by K Leitch
The pretty tree-lined lane that was a pleasure to walk along during the day when the sun was shining, was pitch black and filled with evil looking shadows at close to midnight. Clouds were covering the moon and it was made even darker because a couple of the street lights weren’t working. Hilda shivered nervously and picked up her pace, her footsteps echoing in the quiet of the night. She’d got about halfway along when she heard the sound of other slow, steady footsteps on the path behind her. Hilda upped her pace again, her natural anxiousness turning to alarm as the footsteps seemed to get ever closer. She didn’t want to show her fear by turning round, in all probability this was just another late night drinker making their way home, but by the time she’d turned onto her road her heart was thumping painfully and she’d almost broken into a run. With relief a moment later she realised that the sound of the other footsteps had stopped. She took a quick look behind her, nothing, the lane seemed to be empty, whoever it was had obviously turned off. Hilda let out the nervous breath she’d been holding and smiled to herself. ‘Bloody old fool,’ she muttered under her breath and pulled her bag open fishing around inside for her keys as she opened the gate to her front garden.
A sort of swishing noise and a dark shape on the very edge of her periphery, was all the warning she had before something slashed at the back of her legs making her yelp with pain and sent her spinning to the ground. She landed heavily on the path, cutting her knees, gasping and choking as the wind was knocked out of her. She lay there in a daze for a second or two, her brain not comprehending what had happened to her, then the panic began to set in. Terrified she turned and looked up from where she lay, just in time to see a large shadowy figure looming above her wielding a long thin stick or cane, which came swishing down again this time cutting her across the cheek. Hilda screamed out in pain again, putting her hands up in an attempt to shield her face only to have them whipped again and again until they too were slick with blood. She tried desperately to roll over and crawl towards the safety of her house, she’d dropped her bag in her panic, it had her mobile in it, if she could just grab it and hit a key… it must be on the path somewhere. She started frantically fumbling around on the ground around her, at the same time trying to fend off the blows that kept raining down on her back, her legs and her shoulders. Where the hell was it, she tried desperately to crawl away but this time she was pulled roughly over onto her back and her assailant was on top of her now, a huge black silhouetted figure who had pinned her to the ground with his weight.
‘Please,’ Hilda tried to speak, but she could barely breathe with the weight pressing down on her chest, ‘please,’ she had to make him hear her pleas, make him stop.
She could see his eyes glinting in the street light as he brought his face close to hers, Hilda squirmed away in horror at the sight of his twisted and distorted face. She whimpered in terror as he moved even closer.
‘That‘ll teach you to show some respect for your elders, lady,’ he hissed quietly against Hilda’s ear before he pulled back his fist and punched her full in the face. Hilda tasted the blood that was running down her throat, she began to choke, desperately trying to draw air into her lungs, but her chest was so constricted by the blood and the weight that she could do no more than gasp and splutter and try and make her pleas heard over the loud rushing in her ears.
The man in black seemed to pause for a moment, waiting to see if he had killed her maybe. Hilda was losing consciousness by the time the next blow came, she put up a hand to try and stop it...everything around her began to dim, sounds were thick and muted as if she was underwater, then it all went black.
CHAPTER 30 - CARLA
Slowly…painfully, Carla became aware of her surroundings. Her head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it, and her mouth felt foul and dry.
She rolled off the settee where she had passed out the previous evening, knocking over a bottle that was sitting on the low coffee table next to the sofa as she did so. More wine flowed onto the carpet to mingle with the old cigarette butts and empty crisp packets that had been dropped there. Oblivious to the mess around her, Carla picked her way through the detritus on the living room floor and went into the kitchen. It wasn’t much better in there, the sink was full of old coffee cups and dirty plates and the bin was overflowing with empty wine bottles, flies were buzzing round mouldy old take-away cartons.
‘God, it reeks in here,’ Carla muttered to herself as she rummaged around in the sink and found herself a clean-ish looking glass which she filled with water. She drank it almost in one go, leaning over the sink, then she turned round and looked at the mess that was once her kitchen.
The kids were still with James, at his mother’s; the lady herself had come round the day before, all pursed lips and disapproval…loving every minute of it. Carla had never had an easy relationship with James’s mum, Wendy. She had been all too vocal in her opinion of the way they ran their household and the way they shared their child care. In her view Carla should have given up her job as soon as babies had come along. To be fair to James, he had always backed Carla and tried over and over to explain to his mum that this was what they had agreed on, that Carla would be free to pursue her career if she gave him children. Reluctantly over time, Wendy had backed off, saying that it was their business and if that’s what suited them best then she’d say no more. But what she didn’t say could be heard almost as loudly as if she’d shouted it at them from the rooftops. She made her disapproval evident in everything she did, every look, every birthday card, every family occasion’, etc.
Now of course, she felt completely vindicated; hadn’t she warned James that this would happen, hadn’t she seen it coming. It had always been obvious to her that Carla was completely selfish, he needed to cut his losses and move on…he was welcome to stay with her for as long as he needed and the children, of course would be better off with her, away from their drunken mother.
