[Sarah Jane Adventures 03] - Eye of the Gorgon

by Phil Ford

  Mr Smith spoke, ‘Yes, Sarah Jane. What can I do for you?’

  ‘The Lavender Lawns Rest Home is apparently being haunted by a nun. I need you to access the central land registry database and see if there is anything to historically support the possibility.’

  ‘Of a haunting?’

  Clyde thought it sounded like Mr Smith was taking the Mickey. He liked that. Mr Smith had some attitude.

  Sarah Jane told the computer to just run the check.

  Clyde glanced around for Luke. He’d been right behind him when they’d come up to the attic, now he’d slunk off to the other end of the room. He was sitting in a chair with his back to them, and seemed to be looking at something. Clyde was about to check out what he was up to, but then Mr Smith was talking again…

  ‘There is no record of any past ecclesiastical building on the site of Lavender Lawns.’

  ‘So no obvious reason for the home to be haunted by a nun, then?’ said Sarah Jane.

  ‘I assume that by haunting you mean the projection of energies imprinted on psychic-assimilating matter,’ observed Mr Smith.

  ‘Obviously,’ she said. Like it was a stupid question.

  ‘Come again?’ Clyde pleaded.

  Sarah Jane glanced at him, a little impatient, ‘Events get recorded on their surroundings then, under certain circumstances get played back.’

  ‘Like video?’

  Sarah Jane smiled. Clyde liked to play the joker, but he was far from stupid. ‘Exactly,’ she said.

  ‘Sarah Jane.’ Mr Smith was talking again, ‘Are you aware that Luke has brought an unidentified element of alien technology into the attic?’

  Sarah Jane and Clyde whirled around to look at Luke. He couldn’t have hidden the talisman that he had been secretly studying, had he tried. It glowed with an eerie green light.

  ‘Whoah!’ said Clyde. ‘No way did that come off the Shopping Channel!’

  Sarah Jane held out her hand.

  ‘Give it to me, Luke,’ she said, as if he might have been holding the wrong end of a snake.

  Luke passed the glowing talisman to Sarah Jane and explained anxiously, ‘One of the residents gave it to me. Mrs Nelson-Stanley. She said someone was looking for it, but they mustn’t find it. And I had to keep it a secret. Sorry. Was that wrong?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ said Sarah Jane. She was studying the talisman, its light bathing her face in its weird glow. ‘Mr Smith, is it safe?’

  Mr Smith, who Clyde now reckoned could also be a bit of a telltale as well as having attitude, said, ‘Insufficient data. I’d like to carry out a detailed analysis.’

  A tray emerged from Mr Smith, like a hand asking for the talisman. Sarah Jane was placing the object on it when Maria came through the attic door and slammed it shut after her.

  Sarah Jane spun around, angry, ‘Do you mind? There’s a lot of sensitive equipment in here!’ Moist-eyed, Maria said she was sorry, and Sarah Jane saw that she had been crying and felt sorry, too.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Maria asked, determined that no one was going to notice she was upset.

  Clyde filled her in, ‘Some old biddy’s given Luke an alien gizmo!’

  He pointed Maria to the talisman just before Mr Smith took it and began his analysis.

  Luke was feeling confused. He had tried to keep Mrs Nelson-Stanley’s promise, but at the same time he knew he should have said something to Sarah Jane straight away.

  ‘Mrs Nelson-Stanley said the nun at Lavender Lawns wasn’t a ghost — and it’s looking for the talisman.’

  Sarah Jane was going to have to talk to Mrs Nelson-Stanley. Where did an old lady in a rest home get an alien stone like that? Its setting and the chain on it suggested someone had worn it as a pendant. Why was she hiding it from a nun? Sarah Jane felt the questions piling up, and with them came the thrill that had never faded in all these years — the thrill of something extraterrestrial.

  She turned to Maria. Did she want to come with her?

  Maria nodded.

  ‘You two stay here,’ Sarah Jane told the boys. It wasn’t a punishment, but if Maria wanted to talk during the drive to Lavender Lawns she might find it easier without Luke and Clyde there. But they took it like a punishment, all the same. Luke complained that Mrs Nelson-Stanley had entrusted the talisman to him, and Clyde reckoned that it was he who had brought Sarah Jane in on it.

  ‘It’s — like — my case,’ he said.

