Epitaph

Part 1

“Hay it’s a garlic fest” it is clear Joseph was not happy with the overwhelming flavour of the extra garlic in his dinner. He tried a little bread, a little salad in trepidation, “Yummy! Even the salad is garlicy”, now the sarcasm is evident in his smile and in his intonation.

“Well like it or not, I’m doing the garlic thing”. Sarah said defensively.” I am not all superstitious but a little garlic and a few good spells wouldn’t harm. You remember what those people said? What if there is something called unrequited souls?” She sounded confident that she isn’t superstitious.

“Did you seriously believe those people; come on, you are scaring the children; and this food!” Joseph looked at the food in annoyance probably contemplating if he should drive to the chip shop.

“Mum says people believe in silly things” said the little boy concentrating on the plate, mostly moving his fork around the food.

“Now Alvin, your mum should meet our mother” Joseph looked at Daniel humorously, his droll eyes sparkled and he winked at Daniel. Daniel grinned at dad, sharing the humour and promptly retreated looking at mum’s face that said “So you are taking his side again?” Daniel looked at his friend beside him at the dining table to share the humour but he was still concentrating on the plate of food, moving his fork.

Dya, Daniel’s older sister pressed her lips, trying to hold a loud laughter and shared a discreet smirk with dad. She obviously didn’t believe in the garlic factor.

Well the cynicism at the dining table was not discreet; Sarah knew she was over reacting with what the people said about the house being haunted by  the souls of the Hatt family. They said the house didn’t get sold because people believe the Hatts still live here. Reflecting on it she realised it really was silly of her to believe in such things. “Fine” she said, “Extra garlic is off the menu then!”

“And from the front door?” Dya asked sarcastically.

“Yes” off the front door.

“And from the hallway, from the living room, from my lunchbox.” Dya continued sarcastically.

“That’s enough”, Joseph interrupted Dya feeling that Sarah might be feeling a little bullied by them by now. He grabbed her hand “We are just saying, these are just tales, let’s relax right!”

“I know, they just got to me. I don’t know why people say things like that” Sarah is now annoyed at the people of the village for implanting these superstitions in her.

“Actually, I’m glad they keep saying things like these to the visitors. Think about it, how else would you have found a mansion like this in 1995?” Joseph tried to show the positive side of having neighbours with strange beliefs. “Isn’t this what you have always wanted? A gorgeous country house in Warwickshire with acres of land? Perhaps having weird neighbour was our destiny, right?” Joseph laughed at the conclusion he just came up with.

Sarah’s dreams resonated with her.  “You are right, it was my fantasy, it is such a beautiful place; I can’t believe we got this in this price. I was just so overwhelmed!  I’m just going to stop worrying about these silly stories. I mean the Hatt lived here in the 17th century.” Sarah mocked herself.

“Yeah, the Hatt are probably bored by now”, Daniels laughed. His friend rolled his eyes and joined the laughter “You think they would be!”

“Yeah, they must be by now” Sarah joined them with a slight embarrassment. 

“I’ll spend the weekend with you mum and you can show me how to do the chutneys and jams you said you wanted to” Dya quickly glanced at her dad and found him winking at her with approval.

Sarah looked overwhelmed with happiness with such changes of plans the party girl just made.

Joseph cast his gaze of contentment on his wife and daughter “Perhaps this is what she needs, she has been feeling lonely lately” he contemplated. Now that all was sorted, Joseph could go through the garlic fest for tonight.

A spooky growling noise interrupted the short silence at the table. They all looked towards the living room door; pair of glossy scorching eyes was looking at them, like a couple of transparent marbles sitting in front of a set of head lights.

“I don’t know what’s with Socrates, he wouldn’t come in the dining room, and I’ve even put some meet on his bowl” Dya indicated at Socrates’s food bowl on the floor.

“He has been quite aggressive this evening” Sarah observed.

“Perhaps it is the garlic” trotted Alvin.

Everyone burst into laughter.

Socrates seemed highly offended. He fluffed up; piloerection made him look double the size. He was clearly not bemused.

                                                     Part 2      

Dya joined her mum that Saturday morning; she knew this would make mum really happy.

Sarah asked Dya to get the glass jars she washed, dried and left in the pantry. She was looking forward to making chutneys and jams together. She may involve Daniel too.

Sarah heard a loud shattering noise from the pantry. She ran to check, it was obvious Dya dropped the jars.  Joseph and Daniel who heard the noise from the yard ran to the pantry too. They were playing soldiers, Alvin just joined them.

“It’s alright my love” Said Sarah looking at Dya sitting on the floor in the midst of the broken glasses, she was glaring at them with vacuous glacial eyes, her body was void of any motion.

“It’s ok honey, it was just an accident” Joseph comforted as he planned to slowly lug her out of the situation. She was obviously in a shock.

Immotile, sat frozen, she slowly started to open her mouth, her stony eyes begun to widen.

Sarah and Daniel screeched in horror.

Dya’s mouth was filled with crushed sparkling glasses; Joseph was terrified in horror.

