Sleepwalk

by Ros Seddon

  ‘At least we now know the probable cause leading to your wife’s injuries and we can look at ways to treat her problem and help prevent any further injuries’ the doctor was saying. ‘Somnambulism or sleep-walking as it is known is not very common in adults. Children and adolescents are more likely candidates. I’d like to carry out some tests on Ellie to rule out certain causes. I have booked her in for another CT scan. There are no further signs of any infection, internal bleeding or clotting but we would like to check for any other abnormalities.’

  ‘What, like a tumour or something? Is that what you suspect Doctor?’

  ‘It’s too early to say at this stage but there are a number of things we need to rule out before we can proceed with any treatment. Now how long have you been married… or rather, living together? Does your wife have any history of this kind of behaviour? Have you ever woken up at night and found that she had left the room for example? I want you to think back, anything…. anything unusual?’

  ‘Well…….. We’ve been married for two years and together for just over four but… not really. I mean, yes I’ve woken up and she’s been to the bathroom or to the kitchen to get a glass of water but……. That’s quite normal isn’t it? I mean I do that myself, often. She…. often talks in her sleep but really I don’t see the relevance. She’s never gone long and she always comes back to bed.’

  ‘I understand you have recently moved house?’

  ‘Yes. Yes….. Now I wish we hadn’t. We wanted a garden for Ollie you see. We lived in a ground floor flat before. This wouldn’t have happened there would it?’ Oh Jesus Ellie. How could I have doubted you? Oh please God don’t let them find anything….

  The sun was high in a cloudless sky when Felicity woke up and drew back her curtains.

  ‘Another day, another dollar’ she spoke softly to the cat with no name. She’d never given him a name. It didn’t seem right. He was so territorial it was like he had more right to be there than she did. He got called all sorts of different names like ‘nuisance’, ‘tabby’, ‘tiddles’ or just ‘cat’. Today he was ‘cat’ and either way he didn’t seem to care as long as he got fed and got the desired amount of affection whenever he so required it. People could learn a lot from cats. She ate a light breakfast, showered and set off for work.

  She had two letters. One from a client looking to buy and the second was from her managing director, Charles Denton.

  Dear Felicity..…. She read….. After giving a lot of thought to your proposals for an internet advertising campaign at our recent meeting and studying your documentation we are pleased to announce that you can go ahead with your web site at the East Barton office. Obviously any charges incurred will be solely your responsibility at branch level but we feel sure that you will soon recoup any losses and look forward to seeing some dramatic changes in your branch profits this year. We are looking to use your ideas as a pilot scheme at Denton Fairfax and if it proves to be successful we may link up to all of our branches across the south west. However, we cannot expect you to take all of the responsibility for design and distribution so we will be sending someone from our head office marketing department to your branch who will be working closely with you on this. His name is Peter Hendford and he will be at the East Barton office next Monday 23rd November at 8am. As you may know, Peter has been with the company for two years now and is experienced in both the IT department and in marketing. He is looking forward to working with you……..

  Felicity read and re-read the e-mail over and over. They were not going to be responsible for any charges incurred. Furthermore they did not trust her to set up the web site; they had to send this IT boffin to do it for her, even though it was her idea. When she got home that night Felicity phoned her mother to tell her the news but Margaret Breen had news of her own.

  ‘Oh Darling I really don’t know what to do about your father. I shall have a law suit on my hands if we’re not careful.’

  ‘Why, what’s happened Mum?’

  ‘Well yesterday I had that chap come over to start on the garden and he seemed really nice. He worked very hard all morning digging up the turf and cutting it in strips. I took him out a cup of tea and we chatted for a while; very nice young man. I gave him the key to the summer house and told him he could keep his tools in there to save him taking them home every night because it will take several days for him to do the garden you see. Anyway, in the afternoon he seemed to disappear and I assumed that he had gone off for a break somewhere and was coming back because his spade was still there, you see, on the lawn.’

  Felicity was itching to tell her mother her own news but stayed quiet and listened, ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well he didn’t come back.’

  ‘Don’t tell me, Dad upset him in some way.’

  ‘That’s putting it mildly dear; very mildly indeed. We had our evening meal and settled down to watch the television and of course there were some very high winds last night so you couldn’t hear you see.’

  ‘Hear what Mum. What happened?’

  ‘Well the gardener you see. He was in the summer house all night. Your father must have pushed him in and locked the door. The poor man was beside himself. I woke up this morning and I heard someone shouting. It was coming from the garden.’

  ‘Oh my God. Are you serious? He actually locked the gardener in the summer house and left him there all night?’

  ‘Yes. Well the young man was very nice about it when I explained… you know… about your father. He was more concerned with his wife who didn’t know where he was all night. Of course I’ve spoken to her today and apologised but dear oh dear Felicity what are we to do with him? I can’t be watching him all the time.’

  The image of what had happened stayed with her a while and both Felicity and her mother saw the funny side but the awful truth of it was, what could they do? Put him in a home? Felicity had always sworn that neither of her parents would ever end up in a home. Perhaps if she gave up her cottage and moved in with them……. She still couldn’t be there during the day but she could help in the evenings; give her mum a break……….

