“Oh, wow, a tent. Let me see!” Sean came steamrolling into the room and threw himself headfirst into the tent.
“Uh no, Sean. This is Emily’s room. She gets to play with her new tent first. Then you can ask if you can join her too.” Jo pulled him out by the ankles and saw that he had one of Emily’s dolls in his hand and was in the middle of trying to decapitate her. Jo snatched the doll out of his hand, narrowly avoiding disaster, and pushed him out of the door. He ran off down the corridor laughing, no doubt looking for more mischief. She turned her attention back to Emily.
“What do you think?” Jo said. Emily’s thumb was stuck firmly back in her mouth, her brow furrowed in concentration. She looked up at her mum and popped her thumb out.
“I like it. I’ll play here. Then we can go back home, can’t we?”
Jo lifted another branch and threw it onto the pile of waste at the end of the garden. She needed to hire a skip to get rid of all of the large branches, but she couldn’t really afford it. She knew if she mentioned it to Gavin, he might suggest that she started working again so they could spend more money on the house. But she had house renovations to do. She couldn’t possibly find the time to work as well.
She stood back and looked around the garden. Over the first three weeks they had been in the house they had decorated all of the bedrooms, the lounge, and the dining room. They couldn’t afford to put in a new kitchen yet, or sort out the guttering, or the windows. But it was a start.
Today was all about the garden. Jo was determined to have cleared it and have it nice ready for Sean and Emily when they got home from school. Emily was in primary school and Sean at pre-school. And as usual that morning, Emily had trotted off without any trouble, whilst Sean had to be bribed and wrestled and practically thrown inside the door, much to the disapproving looks of the yummy mummy brigade.
She got a rake and piled up the leaves in a corner. She mowed the lawn, which took her most of the morning. She realised when she looked at her watch, and it was almost two that she had got complete engrossed in gardening and was quite enjoying it. She went inside and made herself a sandwich. She couldn’t think of the last time she had enjoyed herself so much in fact. She was starting to feel like herself again.
She spent the afternoon setting up her children’s swing set in the garden. She hated flat pack furniture but standing back and looking at the new double swing she knew it had been time well spent. Most of the garden was still wild and untamed. But the front part next to the patio was neat and tidy and was now the perfect place for her children to play.
***
“So, how was school?” Jo asked. She looked in the rear-view mirror of the car which she had angled to keep an eye on the children rather than the traffic. Emily was twiddling her hair with one hand, sucking her thumb with the other. Sean was kicking the front passenger seat.
“We finger painted and ate cheese and jumped in puddles…it was SO FUN,” Sean shouted out.
“Ok, can you stop kicking the seat, Sean. I’ve told you before. Emily, how was your day?” Emily popped her thumb out of her mouth.
“It was ok.” She solemnly responded before her thumb went back in.
“It was ok,” Jo repeated. She looked in the mirror at her little girls oh so serious face. She pondered whether to ask her more about her day. She decided instead not to push the subject. She put the radio on, and they sang along to it on the drive back to the house.
***
“I can’t wait for you both to see your surprise!” Jo said. “Close your eyes.” She held her children’s hands and led them to the garden. Emily held on tight. Sean’s hand was sticky with something- she’d rather not ask what it was. She led them from the driveway around to the back of the house. “On the count of three, open your eyes.”
Emily looked at the garden. The grass she had cleared earlier was covered again in fallen leaves. The swing set she had spent so long putting together laid on its side, with the chains detached from the metal bar across the top. Paint cans she had left on the patio near the back door were on their side, paint spilt across the patio, the grass and the swing set.
“Mummy, can I open my eyes yet?” Emily said.
“Three! Mummy where’s the surprise?” Sean said. He let go of her hand and ran to the wet paint. “Puddle jumping!” He shouted. He jumped into the paint, making it splash high up his trouser leg.
“Mummy was silly. The surprise isn’t ready yet. Why don’t you go and play in your room.” Jo said to Emily. She put on a forced smile to try and hide her shock. Emily nodded and went inside. Jo ran over to Sean and scooped him up. “Right, bath time for you then little man.”
