The Darker Half Chapter 10

The Darker Half Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

By Janet Baldey

ANNA

         She made it up with her father, of course she did.  He was the one person in her world that she truly loved. They never spoke about the kitten again but Anna would not set one foot in the workshop and her father must have felt the same because shortly afterwards he laid the foundations for a new one at the far end of the garden.  He said he needed more space but Anna knew the real reason. All the same, Anna no longer spent evenings in his company; something had changed, and Alec had forced the change.

         To avoid her brother, she took to spending a lot of time next door with her friend Greta, until that too, came to a close. But Anna rarely thought about that, it was too humiliating and, as she had grown to expect, Alec had been the cause of her disgrace.

         She had  first met Greta on the day they’d moved house. The weeks before that had been weird and unsettled.  Her mother and father hadn’t laughed or even smiled at each other for a long time and the days were filled with long gloomy silences broken only by the whine of Alec’s voice as he complained, usually about her.

         ‘Mummy, Anna won’t play with me…’ or ‘Mummy Anna’s hidden my train…’ These grouches were usually the result of Alec’s own actions but at the time she had been too young to fight her own corner. Instead, tears of inarticulate rage would flood from her eyes as she struggled to find the right words.

         “ If Alec wasn’t so nasty, I would play with him, and I haven’t touched his train.”

         “In what way is he nasty, Anna? Don’t forget he’s smaller than you. Just be patient wiv’ him. Now, get out of my way the both of you, can’t you see I’m busy.’

         Her mother was always busy recently and so was her father. But in spite of that Anna thought the place was a mess. Doors hung ajar all over the house, even in their parents’ bedroom and once she’d peeked inside and seen every drawer open and piles of clothes spilling across the bed and onto the floor. She was constantly coming across mounds of household clutter with labels stuck to them, but the writing on the notes was so scrawly she couldn’t read it. Nothing was as it should be and they were lucky if they got one proper meal a day. Otherwise it was just the case of grabbing a biscuit whenever they felt peckish.  She didn’t know what was going on and feeling out of sorts and miserable, she’d started another game with Alec despite knowing that it would turn into yet another disaster.

         Searching around for an idea, at last she suggested painting a picture and made the mistake of trusting him to look after her precious box of paints while she went to get a beaker full of water from the kitchen. When she’d returned, her brother was bent over her box carefully spitting into each bright rectangle of colour and using a dry brush to mix his spit into the paint. Alec had looked up, smiling spitefully, as she stared at the brush’s bristle, now splayed like a sweep’s brush and her beautiful colours, every one reduced to a sludgy mauve.

         “I’ll let you into a secret, if you don’t tell,” he’d said.

         That was how she’d found out they were moving to another house. “Mum and Dad were having a row. I heard everything. Mum swore at him,” Alec had said, his eyes alight with malice.

         Anna had stared at him, Alec told so many lies it was a struggle to believe anything he said, but something inside told her that this time he wasn’t fibbing. Her stomach dropped like it had when she once rode in a lift. She didn’t want to leave this house, she loved it here. There were lots of rooms and secret places in which she could hide away from Alec and although it was old and creaky, it wasn’t scary at all. She wondered what their new house would be like. Would it have woods at the bottom of the garden, like this one?  Although she’d never dared go into them she loved watching the big old trees swaying in the wind and once she had seen a fox, although she first thought it was next door’s ginger cat.

         But Alec had put the thought into her mind and in the following days she watched her parents closely and everything slotted into place as she saw they were packing up. Everything was about to change but even so, it was a shock when she was eventually told.  Trying to hide her tears, she took a pencil and went to all her favourite places and signed her name in tiny letters low down near the skirting boards.  ‘I shall miss this house’ she wrote, wanting to leave something of herself behind, after all this was where she had lived ever since she had been born. She belonged here and wanted the house to know she didn’t want to leave it.

***

“What is that noise?” Her mother was upset, Anna had realised. Her face was as red as a fire engine, there was a smudge of something black on her nose and fine strands of hair had escaped from her bun and were floating in the air.  It was the boxes Anna thought, they must be getting on her mother’s nerves and that didn’t surprise her. The big, brown cartons seemed to have taken over, they were everywhere, piled up in corners, littering the floor and even blocking doorways so you had to climb over them to get out.   Her mother was standing in the centre of the room, in one of the few clear spaces, her hands bunched into fists, her eyes rolling in a helpless sort of panic. Every now and then she’d turn towards one box, change her mind half-way and wheel-round to another. Anna cocked her head and heard the faint sound of hammering.