  But Sarah Jane wasn’t debating. She told them to stay put and swept out of there with Maria.

  As they pulled out of the drive and headed up Bannerman Road, Sarah Jane saw Maria cast a glance at her own house.

  ‘Mum’s back,’ she said.

  ‘Oh,’ said Sarah Jane.

  ‘Just for a few days. Not permanently, or anything.’

  ‘I see.’ Sarah Jane didn’t need to ask how Maria felt about that, it was as clear as the red rings around her eyes, a little confused, and more than a little angry.

  She gave Maria time to talk if she wanted to. Sarah Jane wanted to help if she could, to be a shoulder to cry on if that’s what Maria needed. But Maria’s feelings and how she felt about the mother that had walked out on her were hers to share, not for Sarah Jane to probe. Maria didn’t talk about her mum after that, she asked about Lavender Lawns, and on the way Sarah Jane gave her a run-down on what had taken her there that morning.

  When they reached the rest home, Edith Randall was sitting in a deckchair on the lawn. She was surprised and delighted to see Sarah Jane back so soon and wondered if Maria was the photographer — everyone seemed to be so young these days, she said. Sarah Jane explained that she had returned to see Mrs Nelson-Stanley.

  Edith shook her head sorrowfully. ‘You won’t get any sense out of her, Miss Smith. It’s the Alzheimer’s, you know.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Sarah Jane. That was something she hadn’t expected. There was a good chance Mrs Nelson-Stanley wouldn’t be able to remember how she came by the talisman. On the other hand, she had seemed pretty convinced that someone was trying to take it from her. That could have been down to her mental condition, of course.

  Edith took Sarah Jane and Maria up to Bea Nelson-Stanley’s room. She knocked, and when there was no answer, Edith opened the door and led the others in.

  ‘She won’t have gone far, I’m sure,’ said Edith.

  Sarah Jane and Maria were taking in the room. Bea Nelson-Stanley didn’t collect Toby jugs like her neighbour, she collected (or had collected in her younger days) marvellous things from all around the world. Ancient jade Chinese figures, an Egyptian burial scarab, tribal masks and totems… Sarah Jane gasped with the joy of it. Bea’s room was like a small museum.

  Edith recognized her awe and smiled sadly, ‘Yes, it’s such a tragedy, isn’t it? Struck down by that disease after the life she must have led.’

  ‘She’s been everywhere,’ Maria said, her eyes scanning the photographs that hung among the trophies of her travels. There was a young woman in many of them, tall, lean and very attractive. The pictures were mostly black and white. Maria thought the woman — she guessed it was Bea Nelson-Stanley — was dressed for the 1950s. The pictures were all taken in exotic locations. Maria could identify the Pyramids, of course, and another seemed to be in the ruins of what looked like an Aztec temple. Beside her in some of the photographs was a broad-chested, bronzed man.

  ‘Was that her husband?’ Maria asked.

  ‘Yes. He was an archaeologist,’ Edith said.

  ‘They went all over the world together.’

  Maria indicated the walls, ‘No kidding?’

  ‘He died five years ago. Poor Bea started to lose it after that, and that’s when she washed up here.’

  ‘Does anybody visit her?’ asked Sarah Jane.

  Edith shook her head, ‘No children. Too busy having adventures, from the look of it. All well and good, but adventures don’t look after you when you’re old, do they?’

  No, Sarah Jane supposed, they didn’t, and sh
e tried not to think about how things would be when she was Bea’s age.

  Then Maria saw something in one of the photographs.

  ‘That’s the talisman!’

  Sarah Jane looked. In the picture, Bea’s archaeologist husband had an arm around her shoulders, and around her neck hung the amulet that Luke had brought into the attic.

  Edith was puzzled — what talisman? She had thought they were there to talk to Bea about the ghost. And then Bea came through the door, examining the strangers in her room with blue eyes that — despite her age and the condition of her mind — still shone like those of a girl.

  ‘You’ve got visitors, Bea,’ Edith explained.

  Bea took in Sarah Jane and Maria, ‘Do I know you? I’m sorry, but these days I’m not very good with faces.’

  Sarah Jane introduced herself and Maria, and Edith told Bea that Sarah Jane was a reporter.

  ‘Oh,’ said Bea. ‘It’s my husband you want to talk to, then.’

