I suppose I had better tell you how I got into this position. I am, at present, typing this on my computer keyboard and thinking that it was a good job I am able to touch-type. She is watching the television, yet another of the weepy chick movies she loves, along with game shows. I hate chick movies and game shows but she has to get her fill every day.
The first meeting.
I suppose I had better tell you how I got into this position. I am, at present, typing this on my computer keyboard and thinking that it was a good job I am able to touch-type. She is watching the television, yet another of the weepy chick movies she loves, along with game shows. I hate chick movies and game shows but she has to get her fill every day.
My name is Martin Johnson and I am a civil engineer, or was a civil engineer in what seems like a previous life. I grew up in Canterbury, the home of the Church of England, although I was never very religious. I was not good at school, always off trying to find out things that school didn’t teach you, and so did not qualify for university. I was born in 1961, and am now thirty nine years old. She is sixteen, or was sixteen.
I married young, too young as it turned out. I had been apprenticed as a machinist in the shipyards at Chatham and was earning a good wage when I met Julia. It was lust at first sight and quickly cooled after we married. I had caught the bug of higher learning, a bit late but it is never too late. I was working in the day and doing night school four nights a week to get my civil engineering degree. It took seven years but, at the end, I was qualified and single again. Julia had found someone ‘more stable’ to spend her time with.
I now lived in a small farmhouse just outside of Margate and earned a good living as a consultant. I helped people build their own houses and even did some business with a couple of developers. I also did structural surveying work and this is where my life changed.
I had taken on a small job to find the cause of structural creaks and rattles that were making it difficult to sell and old pub the western side of Ashford. I knew that if it was in Pluckley or Smarden I would not have to even leave my desk as I could write ‘supernatural causes’ and no-one would question me. This pub was close, though, in the village of High Halden, so I did have to go and check it out. My paperwork on the pub showed that one half was from the sixteenth century while the other half was built in the early fifties. Strangely, it was from the later addition that the noises emanated so old highwaymen or victims of a duel could be safely discounted.
When I arrived at the pub, after picking up the keys from the agents in Ashford, it was easy to see the two halves were distinctly different eras. The new bit was a lounge and meeting room while the old contained the bar and kitchen areas, plus the accommodation upstairs. I had a good look through the entire building and thoroughly checked the outside but could find nothing that would cause any extraneous noises. The only other thing I could think of was night noises from uneven cooling of the two building materials. This would mean a night spent here, good job I always get paid from home to home as this would be a good earner.
I went into Tenterden to get my dinner and then drove back to the pub to sit up with my ears ready for strange sounds. While I waited for nightfall I looked at the paperwork again and read that the new part had been built over the site of the old vegetable garden and that the repairs to this side of the pub had been done when the extension had been built. It had stood empty between 1942 and 1951 as there had been a stray bomb that landed in the vegetable garden that knocked down the side wall and scullery area. It was an odd place to target but I assumed that it was an unfortunate outcome of German bombers losing their remaining bombs on the way home from the blitz.
I settled in one of the big armchairs in the lounge and shut my eyes, listening to the music of the house as the sun set. There were the usual creaks and groans as the wood and brick cooled, nothing I had not heard before. About eleven I think I dozed off, only to be woken by a sound. Well it must have been a sound as it was silent when I opened my eyes, looked at my watch and saw it was just on three in the morning. As my eyes got used to the dark again, I could see the starlight coming in through the window and then noticed that there was a light from the door to the meeting room.
I stood up and went to the door and opened it and that is when I saw her. She looked like a teenager, wearing a dress that had to be from the era between the wars and looked so sad that my heart went out to her. At that point she lifted her head and looked straight at me and smiled. It was at this point that I noticed that I could see the detail on the far wall the other side of her, through her body. For some reason, I smiled at her and then just turned around and went back to my armchair, sat down and went straight off to sleep again.
I woke in the early morning and the only difference that I could see from the night before was that the door to the meeting room stood open. I thought it must have blown open during the night and then remembered a dream where I had seen a genuine ghost. I shook my head, stood and stretched and gathered up my paperwork, deciding that there was nothing structural that caused any odd sounds.
