Sat 07 Mar |
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I’d invited Gaynor around for lunch and a catch-up and as always little Laura came round too, with her colouring book and crayons. Gaynor and I were gabbing for Britain all afternoon. Laura was happily colouring-in on the floor in the living room but after a while she got restless and began wandering around. I noticed she was walking in and out of the living room a lot with her crayons but she seemed like she was playing some sort of game, happy in her own little world. Gaynor and I couldn't stop looking at Laura as she absentmindedly ate her chips and played with her Happy Meal toy in the food court. She didn't seem fazed at all. But then, how is a seven year old supposed to be able to distinguish between the living and the dead? There was so much that I wanted to ask her but I didn't want to bombard the girl, so I tried to word my questions as carefully as possible in order to get a maximum response out of her. 'What does Peter look like?' 'He's got white hair and a red t-shirt... but he doesn't have any socks or shorts. He's a nice boy, Auntie Sue.' 'Is he your age?' Laura shook her head. 'He's five. He’s my new little brother.' 'What do you and Peter play?' 'We played drawing.' 'Did Peter draw anything?' Gaynor asked. Both of us were talking gently and casually. Laura didn't seem to pick up on the fact that her playing with 'Peter' was anything less than normal so we were careful not to let her hear the alarm bells that were ringing in the heads of the two adults she was sitting with. 'Peter drew a daddy and I drew a mummy.' We stopped our questions there, exchanging glances, and shortly after returned to the flat. I went through into the girls' room and there on the floor were some sheets of paper and Laura's crayons. On the top sheet was a picture of a box woman with bobble hands and a huge smile, but there seemed to be no drawings of a 'daddy'. I walked through to the living room and said to Laura that I couldn't find the daddy picture and she replied that Peter had taken it back under the bed with him because 'that's where he lives'. Gaynor asked her to show us where he lived, so she led us back through and pointed under Sally's bed. 'Is he there now?' Gaynor asked. 'No, silly,' Laura laughed, covering her mouth with her hands. 'He's gone because that man doesn't like him playing with me.' 'Where was the man, the bad man?' I asked. Laura pointed up to the far top corner of the room, where the wall with the window met the ceiling. After a temporary moment of dumb shock, I opened my mouth to ask her another question but Laura put her arms around Gaynor’s waist and said: ‘I want to go now, Mummy.’ Gaynor agreed that they should be getting off and told me that she'd ring me later. After they'd left, I rationalised the situation to myself. There was a chance that 'Peter' was responsible for the fingerprints in the girls’ room… however, Laura appeared to be quite a lonely child; maybe Peter was nothing more than an imaginary friend? The 'bad man', I guessed, was either a fabrication, the denim man or the entity Louise referred to. Although I should have known better than to assume Laura was making up friends and lying about bad men, it was all I could do. I decided to go with that until my fear subsided. When Gaynor called me that evening, she said that Laura wouldn't talk any more about the 'bad man' or Peter… she just clammed up. I asked Gaynor whether it was possible that Laura was making it up and Gaynor became quite offended. I realised then that I had to accept that Laura was telling the truth and face the problem rather than pretend it wasn't really happening. I apologised and explained that I was finding living with my situation difficult. Gaynor asked me whether I'd ever considered doing a Ouija board, because 'maybe that would be the best way to get some answers'. I expressed my hesitations but she reassured me that she would do some research into it on the internet at work, to find out how to make one up and conduct it safely. Although I’d heard time and time again that Ouija boards were bad news, my curiosity got the better of me and I agreed to do it. We arranged for Gaynor to come over a few days later without Laura. © R L Royle 2009 * ISBN 13: 9780955063114 |
