Warm Food Cold Body

by S. Y. Robins

  Lorna wondered who had snapped the photograph of the smiling couple but there was no way of knowing. She knew the photograph had been taken up at the stone circle but she couldn’t detect much more from it. Somehow her brain was taking all of this in and processing it but at the same time screaming that none of this could be true, Sadie and Brian were as real as Mildred and her sitting here now.

  “By the winter, sadie and Brian had started to make plans to run away together and get married but life was hard then and they kept delaying the wedding. Men were coming home from the war, women were settling back into their home lives after being in the military themselves and running factories or shops, and the entire country was struggling to survive. The parties stopped, the long nights singing and dancing in pubs ended, and men and women started looking for ways to house, feed, and clothe their children in a country damaged by bombing and facing shortages of everything. Rationing was the norm and even the electricity was rationed, not just food. Even the bankers were struggling and Sadie’s father, himself a banker, wanted to arrange a marriage for his only daughter with one of the few families left with money in the country. It was a cold winter that only grew worse. In the spring the snow started to melt and flooding came…” Mildred’s voice trailed off for a moment.

  Shaking herself out of her own memories Mildred continued. “I can remember my mum telling me how cold it was, how there wasn’t enough food, how everything under the sun was rationed. In these conditions Sadie’s father started to buy farm products and sell them on the black market for exorbitant prices. Brian’s father refused to do it and he went to William’s house one day to tell him to stop sending his goons around. What really happened nobody knows.”

  “What do you mean?” Lorna asked, now on the edge of her seat.

  “Well, from what the witnesses claim, Brian’s father never went into the house. He said what he had to say then left. But William claims Brian’s father went into the house, stole a ring, and that’s what started the problems. I expect he started that story as a punishment for Brian’s father and to keep Sadie from even looking at Brian. William suspected they were meeting but could never catch them. Then he found Sadie’s diary and things really exploded.”

  “What happened?” Lorna asked, her hands clutching at the bottom of her chair.

  “Well, we know from their diaries that they started meeting up at the circle in the evenings to dance under the stars, have picnics together, things of that nature. From both diaries nothing more happened. They were planning on marrying but Sadie’s father found her diary, as I said.”

  Mildred stopped speaking as a tune started to play from the computer’s speakers. Something about finding each other again in some other time. The tune was haunting, as was the tale unfolding as Mildred spoke.

  “The young couple were meeting in the evenings, despite William’s threats to send Sadie off to Scotland until he could marry her off and his threats to Brian’s life. The young couple were in love and dreamed about their wedding as they danced along the moors at night, we know that from the diaries. Although, if it was as foggy as it’s been the last few nights I imagine they did a lot of stumbling around. What we don’t know is exactly what happened on Halloween 1946. This was the result, however.”

  Mildred clicked to the next page, a headline screaming of murder and a picture of a headstone topped a story titled “The Death of True Love.”

  “Oh no!” Lorna cried out, her right hand going over her mouth. Mildred had said they were both dead now but Lorna had assumed she meant they’d died of old age. Not this!

  Moving to sit closer to the screen Lorna started to read the story. Tears started streaming down her face as she read the article. It seemed William Conley had driven off in a rage after reading his daughter’s diary, driving as close as he could to the stone circle before tromping up with a shotgun to confront his daughter and her young fellow. William had shouted at the pair as they danced along the moor, firing his first shot as young Brian had turned around. The shot struck Brian in the chest and he fell to the ground instantly.

  Sadie had screamed at her father, sobs instantly coming to her throat as she fell down to cradle Brian to her chest. William’s partner in the crime, a man named Shifty Pete, had testified that William refused to take Brian to a doctor despite his daughter’s desperate pleas and Pete’s urging that they could still get out of criminal charges. Brian had quickly bled to death, blood pumping from the wound to cover poor Sadie in her lover’s lifeblood. William had stood over the pair, coldly watching as the boy he’d felt soiled his daughter with his attentions bled out.

  When William was certain Brian was dead he’d pulled Sadie away, driven her home, nailed her windows shut and locked her door so she couldn’t escape. Shifty Pete had let her out two days later and Sadie had run straight to the police. William was arrested but used his ill-gotten money and connections to have any charges forgotten. Poor Sadie, in shock and despair spent a devastating winter in snow filled gloom. In the spring there was more snow and then the rains came.

  “Poor lamb!” Lorna muttered as she continued to read, still wiping tears from her eyes.

  Sadie, her lover dead and her father the killer had thrown herself into a flooded river when the rains started to melt the snow. The entire country had been devastated by the floods but for Sadie the rushing water was a way to escape reality. Her only refuge, death, after such a terrifying and soul destroying event.

  “Poor child. Was her body recovered?” Lorna asked, wanting to visit the graves of both of the now long-dead couple.

  “No, she was never found. Some held out hope that she’d escaped and just started a new life elsewhere but over the years we’ve lost hope. Do you know they both mentioned you in their diaries? The person that started this website managed to get both and has put them both online. They’ve described you exactly. Even down to the strange wires in your ears you’d walk around with. Sadie very much loved your red coat. When I saw the coat my suspicions increased but now, well, this is their story. I don’t know how it ends or why you can see them, but there you go.” Mildred said, sounding deflated.

