by S G Read
‘I have to thank you for calling in the cavalry Jenny; they do make a good team.’
‘Just doing what they would have done I hope to be in the team one day I have been practising my football to make it even sides.’
‘Well you will have time on your hands here so make sure you have a football.’
‘I brought two with me.’ Jenny replied.
A clatter of feet on the wooden stair let them know the boys were coming and the talk ceased. The mini bus was loaded and soon they were all on the way to Gordon Hall ready for a new adventure with the exception of Jenny who would be going back with her dad.
Most of the boys slept on the way, after they had exhausted all the car games they could think of but when the mini bus pulled up in front of Gordon Hall they were all wide awake. A car waited in front of the hall and Pat walked over to where he stood stretching as she did so, after the long journey. The house was completely dark and he made no move to go in. He merely gave Pat the keys and drove away, he did not even ask for proof of identity. The boys climbed out of the mini bus and looked at the dark and menacing Gordon Hall.
‘Do we go in?’ Simon asked.
‘Well I’m not sleeping out here!’ Sherman declared and steered Stevey over to his mother for the keys.
Stevey unlocked the front door and it creaked open spookily.
‘Needs a squirt of oil.’ Brian noted, as he stepped inside followed by Jenny. ‘We’ll sleep here and start back in the morning if that is okay with you Pat?’
‘Yes fine, we don’t want you falling asleep at the wheel do we?’ Pat answered and followed them in leaving all the boys still outside.
‘Well here goes nothing.’ Stevey said bravely and walked inside, the rest followed apprehensively.
Inside all was quiet but while Brian went off to find somewhere to sleep the boys huddled together in the large drawing room. Pat investigated the kitchen and it was not long before she had the boys working. Stevey lit the range to enable her to cook and make tea; the rest of the boys were sent to uncover beds and turn over the mattresses if they were dusty with Stuart’s warning to stay out of the north wing ringing in their ears. Jenny chose to go with Pat and her father to the shops to buy a toaster, vacuum cleaner, in fact she bought two vacuum cleaners, one for upstairs and one for down stairs, as well a kettle and a few other things for the kitchen. It made a change not even having to look at the price of anything, although she still did. They bought a video player , a television and some videos, before they went on to other shops to but meat, vegetables and other things for the kitchen. She was disgusted to find that there was no refrigerator and all the sockets were of the round pin type which made them very old. Brian, being a handyman of necessity searched round and found some plugs in a draw to put on the new electrical things he also found a very old refrigerator but it ran on gas. He managed to light the gas flame in it and two hours later it was cold enough to put what food they had inside. By now, in the kitchen there was a list of things to be done, which included rewiring the hall, put in central heating and a few other things; it was a long list and some of the additions were made by Stevey.
With the toaster and kettle working, the fridge cold and the range hot Brian looked into sorting out the boiler which heated up four radiators, which were directly over it or very close to directly over it. It also heated up the drying room which would be handy as for now Pat had to wash by hand and there was no way to dry the clothes except for drip drying. Her plans to wash the bed linen where there was any was put on hold and she settled for washing a few clothes and hung them in the drying room to see how well it worked.
She made a late supper to go with the take away meal they bought while they were out and then sat round in the drawing room playing charades as the television was not up and running yet, to keep them entertained but laughter rang through the building which had not happened for a long time. The heard and saw nothing of the ghost before they went to bed and the rest of the team decided they were exaggerating the presence of a ghost. One by one the team turned off their lights and the darkness was intense, as out here there was no light pollution here to light up the building. They all fell asleep with out hearing or seeing the ghost; a few were relieved that they did not hear or see it and all slept soundly.
Chapter 2
Brian and Jenny were up early in the morning and when Jenny called to say goodbye to Stevey and Stuart, they did not stir. She kissed both on the cheek as a good bye and then kissed Stuart on the lips before letting him sleep on. When they drove away there was only Pat to wave goodbye and watch them go, apart from the ghost who peered out of his bedroom window in the north wing.
Brian drove back to his flat to collect the rest of their things and then on to Apsford Manor. Jenny slept a good deal of the way but was glad to get out of the minibus at the other end. Brian started work straight away with Jenny helping wherever she could but she soon became bored and longed for a reason to go back to Gordon Hall again. Brian sensed her mood and he made her put on her prettiest dress, then took her to a posh restaurant for a meal. That made her day and took the edge of her boredom. It would be something they would do often while they were down there.
Pat prepared for the boys coming down for breakfast but they were a long time coming. When they did it was in dribs and drabs, until they had all eaten breakfast and were ready to face the world.
‘Where is Jenny?’ Stuart asked when she was not downstairs. ‘She is not in her room.’
‘They left for Apsford while you were asleep, she did come in to say goodbye but you slept right through it.’ Pat answered while she cooked.
‘Oh- well she could have woken me I wouldn’t have minded.’
‘She did try Stuart and I do believe she tried a kiss as well.’
Stuart put his hand to his cheek involuntarily but said no more.
