hadn't I.' As Hester fumbled with the ignition key which she wore on the chain around her neck Katherine's neat quick fingers helped themselves. ‘Make a good burglar wouldn't I,' she laughed as she slipped into the driver's seat.

The best part of the evening, Hester reflected was Kathy's dancing, the girl's energetic rhythmic movements. The yellow dress at times, in spite of Mrs Borden's attack, had been like a light flickering now here and now there. The misty quality of the material had been just right, Hester felt that Kathy's dress was in fact the prettiest one there. The music and the dancing were the pleasures of the evening. Also, she smiled to herself, it was sweet of Katherine to leave the dancing and come over the way she had, knowing Hester's weakness for sweet things.

‘Miss Harper dear, I thought you'd like the sherry trifle.'

‘Oh naughty Kathy, all that cream, what'll it do to my waist!' Together they had disposed of quite a large plateful Katherine having brought two spoons.

The road between black paddocks was flat and strange as though they had never travelled along it before. Swirls of white mist came towards them and sometimes when there was a dip in the road they were completely enshrouded in a light white endlessly winding garment. The surrounding countryside, Hester said, could seem desolate and frightening for anyone travelling especially if they had no home to go to. Katherine agreed, she for one would not want to drive the road at night alone. ‘I'm glad we're together Miss Harper, dear,' she said.

Pleasantly lulled with thoughts of Katherine's happiness at the dance and with looking forward to her own warm bed Hester slept. She hardly noticed when they turned off the road on to the track.

It seemed, as she roused herself, that Kathy was driving too fast.

‘Katherine! Not so fast,' she warned. ‘Katherine! Not so fast I said. Watch the track. You're going too fast, slow down. Katherine! For heaven's sake! Do be careful. You'll have us roll over if you drive like this. Please Kathy! Katherine! You'll lose your licence before ever you get it!'

Katherine did slow down. ‘I guess I'm still excited Miss Harper, dear,' she said. ‘I'm sorry if I scared yew.' She was carefully as American as possible. She went on to remind Miss Harper how exciting it was that Joanna would be with them in time for the fête and that she had a wonderful idea for the jam and pickle stall. ‘Oh Miss Harper, dear,' she said, ‘we could be right out of Shakespeare.' She paused. ‘I could be Rosalind, I'd love to be Rosalind and Joanna could be Orlando. I'd so love to wear a doublet and hose. We could make the costumes. Mine would be a woodland green and for Orlando, Miss Harper, do you think purple and … oh it would be perfect and would be something quite fresh and new at the fête. Romantic! Miss Harper, dear, love interest! If Joanna and me could be married together. A double wedding. We could drive off like this to an all revealing honeymoon – like in a film! It must be nice to be married to the man of your dreams,' she said. For reply Hester gave one of her snorts to which there was no answer.

‘Oh Miss Harper,' Katherine said after a short silence, ‘could I make some baby clothes, for the stall? We could have a section at the side of the miscellaneous gifts next to the tea cosies and the knitted pochettes – you know, little dresses, baby dresses, I would so like to do some smocking. And, I know!, little bibs trimmed with lace … Please! I know they'd sell.'

‘Babies eat their lace,' Hester said grimly. ‘Keep your mind on the car,' she added.

Katherine pressed her foot harder on the accelerator. The sturdy truck seemed to leap forward on the ridged gravel.

‘Kathy!' Hester's voice was tense. ‘Kathy! we're nearly at the bend. Slow down! I can see the bend. Kathy!'

‘Oh wasn't it a lovely party!' Katherine began, in her piping voice, to sing,

‘Wow! Miss Harper! I sure enjoyed myself!'

‘I'm glad of it Kathy,' Hester said, ‘but for heaven's sake do slow down.'

‘Oh don't keep singing that crazy song,' Hester was cross. ‘I can't think how anyone would think a nursery rhyme could be a song for dancing – whatever that ridiculous dance was.'

‘The pussycat freeze, Miss Harper, dear, it was the pussycat freeze, did you like it Miss Harper! eh?' She pressed her thumb on the horn. ‘The break dance huh? eh?'

