by Power, Max
He waited and considered going around to the side if the house to see if she might be out back, but then thought the better of it. What if someone saw him skulking around the side of ‘that’ woman’s house? Although he had good reason to do so, such was the fear of gossip, that Tommy didn’t dare take that chance. He wouldn’t have thought twice were it any other house in town. He was indeed in a quandary. Tommy hated bringing back undelivered mail. It hardly ever happened. For the most part in a small place like Cranby, if someone was not home when Tommy called, he could usually just leave whatever it he might be delivering with a friendly neighbour. Unfortunately Jo-Jo had no friendly neighbours.
He decided to knock on the window. Perhaps she just couldn’t hear him, or maybe she wouldn’t answer the door, not knowing who it was. If she could see that it was just the postman, perhaps she would come to the door. Tommy took care not to step on the carefully arranged flower bed and leaned over them to tap on the window. He tapped three times and then instinctively without even thinking, he leaned forward a little more and tried to peer through the net covered windows.
At first he could see nothing out of the ordinary. He squinted and still he couldn’t see any one inside. He was about to move away and give up when something caught his attention. In truth it was just a little thing, but sometimes the devil is in the detail, as Tommy’s wife was fond of saying. There was a picture on the wall directly opposite the window through which he peered. It was hard to see through the nets and it looked like it might be a landscape. But it was not the subject matter that drew his attention to the painting. The picture hung, more dangled from the wall at a peculiar angle. It was this, its unusual position that caught his eye.
He snapped up right away from the window. That couldn’t be right? He stepped forward, this time forgetfully, carelessly even, tramping on the flowers, not even aware of his accidental indiscretion. He cupped his hands around each side of his eyes to block out the light in order to get a better look. It worked. This time he could see clearer.
The picture indeed hung from the wall as though someone had knocked against it. But there was more. There was an upturned table, broken ornaments and even an overturned lamp. The whole place had been turned upside down. There was no sign of Life. Tommy could feel the blood race through his veins. His life was dull and boring. This was the most dramatic thing that had ever happened to him. There hadn’t been a burglary in Cranby for years. Or maybe, he thought, this could be something even more dramatic than a simple burglary!
He returned to the front door with a spring in his step, born out of a combination of fear and excitement. Tommy banged harder this time, but as expected there was no response. He called out Ms. Couchet’s name, but no reply came. Tommy tried the door handle and although he didn’t expect it, the door was open. All it needed was a little push and he would be in. It was a defining moment in his life as he stepped in through that door. In that very moment he was discovering bravery within him that he would not otherwise have discovered.
The house was empty, turned upside down but empty. There was blood on the floor, blood on the walls, blood on just about everything. It hadn’t been something he could see through the blur of the curtains on the window. He followed the trail of blood through the house, walking slowly, gingerly picking his route through each room to avoid obstacles and blood. Tommy’s jaw gaped open and his legs felt like jelly, but he carried on through the house and out through the rear entrance. There was blood on the step-stones that led to the small gate at the end of the garden and a bloodied hand print on the gate post. The hand that left the mark was a small one. He had never seen so much blood.
Tommy was shocked, horrified. He looked back at the house imagining what might have happened. Then he followed the blood trail with his eyes, from the house to the gate where he stood, and then followed an imaginary line to see where Jo-Jo might have gone, or worse still he thought, where she might have been taken. He had already decided in his head that the blood belonged to Ms. Couchet. The cottage was at the top of the town, the last house in fact and it was one of the few that backed onto the meadow. Tommy looked along the slope of the field that led uphill to Darkly Wood.
The blood did, as it transpired, belong to the woman of the house. Tommy called the police and a new story began to circulate. It was yet another one to add to the annals of Darkly Wood. Although there was no immediate evidence that her disappearance had anything to do with the Wood, the locals followed the same stream of logic that Tommy had initially come up with, when he came across the terrible scene. In their heads, someone or something had murdered Jo-Jo and dragged her bloodied body up to the notorious Wood.
Things have a way of turning upon the strangest of moments. Although most locals believed that someone from her murky past must have caught up with her, Tommy Whelan became her staunchest defender. A gossip of the highest caliber before that day, Tommy became born again and refused to hear any bad of the woman whose body he nearly, but never found. Tommy had discovered strength in walking through Jo-Jo Couchet’s door, a strength that he never believed he possessed. He became a new man. Tommy thought for the first time in his slow boring life, that he really felt like a real man. Courage had been uncovered. Tommy was able now, to say what he felt and not say what he felt he thought others wanted him to say, all because of that defining moment in his otherwise eventless life. Tommy had learned how to be brave.
Being careful to make sure that things were at least seen to be done correctly, a month after her disappearance, a memorial service was held for Jo-Jo Couchet. All the usual suspects were in attendance and some others were there for curiosity’s sake. Tommy was there. Apart from the Vicar no one spoke on her behalf. Not even the one stranger who sat at the back of the church. Though many were curious as to whom he might be, no one spoke to him, or he to them. He left before the service finished. During the service, he sat and watched and coughed a quiet little cough of blood into the white monogrammed handkerchief that he held in his gloved hands. The monogram was sewed in dark red letters and those letters were S.C.
