Double Life

It was all so sudden. Lucy didn’t even get a chance to properly say goodbye to all her closest friends before her parents moved with her to Devon. 

“You’re 10 years old and you’re a grown up girl so I know that you will understand that sometimes life forces you to make quick decisions. We got a buyer for our house under the condition that we move out almost immediately” - said Lucy’s mum as they were driving to the west country. 

Lucy loved their old house. It was bright with many flowers in the garden. Lucy often got in trouble picking up the flowers that her mum carefully planted. 

“But did you pack all my favourite things?” - cried Lucy, thinking that there was not enough time to take her precious treasures. 

“Don’t worry my darling. Everything has been safely put away in a box with your name on it. I even made a little inventory list so you know exactly what is in there” - Lucy’s mum reassured her.

Lucy looked at the list and noted the following items: 

1x blue bear with an eyepatch “Bobby”

1x small red blanket

1x pet rock “rocky”

1x Polaroid camera

Lucy didn’t own much and so those things became her treasures and meant a lot to her.

She sighed with relief after reading the list and settled in the car counting the trees they passed by in the car. 

 Lucy’s parents; Linda and James were not well off despite having semi successful careers as teachers. First Linda was made redundant and then James lost his job soon after. Having no success finding another job and not being able to afford their house anymore they decided to open a bed & breakfast in the remote region of Devon. They found an old house dating back to the 1800s with a great price so when they found a buyer for their house they didn’t hesitate to take the offer. Linda was a bit apprehensive of the new venture but James was always very optimistic and confident. Both Lucy and Linda admired that quality in James. 

As they approached their new property Lucy shrieked at the ghastly sight of their new home.

“Is..is...is this where we are going to live?” - Lucy whispered.

“It will be fun!” - exclaimed Lucy’s dad. “Like in the movies! We’ll have our own haunted house with lots of adventures. You won’t have to be scared of the darkness and being alone because you’ll never be alone with all the ghosts roaming around”.

Lucy started crying and hid her face in her hands. 

“Look what you’ve done James. You made her cry!” - said Lucy’s mum. “Don’t worry darling there are no ghosts there or anything else that you need to be scared of. You’re going to be absolutely safe and sound. We’ll make sure of that, especially your father, right James?”

“Right, right. I can’t promise I won’t dress up as a ghost one night though just for fun” - said James.

“James, stop it!” - shouted Linda.

Lucy wasn’t listening any more and stopped crying. As they parked she took a good look at the house. It was dark and some parts of the walls were black - almost as if a part of the building has caught fire a long time ago. There was Wisteria growing on half of the building which actually looked really nice and gave off a lovely scent. Lucy thought that they might need to grow it more to cover the ugly parts of the house. She also didn’t like the look of all the spider webs but she was confident her dad could remove them. Inside the house looked even more uninviting than outside. The floors were cracking and everything was covered in dust. It was quite clear that no one has lived here for a long time. 

“There is a lot of work to be done but we have been assured that this property has everything we need to easily convert it to our needs” - said Linda sheepishly almost as if she was trying to reassure herself as well as James and Lucy. 

Lucy forgot about how scared she got before and instead got very excited to find new items to widen her collection of treasures. Who knows what kind of things have been left behind in this house? Who lived here before and what was their story?

After an exhausting week of clearing out the ground floor the house started to look presentable and pleasant. Linda assigned Lucy with a task to clear out a cupboard under the stairs as she was small enough to easily fit in. 

“Some old books, that look like shoe polish and that...aaaaah!” - Lucy screamed. Once she calmed down she shouted “Mum there is a jar that looks very odd” but she didn’t hear any reply. Her parents were outside in the garden and couldn’t hear her.

Lucy moved the jar and noticed a key. Finally something interesting to explore she thought to herself. She ran upstairs as there was nothing else needing opening on the ground floor. She noticed there was one room that was locked. She tried the door and...success! 

The door squeaked as Lucy opened it. She slowly walked in and noticed some paintings lying on the floor. There was a boy on one of the paintings with dark hair and dreamy blue eyes. His clothes were old fashioned and the frame looked really old and slightly cracked too. She felt as though the boy was watching her every move. Lucy decided to name the boy in the painting to make believe she made a new friend and feel a bit less scared. 

“Benjamin. Yes, Benjamin. That will be your new name. It sounds a bit old fashioned and fitting to you” - said Lucy as she stared at the painting. The room was really dark so Lucy thought it would be best to take the window covers off, get some light in and open the window. As she was removing the covers she noticed that one of the windows looked really odd. It didn’t let any light in but when she opened it there was sunshine coming through. She looked through that window and saw a garden but it didn’t look anything like the garden outside. When she closed the window it looked like it led to nowhere. Maybe it was her curiosity or her dreams of being an explorer that led her to walk through the window. She wasn’t quite sure herself but she felt compelled to walk inside. She heard a loud bang and turned around but the window was gone.

