‘What is going on here?!’ came a strong old lady’s voice.
Madam Targ muttered in some long forgotten tongue and stomped over to her daughters. Although Jack couldn’t speak the language, he was in little doubt whatever she was saying was quite salty.
The lights clicked back on.
Miss Daniels gazed at the ensemble.
‘Miss Daniels,’ spluttered Jack, rushing over to appease the old lady. ‘I am sorry. It’s —’
Her tone changed instantly as she saw it was Jack. ‘Oh, it’s you, Jack. I wondered why you weren’t at your desk.’
‘We were, ahhh…’ Jack searched for a plausible explanation.
‘Hello.’ Merch gave the old lady a big, beaming smile. ‘I’m Merch. I’m one of Jack’s friends.’
‘How lovely.’
Jack had little idea what he should say. What he could say to explain his actions. He didn’t need to worry. Merch did it for him. ‘We’re searching for ghosts.’
Jack cringed. A momentary look of confusion flickered across Miss Daniels’ face, but it was quickly followed by a smile.
‘Oh, Jack, you are funny.’ Her tone had gained an extra layer of patronising (if that were possible). ‘Well, you have fun. And if you find any proof, make sure you tell me.’ She winked at him. ‘Could be good for business. Breathe some life into this old place.’ Miss Daniel wandered out, chuckling to herself.
‘Great.’
‘Do you think she thinks I’m simple too?’ asked Merch, watching the old lady walk away.
‘Probably.’
Merch pulled a face. ‘Rats. I was hoping for a lollipop.’ They turned and were surprised to find Madam Targ and her daughters in the process of packing up.
‘Wait,’ Jack protested. ‘What are you doing?’
Charlotte smiled at him. ‘All done.’
‘But you didn’t do the thing.’
‘Ve did more than enough.’ Madam Targ announced haughtily. She turned back to Nicolette. ‘Ve might even have time to get home before my flight.’
‘Oh, where are you off to?’ asked Merch, attempting to inject himself into their conversation.
Jack couldn’t believe it. ‘Hold up. That is?’
‘Vhat would you like?’ Madam Targ asked. ‘A vritten report?’
Merch approached Nicolette who was still packing up. ‘May I help?’ Nicolette regarded Merch warily.
‘You’ve been here for five minutes!’ Jack demanded furiously.
‘How long would you like is to be here?’ Charlotte asked.
‘No. It’s not a time thing —’’
‘Young man,’ Madam Targ cut in. ‘You might not like it, but there is nothing remotely paranormal going on here. To stay vould be a distinct vaste of our time.’
‘You’re wrong.’
Madam Targ’s face curled into a cold smile. ‘Of course ve are. It couldn’t possibly be you who is wrong.’
26
Livestock
Once the ladies were packed up and they and Merch were clear of the hotel Jack sought out Miss Daniels. He found her sitting in a nook in one of the downstairs corridors, staring up at some of the old photos on the wall.
‘Miss Daniels. I just wanted to apologise —’
Miss Daniels held up a hand, indicating for him to be quiet. He shut his mouth. There were a few minutes of silence before she spoke. ‘This spot doesn’t look like much, does it, Jack? But do you know what? Right here is my favourite place in the whole hotel.’
‘Why’s that?’ Jack settled against the wall opposite, gazing about.
Once again Miss Daniels didn’t respond straight away. She stared across the space at a framed sepia photograph of two men and a woman.
‘Do you know who that is, Jack? In the photo?’
‘Colonel Black?’
‘Good, Jack. Yes, that’s Colonel Black, my great-grandfather. On his daughter’s wedding day. The handsome young man is my grandfather Frederick Daniels and his new wife, Edwina Black.’
‘Edwina, like…’
‘Yes, I was named after my grandmother. Don’t they look happy? A photo is such a funny thing. A mere moment. I often find myself wondering what happened around that moment. What was the wedding like? What would a wedding have been like in those days? Very different to now.’ Miss Daniels’ voice drifted away, lost in amongst the old lady’s thoughts.