“Honey, don’t swallow anything, just stay there” Said Joseph and sat beside Dya. He asked Sarah to hold her mouth open as he carefully took the glasses out of her mouth, one by one, making sure they don’t cut her inside.

“It’s ok Dya, don’t swallow” a petrified but brave Daniel kept prompting Dya.

Alvin was at the door way, with a deadpan expression.

It was shocking for both children.

That evening Dya said she saw a lady pushing the jars on the floor and she held her mouth open and put the glasses in her mouth. 

“You were hallucinating” Joseph explained hugging her in the hospital bed. “You were in shock and you were really scared. “

“But I didn’t want to drop the jars”

“I know my love” Sarah hugged her” feeling so relieved that she was ok.

Part 3

 Joseph loved photography and it was a fine day for it. The house had opulent opportunity to take great photographs. Such unadulterated nature,” If only these old tress could talk” he wondered. Alvin and Daniel were playing; Socrates was looking at them with a thumping tale.

Joseph walked around and took lots of pictures. He walked far beyond the play area in the back of the manor house, to the graveyard. He thought it was just a tale by the crazy villagers but he found three tomb stones almost buried in the ground, covered in leaves. “How extraordinary”, he thought. He coarsely  moved some leaves and took a few photos. He walked back to check on the boys, he took photos of them playing together.  Alvin was still struggling to make friends with Socrates. He kept trying to embrace the cat but the cat kept wiggling himself out hissing and huffing. “He will get used to you.” Daniel wanted to give some hope to the frustrated Alvin.

“Don’t go far boys” Joseph instructed the boys and went inside; Socrates followed him to the kitchen.  Sarah was prepping the lunch, Dya plated some food for Socrates “We like eating alone these days” she mocked at the cat’s recent changes of behaviour.

 They suddenly heard Daniel Yelping “Mummy”. They all ran outside the kitchen including Socrates. They saw Alvin knocking on a tree trunk, shrieking, trembling “Are you alright?” They could not see Daniel anywhere or hear him. Sarah and Dya started to shout out his name. They were howling, not knowing what’s happening, they feared their worst nightmare.

Joseph gently held Alvin’s shoulders and turned him towards him and calmly asked “Son, what happened, tell me, where is Dan?”

Alvin was shaking “I didn’t want it to happen, I didn’t wish it!” He was shaking with fear and penitence, “We were climbing trees, Dan climbed even higher and then…!” He looked up and pointed at the top of the tree.

“Then what happened?”

“Well he, I didn’t stop him.” Daniel looked at Joseph “He fell inside.” He pointed at the tree.

Joseph immediately worked out the tree was hollow. There was hope, no matter how tall the tree was, how far Daniel had fallen. He called the fire brigade who located Daniel at the bottom of the trunk. They had to cut the top of the tree and rescue a very injured little boy. Daniel broke his collar bones and his left arm. The doctor told them they were extremely lucky that Daniel was alive. It seemed Daniel would be spending the summer in bandages.

When Daniel gained consciousness he remembered a man asked him to climb up the old tree trunk and he pushed him to the hole. Joseph reassured him that it was a nightmare.

That evening Sarah told Joseph that she feels this place is unholy, “I was going to lose both of my children, can’t you see? And they are having nightmares.”

Joseph consoled Sarah; hugging her he said they were accidents; that they were getting used to with the new place.

Alvin came to visit Daniel when he returned home. “I didn’t mean for it to happen” said Alvin with remorse. Sarah hugged Alvin “It was an accident, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Daniel is my friend.”

“We know Alvin” Said Joseph kindly.

                                                 Part 4     

Sarah wondered how to cheer Daniel up, he looked sad, stuck inside with this shoulder to shoulder bandage to fix his collar bones. She decided to fix him a treat and wondered what else to do. “You know how you two always read about old toys and things?” Sarah asked Joseph while mixing a cake batter for Daniel.

“What about that” Joseph was drawing a design for his next job on the kitchen table using his pencils and sketch paper.

“Why don’t you make one of those toys you two history buffs look at? It could be exciting for Dan to see it in real life.” Sarah sounded pleased with the new idea.

So was Joseph. “Hay, that’s a great idea actually. Well done!” Joseph said it with a mock disbelief. Joseph was an artisan craftsman; he has been designing and making boats for many years. He knew he could copy a toy from the history book easily.

Sarah put the cake in the oven. “Where did my icing bags go?” She wondered loudly and started opening the cabinets one after another.

A sudden cry of horror made Joseph turn around in utter shock. Sarah was howling in horror, there was blood dripping down her forehead, she was staring at her right hand, blood oozing out of the deep cut, a seax  was on the floor covered in blood. Sarah was continuously screaming and shaking, Dya ran to the kitchen to check what had happened. “I have to take your mother to the hospital, watch your brother. “ Joseph didn’t have much time to explain or figure out what just happened. He wrapped Sara’s cut with the kitchen cloth and hauled her to the car. “We’ll be in the hospital soon, just hold on.” Joseph’s voice shook a little.

