by John Booth
“Hi,” I said, and then stared at her back as she swept passed me, heading for the kitchen. That’s where I’d been doing my homework and, because the stove is always burning, it tends to be the social center of the house.
“Hi, Andy,” she said as I joined her. She sounded friendly enough, but I could tell something was bothering her and wondered if the cause of her annoyance was something to do with me. It might become me after I asked the question that had been burning a hole in my mind since the day before. She eyed the plate my toast had been on as she sat down on the other side of the table. If she wanted me to make her any, she didn’t ask. However, I slipped another couple of rounds into the toaster, just in case.
I need to make this clear. I don’t understand girls. They expect you to read their minds and do exactly what they want you to do without you being told what that is. Usually, I can be relied upon to get it wrong.
Back when I had friends, they were both male and male friends are much easier to deal with. They tell you what’s bothering them and then you can have a fight or whatever and all is forgiven and forgotten. With women, all I can do is keep my head down and hope for some clue as to what’s going on before they get too angry with me.
When I finished buttering her toast, I sat down and closed my books. There was a matter I needed to raise with Kylie. I couldn’t have it out with her the previous evening while we ate with my parents, because they never left me alone with her.
My Mum had a seemingly endless list of questions to ask Kylie. About where she had lived and what happened to her parents. Kylie fielded brilliantly, talking freely but without telling my Mum a single thing of significance. I could have used those skills when I was younger as it would have spared me a large number of groundings. But that was yesterday and this was now. I put the plate of toast in front of her and she ate the first piece ravenously.
“Kylie, how did you know where Jane lost her pullover?”
Kylie shrugged.
“She told us in the woods when she was telling us how they ran from the oak tree,” Kylie answered in a butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth way.
“No she didn’t. I was there and I have almost total recall on conversations.”
“Like you said, almost total recall.”
“Tell me how you knew,” I shouted.
“Not until you answer a question of mine,” she replied calmly.
Now that was just plain unreasonable.
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
It was so typical of a girl to turn the whole thing around and say I had to answer her question first. Where did that come from? All girls are a little bit insane; I’m convinced of it.
“It’s the only way I’m going to tell you how I knew. And you have to swear to tell the truth and look me in the eye when you tell me. You can’t lie worth a damn when you’re looking at me.”
When I said nothing, Kylie’s eyes began to glisten and she stood up to leave, though not before picking up the second piece of toast.
I caught her at the front door.
“Okay you win. I’ll answer your question, but then you have to tell me how you knew where Jane had lost her pullover.”
We returned to the kitchen and resumed our places at the table. Kylie finished her toast and looked regretfully at the empty plate.
“So ask away,” I said nonchalantly.
“When you were jerking off last night, were you thinking about Jane?”
Did I mention that Kylie has this habit has of rendering me speechless? If you asked me to write down the top ten thousand questions she might have asked at that moment, that question would be noticeable by its absence.
My face turned bright red because it was a very personal question and it concerns things I don’t think anybody has the right to ask. The one place you should be allowed some privacy is in the depths of your own skull, especially about sex fantasies. I mean they aren’t real are they? They don’t hurt anyone.
I considered lying to her, more to spite her than anything else, but the thing is, I needed to know how Kylie knew about the pullover. It was a trust thing between us, and as she said, I’m a terrible liar and have never got away with one in my life. Mum says my face is an open book and all I can say is that I hope it’s usually left open on a blank page.
“No. I have never masturbated while thinking of Jane.”
Kylie looked surprised so I continued.
“I’ve grown up with the usual suspects tagging along behind me, making my life hell pretty much from the day the first of them was old enough to walk. They are a pain, with running noses, tugging hands, and screaming voices. Jane may swell her tea shirts out in the front these days; but to me she’s still the spoiled baby she always was. When she said that yesterday, if was as if an old woman with sagging everything and no teeth offered to have it away with me. I’ve been desperately trying to get the memory to go away.”
Kylie looked deep into my eyes and then backed away from me, turning her face so I couldn’t see it. She wasn’t going to find out from me, but she’s the only person I’ve thought about in recent fantasies.
“So how did you know about the pullover?” I asked, to break the silence between us, and because I still needed to know.
“I had a dream the night before and saw it,” she said in a sort of gulping voice.
I was suddenly furious with her. I’d been asked to reveal something incredibly intimate and all she had in return was that crock of a story?
I then did something I’m ashamed of. In a red haze of anger I forgot she was a girl.
I grabbed her by the shoulders, pulled her around to face me and pushed her hard up against the wall. I cupped her chin in one hand and forced her head round so I could look into her eyes.
“You expect me to believe that!”
Tears ran down her face and I remembered she was a girl just as instantly as I’d forgotten it. I let go of her, and ran to my room; locking the door behind me and diving onto my bed.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at my door. I ignored it.
“I’m sorry, Andrew. I didn’t have the right to ask you that question.”
I studied the ceiling.