With no sign of the ghost, they went outside to explore the extensive grounds. They walked down past the side of the car breakers yard and a dog barked, not furiously but just a bark. They all hurried over to the fence to stroke Marmalade as well as they could through it. He accepted all the stroking they offered.
‘I’m going to have a swimming pool there one day.’ Stevey declared to the attentive dog. He pointed to a nearby garden bed. ‘Then you can watch us swim and we can come over and stroke you.’
‘Won’t he come through and say hello there is plenty of room for him to get through round the end?’ Toby asked.
‘No he is odd like that, he won’t leave the yard without his owner and his owner old Ronnie rarely goes anywhere. If we want to see him we have to go in and see him.’
‘Shall we?’ Stuart asked.
‘We could couldn’t we?’ Simon asked.
The consensus was yes.
‘Look out Marmalade we are coming through.’ Sherman declared and walked to the gap at the end to squeeze through; the rest all followed with Marmalade jumping up and barking with excitement. They found Ronnie tinkering with a car and the greeting was short but heart felt, as they were the reason he was free and alive.
They walked as far as the pond, after Ronnie returned to his tinkering. The cars that Willie, Ronnie’s twin brother had used to block it off were gone and they could walk to the pond again. It brought back memories for Stuart and Stevey, as it was the first time they met Marmalade and it was there Lenny Mole had crossed after stealing their raft. Stuart wondered in the back of his mind that if they had left the raft there, would Lenny have made it back safely but he knew the answer really, as Lenny was dead before they swam across and recovered their raft. They walked back to the opening and said goodbye to Marmalade who stood watching them after they had gone through then the boys continued their tour. They stopped to talk to old Dan with his squeaky wheelbarrow. He had been informed of the sale and wondered who had bought the hall, now he was all smiles, as he leant on his spade and talked to them. After all they would not pull the hall down and build houses here.
The t
our continued until they came to the line of sweet chestnut trees which ran along the lane on the far side. The fence for Stevey’s property ran the other side of the trees which meant they were his and he was looking forward to roast chestnuts by one of the open fires in the hall.
‘You’ll be okay for chestnuts.’ C.J. said as he kicked a fallen husk.
The husk was open and Stevey looked at it where it lay.
‘Someone has knocked that down and opened in on my land.’ He declared like a dyed in the wool landowner.
‘And?’ Toby asked.
‘They aren’t ready yet, so it is a waste. When they are ready there will be so many they are welcome to some whoever they are but if I catch them doing it before they are ripe, I will tell them off.’
‘Makes sense.’ Sherman agreed. ‘If I’m with you I will tell them off as well.’
The group stopped and studied the trees to see if the culprit was still there but they saw no one and walked on. They walked past the trees and past Dan’s cottage which was set back. It had one gate on the lane and the rear gate into the garden, which he loved and tended with great tenderness. To him it was ‘all’ his garden, even when he walked through the gate into Gordon Hall’s garden. He grew what he could and sold it on to help out his lack of pay since the owner had been forced to sell it and then the new owners had fled when they encountered the ghost. He had not been paid since then but he was now a pensioner and with what he sold from the main garden he was able to get by. At the top shielded by a trellis with trailing plants growing up it there was two sheds, both full of gardening equipment. There was a sit on mower which they all vowed to have a go on when it was next out and other mechanical devises all of them were petrol driven but there was an extension lead with a modern plug on it and Stevey made a mental note to ask Dan what the wiring was like in his house. They did not go into the paddock behind the sheds which were still Stevey’s property but followed the low hedge across to the garden at the front where the main road ran and followed the garden which in turn followed the main road until they came to the cellar door and the shed at the top of the slope. Stevey remembered the keys and took them out of the shed door locking it as he did so and they all walked down to the cellar door which Stevey unlocked.
‘Wow nice cellar.’ Simon declared. ‘I’d love one of these where I live.’
‘Who wouldn’t?’ J.C. replied.
‘Toby for one.’ J.C. answered. ‘There would be spiders in there!’
‘If you haven’t noticed J.C, I have not been afraid of spiders since I came back from the jungle; the spiders over here are nothing compared with the spiders I saw over there.’ To prove it he walked over and picked a spider out of its web and brought it over, making sure every time it moved that it did not fall or go up his sleeve.
They were all impressed and the spider was eventually returned to its web and the boys walked up the stairs out of the cellar, after Stevey had locked the cellar door. He wanted no one coming in the way they used, when they were keeping watch on the car breakers next door. The smell of cooking food drew them to the kitchen, where Pat was coming to terms with the range. It was all trial and error but now that she had the time and enough money to replace what she burnt, she was finding it less stressful than she would have done. They had eaten burnt food on more than one occasion but that was nothing to do with the cooker but mainly due to Pat falling asleep while she was cooking. The kitchen was big enough for the boys to come in and have a look at what was cooking without Pat throwing a wobbly, she just carried on cooking. The fact that some of them had cooked food while in the jungle meant they might comment on the food but only once. As the food would not be ready for some time they all moved into the drawing room and found somewhere to sit.
‘So where exactly is this ghost then?’ Ben asked never one to hold back.
‘It was about when we were trying to keep watch on the scrap yard.’ Stuart replied. ‘But we had to be in the north wing to do that.’