  She thought of her own life. She had a good job, some nice friends but no one to share her life with. No Mr right; and what of blue eyes? He hadn’t been in touch since their lunch date and they had got on really well. He’d seemed so nice. She had been quite concerned about meeting up with him and then had found him so easy to get on with, she felt as though she had always known him. But he didn’t want a relationship. He’d told her straight. Well if that was the case how did he explain the leggy blonde at the nightclub? Was he seeing her? Was she one of many? She’d certainly seemed quite cosy with him. Was he playing the field? Well if blue eyes didn’t want a relationship, then he must be out for what he could get. Naughty blue eyes. Perhaps he just hadn’t met the right girl. Because of course if he hadn’t met the right girl, and Felicity was that girl then he wouldn’t want any leggy blondes……. would he? Felicity had been on her own now for so long she’d forgotten what it was like to share your life with someone. What if she never could? What if she was destined to be alone with only a cat for company? And if she did move in with her parents and then got together with blue eyes would her father lock him up in the summer house?

  Chapter two

  Felicity prided herself on her enthusiasm and punctuality. Her working day was nine to five and she was always there to open the office at 8.45am prompt. Today of all days she couldn’t be late and here she was at 7.40am stuck in traffic. An articulated lorry was trying to turn and couldn’t because of the traffic queue in both directions either side of it. It took ten minutes for everyone to realise that they had to back up a little and give the lorry driver more room before the backlog of cars were able to move. As she walked around the corner from the car park she saw that he was already there, pacing up and down outside the office and peering occasionally through the window. He didn’t have the usual appearance of an IT wizard. At college Steve and his friends had given her their analogy of
the IT lecturers in such a way it had burned an image into her psyche. They always had long greasy hair slicked back and wore Hush Puppies. Long hair as they never had time to cut it because they all did 25hr days glued to their PC screens and they didn’t have lives. It was always slicked back so no one would notice they hadn’t had time to wash it and the slick spread to their faces because they constantly ran their fingers through their hair whilst contemplating technological possibilities, hence the spots. She’d never really understood the Hush Puppy bit unless they actually did leave their screens on the odd occasion but no one ever knew because their feet were so quiet no one ever heard them. Peter Hendford did not fall in this category. He came in the Greek God style category. He was tall, incredibly handsome and looked very fashionable.

  ‘Hi …. Peter? Sorry I’m late I was held up in traffic.’

  ‘No worries. You’re not late anyway, it’s not eight yet. I was early. You must be Felicity.’

  ‘Yes that’s right. Call me Flick.’ She unlocked the front door and went through to her office to turn off the alarm. She made coffee then they settled down at her desk while she ran through her ideas for the website. Peter had an argument for almost every one of them. Her photos were too big, not enough detail on the properties and she shouldn’t advertise the price with the picture. Eventually she stood her ground and took a folder from her desk drawer.

  ‘Now look Peter. It was my idea to go global with this website. Other estate agents have already had a lot of success on the internet and with more and more people having PC’s in the home, pretty soon there aren’t going to be many people who don’t surf the net. Now I’ve put a lot of work into this and I’ve done my research, both in the UK and in the States. The biggest most successful agents do it this way. Their sites are easy to understand and the onus is on the photograph and the price. It’s what attracts the buyer in the first place and keeps them interested. Our logo is still there, it’s just not quite as big and if we give them too much info and not enough photo then they won’t feel obliged to fill in their details to find out more and it’s their contact details we need to make this thing work.’

  ‘I totally agree with everything you say Flick, It’s just that Charles did mention a big bold header for our logo and you’ve put a little too much emphasis on the pictures in my opinion. Ok. We’ll make it a little smaller……………’

  It was going to be a long day and Peter was slowly losing his Greek God persona……

  ‘And by the way Flick………’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘You look well sexy when you’re angry.’ Or maybe not……….

  By 9am when Karen and Graham had turned up for work they had reached a compromise on the home page and already had three linked pages running. Felicity was at this point becoming quite excited as she watched her ideas unfold and was in awe of Peter and his IT skills. He certainly knew his stuff. She had an appointment with a vendor at 2pm and had to take Graham along for a photo session. By 3.30pm she had a deal for sole agent on a £200k property with an extra 0.5% for the internet advertising and was feeling rather pleased with herself. Felicity Breen, you’re going to put Denton Fairfax on the map. Therefore a pay rise will be well overdue………

  It had been six months since Ellie had sleepwalked out of her bedroom window and although her broken limbs were vastly improved, her mind had never healed. He had initially taken a few weeks off work to help her with Ollie and his mother helped a lot. Every window in the house had locks now and he’d had special night alarms fitted so that should anything happen while he was asleep and she managed to open an external door or window, the alarm would sound and wake him, but this had never happened. She was given medication to help her sleep but refused to take it. She was given anti-depressants for her anxiety but refused those too; saying recent research revealed that sedatives and stimulants could cause sleepwalking. She tried to stay up as late as she could every night in the hope that when she finally did go to bed her body would be too tired to physically wander. At first he had tried to stay up with her but found he couldn’t function at work so he tried talking her into having a routine but she wouldn’t listen. Sleep experts seemed to have contradictory accounts about sleepwalking. You should wake them; you shouldn’t wake them. Too much sleep makes them restless; sleep deprivation causes it. Stress causes it. Whatever the causes were, Ellie was afraid to sleep and her lack of sleep was having a detrimental effect on their relationship.

