by David Haynes
She was so lost in her recollection that when she stamped on the brakes to avoid the wizened figure standing in the middle of the road, the brakes locked and sent her skidding across the road. Vivid red spots flashed across the windscreen in a hypnotic twirl of colour. May fought briefly with the spinning steering wheel before the car collided with the granite wall on the edge of the road.
10
Joe pushed the door shut against the elements; the wood burner was still kicking out some heat for which he was grateful. In his first winter in the cottage he’d made the mistake of letting the fire go out on a couple of occasions. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. He picked two thick logs from the store and pushed them into the burner’s heart. His monthly supply of logs would arrive soon so there was no need for rationing now the bad weather was here.
He sat at his computer intending to do exactly what he’d done for the last two years – write, but his mind kept wandering. God she’d felt good. The way her body had felt as he first held her close; the pressure her lips had applied and the sweet taste of her lipstick. Somehow, the kissing had been enough. The intimacy was unexpected but not uncomfortable, and he wanted nothing more from May, for now.
Something else was also crowding his mind, something about the old woman with the umbrella. How the hell had she managed to evade them? He knew he was right about the time lapse between cove and car park. Which meant, she’d either run all the way up the path, or there was another way out of the cove. One which was hidden from view.
He picked up the binoculars and peered into the cove once again. There was nothing to see, except the fishing boats and the meandering footpath to the car park. He’d just walked the path in both directions and couldn’t remember seeing anything out of the ordinary, but then again, particularly on the way back up, he’d been distracted.
He put the binoculars back on the windowsill and picked up the Zippo. Why was he wasting time thinking about that old woman? She might be able to cast some light on the swimmer, but what concern of his was that? He wasn’t a detective anymore. He shook his head. Something felt wretched about that poor figure being the only person who knew who the swimmer was. If that was the case then it also meant she was very much alone.
He snapped the lighter shut and sighed. This was why he wanted to be left alone. The endless complications and interruptions which grind everything to a painstaking halt. It was going to be a difficult day of writing now; there was no mistake about that.
May rubbed the back of her neck. The impact hadn’t been severe enough to cause the air bags to inflate, but it had been strong enough to jar her neck. She looked in the rear view mirror; the view was skewed from the angle the car was in but there was no sign of the umbrella or the person holding it.
She sighed with relief and then panicked. What if someone was lying dead under the wheels? She quickly unbuckled the seat belt and got out. There was nobody under the wheels but she felt nauseous; the egg on the back of her head was beating out a repeat of the tune it had played yesterday. She rubbed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to clear her head.
After a few seconds of standing with her eyes closed in the cooling drizzle, she started to feel human again. Droplets of rain had gathered in her eyelashes, so initially her vision was blurred, but someone was definitely hurrying across the field carrying an umbrella. The umbrella just happened to have bright red spots.
May forgot the car and her aching body. “Hey! Hey you, stop. I want to talk to you.”
Either the old lady didn’t hear or she didn’t want to stop and talk. May was already climbing through the hedge which framed the field. “Please, I need to talk to you, please!” She scrambled through the hedge and even though it held little in the way of green matter, the cruel and spiky branches flicked and picked at her unprotected hands.
She stumbled out onto the field side of the hedge and lifted her head. She couldn’t believe it. The field was empty and there was no sign of the old woman or the umbrella. If someone else had suggested this scenario to her, she would’ve said they were suffering from shock after the bump. She knew what she’d seen though and she wasn’t mistaken.
With her mind struggling to comprehend what had happened, she walked further into the field. There were the usual stone walls and a wooden gate; some boulders dotted around but nothing unusual at all. There weren’t even any trees to hide behind. It was essentially, an unremarkable, boring strip of grass. Just like a hundred such fields in the area.
So where had she gone? To vanish once in a day could be considered remarkable, but to manage it twice within a couple of hours, was miraculous. May dealt in facts though, people didn’t just vanish; there was always an answer. She walked towards the middle of the field and felt the cold miserable weather trying to creep into her bones. She was soaked again, for the second time that day.
She quickly forgot the weather when she almost slipped down the enormous grassy hollow which opened up in front of her. It was a natural geological illusion. There was no way she, or anybody else would have been able to see it unless they were on top of it. This natural occurrence wasn’t what was interesting though. What was more curious was what was actually built at the bottom.
May had lived in Cornwall long enough to know she was looking at a dolmen, or portal tomb. She slipped down the grassy sides of the hollow and fell in a heap at the bottom. Four, imposing grey granite slabs stood vertically beside each other and on top of them sat an enormous block. The whole structure was designed to form a tomb which was sealed shut at one end. She had seen these structures in books many times, particularly at school but had never seen one in person before. She recalled how the teachers had told her that their ancestors had been buried in them many years ago. What was the word they’d used? She couldn’t remember for now, but she was sure it was Cornish.
