Paupers Graveyard

by Gemma Mawdsley

  ‘Oh my God!’ she turned to Timmy. ‘What are we to do?’

  ‘Pray.’ His voice was full of anguish. He knew they could not fight Black Jack and win.

  ‘Lord,’ Elizabeth called to the sky. ‘We accept that it was your will to leave us here. We have tried to help in anyway we could, but we are tired, Lord. We are tired and we want to go home.’ Some of the children sniffled, others wrapped their arms around one another as she continued. ‘Please help us, Lord. Help my child. Protect her from the evil all around, and give us at last what you promised. Give us eternal rest.’

  THIRTY

  Things turned out just as Lucy predicted. Her superiors, angry at what they saw as a waste of time and money on a whim, ordered her to move to another area indicated by red dots on a map, where more casualties had come from. She had no choice, but to do as they asked. Otherwise, they inferred, someone else would do her job. The message was disguised, but barbed. Jenny had been discharged while she was away. Lucy had been disappointed to find her room empty, but smiled when the charge nurse handed her a note from Joe. They had been invited to stay with Ted until she was finished her investigation and they could return home. She thought once again of that strange place, of the cry she had heard, and deep down she knew Joe was right. The disease was there. She rang the number on the note and was disappointed when no one answered. She left a message, and hoped he would get it soon. She was going back to the site to find the samples that would prove them both right.

  It was dark when Lucy drove into the estate with minimal equipment; just some jars, a small trowel, a torch and some gloves. She could not have risked asking the stores assistant to sign out anything else. The place was deserted; not one light showed in any of the houses. She shivered, realising she was totally alone. It took a few minutes to adjust to the inky-blackness around her. As usual, the streetlights were out. Black Jack took a childish delight in breaking the bulbs, and the council had grown tired of replacing them. She walked about the site, concentrating on the play areas, the back and front gardens, anywhere she thought the children might have picked up the disease.

  ‘Good evening, my dear.’

  She looked up from her digging, and her smile turned to a look of horror, when she saw what was standing over her. It was some kind of monster, its eyes blazing red against the darkness around her. She tried to stand, but fell back in her fright. Sitting looking up at him, she slowly edged her way back, trying to get free, to tear her eyes away from his hypnotising gaze. She was on the borderline, where the estate meets the graveyard, when he struck.

  Reaching down, he grabbed the front of her coat and tore it open. Before she could react, he was on top of her. Realising she had the small trowel still in her hand, she raised her arm and thrust it down towards his back, but only succeeded in hurting herself, as the sharp blade passed through him and embedded itself in her shoulder. She cried out in pain, and could smell her own blood as it mingled with the rotten, earthy smell of the thing that was almost on top of her. She tried to fight, but there was nothing there. Her hands seemed to pass through him, but he was there. He felt solid; he was capable of hurting her, why couldn’t she hurt him back? She was sobbing, there was nowhere to run, and her back was against the bushes.

  ****

  Elizabeth, Timmy and the others had long since returned to the earth. Elizabeth slept fitfully. Up to now her sleep had been dreamless, but tonight it was filled with voices. She could hear her husband John’s voice. They were walking in the gardens at Maycroft, the sun felt warm against her skin, and she could feel his arm as it linked through hers. Her girls were close by, she could hear them laughing as they played and Lucy’s voice.

  ‘Mamma, help!’ Elizabeth turned and smiled. The child had snagged her dress on a rose bush. ‘Help me, Mamma,’ she tugged at the trapped cloth, impatient to be free.

  Elizabeth let go of John’s arm and went to her rescue. The sky began to darken as she moved towards her child. The scene faded and she reached out in her sleep, trying to hold on to it, to bring it back. Still the cries continued. ‘Help me! Please, help me!’

  Her eyes flew open. She was beneath the earth, her family but a cruel dream. Then she heard it again, the cry for help. She soared towards the surface, her very soul crying out. Timmy was waiting for her.

  Lucy was burrowing deeper into the bushes. Her hands clasped at her top, trying to hold the shredded pieces of cloth together.