The next photo showed the couple again. A few years older. No Colonel Black this time. A little boy stood with them instead.
‘And that little boy is my father.’
‘Freddie.’
‘Very good. Yes, Freddie. Hard to imagine him so young. You know, my great-grandfather, Colonel Black, was a visionary. There used to be a market up the road and the train line and nothing else for miles. In those days people used to camp around the market. Colonel Black had an idea. He built Black Hotel with his own hands. Anybody who came to the market used to stay here, either on their way to or from or sometimes both. The farmers and stockmen and drovers often used to bring their animals to stay.’
Jack wasn’t sure he heard right. ‘Bring the animals to stay in the hotel?’
‘No. There used to be paddocks on all sides. The animals stayed in the paddocks, their owners stayed in the hotel. There used to be a joke about lucky animals getting to stay here twice. The sellers would stop here on their way to the market and bring their livestock. Then they would take the livestock to the market the next day. The buyers would often bring the livestock back to the hotel to stay the night before the long journey home. It got to the point where the animals never reached the market. More and more of the deals were done here in the lobby.’
Her voice trailed away again. Did Miss Daniels have stories like this for all the photos throughout the hotel? If she did Jack would quite like to hear them.
‘My grandfather Frederick was a man of vision too, but few means. That is why he married my grandmother. Black Hotel was tremendously successful, for many years,’ the old lady went on. ‘Doing so well in the more prosperous times that we decided to expand. I must have been about 10 years old, but I remember sitting right here, in this very spot, watching my father and grandfather renovate the hotel.’
Miss Daniels drifted into silence once again. Jack tried to envisage what things were like back in those times. Would he have found his place in the world any more easily? Or would things have been much harder? What would it be like to have as vast a selection of life experience and memories as Miss Daniels?
‘What happened? With the hotel I mean?’
‘Nothing. But everything else changed around it. That is how life goes. Things change. The market moved away and all the factories arrived. There became little point for anyone to stay here anymore. By then the hotel had been successful enough for my grandfather and my father to expand into other businesses.’
‘He was very successful, wasn’t he? Your father?’
‘Very. A titan of industry they used to call him, whatever that meant. He employed a great many people and made a lot of money. Hard to see what the point of any of that was now though. All the things they did, all that money they accumulated. For what? My father, my grandfather, they’re both long gone now. And I’ll be gone soon too I suppose.’
A very faint smile teased across her wrinkled lips.
‘My strongest memory of my grandfather is how he used to strut about this place. Like he owned the world. My father used to laugh at him about it, but when he arrived at that age, he was exactly the same, even though he had been busy building an empire.’
Her watery eyes focused on Jack. ‘I believe you are right, Jack. This hotel is full of ghosts, but only I can see them… Maybe all three of us, me, my dad and my grandfather, will come back here one day after I’m gone. But we will have to be quick before they tear it down.’
The quiet took hold. Jack didn’t know what to say and so he said nothing. They sat in silence for a few minutes more. After a while Jack had to stifle a yawn, making
him aware of the time.
‘Miss Daniels. It’s very late.’
‘It is, Jack, it is.’
‘Shouldn’t you be in bed?’
‘Well, I don’t sleep so well any more. An unwanted by-product of getting old. I could be staring at my ceiling at home, but I’d prefer to be here.’
You and me both, Jack thought. The two of them went back to sitting in silence. It was nice.
27
The Date
Jack found Merch in the dining room exercising and interacting with a fitness DVD. On screen a muscular man with a shaved head implored Merch to dig deeper.
‘Come on! Bring it! Don’t you dare touch that pause button.’
Merch puffed, doing his best to keep up without much success. ‘I’m bringing it, Shaun,’ he blurted out.
Jack stopped the DVD.
‘Oh, thank God,’ exclaimed Merch, collapsing to the floor. He struggled to breathe. Sweaty and tired. ‘What’s up?’
‘What was that?’ Jack fumed.
‘Just getting into shape.’
‘No, back at the hotel. Last night. The ghost hunters.’
‘Yeah, that was cool, wasn’t it?’ Excitement flooding Merch’s face.