She jumped up and circled the stones. Here and there, lichens had taken hold and grew in blooms on the stone, indicating its age. The capstone sloped down at one end; its colossal weight was forcing the sealing stone deeper and deeper into the earth. Even so, she had to tilt her head back to look at it, making it around six feet in height.
She reached the open end of the tomb and peered inside. It was gloomy, but after a few seconds, her eyes adjusted. The inside was carpeted with grass which wasn’t remarkable in itself, but something about it didn’t look right. The grass appeared too perfect, like a putting green.
She knelt and brushed her hand through the grass; it felt normal enough. She rocked forward and put her weight on her hands. ‘Nothing out of the ordinary.’ She rocked back onto her haunches and then she heard it; like a creaking chair when someone gets up. She frowned, had she imagined it? Grass doesn’t creak.
She rocked forward again and this time the creak was louder and more definite. She got to her feet and shuffled into the tomb. There was just enough head room for her to stand but the oppressive nature of the confined space made her want to dip her head. Now she was standing directly on top of the grass, it didn’t feel like it belonged. She stamped one of her feet and felt a distinct rocking sensation and a hollow sound. ‘What the hell was going on?’
She knelt again and this time dug her fingers into the earth. She had no idea what she was actually looking for, but she knew something was definitely not right; not right at all.
11
The loud banging on the door made Joe jump. He’d been deep in thought about the morning’s events and in particular about May. It annoyed him a little bit that the pleasure he’d got from the kiss had eroded a little piece of his chosen lifestyle and isolation.
As he’d expected the written word hadn’t come easily this morning and this also irked him. It was the first time since he’d been there that he’d not been able to just sit down and write. His stomach rumbled loudly; it was approaching lunchtime and he hadn’t managed to write anything worthwhile so far. He got angrily to his feet. There had been no visitors for nearly two years and now two in two days; he might have
to relocate, whatever the fallout from May’s article. Whoever was at the door better be ready for an uncomfortable few seconds.
He opened the door irritably and was about to start a tirade when he was pushed aside by a soaking wet and out of breath May. He closed the door quickly behind her. “You okay?” Her hair was soaked, and plastered down across her scalp and face.
May took a few deep breaths before answering. Her mind was racing, but she needed it to sound rational, and not like some car crash induced fantasy.
“I was driving up the cape road, thinking about…., anyway I nearly hit the spotty umbrella woman, must’ve missed her by a millimetre.” She indicated the distance with her thumb and forefinger. “By the time I got out of my poor car and realised what’d happened, I saw her way across the field. I tried to shout, but she wouldn’t stop. Next thing you know she just vanished.” She realised she’d pretty much just blurted everything out, but it was all in the right order and contained everything she wanted.
Joe frowned. “And did you bang your head?”
“No Joe, I didn’t bang my head. I know what you’re thinking and if someone told me I’d see an old woman with a spotty umbrella vanish twice in one day I’d be thinking the same thing. I need you to come with me and I need you to bring a spade, or an axe or something I can dig with.” She set off towards the door and opened the store cupboard. She took his coat from the peg and held it out in his direction. “Come on then, what are you waiting for?”
A couple of minutes later Joe found himself standing in the car park at the top of the cove. He looked at the crumpled front end of May’s car and sucked air through his teeth. “Are you sure you’re okay? That looks like a nasty bump to me.”
May looked at the little car and felt sick. “It looks worse than it felt I can assure you.”
She released the central locking and changed the subject as she climbed in. “It’s just up the road. Don’t worry we’re not going too far and there’s no chance of running into any humans.”
Joe climbed in. “It’s the running over humans that concerns me.”
May started the car and pulled out of the car park. “Touché.”
After what felt like a treacherous meander along the wet road May suddenly pulled in. The lane was barely wide enough for one car but she seemed unconcerned that her car was causing a hazardous obstacle. She quickly got out of the car and stepped over the road to the hedge. “From experience I’d suggest pulling your jacket over your hands and ducking your head down.”
Joe looked confused. “What?” He was still trying to get out of the car holding his hatchet.
Without further instruction, May crouched and started pushing her way through the hedge. Joe watched with interest as her red duffel coat rode up her back and revealed a well-shaped bottom disappearing into the verge
He pulled his sleeves over his hands and pushed his way in to the hedge “I’m on my way.”
Joe didn’t know what to expect on the other side, but a flat uninteresting field wasn’t it. “Wow, this is amazing.” He spread his arms wide.