Before leaving I had the compulsion to have a good look through the whole building again. As I walked through the bar I had the feeling that it was not right but couldn’t put my finger on it. Upstairs, in the main bedroom, I felt strangely angry and, in the boxroom in the attic, I had a sudden pang of sadness.
I went to the front door, opened it and went outside to go to my car. I stopped and looked around me and thought that it would not be a good day, as the overcast clouds were sure to bring rain.
At that thought, a voice beside me said “It is a lovely day, I have not seen a morning for a long time and it is wonderful.”
I quickly turned around and saw no-one anywhere near me and said, out loud, “Come out, wherever you are, this is not a joke!” The voice answered me by saying “It is no joke Martin; you released me with your care and acceptance. I am inside your head now, there is no way you can be rid of me, unless you die as well, and then you will see me again in the afterlife.”
The movie is finished and the credits are running, I will need to put the keyboard away now. I’ll try to write some more of this tomorrow evening, as long as there is another movie to watch.
Marianne G 2020
An explanation and exploration
At last I am able to write again, it has been a frantic couple of days. Her movie is just beginning so I have a bit of time to tell you more. Now, where was I? Ah, the pub…..
After hearing the words I staggered and had to sit on the bench beside the front door. “Who are you, what are you and how can you be in my head?” I gasped. The voice told me to calm down and all would be explained. “Firstly” it said “my name is Marian Jacobs and one of the reasons I could join you is the obvious compassion you showed when you saw me. Secondly, I was born in 1922 in Tenterden and worked in this very public house as a barmaid from the age of fourteen. When I was sixteen, the landlord raped me in the main bedroom one afternoon, when his wife was out buying food.”
“When I told him, some three months later, that I was pregnant he poisoned me with rat poison and stuffed my body into a barrel that he put in a shed in the vegetable garden. For some reason my spirit was not able to leave the vicinity of my body and I watched as, six months later, he got some men to dig out a hollow and built some kind of shelter. He, and his wife, used to rush into the shelter when some sirens sounded. It was here where they were one night when a huge explosion happened. I saw their spirits leaving and gave him a happy wave as they left, her going up and he sinking into the earth. The explosion completely destroyed my barrel so I was homeless until, years later, someone built the extra bits of the pub and I was forced inside as it had been built over my last resting place.”
I could feel the sadness at her lost life as I was told this and asked what happened now. “Well” she said “we coexist. Wherever you go, so do I, I think it will be fun to see the world again. I think that I will be able to taste whatever you eat and also feel everything you touch and hear everything you hear. In fact, I think we may even find joy as I renew my life.” There was silence as I processed this in my own mind (or was that ‘our mind’.) “Oh” she continued “when you saw me and didn’t run away screaming I knew that I could finally escape my eternal bonds. I made you go back to sleep and, while you slept, I merged with you, being able to take my time and do it properly while you slept.”
I said that it was worse than being married as I could not go into another room for any peace and quiet. “Don’t you be such a grump” she said “you can just think of me as intelligent tinnitus.”
I sat for a while and she was quiet. I could then go to my car. When I pressed the button for the doors she gave a little squeal and I told her it was just the doors unlocking. She told me that the last time she had seen a car was 1938 and they were very different then. I told her that she would find a lot of things different now and then she said “You do not have to speak to me out loud, if you did that all the time people will think you are crazy. I can hear your thoughts so you can address me in your thoughts as I address you.”
I started the car and drove very carefully to Ashford as she kept on telling me to slow down. If she started with ‘watch out for the cyclist’ I think I would take my chances and drive into a tree. When we reached the agents and parked she told me that the pub would never have any strange sounds in the future and just to tell them that I had fixed a loose water pipe. This I did and we agreed of my payment. When I walked out of the shop she told me that I must be hungry and we went to a café where I had a full English breakfast, much to her appreciation. She was surprised at the taste of coffee as it was not a common drink in her life.
We then walked the shopping area, I was going to say hand in hand but that was ridiculous, even though it felt like it. She was amazed at the fashions of my day and said she would love to try things on and I was forced to stand in wonder as an airliner passed over on the way to Gatwick. I could tell that this was going to be hard for me as almost everything I took for granted was new to her. The first time we had any problems was when I needed to go to the toilet and she was very wary of entering the mens’ loos. I told her that I looked, and sounded, like a man so nothing would be said. She did, however, implore me to use the cubicle and sit down, which I did just to keep the peace.
