Jay, Lizzie and the Tale of the Stairs

by G J Lee

  Chapter 52

  And After?

  A few days later Rosie came home to stay. Dad had agreed to accept her into what was left of our family. The police and everybody else who were interested in Rosie never told me what they thought she was or where they thought she came from.

  I think they already knew.

  Rosie not only reminded me of Beth who, as luck would have it, had fallen in with a new group of friends. She also reminded me of Lizzie, and I liked it that way. And, as the months went by, Rosie got used to the 21st Century and the phrases and habits of a different age slowly disappeared.

  Like a big rubber, time eventually erases everything.

  I guess.

  We often talked of our time as prisoners of Dr Meen and what we thought The Fathers were. I was frightened to think they were out there somewhere – in time and space – waiting to be used. But then Rosie saw them differently. She said that The Fathers could be used for good too, not just for evil. That it was Dr Meen and the others that were using them for evil so that’s how The Fathers showed themselves. She said you only had to look at beautiful things and beautiful people to see The Fathers.

  So they were here already. All around us.

  And always had been.

  I shivered at the thought. But then, in time, got used to the idea.

  Although my ‘special powers’ wouldn’t let me rest I never heard from the Raynors again. As the memory of all that had happened began to fade I wondered if we had really experienced anything at all.

  I felt like it was all some bad dream.

  Of course I had the photograph to remind me that it did happen. That it wasn’t all just a trick of the past.

  Nobody ever came to collect Ernie’s belongings at St Mary’s and that made me sad. I began to wonder what had happened to Albert, Maureen and Pauline. The idea that Pauline might still be alive made me want to go out and find her. Then I remembered just how old she would be now and how bad-tempered she was

  I wondered if I could look at her in the same way I did then.

  At least I had the photograph.

  I stayed up late one night and watched a documentary on how some people think Adolf Hitler is still alive. Apparently a man saw him at a football match. I had school in the morning and was sat with Rosie rubbing my eyes over my rice crispie bowl when Dad asked me if I was tired because of the voices under my bed again.

  “No Dad,” I answered with something like a smile. “Not this time.”

  LOCAL PSYCHIC LOCATES

  MISSING BOY

  by

  Colin Small

  A well respected medium has today been hailed by the local police as a hero.

  Jay Webber, 20, who recently moved from Shad Hill with his Father and younger Sister, was introduced to the local constabulary by one of his regular customers. Jay Webber has been helping the bereaved contact dead relatives in and around Shad Hill for a number of years. However, when Detective Constable Beasley recruited him to find missing teenager Joshua Timson-Brown, Mr Webber politely accepted.

  ‘We had tried everything’, remarked DC Beasley, ‘and we had heard how other forces in other areas have been using psychics to aid their own enquiries. So we thought ‘what have we got to lose? Let’s give it a whirl!’

  With the aid of a number of ‘spirit-guides’ – spirits that act as a ‘bridge’ to the ‘other side’ – Mr Webber began his own unique investigation. Apparently, his main guide Elizabeth, who had been a teacher in life, showed Mr Webber where Joshua Timson-Brown was hiding in a dream. Mr Webber himself remarked that ‘sometimes all you hear is voices. But luckily, thanks to Lizzie, I was also able to get a feeling for the whereabouts of Joshua’.

  Joshua Timson-Brown was found safe and well by a small team of police officers on Friday night, although the reason for his sudden disappearance was still a mystery.

  In another bizarre twist to this supernatural tale it has been rumoured that Joshua ‘ran away’ because his house held a ‘ghostly stairway’ to another world, along which people from the past would climb to visit him.

  Of course the paper cannot substantiate these claims and any of the above comments are to be attributed to hearsay only.

  APPENDIX

  The list referred to in the chapter 'The Empire.'

  ALTHOUGH BRITAIN HELP DEFEAT NAZI GERMANY, SHE IS BROKEN AND BANKRUPT BY THE EFFORT

  IN INDIA, AND ALTHOUGH THOUSANDS HAD DIED IN DEFENSE OF THEIR BRITISH RULERS DURING THE WAR, MAHATMA GHANDI MOBILISES INDIAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT AGAINST THE BRITISH

  ALL OVER THE WORLD BRITISH RULE IS QUESTIONED AND, DURING THE 1950S, 60S AND 70S, DOZENS OF SMALLER COUNTRIES DEMAND THEIR INDEPENDENCE FROM BRITAIN AND GET IT

  THE ONCE PROUD BRITISH NAVY GETS SMALLER. NO LONGER DOES THE SUN ALWAYS SHINE ON THE EMPIRE. AMERICA TAKES BRITAIN’S PLACE AS WORLD POLICEMAN

  BRITAIN BECOMES EMBARRASSINGLY RELIANT ON AMERCAN INVESTMENT, PROTECTION AND CULTURE

  THE EMPIRE, ONCE SEEN AS A FORCE FOR REASON, CIVILISATION AND GOOD, IS NOW SEEN AS NO BETTER THAN HITLER’S GERMANY. IN A MODERN WORLD WITH NEW IDEALS IT IS POKED FUN AT BY A NEW MONEY-MOTIVATED GENERATION AND THE MEMORY OF THE EMPIRE IS LEFT TO DUSTY, OUT-DATED BOOKS