It took over his life. Ali hardly saw him and had to phone to ask how he was getting on.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘You’ll soon be joining me on my first drive in it.’
‘You must be joking,’ she snapped. ‘That Land Rover gives me the creeps. You’ll never get me inside that thing.’
Late at night, while working alone, Tom removed the back seat. He wasn’t ready for what he found hidden under it. He lifted out a small leather case. But that wasn’t all. He stood back in horror. Beside it, wrapped in cloth, was a human skull.
‘I knew there was something weird about that thing,’ Ali said. ‘I feel cold inside if I go anywhere near it.’
‘Really?’ Tom said. ‘It’s not so with me. Sometimes when I’m working inside it I get really hot.’
Ali began going through letters and photos in the old case.
‘It seems your Uncle Edgar took the Land Rover to Egypt in 1949. He went with his wife, your Auntie May, to explore old tombs. Here’s a photo of the Land Rover by a pyramid. And there’s Uncle Edgar with his arm round a young woman. She must be Auntie May.’
Tom looked at the photo. ‘She looks really cool.’
Ali flicked his ear. ‘Auntie May, or your precious Land Rover?’
‘The Land Rover, of course!’
‘Tom! Poor Auntie May died just after that photo. There’s a letter here. Listen to this.
‘My poor May died in her tent last night. It was so sudden. They say it was a snake bite. I’m not so sure. It could be the curse of the tomb. The skull was beside her in the tent.’
A cold wind blew as Tom went back to the workshop. He looked at the skull on a pile of oily rags. Could there really be a curse?
The heat hit him as soon as he opened the Land Rover. A dry, intense heat and a strange smell. The driver’s seat was covered in fine sand. He was sure he heard the buzzing of flies … followed by something else. The hiss of a snake.
Tom ran into the house. He didn’t tell Ali about the noises in the Land Rover. But he needed to know more. They found a note that Uncle Edgar wrote, after he came home from Egypt.
‘The curse has followed me home. This morning Patsy was playing in the bedroom. I saw her touch the skull on the shelf. It was the last time I saw her alive. Dear Patsy was just six. Doctors said her arm was swollen from deadly poison – from a scorpion sting.
It’s time to do something fast. I should never have dug up that skull. It should be left to rest in peace. I will hide every memory of that fateful Egypt trip. I can’t bear to see the Land Rover any more. It must all be hidden forever.’
‘There’s only one thing for it,’ Tom said. ‘I’ll have to put that skull to rest. I’ll nail it in a wooden box and bury it at the bottom of the garden.’
He dug a deep hole under the holly tree and buried the box inside. After filling the hole with soil and stamping turf on top, he went back to the workshop and sat in the Land Rover. He waited. Nothing. There were no sounds. It was cool and still.
‘I’ve cracked it!’ he smiled. ‘Another few weeks and this will be on the road.’
Ali put all the papers back in the case and stood at the window. She thought about poor Auntie May and Patsy … until she saw what was down the garden. The holly tree’s leaves were brown and falling. They blew across the dead grass. Nothing grew at the bottom of the garden. There was a bare patch where Tom had buried the box. No birds would go near.
The Land Rover was looking good. Tom and his mates had done a great job. The engine and the bodywork were as good as new when the day came to go on the road for the first time. People came to watch the big launch. The local paper printed the story: HIDDEN FOR HALF A CENTURY. It told of Tom’s hard work and printed the photo of Uncle Edgar by a pyramid.
The Land Rover was great to drive. It handled well in ice and snow. But then Tom heard the buzzing of flies again. The heat inside became so unbearable he had to get out in the freezing wind to cool down. He didn’t tell anyone – even when he became ill.
The doctors said Tom must have caught malaria when he’d been abroad. He had to rest, so he left the Land Rover in the garage for months – until an American phoned.
‘Hi, Tom. We’ve seen all the stuff about your old Land Rover. Can we use it? We’re making a movie. Of course, we’ll pay you.’
Tom felt really proud when the film crew came to drive the Land Rover away, but he wasn’t prepared for the call a few days later – nor the headline in the paper.
FILM STAR KILLED BY COBRA.
She died on the film set … while sitting in Tom’s Land Rover.
With the Land Rover back in his garage, Tom decided to get rid of it.
‘It’s for the best. It upsets me, but who knows what may happen next?’
He paused as he held Ali’s hand. ‘I can’t drive it any more. There’s something about it. Uncle Edgar knew that. I’ll have to destroy it. Tonight when it’s dark, I’m going to dump it in the lake.’
They looked down into the murky water of Tarn Lake. Tom felt sick – not just from what he was about to do, but from driving the Land Rover. Even with all the windows open, the heat and smell inside had been too much. Ali had driven her Mini – to take them home again.
Tom released the hand brake and stood back. The Land Rover rolled forward. He couldn’t watch as his pride and joy plunged down the bank. It hit the water and spun onto its roof. A sheet of spray shot across the lake. Within seconds, the wheels sank below the bubbling water. Down and down. Down to the dark and muddy depths.
Ali held Tom’s hand and led him away. He was unable to speak as they drove back in the darkness.
No one mentioned the Land Rover for days … until they saw the News on TV. A reporter was standing on the bank of Tarn Lake. She told the chilling news of an angler found floating in the icy water. But he hadn’t drowned. He’d died from a snake bite to his neck.
Ali rushed outside. She needed to think. She looked down the garden, to the skull’s resting place. At least the grass was growing again now. The holly tree was green once more. That was some relief. Except …
Her heart missed a beat. For there, under the holly tree, lay the skull … gleaming in the moonlight … staring up at her.
Grinning.
More great SHADES 2.0 SHORTS reads:
Sci-Fi Stories
Funny Stories
Crime Stories
Copyright
SHADES 2.0 SHORTS
Ghost Stories
by Gillian Philip, Mary Chapman, Anne Rooney and John Townsend
Published by Ransom Publishing Ltd.
Radley House, 8 St. Cross Road, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 9HX, UK
www.ransom.co.uk
ISBN 978 178127 492 7
Misty and The Hanging Tree first published in 2009
This edition published by Ransom Publishing 2013
Copyright © 2013 Ransom Publishing Ltd.
Texts copyright © 2013 Gillian Philip, Mary Chapman, Anne Rooney and John Townsend
Cover photograph copyright © peepo
A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
The rights of Gillian Philip, Mary Chapman, Anne Rooney and John Townsend to be identified as the authors of this Work have been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
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