Part 5

Sarah had to have few stiches on her forehead and on her palm and arm. She was still shaking. “That knife, it is so old, how did it get there?” Sarah looked at Joseph with horror and whispered “I saw them, like Dan did. The woman was stabbing me. But I think, it was a child, pushed the knife out of her hand and it fell. I think, I think she wanted to kill me,” Sarah paused to breath, whimpering, shivering. “How did that knife get to my cupboard?”

The nurse standing by looked at Joseph with question marks. Joseph felt uncomfortable and a little alarmed for the first time. “It’s a very old house. The knife must have been there for ages. It took you by a surprise and you were just really terrified. We see things when we are scared.” Joseph said it as if he was trying to comfort himself.

Part 6

Joseph decided to clear the place up a little bit. “Just an old house. It was an accident. I should have thought about this ahead and look for all the little things, who knows what else is hiding in the house?” Joseph blamed himself.

He decided to surprise Daniel with a toy like Sarah advised. Mother and son both were resting in their beds, Joseph asked Dya to keep an eye on them.

 Joseph worked hours and created the cutest spin top toy set following the 17^th century designs. He could tell Daniel was really impressed. Alvin came to play with him like he did every afternoon; they both looked busy with the toys. “Somethings never go old” Joseph told Sarah in accomplishment. Sarah looked happy and smiled for the first time after returning from the hospital. That’s that then, thought Joseph. “Let’s stay safe from now.”  

Part 7

That weekend Joseph decided to spend the time in the work house. The outer house was converted into Joseph’s crafts area where he will be building his boats.

He started to concentrate on his work but interrupted by Dya running in, screaming frantically “Dad, Dan has gone crazy. She kept pointing at the house.

“Why? What happened?”

Dya couldn’t say anything; she started to run back in the house. Joseph followed him.

Joseph ran upstairs to Dan’s room. Sarah was trying to stop a historical Dan. Socrates was angry, his tale was up lashing. Daniel was frantically hitting himself with the spinning tops shouting “These are not your toys.”

Sarah was trying to stop him from hitting himself, Daniel’s face was red with marks and his lips were bleeding already. Joseph embraced Daniel, opened his fists with force and took the spinning toys out of his grips and threw them on the floor. Socrates hissed at the direction of the spinning tops rolling on the floor. “It’s ok, it’s ok,” Joseph kept rocking Daniel. Dya and Sarah were sobbing, not knowing what was happening. 

“I felt someone told me to tell you to make those toys, like a man told me you should make them for his children”, Sarah was snivelling, later in the afternoon when Daniel calmed down. Alvin was keeping him busy and Dya was watching them.

Sarah was adamant. “I don’t care if we lose money. I want to leave this house. I feel something, like something is really wrong in this house. I want to go back to London”. Joseph knew it was the final decision.

Part 8

Daniel and Alvin had a sad goodbye; they were good friends.

Alvin: “I’ll see you again!”

Sarah: “Maybe sweetheart”.

Joseph: “Who knows?”

 They regretted not meeting his parents. 

Part 9

2020

32 years old Daniel decided to stay with his parents in the lockdown. Daniel felt like a little kid again, doing things with dad. They decided to tidy up the storage because Sarah told them to.

They started coming across things as they were opening all the big and little boxes. “Dad, look” Daniel showed an envelope labelled “Negatives from the manor house.” 

“They must be the old photos I never developed. Your mum didn’t want anything to do with that house; I must have put them away.”

Joseph took digital photos these days so he took them to a developing studio. They did some research on the old house at the library and printed out an article on the manor house.

Daniel and Joseph started looking at the photos and the article when they returned back to the garage.

“Hay look, I am playing in the back yard with Socrates. I miss that cat, he was always so angry in that house.” Daniel remembered.

“Yeah, you used to play with that little boy, what was his name again?”

“Alvin” remembered Daniel. “He kept telling me I don’t want you to leave.” Daniel remembered.

“He was a humble boy” Joseph was concentrating on the article. “Well, Lord Calder and Luella Hatt died with their child in scarlet fever; they were quarantined in the manor house in their last days. How sad” said Joseph?

Joseph started concentrating on the photograph of the graves when suddenly his eyes followed Daniel’s icy gaze. They were both frozen, looking at a photo Daniel was holding. They then started flipping through the photographs frenziedly.

Socrates looked struggling in the photographs, as if he was trying to free himself. He managed to look straight at the camera in one photo when being held. It was as if he was trying to tell something to Joseph.

Accept that it looked like he was sitting in the air. Or he was struggling with an invisible force. He was held above from the ground, as if floating!

“Dad!” Daniel shrieked under his breath. “What does it say on the child’s grave?”

Joseph picked up the photograph with the third head stone and examined closely. He read out the epitaph

“Alvin James Hatt”

1693-1700

You are now as once was I

You will travel far as I say goodbye

Prepare to take a forever vow

Then you will be what I am now”