Tales of Imagination and Mystery

THE GUIDE-1

THE GUIDE

The very neatly groomed and officious-looking girl at the desk said “Our guide is away to day. But you are quite welcome to walk through the house by yourself, in a self-guided tour. There are display boards in each room explaining everything. You’ll find the house very interesting. And if you have any questions when you come out, I’ll be pleased to answer them”

She was addressing Chris and Jenny who had walked up the long, winding drive, each holding a hand of their four year old son, Bobby, between them, to see The Old House, as it was rather unimaginatively called, because Jenny had noticed it as they were driving past, and she said it looked such an interesting old place, and the sign said “Guided Tours”. Jenny was bright and bubbly, given to flights of impulse and was very superstitious. She wore charms and amulets and liked to wear long, flowing, mauve and pink and crimson dresses and scarves and sashes whenever she could. Anything old and interesting and spiritual and outre and off-beat fascinated her. Chris was much more pragmatic and thought “Seen one old house, you’ve seen them all.” But he knew there was no stopping Jenny when she was set on doing something.

“Couldn’t they have come up with a more imaginative name for this place than “The Old House” Chris asked the girl on the desk, who, according to a neat, gilt sign in front of her was called Carol, as if, because he was there under protest, he was looking for any reason to complain.

“Well, it’s like this” said Carol.. The house never actually had a name. But after all the terrible things that happened here over 100 years ago, the owners decided to build a new house on the land, and abandon this one. So then you had the New House, and The Old House. But then the New House burned down, so all we are left with, unfortunately, is The Old House with all its awful memories”.

“Maybe The Old House was jealous of The New House and caused it to burn down!” suggested Jenny, who loved attributing human characteristics to inanimate objects.

“Fire precautions were extremely crude in those days, and of course there were no fire brigades and there were many inflammable materials used in construction” explained Carol, in a coldly scientific tone.

“Do you know much about real history?” came back Jenny, as if she felt Carol was having a go at her.

Carol took off her glasses and waggled them in her fingers while she looked Jenny straight in the eye. She cleared her throat and said quietly but deliberately “I have an honours degree in history from Cambridge University…….”. in a tone that implied “So there!”

“My wife also has a degree - of vivid imagination” said Chris, unable to resist the chance of making the quip. Then he added as he handed over the five dollars each for the two of them and walked towards the entrance. “Don’t we get a discount for not having a guide?”

Then just as they were about to go in Carol stood up and walked towards them, looking at them keenly as if she had something important to impart.

“I’d better warn you there were multiple murders committed here 100 years ago. The then lady of the house, Evelyn Hardy, was what we would call now a paranoid schizophrenic, and she’d discipline her children unbelievably severely if they did anything wrong, - she’d burn their toys, or kill their pets in front of them, or make the boys dress as a girl and the girl dress as a boy, or even lock them in the cellar. And one day, she went totally off her rocker and killed her three children and then killed her husband, George Hardy, when he tried to stop her. She threw the children off the roof and then because that didn’t kill them, she ran downstairs and drowned them in the pond.

“And for that she was, by the way, hanged.

“I just thought I’d tell you so you’d be ready to be shocked when you read about it, because it’s very dreadful and some people are understandably a bit queasy about it.”

Jenny listened to it all with a mouth wide open in wonder, but when Carol had finished, exclaimed “Oooh! How exciting. I mean, it’s awful, but how exciting!”. She looked up at the old walls and the high ceiling. “Perhaps the spirits of these people are still inhabiting the house. I believe in that, you know. They say when people die prematurely their spirits linger on because they feel they were taken before their time ….”

Chris only rolled his eyes and commented “A schizo. Charming! Come on, let’s get this over with.”

But Jenny stood still, staring at the doorway they were about to enter, looking absolutely enervated and delighted at the prospect of what they might be going to see. She raised one hand towards the doorway with her palm facing forward.

“Come out! Come out spirits, wherever you are! Come out! We are friendly! We want to meet you! Don’t be afraid! Come out”

Chris turned his face away pretending to look unbelievably embarrassed.

“They’ll think you’ve been on the spirits!” he said sarcastically.

The reception area of “The Old House” that they were in, where you paid your money and could pick up travel brochures and maps of the surrounding area or buy locally made wine or preserves was brightly lit and, though structurally a part of the house, had been decorated in a modern fashion. Now they walked into the original part of the house there was a sudden decrease in light and it took a while for their eyes to become accustomed to the dimness. It felt as if they had really stepped back 100 years in time. They were in a large hallway from where doors led into other rooms and whose walls had large, sombre portraits of the family members who had once inhabited the house in elaborate, gilt frames, and mysterious landscapes of how the countryside once looked in its dim and distant past. The high ceiling of the hallway was ornate and there was an elaborate frieze all round. The wallpaper was richly brocaded dark pink with an off-white background. There was imposing, polished furniture with elaborate carvings and a big glass display-cabinet with all sort of trinkets and bric a brac and household utensils of a style that would never more be seen.