A bit further on I saw a mens’ clothing shop and went to walk past it as the window display was much too colourful for me, I needed to look professional in my business. Not for her, though! She got me to go inside and try on some of the brighter clothes and we made sure we looked at me in the mirror. Much to my horror, my grey pants and workshirt were in the shopping bag as we left and I was resplendent in skinny jeans and a red shirt. My customers were going to have a fit when they saw me in this outfit; I don’t know how they will react if they saw me in the other items I had bought.
A little further on I drew some looks as we looked in the window of a dress shop but I managed to convince her that we would look stupid in one and she needed to come to grips with not having her body any more. We did, however, have an interesting conversation about the fashions of her time and, during this and her desire to show me what she was talking about, we discovered that she could now project her memories onto my own. Not only could I remember growing up as a girl and the joys of colourful and elegant dresses but also the drudgery of being a barmaid and the horror of the rape. This was going to be complicated, especially if I mixed up the memories in conversation.
On the other hand, she could now read my own life story in a way that was not the ability of anyone else. It brought about a brief discussion about male masturbation and the command that I cease and desist! It did, however, give her an instant insight into the world she now inhabited and we had no problems with modern technology from there on. Back at the car I put my bags in the back and went home via Canterbury, because she had heard about the cathedral but had never seen it. We walked around and she wondered at the magnificent structure and I was able to point out some features of the architecture. At the shrine to Thomas Becket she was quiet for a while and then commented on how brave he was in death. When I threw up a question mark in my brain she replied that she could see the spirit world but it was denied me.
In the main body of the church we had another strange experience. We were looking at the stained glass window and she asked me what the inscription was on one high up. I replied that I could not read it and I suddenly had a feeling of disconnect, followed by the close up picture of the window in my mind, clear as a bell. I asked how this was possible and she said that, as a ghost, she could fly. I wondered on her being seen and she told me that no-one sees ghosts in broad daylight and, anyway, could make herself totally invisible at night as well. I had a sudden thought of my weekly poker sessions with some mates and she told me I was wicked but would see what she could do.
When we got back to the car she asked me if we could go to the pictures. She said that she had never been able to when she lived and had seen, from my memories, that it would be interesting. We drove to The Odeon and they were showing Notting Hill. She loved it, the whole experience with the sound and colour. Even the adverts were a joy to her. I just sat there and put up with it. Afterwards we had an early tea at a pasta restaurant and she was in heaven at the smells and tastes.
When we got to the farmhouse and went inside she gave off a sense of dismay. I asked her what was wrong and she told me I would find out in the morning. I asked her how it would work during the night and she told me that a ghost never sleeps and she would leave me as I slept to explore her new surroundings. If I woke up she would return immediately – Oh! Joy!
The movie is finishing again; I’ll get back to you all another time.
Marianne G 2020
Part Three. A ‘Normal’ Life?
We have just started our weekly game show binge, another of her favourites. You may think that I sound henpecked but having her diverted means that I can think for myself for a while.
Of course, having just one pair of eyes, that means that I had to set up this remote method of writing. My computer is next to the settee and I have put a long lead on the keyboard so I can write while we sit with her concentrating on the screen. Now, back to the second day of my – I was going to say nightmare, but it is really just different…..
The next morning I woke and, while I lay in the warm bed, was shown a quick precis of the world outside during the night. I was amazed at the nightlife that I was able to see, close up, and especially the goings-on in bedrooms in various houses in the district. I asked how she was able to see these things and she said that prior to merging with me, she was unable to move outside the property lines of the pub. She was not sure what the new freedom meant as it was unusual for earth-bound spirits to be allowed to roam. She did tell me that she had met the two ghosts that lived in the farmhouse but they were lovely people who would never cause harm. That was nice to know.
I got out of bed and went and sat down on the toilet, then put on a dressing gown to get myself some breakfast. We looked at my diary and found that I was free today and she said “Good, now we can clean the house, I am not going to live in a pigsty.” I had always been tidy but never houseproud but now found myself starting from the upstairs rooms and working down. She was amazed at the work the vacuum could do and also at the amount the washing machine could do in a load. By the end of the morning I had the upstairs rooms spic and span, with the curtains drying on the line. I was glad to be able to stop for lunch.