‘Stop the car Katherine, I'll drive.'

‘Wee wopp! Here we go! Oops caught the bushes. Blast! Shit! Oops. Sorry, Miss Harper. Hit that rock. Always get that rock,' she laughed in a shrill voice. ‘Wish Joanna could've been here tonight. Wish you were here Joanna!'

‘Look out! There's something on the track. Look out! Brake Katherine! Brake. Oh look out! Oh God! The bend!' Hester's shriek stopped abruptly as something hit the car with a heavy dull thud. Katherine stopped the car, the engine was still running.

‘I think we've hit a roo.' Hester, grabbing her stick, clambered with difficulty from the truck and limped to the front. ‘It's not a roo,' she called in a low voice. ‘Don't come out. Stay where you are!' She moved slowly round to Katherine's side. ‘It's horrible,' she said, ‘it's caught up on the bar. It's …'

‘But there's never anyone on the track …'

‘Be quiet Katherine! There may be someone else around.' Hester's voice was low and urgent. ‘I'm trying to think what's the best thing to do. For God's sake, don't start to howl. We must keep as quiet as we can.'

‘But there's never anyone on the track …'

‘It seems there was this time. For heaven's sake don't howl!'

‘Miss Harper! do you think he's been to our place?'

‘How should I know. Now listen,' Hester leaned on the open window. ‘Listen I want you to do exactly as I tell you. We haven't any choice Kathy. And we may not have much time. We must get out of here. As quick as we can.'

‘Is he hurt bad?' Katherine began to sob.

‘Stop that Miss! Stop it at once!' Hester raised her voice. ‘Put off the lights – I want you to drive slow. Slow as you can, as quiet as you can. I'll be here alongside. We'll get in the yard back of the woolshed. When you're in the yard I want you to turn, slow – I don't want it to fall off. I'll keep near. The ground's rough. I don't know what's track and what's shadow. Now drive. Come on. Slow and careful. Come on!'

Hester, as she walked, heard the wind coming across the paddocks which were no longer hers. ‘Kathy,' she said, ‘we have to do this. Drive as close to the well as you can, straight at the well. Yes, I said the well. There's nothing wrong with the Toyota. We've got to get this off the bar. Just get as near, as close to the well as you can.'

The little cortège moved slowly forward towards the rhythmic rise and fall of the derelict well cover.

‘For God's sake don't cry like that!' Hester had to hiss because she was afraid of the sound of her voice crossing the darkness. ‘Save your breath and help me to break the tin a bit more.'

Katherine crouched in the shelter of the coping. Hester put her hands on her shoulders. ‘Come along Kathy, help me, it's the only thing we can do.' She caressed Katherine gently. ‘You'll catch cold there on the ground,' her pleading voice broke through the hissing.

Hester worked on alone. It was a desperate work. At last she considered the opening to be big enough. The well, about to receive the unexpected gift, was strangely silent. Cold air came steadily from the black depths. Katherine seemed to have disappeared into the rough black stone work. With tremendous effort Hester pulled and heaved to unhook the body. At last it sagged in a thick curve along the low wall of the well, on the place where they often sat, low, near the warm earth, in summer.

‘I'll never sit here again,' Katherine's voice came out in a little whimper.

‘Nonsense! of course you will,' Hester said sharply. She had a pain in her back. She was afraid too that the hole would not be large enough. She felt she was using all her strength and that it would not be enough. She made one final effort groaning aloud as she did so. The body disappeared, without protest, off the edge of the low wall scraping and breaking more off the rotting cover. There was no other sound at all. He did not even seem to hit the sides as he went down.

Hester stared into the widened black hole. The horror of what she was doing only came over her when it was done.

‘A quick burial,' Hester was trembling. A sickening feeling of weakness enveloped her. She felt as if she would cry. Small darts of light like lightning flashed by her right eye. It was a symptom she had had before. There was no light really. She knew this but found herself peering about in the dark for the source. She had a pounding in her head and she had to steady herself on the coping of the well.

