Unspoken: A story of secrets, love and revenge by T. Belshaw (best reads of all time .TXT) 📗

herself some fresh orange juice, and perched herself on a tall, kitchen stool.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said.

‘I thought I heard something clanking,’ he replied with a smile.

‘Do you think we spend too much time together, Calvin?’ she asked.

‘How do you mean?’ He frowned in response.

‘Well, most people only ever see each other in the evenings, and at weekends. We’re cooped up here together all the time. No wonder we get crabby with each other.’

‘I don’t get crabby. When do I ever get crabby?’ he asked.

Jess didn’t bite.

‘I’ve been thinking really hard as to why we’ve suddenly started arguing, sometimes over nothing, or things so trivial they shouldn’t matter. I came to the conclusion that we ought to be apart a little bit more, so we look forward to seeing each other later in the day.’

‘What are you suggesting, Jess?’ Calvin got slowly to his feet and walked to the kitchen.

Jess held her breath but he was just waiting for her to continue.

‘Well, for a start, I could work out of the library. It’s full of all the resources I need, I can get Internet, and the research section is excellent. I could also work out of the café near the Uni, if I fancied a change.’

Calvin wasn’t sold on that idea.

‘I’d miss you too much.’ He kissed Jess on the top of her head. ‘Besides, I don’t want you to become the fantasy of every young, male Uni student off-campus. They all hang around that café.’

Jess stood her ground.

‘I want us to be happy, Calv, but at the moment I don’t think we are. There seems to be something coming between us and I’m not sure what it is, so I thought this might help. We don’t have to be apart every day, but a couple of times a week or so wouldn’t hurt.’

‘I’d hardly see you at all if we did that, Jess, what with your Nana and all that nonsense.’

Jess did bite at that.

‘It isn’t nonsense, Calvin, she’s nearly a hundred and she needs my help.’

‘Aren’t you just using her to get her story?’ Calvin paused. ‘I didn’t mean it to come out like that.’

‘She’s old and I don’t know how much time I have left to spend in her company. Her story is just something we’re sharing between us. That’s all.’

She threw her toast in the bin and headed for the shower.

‘Okay, I agree,’ Calvin called after her. ‘We’ll sort out a work at home roster. I can do my thing at the Uni or in that café, some days. It would be handy if I needed to nip into the office for anything.’

Jess stopped at the bathroom door.

‘I really do think we need to do this, Calvin,’ she said softly.

‘I thought only old married couples did this sort of thing. We’ll be having date nights next,’ replied Calvin. ‘I’ll go along with it for now, but don’t go thinking it’s permanent, and don’t go talking to any men while you’re running back and forth. I wouldn’t be happy about that at all.’

At four-thirty, Jess picked up her bag, kissed Calvin and hurried to her car. She had packed an overnight bag, her unfinished Writing Magazine and a fantasy novel by Robin Hobb. She wasn’t really a fantasy sort of person but the Farseer trilogy had her hooked.

She opened the front door to be greeted by Beethoven’s Ninth blaring out across the house. Fearing the worst, Jess dashed along the hall into the front room. Alice was sitting in her chair swinging her arms as if conducting an orchestra.

‘What on earth,’ Jess raised a hand and waved to Alice. ‘Nana?’

Alice stopped the conducting immediately and waved back.

Jess stepped across the room and turned off the DAB radio.

She cupped her hands over her ears for effect.

‘Wow! That was loud,’ she said.

‘It had to be,’ replied Alice. ‘I was making sure I stayed awake.’

‘But why, Nana? Are you having trouble sleeping at night so you’re trying to stay awake in the day?’ That made sense, of sorts.

‘The opposite. I sleep far too easily at night, but I don’t want to, Jessica.’ Tears welled in her eyes.

‘The dreams are too horrible.’ She stared at Jess, wide-eyed. ‘Someone’s coming for me, and I don’t want to go with him.’

Jess rushed to her side to comfort her.

‘No one’s coming for you, Nana. I won’t let them.’

Alice patted her hand.

‘Sadly, you can’t stop him, Jessica. I wish to God you could, but no one can.’ She began to shake. ‘I know what’s coming out of that tunnel. I see it every time I fall asleep now. It’s my destiny.’

‘We don’t believe in fate, destiny, Heaven and Hell, remember?’ Jess tried to soothe the obviously terrified woman. ‘Dreams mean nothing, Nana. Nothing.’

Alice hung her head.

‘A few short weeks ago I’d have totally agreed with you, my darling. But these aren’t just ordinary bad dreams. This is one dream… no, one vision, and it’s continuous, like it’s played back on a video recorder, over and over again, but it subtly changes every time, the light takes up more and more of the tunnel, there’s a thick mist in the centre now and someone is coming out of it to claim me.’

‘Honestly, Nana, it’s just a dream, albeit a recurring one. I used to have one about an attic,’ Jess loosened her hold on Alice. ‘I think you ought to be the novelist, Nana, not me. You’d have a best seller with this one.’

Alice tried to laugh but only succeeded in making a gravelly sound in the back of her throat.

‘You probably won’t believe me until you get a similar experience yourself when you’re coming to the end, my dear, but I won’t allow you to have as bad a time of it as I’m having. I’ll be there already, wherever “there” is, and I’ll ensure that I’m the one waiting in that tunnel. I won’t allow anyone to get in my way.’

Alice pushed herself back into her cushions. Even through the dab of rouge, Jess