A House Without Windows (6 page)

My hands are sore from banging on the door.  I want my Mummy.  Daddy took her away ages ago and she hasn’t come back.  I shout and shout, but nobody answers.  Prince is in the house, but he’s asleep on the bed.  The duvet cover is all wet. 

I’m hungry.  I open the carrier bag that Daddy left and find a packet of crisps and a packet of Jaffa cakes.  I put a crisp on top of a Jaffa cake and eat it; they taste a bit funny mixed together.  I eat another Jaffa cake and then another one.  Mummy says it’s not good to eat more than three Jaffa cakes at the same time, so I delve deeper into the bag and see what else there is. 

Daddy’s put some fruit in the bag.  I peel a banana and put the skin in the rubbish bin.  He usually comes in with a black sack to empty the bin, but it’s nearly full to the top with rubbish.  I don’t know where else to put the rubbish when the bin gets too full.

Prince wakes up.  He’s hungry too and cries.  Daddy hasn’t left him any cat food, so I give him a Jaffa cake but he sniffs it and turns away.  I fill up my cup with some water and have a drink and give the rest to Prince.  He laps it up with his tongue, but still cries for his cat food.  I don’t know what to do.  I have another look in the bag but I can only see a loaf of bread and a packet of Rich Tea biscuits.  I break one up and give it to Prince, but he’s not very keen on that either.

Mummy left me some maths to do on the table.  I’ve done the sums but I don’t know if they’re right.  When she comes back she’ll have to mark them with a tick or a cross.  I don’t often get many crosses because Mummy says I’m clever.

Will Mummy come and bring me something else to eat?  There’s nothing to put on the bread to make a sandwich except bananas or crisps.  I’ve never had a crisp sandwich before, but I make one and it’s quite nice.  I wish Prince would eat one, and then he’d stop crying.

I pick up my reading book.  I’ve already read it once before, but I like reading bits of it again.  I like the bit where the children go down in the copper mine on the Isle of Gloom, and Lucy-Ann finds Bill Smugs’ pencil in the cave.  They think at first that he’s the one bringing food to the miners.  They explore the caves and Kiki flies off.  Jack goes to look for her but the others are found by Jake and Olly, horrible men just like Daddy, and are locked in a small room that’s the same as my house.  They have a bolt on the outside of the door, just like me.  They escape when Jake brings them food by pretending the air is bad and they can’t breathe.  Philip kicks out Jake’s lantern and the three children run towards the main shaft just using their torches, trying to escape from the men.  Jack was still lost in the tunnels and Philip, Dinah and Lucy-Ann climb up the shaft and sail away, leaving Jack and Kiki behind.

Now why didn’t I think of that?  When Daddy brings food Mummy and I could pretend that we can’t breathe, and then Daddy would have to let us out.  I’m going to do that when I hear his footsteps coming.  If I’d done that ages ago then perhaps I’d be on the outside now just like the children.  Perhaps I’m not as clever as Mummy says I am.

Philip goes to Bill’s hut to ask him to help to find Jack, but Bill’s not there.  Philip finds some sort of radio in the hut and speaks to somebody on it who is asking for Bill.  When Bill appears he tells Philip off for speaking on his radio.  Philip says he’s sorry but tells Bill that Jack is missing in the mines.  Bill immediately starts speaking on his radio in a different language.  He rushes out to his boat to go over to the island to find Jack, but somebody has damaged his boat and he can’t sail it.  They run back over the cliffs to find Joe’s boat, but it is not there.

I’m tired. Mummy made the bed wet, but it’s still dry underneath the duvet on my side.  I get in but Prince is sitting crying by the door.  I get out of bed again and have another look in the carrier bag, but there are only apples, a few Jaffa cakes, bread and Rich Tea biscuits left.  I don’t think Prince likes any of it. I break up another biscuit for Prince, but this time he eats it.  He’s really hungry.  I give him some more water and he stops crying.

Mummy usually makes up a story for me before I go to sleep, but she’s not here.  Where is she?  Will she be coming back for me?  For the very first time I have to try and go to sleep without my mummy.

Prince wakes me up because he’s crying really loudly by the door.  There’s also a funny smell.  I think he’s done a wee or a poo, or both.  I can’t see where he’s done it, but it smells.  Mummy will know where he’s done it when she comes back.

Has the baby been born?  Where is it going to sleep in our house?  There’s no bed for it, and it’ll be too little to sleep with Mummy and me. 

Where do cats do a poo?  I tell Prince he has to sit on the toilet like me, but he’s not listening.  He’s sitting by the door looking up at it and crying and crying.  I think he’s hungry again.  I bang and bang on the door and shout, but nobody comes.

I’m hungry too. There are some slices of bread left and an apple, a banana, five Rich Teas and two Jaffa cakes.  I give another biscuit to Prince, and let him drink out of my cup.  I pick Prince up all the time now, but haven’t even washed my hands since yesterday.  Mummy would tell me off if she was here.