There was a not unpleasant but distinct aroma of oldness in the air, but the practical Chris only looked up at the ceiling thinking what a pain it would be to have climb up to paint it, and get little brushes in and out of all those carvings. Jenny, however, ran her hand over the textured wallpaper in wonder. Then suddenly a soft female voice seemed to emanate from nowhere.

“Can I help you?”

Bobby, who had been holding his mother’s hand, sucking his thumb and looking round with an expression of trepidation, gave out a yelp of surprise.

Chris and Jenny both turned and saw a short but amply built young woman in complete period costume, a dark blue floor-length dress, heavy black, laced shoes, lace cuffs and a lace collar, with dark, straight hair brushed back and tied in a bun behind, who had materialised out of the shadows. They had not seen anyone come in and had not seen anyone in the room when they entered it. Even now they could see her she seemed only just visible, and seemed to blend in with the rest of the hallway like another piece of the furniture.

“I am your guide for today” she added, in a soft, gentle voice as if she was overwhelmed with pleasure at being so. “I am so pleased you want to see the house”. She had her hands clasped in front of her, and she was slightly round-shouldered, and her feet were somewhat apart with the toes tending outward.

Jenny beamed at her.

“Oh, what fun! But we were told you were away today:”

The guide, keeping the same posture, kept her eyes fixed on Jenny’s face, showing no change of expression from the welcoming smile, except somehow looking as if she was debating an answer to Jenny’s question within herself. Then finally she spoke.

“I have my own private entrance. I come and go as I please They often don’t know if I’m here or not”.

Jenny thought, well what was the point of that? if the girl on the outside desk didn’t know if the guide was in or not, but said nothing. Then she looked the guide’s costume up and down..

“Well, you certainly look the part. That dress looks like it was made for you. It’s obviously very old, made to fit someone now long gone 100 years ago. How wonderful that it should be exactly your size”

The guide looked down at herself and frowned as if she didn’t see the point of the remark, then raised her head and smiled. She stroked the front of the skirt fondly. “This is my day dress. I love it”.

“But how come it fits you so exactly? It follows your shape like a glove.”

The guide looked down at herself again. “I go in and out in all the wrong places, don’t I? But I’m sorry to say that’s the way it is after you’ve borne three children.”

While she spoke she made a peculiar scratching motion at one side just where the waist of the dress was.

“Have you been bitten by a mosquito, dear?” inquired Jenny.

“Fleas” the guide smiled at her, still scratching.

Jenny looked at Chris and Chris looked at Jenny, who was slightly taken aback.

The guide looked at her slyly. “All the best people have fleas! Don’t you know?”

Then she turned on her heels saying “But come this way with me and I’ll give you the tour”

“Have you come a long way?” she asked them, looking back, as they followed her through a doorway.

“We’ve been driving for four hours” said Jenny.

“So the horses must be tired” said the guide with a sly smile.

Chris and Jenny looked at each other and frowned, but said nothing.

When the guide walked she kept her hands clasped in front of her. Because they couldn’t see her legs under the long skirt, just the laced shoes, and because of her peculiar flat gait she seemed to float more than walk over the floor.

“Follow me. We are coming out of the grand entrance hall, going into the grand dining room. I always show guests the grand dining room first. I love it so much. Keep close to me, by the way, when I move from room to room, and don’t be too distracted by anything you see, because this is somewhat of a rabbit-warren of a house. The rooms are joined to each other by confusing hallways that go in all sort of directions, with adjuncts and staircases and extra levels that were added over the years. But I love it! This house is my life. It is part of me, and I am part of the house”

She gave them a kind smile. “And I wouldn’t want you to get lost! You might never be found again!”

Chris and Jenny looked at each other quite bemused, but kept following her.

As she walked across the dining room she put her hand inside her collar and ran it round to pull it away from her neck as if it was too tight. Then she ran her left hand round her right wrist, and her right hand round her left wrist, as if they were hurting her.

“What’s the matter, dear?” asked Jenny when the guide stopped. “Is your collar too tight?”

Then, never being backward in coming forward, before the guide could answer she took the collar between her hands and waggled it to see how tight it was, to the guide‘s slight consternation.

“No it’s not tight at all!” Jenny exclaimed.

The guide ignored the remark and suddenly looked very sullen and moved her own hand round inside the collar again.

“It’s just….it’s just ….I feel like….. my neck….is being squeezed …..sometimes…it feels there’s something tight around it….and my wrists feel as if they’ve got something tight around them …..”

Then, just as suddenly, she snapped out of it, and the smile returned to her face and she clasped her hands before her again, but then quickly unclasped them to indicate the room.

“Here we are in the grand dining room. As you can see this marvellous table was made for great feasts - it can seat up to 22 people when the leaves are full extended. The central part is cut from one complete piece of cedar. Sometimes the table would be opened out to accommodate all the social hierarchy of the colony, when all the gossip and scandals and tales and secrets would be bouncing ground the walls of the room. Oh, wouldn’t a historian have loved to be there with his notebook! Sometimes it would just be a small, intimate family gathering with cousins and sisters and uncles and close friends. As you can imagine when it was full complement of 22 guests, three maidservants and two cooks would be kept busy all evening preparing the food and running in and out to serve them”.