“NO! I don’t like baths!” He shouted. Jo blew a raspberry on his belly. He giggled and wrapped his arms around her neck. She wrestled his shoes and trousers off of him and guided him into the house. Jo turned around and looked at her garden. Her face felt wet as tears started to roll down her cheeks. Who on earth had made such a mess? And what were they doing in her garden? They were in the middle of nowhere. There shouldn’t be anyone passing by. Unless someone came to the house on purpose. Jo went and got the garden hose. She attached it to the outside tap and walked over to the paint covered patio. She turned the water on and started to wash the paint off the patio. She smiled when she saw Sean’s footprints in the paint. As troublesome as he was, she loved how he always made the best out of any situation. She washed away his footprints, then saw some more a few feet away. She looked at it again, then dropped the hose. The water splashed up her leg, but she barely noticed. There was a second pair of footprints in the paint. Sean’s footprints had a wavy tread from his sporty trainers. But the second pair of footprints were a similar size but had no tread.
The person who had wrecked her garden was a child.
Message on the Floor
It was 6 am, three weeks after they had moved in. Jo was up early and sat out in the garden. For the past few mornings, she had been tiptoeing out of bed before the rest of the family woke to get an hour of privacy. She had been using that time to experiment with her art.
She had pushed out of her mind the incident where the garden had been wrecked and the image of the child’s footprints in the paint. The patio had been pressure washed, removing all signs. The garden had been cleared, and Gavin and her had taken the leaves and offcuts and bits of wood to the dump, so there was no chance of it getting spread around the garden again. The children’s swing set had been reassembled and fixed. But Jo had got the impression that Gavin didn’t really believe her when she said what had happened. She didn’t know what he was thinking. Perhaps that she had had some kind of breakdown and had trashed the place herself, or that she had just done it for attention. But Gavin had not voiced his concerns to her. He had helped her tidy up, and neither of them had mentioned it since.
Jo sipped her steaming coffee and then placed it back on the bench next to her, careful that it didn’t topple over. She looked at her sketchbook. She was nearly finished. It was a pastel sketch of a little boy. He was stood next to a pond and peering into it. In the reflection, he saw himself, but instead of peering into the pond, he was dancing. The boy was wearing Victorian clothes. In the background was a house and garden very much like their own. She hadn’t been sure what she was going to create when she had started the sketch, but the image had just come to her. It was the first sketch she had finished since Emily had been born. It wasn’t a piece she had been commissioned to create, but it was probably the image she was most proud of. She picked up a white pastel and added a bit more to the reflection on the water to make it shine. She smudged it with her fingers. The piece was finished. She picked up her cup of coffee and finished it. She was starting to like this house and how it was making her feel.
***
“Good morning, little man.” Jo knocked on Sean’s door and peeked inside. He wasn’t on the floor playing with his lego or toy cars. He wasn’t in his den pretending to be a dinosaur. He was in his b
ed, hugging his paw patrol toy. He looked at Jo but didn’t respond. “Are you ok, Sean?” Jo went and sat next to him. It was not like him to still be in bed. She reached out and touched his clammy head. “Aww my poor baby, you have a temperature.”
“My head feels funny, and my throat hurts.” He said.
“Well, no preschool for you today.” She held him to her and cuddled him. “We’ll have a mummy and Sean day today. We just have to take your sister to school first, ok?”
“No. I don’t want to go in the car.”
Jo frowned. Sean, unlike most children, rarely fell ill. And even when he did, he never complained about going in the car. He must be feeling really bad.
“Ok darling, let me go and speak to daddy.” Jo kissed Sean’s forehead then left the room. “Gavin?” She called him from upstairs. She walked down the steps to find him in the kitchen drinking a coffee. “Could you drop Emily off? Sean isn’t feeling very well.” Gavin nodded and downed his coffee.
“Of course,” he said. “Emily! Come on. Daddy’s dropping you off today.” He went to the bottom of the stairs.
“I’m ready,” Emily said. She was stood in the living room. She was dressed with her backpack on her back. Her arms were folded, and her stance was that of a teenager. Jo came into the hallway and looked at her. It was like she was seven going on fourteen.
