EVE Page #2

• Short story

								


He knew there was a police house in the next village if he could get her there then everything would be all right. He secured everything but left the oven on and made sure the girl was well wrapped in the blankets. He swivelled the driver's seat back to its other position replaced the mobile phone so he could see if the service returned. He turned the ignition key, the seven-litre Chevrolet engine burst into willing life craving useful employment. He selected reverse and felt the rear wheels spin on the fresh snow and as the differential locked, he began to move. He swung the huge beast around and shifted into first, again he felt the wheels spin and then lock to give the traction and drive that would get him off that car park. The camper rocked from side to side as he remounted the solid surface of the mountain road.
As the sure-footed leviathan threaded its way down the mountain pass Joe’s attention was split between checking the mobile phone display, looking where he was going and checking on the girl in his rear-view mirror. It could not have taken him more than twenty- five minutes to find the police house with its bilingual sign that said “Heddlu” and translated it immediately to Police. He switched of the engine and swivelled the seat around to attend to his charge. He sat there staring at the living quarters of the camper dumbstruck; he could not believe his eyes. The oven door was open, the gas was still alight his coat was on its hook by the rear door, the torch was on the floor where he had put it down and there were the two red blankets on the seat where he had tried to warm her up. The cause of his amazement as he sat outside the police house was that there was no girl. He had not stopped she could not have got out, she was in no fit state to get out, so where was she? As he sat there trying to make sense of what he was looking at he was aware of the lights from another car as the beams from its headlights searched the dark recesses of his unlit camper. There was a knock on the window; it snapped him out of his incredulous trance. He pressed the down button of the driver's door window to speak to the dark uniform of the village guardian although at that point he had no idea what he was going to say. The constable could see at a glance that something was not right; He said “ Nos dda” in his native Welsh but as soon as Joe began to speak knew that the English would be better. “How can I help” he said, “Joe said I don’t know where to start” The constable said, “Look I’ve just been out on a call and I was going to make some tea, let’s go inside and you can tell me all about it”. Joe locked the camper, and the two men went inside the police house, as they stood in the hall the constable hung his flat hat on the hook kept for coats and called to his wife “Megan, can you make some tea we have a visitor”. A ‘visitor’ was a Welshman’s way of saying there was an Englishman in the house so that the right language would be used. Go through and sit down instructed the constable, his wife materialised with a tray laden with Welsh hospitality,” Now what’s it all about then” enquired the constable as Megan poured the tea. Joe began to talk still shocked by the events that had passed into memory, taking frequent sips from the cup of tea and only pausing momentarily to eat an occasional mouthful of Christmas cake. His audience listened intently to his tale proffering the occasional nod or exclamation of “Diawn” When he had said all that he could remember the constable looked at his wife and passed a knowing glance like two that were privy to something that Joe was not. The constable said, “By the sound of it you have met Eve”. He went on to say that Eve was a girl found dead from hypothermia on that car park on Christmas Eve 1991. No one knew how she came to be there or why she died and from what he knew no one ever came forward to claim the body that was buried in a municipal grave in the village churchyard.” Buried on the parish she was,” he said as he finished his tea.  Joe asked, “Did no one ever ask about her, were there no enquires made as to where she might have come from?”
"Yes, enquiries were made but nothing ever came to light, the constable said as he stood up.  Eve is a ghost" said the constable, one of those sad troubled sprits that never rest, disturbing I know but there is nothing to be done. A local legend to take home

As Joe was leaving the police house Megan put a paper bag into his hand something for later, she said, he opened the bag there were two mince pies and a piece of cake
“Thank you,” said Joe. Megan looked pensive, as though there was something else she should say, The constable wished Joe Merry Christmas and a safe journey and as Joe closed the front gate Megan came down the path to him, still unsure she said “Have you lost anything tonight” Joe said “How do you mean lost” Megan said “This has happened before and in all of the other cases the person Eve appeared to lost something precious to them” it might not be so but if you should find something missing then there is something you should know. Megan said," The missing items usually come to light eventually, sometimes quite quickly sometimes it takes longer but whatever you have lost will return". Joe thought little of it at the time if Eve were a ghost how could she take something. No, he dismissed it.

It was near half past eleven when the mobile phone rang; Joe pulled over and looked at the number captured in the green light of the display. It was his daughter’s number, he rang her back, and she answered the phone with a shade of relief to her tone. Joe spoke first “Hello love, I am on my way but with the weather it might be another half hour yet,” His daughter said,” That’s ok I’ll wait up if I know you are coming”. Joe rang off thinking when did I ever let you down?

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