  ‘You’d do well to surrender, madam,’ Black Jack warned, reaching for her again.

  She beat out at the air, screaming for someone to help her. She felt hands encircling her waist, and instantly, she was being carried upwards and away from the thing before her. She sailed backward over the bushes, and landed on the grass on the other side of the boundary. When she looked to thank her saviour, she once again shrank back in terror.

  ‘Don’t be afraid,’ said Elizabeth, reaching out to her. ‘We are not like him. We were once what you are now.’

  Lucy wiped the tears from her eyes, trying to get a better look. There was a woman and a boy. The voice was soft, no hint of danger about it, and it comforted her. This only lasted for a moment, and she began to scream again as all around her dark, wilted children sprouted from the earth. There was no time for Elizabeth to tell her who they were, what they were, before Black Jack appeared.

  ‘Don’t get in my way, bitch,’ he growled at Elizabeth, as he advanced towards Lucy.

  ‘Get her away!’ Elizabeth cried to Timmy, before throwing herself at Black Jack.

  He tried to toss her aside, but she held on, refusing to let go. She was a mother fighting for her child. Black Jack had never before encountered such fury. The children joined in, biting and kicking, but he threw them away. He was too strong for them and though some of them attacked him time and again, they were too weak to stop him. Elizabeth could hear the children sobbing all around her. Spirits that had hung helpless for so long in the trees, took to the air. Their cries echoing to the heavens, screaming for justice, they flew at Black Jack, but he beat them off as easily he had the children.

  Timmy was trying to get the sobbing Lucy to move. She watched transfixed at the battle that raged before her, at the white spectral shapes that skimmed around the air above her. Every fibre of her being screamed to run, but something held her back. Something primeval stirred within her.

  ‘There’s nothing you can do,’ Timmy called to her above the screaming. ‘You have to leave this place.’

  ‘No!’ she shouted, no longer afraid. ‘I have to help her.’

  Black Jack had pinned Elizabeth beneath him, one hand around her throat. He was crushing her; she could hear her bones cracking under the pressure. Lucy tried to pull him off, but again, her hands met only air. Timmy joined in, tearing at Black Jack’s hair, screaming at him to let go, only to be tossed aside. Black Jack reached out with his free hand and grabbed Lucy’s ankle, sending her crashing to the ground. She kicked and struggled, trying to get free.

  ‘Is she worth it, Elizabeth?’ The pressure increased on her throat. ‘Tell me, is she worth it? I gave you a chance to live once before, and you threw it in my face to save the boy. Look what you have become. Will you save yourself this time?’

  Elizabeth struggled to speak and he released the pressure.

  ‘There is nothing to take,’ Elizabeth scratched at his hands. ‘I am like you, I have no life left to give, but if I had I would give it to you willingly in exchange for hers.’

  Black Jack roared in frustration. The bitch, the rotten bitch, damn her to hell. He had raped her, humiliated her, but she would never give in. His hand tightened around her throat. She looked towards Lucy who had, by now, stopped struggling, and was staring at her in despair. Elizabeth would gladly cease to be, if she thought that in doing so, she would save this woman, this part of her that had continued on long after she had become but a distant memory. Suddenly strong hands shot through the earth on either side of her. The pressure on her throat ceased as t
hey grabbed at Black Jack’s hands, tore them from her. She struggled up and towards Lucy who was watching wide-eyed, her mouth open in a silent scream.

  ‘Don’t be afraid. There is nothing more to fear,’ Elizabeth put her arms around her.

  Timmy and the other children watched in amazement, as Black Jack struggled with the men who held him fast. Mick was there, with Martin’s father, and from around the graveyard others appeared and dragged him away. They had lain in wait, silent sentinels, watching over those they loved, waiting to appear until now when there was a real need of them.

  ‘You’re safe now, Miss Lizzy,’ Mick called back to her.

  They could hear Black Jack cursing as he was pulled towards his place in the graveyard and thrust into the ground. The men that had held him followed suit, diving in after him, the struggle continuing beneath the earth.

