Short stories - 'Strange Magic' Moving On/Spokes In The Wheel

Strange Magic

Moving On

Lisa was adamant she didn't want to move home to another area; after all, she had lived in her picturesque old market home town in Essex all her life. She had lived through some good times and a few bad times and that was where she intended to say for the rest of her life. She often reminisced of her family; her Mum who sadly passed away many years before and the fondest memories she had of her. Watching her little girl, Emma growing up into a fine young woman and then flying the nest to live with her boyfriend and many other recollections of events throughout her life, her family with her new partner and their son and after all that she had been through during the awful divorce with her ex husband who was an alcoholic and thief. She had been blessed with a few good friends over the years, one as far back as her childhood, others through various jobs, or parents from schools that her daughter attended and kept in touch with. She made more nice friends when her son attended school and kept in constant touch with them all. She could not leave Emma who was now twenty five, even though she had settled down. Lisa loved her little home now that George had lovingly decorated it. She had to admit though, the nearby village had lost its appeal over the years, what with more houses being built and now the new supermarket was being used probably by most of the local residents, forgetting the quaint little individual shops now struggling to keep afloat and tragically, some of them closed down giving way to fast food takeaways or their shop fronts boarded up and derelict for years before becoming charity shops, leaving behind yet more memories. 'Never mind', Lisa thought 'we're in the 21st century now and we must move with the times'.

George had never been able to settle from the day he moved in with her. They had met during the time Lisa was going through a messy divorce, her house already in her name and had jointly decided that George left home from all he knew to move in with her. As time went by, it was clear he was never going to be happy and it was a wrench to be sixty miles from his loving home, his friends and family. He admitted although the cul-de-sac was quiet and slightly rural, there was something about that it made him feel unable to settle, but could never understand his own feelings. The jobs he worked at were never like his old job further down south and he had a deep longing to be back there. He tried to keep his feelings to himself but there were times he had such a mixture of yearning and sadness in his eyes, it was clear he was never going to feel at home, in spite of the happy events that happened during the time he was there.

As the years flew by, when their little boy Jack started school, he started to attract the not so well behaved children that lived in the cul-de-sac but through no fault of his own. They were too young to venture out of the road by themselves because it was near a busy main road, so they played in the street sometimes causing mischief. Over a period of time, two of the children got naughtier and more daring causing problems for some of the neighbours and older folk that lived in the road and in time, there was a little bit of ill feeling as the parents of the children did little to acknowledge what they were getting up to and often let them play out late - even on a school night.

Nothing really felt the same when two of the mischievous boys deliberately broke Lisa and Georges' front window; they felt let down and violated and the children were never reprimanded for it. They carried on causing problems for other neighbours and it was about this time, George mentioned about moving as he felt the situation with these kids in the cul-de-sac would get worse and the road would change further as new neighbours with equally misbehaved children would move in.

In spite of what had happened, Lisa did not want to move, but George insisted that they took a ride out just to take a look at what was on offer. Lisa enjoyed the lovely views of the countryside and realised that there were more quaint villages other than her own, but the thought of moving away from all she knew depressed her, but they kept on taking rides out and finally started looking at houses and put their own house up for sale. Lisa still did not want to move and every viewer that came to look at their house was put off by the mention of the problem with the rats, or the hints about the noisy neighbours and late night parties so an offer was never made which left George more confused and frustrated at Lisa's attitude. Lisa never made an effort to tidy and make the house look nice; in fact the house was always in complete disarray every time a viewer booked an appointment. 'What was the point of being on the market, when you have no intention of selling and moving?' Lisa did not want to share anything with a stranger; the pretty wallpaper, the open fireplace with a beautiful mahogany wood surround or her sons' space themed bedroom. Even the garden looked gorgeous as it took years of digging and planting shrubs and perennials before it was more under control.

But everything changed one day, when they took a ride out. With no viewings booked, George took a different route and Lisa was spellbound by just how pretty it really was further south and quite by accident found a lovely part of the old town they had not seen before and saw a property for sale. Having contacted the Estate agents for a viewing, Lisa instantly felt as if she had 'come home'. George and Jack felt exactly the same and after a long chat with Emma, she said 'You'll see much more of me now I know you'll be moving not far from my favourite sea side resort!'