  “That’s it? They died and now I can see them? Mildred you can’t do this to me! It’s not fair!” Lorna insisted. The two beautiful people she’d come to know couldn’t possibly be dead. This just did not make sense.

  “I’m going to get you a cider, love, I think you need it. Here, look through the website. I’ll be right back.” Mildred said as she got up and left the room.

  Lorna was certain she was on the verge of a panic attack. This couldn’t be true. She clicked through pictures of a smiling Brian in his air force uniform, his hat at a jaunty angle, Sadie in her own pictures, smiling as she stood against a desk, dark red lipstick looking black in the black and white photograph. These were definitely the people she’d been walking with in the evenings but how was it possible?

  Could love really be so strong it would echo through time this way? Could ghosts really appear to be so real? Lorna felt like she was going out of her mind. Here was the evidence but she’d seen Brian carrying Jack in his basket. That wasn’t a spectral, wisp of an apparition, he’d been real!

  “Mildred, this simply makes no sense! This simply cannot be!” Lorna implored as she drank her cider down quickly, not paying attention to what she was doing.

  “It may not make any sense Lorna, but it is what it is. We’ve known the story in this village, and we’ve all wondered who the Lorna mentioned was and we’ve all speculated about the wires she had going into her ears. The first time I saw you I started to suspect. Then I saw you putting your ear buds in one night before you walked home and I just knew. And then you got the coat! I’ve been watching and waiting ever since and here we are. Now we have to find out why this is happening.” Mildred ended.

  “Who do we ask?” Lorna asked, totally at a loss.

  “I’ve no idea. Perhaps Sadie and Brian? I really don’t know that part.” Mildred added unhelpfully.
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  “I guess I should get back to the prepping. I have to think about all of this, try to absorb it. “

  “Why don’t you go home and let me and the others handle the kitchen?” Mildred offered.

  “No, thank you but no, I need to work, to stay occupied. That’s what will help the most.” Lorna said, staring at the webpage. “Can you send me that link? I’ll look at it later when I get home. What a tale!”

  Lorna felt deflated as well now. Surely the story wouldn’t end there? It couldn’t.

  Lorna watched the clock as she prepped the food and put it all away. She watched the clock as her staff came in, there to keep the dishes clean and perform the task of cooking starters and side dishes. Then later as she cooked the main meals and the desserts she watched the clock some more. At the end of the service, as she gave the kitchen a final clean and turned the lights out she finally stopped watching it and put her coat on to leave. For the first time in over a week there was no fog when she left the pub. She put her earbuds in now that she’d be able to see cars coming and made her way down the hill.

  She walked automatically, a robot with her brain otherwise engaged, as she had all day. One foot went in front of the other until she arrived at her door, Jack there to greet her as usual. She went through her normal routine of eating, showering, and settling into the couch before she opened her laptop to click the link Mildred had sent her.

  Lorna came alive again as the link loaded, wondering why she’d not seen either of the pair tonight. Perhaps the fog brought them? Or perhaps it was only the fog that made them visible? She clicked through a variety of pages on the website until she found Brian’s diary. She’d start with that one. Scrolling down she started on the date that coincided with the date that she’d first met Brian, some intuition telling her to begin reading from there.

  Lorna’s confusion grew as she read a brief account of her meeting with Brian, down to his observation of her odd shiny boots that looked serviceable but unlike anything he’d ever seen with their bright green and yellow colouring. Lorna looked away from the laptop knowing that what she was reading had to be true, the pages were copies from the old timeworn book. She read until the date coincided with the current night, noting that a week passed before Brian had started writing again.

  Lorna wanted to skip ahead to the final pages but she forced herself to read poor Sadie’s diary, seeing the same thing happening in the young woman’s diary. Sadie noted Lorna’s clothes but also mentioned the Swarovski Crystal necklace that Lorna had worn. There was a reason Sadie had never seen anything like it, the spherical balls hadn’t been invented yet.

  Stopping the scrolling of her fingers Lorna put the laptop aside and made herself a cup of herbal tea. Obviously she was the Lorna mentioned. She had to admit that now. But why? Was she supposed to do something to stop the events that had already unfolded? If so how was she supposed to change something that had already happened? She wasn’t a time traveller. She sat back down on her sofa and read through Sadie’s diary.

  Lorna had read a month past Brian’s death, Sadie having filled pages with her despair, several pages smeared with her tears but still legible, when she thought she’d finally found an answer. “If only I could have found the ring.” Sadie had written. But where was the ring?

  Lorna went back to Brian’s diary, reading the entire thing, up until the night Brian died when he obviously wasn’t ever going to write another word. Nothing there about the ring at all, just a heart-breaking sudden ending that spoke volumes. It was obvious form the diary just how very much the couple had been in love. Lorna didn’t think she’d ever been that in love. She hadn’t even loved Tom that much, the man who’d left her for her best friend, and she’d left the city to forget him! These two had been devoted to each other, a shelter in the storm of England at the end of World War II.