         “Daddy’s putting up shelves.”

         “No, not that noise; that squeak.” Anna listened again, there was a faint and scratchy sound as if someone’s fingernails were clawing down something hard, over and over again.

         “Don’t know,” she said at last, but her mother had lost interest.

         “Where’s your brother? I thought you was looking after ‘im?”

          Anna shrugged her shoulders. “I was, but he ran off.”

         “Well, for Chrissake go and find him. Quick, this minute. The last thing I need is for ‘im to get lost again.”

         Anna turned and squeezed through the door. She noticed that the removal van had gone.  She’d thought it exciting when it first arrived, panting and growling up the hill, like an enormous dinosaur, but had changed her mind when it started eating all their furniture. She’d felt frightened then, wondering where they were going and what their new house would be like. To try and calm herself, she’d wandered around re-visiting all her favourite places for the last time but that had only made her feel sad.

         Alec didn’t want to move either and as usual he made his feelings quite clear. When they were all packed up and ready to go, her mother called up the stairs, “Anna, Alec, we’re ready. Come and get in the car, quickly now.”

         Anna poked her pencil into a crack in the floorboard and went to the top of the stairs.

         “Where’s your brother?”

         Anna shrugged, and her mother raised her voice. “Alec, come down here at once.”

         Her voice echoed in the hollowness of the empty house and Anna knew he wasn’t there.  She could always sense when her brother was missing, the air felt lighter somehow.

          “I don’t think he’s up here Mum.”

         “Well, where is the dratted child then. You’d better go and make sure. Check every room and don’t forget to look in the cupboards. You know what he’s like.” But although they searched the whole house, upstairs and downstairs, there was no sign of her brother and her mother started to blubber with panic.

         “Oh, Gawd, I hope he hasn’t gone into the wood. He could get lost in there.”  She raised her voice even more until it was almost a scream.

         “Len, Len, We can’t find Alec anywhere. I think ‘e must be in the woods.”

         Anna was sure he wasn’t; he was too nosy for that. She’d bet he was hiding where he could see but not be seen, that was more Alec’s style. Suddenly, she had an idea and ran out of the house. There was a broken-down shed at the bottom of the garden, it was too full of spiders and creepy-crawlies for her, but she knew her brother spent a lot of time there, doing what she couldn’t imagine.

         The door squealed as she pushed it open and a fine drift of dirt fell into her hair, with a shudder, she brushed it away hoping no spiders had fallen on her.

         “Alec,are you here?” Silence, but it wasn’t an empty silence, she was sure she could hear the sound of him breathing, her mother was always worried about his adenoids.

.        “Alec, come out now,” she yelled.

         “No, shan’t!”

         She poked her head inside the shed and immediately recoiled.

          “Phew it stinks in there. Alec have you done a poo?’ 

         There was no answer but she didn’t think he had. It wasn’t an Alec sort of smell. She knew that because Alec often came into her room and farted, just to annoy her. This smell was worse, the sort that clogged up your throat, a dead sort of smell. She definitely wasn’t going in there and anyway she couldn’t pull Alec out. Although he was small and skinny, he was very strong.

         “Dad,” she called “I’ve found him.”

         Her father and mother had both come running and her Daddy had burst in and yanked him out. Alec had screamed and bawled all the way to the car. Her Daddy had almost thrown him into the back seat without saying a word but Anna knew he was angry because, as he drove away, she saw the back of his neck was all red and the car jumped and jerked like a kangaroo, so she guessed her Daddy was being rough with its pedals.

         Now he was missing again. What a pain he was, he only did it to annoy but somehow it was always her fault and as always, she had to go and find him.

         Anna hadn’t taken to their new house. It was much smaller and shabbier than their old one and as she went through the front door, she noticed the grubby blue paint was faded and chipping off in places, so you could see the bare wood. But the worst bit about it was that there was no wood at the bottom of the garden, only a rickety old fence and beyond that somebody else’s garden. She looked around then ran down the path that cut through the long grass that was supposed to be a lawn, and towards the gate. To her relief it was closed, so she guessed Alec hadn’t left the garden. She still couldn’t see him but she could still hear that squeak, it was louder now so perhaps it was Alec up to some mischief or other.