  It was Oliver’s first birthday. She had arranged a party for him on Saturday afternoon and invited his parents and her closest friend, Abi. His mother had made a birthday cake. It was a perfect copy of Thomas the tank engine and Ollie loved Thomas. But on Saturday morning the cake had been taken out of its tin and was in pieces scattered across the kitchen table and all over the floor. He went immediately to their bedroom to find Ellie still sound asleep. He went to Oliver’s room and found he was also sound asleep. Had she woken in the night and done this? But when he questioned her later she looked as shocked as he had been.

  ‘You think I would do this to Ollie? You really don’t have a very high opinion of me do you?’

  He called his mother and told her there had been an accident with the cake. She was very understanding and told him not to worry; she would pick one up from the bakery on her way over. The rest of the day seemed to go without a hitch but tempers were frayed between them and every day it seemed to get worse. Ellie was spending more and more time with Abi and less time with him. There were days when he came home from work to find she was still out in the car with Abi having left Oliver with his mother and other days when he came home to find Abi there playing with Ollie until the girl had practically become a fixture and seemed to be always in their lives. Not yet being able to drive safely meant Ellie depended on her friend a lot and he knew that she needed someone to help her with Ollie so at first he’d been glad of her having such a close friend. Then it seemed to get a little out of hand. The girl began to have an opinion. If they disagreed on something Abi always took her side. The two girls had become almost inseparable and so it came as no surprise when Ellie asked him if her friend could move into the spare bedroom. She was apparently having trouble finding work, couldn’t afford the rent in her flat and in any case Ellie needed her help and he wasn’t exactly there to help her was he?

  ‘Ellie I have to go to work. There’s the mortgage on this place and all the bills. I’ve already taken my quota of holiday this year when you had your accident so my hands are a little tied don’t you think? I would help you when I come home but you’ve always got that bloody little sponger here and…….’

  ‘Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare call her that! She’s been more help to me than you’ve ever been. She’s the only one who really cares.’

  ‘That’s not fair Ellie and you know it. I’ve tried my best to look after you and help you. I even offered to sell the bloody house and buy a bungalow. I haven’t slept properly myself in ages. I’m always worried you’ll wake up and do something stupid. But I still have to get up in the morning and go to work so that we can eat and look after Ollie and sometimes I find that really hard Ellie; really hard. Ever since the accident you have become more and more distant. There are times I just want to come home and spend a little quality time with my wife, but when I get here; she’s here. She’s always here.’

  ‘It’s not my fault. I didn’t purposely jump out the bloody window did I? You think I don’t know what I’ve put you through? At least if Abi’s here, you don’t need to be. I’m giving you a break, that’s all. She’s so good with Ollie; with both of us. She really looks after me, and anyway, it’s only for a couple of weeks until she finds a job. She’ll pay her keep ....... and we need the money.’

  ‘Well if she really intends to start working again then she won’t be here to look after you anyway will she, so what’s the point? You won’t benefit from her being here if she’s working, apart from a few quid that she’ll help you spend and we’ll neve
r have any privacy. Is that what you want Ellie?’ He stormed from the room slamming the door closed behind him. Perhaps that was what Ellie wanted. She certainly didn’t seem to want him anymore, and not just sexually. She didn’t even want to be in his company. He felt like his marriage was falling apart and he couldn’t fix it. To give in would be to give up. Was that truly what she wanted?

  He drove around for a while, bought a paper at the newsagents and went home. He’d barely been gone an hour and when he walked in Abi was there. Ellie was sitting next to her on the sofa. She’d been crying. They both looked at him nonchalantly. He felt like a stranger in his own home and he knew then that he would give in; that Ellie would have her way and, more to the point that Abi would have hers.

  After a successful couple of weeks creating and updating the new website which was already proving its worth with enquiries rolling in since they went live on Monday, Felicity invited her team for a celebratory drink after work. Peter had stayed until Wednesday the first week and then had to get the site approved and had agreed to meet them at the Farmers Arms at 5.30pm on Friday after work. They sat at a table near the door and she bought drinks for all of them.

  ‘Here’s to you Peter….’ She raised her glass. ‘None of this would have been possible without your help. Cheers’

  ‘Of course it would Flick. You’re the real ‘brains’ here. You managed to make them listen to sense which is something I haven’t been able to do for the last two years. To Flick!’ He raised his glass and the other two followed suit. They talked shop for a while and then Graham made his excuses to leave. He lived with his parents and had to be home for tea by six. Karen stayed a while longer and then she too, said she should be going.