‘No. It wasn’t cool. It was a scam!’ vented Jack.
‘How so?’
‘They didn’t do anything! Their minds were made up before they even stepped foot in the hotel.’
‘Well, they’re sceptical ghost hunters. That’s their USP.’
‘Their what?’
‘Their USP. Unique selling point.’ Merch pulled over his laptop and bought up the world’s ugliest website. Well, “wold’s ugliest” may have been overstating things a touch, but the website was definitely up there.
Madam Targ, Charlotte and Nicolette stared out of the screen at Jack, solemn expressions on their faces. Above them a heading screamed "Madam Targ and Daughters. Serious Paranormal Specialists." The subheading read: "Highly trained, highly sceptical." Large chunks of text filled the rest of the page but Jack had no desire to read any more. The site looked as though it had been created in the late 90s and not touched since. A counter down the bottom revealed them to be visitor number 1,053.
‘That’s why I chose them, cos they’re sceptical. I figured if you could win them over.’
‘Anyone could do that,’ said Jack struggling to keep a lid on his frustration.
‘How so?’
‘Anyone could claim to be a sceptical paranormal specialist. Anyone could walk into a building and say "No, nothing paranormal here. One hundred dollars, please." It’s a scam. Anyone could do that.’
‘Not really. You’d need the equipment. The thing with the antenna and the laser and —’
‘You’re giving me a headache.’ Jack stomped off to his bedroom.
Merch grabbed a towel and followed Jack, wiping off sweat as he moved.
‘On a completely unrelated note, what are you doing today?’
‘Sleeping,’ said Jack, collapsing on his bed.
‘No, after that, but before you start your shift tonight.’
‘I don’t know. Nothing.’ He made a half-hearted effort to rearrange the doona on his bed, his task complicated by the fact he was already lying half on top of it.
‘I’ve got a date,’ Merch announced, rocking forward on the balls of his feet, looking like the cat who got the cream.
‘Congratulations.’
‘Trouble is,’ Merch bit his bottom lip. Jack could sense what was coming. ‘She won’t go alone. So —’
‘Nope.’ Jack slipped off his shoes as he lay back on his bed. Other than that he remained still fully clothed. Shoes off was enough. Merch stared at him. ‘No. I am not going on a double date with you and the crazy ghost hunter’s daughters.’
‘Well, that’s good. Because it’s not with them.’
‘Oh yeah? Whose it with then?’ Jack could almost see the cogs turning in Merch’s brain.
‘Someone else,’ Merch claimed in an unconvincing tone.
Jack glared at him.
‘It’s someone else. I swear.’
A few hours later Jack sat in a café with Merch. Opposite the boys sat Nicolette and Charlotte. Not ‘at work’ Nicolette and Charlotte seemed different from the versions Jack met the previous evening. Charlotte was still happy and smiling. But Nicolette wasn’t nearly as brittle. The twins laughed and giggled like teenagers. They had toned down their outfits too, although the pair still stood out in the crowd and still looked a little like they’d escaped from a compound somewhere clad in their matching, possibly home-made outfits.
‘Well, this is nice, isn’t it?’ said Merch, his voice cutting into an awkward silence. Nicolette and Charlotte both giggled into the straws of their large milkshakes. Perhaps it was the first date they’d ever been on. Or the first time they’d been out in public ever.
One thing was for sure - Jack was ready to kill just about everybody at the café, starting with Merch.
28
The Comet
The foursome strode towards The Comet Movie House, a 1920s cinema. A throwback to yesteryear. A grand old building, with lavish carpets and chandeliers. Over the decades the Comet had resisted the urge to become a twin or multiscreen, making it the last single screen cinema in the city. Jack adored it. The Comet was, he felt, a true cinema experience. Giant screen, massive sound system that shook the seats. Sure the place had seen better days. The roof looked about ready to fall in, paint peeled from the walls and the seats were ridiculously uncomfortable, having lost all their padding and become more a collection of metal springs than anything cushioning. But it was an experience.
