Home Sweet Home

Copyright 2011 Adrian
Sturgess
Smashwords Edition

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*****

Though the sun’s golden
rays
were mellowed by the haze
of the dream mists,
that rose up from the edge
of the chasm of night.

*****

It was a
beautiful sunny day in early April and the Marigold family were on
their way to view the house that was for sale on the outskirts of
the small village where they had been renting a cottage for the
past two months. Mr Marigold’s employer was footing the bill for
the rented accommodation and there was pressure on the family to
quickly buy their own home.

It was only a
short walk through the centre and out to the edge of the village
and under the vivid blue sky a row of terraced cottages that they
passed took on the vibrancy of a child’s painting in pink, yellow
and blue.

They were all
in fine mood and their
mood
further
improved when they spotted the house. It was a good-sized,
detached, house with bay windows and a gabled front. Its fresh
white paintwork fairly gleamed and sparkled at them in the spring
sunshine.

They walked up
the front path past wonderfully manicured borders and perfectly
clipped shrubs to the big white front door, which promptly opened
to reveal a middle-aged couple who beamed at them from the hallway.
“So you must be Mr and Mrs Marigold, come to look at the house,
well I’m Doreen Smith and this is my husband Jim and…. my oh my,
what wonderful children and how old are you and what are your
names?” She stooped down and flooded them with a radiant smile,
only to be rewarded with a slightly diffident shuffle of the feet.
Finally Jackie composed herself enough to respond. “I’m Jackie and
I’m 14 and this is my brother Ben, he’s 13.”
“Well, well what lovely names, now please do come in, no need to
take off shoes, it hasn’t rained for days has it?”

The adults
exchanged pleasantries whilst the children just stood looking
around the hallway and across through the partially opened door
towards rooms at the back of the house.
“Well go ahead and take a good look about and Jim and I will be
sitting out in the garden, so take your time and we’ll talk again
in a little while.”

The family
wandered approvingly around the house and Mrs Marigold immediately
fell in love with the kitchen, which looked out directly onto the
rear garden.
“Wow, look at this, we could have a dining table in here and just
look at that lovely view out onto the rear lawn.”

Doreen and Jim
could be seen sitting side by side in deckchairs facing down the
garden and gesturing contentedly towards a group of sparrows that
flitted to and fro nearby.

Mr Marigold
murmured his approval at the size of the kitchen but the kids
hardly heard him because they were already moving ahead excitedly
to discover what surprises the rest of the house had to offer. They
looked into the drawing room but found it a bit gloomy and not
terribly interesting, before moving on to the sitting room, which
was right at the front of the house and had a huge bay window and
long white curtains that draped down and caressed the polished oak
floor. Finally their parents caught up with them and ‘just adored’
the sitting room. As they turned to leave the room, the sun sunk
behind a cloud and the room lost its warmth and colour and suddenly
seemed so unappealing that Jackie had to suppress a shiver and
scurried as quickly as she could out into the hall. But the moment
quickly passed and the upstairs of the house was just perfect,
containing as it did 4 good-sized bedrooms, a study and the
required en-suite bathroom.

Finally the
family stepped out into the sunshine to join the owners, who then
took them on a tour of the grounds. Mrs Smith stopped by the high
timber fence at the far end of the garden and explained that the
lower road out of the village passed to the rear of the property
but that very few cars used it and consequently it was no
nuisance.

Meanwhile,
Jackie and Ben had gravitated toward a large apple tree in the
corner of the garden and looked up longingly at the massive gnarled
branches, whilst day dreaming of climbing and of tree houses and
apple pie and custard.
“It’s a lovely tree isn’t it.” Mrs Smith called over to them. “We
get beautiful apples in the autumn, like nothing you’ve tasted in
the supermarkets and I’m sure, if you asked him nicely your dad
would hang you a swing off that low branch.”
“Oh daddy would you?” They both called excitedly and then Ben, on a
bit of an opportunistic roll continued “And daddy, would you build
us a tree house too?”

Mr Marigold
smiled politely and muttered a few non-committal words, whilst
inwardly he was quite annoyed with Mrs Smith. She really had
overstepped the mark in making such rash comments, because he knew
from deep experience that once children got an idea fixed in their
heads, they’d work on you remorselessly until you either went mad
or gave in.

Mrs Smith
showed no sign that she had noticed Mr Marigold’s irritation
however and said “Yes, we’ll miss the apples when we’re gone from
here” and then she gave a sigh which for the briefest of moments
hinted at a valley of sadness that she normally kept hidden away
behind her cheerful facade of bonhomie.

Finally they
said their goodbyes and the family made their way back down the
front path whilst the Smiths’ stood beaming and waving and looking
for all the world like doting Grandparents.