Carla felt broken…hopeless. Everything that was important to her had been taken from her in one foul swoop, or so it felt. DCI Tavener, although understanding and compassionate, had made it very clear that unless she sorted herself out she should maybe start thinking about early retirement, Frank had told her in no uncertain terms to pull herself together.
‘For fuck’s sake Carla,’ he’d shouted at her, after finding her unconscious on the sofa one afternoon last week. ‘I get it…I really do, but you have to get a grip. You can’t just keep on pretending that you haven’t got a problem.’ He’d sat down in front of her and taken her hands, ‘Get some help…you need some help Carla, your kids need their mum back…I bloody need you back, okay?’
Carla had cried and nodded, promising to speak to someone… but as the day had worn on the urge to just drink herself into oblivion had become overpowering again, and all her good intentions had gone out of the window.
James had been coming round almost every day. His mood seemed to change from one day to the next; one day it would be the penitent James, he was so sorry, he wanted to make things right again, the kids missed her, they needed to sort it out for their sake. And the next he would be full of righteous indignation and disgust at the depths that Carla had descended to. None of what he said however, be it apology or condemnation made any impact on Carla’s bitterness. ‘Too late mate, you can’t undo the harm that’s been done,’ she’d shouted at him. ‘I’ll never forgive you, so crawl back to Mummy why don’t you?’ she’d finished with a sneer as she reached for another drink.
Even the witches had deserted her. Yes okay she’d kicked them out and shouted abuse at them and alright they were still bloody calling her day in day out even though she’d told them to fuck off in no uncertain terms. But come on, surely they could have been a bit more understanding, less judgemental. Especially Maggie for Christ’s sakes…bloody hell she was meant to be her best friend, but all she had to say was that Carla needed help and she should be thinking about the kids. The kids…the kids were bloody fine, they still had the love of their dad, it
was she…Carla that was all alone, it was she that needed her support. Carla shook her head bitterly, it was at times like this when you really found out who your friends were, and right now her best friends were Jack Daniels and Captain Morgan.
Desperate to get rid of the awful taste in her mouth, she made her way upstairs to the bathroom and took a mouthful of peppermint mouthwash. The face that looked back at her from the over the sink mirror gave her a start. Lank greasy hair, puffy eyes and pasty skin, Carla looked at herself for a couple of minutes…she looked old, old and tired, no wonder James fancied another woman, what man in his right mind would fancy her. Hot tears of self-pity began to prick behind her eyes and she dashed them away impatiently before leaning over to turn on the shower.
Once showered she felt more like herself again, she sat on the end of her bed and smoked a cigarette. She was fed up…she needed to get out of this bloody house for a while, have some fun…why not, she was free and single for fuck’s sake she thought, her mouth curling into a bitter twist.
Carla dried her hair and made up her face, she found her prettiest top and paired it with a pair of black jeans.
‘Hmm, not bad…still got it,’ she said to herself as she examined her outfit in the full length mirror in her bedroom, ‘just got to make sure I hang on to it,’ she told herself firmly wagging an admonishing finger at her image in the mirror. ‘Today is the first day of the rest of my life,’ she added rolling her eyes at the cliché.
Once back downstairs she took a deep breath, pulled out her mobile phone and pressed Maggie’s number, Maggie might not be much good as a sympathetic friend but she could always be guaranteed to partake in a good night out.
CHAPTER 31 - MAGGIE
‘I know, I was gob smacked…no she sounded sober…well what could I say, I said of course I would pick her up…no that’s fine Trace, I wasn’t planning on drinking tonight anyway. I just thought I would give you a heads up that she would be there, can you let Helen know for me…thanks love. Well let’s just hope that this is a good sign…yes that’s right at least it gives us another chance to try and help her…yeh I know love, it’s going to take time. Anyway Tracy I’d better ring off now, Lucy’s just walked in and I still haven’t finished half of what I’d planned to do today…ok love, see you tonight…bye.’
Maggie finished her call and went to the hallway to help Lucy, who was trying to get the buggy and what seemed like hundreds of shopping bags through the front door and into the kitchen.
Jukie wasn’t helping by trying to search one of the bags that she was carrying for his newest dinosaur toy.
‘It’s in this one Lucy…Lucy it’s in here, I can see it,’ he was shouting urgently as Lucy was half dragging half carrying him and the bags into the kitchen.
‘Jukie!’ Maggie said coming to the rescue, ‘wait until Lucy puts the bags down, that’s not being a helpful boy is it?’
‘But it’s my new stegothaurus Maggie,’ he explained in his high pitched little voice, ‘I wanted to show you, Lucy said it might even be able to beat a tyrannothaurus ‘cus it was so big.’
Maggie smiled at Lucy over Juke’s head, the little boy had taken to her brilliantly and had soon lost all of his initial shyness.
Katy, seeing Jukie running around, started to protest at being in her buggy, so Maggie went over and undid her straps, setting her free to stumble round the kitchen over to Jukie who was waving round his newest dinosaur. She went to grab it from him.
‘No Katy,’ Jukie shouted, holding his new toy high above his head out of the little girls reach. ‘It’s not yours, it’s mine.’
‘Yes it is darling,’ Maggie said, ‘but maybe she could hold one of your other ones, just for a little while.’