  ‘Oh, Christ, this can’t be happening,’ Lucy sobbed. ‘I’m losing my mind.’

  ‘No, child, you’re not.’ Elizabeth rocked her, and the face that rested on her shoulder felt warm, the hair silky.

  Elizabeth whispered to her, soothing and calming, as she had with her own daughter long ago. Soon the sobbing subsided and Lucy looked around her. She shrank back at first from the children, but as the woman told her of what they had suffered, why they were there, she relaxed.

  ‘Then the typhus is here?’

  ‘Yes, it’s been here all along, and now you must put an end to it.’

  ‘How?’ Lucy looked up into the sunken eyes.

  ‘With fire. You must dig up the bones of those who lie here. The disease is in their very marrow. Cleanse the land.’

  ‘What about you? What will happen to you?’

  ‘I, along with the others, will complete our destiny. But you must go now.’

  Timmy handed Lucy one of her jars. He had filled it with earth from the graveyard. They walked with her towards the bushes, and held them apart for her to pass.

  ‘I have to ask you something,’ Lucy stopped. ‘Why can I feel you, touch you and not that other one, the one that attacked me?’

  ‘That is of our own choosing,’ Elizabeth said. ‘We can reveal ourselves when we chose, become part of the air when we chose not to.’

  ‘I can’t understand this,’ Lucy shook her head. ‘How can you be dead and still here? Everything I know, everything I have ever learned, tells me it’s not possible.’

  ‘You can’t see the wind. But, you must admit sometimes it is powerful enough to knock you off your feet.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’

  ‘Will you allow me to ask a favour of you?’

  ‘Anything.’

  ‘May I see the image contained in your locket?’

  Lucy opened the gold circle around her neck and, for the first time in over a hundred and fifty years, Elizabeth was looking into the face of her husband. She studied her own image, the face of a bright, happy woman, filled with hope. She tried not to cry as she asked.

  ‘You know who they are?’

  ‘Yes,’ Lucy pointed to the portraits. ‘This is my great-great-great grandmother Elizabeth and her husband John.’

  ‘What became of them?’

  ‘John died young, and Elizabeth was a victim of the Great Famine, just like you. But not before she sent my great-great grandmother and great aunts to America. She didn’t have enough for the fare, and we know nothing about what happened to her after that. My family have tried to trace her on numerous vacations here, but without success. They say my great-great grandmother never gave up hope that one day she would arrive at her door. Lucy, that was her name; I’m called after her. She kept a light in the window until the day she died.’

  Elizabeth had to lean on Timmy for support. Her heart was breaking. She didn’t turn around as she asked.

  ‘Lucy and the others, did they have a happy life? Did they prosper?’

  ‘Yes,’ she could feel this woman’s sorrow. ‘They lived well into their seventies, and had lots of children, I’m proof of that.’

  ‘Thank you, child,’ Elizabeth whispered. ‘Thank you and God bless you.’

  Before Lucy could reply they had vanished.

  She hurried back to her car with the sample of earth clutched tightly in her hands. Just as she was about to get in another car appeared, its headlights cutting through the darkness.

  ‘Lucy!’ She recognised Joe’s voice. ‘My God, Lucy!’ He stared at her torn clothing, her dirt-streaked face.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she assured him, ‘but I’m glad to see you. I need to get this sample back to the lab right away, and I’m not sure I can drive.’

  He helped her to the car and as they drove she told him what had happened that night. She was surprised he did not think her crazy. When he told her what he had seen, they drove the rest of the way in silence. The woman and the boy had touched them in a way they would never forget. She refused to change her clothing on reaching the hospital. Joe helped her to clean and dress her injured shoulder, before she threw on a lab coat and set to work. Joe watched, as she studied the sample of earth, injecting different substances into it, searching for results.

  ****

  Neither Elizabeth nor Timmy returned to the earth that night. They sat waiting for the dawn. There was no sign of the men who had helped them, but Black Jack was back. He sat scowling on his grave, not daring to touch them. The children sleeping beneath were restless. They could hear gentle crying, and voices calling for their lost mothers.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell her who you were?’ Timmy asked.