On the way
back, the children skipped and jostled together excitedly whilst
their parents walked along more serenely, holding hands and
discussing what they had just seen. They walked in almost complete
silence, their senses totally engaged in soaking up the
picture-postcard qualities of the Village, which seemed so
radiantly joyful in the bright spring sunshine.

As they
approached their rented house Mrs Marigold broke the enchanted
silence that had hung over them both for the previous few
minutes.
“Oh darling don’t you just feel that it’s the perfect house in the
perfect village? It’s just made for us.”
Her
husband looked over at her with a grin that made him look ten years
younger and said “Yes, it is perfect, we mustn’t lose that
house.”

Later that
afternoon after brief negotiations through the Estate Agent, a sale
was agreed. They had finally bought their dream house and to mark
the occasion, they celebrated with Champagne and the entire family
toasted their future and their luck in finding such a wonderful
home.

*****

Several weeks
later Jackie and Ben were coming back from the playing fields a
mile or so outside the village. They were kicking a ball along as
they went, when Ben kicked the ball too high and it sailed straight
over a fence at the side of the road. “That was stupid.” said
Jackie “How are we going to get it back?” Meanwhile Ben had been
searching for a gap in the fence when he suddenly made a
connection. “Wow, Jackie, this is the house we are buying, I’m sure
it must be. I’ve never thought of it before but this is the lower
road out of the village and the garden backed onto it and I
definitely recognise that huge apple tree that we saw in the
garden”

Jackie thought for a moment and then said
“Well I
suppose we can go round tomorrow and ask for our ball back.” But
Ben wasn’t really listening. “Hey Jackie, these two panels are
loose, I’m going to try and squeeze through and get the ball, I’m
sure they wouldn’t mind anyway, even if they see me and I doubt if
they will ‘cos it’s nearly dark.”

Jackie was
apprehensive but bolstered a little by her brothers’ rock solid
confidence she agreed to wait by the fence while he popped in and
retrieved the ball. She watched as he prised the panels apart and
slipped through and then all she could hear was a gentle swishing
of leaves as he presumably forced his way through the shrubs at the
end of the garden. Then all was silent and she gazed around, with
heightened senses, across the open fields that lay just to the
other side of the road from where she was standing. The evening had
almost turned to night and under the overcast sky she could make
out the silhouettes of trees way off in the distance and the
occasional harsh caw of the, only just visible, wheeling crows,
crashed against her fragile senses, sending butterflies shooting
through her stomach. She looked back at the fence and thought
“Where is he? It can’t take that long to find a ball, surely”

In truth he had
only been gone a few minutes but in her strained state it seemed an
age. Finally she pulled at the fence panels and pushing her head
through the gap she hissed as loudly as she dared.
“Ben, Ben, where on earth are you? Come back, I’m scared.”

There was a
sudden noise and then something or somebody crashed solidly into
her, knocking her backwards almost into the road and there was Ben
standing over her, panting and gasping and almost beside himself
with terror. “Jackie come on we’ve got to run.”

Then he came to
his senses enough to see that he had sent her flying and that she
was sitting on the ground nursing a blow to the head. “Jackie, are
you OK? Here let me help you and then we must get moving.” Slowly
he hauled her to her feet and with one arm around her, half to
comfort her and half to pull her along, they set off home at a
trot.

On the way back
he did his best to explain to Jackie what had happened and in
between panting for breath and sobbing in terror, he laboriously
got his story out.

He had quickly
made his way through the shrubs and could see the ball right in the
middle of the lawn. He paused between the shrubs and tried to get
up courage for a quick sprint across the lawn and back to retrieve
the ball, but his heart was pounding in his chest and his courage
was waning. Then suddenly, just as someone standing at the side of
a pool, desperately trying to summon up the courage to enter the
cold water, reaches a point of decision and jumps, so Ben started
to run. As he reached the ball and fumbled to pick it up in his
panic stricken hands, he looked up at the house and saw at once
that it wasn’t the house he knew. It appeared empty and abandoned.
For some reason this calmed him and he walked a little closer. It
must be very close to the house they were buying, maybe even next
door, but he hadn’t remembered seeing any such house on the day
they had come to view. At this point Ben had almost returned to
tell Jackie, but his curiosity made him go right up to the back of
the house and even in the half-light it was clearly derelict.
Window frames were empty of glass, a rear door was hanging from one
hinge and even the bricks were loose in places. He thought of
Jackie waiting and knew he mustn’t be too long but he seemed almost
compelled to enter into the house. This actually proved quite easy,
as he only had to swing the door slightly to one side and step
through.

The house was
in a completely dilapidated state and the floor was strewn with
rubble, shattered glass and other nameless objects that lay just
beyond resolution in the gloom. He felt he wouldn’t go much
further, for in truth his courage was bow tight and ready to snap
at any moment, but he crunched his way as carefully as he could to
a door and promptly froze.