I eat two slices of bread and a banana.  I fill my cup up with water again from the sink and drink the whole cup.  I do a wee and clean my teeth and try to clean Prince’s teeth with my toothbrush, but he doesn’t let me and runs away.

There’s nothing else to do but to read my book again. 

Dinah runs off with Uncle Jocelyn’s old book of Craggy-Tops, and Bill Smugs reads it and helps the children to find another secret passage from Craggy Tops to the Isle of Gloom that goes under the sea.  He tells them that the entrance to the secret passage is at the bottom of their well, but above where the water is.  Bill and Philip climb down the well and find the secret passage that leads them to the island, where they find Jake and Olly have locked Kiki in a cell, thinking Jack was in there as well, but he was crouched outside in the dark.  Jack tells them that he has found a big machine where men are making piles of paper money that isn’t real money, but people still spend it.

I’ve never seen any money.  Mummy tells me you have to pay for things with money on the outside, but she says Daddy took her bag away with her purse in when she first came here.  I would love to find big piles of paper money, then I could spend it on anything I want.

Bill Smugs tells the boys that he is a policeman who has been after the gang of bad men for a long time.  He says that Joe is the one that brings them food in his boat and takes away the piles of money to their boss.

What an adventure the boys were having.  Jake and Olly hear Kiki talking and open the door.  She flew out and found where the boys were hiding, and they just start off down the passage back to Craggy-Tops when Joe appears with a gun and threatens to shoot them.

Does Daddy have a gun?  Would he shoot me if I didn’t do as said?  I’ve never seen a gun, but Mummy has told me that it can kill people. 

Joe locks Philip, Jack and Bill in the underground cave.  They’re all locked in like me again.  Joe comes back to tell them the bad men are going to flood the mines with a big explosion, and that they’ll be drowned, and then he locks them back in again.  Bill opens the door with one of his spindly key things when Joe has gone, and they all escape. 

As they run up the secret passage they hear an explosion and the seawater runs in behind them.  They wait until it fills up the well and then swim up to the start of the ladder, because the bad men had chopped away the bottom half to stop them climbing up.  They see other policemen that Bill knew standing guard over the bad men and Joe.  Bill tells them his real name is Bill Cunningham, and the policemen take the bad men away.

The children win lots of money for helping to catch the bad men.  Jack and Lucy-Ann go to live with Philip and Dinah’s mother, and everybody’s happy. 

All except me, I’m not happy at all.  I want my mummy.  Philip and Dinah have theirs, so why can’t I have mine?  I close the book but I don’t put it down because I like to cuddle it.

I’ve eaten all the bread, and Prince has finished off the last Rich Tea.  There’s one apple left and two Jaffa cakes.  Daddy needs to bring me some more food soon.  Prince makes the house smell horrible.  He cries all the time and keeps going to sit by the door.

I don’t like apples, but I eat it because that’s all there is once I have eaten the Jaffa cakes.  Prince doesn’t like apples either.  I start to feel frightened because there is no food left in the bag.  There is nothing else left in the house to eat.

I want to cry when Prince cries.  I want my mummy.  I cuddle my book and sit on the bed.  The wet bit is drying out now, but there’s a big stain.  I don’t know what else to do.  I’ve read the book, eaten all the food in the bag, and there’s only water left to drink.  I give some to Prince and he stops crying for a while.

I think that maybe if I lie down and go to sleep, then Daddy will be here when I wake up with my breakfast.  I lay down and Prince comes and lies on the bed with me.  I can hear him purring and I can feel his warm body.

I wake up in a panic because I can’t see anything.  Prince is still asleep beside me.  The light bulb has broken again, and Daddy needs to put a new one in.  I begin to cry because I don’t know where the torch is.  I can’t even see to go to the toilet.  I cuddle Prince in the dark and wait for Daddy to bring me some breakfast.  Nobody comes.

I cry and cry, and all my tears make the pillow wet.  Prince jumps off the bed and I think he goes over to the door again, but I can’t see him.  I cuddle my book close to me.  It’s all I have left.

Jessie Lloyd sipped some Earl Grey tea in her new conservatory and looked around appreciatively.  Outside the snow lay thick on the lawn, but inside she was cosy and warm.  The builder had done a wonderful job, and she was pleased.  She would be able to buy some nice wicker chairs and get some cushion covers and matching curtains.  She imagined herself sitting by the door in the summer and watching all the grandchildren playing in the garden.

She would certainly recommend the builder to her neighbours.  Iris and George had come in to have a nose about, and now they wanted a conservatory too.  Mr Evans had been polite, tidy, and very thorough, and he had cleaned up any mess he had made straight away.  He had even been tidier than her dear departed Artie had been, God rest his soul.

She took her empty cup through to the kitchen, and then walked into the lounge and switched on the television.  There was never much worth looking at these days; too much sex and violence and shouting.  Why didn’t they put on a nice musical to cheer people up?  Didn’t people watch musicals these days?  Jessie thought not; people were all too busy watching other people having sex or bashing each other over the head with iron bars.