Shadrach Crotchet left the church after the ceremony without speaking to anyone. Shadrach knew of death. He had died on the night that Jo-Jo had last seen him. His presence at his daughter’s funeral was to him, a miracle. But it was not miracles that saw the hateful old man, attend his daughter’s cold emotionless funeral. It was absolute luck.
Fortunately for Shadrach, on the night his heart stopped beating, there was a doctor sitting by the door of the Blue Lantern and when, almost immediately after Jo-Jo had left, the waiter asked if the pale man at the table needed anything, Shadrach’s life had been saved. Between the waiter and the doctor, Shadrach had life thumped and breathed back into his failing old heart and lungs. He recuperated in hospital and his recuperation was slow. The time spent there however had given him an opportunity to think. It hadn’t been his intention to be so mean or spiteful to his daughter, but Shadrach just could not help himself, especially in the circumstances. His passing from life to death, short though it was, became a turning point for Shadrach, or so he promised himself. Now he had to sit and watch his only daughter’s memorial service. He was too late.
Afterwards, he walked the short distance through the town to her house at the bottom of the hill just below the Wood. Shadrach struggled to make the short walk stopping several times, his breathing laboured and the pain in his chest intense. Although he had recovered from his heart attack, Shadrach was still not a well man. When he finally reached the house, he made his way around the side and to the back of the house, ultimately finding himself perched up against the back gate where just a few weeks earlier, Tommy Whelan had stood.
His chest tightened even more and Shadrach winced. He looked up the hill towards the Wood. How he wished he could say now what he wanted to say back at the restaurant. If only he had the courage to tell his daughter then, that he forgave her. He thought for a moment and could see the arrogance and the failings in his line of th
ought. There was nothing to forgive. She had done nothing wrong. If only he had the strength to tell her that he was sorry, to tell her that he loved her.
Death had almost taken him on that fateful night in the restaurant, but for some reason he had escaped its grasp. Now it was creeping in ever closer. Maybe it was his impending demise that was making him soft. He didn’t know. Shadrach felt a chill and a wind blew down the hill whispering his name and he felt sure he could hear his daughter’s voice. Before he turned to leave, his heart heavy with remorse, Shadrach looked one more time at the place that kept his daughter’s secret. He looked up towards the horizon, beyond the waves of green meadow on the hill, up to where darkness met light. Shadrach heard his daughter’s voice call again, an ever softening whisper carried down the hill by the sharp breeze.
He closed his eyes, coughed and his chest tightening once more. Shadrach stood in silence, feeling the air and hearing the sound of his daughters whisper. Then he walked away for the last time, turning his back on Darkly Wood.
CHAPTER ELEVEN – SOMETHING IN THE WOOD
Neither Benjamin nor Daisy really knew for sure why they headed deeper into Darkly Wood, but they did. ‘Woody’ as Benjamin had nick-named the strange boy was certainly Daisy’s stated reason for moving further forward into the place of dark stories, but once started on their pursuit, the journey itself seemed to become more purposeful as an entity in its own right.
They did not notice the time or the distance, as they wandered in the Wood, slowly forgetting why they were there in the first place. Their hands had slipped silently to fit together and it felt good. For a long time they simply walked in silence and they seemed to need no reason for their strange trek. It was enough that they were together. This was something unexpected and neither Daisy nor Benjamin seemed to know what to do. So they just went along, enjoying the moment without questioning.
Darkly Wood played tricks on those foolish enough to delve deeper into its secrets and the Wood lead them on a route along an ancient path, weaving slowly deeper into its heart and away from the light at the Wood’s edge. For led they were and wandering unplanned was a dangerous thing. They had no idea which way to go and the forest became more and more impenetrable the further they went. Yet still, they moved forward and each time they came to an obstacle blocking their path, a new route opened up before them, leading the pair further astray. Finally Benjamin broke the silence, at the risk of breaking the spell that bound her soft hand in his.
“Where are we going exactly?”
His words drew them out of their spell and they stopped walking. They stopped but they still held hands. Daisy had completely forgotten about Woody. She was walking hand in hand with Benjamin and didn’t quite understand what it was that she was feeling. What she did know, was that it felt good. She smiled at Benjamin. The sound of his voice seemed sweeter than any other voice that she had ever heard. Now that they had stopped walking, they both looked around, searching the surrounding brush for a glimpse of the mysterious boy that had started them off on their journey.
“You know Benjamin..” she began in answer to his question, still holding his hand but now standing directly in front of him, blocking his path, ..“I don’t really know where we‘re going,” and she laughed at the silliness of it all. It was so unlike her, but for some reason Daisy simply didn’t care.
“You mean you lured me in here under false pretences.”
Benjamin cocked his head. He squeezed her hand and gave her the most fantastic of smiles. Daisy was beaming back at him. He took her free hand and now held them both, so soft and small in his long bony fingers. Daisy felt a flush of heat to her face. They were alone in Darkly Wood, no one around to hear or see them. Benjamin was so handsome and nice and he made her heart sing when he touched her. They stood so close and he seemed so very tall. Daisy suspected he might actually try to kiss her. She had never been kissed before and knew that if he tried, she would let him. It was more than that though. She wanted him to kiss her and if she hadn’t been so afraid, Daisy might have tried to kiss him first. That though was never an option, so she stood there with her hands in his, her face just inches from his face and she waited.