The Comet tended to favour old movies, making it one of the only places you could experience a film print of 2001 or Vertigo or A Clockwork Orange or numerous other classic films. Plus they had the best Choc Tops in town. Jack generally enjoyed three per visit - one before, one at intermission and a sneaky one for after. He had nothing against multiplexes, in fact he found them fun for the latest popcorn blockbusters. But the Comet was a real cinema. He wasn’t surprised Merch wanted to take Nicolette there, yet it annoyed him all the same. The ghost hunters’ daughters didn’t deserve the full cinematic experience.
Jack’s mind rambled. A loose, disconnected stream of thoughts, his mind doing its best to remove him from the situation he found himself in. The Comet had long been rumoured to be going out of business. The sessions were never full. There was no way it could be making money in this day and age. Not unlike Black Hotel, Jack reasoned. The two were definitely similar. Would Miss Daniels like the Comet? He imagined she would. If she didn’t own it already. She was very rich. Maybe he could see if Miss Daniels wanted to come see a film with him here. Would that be weird? Asking an 80+-year-old lady to the movies? She’d probably wonder about his motives. Think him after her money maybe. Or maybe not. She already thought he was simple, so what would it matter? The Comet put out a calendar every six months, showing all their upcoming films. Perhaps he could bring the Comet calendar into work and see if any of the films appealed to her. One thing was for sure. He would have preferred to be here with Miss Daniels than Charlotte and Nicolette.
The aroma of freshly popped popcorn greeted the group as they shuffled through the lobby. Nicolette and Merch flirted and giggled, in the lead. Charlotte bounced happily along behind, seemingly oblivious to Jack and his furious mood.
The cinema was about one-third full as they made their way in. Often Jack found these few moments before the film commenced to be the best part of the cinema-going experience. The excitement and the anticipation. Finding your seat, waiting for the curtain to rise, wondering what previews you might see. The hope that you might be about to witness something truly transformative. Transformative cinematic experiences were commonplace when Jack was 19 and 20, but had become less common with his advancing years. Regardless, a good movie still had the power to whisk him away to another world for a while. Somewhere to forget all his real-world worries
and cares. Jack didn’t hold out too much hope for this particular movie. At the very least and with some luck, it would be able to distract him from Charlotte for the next two hours.
The sisters sat next to each other, with Jack on one side and Merch on the other. Jack checked his watch, doing his utmost to will time away. Being around Merch when he was in flirty mode was always slightly embarrassing. Charlotte’s presence as “Jack’s date” simply made things more awkward. What did she get out of all this? Was she as stuck with him as he was with her? Part of the deal to allow Nicolette to go on a date? Charlotte seemed happy enough. She probably didn’t get out of the house much. The twins didn’t appear to be the types that would go to the movies very often. He couldn’t picture Nicolette, Charlotte and Madam Targ together at the multiplex. Was there a Mr Targ?
After a time Jack realised Charlotte was looking directly at him. Not subtly either. Staring right at him. Maybe she did think this was a date for them as well. Too bad. Jack studiously refused to look at her and did his best to radiate as much hatred in her direction as possible.
‘Do you think this will be any good?’ Charlotte asked. Talking straight to him. A direct question. She couldn’t be speaking to Nicolette and Merch. They were engaged in their own conversation. Could he just ignore her? Could he be that rude?
‘Sorry?’ he said as pointedly as possible, as though even acknowledging her took tremendous effort.
‘Do you think the movies will be any good?’
‘I’m sceptical…’ Jack replied. ‘Sceptical.’
He looked away, smiling smugly to himself. Sceptical. Good one.
The movie turned out to be some broad comedy thing. Not what Jack would have chosen. He found it distinctly unfunny, but probably would have anyway, despite his mood. Merch and Nicolette roared with laughter when they weren’t smooching up a storm like horny teenagers, which got under Jack’s skin all the more. He positioned himself as physically far as he could from Charlotte, confident that she couldn’t help but get the message that he was not remotely interested, even if she was. It wasn’t that she was ugly. The twins were quite pretty Jack decided, in their own strange way. He was still so angry about the whole thing back at the hotel.
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