Ghosts

Chapter 4

'Mornin' Vi,' said Chambers. He was washing down his car and Violet didn't like the suggestive way he was holding the hose as he drank her in. 'What's all this about then?' With her mind in siege mode, Violet had equipped herself with a grubby plastic chair out of the back garden, a sleeping bag, two carrier bags containing a flask of coffee, sandwiches, a torch, a dog eared Jackie Collins, and other assorted essential survival gear. 'None of your business.' 'I'll give you a hand.' 'Keep your hands to yourself, thank you very much.' Her load was getting uncomfortably heavy. 'I've got to get going.' 'It's no trouble.' 'No, David. And by the way, you're splashing your shoes and your flies are undone.' By the time she'd reached the house, her arms were aching and she'd already had enough of the day. Which was the exact same moment Mrs Friar, resplendent in quilted dressing gown and slippers, ambled across the road on her walking frame. 'Excuse me, Violet. I'd like a word with you.' 'Mrs Friar. I don't wish to be rude...' 'Then don't. I'd like to know what's going on.' 'Going on?' 'Don't play coy with me, young lady. I used to baby sit you when you were a snot nosed, nappy destroying kid. What the hell came out of your backside was something that would baffle medical science. Stunk the place out, you did.' 'All very nice to know, but...' 'In there. The house of death,' she said, pointing with a crooked bony finger. 'I saw things.' 'Mrs Friar...' 'I might be eighty eight but I know what I saw. All locked up and quiet as the grave, God bless their souls, but I saw things.' 'Mrs Friar...' 'The trouble with the young of today is they think they know it all and us old folk know nothing.' 'But I never said...' 'In there,' she said with a nod of her blue rinsed head. 'Something going on. You need to sort things out, Violet Shaydes.' 'But...' 'Think on.' 'What?' 'That's all I'm saying. Think on.' With that ambiguous phrase out in the open, Mrs Friar made a turn with her walker and at a speed that would have her eating lunch by supper time, laboured her way across the lane. 'Well. This is off to a good start.' Up the path she went, and dropping everything on the front step, she unlocked the front door. Gathering everything back up again, she was ready to step over the threshold. 'Think on, Violet. Think on.'