A soap opera’s dreary theme tune assaulted her ears as Jessie tut-tutted with annoyance.  She pressed the remote control and decided to have a look at the crime programme on the other channel.  The chap that presented it always seemed such a nice man, and it was more interesting than that awful soap.  Jessie didn’t care who was bedding whom; sex had long since lost its fascination, and she’d rather have a nice hot dinner these days anyway. 

She’d missed the first ten minutes, but the chap with the nice smile was giving out a phone number for anyone to call who could give the police details of the man in the photo they were putting on the screen.

Jessie took a look at the photo and nearly fell off her chair in surprise.

The man on the screen was Mr Evans, the tidy builder who had done such a good job with her conservatory.

The old lady had been correct, and she had even kept hold of Evans’ recent invoice and receipt. One of the keys on Evans’ large key ring fitted snugly in the Yale lock, and the front door swung open.  Inspector John Hatton could hear no sounds at all inside the house, and as his eyes looked to left and right he wondered where would be a good place to begin the search.

“Shall I look upstairs first, Sir?”  WPC Faye Carter was already making her way to the stairwell.

“Yes, that’ll be a good start.  I’ll look down here.” 

Hatton tried the first door off the hallway, which led into the lounge.  He was struck by the cleanliness and order; no book was out of place on the shelving, and CD’s and DVD’s were stored in racks in alphabetical order. Cushions were plumped up on the sofa, and the carpet was clean and had been recently vacuumed. There was a bureau in one corner containing his business cards and headed paper, lists of customers, and invoices to be paid.  Everything seemed in order, right down to the vase of
dust-free artificial flowers on the dining table.  As he went back out into the hallway he realised what had been bugging him about the lounge; there were no family photographs lining windowsills or in frames upon the walls.

He tried the kitchen, which was just as clean. There were no dirty plates in the sink, and no food left out on the worktops.  Even the cat’s bowl on the floor full of dried food looked as though it was regularly washed out. Hatton looked around for a cat, but assumed it had gone out through the cat flap in the back door.  He saw a type of American walk-in fridge and thought it rather large for somebody living on his own, and was surprised at the amount of food in the fridge, and also in the cupboards and on shelves in the little pantry he found near the kitchen.  There was even another larger American-type fridge in a corner of the pantry.

WPC Carter stuck her head around the pantry door:

“Nothing upstairs Sir.”

“Ok, but let’s have a look at this.”  Hatton wondered why a man living on his own would want to put a bolt on the outside of the fridge door. 

He slid the bolt back and opened the fridge door.  Instead of the usual milk, rashers of bacon and margarine he could see steps going downstairs to some sort of cellar.  There was a light switch just inside the door, and Hatton switched it on.  There was a strong wooden door in front of him at the bottom of the stairs. Hatton went down the steps with WPC Carter following behind.  He tried the handle, but the door was locked.

Fishing in his pocket he brought out Evans’ key ring and tried the first key.  As he fiddled with the lock he thought he could hear a cat mewing on the other side of the door.  Finding the correct key at last he opened the door and a cat shot past him and up the stairs. 

Hatton tried not to gag at the stench of shit and cats’ piss that hit him as he opened the door.  He tried but could not see too far into the room from stairwell’s dim light.

“I’ll go and get a torch from the car.” 

Faye Carter ran back up the stairs and reappeared with a torch.  Hatton shone it around the room and as he did so he could see a young girl sitting up on the bed, shielding her eyes from the light.  She began to choke.

“Daddy?  I can’t breathe! The air is bad! You have to let me out!”

“Amy?”  Faye Carter ran over to the girl.  “I’m here to help you.  I’m a policewoman.  My name is Faye, and
I’m going to take you to your mummy.” 

Faye held out her hand to the little girl, who clutched it as though her life depended on it.

“Are you asthmatic? Are you having trouble breathing?”  Faye did her best to comfort the girl while Hatton investigated the rest of the room.

“I copied Philip, Dinah and Lucy-Ann.  It’s how they escaped.”  Amy’s breathing returned to normal as Faye checked the rest of the bed.

“Were there other children in here with you then?”

“They’re in here, in my book.”  Amy pointed to the book next to her under the duvet.

“I’ve done a wee and a poo on the bed.  Will Mummy tell me off?  Daddy needs to change the light bulb and I couldn’t find the toilet.  I’m so hungry.  I ate all the food.  Prince is hungry too.”

“Nobody is going to tell you off, darling.  There’s food for Prince upstairs.  Do you have any other clothes?”  Faye could see the girl had taken off her lower garments and was half naked under the duvet.

“Our clothes are kept in a drawer under the bed.”

“I’m going to take you upstairs to the bathroom.  You can have a good wash and a change of clothes, and then we’re going to make you something to eat and then take you in the car to see your mummy.”