In the afternoon we worked through the downstairs rooms and my rubbish bin was almost full of things I had never before had the strength to throw out. The fridge looked almost as clean as it was when I bought it and the floors shone. The curtains were dry enough to put back upstairs and I was told that the downstairs ones would be all right for another day. That evening I put the television on and we had a quiet evening in. We watched a documentary about pyramids and she was amazed at being able to see them close up. I was just a bit bored as there were so many shows about Egypt from the time of the Pharaohs on the box these days. That night I slept soundly again and was not regaled by visions of the night when I woke up. Maybe she realised that I was just not interested.
I looked at my diary and saw I had an appointment in Dover with a developer I had worked with before. She stayed quiet as I made myself ready, only interrupting when I went to dress in drab colours. When I arrived in the office in Dover I was greeted warmly and told that my new look took years off my image and that they were glad I was man enough to change. I was, I must admit, taken aback but we had a good meeting about a large building project they were planning. It was to be about five hundred houses and, as we looked through the design drawings, I happened to point out some elements that would not go down well, like having the laundry in a cupboard next to the bedroom; I said it should be off the kitchen so the kitchen sink was close. At the end we shook hands and they said they would get in touch soon.
Once outside Marian congratulated me on a good meeting and told me that she had not influenced me in any way during my meeting so my insights were all my own. Maybe I was thinking differently now. We had a walk around the castle and she told me that the range of ghosts that inhabited it was a wide range from the early stone-age through Romans, Normans and a few more modern. To me it was just a nice place to visit. We ate in the town centre and then we went back to the farm to change into old clothes and start tidying the garden. Tonight was my card night with my friends so I stopped my work in time to have a shower and a light tea. I redressed in my new clothes and added a leather jacket I had bought, checked that I had my money and drove to Herne Bay where we played cards at an old school friends house.
The other three usual players were already there when I arrived and were very boisterous when I walked in. There were the ‘who’s the model’ and ‘someone’s in love’ comments before we sat down to play. We always played draw poker and put ten, one pound, coins into the pot. We had two hundred plastic discs which equated to twenty P each that we used when playing. If you lost all of your fifty discs you sat out the rest of the night and we strictly stopped at the ten pm on the hour. Payout was to the nearest pound.
I had told Marian not to go looking until we got down to me and one other still in the game and the evening went as usual. I threw my hands in when I had rubbish, betted a little when I thought I had a chance, and everything went as normal. Then I ended up with four queens and a jack and I knew that there was a good chance I would win the hand. One by one the others dropped out early and then there was Greg and me sitting across the table looking into each others eyes. I thought ‘go now’ and, after the slight disconnect, saw, in my mind, his three nines and a pair of tens. He thought he had the best hand and we bet until he finally called ‘show’. I had won a serious hand and pulled my pile of disks towards me. The rest of the evening was more usual but I had, for once, walked out ahead. Before I left, Greg said that his Trivia Night Team was one down on the following evening and would I be interested in joining them at the ‘Bulls Head’. Normally I avoided such socialising but agreed to see them there.
The next day we finished the curtains and I did some more gardening. In the evening I drove to the ‘Bulls Head’ and went in to meet his trivia buddies. I ordered a beer and we sat and talked until the trivia host called us to order. Now, as I say, I didn’t usually do this sort of thing but found myself feeling a sense of pleasure from Marian, it must have reminded her of her barmaid days. With the first question I got the disconnected feeling and then a vision of a hand holding a card – on which was written the question, and answer. One of the guys had already got it so I kept my silence. As the evening progressed I stayed out of it unless the guys were clueless, at which time I provided the answer. At the end of the night we were undisputed champions and were awarded our prize, a barbeque pack of chops and sausages.
Afterwards there was general merriment and we got chatting with a team of girls on the next table. I found that I was able to talk to them in a way I had never been able to before. I was no longer trying to be a macho male and could follow the inner meanings of their discussion. By the time we left, we had arranged for the unmarried members of our team to meet the unmarried members of their team the following evening, at my farmhouse, to share the barbeque pack, which I took home with me. Marian told me I had done well and approved of the new, friendlier, me.