“It’s true about the dream. It was the night before we saw Jane. I dreamt I was inside the tree, I saw the magic circle they’d made and her pullover lying on the floor.”
Yeah, right, I thought dismissively. Sure you did.
“I didn’t tell you because in my dream there was a big black dog with glowing red eyes and some strange people.”
The dream I’d almost forgotten was back in my head as clearly as though I’d just woken from it.
“A woman dressed in black…” I suggested.
“And a man about your age.” Kylie said, completing my thoughts.
I got up and opened the door to let her in. We sat on my bed and talked. We didn’t talk about why she asked me that question or about me grabbing her. We just talked about our dreams.
“I was inside the hollow tree,” she said. “I just knew it was the tree in the woods though it was upright again. I was able to see around me though I’m sure it was dark.”
“What were you wearing?”
“I don’t remember,” Kylie paused and her brow screwed up as she tried to remember. “Leather skirt or trousers and some kind of wool top.”
She frowned.
“But I remember the snake bracelet thing on my left arm. I was relieved that it was no longer in my body and it was just dead metal.”
“And you saw these people and the dog?”
“I saw all the scattered magic things first. Jane’s pullover was lying at a freakish angle against a hole. It was almost as if the tree was still tilted over.”
“The people?”
A woman knitting with something horrible, a man about our age against the wall, and that red eyed dog. I thought he was going to eat me, then I realized he was looking right through me.”
“What happened?”
/> “I woke up. Aunty Jen was banging on the door.”
“I had a similar dream just before I woke up this morning.” I considered omitting the naked lady, but I knew she’d know I was lying and I told her the whole thing.
It was weird, because we could remember the dreams so vividly and when we tested each other on the details of how the people looked and how the inside of the tree was arranged, we were in complete agreement. By the time we finished talking, we were friends again. Possibly deeper friends than we’d been before.
“Do you think the people we saw are real?” Kylie asked.
“What, you mean people out of ancient legend, come to haunt us?”
“Sort of. How would we find out?”
That, I could answer.
“Mr. Kelly’s devoted his life to finding out things like that,” I told Kylie, “If he doesn’t know about them then nobody will. Let’s go and talk to him.”
So we went over to Mr. Kelly’s house. His Land Rover was parked outside so we thought he might be in. I rang the doorbell and waited for him to come to the door.
“Do you think he’s out?” Kylie asked when there was no sign of him after thirty seconds.
“Old people take ages to answer the door. It can sometimes take them ten minutes.”
She gave me a ‘you’re weird’ look.
“I deliver papers. I know these things.”
Five minutes later, the door opened.
Mr. Kelly’s face broke into a smile when he saw us.
“Come on in, Andrew. I was just thinking about you. And you, Miss Brown.”
“Kylie.”
“Kylie then.” He smiled and ushered us into the house. As we walked through the hall he told us he had his mother over to visit.
It’s difficult to believe a man as old as Mr. Kelly has a living mother, but I’ve met her before and had long since got over the shock. Kylie had disbelief on her face and I nodded to let her know that Mr. Kelly had not gone senile.
Mrs. Kelly lives in Bawent, which is a village to the south where they have a home for people too old look after themselves. Mr. Kelly’s house used to be hers when I was very young.
“She’s ninety-seven,” Mr. Kelly said proudly, “And still got all her wits about her. It’s only her legs that have failed her.”
You could see the family resemblance when we stepped into the lounge. They both had faces that had that sharp look you see on birds of prey. She was stick thin and her face had more lines on it than I could count. The artist in me wanted to sit her down and start drawing her; she had her life written on her face.
“Andrew Hawks, if memory serves me well.” she said as I entered the room, “I remember your father looking just like you do now. And who’s this young lady? Not from the village, I’ll be bound; you have a southern look about you, dear. Though there’s a trace of local blood in you as well.”
After introductions were completed, we sat down to tea and cakes. Mrs. Kelly’s hand shook as she held her cup and saucer, but I noticed she didn’t spill a drop.
“Tom has told me about your trip to Sutton,” Mrs. Kelly said. “He failed to mention Miss Brown.” It was an accusation and Mr. Kelly winced.
“Kylie,” Kylie said automatically and Mrs. Kelly gave her a sharp look. I don’t know how it had happened, but it was clear that Mrs. Kelly didn’t approve of Kylie, or at least the two of us being together.
“That girl deserves a good thrashing,” Mrs. Kelly said, and it took me a few moments to realize it was Jane she was talking about. “The Bradshaw girls have always been willful and need a hard man to keep them in line.”
“She wasn’t guilty this time,” I pointed out.
“She’ll be guilty of something worse soon enough if she isn’t already. You mark my words.”
We talked some more about Jane and what happened the day before. Mrs. Kelly kept staring at us, which was a bit unnerving. After we described coming home in the taxi she fixed me with her eagle-eyed gaze.
