Lisa felt like screaming at her mother, felt like asking her why she would say it if she loved them so much, but the words remained unsaid. She just didn’t know. Maybe she hadn’t said that after all. She was so sleepy. She wanted to go home and climb into her bed with Digger the dog and Taffy the owl teddy that she slept with every night. She wanted to forget all about today.
They never did stop for ice-cream like their mummy had promised they would.
When they arrived at home and after much tearful apologising from their mum, they went up to bed. They weren’t sure if they would be able to get to sleep but they were exhausted so they had to at least try. Their tiny tummies grumbled with hunger. They had eaten nothing since dinner time but sleep was needed more than food so they didn’t ask for anything to eat. As Debbie was helping Lisa out of her dirty clothes and getting her washed and ready for bed in their small bathroom, she noticed strange burn-like marks on her daughters arm. Marks that looked like fingers, as though somebody or something had grabbed her tightly. She asked Lisa about these marks but Lisa said she couldn’t see any marks. Debbie left it at that, not wanting to upset her any more. But she knew exactly what had caused them. She herself had marks such as those on her little girl’s arm from when she was a child and had been locked in the cupboard with it, only her mother couldn’t see the marks either when Debbie had shown her, or didn’t want to see them would be more precise. Full of guilt at being unable to protect her daughter from the cruelty of her father she denied any such scarring. When Debbie had got the both of the children their beds she went into her room to get ready for bed. As she did so she rubbed the marks on the back of her calf. The faint red scarring of fingers. She prayed to herself that Lisa wouldn’t be left with a scar. John had been so gracious about it; always adamant he couldn’t see anything, and she would have believed him too except for there it was, every time she looked at her leg. The unsightly pale pink scar of fingers that had gripped her leg so tightly that she thought the blood would stop flowing. The hand that had gripped her had been so cold that it had burned her like frost-bite.
She went to bed and dreamed of the incident over and over again waking each time covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Lisa and Aiden hardly slept that night and each time they did manage to nod off they were woken by the slight murmurs coming from their mother’s room.
46
The kitchen was deathly silent as Lisa and Aiden sat with their memories of that day. They had tried so hard all these years to forget and now here they were, willing themselves to remember. It had been so hard on them to begin with. Aiden especially. He had started to have recurring nightmares about it which their mother refused to discuss. Luckily they got better as time went on, God knows how with no professional help, but they did. Maybe his subconscious mind had just point blank refused to let him remember that awful day. It took them years to learn to push the horrors to the very back of their minds. They often thought it might have helped if they were allowed to talk about it with someone, but they didn’t want to upset their mum by bringing this up so it was left to be forgotten.
They remembered now how strange their mum had acted when they were finally allowed out of the cupboard. They still didn’t understand why she said the things she said. Why she tried to frighten them even more by talking about the man who was in the cupboard with them. Why she really couldn’t remember anything she said afterwards. They had no doubt in their minds, even now, that there was a man in the cupboard under the stairs with them, but why did she tell them? Maybe if the things she had said weren’t said, they might have been able to put it down to their imaginations, then maybe, just maybe, it would have been easier to get over it and get on with their lives.
Debbie had been pottering around the house all morning. Lisa and Aiden even toyed with the idea of wandering into the garden to water the flowers and pull a few weeds up to take their minds off the house and their boredom. There was absolutely nothing to do. Their grandfather didn’t own a television because, according to their mum, he believed it caused people to go insane with all the electronic waves that it sent through the air. Now that was irony if ever they had heard it. If he did own one, Aiden wondered if he still would have gone mad. This thought made him chuckle. At least his sense of humour hadn’t been lost during all this. There was no signal for their mobiles either so they were rendered useless.
They eventually decided to go outside for a bit, seeming as it was such a lovely day. They stood on the top step of several concrete stairs that led down into the back garden from the house and looked around in wonder. The house was built on a slight hill so they had perfect views of most of the garden from where they were. It was beautiful! It was enormous and full of colourful blooms and huge old trees. It even had a large pond towards the rear of the garden that they stopped to look at that was home to lots of frogs they saw as they peered in. There was a large bunch of tadpoles under a lily-pad and lots of brightly coloured fish swimming around. Tall reeds stood around the edges of the pond casting shadows over the rippling water and providing safe places for the frogs from the birds that also inhabited the garden. Fat flies hovered above the water’s surface, darting in and out of the reeds. There was an amazing cascading mini waterfall on the far side of the pond that tumbled intensely clear water which sparkled like liquid diamonds in the sun as it poured down over the make-shift rockery below. The trickling sound it made as it hit the hundreds of smooth pebbles was so melodic to them that they felt like humming along to it. It was a total contrast to the house, it was almost unbelievable. It was the most uplifting and prettiest sight they had ever seen. The expression “Heaven on Earth” seemed to have been brought about by this spectacular view Lisa pondered. Even Aiden was completely in awe and he wasn’t the most sentimental of people. A load of crap he called things like this usually. He hated watching soppy love films and hated even more being out with his mum and sister when they saw something like a hillside view and called it “breath-taking”. It was just a hill for god sake! But as he stood and looked out over the garden he was speechless. He had to admit for himself for the first time in his life that the sight he was seeing was indeed breath-taking; it was beautiful.