Next day I worked hard in the garden to clean it up for visitors and made sure my barbeque was clean. I had to go out to buy disposable plates, plastic cutlery, salad, bread and a couple of bottles of sauce and also took a trip to the off-licence for some liquid refreshment. I made sure I cleaned myself up and dressed nicely and was as ready as I could be when they started to arrive just after five. It actually ended up with two of our team and three of theirs so was, amazingly, a perfect pairing. We had a bit of a chat and a laugh and the chops and sausages went down well with the bread and salad.
One of the girls, Juliette, had stayed pretty close to me during the meal and asked me where my toilet was. I told her the directions and she took off with the other two girls in tow. While we were waiting for them to come back Greg and his buddy were wondering how close they were to scoring tonight and thanked me for organising such a good barbeque. They commented on how tidy the garden looked as, the last time Greg had visited, it had been a jungle.
When the girls came back Juliette asked me where my wife was. I told her that I was divorced some years now and she said it was impossible for a single man to be so tidy so I must have a live-in lover or a cleaning firm. I assured her I had neither but I could see she was still a bit unbelieving. Later that evening; after the others had left – the four of them in Gregs’ car; she stayed and, with some slight assistance on my technique from Marian, I think I may have satisfied her. Marian did not get to go traveling until quite late into the night.
Oh! The game shows are finishing, must go.
Marianne G 2020
What! Me on the tele.
Now, where was I? Ah! The beautiful and lusty Juliette.
In the morning I was rewarded for my efforts with a kiss and a warm cuddle. As it was Saturday neither of us had to work so I asked her what she would like to do for the day. She wanted to go home and for me to pick her up and go somewhere nice for lunch. I suggested that I may try to get a couple of tickets for one of the London shows and she said that it could be nice. After we had showered, dressed and breakfasted, she left in her car. I tidied up in the garden and wiped out my shower and then made a couple of calls. I booked a table for two at a pub in Whitstable and managed to get two tickets for a show in London.
I did a bit of paperwork and then drove to the address she had given me. It was on a council estate and I made sure I kept an eye on my car as I rang the front door bell. When she answered she came straight out and we got into my car to go for lunch. The pub specialised in seafood and we both had local oysters (she said that I really didn’t need them – nice of her!) and then the fish of the day. In the afternoon we drove into London, parked the car near the theatre, picked up our tickets and went for a walk in the shops. I was attentive and got involved in a discussion on modern styles. She said she was a bit old fashioned and when we found a store that sold vintage clothing she was very happy. The only glitch came when she was looking at a dress that was marked ‘mid thirties’ and Marian pointed out that this design had gone out of fashion in the late twenties. I, stupidly, passed the snippet of information on and got a very odd look indeed.
We had a dinner at a very expensive restaurant with a very cheap menu, good for the profit margin but sure to deter return business. I suppose that they lived off of the tourist market and knew that the customers would not be back. The show was good and I know that Marian enjoyed it. When we came out, Juliette said she would like to be dropped off at home and, as we approached her house she apologised to me but said that being out with me is like being out with a girl-friend and that she would very much like to be friends but we would not have a repeat of last night, no matter how good it was. I told her that I understood and she gave me a kiss on the cheek as we parted at her front door. Driving home I wondered just how much I had changed as my wife had always told me I was too macho for her when we shopped.
Marian had been very quiet through the whole day, except for the one lapse, and then took this moment of introspection to tell me that I was now a much nicer person and didn’t need to consort with an adulterer, showing me the inside of Juliettes’ bedroom with the pictures of her soldier husband and a letter from him in the middle east. I was suddenly glad she had dropped me as he was a very big guy and the picture showed him carrying a very big gun.
On Sunday, at Marians’ urging, I went to church. She said that she had been very religious when she was a girl and was interested at how the church had changed. The one closest to me was a ‘progressive’ church with a band and much waving of arms and Marian told me we were never coming back to that one! I drove into Margate and parked near the beach and went for a walk. There were some swimmers and Marian was affronted by the brief costumes they wore. She certainly couldn’t get her head around wearing something smaller than your underwear in public. I did tell her that there are many places where the girls go topless and that there were even some nudist beaches. She thought that the world had gone mad. I reminded her that the war she missed was a redefining period for morals and habits and led to a new way of life, especially for women.