“You’re all ready?” Jo said. “Let me just get your lunchbox.”
“It’s in my bag,” Emily said.
“And your water?” Jo said.
“I’ve got that too.” Jo took a hair bobble off of her wrist and walked up to Emily. She reached for her hair, but Emily brushed her hand away. “Can we go now, Daddy?”
“Of course,” Gavin said. “Let me just go and say goodbye to Sean.” He ran upstairs to Sean’s room. Jo looked down at her little girl, who was now putting on her school shoes.
“Are you ok, Emily?” Jo said. Emily stood up and waited at the door. She looked at her mum and nodded. Gavin came back downstairs, kissed Jo goodbye and went out the door, followed by Emily. Jo shut the door behind them and stopped for a minute.
***
Jo spent the day ripping out the kitchen. Sean had taken some children’s medicine and had fallen back into a deep sleep. Jo had taken it as an opportunity to get the kitchen ready. They were getting a new one delivered the next day, and she couldn’t wait. It felt good to make the repairs to the house herself. And once the kitchen was done, the house would be complete. She had made a pile of broken units outside on the driveway. She then set about taking the tiles off of the walls with a chisel and hammer. She played the radio while she worked and sang along. After she had removed the last tile she did the last thing, the flooring. It was a hideous lino that was out of keeping with the rest of the house, and she was dying to see what was underneath. She pulled it back. Beneath it was another layer of lino, this one was in an orange and yellow geometric print.
“Yuck, how was that ever in fashion?” she said to herself. She pulled it back as well. Underneath it was the original wooden flooring. It was dusty and had glue marks on. She disposed of the lino out front and started to wash the flooring. It took her an hour, and countless buckets of water to wash it by hand. By the time she was done, she could see that the original flooring was not worth saving. It had cut marks so deep on it, that even when sanded down they would show. She looked down at the flooring. The cut marks looked like there were in the shape of the letter P. She got another bucket full of clean water and washed that area. It did have a letter on P etched into it, as if done with a knife. She started to wash the area around it until she could read the whole message which was: Please help me.
***
“That is hilarious!” Gavin said. He had got home from work and was starting to throw the rubbish pile Jo had made into a skip. “Whoever lived here last did it for a joke. You hear stories about this kind of thing all of the time. Someone leaves a joke underneath their carpet, knowing that the next owner will find it. I heard about people leaving pictures or their signatures, but never anyone leaving a ‘please help me’ message. That is really funny.”
“It isn’t a joke, Gavin. It could be real.” Jo picked up a cupboard door and threw it into the skip with such force it broke into two as it landed.
“Look Jo. Things are going great. The house is almost finished, the kids are happy at school. I almost had to drag Emily out of school tonight. She wanted to stay so much.”
“What does that mean?” Jo said. She stopped what she was doing and looked to Gavin. “Didn’t she want to come home?”
“I didn’t say that, it was only that she wanted to stay at school. We should be glad she was enjoying it.” They worked in silence for a few minutes.
“I’m going to go in and get the kids ready for bed. Are you ok finishing off?” Jo said.
“Of course,” Gavin said. Jo turned and headed back to the house. “Jo?” He called after her. She turned around and looked to him. “This place is going to be good for us. Please don’t worry.” Jo nodded and turned back to the house.
***
“Emily? Did you have fun at school?” Jo pushed her door open. It was strange, as she seldom shut her door. She couldn’t see Emily. Jo walked in and looked in her bed. It was full of toys and dolls, but no Emily. She looked inside the tent she had bought her, but she wasn’t there either.
“Emily?” She called out. She wasn’t anywhere. Jo went to Sean’s bedroom and opened the door. He was asleep in bed. Jo frowned, he had napped more today than he had in the last six months. She peeked inside, but Emily wasn’t there. She shut the door quietly and looked in the other upstairs rooms. There was no sign of Emily.
“Emily? Can you come here please?” Jo called. She ran downstairs and looked in the living room and the other rooms. She wasn’t anywhere. She went out to the front garden where Gavin was still working.
