Ernest And Nesta

                     ERNEST AND NESTA.

        Ernest and Nesta King were your ideal young couple they had vowed to love and cherish each other for the rest of their days. Ernest was a worried man during their ten years of living together as husband and wife, he had kept the truth from Nesta. His dear sweet angel, did not know that he was at fault and that was why she could not conceive.    Nesta your typical home bird had all the mod cons in their beautiful four- bedroom detached home.

        What was the point she had wailed to him of all this “If I have an empty nest”? “Time will tell look what I have given you?” Ernest would reply. Come on look at all the cruises we have been on together over the decade with no ties, the people we have met. You can shop and buy whatever you want, “I have always been generous with money“ He, would say. If it is meant to happen a child, it will. Nesta now at thirty- eight had these doubts that would not go away. Could German Measles in her child hood have been to blame for a barren womb. Why, was Ernest so against I.V.F. His excuse being that it was a trick against nature.

      Ernest thought long and hard over things, looking over the Thames, from his office. Nesta was his perfect trophy wife they blended well together. Nesta with that air of innocence so rare in an adult woman. She had a brain, not some blond bimbo. She had helped him close many business deals when he had invited her along to meet perspective clients. Every one had warmed to her and felt happy in her company.

    How could he tell her that his greed for an affair in the early days of their marriage had led to him contracting Herps. Could he risk bringing a disabled child into the world, knowing what he had behind his wife’s back? It was during the office party when his promotion to production manager at Ewen Plastics had led to his affair with Jen the temp typist. After he had been given his own office and a permanent secretary. Jen had left the company, changing her address several times she just did not want to be found.

      Nesta looked around at their newest sofa and dinning suite she had to admit that Ernest was a good provider maybe she was being hard on him? Her jewellery alone would fill an auction room. It was the look of sympathy when they dined with friends and others who could not help but mention the exploits of their off spring the crawling and the asking questions stage of a child’s development. Did others see the longing in her eyes?

      Now their new neighbour Vogue, had called with her news “Hi Chick a Dee I am pregnant again my nose as to twitch and I know I have been caught again. How will I cope with four boys? "We keep hoping for a girl. You know I cannot stand the smell of fried rice and muesli it reminds me of wallpaper paste. Still Johnnie treats me like a princess each time I conceive.” Each word had been like a stab wound to the heart for Nesta. She was glad that Vogue had not stayed for coffee.

      Looking at the clock Nesta remembered that a surveyor was coming to view the Summerhouse it had been decorated so many times over the years. There was a rustic smell about it? Bradley when he arrived was an attractive man of twenty- five who was all for complementing Nesta on her appearance something that Ernest had taken for granted of late. He just issued the cards to pay for whatever took her fancy, clothes, nail, and hair extensions.

     Well one thing had led onto another our Nesta had become a different woman chirpy Bradley had found the time to visit more often and while Ernest spent time away on the odd business trip, Bradley spent the night with Nesta. A miracle occurred at Thirty- eight she was pregnant. Could she pass the child off has Ernest’s? Bradley did not want the responsibility of fatherhood thrown at his door. They would spend one more night together under the stars of the Summerhouse. Often, they would watch the stars from the bedroom. of the Summerhouse. In a world of their own, wrapped in their own cocoon of happiness. Ernest had noticed the change in Nesta, having a shock when she had casually said she maybe pregnant and how kind of mother nature to give them the chance of parenting their own baby. There had been no warning, when Ernest had arrived with a shoot gun he was supposed to be away on business in Germany.

        The smell of dried blood upon the walls and ceiling that day when the corpses were found three dead bodies two on the bed one on the floor. The walls had, run in rivers of blood. The Summer house was sealed off as police and forensics did their work.

        It seems that Ernest had shot the couple before turning the gun on himself. After a while the neighbourhood got back to normal. No one bought Ernest and Nesta’s home it was supposed to be haunted by a prologist or so the story goes. It seems that a previous owner before Ernest and Nesta, had vanished and had not been found. Eerie noises could be heard on the stroke of midnight was it the ghosts of the dead roaming to set their spirits free? Or Ernest on the rampage a spirit that could not rest.

      The sculptured lawns now needed a good over haul. There had been talk of the designer home being made into flats, so the tale goes. Proverb being you cannot have your cake and eat it? Neither had been open and honest with each other, both wanting to hide their deception from the other. Would Ernest and Nesta have made good parents? Who knows? All down to an act of fate.