We found a little tea room and went in, sitting down after ordering a pot of tea and a cake. I nearly asked for two cups but was lucky I caught myself. Sitting there and drinking my tea I wondered about my life with my constant companion. She whispered “Don’t you want me here?,” to which I replied that it was interesting and she was making me think about things I just brushed over, but I thought that I may drop my guard and end up in a lunatic asylum one day. We came to an agreement that she remain quiet unless there is a serious reason for her to make herself known, or I specifically ask her something. I told her that doing things that were not part of my normal behaviour could be considered erratic should I be looked at closely.
What I couldn’t avoid, however, was my new, and feminine, approach to the world and it seemed natural to thank the girl in the tea room for the cake and ask her if she baked it herself as it tasted home-made. She told me that I was the first to discover her secret and we had a laugh. As I walked along the promenade I found myself taking a more relaxed route than I used to, stopping to watch children playing and generally admiring the view. I went home and got some tea and watched a bit of television in the evening. I had a game show on and suddenly I felt that Marion wanted to say something. I thought a question mark and she said that, on the show we were watching, the host asked questions from a card in the same way the trivia host did. If I was on that show I could make some serious money. She said that the shows where the questions were flashed on the screen would be a bit more difficult but there had to be a person controlling that who also had the answers written down in front of them, she would just have to find them. I was taken aback and wondered if it could be construed as theft and realised that no-one would know of my secret weapon. I wrote a letter to the game show that night and posted it Monday morning.
For the next few weeks I did my job, visiting developers, inspecting structures and generally being normal. I was not needed for the trivia team but went along anyway and sat with Juliette and her friends. We acted friendly and I was able to chat with them between rounds. One of her friends, Yvonne, quietly said to me to stay away from Juliette as her husband was due home and I told her that there was nothing between us, to which she replied that maybe I could take her out this Saturday. I asked her what her interests were and she told me she loved gardening so we arranged for me to pick her up and take her to Sissinghurst.
On Saturday I did just that and we had a great day looking around this magnificent garden and the buildings. When we finished, I took her into Brighton and we had a late lunch before walking the old shopping area and finally ended up with a tour of the Pavillion. After a nice dinner in a restaurant I took her home and she took me to bed. I did not stay the night but we did agree to meet again. On Monday I had a letter from the television company to say that I had been picked for an audition and it gave me a time and place to report on the Thursday.
When I settled in my armchair that evening I started to read a book instead of putting the television on and suddenly felt a need to talk to Marian. She asked me what I wanted and I asked her if it would be possible to actually speak to her as a person, rather than just a voice. As I looked, she materialised, sitting in the other easy chair, opposite me. “Is this what you wanted?” she asked, her lips moving in sync with the voice in my head. I answered that it was nice to be able to chat to the person, no matter that I could see the pattern of the chair cover through her. I pointed out that she was not wearing the period dress that I had first seen her in and she replied that she had been working on her powers while I was concentrating on other things and one of them seemed to be the ability to materialise wearing whatever she liked. She was in a very modern dress with a hairdo to match and looked beautiful. I told her she was very good looking and she thanked me, saying that this would be how she would look if she lived today. She could change her hair and dress but could not change her fundamental self, so I was unlikely to see her as a lizard or a cat at any stage.
I was thankful for that and then asked her what she thought of Yvonne. She said that Yvonne was a very nice girl who was getting over an abusive marriage and that it had taken her a lot of courage to go out with me. She said that she, also, had enjoyed our day out and it went a long way towards Yvonne inviting me into her bed. She commented that, in modern parlance, Yvonne was ‘a keeper’. We went on to talk about the upcoming audition and she told me not to worry as all I needed to do was to make my reflexes look normal and I would do well.
On the Thursday I went to the address given and had an interview with them. I was of the right age and background for their show and passed the general knowledge test easily thanks to being able to read the answers. I found that I no longer felt any disconnect and realised that Marian was getting very adept at this game. They wanted me to be available the following Wednesday for a taping and to bring a couple of changes of clothes, just in case I went onto further episodes.