  Lorna knew television programs and movies had glamorized and romanticized the war and its aftermath with couples living happily ever after but that had simply not been true. It had been a rough time and even into the 1960s times had remained hard for Britain. Then the Cold War had started and people were constantly threatened with nuclear annihilation and communist takeovers. No, life had not been as grand as that portrayed by the entertainment industry, not at all.

  Lorna knew, however, that given the chance Brian and Sadie would have made a go of it, the love and devotion they shared would have seen them through, if they’d only been given that chance. Lorna finally turned everything off around 1 am, lost as to what else to do. She put an audiobook on her phone and listened to it to distract herself until she fell asleep to keep her brain quiet. It was a struggle but she felt helpless and didn’t know what else to do and she simply had to sleep. She fell asleep doubting that love could conquer all but she realized, at least, that love truly did exist. Brian and Sadie were proof of that much.

  4

  Lorna spent an entire miserable week with no idea what to do. She’d found out which house had belonged to Sadie’s father and visited the place. It was now a meeting place for the village, a palace for bingo mavens and social events. Lorna had never known the history of the place but now she did and she combed over every inch of it she was allowed near. Mildred went with her one day and showed her the worst kept secret in town.

  Within the fireplace chimney a brick had been chiselled out and little messages were sometimes left to the ghosts of Sadie and Brian. If Lorna could find the ring, it would be a wonderful place to stick it for Sadie to find, but she had no idea where the ring was. But how would that get the ring back in time? No, she had to find who had originally taken the ring, that’s all there was to it.

  An idea struck Lorna and she started printing and copying any pictures she could find from the time period. Alright, maybe she was starting to look crazy, Lorna thought, but surely there was a reason for all of this? This couldn’t just be some random haunting with no meaning. Lorna was no physicist, she had no understanding of quantum mechanics, or even basic mechanics for that matter but she had to do something. She couldn’t just sit back and wait. She felt as though this were an opportunity she had to take.

  Lorna looked over the pictures in the pub before her shift started the night before Halloween. She didn’t see anyone that screamed out “I’m a ring thief” other than Sadie’s father. Feeling a tap on her shoulder she looked around to see Oona, the purple-headed sprite of the village.

  “Hi Oona, how are you?" Lorna asked before going back to her pictures.

  “Doing alright, Lorna. I bet if you went up to the circle tomorrow night you might get some answers. I can’t make any promises but you might be surprised.” Oona said with a smile before she wandered off to her friends sitting over in a corner. One of them looked like she was in serious need of a blood transfusion. Shaking away the thoughts Lorna went back to the pictures.

  Giving up on finding a clue she gathered the pictures and went back to the kitchen to begin cooking. Maybe Oona was right, she thought later as she stirred a soup she was preparing. Maybe that was the answer, the stone circle. Searching out Mildred she asked her boss to cover her shift the next night and happily went back to work.

  The rest of the night went smoothly and although the night was not as foggy as it had been when she’d first met Brian there was a light fog that made it hard to see. As she wandered down the hill of death she thought she heard someone humming the song she’d been humming along to the first night she met Brian. This time, out of curiosity she started to sing along to a song she’d recently added to her mobile. A sad song about a man hoping the relationship he had would last because he’d been alone far too long. Lorna sang the song loudly, with the loneliness she felt herself, and with the sadness she felt for Sadie and Brian. She heard a distant chuckle as she walked off the hill. Going in to check the diary once more, just to see, she found a new entry in the diary, one that hadn’t been there the night before.

  “I heard Lorna singing tonight but never did seem to catch up with her. It w
as a sad song, unlike anything I’ve heard before but it was lovely in her warbly voice” The first lines read. So she could change things, at least. She knew that was possible now.

  The next night she was at the stone circle by 8:45 pm wondering what to do next. She had the pictures spread out in the middle of the circle and as a fog rolled in through the trees to the clearing around the circle she could hear a slight humming. She turned and Brian was standing there.

  “Hello Lorna, it’s great to see you again!” The young man said, holding a hand out to his friend.

  “It’s great to see you as well, Brian, where’s Sadie?” Lorna asked, looking around.

  “She’s on her way. Never fear. Now you know what happens next, right?” Brian asked, his eyes far too mature, far too calm.

  Lorna sobbed looking into his accepting eyes. Throwing a hand over her mouth she shook her head and willed the tears away. Swiping her hand across her eyes she looked back steadily at the man that would soon die, had already died.

  “Yes, I do. How can I stop it?” Lorna asked, pleading for help.

  “Find the ring. You know that brick where you found the notes in Sadie’s house?” Brian asked her.

  “How did you know about that? Wait no, don’t tell me, you’re a ghost.” Lorna responded. “Yes, what about it?”

  “If you go directly from here now, you’ll find the ring there. Set it on top of the desk, where anyone can see it. Don’t worry, it won’t be there in the morning. Now go, hurry, please, Sadie’s coming and if you don’t get this done before midnight it may be another six decades before we get the chance again. I don’t know how all of this works, I have no answers for you and no time. Go now, please. And thank you, Lorna. For whatever you accomplish or don’t, you’ve tried. Thank you. Now go.” Brian gave her a kiss on the cheek that felt rather airy and then disappeared.