Lucy Lockhart: The Awakening

by Bryce THOMAS

  He paused for a moment to form his words. ‘Lucy Lockhart, that is.’ He frowned, a genuine concerned frown. ‘But there’s a stranger there, somewhere inside you, that none of us seem to know yet, and that bothers me, Lucy. I don’t know if it was you or if it was Loanne who first decided to go investigating next door, but one thing I do know is that Loanne would not have gone on her own. Loanne is the most precious thing I have in the world and I don’t want her going off on escapades where I don’t know what she is doing or where she is doing it.’

  If that was a telling-off, Lucy thought, then he had done a good job of it. ‘I’m sorry…’ she began to apologise, but Loanne broke in.

  ‘I love you too Daddy,’ she said, squeezing her father’s hand and looking at him adoringly. Lucy thought it might be a well practiced look, for it seemed to dissolve her father like sugar in hot tea. ‘We were a little foolish, I know that, Daddy,’ she went on, her eyes still melting her father’s antagonism. ‘But it wasn’t Lucy’s fault, honest. It was I who persuaded her to go back to the old farmhouse. It really was.’

  He looked at Lucy, his eyes silently asking for confirmation or denial.

  Lucy shook her head slowly. ‘It was my fault really. It was Loanne’s idea to go over there, but it wouldn’t have been something she’d have even considered doing if I hadn’t gone running over there yesterday. So it really wasn’t her fault, Doctor Murray.’

  Doctor Murray put his hands on his knees and pushed himself up from the sofa. He ran his fingers through his hair, sighed and turned to Mrs. Lockhart. ‘How can anybody be angry with these two?’ he said, shaking his head and letting a faint smile creep up the side of his shadowy cheek. ‘Who’d have daughters!’

  ‘Well, I think we both know the answer to that,’ she answered with a smile.

  There was a long silence while the feelings of anger and love and understanding and all the other emotions that were filling the room melted into one of happiness that they were all safe and together; and then, eventually Loanne spoke again.

  ‘We actually found out that they are trying to kill The Thin Man.’ She said it so casually that it was perhaps a little hard to work out if she was being serious.

  Doctor Murray gave her a sideways glance. ‘The Thin

  Man?’

  ‘The man we’ve seen at the old farmhouse,’ Loanne explained.

  ‘Go on,’ he instructed, unsure where the conversation was leading. ‘I’m listening.’

  Loanne continued explaining what they had seen.

  ‘Ackley drove up to the house and…’

  ‘Ackley?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, he’s the one who tried to catch us,’ Loanne pressed on.

  ‘Tried to catch you!’ her father exclaimed. ‘You mean that he was after you?’

  ‘Yes, but he couldn’t catch us,’ Loanne said quite confidently, and giving her father another stress-melting smile. ‘We were quite safe,’ she lied.

  ‘That’s a matter of opinion,’ he retorted, still angry with her. ‘And, anyway, how do you know what his name is?’

  ‘Er, well that’s what Norton called him,’ Lucy said, desperately trying to skim over that part of the story. She wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea to start telling their parents that they had been locked up in a cupboard or that they had even been in the house. ‘Norton mentioned his name when they arrived at the house.’

  ‘And you were there to meet them?’

  ‘Well, no, not really.’

  ‘We were hiding behind some brambles in the back yard,’ Loanne explained.

  ‘I see! You were hiding behind some brambles.’ His voice trailed off as if he was trying to picture the events in his own mind. ‘And this guy… Ackley is it?’

  ‘Yes,’ both girls answered as one.

  ‘He drove up to the house?’

  ‘Yes,’ two voices answered again.

  ‘And Norton and Albright were there to meet him?’

  ‘No,’ the girls answered, again in unison.

  ‘He was alone at that time then?’

  Lucy nodded and Loanne said, ‘Yes. He drove up to the house and got out of his car, and then he went to the back of the car, lifted the lid of the boot and took out a steel baseball bat.’

  Now she had her father’s complete attention. The detectives hadn’t mentioned any of this. ‘Go on,’ he urged.

  Loanne continued to explain how Ackley had first knocked on the door and then, after getting no answer, went inside the house and searched for Mr. Thin. ‘Then he called Norton on his mobile,’ Loanne went on. Her father didn’t interrupt. ‘He told them that The Thin Man had gone.’