‘But the car, it might show …' Katherine said in a whining little girl voice.

‘There, there, Kathy,' Hester said in a low voice, ‘it's all over. We'll look in the morning, that roo bar's as tough as they come, probably there'll be no mark and what if there's a dent or two? Who's to notice? But come on, we'll catch cold out here, both of us. Come on. I'll light the chips. What we need is a good hot tub to warm us up. Come along in Kathy.' Fumbling for her pocket she pulled out her handkerchief for the tears which would not stop.

Already long fingers of a pale honey-coloured light were creeping across the place where the endless black paddocks merged with the endless black sky. The sky was noticeably lighter as they entered the house together and closed the door.

Because of the disturbing experience Katherine got into bed with Hester, hers being the larger bed. Both declared they would be unable to sleep. But both must have dozed Hester realized when she, waking, heard the usual rattle and tapping of the well cover in the wind. Accustomed to these noises she turned over as carefully as she could. It was touching that Katherine, desiring safety and comfort, had asked to sleep beside her.

‘Miss Harper! Miss Harper!' Hester heard Katherine as in a dream; ‘Miss Harper!'

‘What is it Kathy?' She must have been asleep again.

‘I heard a noise Miss Harper. Listen! What's that noise? There it is again,' Katherine's whisper strained in the greyness.

‘It's only the old well cover, dear, you should know that. I'll close the window.' Hester, leaning out of bed, pulled the small window shut. ‘I expect it's looser now,' she said, ‘and rattles more.'

‘No, Miss Harper,' Katherine, half sitting up, whispered. ‘No, not the wind, Miss Harper, another noise. It's someone, it's a person. Miss Harper, there's someone in the room.'

Both women, half sitting up, not moving and hardly breathing, listened. There was a noise, a faint noise of movement, strangely close to them. It suggested merely skin and bones, dry, rasping lightly on each other, eerie and haunting.

It is not possible, Hester reasoned, for two people to have the same nightmare. She struck a match and lit the lamp.

There,' she said, ‘it's this; it's only a moth, a big one.'

The moth fluttered and limped after hitting itself on the lamp glass. It settled for a few dizzy seconds on the edge of the embroidered cloth which covered the chest of drawers at Hester's side of the bed. ‘It's only a poor moth, your intruder,' Hester, knowing her heart was pounding, laughed. She turned the lamp-wick down.

They lay back on their pillows once more. The dark room was filled with the reassuring fragrance of kerosene which slowly gave way to the sharp sweetness of over-ripe quinces. A box of them was on the top of the wardrobe. Hester, watching the little square window, saw the remains of the night sky change to the pale, washed-out light of the morning. She thought it would be a good idea to start making the quince preserves and jelly. Then she remembered the truck. After examining the truck she would start on the quinces. She and Katherine would cut them together. It was pleasant to look forward to the hot fragrance in the kitchen and ultimately, as she remembered them, to the little jars (she always used small pretty jars for quinces) of clear rosy jelly in rows on the kitchen table.

Miss Harper's jam-and-pickle shed was a well-known part of the town fête every year. Hester had carried on the tradition from her grandmother who always said that raising money to help those less fortunate than yourself was God's work. Hester, liking the idea of working for God occasionally, together with Katherine continued the effort and, always, their stall was one of the most popular. Lying in as comfortable a position as she could Hester counted the specially made costumes. One year Katherine was a little Dutch girl, then a Japanese fisherman, another year, a Spanish dancer, the next, a Russian peasant, the next, and this time she wanted something from Shakespeare and, of course, Joanna … She tried to think of the shelves already laden with bottled tomatoes. The vision of the healthy jars was comforting. She heard Katherine's deep breathing as she slept soundly on her side of the bed. No one must ever know of the accident. Hester set her mouth in a firm line. If this thing, now called ‘the accident' in her own mind, was ever known about everything they had would be disturbed and spoiled. She was determined that the whole thing was to be considered over and done with. She thought of the words she would use at breakfast time to impress this serious thought on Katherine once and for all time.