“You need to watch out for the Bradshaw girl, she’ll get her claws in you if she can. Her mother was just the same, always looking out for the most eligible man in the village. Your father only escaped her clutches because your mother is even more determined at getting what she wants.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I wisely said nothing.
“We were wondering if you know of any legends connected to that blasted oak near Long Barrow?” Kylie asked Mr. Kelly, but before he could answer, his mother answered for him.
“That’s a cursed place.” She said the word as curse-ed, “It holds the worlds apart and you should stay well clear of it.”
Mr. Kelly stepped forward and took his mother’s cup from her hands as it was wobbling dangerously.
“Don’t excite yourself, Mother. It’s only stories and the tree has fallen over, or so Andrew has told me.”
“Don’t be silly, Tom,” his Mother snapped, “It can’t possibly have fallen over.”
“Even the oldest trees fall eventually,” I said in a kindly manner.
Mrs. Kelly fixed her eyes on me and I was instantly intimidated. It was as if her eyes on their own were capable of lifting me up and throwing me across the room.
“It cannot fall over. It is bound in ways you cannot begin to understand.”
She turned to Mr. Kelly as though we were no longer in the room. “We must go and see it at once, Tom. Get that monstrosity of a car started, because I have to know this instant.”
Mrs. Kelly was agitated and became more so as her son tried to talk her out of the idea. I was trying to pretend I was part of the armchair.
Mr. Kelly drew us to one side.
“I think you had better go. It’ll take some time to calm Mother.”
We were only too happy to go. Because on my part, I was frightened of this strange old woman whose eyes seemed alarmingly like the woman in black from my dream.
As we were leaving the house she called out after Kylie.
“Beware of your brothers, they have escaped their cage.”
Not surprisingly, that upset Kylie. Since I wasn’t supposed to know what Mrs. Kelly was talking about, I couldn’t tell her it was all nonsense and they were safely locked up in prison. I was bothered by how Mrs. Kelly had known about Kylie’s brothers in the first place. She hadn’t known who Kylie was when we met her and Kylie certainly hadn’t mentioned them
Kylie was lost in thought and we didn’t talk as we walked back to her Aunt’s house.
10. Snakes in the Grass
I’m writing this on Wednesday afternoon as I’m not at school and won’t be going to school for a day or two because of my arm. The doctors told me I’m lucky to have kept the full use of it and the scarring won’t be all that bad. All I can tell you is it hurts like hell. Fortunately, it was my left arm so I can still draw and write without too much of a problem.
I would have written this up last night, but I was stuck in hospital and in no condition to do so. This all started on Monday morning when I arrived at the bus-stop to catch the bus.
The usual suspects were huddled together by the pub wall talking quietly to each other. As I approached, I saw Jane and Sally look at me with what I can only describe as avaricious eyes, but they were unable to break free of their friends and so Jane made do with a friendly wave. I nodded back using my best efforts to appear indifferent. Indifferent was not at all what I was feeling, terrified was closer. If those girls started hitting on me, anything I did was going to appear wrong.
Kylie leaned morosely on the pole holding the bus sign. Her eyes were puffy and she looked tense. Something must have happened to her since the previous night, and I didn’t have a clue what. When she saw me she gave me a wan smile.
The usual suspects’ love affair with you seems to be over,” I noted dryly. If only Jane’s was over with me.
“I told them to go away. Not very politely, I’m afraid,” Kylie said trying to smile and failing. “There’s something I have to tell you.�
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When she said that my blood ran cold and my heart began to beat faster. She must be planning on leaving. I was sure of it. Why else would she be looking at me the way she was? My friends always left the village the second I got close to them, it was like a curse.
“You’re leaving the village…?”
Kylie gave me a smile and punched me gently on the shoulder, “No, of course not. I’ve only just got here and Aunt Jen and I have become firm friends. I’ve got a problem is all and I’m not sure you should be anywhere near me until it’s sorted out.”
“What sort of problem?” I asked as the bus pulled up.
“I’ll tell you later.”
The usual suspects pushed ahead of us in their usual rush to get to the back seats.
Kylie and I sat at the front of the bus and we were far too close to the driver to say anything privately, so we sat in silence. I reached over and held her hand, making sure neither the driver nor the kids behind us could see what I was doing. There was far too much village gossip about us as it was. Kylie squeezed my hand and we sat like that the whole way to the college; enjoying the ride and each other’s company.
There were two police cars blocking the bus parking space when we arrived. A male and female police officer stood by the college gates on guard. There’s a second entrance to the college which opens onto the next road along and I could see two policemen standing there as well.
When we reached got off the bus, the policewoman came over to Kylie and said, “You’ll be quite safe, dear. Don’t you worry about it.”
Her words caused Kylie obvious embarrassment
“Thanks,” she pretty much whispered.
I said nothing, but as soon as we were in the college I steered Kylie into an empty classroom and shut the door.
“What’s going on?”
Kylie tried to push past me and get out of the door, but I’m stronger than she is and didn’t let her go, “I want to know.”