The following day a perspective buyer booked a viewing with just half an hour to spare and Lisa didn't have time to make the house look tidy or desirable, but he made an offer on their house the following week, so in turn Lisa was able to make an offer on the beautiful cottage that they had seen. The only snag was, the viewers' wife had not seen the property yet and need to get a feel for it and booked an appointment to once and see it over the weekend on Saturday afternoon, which was just two days away. No woman would ever take a liking to a house in this state, Lisa thought.

Panicking, Lisa set about tidying and cleaning the house. She paid a carpet cleaner man almost double to brighten it up. She was on her hands and knees, scrubbing floors, cleaning cupboards, washing net curtains, vacuuming the dust and cobwebs in every corner. She polished every single piece of wooden furniture until it shone and every mirror gleamed. She cleaned her cooker and hob until it looked like new. She even managed to find a window cleaner that cleaned indoors as well as outdoors and paid him over the top of his usual rate. She took down all the main curtains from every room and filled the aid with the scented fabric conditioner that was added to the washing. The aroma of pot pouri wafted from every room. George mowed the neglected lawn, the shrubs and hedges were trimmed.

They both worked flat out, doing little repair jobs which involved many trips to the DIY store and they even went up in the loft to see what could be chucked away and after it had all been tidied up, there was much more room. Two solid days of getting the house looking cleaner and tidier. They were exhausted and hardly slept worrying about the viewers the following day.

Saturday afternoon finally arrived and as Lisa opened the door to the couple, the viewer said, 'Apologies for not bringing my wife over soon, this is Collette'. And beside her sat her - faithful guide dog.

Copyright Linda Lawrence

September 2006

STRANGE MAGIC

Spokes in the wheel

Dawn worked as a care assistant in an elderly peoples’ care home in her local town. It was very convenient to be so close to her and the work seemed to suit her, although not all were fond of her; there had been a handful of complaints about her talking too loud and she acting too brash. She had indeed endured a rough childhood, often ended up with different foster parents and had habitually handled people in her care a little roughly too. She could be very rude to her colleagues and most of the time she was on her defence - her own worst enemy. She rarely understood if someone was having a joke with her and did not understand banter and there were times se felt she had to order her colleagues around a little that in turn, made her feel superior. As a result, some of the residents and other carers found it difficult to gel with her. It was difficult to see something nice about her, although most tried to understand and tolerate her and many would turn a blind eye to her ways. She had small deep-set blue eyes, was short and stumpy in stature and she had a nature of a human equivalent to a Rottweiler. You simply didn’t upset her.

The Home was set in some pretty countryside in the South of England, a reputable home that was painted in pretty colours in accordance with dementia guidelines. It was a happy and restful home where all visitors and residents were made welcome. There were four different units all with their own protocol and the residents’ criteria of their bedroom scheme.

Diane was good carer and had worked in the same job for much of her working lifetime and had lived on her own for many years; the care home became her second home with her second family who lived in it. She had made many friends with the residents - their families and also other employees. She had two grown up children who she deeply fretted about; money was tight and even through her two children had families of their own, they constantly worried her. She always did everything she could to love, support and be around them, flitting between her work and home life.

Diane did not like Dawn at all from the first time she set eyes on her; she instinctively knew she wouldn’t make an honest career out of a good carer – if she cared at all. Diane thought she had witnessed Dawn stealing money from one of the residents while no one was looking. She also left Evelyn sitting in her own faeces for much too long and getting impatient with William when he didn’t move quickly enough on his Zimmer frame. There was a time when Mary looked as if she was almost choking on a crouton and Dawn took her time seeing to her. Poor Mary was in such a state by the time Dawn made an effort to go over to her. Cups of tea were often made late and dinner served up cool – always while no one was looking, or so she thought.  She took her time with certain residents when her page was alerted and always had an excuse if another member of staff asked her why she hadn’t responded quicker. Of course, Dawn knew how to act around the management who could see no fault with her.

There were about thirty five employees working in the care home at any given time, made up of administration, managerial, chefs, laundry workers and the carers of course that helped keep the spokes in the wheel turn smoothly and most of the time a shift would run without incident; teams would work well together and get reacquainted as the shift pattern of staff were seldom the same and it could be many weeks before you would work with the same person or people again. It was interesting to meet so many different people and they all had their own way of doing things and handling situations as they come along.

Residents were there all kinds of reasons – respite, or perhaps their family felt they needed more special care that they couldn’t provide, or just to pleasantly live their twilight years in the safety of around the clock hour attention – as long as Dawn wasn’t looking after them as she had made herself very unpopular with some, although nothing could ever be proved as a few of the residents had some form of dementia and through their confused minds, things would often be overlooked.