‘Where is this north wing then?’ Ben asked.
Moments later they were all on their way to the north wing, the upstairs part to be precise. When they reached the locked door which sealed off the top section of the north wing, Stephen pulled the bunch of keys from his pocket. It was the same keys from the shed outside and tried a key at a time until he found the right one, just to boost the tension. The door creaked open and one light came on when they switched on the switch by the door but only one.
‘Here little ghosty.’ Simon called as though he was calling a cat and when that did not invoke a response they moved along the corridor slowly searching each room as they went and getting more nervous as they went. Stevey and Stuart held back when they came to the room the ghost had been in and let the others go first but there was no ghost. They reached the last room without seeing or hearing the ghost and walked back out of the north wing disconsolately. They walked downstairs trailing dust from the north wing as they went and returned to the drawing room.
‘Well that was a waste of time.’ Simon grumped.
‘Maybe there were too many of us and he was frightened.’ Stuart suggested.
‘He was frightened! Now I have heard everything.’ Toby exclaimed.
‘How can a ghost be scared?’ Ben asked.
‘Well he was just a boy when he died, so something nasty must have happened to him or he wouldn’t be here haunting the place.’ Stevey answered.
‘But he’s a ghost! No one can hurt a ghost can they?’ Sherman asked.
‘What about the ghost busters?’ Simon asked.
‘That was film Simon and that serial about the woman who caught ghosts was just a television programme.’ Toby answered.
‘I knew that but where did the ideas come from?’ Simon replied. ‘Someone might have found a way to catch them!’
No one argued as it was just possible as before they had never met a ghost but now some of them had.
They settled in the drawing room until it was time to eat then all trooped into the
Kitchen to eat afterwards they trooped into the dining room which had no table or chairs but now boasted a television and a videoset up ready to play. They watched an action video, then another, before Pat turned it off and they went to bed.
When morning came they were slow to emerge from the bedrooms as today was Friday and all but Stuart and Stevey were going home. David and Wendy Sellars arrived to make sure they still had a son and during the day a procession of cars arrived to take the others home and there was very little time to search for the ghost before they went. Those that remained, Pat, Stevey and Stuart went back to the Sellars house leaving the Gordon Hall empty, soon after they left, the sound of crying echoed from the bedroom in the north wing but there was no one but old Dan to hear him, as he was tending the garden outside. He looked up at the window and a tear ran down his cheek before he wheeled his squeaky wheelbarrow away.
Wendy and David took the three out to a restaurant for a meal and they sat and talked until Stuart and Stevey went up to bed and the computer. The others sat talking downstairs until well into the night before they decided to go to bed. Before he turned in David opened the Stuart’s door.
‘Bed now I think you two.’ He said through the open door without looking in.
‘Okay dad.’ Stuart answered but it was some time before the computer was finally turned off.
With morning came another shopping trip, this time for a computer. Stevey knew it would lead to arguments if they were all there but he did have plans to change that but for now it would do. The computer stayed in the box and they stayed at the Sellars for a second night before David drove them back to the Hall. Stuart went back with Stevey, as he had a date with a ghost; Wendy just wished him luck saying rather you than me!
On the Sunday deliveries arrived, there were beds arriving, they were carried upstairs, a table for the dining room and more chairs than they needed. A new refrigerator and a freezer arrived with round pin adaptors as they had moulded plugs
. Three sofas arrived and were placed in the drawing room but nothing was taken out making more seats than were necessary even with all the boys there. Slowly the place was becoming home and when the dishwasher arrived it pleased Pat the most, although the arrival of the washing machine meant no more washing by hand.
When no more deliveries were expected to arrive the two boys walked into the dining room to watch a video and found them strewn in a heap on the floor.
‘Did you do this when you showed the men where to put the table and chairs?’ Stevey asked.
‘No they were already like it, I thought you were looking for something.’ Stuart answered.
‘I wasn’t but somebody was or something.’
‘You don’t think it was Tim do you?’
‘Well unless we had burglars who were frightened off by the ghost. The same ghost who we have not seen hide or hair of since we arrived then I’d say Tim is in to watching videos.’
‘But we turned the video player and telly off at the wall when we went to bed!’ Stuart declared.
‘Well they are on now both of them!’ Stevey replied.
He pressed the button and the video player left in the machine appeared.
‘And we did not watch ‘last action hero’ at all.’ He added.
‘So he is in to watching action videos, shall we torture him with the sound of music?’
‘That’s for mum she loves that musical.’ Stevey answered and tried to put the video back in its case. ‘He broke the case getting it out!’
Stuart picked up an unopened case removed the cellophane in plain sight of anyone watching then opened and closed the box several times.
‘Are we learning yet?’ He asked sarcastically.
Seconds later he doubled up, as his insides were frozen.
‘That might stop more boxes being broken.’ Stevey declared well done Stu.
‘Think nothing of it.’ Stuart replied from his ‘I’ve got a bad stomach’ position not doubled up but trying to warm his stomach by holding it tightly. ‘Why the hell didn’t he show when the others were here?’