         “Alec,” she called.

         “He’s up there.”

         Anna almost jumped out of her shoes. The voice was coming from next door’s garden and as her head swivelled, she saw a girl of about her own age sitting on a rusty swing that squeaked every time she propelled herself backwards and forwards. The girl  had curly blonde hair tied back with a pink ribbon that matched the colour of her dress and her eyes were very blue. As Anna stared, the girl let go with one arm and pointed upwards. Following the line of her finger, Anna gasped as she saw Alec half-way up a crooked old  tree, his body wedged in a cleft of the twisted trunk and a branch. She ran to the foot of the tree and stared upwards.  Alec stared back at her.  His muddy brown eyes looked huge and his face was paper-white. He looked, Anna decided, like a very bad-tempered owl.

         “Alec!” She yelled. “How did you get up there? You come down this very instant before Mummy sees you.”

         Shan’t.” Alec yelled back. “Shan’t, shan’t, shan’t…”

         “He means can’t.” For the second time that day, the girl next door made her jump. Without Anna noticing, she had hopped over the sagging wire fence and was now standing by her side.

         “He’s stuck.” The girl explained. For a few second there was silence as they both thought about it. Anna’s stomach was churning. If they had to call the fire brigade, she was in so much trouble. After all, she was supposed to be looking after him.

         “He your brother?” the girl said. Anna nodded.

         “I got brothers too. They’re such a nuisance aren’t they?” Just at that very moment there was a commotion next door as two whooping and yelling boys barrelled out of the house and charged down the path.

         “See what I mean? They’re going to the park to play football. Sometimes, they play at home, but they always make me be in goal and aim right for me, ‘though they say they don’t.  Look.”

She pulled up her dress and Anna saw a big bruise flowering just above her knee. It was swollen and looked as purple as the wicked queen’s cloak in the Sleeping Beauty panto she’d seen last Christmas.

“Wow. I bet that hurt.”

“Yeah. I told Mum and she yelled at them but it never seems to make any difference.”

She looked back at the tree.  “Tell you what, I’ve got an idea. I’ll climb up and try and get him down. You stand at the bottom and catch him if he falls.”

         Anna’s eyes widened but before she could say anything the girl was swarming up the tree like a monkey, her plimsolled feet skilfully finding footholds in its gnarled trunk. Hoisting herself up onto the same branch as Alec, she edged her way towards him and there was a long, muttered conversation which Anna couldn’t hear, although she was straining her ears as hard as she could. Eventually, to her great surprise and relief, they both started to move, Alec wriggling along the branch while the girl helped him, pointing downwards at the footholds that she had used. Slowly, they both clambered down. Alec clutching at the trunk for dear life as his good leg searched for crevices while the other one swung uselessly. Anna gaped at his clumsy descent, amazed that he had managed to climb that far in the first place. His arms, she realised, must be very strong. At last he was on the ground and she stood watching as he clutched at the tree for support. His chest was working like a pair of bellows and she could hear it whistling as he fought to catch his breath. Leaves and twigs decorated his hair, his face and hands were filthy and there was a bright red graze running down his good leg. Usually, he was so fussy about his appearance that he’d fly into a hysterical rage if there was so much as a smudge of dirt on his face or clothes but now he looked like a dirtier version of Dennis the Menace in The Beano comic that her Dad bought for them. Anna felt the beginnings of a giggle at the back of her throat and clamped her lips together as tightly as she could.  At last, Alec managed to straighten up and turned to glare at her.

         “What are you staring at?” he wheezed, and not waiting for a reply, shoved past her and rocked his unsteady way back towards the house.

         “Aren’t you going to say thank you? And why did you go up there anyway?”  She shouted after him but if he heard, he didn’t reply.

         “Typical,” the girl said. She looked at Anna and grinned. Anna grinned back and then their grins widened until they both exploded with laughter, tears of helpless merriment streaming down their faces.  At last, the girl wiped her eyes and, her voice hiccupping, said “my name’s Greta, by the way. What’s yours?”

Anna always remembered that day as clearly as if it was yesterday because it started a friendship that lasted for years. She and Greta sat next to each other at primary school, both went to the local grammar and would have been friends even now, she was sure, if it hadn’t been for Alec.

Copyright Janet Baldey