The House Guest - Paul Curtis (ebook reader for surface pro .TXT) 📗

Did Rose like it is that why?”
Neither Rose nor I were fans of Halloween before we moved to Appleby but it was just part of living in the village.
The thing about Rose is that she was a community person and being part of the community was important to her.
We liked the way it was done, it was so different from our past experience, all the children would meet at the church hall and would go round in small groups each group being accompanied by adults then they would all go back to the village hall and have a party with all the traditional Halloween games and there were prizes for the best costumes.
“No not exactly” I didn’t elaborate.
“You’re so odd” She said and turned back towards her computer.
“I was mean to them last year” I blurted.
“Who?”
“The children, I wasn’t very nice to them” I looked down at the floor
“I think I made one little girl cry”
“Oh”
“I feel ashamed of my behaviour, Rose would have been so mad”
“Well there’s nothing you can do about it now” She said.
“Hopefully the kids will remember their bad experience and not come knocking this year, so no sweets required”
She punctuated the end of the sentence with an Oliver Hardy style nod, then she smiled and got up and headed towards the bathroom.
I moved over to the computer I looked at the screen and observed that she was at the check out.
Due to much practise, after all, its not as if I have anything else to do, I had mastered moving and manipulating things over the preceding weeks.
So I sat down and took hold of the mouse, I quickly returned to where Julie had been shopping and found a large tub of Halloween sweets and clicked quantity required 2 and then add to basket, then returned her to the check out just as I heard the toilet flush.
Then I went and sat down again feeling rather pleased with myself.
I was not totally unfamiliar with computers but I had never shopped on line but I had watched Julie enough times to pick up what to do.
When she returned she completed her shopping transaction and was none the wiser.

The next day when the shopping arrived, the driver unloaded the bags onto the step and Julie signed for the delivery and the driver left.
It was only after she had carried the bags into the kitchen and began to unpack them that she noticed the 2 large tubs of Halloween candy.
“HARRY!” she shouted and thumped one of the tubs onto the counter.
“HARRY!”
“You bellowed milady”
“Was this you?” she said pointing at the sweets.
“You ordered them after all” I said acting surprised “That’s really sweet”
“No I did NOT” She corrected me.
“Well it wasn’t me” I said “I wouldn’t know how, you must have done it subconsciously”
“I am not the sort of person who would buy sweets for the little…..”
I interrupted her
“Well obviously subconsciously you’re a very nice person” And disappeared.

I stayed out of her way for the next couple of days and I spent my time practising.
I had mastered the fine manipulations such as flicking switches, unfolding a handkerchief and picking up a pen.
I could even write though my handwriting was still a bit shaky.
What I wasn’t very good at was moving large or heavy objects so I was in the back garden trying to move the wheelbarrow.
Unfortunately when I eventually succeeded in moving it I managed to frighten a passing dog walker who was startled by the sight of a wheelbarrow moving along the path under its own power.
So I went indoors, I found Julie was sat in her chair reading some documents, I was considering whether it was safe to appear when I noticed the tubs of sweets were stood on a chair next to the door in readiness for the evenings visitors.
I knew that beneath that thick veneer of bitterness and cynicism there resided a good human being.
I deduced that the fact the sweets were now sitting on a chair and not in the dustbin meant that she was in one of her brighter moods.
I decided I would appear but that I wouldn’t mention the sweets just to be on the safe side.
“Hello”
She looks up from her papers then set them on the table in front of her.
“So you’ve decided to show yourself”
“What do you mean? I’ve been busy” I said feigning an indignant attitude.
“Just because I’m dead doesn’t mean I don’t have demands on my time”
“Yes I saw you playing with wheelbarrow”
“So did Mary Rudd” I said sheepishly
“Who’s Mary Rudd?”
“Retired postmistress”
“And she saw you?” She asked smiling.
“No she saw a self propelled wheelbarrow; she’s probably having a large gin to recover as we speak”
She was laughing now.
“Has anyone else seen you?” Julie asked.
“No and I only revealed myself to you because….”
“You thought I was going to top myself”
“Yes”
“I hope you think better of me now?”
I nodded.
“I do have low moments, and the world is a shitty place, but on the whole I prefer life”
“I wish you’d start living it then”
“What do you mean?”
“If you prefer life why don’t you go out into the world and live it”.
“You’re just jealous that I’m still alive and not dead like you” She said viciously
“No you’re not dead you’re alive but you’re not living”
“You live your life though a computer screen” I continued
“You never meet people; you never interact with other human beings, you have everything delivered to your door”
She was about to interrupt but I pressed on before she had the chance.
“And if you could cut your own hair you would never see anyone at all”
“I have physio” she corrected me
“And what happens when you don’t need that anymore?”
She snatched up her papers and scowled.
“I don’t need life tips from a ghost” she spat out the words like venom.
Then she turned her back on me.
“Please don’t do what I did, don’t imprison yourself in this cottage”
I pleaded but she ignored me, she was angry with me but not as angry as I was at myself. I blew it I pushed to hard and she pushed back.
I could have got my point across with more subtlety, I was making progress but now I’d gone backwards.