Thursday evening I met up with Yvonne and the girls and was invited to join their team as Juliette was busy at home with her husband. We did well enough to win the prize that night, yet another barbeque pack which we had at my house on the Friday evening, the other girls bringing their husbands and one bringing Greg. Yvonne stayed overnight and we took things slow and easy. In the morning she inspected my wardrobe and declared that my old, drab, clothes were no longer needed and that we should go shopping. I said that I thought that we should go west and visit the Eden Project instead and maybe stay overnight in Salisbury. This was agreed to and so we had breakfast and I put a small bag in the car. We went to her place and she changed and packed a small bag for herself and we were off, heading west. We stopped for lunch at a country pub before spending the afternoon at the Eden Project and then went to Salisbury for dinner at the hotel I had booked us into.
In the morning Yvonne declared that she would like to go to the cathedral for the Sunday service and we did so, me getting a tick of approval from Marian as we walked out.
Oh!, the movie has finished, talk to you later.
Marianne G 2020
The Final Parting.
Today I am writing this at my desk and able to see what I have written. I have gone into my previous entries and tidied up the spelling and paragraphs and am now able to write, unworried by having Marian in my head. Here is how it unfolded.
When Yvonne and I got back to her house she asked me to sit and have a frank discussion. She told me about her previous relationship and said that she could see that I was not the abusive type. She declared that she was falling in love with me and I kissed her and told her that her feelings were reciprocated. She then said that her lease on the house was coming due at the end of the month and I told her she could move in with me, to which she held me close and told me I was wonderful. I had a full week of appointments as well as the game show so we agreed that I would hire a small truck on the Saturday and move her stuff to mine. There was an empty outbuilding on the grounds that we could store her furniture in.
I got through the work part of the week and Wednesday presented at the television studio. They record a number of episodes in the one day and it took a couple of recordings until I was able to take my place on the panel. We took that opportunity to check that Marian was able to fulfil her promise. When the show started I was only beaten a few times by another contestant pressing their buzzer first but had enough answers to come out the winner. In the final segment, where you are asked a number of questions first and locked in your answers, I answered all of the questions correctly and took out the money. When asked if I would take the money or play on, I played on.
After a short break for me to change, we played the next episode, which I won again, and, in the final segment I deliberately fluffed one answer. This didn’t matter as I was able to come back as the reigning champion the following episode. On Thursday evening Yvonne and I attended the trivia night and out team won again. Saturday I picked up the van and we had a few trips moving her furniture and clothes over to my house, her friends all helping out. My house was carefully inspected and found to be suitable for their friend to live in. We cleaned her place and dropped the keys in with the agent along with a letter to say she was not renewing the lease.
On Sunday we went to a different church, still close to the farmhouse, much to Marians’ delight as it was a more traditional one. Monday and Tuesday we both went to work and Wednesday I went back to the studio. I made sure I had five sets of clothes as I was certain that I would be in all of the episodes today. It all went as planned with me looking like a well-educated engineer and I progressed into the big money. Next week I would be playing for the major prize.
Thursday was trivia night again and we won again, inviting our gang around to our farmhouse for the Friday evening barbeque. I spent the day tidying the garden and the evening was a great success with Yvonne acting as the perfect hostess while I cooked the food. That night, in bed, I proposed to her and she said yes. OK, I know it was quick but I felt that she was my soul mate and that my life would be good with her in it.
On the week-end, to celebrate, we had Saturday night in London to see a show and did some shopping before that. Other than buying her an engagement ring, the project was for me to bring my wardrobe into the current century as well as me getting her some nice dresses. We spent Sunday morning in the Westminster Abbey, a place that I had been told was holy but, other than Poets’ Corner, was filled with tombs of those with money and power enough to be assured of a burial there. I wondered what they thought when they found out that wealth did not equate to being angelic and that all the piousness in the world will not negate a lifetime molesting little boys. I was not taken with the place but both Marian and Yvonne thought it wonderful.
That week I did my work for a couple of days and Wednesday I became a millionaire on the game show. Yvonne had come with me to the studio and we were shown hugging and kissing during the credits. Now that will cause a stir among her friends when it goes to air. I took the cheque and agreed to stay quiet until the show came on the channel and my bank manager got a bit of a surprise when I banked it on Friday. Yvonne and I celebrated my win with a week-end in Paris, getting on the Eurostar at Ashford.