“Have you seen Emily?” She called.
“No, why?” Gavin stopped what he was doing and walked over.
“She isn’t in the house.”
“She must be somewhere,” he said.
“I’ve looked. She isn’t in the house. She’s a good girl. She doesn’t run off.” Jo’s voice started to crack.
“Don’t panic. You stay here. I’ll go and look.” Gavin said. “This is the only way off the property. You’ll see her if she comes out.” He quickly kissed her head, then jogged inside the house. Jo looked around. She could hear him run around the house and call out her name. Jo looked up. She saw a face in the attic behind the dusty window. There was a child there. The face saw her and quickly looked away.
“Emily!” Jo shouted. She ran toward the house and ran up the stairs. “Gavin she’s in the attic.” Jo ran to the first floor and went to the attic door. Jo frowned. They had put a new lock on it weeks ago to stop the kids from getting in. How had Emily found the lock and unlocked it? It didn’t matter. Jo ran to the bedroom and got the key from a hook behind the door. She ran back to the hallway and unlocked the attic door. She ran up the stairs and got into the attic room. The room was empty, and it looked exactly the same as it had before. It was dusty and dark.
“Jo?” She heard Gavin calling her from downstairs. “I found her. She was playing in the back garden.” Jo sighed with relief. She walked over to the window where she had seen Emily a minute ago. She looked out through the dust and dirt to the skip below on the driveway. How had Emily got from up here to the garden without passing Jo? And how had she unlocked the door to the attic? She felt her hands go sweaty and her mouth dry. Had she seen someone else in the room? If so, who, and where were they now? Jo slowly turned around and looked around the room. It was the first time she had been in it since they had moved in. They didn’t need the space at the moment, and they couldn’t afford to convert the rooms, so they had decided that the best thing to do was to leave them. She looked around the room. It was empty. She didn’t want to be in there a minute longer. She turned to go,
but as she was walking, she noticed something on the floor. In the dust were her footprints, but next to them were another set of footprints. They were small, and the shoes didn’t have any treads. It was those of a small child. They were the same as the footprints she had seen in the paint on the patio a few weeks ago.
“Mummy?” Jo jumped at the voice, then calmed down when she saw it was Sean. He was stood in the doorway, looking at her. He was holding a comfort blanket in one hand. The comfort blanket that had been in a drawer since they had moved into the house and he had declared himself a ‘big boy’ who no longer needed it. He held his arms up to her, as he let out a big yawn. “What are you doing mummy?” He said. Jo went over to him and picked him up. He wrapped his legs and arms tight around her, in a way which he seldom did anymore.
“Hello, little man. Mummy was just looking for Emily. But she’s downstairs not, up here. Silly mummy.” She started to walk down the stairs.
“Silly mummy,” Sean repeated. “Emily doesn’t live in the attic. That’s Henry’s room,”
Jo stopped and looked at Sean, who was snuggled into her. “It’s no one’s room silly.” She said.
“It’s Henry’s room. He lives there.” Jo went down the steps and locked the door behind her. She planned to not go into the attic for a long, long time.
Secrets in the Drawings
It was the weekend, and Jo was pleased to have a break from the school run. But their plans on visiting the zoo were cancelled when Gavin woke up that morning with a nasty head cold. He had retreated to bed with painkillers and liquids whilst Jo entertained the kids. They sat together at their new dining room table. Sean was finger painting. Emily was colouring in a new unicorn book they had bought her as a present for getting on so well at school. Jo was sketching in her sketchbook. Over the last month of living in the house, Jo had completed four or five sketches. She was secretly very proud of what she had achieved, and when Gavin had stumbled across her sketches, he was even prouder. She had stopped sketching in secret and had set herself up an artist’s studio in the spare bedroom. Jo had decided after Christmas she would contact her old agent to see if she could be put forward to do some real jobs. But today was all about practicing her skills whilst amusing the children. Jo was drawing a picture of the house. She wanted to frame it and put it up in the hallway. So far, it was going well.
Haunted House Tales Page 129