I was trapped in the cottage and its environs, I was earth bound because I shut myself away to wallow in self pity after the death of my wife Rose.
I had come to the conclusion that I must help another person in order to “move on” and rejoin my Rose.
It would have been easier if I had done it while I was still alive I could have gone off and sought out someone to help, but as I was dead I had to wait for someone to come to me.
But then if I had lived out my last months in the world in the same way as I lived the rest of my life I wouldn’t have been in the mess I was in.
Or maybe this was how it was meant to be, it was my destiny to help someone. .
Which is where Julie came in she had come to the cottage to escape the world.
At that moment I didn’t know why and I would need to know that before I could help her and I was determined to help her whether she liked it or not.
But to find out what I needed to know I needed to be on good terms with her which was not helped by my clumsy handling of the situation.
So it was with some trepidation, after our angry exchange, that I went into the sitting room later in the day.
I feared she might take out the anger she felt towards me and channel it at the innocent revellers.
To be on the safe side I remained invisible until I had assessed the lay of the land.
I half expect to see Julie sitting in a rocking chair swigging from a whisky bottle and
Catapulting sweets at the trick or treaters heads.
But she was humming, I hadn’t witnessed her humming before, she did impatient tapping of her fingers, she did grinding her teeth but I had never witnessed humming.
Humming was a little unnerving however I took a gamble that it was safe so I materialized.
“You’re humming” I said
She jumped, I had startled her and she was clearly flustered, then her face went scarlet.
“No I’m not” she said indignantly.
“You were humming, I heard you”
“What you heard was me clearing my throat” Julie said without conviction so she changed the subject.
“Anyway where have you been, have you been keeping out of my way”
“I thought it advisable”
Before she had chance to comment she was alerted to approach of trick or treaters coming down the long winding path.
At this time of the day Julie would normally have to employ her stick to move with any kind of speed around the house but I noticed it was leant discretely against the wall behind the door out of sight of anyone who might be standing on the step if the door was open.
She pulled the curtain back a couple of inches and peered out.
“They’re coming, what do I do?” she asked urgently
“Well” I began.
“Oh come on, you got me into this mess”
“Calm down you’ll have a stroke” I said
Julie took a deep breath and waited for me to speak.
“All the children will have a bag for their sweets” I told her.
“Yes, yes” she said impatiently.
“Well you put a small handful of sweets into each bag but don’t be to generous to early or you wont have enough to go round everyone”
“Ok” she said and nodded.
“But first you have to open the door” I said inclining my head towards the closed door.
“Oh God yes” she laughed nervously “that would help”
Julie opened the door and was met with a chorus of “TRICK OR TREAT” from a small group of excited witches, warlocks, ghosts and ghouls.
“Wow look at you all” she said “What brilliant costumes”
“Ok who’s first?” she asked as she picked up one of the sweet tubs and scooped up a handful.
At the back of the group keeping order was a tall dark haired man, wearing a flat cap and leather jacket, Julie caught his eye briefly and smiled and he smiled back, then carried on but she kept glancing in his direction, he was in his thirties she estimated.
Soon she had deposited a handful of sweets into every bag and the group moved back up the path.
“Goodbye Miss Molesworth” the tall man said and smiled.
She smiled back and then looked self consciously in my direction.
Despite herself she was still smiling as she shut the door.
“You didn’t smile at the children did you” I asked
“You’ll scar them for life”
“Oh and which poor child was it that you made cry” she retorted
“Or was it someone else you were smiling at?”
Julie blushed deeply just as the door bell rang.
“Saved by the bell” I said
Julie opened the door and repeated the exercise, and then another three times until the sweet tubs were empty and all the village children had had their share.
She closed the door and reached for her cane.
“I’m exhausted”
“You enjoyed it though?”
She gave me a stern sideways glance and I could see pain in her features.
“Ask me later after I’ve had