  ‘Flown the nest, he said.’ Lucy added.

  Doctor Murray thought for a moment. ‘And then he chased you?’

  ‘Er, hmm, no,’ Loanne replied. ‘He drove off.’

  ‘But he came back with those other two,’ Lucy joined in, now regretting the conversation had ever started.

  Loanne’s face showed a spark of relief that Lucy had taken over.

  ‘He was with those two coppers,’ Lucy went on. ‘They blocked our way when he tried to catch us. But we dodged back through the hedge and he couldn’t reach us.’

  ‘Ah so that’s how you got spiked,’ said Mrs. Lockhart, nodding. ‘But I find this all very confusing and rather frightening.’

  ‘So just exactly where were you when he decided to chase you?’ asked Loanne’s father.

  ‘Ackley had left the house door open when he drove off so we knocked on it and went in to see if we could find The Thin Man and warn him,’ Lucy stated, not really knowing how to explain what had happened without telling the whole story.

  ‘And Ackley came back with Norton and saw us and that’s when he tried to catch us,’ Loanne followed up, ‘but we were too quick for him.’

  ‘Well, I bet you were, at any rate,’ replied her father.

  ‘But Lucy was still in danger.’

  ‘Oh, no we weren’t in any real danger,’ Lucy tried to placate.

  ‘So an escaped criminal tries to chase you and you weren’t in any danger, heh?’ put in Lucy’s mother.

  Lucy sighed. This was becoming an interrogation. ‘No Mum. He wasn’t really an escaped criminal. That was a lie that those coppers told you. He was working with them. They’re all crooks.’ She paused for a moment, sensing her mother’s scepticism. ‘Norton is a copper, but she’s a bad one, Mum. Honest.’

  Mrs. Lockhart blew out her cheeks. ‘Well none of it makes any sense to me. First they come and tell us you have helped catch a criminal. Pleased as punch they were. And now you’ve told us they were after you as well, with this Ackley, all three of them. I just don’t know what to believe. I think your imaginations are running away with the both of you. And I blame you Lucy. You’ve not been yourself at all since that accident. Can’t you just play football or ride the horses and be happy with that?’ Lucy was going to say that she wasn’t herself, not entirely; not Lucy Lockhart anyway, but even she didn’t know why she felt like that. And she’d be happy to play football or go horse-riding if it weren’t for the fact that she knew the people she had seen next door were killers. And something had to be done about it. But then, as she analysed what had been happening, she thought that perhaps it was better if their parents didn’t really know the truth. It was gradually dawning on her that if either her mother or Doctor Murray started to suggest to Norton that they knew there was something not quite right with the explanation given, then it might just put all their lives in danger. No, perhaps it was best if Norton thought she had made the girls look so helpful that there was no question of impropriety on the part of her and Albright. Norton wasn’t a fool. She had acted quickly and coolly and had come up with the perfect explanation to waylay suspicion. She wouldn’t want to stir up trouble if she could help it, so if it all died down then no one would get hurt and everybody, including Doctor Murray and his guests, could get on with their lives.

  It was time to end the conversation somehow. Lucy
stroked her forehead with the palm of her hand. ‘I’m sorry Mum. Sorry, Doctor Murray,’ she said, looking at them both in turn. ‘Perhaps Loanne and I were being rather foolish, letting our games get out of hand. Perhaps it’s something to do with my amnesia.’ She held her head in both hands. ‘Would you mind if I have an early night? I’m feeling rather dizzy again.’

  Loanne spotted the strategy. ‘I’ll go and keep her company,’ she said, getting up and taking hold of Lucy’s hand. ‘Perhaps I can read to her or something. It might help her.’

  Mrs. Lockhart stood up and put her arms around Lucy’s shoulders. ‘I think perhaps that would be a very good idea.’ She saw them both to the door. ‘Perhaps I can bring you a cup of hot chocolate or something sweetheart?’

  ‘Thanks Mum, that would be nice,’ Lucy answered, her voice deliberately faint and shaky.

  ‘And perhaps we can all do something together tomorrow, before we go home, now that your memory is getting better?’