“I could stay out here for the rest of my life” sighed Lisa, turning her face to the sky and feeling the warmth of the sun’s rays on her skin. “Have you ever seen anything so perfect Aiden?” He was too lost in the scenery to hear her so she repeated herself. He smiled at her and propped his arm around her shoulders.
Everything in the garden seemed so vibrant, like it was a newly painted piece of art. The colours seemed unreal. They were so vivid and bright. The fragrance of the flowers was floating everywhere swimming in and out of their nostrils. There were birds taking up residence in the trees, singing their joyful songs to anyone who wanted to hear, bees buzzing around the flowers, their plump little bodies gathering nectar, butterflies flitting between plants at a slow, almost lazy pace that seemed to tie in with everything in the garden. Everywhere they looked there was so much to look at. They spent about three hours outside watering the flowers and just looking around. There were no weeds to be pulled up; it had been very well maintained. They guessed their grandfather had hired a gardener to tend it. There was no way it could have stayed looking so wonderful unless a professional gardener had looked after it. Thinking about it, it probably would have taken more than one gardener to keep it the way it was because it was huge. There was so many different types of trees and plants and flowers that they were spoilt for choice over where to look. Lisa gasped so many times that Aiden lost count. Every time she saw something new she rushed over to get a better look. The smell was amazing. Everything seemed to have a smell of its own, yet all the hundreds of different smells tied in perfectly together to create one inviting, beautiful, fresh scent. They were absolutely awe-struck.
Just visible beyond the boundary wall at the very back were scrawny looking trees like the ones they had seen in the driveway of the house. They were
there; bare and looming over the garden wall but even they couldn’t disturb Lisa or Aiden. They felt at ease here and they barely noticed the cold, ugly trees with their bare, bony branches bending over the top of the wall, trying to get in, trying to spread their savage disease.
47
Debbie came out to them carrying a silver tray with a large jug of lemonade that had ice-cubes cracking and floating around in it, and three tall glasses on it. She walked past Lisa and Aiden, past the trees and the flowers and the nesting birds, and right to the very back of the garden over to a part they hadn’t noticed before. They followed her through a gate that was framed by an arch of hedging that bore tiny lilac flowers, which smelled divine, past another pond and into a little well-kept area that had a wrought iron table and chairs upon a flagstone patio. Debbie set the tray down on the table and began pouring three glasses of lemonade for them. The scent of the lilac flowers remained in Lisa’s nostrils after she had passed them. She stood at the table watching her mum pour the lemonade for them into the tall glasses that frosted at the top when the drink hit the bottom because of the coldness of it. Aiden was already sat at the table when Lisa sat down next to him on the wooden chair with wrought iron arm-rests. They were joined by their mum once she had handed them their drinks.
“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” she asked, more to herself than to them. “It’s all my mother’s work you know. She built this garden from scratch. She hated the house you see, so she made her own little place out here where she could come and enjoy the beauty of nature. I like to think she still visits this garden” said Debbie, her voice tinged with a hint of sadness. “I do hope that whoever buys it keeps the garden as it is and doesn’t neglect it.”
“Talking of someone buying the house, what time is it mum?” asked Aiden, his memory jogged by this comment.
Debbie glanced at her watch. “It’s almost one thirty-five love. Why?”
“Well I thought that someone from the estate agents was coming round this morning to value the house?” Aiden asked, but it wasn’t so much of a question than a fact really.
“Do you know I completely forgot about that!” Debbie exclaimed with a slightly bemused expression and a small faint laugh.
“Mm, me too” added Lisa whilst sipping her drink. She was pressing the chilled glass to her forehead and cheeks and relishing the immediate cool relief it gave.
“I’ll go ring them now and see what’s going on.” Aiden said getting up from his chair.
“Okay love. Will you stay out here with me Lisa?” Debbie asked her daughter.
Lisa looked over to Aiden “Will you be alright on your own?”
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry! I won’t be a minute anyway.”
Off he went into the house to phone estate agent. He wanted them to come and see the house as soon as possible so they could all leave and go home. The garden was nice, more than nice in fact, but they could hardly sleep outside could they? He picked up the receiver and dialed the number on the piece of paper that his mum had jotted down with the estate agents name above it. He waited through a few echoing rings and then a man picked up sounding enthusiastic.
“Hello? Matlock and Fenton Estate Agents. Malcolm Fenton speaking, how can I help?” Aiden liked him already.
“Hello, I’m phoning about a call you received yesterday from my mother, Mrs. Adams. She phoned you to arrange for someone to come and value our property and you told her that you would have someone here this morning, but nobody has been.”
Aiden waited for Malcolm to apologise and tell him they were running slightly behind schedule and that they would have someone there within the next hour. However, Malcolm did not say that, what he did say chilled Aiden to the bone. “I am very sorry Sir, but there must be some mistake, nobody called Mrs. Adams phoned here yesterday. I was on yesterday answering the phones and I don’t recall speaking with her. I will check, but we only had three calls all day yesterday so I am quite certain I didn’t speak to her. If I can just put you on hold for one moment I will check the diary for you.”