Back in England I continued my business commitments but did tell my clients that I was intending to start working a three day week soon and would not be able to fulfil the more remote development inspections. A month later Yvonne and I married in the little church close to the farmhouse and she became Mrs Yvonne Johnson. We honeymooned in Italy. After we had been home a week or so I told her that I had seen a ghost at a pub in High Halden and she was the reason for my mellow life-style. I said that she showed me that there was some kind of life after death and that, at that time, I decided to enjoy life to the full. I also said that she had told me where and when she was born and died and that I wanted to confirm her story by looking up parish records.
The next day we drove to Tenterden and Marian gave me directions to her old church. Yvonne looked at me strangely when I pulled up and said “This is it.” We went inside and I could feel Marian welling up. I asked if we could look at the parish records for 1922 and soon found the baptism record for Marian Pauline Jacobs. I copied down the details and then we went to the local newspaper office and asked to see their files for mid-1938. It wasn’t long before we found a column headed ‘Barmaid absconds with weekly takings’ and described the landlord claiming that his barmaid, Marian Jacobs, had disappeared along with the weekly takings. I could feel Marian in my head getting ready to scream and said to Yvonne, “Looks like he took the opportunity to steal his own money after he killed her.”
We went back to the church and I asked about putting a memorial in the churchyard and we came to an agreement on a plot I could use. Armed with the plot number we went to a monumental mason and I ordered a small stone inscribed ‘Marian Pauline Jacobs. Born 1922 and slain brutally 1938. An angel of this parish. RIP.’ On the way back home I remarked that if we ever had a daughter, Marian Johnson would be a nice name. Yvonne smiled and said that if our baby is a girl, we had better call her Marian Paris Johnson, because she thought that this was where she was conceived. I found a lay-by, pulled over and we kissed, tears welling in our eyes. I said “Mrs Yvonne Johnson, I do love you with all my heart”. When we had composed ourselves I drove home via a pub near Canterbury for dinner.
Time passed and Yvonne grew bigger. I had been contacted by a couple of other game shows and was back in the studio for more recording. I did quite well but made sure that I was not one hundred percent right. When the various shows went to air I became known as ‘Mr Quiz’ at the trivia night and was banned from entering with any of the teams. The masons got in touch to tell us that our stone was in place and one day we went down to put some flowers on it. As we stood, in silence, Marian whispered “Thank you so much”.
Eventually our baby daughter was born and, as they say, mother and baby did well. After a week they came home and we settled into a family life with the usual disruptions of changing and cleaning up small pukes. At about the three month period it settled down and there was just the odd crying and some sleepless nights.
I was out in the garden when Marian asked me if we could go somewhere quiet for a face-to-face talk and I went to a secluded nook at the back of the garden which had a bench and sat down in the sunshine. I was somewhat surprised when she materialised sitting beside me in a summer dress and looking really radiant. I told her that she was beautiful and she thanked me. She then went on to thank me for putting up with her in my head and I reminded her that I had come out of it a long way further ahead than when we first met. She said that she was glad that the money had not changed me and that she thought that Yvonne and I would live a long and happy life, maybe with a couple more children to bring up. She then thanked me for erecting a memorial to her former self and that it enabled her to put closure on her time at the pub.
We sat in silence and then she said “Martin, I know that your daughter is going to be as beautiful as you say I look now. I predict that she is also going to be very gifted and you are going to have to be ready for special schooling and university education expenses. She will do well and you will be proud of her, I promise you that. I really do thank you for giving me my second life, I can now leave you and fulfil my destiny. Goodbye, dear Martin.” With that she faded into nothingness with a smile on her face.
I sat there for a while and went into the house for a drink as I was now my own man, without the powers that I had enjoyed but with a memory of another life. I went into the babys’ room where she was lying in her crib, waving her arms and legs around a dribbling. I wiped her face and picked her up and held her to my shoulder. I stood there for a moment and then said “I love you, my precious Marian” and my three month old child whispered in my ear “I love you too, Daddy”.
The end.
Marianne G 2020