Henry, a resident, was a cheerful character, but his method of communication was often with his walking stick. He’d bang around in his room to gain a carers attention or continually press his buzzer to alert a carer who was carrying a pager.  Henry was a little over a hundred, had had a fulfilled life, long marriage, son and daughter still alive, but unfortunately lost his beloved wife thirty or so years beforehand. He was indeed blessed to be living in such a caring environment – at least most of the time and such a terrible pity his dementia had prevented him being cared for by his family. Still, we were as good as his family now and we were all used to his behaviour and he seemed to enjoy his surroundings and other company. Except when Dawn was on duty. Henry could feel the atmosphere was different when she was around and she seemed to take forever when he needed a bit of assistance.

The carers went about their normal day trying their best to stick to a routine, but things happened, as they normally would do. Connie had a fall from her bed on the way to the toilet and had been found by two carers, putting the 11.00 a.m. cup of tea out of sync for a few minutes. Connie was fine, albeit a small bruise on her arm, while the other fourteen residents wondered where their drink and biscuits were! Freda didn’t fancy anything on the menu and Howard had refused to get out of bed to be washed and dressed. Sometimes so many things happened; it could be difficult to keep to a routine and time. Dawn often showed her impatience by sighing or raising her eyes to the ceiling and Heather, a games coordinator, had shot her a knowing glance of disapproval and didn’t know whether to mention some of her behaviour to her team leader, but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt - this time. Heather played her cards close to her chest and kept herself to herself, but look deep into her eyes and you knew she had seen so much, had done so much and had gained much knowledge. The residents were quick at picking up body language and knew what staff they preferred to be with. Some were naturally more popular.

A few days passed and it was clear Henry was so frail and fed up with the continual routine of everyday life and sadly he gave in and passed away very peacefully on a sunny afternoon during the April spring in his sleep. All were sad of course, but at the same time happy that he’d had such a wonderful life. He was ready to go and everybody knew.

The funeral over and the shifts resumed to normality. During one late afternoon, one of the carers had sensed and felt a strong force like draft that seemed to go right through her while walking through the terracotta and peach coloured corridors near one of the empty flats, but couldn’t make out why and where. There were no windows open, no door left ajar and no breeze outside. It felt like a strong force of wind blown in, but it only happened once. Dawn had just arrived and would be taking over her and Diane for the night shift and as always, gave Dawn plenty of distance. Diane was never sure of Dawn and had giving her some distance in the past. She had also heard and seen many things about her and avoided making eye contact.

Dawn had settled some of the residents down with a jigsaw puzzle and the evening television was switched on with the droning of dome good and bad news when she heard some distant tapping from one of those empty rooms, but when she went in to investigate, no one was there. A little anxious, decided to stay in the main room as she thought she heard someone giggling softly that echoed down the two corridors as she made her way back leading to the main room. The hairs on her arms had risen as she felt a freezing cold chill run right through her. The carer thought she’d frightened Dawn and laughed even louder thinking that maybe Dawn thought that old Henry might of come back to haunt her! Tap tap tap tap tap tap…..louder and louder until Dawn fled to the reception, tearful and fearful and tried to make an excuse to go home only to be told to pull herself together by some of the other night staff.

The noises slowly diminished but then Dawn’s pager buzzed and kept buzzing alerting her from one of those two empty rooms! There were only three other night shift workers right on the other side of the building that seemed so far away now and they wouldn’t listen to her anyway as she’d made herself so unpopular with them in the past. It was now approaching midnight, the residents asleep in their beds oblivious of any noises as some were a little hard of hearing, others were handed mild sleeping tablets an hour before their bed time. Dawn was just too afraid to go anywhere; She did not want to walk through the lonely corridors to find out what had caused her buzzer to continually alert her, but she knew it wasn’t right and was scared rigid as it carried on all through the night and while she nervously counted the seconds, minutes and the hours away, the ceiling light remained firmly on in the main room although she swore it had dimmed many times during the witching hour and early hours of the morning. She had never felt so afraid when she felt somebody gently blowing on the back of her neck, although she knew nobody was behind, was petrified to look anyway.

It seemed to take an eternity for morning to arrive and when the morning staff arrived for handover, she ran from the building, terrified, never to return.

Finally Diane felt satisfied that this employee had had her comeuppance; she’d had an enjoyable time playing, but now it was time to welcome her old friend Henry into the spirit world as they met again and got reacquainted with one another.

Copyright Linda Lawrence

29^th June 2008