  ‘It is better that she never knows. The living need to believe that the dead are at rest.’

  The machines arrived at first light, the thundering of the Earthmovers now a familiar sound. Elizabeth, Timmy and the other children gathered together in the middle of the graveyard, and watched as the giant teeth scooped into to one section of the bushes, making a gateway for the others to follow.

  ‘Oh, Elizabeth,’ Katie buried her face against her. ‘Will it hurt?’

  ‘No, of course not; you won’t feel a thing, I promise.’

  Timmy’s hand sneaked into hers and she held on. The machine drew back, and they were surprised when Lucy walked through the gap, followed by the man whose baby they had saved.

  ‘Lord, have mercy on us,’ they heard him say.

  ‘That’s what we are hoping for,’ Elizabeth replied.

  Lucy walked up to her. She no longer felt any fear at the sight before her.

  ‘You found what you were looking for?’

  ‘Yes, the digging is about to start. What do you think will happen?’

  ‘That’s in God’s hands now, child, what is about to happen is not of your doing.’

  ‘I know who you are,’ Lucy started to cry.

  ‘And I know who you are.’ Elizabeth reached out and stroked her hair.

  ‘What I don’t understand is why you’re here.’ Lucy wiped the tears from her face. ‘Didn’t you suffer enough in the famine?’

  ‘We are as puzzled as you are. Timmy is here, perhaps, because of a promise he once made to his mother to save the children, and I have been denied rest because of the hatred of one man. The others …’ she waved around the graveyard, ‘perhaps it is the fate of those who die of hunger and disease, torn from their families before their time, to lie in restless sleep. The only good that has come from our torment is that the typhus has been found and Ireland will no longer have to bear its scourge. We may yet get our answer in heaven,’ Elizabeth smiled. ‘Now go child and remember us in your prayers.’

  Lucy walked away, feeling as though her heart would break. She stopped at the edge of the graveyard, and stayed looking back as the Earthmovers passed by her and trundled to their designated areas. The drivers were unable to see the small group that stood before them, bravely awaiting their fate. The ground shook beneath their feet, and the children crowded tighter around Elizabeth. She closed her eyes, and waited for the end.

  ‘Ma,’ one of the children called, a
nd ran from her.

  She looked up to see the child running towards a woman who stood with her arms outstretched. There were people walking towards them from all around the graveyard and, one by one, children cried out with delight and ran to their parents.

  The dead had come to claim their own.

  Soon only Timmy and Elizabeth stood alone. Lucy watched from the edge of the field supported by Joe.

  ‘Look’s like we’re on our own again,’ Elizabeth turned to Timmy.

  ‘You’ve kept us waiting for far too long, madam.’ She spun round to find John and her daughters walking towards her. They all looked exactly as they had the last time she’d seen them.

  ‘Mamma,’ her girls ran and threw their arms around her waist. She kissed each of the upturned face and turned to her husband.

  ‘I was delayed.’ Her heart sang as his arms went around her. ‘Timmy.’ She wanted to gather him to her, but he didn’t hear her.

  He was holding too tightly to his mother to take any notice.

  The men waiting to dig the field saw none of this. They were watching the woman who stood sobbing, and looking into the distance. They didn’t see the Lucy the child, run to Lucy the woman with her hands outstretched.

  ‘I promised my mamma that I would keep it safe until we met again,’ she pointed to the locket.

  ‘Yes, of course.’ Lucy slipped the catch, and allowed it to fall into the waiting hand.

  She had realised almost from the beginning that Elizabeth was a part of her.

  ‘Thank you,’ the child stood on her tiptoes and kissed her cheek, before running back to her mother.

  Lucy watched as the locket was held out to Elizabeth, who shook her head and whispered something to her daughter.

  ‘My mamma said I must return this to you. She had no further need of it, not where she is going,’ the child held out the locket to Lucy. ‘She said you must wear it with her love and asks that you remember her always.’