  Lucy nodded. She glanced at Doctor Murray and could tell that he wanted more explanations. But he silently relented and let the girls retire to their beds without another word.

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  ‘Well, are you going to tell me?’ Loanne asked, once the two girls had ensconced themselves warmly under the duvet together. Mrs. Lockhart had made them some hot chocolate and left it on the side table next to Lucy’s bed. Loanne had a book in her hand and was clearly enjoying keeping Lucy company.

  ‘Don’t stay up too long, talking, girls,’ Mrs. Lockhart had said as she closed the door on her way out.

  Lucy and Loanne waited a minute or two before saying anything. Then Loanne spoke first. She wanted to know just how Lucy knew so much about Detective Chief Inspector Norton.

  ‘I don’t know if you are going to believe me,’ Lucy said with a shrug. She picked up her mug and holding it in her two hands as she reflected on her situation, she eventually said, ‘I have memories of being somebody else.’ Loanne just looked at her and waited for her to continue.

  ‘I know I’m Lucy Lockhart now I’ve remembered who I am. You’ve no idea how much I had to put up with at school! “Lucy Locket lost her pocket!” That’s what they used to say to me when I was younger. Yes,’ she said reflecting on her brief past, ‘I remember everything now.’

  ‘But?’

  Lucy nodded. ‘But I also remember being Dianne Derby. And I remember Michael Colson. He was under witness protection. This must have been quite a few years ago because she was Sergeant Norton then, and she was supposed to be keeping him safe until after a trial. But she killed him. I know it was Norton who was responsible for it because she told me before…’ She broke off what she was saying.

  ‘She told you?’ Loanne’s eyes were wide with excitement.

  ‘She told me. But I was Dianne Derby, don’t you see, not Lucy Lockhart. I can see Norton’s face now as if it were yesterday. She was younger and her nose wasn’t scarred. But it was definitely her, I know it was!’

  ‘So what happened after she told you?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’ Lucy sipped her hot chocolate and thought hard for a minute or so before continuing. ‘She was boasting, telling me how the people who Michael was testifying against were so powerful that there had been no chance of him ever reaching court.’

  She rubbed her head. ‘And someone was holding me from behind. I… I can’t remember who it was. One of the people she was working for I think… and that’s all I can remember.’

  ‘But do you remember anything about yourself, Dianne Derby, that is, before that, before she killed you?’ Lucy gave a start. ‘Killed me?’ She closed her eyes. She could feel her bottom lip quivering and swallowed hard, nodding. ‘Yes, I think you’re right.’ She frowned and tightened her lips as if feeling some pain. ‘But how did you know she killed me?’ she asked, now looking at her friend with an astonished expression.

  ‘It’s reincarnation,’ Loanne said plainly. ‘It’s got to be. Or something like it. Don’t you see?’ She held Lucy’s hand tightly. ‘It’s the only explanation. You are remembering being someone else. That someone else was older than you are now…’

  ‘I was twenty nine,’ Lucy stated, still forcing back the urge to sob. She nodded again as she remembered more.

  ‘And you remember your friend and what Norton did to him.’

  Lucy nodded, compressing her lips to stifle the urge to cry.

  ‘And you are here now, thirteen years old, and none other than The Incredible Lucy Lockhart,’ Loanne said, playing on the words dramatically with a broad grin.

  It lightened Lucy’s mood a little. She managed a weak smile, still saddened by what she was recalling. ‘You’re absolutely right, Loanne. It seems so obvious now that you’ve said it. But then, I, that is, Lucy Lockhart, never thought that there was such a thing as reincarnation.’

  ‘I don’t think my Daddy does either,’ Loanne asserted.

  ‘So it’s just as well we are keeping it simple.’

  ‘Simple? How do you mean?’

  ‘Oh, it’s just that doctors and scientists never see anything other than what they think is hard fact. Daddy’s not really religious at all and he’d take a lot of convincing about anything being possible once you’ve dropped dead.’

  ‘Like spirits and things?’ Lucy was finding it hard to accept.

