PUZZLE PIECE 9
MIRROR-GIRL ESME
In Edinburgh,
The one o’clock gun blasts off,
I’m dreaming again,
By a faraway castle,
Next to a smelly old tramp!
The still house and the quietness of the morning rebuked me for my earlier confidence. Within minutes, I heard loud noises – chairs scraping, doors slamming, the central heating groaning. The vividness of this moment propelled me back in time. Today, the house was noisy and chaotic, as if the ghost of our past suffering lived in the brickwork. That ghost is our pain. It brought back vivid memories of strange grumbling sounds accompanied by laboured breathing, and the house muttering, whispering, and repeating: “Cursed house, dreadful misfortune.”
I heard my dad pacing. Suddenly, he stopped. The air was silent, oppressive, waiting…
Dad w