The little boy thought about this for a moment and then ran off to find one suitable for a small child who inevitably chewed everything. He came back a couple of minutes later and handed Katy one of his old tyrannosauruses, which the little girl grabbed and put straight in her mouth.
‘She can keep that one,’ Juke said to Lucy, ‘it’s just an old one, I don’t mind if she wants to eat it.’
Lucy smiled at him, ‘Well just for being so kind, after lunch I’m going to tell you the story of the tickleosaurus, a very rare dinosaur that not many people have heard about,’ she said as she handed him a sandwich for his lunch.
‘And hopefully that will be followed by the snoozeosaurus so that I can get this washing on,’ she added to Maggie who was playing with Katy and the dinosaur.
Maggie was so pleased that Lucy had come into their lives. Juke was so much happier now that he had a set routine. And they could leave for work in the morning knowing that the little boy was being looked after properly, without all the fuss of having to find someone to pick him up from school, etc. It wasn’t just that though, Lucy was a breath of fresh air, always smiling and willing to help in any way, with a ready sense of humour, she never seemed to get stressed or lose her temper.
She was a bit of a mystery though Maggie thought, they’d had quite a few long chats since she’d moved in but Maggie still felt as though she knew very little about the girl. She knew that she was estranged from Katy’s father and that she originally came from Somerset. She knew that she had spent time working in a nursery and had lost both her parents at an early age, but other than that she didn’t know anything.
It wasn’t a problem of course, the girl was a marvel and if she wanted to keep her past to herself well…so be it.
There was another reason though that Maggie was pleased with Lucy and that was the effect she was having on Dom. It had become quite obvious to her (though hopefully not to anyone else) that Dom had been completely bowled over by Lucy. It wasn’t too surprising, she was a very pretty girl with her long black hair and curvy figure, and she had such an easy way about her that even the usually rather shy Dom, had lost some of his inhibitions around her. Maggie could often hear them giggling away at something the kids had done or arguing over the merits of some reality TV show and it did her heart good to hear it. Dom had been so heartbroken and let down by Maylee, Juke’s mother, that Maggie had wondered if he would ever be able to trust anyone enough to open up his heart again. Maybe she was being a bit premature here, but there was definitely a spark between the two of them and she for one couldn’t be happier.
She was saying as much to Carla as she drove them both to the Bull for this week’s Cauldron meeting.
‘And I keep seeing his eyes following her round the room, I know I’m not imagining things Carla he definitely fancies her.’
Carla snorted, ‘Yes but don’t go counting your chickens yet Maggs,’ she said derisively, ‘he might want to shag her but it’s a completely different thing to wanting to settle down with the girl.’
‘Oh I know that,’ Maggie said, somewhat defensively, as she parked the car, ‘I’m just so glad that he’s even thinking about it again, you know after Maylee.’
Carla just rolled her eyes and climbed down from the huge car, following Maggie into the pub.
The Bull was heaving, Duncan was trying to serve about ten people at once at the bar and there were what seemed like hundreds of fraught looking waiting staff, scurrying about like headless chickens, with plates of delicious food held aloft as they ran from kitchen to restaurant.
‘Bloody hell what’s going on in here tonight,’ Carla shouted in Maggie’s ear.
‘Oh I should have remembered,’ Maggie said pulling a face, ‘Duncan told me there was a stag do booked and the local council are having their annual meeting in the restaurant tonight. He was having a right go at me because I said I wouldn’t help in the bar, but I told him, he always knew that was never part of our partnership, I don’t do bar work and it’s not my fault that Hank’s gone down with deli-belly. Oops shit, he’s spotted me, keep moving Carla before he comes over and tries to get me behind the bar again.’
Sure enough Duncan was making desperate hand signals in their direction, trying to get Maggie’s attention but soon
the two girls had been swallowed up by the crowd and he gave up in disgust.
Helen and Tracy had their heads together when Carla and Maggie finally found them, they jumped apart and gave Carla a wide smile of welcome when they saw her.
‘Carla, I am so glad you’ve come out tonight,’ Helen patted the chair next to her, ‘how are you feeling love?’ she added with a concerned look as Carla sat down.
‘I’ll be much better if nobody asks me that,’ Carla said bluntly, ‘I’m sorry Helen but I just want a night out, no hassle, no drama is that too much to ask?’
Helen looked a bit taken aback, ‘No of course not,’ she said, ‘we’re just all concerned you know.’
‘Well thank you for your concern but I’m okay…or at least I will be once I get a drink.’ She stood up again, ‘What’s everyone having?’
After taking their drinks orders she edged her way back through the crowds to the bar.
Maggie Helen and Tracy looked at each other after she’d gone.
‘Bloody hell, I thought maybe she’d turned a corner when you said she was coming out, but she is seriously fucked up isn’t she?’ Tracy said shaking her head sadly.
‘I know,’ Maggie agreed, ‘but it is still better that she is here with us than stuck in that house on her own with only a bottle for company. So let’s just act normal, talk about what’s going on in our lives just as we would do… maybe normality is what she needs. And no one mentions James or the kids or anything like that…okay?’