Aiden was left listening to the sound of some classical piece for a minute or two. He was thinking there must be some sort of mistake when Malcolm came back on the phone, slightly breathless. Aiden could picture a middle aged balding man with bright red cheeks and a forehead of glistening sweat at the other end of the phone.
“Hello? Sir?”
When Aiden replied to indicate he was still there, Malcolm said “I have just looked through our diary and we received no call from a Mrs. Adams yesterday, I double checked as well, but found nothing.” There was a pause while Malcolm waited for Aiden to speak.
“Oh, never mind, I must have made a mistake.” Aiden said pushing his anxiety and fear as far down as possible.
Aiden came off the phone with Malcolm after he had given him all the details and arranged for someone to come to the house this evening. It wasn’t possible to get anyone there any earlier because it was so far out of town. The agents last house call before them was at two o’clock that afternoon, but then it would take him a further three to four hours to get there, so they were looking at around six or seven o’clock-ish. Which meant that yet again they had to spend the night. He now had the awful job of telling Lisa and his mum that they had to stay another night and spoil their day.
48
Debbie and Lisa were still sat at the table sipping their lemonades when Aiden came back out. They looked up as he approached and each gave him a warm smile.
“You’ve been ages!” Lisa said.
“I know. Listen, there was a mix up that I had to sort out. Mum, I thought you said you phoned the estate agent.”
“I did love” replied Debbie a little perplexed. A small frown puckered the skin on her forehead, lines that faintly remained even when asleep.
“Which estate agents did you phone?” he asked her, trying not to sound as worried as he was.
“The one that the phone numbers for, I wrote it down yesterday, got it out the Yellow Pages. Oh, erm, what’s it called? Matlock and Fenton! I like the way the name rolls off the tongue.” Debbie sat back, pleased with herself that she remembered the name.
“Well, when I rang them they said you never rang yesterday. They didn’t send anyone out because you never called them mum.”
“Are you sure? Well, that’s strange. I could have sworn I phoned them. Oh well, I guess I didn’t ring them after all. Silly mistake.” Came her nonchalant reply.
Aiden was worried even more by the fact that she didn’t seem at all bothered that she thought she had rung someone and had a conversation with them and then found out that she hadn’t. He looked at Lisa and saw that she was thinking along the same lines as him. Debbie had gotten up out of her seat and was clearing away the glasses and humming to herself as though nothing had happened.
“Don’t you want to know what time he’s coming mum?” asked Aiden.
“What time who is coming darling?” she didn’t turn from the table as she spoke. She seemed so casual about the whole thing, as though the conversation she had just had with her son had never taken place.
“The man from the estate agents mum!” Aiden answered getting more and more exasperated.
“Oh that man! No need to get annoyed Aiden” she reprimanded him sternly. “What time is he coming?”
It gave them at least some relief when she acknowledged that she knew who he was talking about. “He can’t get here until about six or seven-ish tonight. We’re gonna have to stay here for the night again.”
Lisa’s heart sank and the look on her face matched how she felt inside. Aiden felt like he was to blame for it. Maybe he should have pushed a bit more to get someone round a bit sooner. He looked over to his mother to see what her reaction was to the news but she was already making her way through the garden and back towards the house.
“What’s wrong with her?” he asked Lisa who was also watching her walk away.
“I don’t know. It’s like she goes into her own l
ittle world and only hears little bits of our conversations. I don’t like it. I want to leave here as soon as we can!”
“I know me too. We’ll leave first thing in the morning and we won’t have to come back here again, anything that needs to be done after that we can do over the phone, or if it comes to it we’ll drive down to the estate agents. We won’t even have to pass here.”
This cheered Lisa up slightly until she thought about her mum again. “How could she think that she’d phoned them and not only had a conversation with them, but arranged a time with them? I don’t understand how you can think you’ve done something like that when you haven’t.”
“It’s just been hard on her that’s all and she’s having a hard time coming to terms with everything. She only found out yesterday that he was dead. Maybe it’s her way of grieving.”
“What, by pretending he’s beating her up? I don’t think so Aiden. Nobody in their right mind would pull their own hair out in chunks and punch themselves in the face. No-one could honestly think it was someone else doing it to them when they were doing it to themselves.”
“No, maybe not, but she’s had a lot to take in. Maybe it’s her way of coping, pretending he’s still here. Maybe he is?” he offered, hoping it would be a good enough explanation but knowing that it wouldn’t be.
“You were there with her Aiden! So you’re telling me that you believe that there was a ghost was there in the room with you beating her up? If you believe that, then you’re just as crazy as she is!” Lisa started crying. “I didn’t mean that Aiden, it’s just that I don’t understand what’s going on.”
“Me neither” Aiden went to his sister and awkwardly put his arms round her to comfort her. “I know he wasn’t there, I know it was her who did it to herself. I just thought it would be easier to believe if I said it out loud.”
The Haunting Within Page 13