“Shut up. This is just a field, but some things aren’t as they first appear. I’ll show you.”
She set off again leaving Joe hurrying to catch up. “I’m not being ungrateful for what you’re about to show me. Even if it is raining and cold and we’re in the middle of a boggy field, but wouldn’t this have been better when it stopped raining?”
May didn’t break stride. “It’ll be worth it I’m sure, besides I don’t think it’s ever going to stop raining.”
“Probably not but in any case…” He paused and saw what had previously been invisible. “It’s a quoit.”
May threw her head back and clicked her tongue on her teeth. “That’s the word they used at school, I’ve been trying to remember it for ages.”
Joe started off down the slippery bank. “It’s a good one too. No-one would ever know it existed from the road.” He held out his hand for May to take hold. “Careful it’s slippery”
She took his hand and followed him down to the bottom. “ I know, I was on my arse earlier. The quoit isn’t the most interesting thing though.”
Joe released his grip as they reached the bottom. “No? Then what is?” She tilted her head and indicated the opening. “Come and find out.”
The chamber inside was dry, but as he was led inside Joe noticed a strange sensation beneath his feet, like walking on a raised platform and not on solid earth.
May watched the expression on his face change as his feet fell on the abnormal earth. “There, can you feel it?”
“I can feel something?” He raised one foot and stamped down, it sounded almost hollow. “Now that’s not right.”
“I know, exactly what I thought. I tried to lift it, whatever it is, but it’s too hard. That’s why I asked you to bring the axe.”
Joe knelt on one knee, raised the hatchet in his right hand and brought it down with full force on the grass.
The first blow sank in to the earth and devoured the blade. The second and third blows ended in the same result. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.” He shuffled further back into the murky tomb and began systematically working his way along the grass. He picked at the earth with the hatchet blade and ran his fingers along the bottom edge of the stone. At last his fingers found purchase and he pulled.
A slab shaped square of grass shifted under his grip and he hauled it to the side. It looked like it was mounted on some kind of wooden frame. He pushed his body against the side of the tomb and used his feet to push the frame further away. Beneath his legs a bottomless black hole opened up and as he dangled his feet into it, cool air flooded up to meet them. All he could manage to whisper was, “Fuck.”
“What is it? What’s down there?” May called. The chamber wasn’t large enough to accommodate two adults and from where she stood, she could see Joe sitting with his legs dangling into a hole.
“Hold on.” Joe called back. Now his eyes had grown accustomed to the dark, he could see his feet but beneath that, there was nothing. He shuffled back as far as he could and sank his hand into his jeans pocket. He found the reassuring cool zippo lighter and pulled it free.
The lighter sprang to life as it always did. “May, come and lie on your stomach. I’ll pass you the lighter when you get close enough.”
May approached the hole cautiously; although the grass covered frame overhung the edge of the hole, she had no intention of getting close enough to slip through the gap. She lowered herself until she was flat against the ground. Joe held out the lighter, just far enough for her to reach it. Her look prompted a response from Joe. “Hey, don’t blame me, you’re the one who dragged us out here. Try and hold the lighter into the hole a bit further and see if you can see what’s down there. If not, then we’ll have to go and fetch a torch.”
May took the lighter and pulled herself to the brink. As she peered over the edge, the first thing she noticed was the smell of paraffin. She was instantly transported back to her camping holidays as a child, the smell of her dad’s paraffin lamp burning on the camp table as they played cards late into the night.
She stretched her arm downwards into the hole as far as she could; the lighter’s flame danced wildly but remained bright in the gloom.
“See anything?” Joe asked.
Immediately below her there was nothing but blackness, but slightly to her right the flame illuminated the edge of something regular. She shuffled to her right and stretched out her arm; almost immediately her hand touched cold rock. She followed the edge of the stone downwards and found another block of a similar size. “Steps, there’s steps!”
Working together they pushed the frame clear so there was room to descend. Joe held the zippo in his hand. “I’m not sure this is going to be enough, do you want to go back and get the torch?”
“Are you kidding? Let’s go!”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” He turned sideways to allow May to pass. “After you?”
&nb
sp; May shook her head. “You’re the one with the lighter. You get to go first. Besides I would’ve thought a seasoned detective like you would be itching to go and poke your nose down there.”
Joe struck the zippo back into life and turned towards the hole. “Okay, but grab hold of my collar as we go down the steps and don’t blame me if we end up in a heap at the bottom.”
“As long as I can land on top of you.” She heard Joe chuckle.
Joe put his right foot tentatively onto the first step. He half expected it to collapse under his weight, but it stood firm. He felt the back of his collar tug gently as May took hold.