“Mum! Dad! Where are you?!” - Lucy shouted at the top of her lungs. The place was unfamiliar and she has never been completely on her own before. Where did the window go? How will she get back? She cried and screamed to no avail. She sat down and covered her legs with her arms as though she was giving herself a hug and wept. 

“Excuse me Miss” - a stranger said

Lucy looked up with her puffy eyes and had a puzzled expression on her face. She thought she’s dreaming but she pinched herself, felt the grass and could feel the gentle breeze on her face. 

“Miss, my name is Bobby. I heard you crying, are you all right?” - said Bobby

“But...but...you’re a bear?!!! And you’re blue? Almost like a teddy bear I used to have except he had an eyepatch” - exclaimed Lucy.

“I’m not bare Miss. Not bare at all. Don’t you like my tweed jacket and trousers?

Lucy eyes Bobby down “No, no. I do like your suit. It's very...classy. It’s not what I meant, actually never mind”.

“Okay Miss. It’s nice to meet you. I’m walking to the great bear land in search of a new home. I heard they have fantastic tweed tailors there too. Would you like to come with me? - said Bobby.

Lucy looked behind again but the window wasn’t there. In a way it felt like she had been sitting in this one spot for weeks. She felt like she needed to blow the cobwebs away and move. 

“Sure Bobby, I will walk with you. I desperately need a walk”.

The sun was blazing and Bobby was getting out of breath. Lucy thought it was a bit strange that Bobby was sweating honey instead of normal sweat but then again he was a bear so it made sense to her. She read enough Winnie the Pooh to know that bears eat a lot of honey and probably don’t drink much water so logically they must sweat honey. 

While Bobby was panting Lucy realised that she was getting colder every passing moment. The sun was roasting hot so why was she getting so cold? She hugged herself and closed her eyes while she shivered. 

“There you go, that should warm you up”

Lucy noticed a red blanket on her and immediately felt better. 

“Thank you Bobby, that was very kind of you. I feel better already”

Bobby looked confused but then again he was just a Teddy Bear so Miss sometimes says things that he might not understand. 

They continued the walk until they heard a swoosh sound followed by Bobby roaring in pain. 

“Miss help! Something hit me in the eye!” screamed Bobby. 

Lucy looked at Bobby and his marble eye looked broken and was falling off. 

“I’m so sorry Bobby! I think your eye is broken!” She looked around and noticed what the culprit was. It was rocky- her pet rock! She was so happy to see her friend again but guilty that Bobby was hurt. 

After a minute Bobby calmed down and was back to his normal self. He took an eyepatch out of his tweed jackets’ pocket and put it on. “Let’s go Miss! Let’s go home!”

Lucy complied, feeling happy that Bobby seemed like his normal self again. 

They reached the bear land soon after dark and decided to camp in a local bear park to get some rest. In the morning Bobby awoke Lucy saying “Miss! Quick wake up! I found my perfect bear home! They ran toward the house and Lucy instantly fell in love with it. The sun was hugging it with light,  there were orchids, roses, carnations and lots and lots of lilies in the front yard. So many flowers could mean bees and bees could mean honey for Bobby. It’s perfect!

They walked inside and relaxed in comfy armchairs by a fireplace. Lucy noticed her Polaroid camera. They took a picture together but the picture was completely black. Lucy thought that maybe the camera was broken and fiddled with it for a while but every picture was coming out completely black. Eventually she gave up and noticed the same strange window she saw before. She looked at the window for a long time until she heard Bobby asking her to come and play with her. She turned around to let him know she would come shortly but when she came back the window disappeared. She wondered if she would see it again. 

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Linda was still in shock as she stood by Lucy’s hospital bed. James suddenly walked with a box and Linda asked “Did you bring everything?”. 

“Yes darling, all Lucy’s favourite things are in this box”. He gave Linda the Teddy Bear “Bobby” that Lucy loved so much and she put in right beside her. 

“We should have never moved James. If we never moved this would have never happened. No wonder this new house was so cheap, it was completely unstable. I will never forgive myself that the roof collapsed on Lucy’s head.

James being an optimist said “Darling, the doctors say Lucy is in a coma. We have to hope that she will get better and get out of it. Ouch!” - shouted James as Lucy’s pet rock fell on his big toe. 

“James, be careful and stop shouting! Now pass me the red blanket from the box, it’s so cold in here” - said Linda angrily. 

“There you go, that should warm you up” - whispered Linda to Lucy. 

“I wonder what she could be dreaming about” - said James. “Do you think she’s dreaming about us? If only she could take some pictures with that Polaroid camera of hers. I’d want to see what she sees”

“Don’t be foolish James” - said Linda. “Her eyes are closed so all she could probably see is just pitch black.

James didn’t want to argue any more. He hugged Linda and wiped her tears. He looked at Lucy and said “I hope you’ll find your way to us again. We will always be waiting for you”.