  Edith gave Sarah Jane a look — I warned you. And Sarah Jane’s heart melted for Bea.

  ‘It’s you I came to talk to,’ she said gently, and indicated the talisman in the old photograph. ‘Can you tell me where you got this talisman?’ Bea smiled, and stroked the photograph. Sarah Jane saw her eyes moisten as her long fingers traced the shape of her dead husband on the yellowing picture.

  ‘That’s Edgar,’ she said. ‘My husband.’

  Sarah Jane and Maria looked at each other. Bea had loved her husband very much, and if in her confusion sometimes she still thought he was alive, perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing.

  ‘He always said the Sontarans were quite the silliest-looking race in the galaxy.’

  Sarah Jane felt the colour slip out of her face. She stared at Bea and had to struggle to find her voice, ‘What did you say?’

  Edith shook her head, ‘Oh, she’s always talking rubbish about spacemen and monsters.’

  Sarah Jane felt her mind reeling with shock. She had encountered Sontarans twice when she travelled with the Doctor — that was the man that had taken her on incredible journeys through time and space. Although, in a way, both encounters had been with different Doctors. Sometimes he changed. But that was something you had to get used to if you travelled with the Doctor. She had met him again many years after their journeys and adventures together had come to an end. He had changed again. Yet hadn’t changed at all.

  And then Sarah Jane found herself smiling, and almost reached out and hugged Bea. ‘She’s seen Sontarans,’ she gasped, amazed and delighted. Maria looked lost. ‘What’s a Sontaran?’

  Bea gave Maria her answer, ‘The silliest-looking race in the galaxy! That’s what Edgar used to say. Like a great big potato with a — a — ray gun!’ Bea waved her walking cane for emphasis. ‘Quite nasty blighters they were, all the same.’

  ‘Oh, yes, Bea, they are!’ Sarah Jane laughed. ‘You’re absolutely right!’

  Edith clucked with disapproval, ‘It’s no good encouraging her, Miss Smith. Shell just go on and on about monsters.’

  I don’t mind if she does, Sarah Jane thought to herself. If she has seen Sontarans, then maybe she has seen so much more.

  But, of course, Edith put all Bea’s talk of monsters down to the Alzheimer’s eating away at her mind, making her confuse reality with old films that maybe she had once seen with Edgar.

  ‘The Gorgon,’ said Edith, ‘She’s always on about that one. I saw it at the flicks years ago. Christopher Lee and Barbara Shelley with all snakes for hair. Bonkers.’

  Chapter Six

  Weirdo nuns

  Luke got the door.

  When Sarah Jane took off with Maria and left them in the attic, Clyde had blamed Luke. According to Clyde, he should have told Sarah Jane about the talisman, straight away. What had Luke been thinking? Didn’t the weird glow tell him it was alien and important? Luke told him he knew that, but he had made a promise. Promises were one thing, Clyde argued, but remembering who your friends were — that came first! Luke now felt awful. And Clyde saw the hurt in his friend’s eyes and felt bad about having a go — he sometimes forgot that Luke might have looked fourteen, but had really only been around a few months. That superbrain of his had helped him catch up a lot, but there was still a long way to go. There were some things that being ultra-intelligent couldn’t help you with — little things like relationships, and bigger stuff like being funny and cool. Clyde had made himself kind of Luke’s lifecoach to help him sort things out. He made a mental note to sort out the ground rules on making and keeping promises and pass them on to Luke.

  By way of making up, they took each other on at Alien Devastation 3, and as Luke blasted ugly alien invaders apart Clyde told him he was letting him win.

  Then the doorbell went, and Luke went to get it.

  He found a nun on the doorstep.

  ‘Hello,’ she beamed. She had perfect alabaster skin and the kind of smile that sold tooth whitener by the bucket-load. ‘I’m Sister Helena from St Agnes’s Abbey.’

  Luke sensed Clyde coming into the hall behind him and felt grateful. What you did when an old lady entrusted an alien talisman to you in the morning so that some mysterious nun didn’t get her hands on it, then a nun turned up on your doorstep in the afternoon — that was one of those situations that Luke wasn’t all that clear on.

  ‘Who might you be?’ asked Sister Helena, still all smiles.

  ‘He’s Luke. I’m Clyde.’