Benjamin let her right hand go and touched her cheek. She shivered. The feeling was so new to her. It wasn’t the cold, it wasn’t fear. It was something else. Daisy just did not know what.
“You are the strangest girl I have ever met.” Benjamin spoke with a slight tickle of a laugh in his voice and she knew he was being sweet.
“Certainly the nicest” he concluded and the smile left his face.
Their bodies were so close, almost touching and she felt sure that he was going to kiss her. She felt sick. Her nerves were all a tingle and Daisy felt the blood rush to her head. She felt dizzy and tremendously excited. The feeling was like nothing she had ever experienced. The moment she had sometimes thought of, occasionally dreamt of, certainly more and more lately, had finally arrived. She closed her eyes and waited for his lips. She knew they would come and anticipated his gentle kiss pressing on her mouth. Daisy waited for him to move closer, but instead he released his grip on her hand and she felt him move back ever so slightly. She opened her eyes.
“Listen?”
Benjamin was standing just a step away from her, staring intently into the Wood off to her left.
“Do you hear it?”
Daisy hadn’t heard anything. She had been so primed to receive her first kiss from her favourite boy in the whole wide world, that a tree could have fallen behind her and she wouldn’t have noticed. It felt as though she had been drifting off to sleep when someone had just turned on a light and shook her awake. It took her a moment to realise what was going on. Daisy followed his gaze and listened. She suddenly felt a little stupid. Maybe she had been wrong. Maybe he hadn’t been going to kiss her. Maybe he didn’t want to. She felt sick again, but it was much more unpleasant than her previous sensation.
Daisy didn’t know what to do, so she followed his lead. They stood there in complete silence for a few seconds and then at last, she heard it. They both did. There was a loud chopping sound. It came from deep inside the wood and it stop-started. In a way, it was a relief. Daisy needed a distraction.
“What is that?” Daisy asked.
“Sounds like someone cutting trees.” Benjamin answered. The sound started again. It was definitely someone chopping wood.
“You think it might be Woody?” Benjamin asked, adding to her interest.
“Maybe, I don’t know, I don’t think so, maybe?”
Her answer was as uncertain as she actually was. They both felt a bit apprehensive. Darkly Wood suddenly became the place of its reputation. A few moments earlier, Daisy had been completely oblivious to her surroundings. Now she was all too aware of them. Benjamin felt it too. All of a sudden, their little patch of tranquility had transformed into something altogether more pernicious.
“What do you want to do Daisy May?”
He looked at her again and although the feelings that they had felt, before they had heard the chopping sound were still there, they now had to take second place to their growing fear. Daisy really did not know the answer to his question. It was a moment for him to take the lead. He waited as though it was her decision and her decision alone to take. She couldn’t decide. Daisy wanted him to take charge, but he seemed hesitant, so she left him no choice but to take the lead. Daisy bit her lip and stayed silent.
“We should go.” Benjamin took her hand to lead her away, but strangely, now that he had taken the lead, she didn’t really know if she agreed with his decision. She hesitated.
“What’s the matter? Let’s go...” Benjamin urged her quietly, tugging on her hand.
Daisy snapped her head towards a loud crack that echoed around the Wood. It sounded like a tree splitting. There was a groaning, creaking, moaning sound followed by a crash. Someone had felled a tree. Her old curiosity, her drive to find the boy came back. Daisy didn’t know why it was so important for he
r to find him, but it seemed to matter.
“No.” She answered at last. She was very definite.
No?” He seemed confused. “We should go… really.”
Benjamin tugged on her hand again, trying to encourage her to go with him back out of the Wood. She detected a tension in his voice. He was different in that moment. Something had spooked Benjamin. He most definitely wanted them to go back, but that only made Daisy more determined to go on.
“No.” She repeated.
She let go of his hand and looked at him as if to say, ‘are you coming or not?’ There was a new found reluctance about Benjamin. It was as though he had been willing to come this far but beyond this point, he did not want to continue. In a way, it was as though he knew something that he wasn’t going to share. Benjamin looked scared.
“What is the matter with you?”
She asked the question as it came into her head. Daisy knew that he was afraid, but she was too and she did not want to go on alone. More importantly perhaps, she felt that now she couldn’t go back. Something drew her deeper into the Wood and it was more than just the strange boy. He grabbed her hand again.
“I think we should go back.”
He repeated his request. His voice was steady, but there was a tone that gave away his genuine concern.
“Come on, please?” he urged her again. “Let’s go?”
Daisy knew that it was the right thing to do. She knew somewhere deep in her heart that she should turn back, just go with Benjamin. But she couldn’t. There was no explaining it. He would stand there and argue with her and they would not agree. Daisy did what Daisy always did in such circumstances. She decided quite boldly, to do her own thing. So letting go of his hand, she turned her back on Benjamin and walked in the direction that she thought the noise had come from. It was a brave thing to do and she hoped that Benjamin would follow her as before.