  ‘Like most things that are not commonly accepted. Plants grow, they are fertilized by the bees and they spread their seeds and then, eventually, they die or are cut down or whatever. And the same goes for humans. We’re born, we grow up and have children and then we grow old and die. End of story. For us, that is. Then the children carry on after that and then their children after them.’

  ‘But, if you’re right, then it isn’t really the end of the story, is it?’

  ‘It doesn’t seem like it.’ Loanne shrugged. ‘Unless there’s a scientific reason for being able to remember being somebody else.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘Well, I don’t know really.’ She thought for a moment.

  ‘One of my tutors, Mr. Bamforth, says that there is some kind of particle that exists all around us and even inside us that remembers things. He says that even water may have a kind of memory, like quartz. He’s dead interesting. It’s quantum physics. He’s teaching me maths, but he’s a physicist really, and says he’ll teach me more about physics and particles when I get a bit older, but he’s told me all sorts of things.’

  ‘So you’re saying now that there’s no such thing as reincarnation, then?’

  ‘I’ve no idea really,’ Loanne answered, shaking her head. ‘I think that Mr. Bamforth leans towards the scientific explanation, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. From what I can gather, much of science has a record of being proved wrong as and when new discoveries come along.’

  ‘And what about you?’

  ‘Me? Well I am pretty sure that if you can remember a previous life then you must have lived it in some form or other. Anyway, I’ve read about people being hypnotised and being able to recall being somebody else. I think I like that idea best. Perhaps that’s what the Bible describes as eternal life. Perhaps someone knew about all this stuff a few thousand years ago and was trying to explain it then.’ She shrugged again. ‘There’s so much none of us really understands. Take me for instance…’

  ‘You can predict things, I know,’ Lucy put forward.

  ‘I can, yes, but just how I do it, nobody seems to know. I just know what a person is going to do before they know it; or at least as soon as they decide to do it, but before they carry it out, if you see what I mean.’

  Lucy smiled. ‘I know exactly what you mean. You baffled me when you were being the goalie, and you totally bamboozled that thug Ackley. That was awesome!’ She looked at Loanne with wide eyed admiration.

  They both had a good chuckle and then, Lucy became serious once again. ‘I don’t feel so bad now that I’ve got a reason for knowing what I do. I don’t remember everything about being Dianne De
rby though, although it’s coming to me a bit at a time, when it seems relevant.’

  ‘Like when you need to ride a horse?’

  ‘Exactly. And you know what, I vaguely remember the time when I was riding horses.’ Her voice trailed off as she went deep into thought.

  ‘In a gymkhana?’ Loanne asked.

  Lucy shook her head and then exclaimed suddenly.

  ‘Yes, show jumping! That’s what it was, I’m sure now…’ She frowned. ‘Or dressage. It might have been dressage.’ She thought for a long moment again. ‘Perhaps it was both,’ she added.

  ‘So you entered competitions?’

  ‘I think so. I still can’t remember it very well, but I know I did a lot of horse riding. I had a horse called… Revolver, that’s it.’

  ‘Did you do any other sports?’

  Lucy shook her head. ‘I’m not sure. I was part of a team, I think… I may have been in some kind of Olympic event.’

  ‘What, running?’

  Lucy shook her head.

  ‘Football!’ Loanne exclaimed, certain she’d hit the mark.

  Lucy still shook her head again. ‘No it wasn’t football. I don’t think it was very physical.’

  ‘How about tiddlywinks?’ Loanne quipped.

  They looked at each other, then fell about laughing on the bed.

  ‘Nope.’ Lucy giggled. ‘I don’t think that’s an Olympic event.’

  ‘It ought to be,’ Loanne laughed. ‘Well what about archery or table tennis?’

  Lucy shook her head.

  ‘What about target shooting then?’

  ‘That’s it! Shooting!’ Lucy gasped. ‘I did target pistol shooting! I remember the pistol.’ She thought again and then suddenly remembered. ‘I handed it in to the police! To Norton! It was my competition pistol but for some reason…’ She thought hard again. ‘I was in England. It had been made illegal to use proper firearms!’ she exclaimed. ‘We were going to have to change to air guns.’ She thought a little longer, rubbing her temple as she tried to remember. ‘But Norton must have kept my old one,’ she said slowly. ‘Yes! She kept it but… she had it in China.’