  Sister Helena took that in with a simple blink of her emerald green eyes. Clyde found himself wondering if she was blonde under that cowl on her head, then felt vaguely worried about fancying a nun.

  ‘And which one of you two fine young men was at Lavender Lawns today and left with a gift from one of the old ladies?’

  Maybe she reminded Clyde just a little bit of Claudia Schiffer, but she also made him think of big red emergency lights and sirens whooping out a very loud danger signal.

  ‘Don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said.

  Then Luke just had to say something, didn’t he?

  ‘How would you know if she gave me anything, any way? She wouldn’t have told you.’

  ‘Can it, Luke,’ Clyde hissed.

  But Luke was probably the kind of kid that would prod a sleeping tiger just to see if it was as dangerous as people said.

  ‘Why have you been hunting through the old people’s rooms looking for the talisman?’

  ‘Luke!’ Clyde exploded, and started to push the door shut. ‘Okay, that’s enough! See you, Sister!’

  But Sister Helena moved fast. She had her foot in the door before Clyde could close it.

  ‘Boys,’ she said, ‘you don’t know what you’ve got your hands on!’

  She said it like she was worried about them. But Clyde didn’t buy that for a second.

  ‘Well, you’re not getting your hands on it, either,’ he told her, and tried to slam the door — nun’s foot or no foot.

  But Sister Helena wasn’t going anywhere — although the smile had gone, and so had any attempt to fool the boys that she was worried about them.

  ‘Give me that talisman,’ she snarled.

  That was when Alan Jackson showed up, ‘Hello, Sister. Collection, is it?’

  Sister Helena turned around, bemused, to see Maria’s dad standing there, hands in his jeans pockets, an easy smile on his face.

  ‘Abbey roofs don’t fix themselves,’ she said after a moment. She flashed that smile again and Clyde could see Alan wondering about the colour of her hair under the wimple, too. ‘That’s one miracle we’re still waiting on.’

  Alan dug some money out his jeans, a fiver and a couple of pound coins. ‘Well, I always give to needy causes. You could say it’s a good habit of mine,’ he grinned.

  Sister Helena looked at him, then forced a giggle at the lame joke. She ignored the offered couple of quid and took the fiver. Sparing the two boys a brief, blistering look, she moved off down the drive. Alan watched her go, and Luke and Clyde
relaxed, then he turned back to them and asked if they had seen Maria.

  ‘She was a bit upset earlier,’ he explained.

  And she wasn’t the only one. He’d had a massive row with Chrissie since Maria had stormed out. A lot of old wounds had been opened.

  ‘She’s gone out with Sarah Jane,’ Luke told him.

  ‘Look, do me a favour, will you?’ Alan asked, clearly worried — he didn’t like the way things had been left with his daughter. ‘When they get back, tell her I was looking for her. Please.’

  Luke told him that they would, and Alan smiled his grateful thanks and left.

  Clyde figured that then was as good as any time to give Luke his next lesson in ‘Getting By on Planet Earth for Those Who Haven’t Got A Clue’…

  ‘Listen, when weirdo nuns turn up on your doorstep, asking you about freaky glowing alien gizmos, one thing you never do — all right? — is tell them that you’ve got one. Okay?’

  Luke looked at him, blankly. ‘I didn’t,’ he said.

  ‘Good as,’ said Clyde.

  ‘Look, we should call Mum and tell her what’s happened.’

  Clyde nodded and took out his mobile. That, at least, was a good idea. He started thumbing through for Sarah Jane’s number, then stopped. He had a better idea.

  ‘Better still,’ he said, ‘we should get round there, and tell her.’

  ‘Isn’t phoning quicker?’

  Clyde’s eyes glittered, ‘Sure, we could phone. Or we could get round to Lavender Lawns and get back in on the action. Yeah?’

  Luke didn’t need to be super intelligent to see the sense in that.

  As they set off to the bus stop, they didn’t see the big old hearse parked around the corner from Bannerman Road, or Sister Helena who was sitting in the back seat watching them.

  Chapter Seven

  Long-gone adventures

  Edith Randall had left Sarah Jane and Maria to it with Bea. She didn’t understand all this talk about a talisman, and it became clear that no one was going to tell her. And if Sarah Jane and her young friend expected Bea to tell them anything about it — anything that made any sense, at least — well, they were going to be in for a very long wait. Edith had better things to do with her time.