East of the Sun On holiday by mistake ? What happened next ? ( with brownies)

Who’s that knocking ? Strangers at the door, Part II  Howling wind and rain, desperate knocking, and that heartsink moment…. In winter, strangers at the door means just one thing… On holiday or just a day’s hike, they’re lost. Catastrophically lost… The mistake, nearly always ? (apart from ever coming near soggy Westmorland ) They’ve missed the trail marker, taken a wrong turn, need to be nearly forty miles away. Almost exactly the same time, mid December, but in 1745, Prince Charlie made even worse mistakes, in the same dark and boggy hills. 1 Next ? No buses or trains to where they want to be, even in summer. From our house, the nearest village is six miles away. Taxi ? Flights (each) to almost anywhere in Europe would be cheaper. Local taxi firms know the route signals desperation. The householders they’d just disturbed had a choice. Enjoy a normal, mid December evening, fireside, maybe wrap a few presents ?

Or ? Sat nav knows where the strangers want to be, and to be fair, they didn’t even ask. All achieved with a silent exchange of glances, our evening cancelled. Eventually, via various Withnail locations and beyond, back to their car.

Last Thursday, coming in from work, a parcel at the door ? Couriers are useless, official. Which of our neighbours is this for ? ( We’ve given up, has to be click and collect) Couriers innocent, this had been hand delivered. What was it ? Brownies ! Has anybody, ever, given us cake before ? Not just any old cake, but their own fresh-baked brownies, labelled gluten free too, meaning I could eat them. Organic too. Brownies just one of his lines… We’d rescued a baker! Monetising this, maybe nothing like the taxi fare, but unforgettable. Delicious too. Thanked us for our kindness ? But we weren’t planning to be kind, just normal.  Ordinary. They’d get home that night, safe, dry. Feel-good works, the world looked better. Tasted good too.

Next day, back to dissection and reconstruction, the book I’m working on now. Yes, I should try harder at marketing , especially books already written, but this ghost story insists on being written. Why was it ever abandoned ? Re-writing now, I believe the experience was too raw, too intense. Was I describing panic attacks ? Nothing like. Adults and children, the characters have different experiences. Do I believe in ghosts ? First, I didn’t see anything, even in a house where half the town seemed to know the house was haunted. On file, still, the agents’ details for that house. No mention of any ghost, so what was going on ? Even the gas people installing central heating were spooked.

No such things as ghosts though, of course not. 2. No Civil War soldiers, walking through walls. No reluctant nuns, walled up sometime in the 13th century. No Romans, no Ancient Egyptians, so what was it ? None of the usual suggested explanations fit. No toxic mould, no damp of any kind. The house was built of limestone, which helps. No cellars, and I’m not easily spooked, or at least, I watched Halloween on my own, in an empty house, at Halloween. My first experience of – Stop there. Experience of what ? Since I never saw anything, but sensed far too much, let’s call it a ‘presence’, definitely unwanted. Like this poem, remembered from primary school,

As I was going up the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away… William Hughes Mearns

 I wondered about strange acoustics. The house was in the middle of a crescent. Building started in the Regency, completed early in the reign of George IV.( bought as an auction wreck) A physicist friend wondered about acoustics too. Soon after I moved in, a night of pure terror, so much sound that next morning, my new next door neighbour came round to complain. When I said I’d been awake all night, terrified, she capitulated at once. Sorry, love. Must be your ghost. Noise suggests a poltergeist and teenagers. There weren’t any.  Must be a rational explanation, surely ? Half awake ? No. Any time of day, including the gas men, mid morning.  What kind of mental glitch could come up with my ’ ghost’ – and for me, only her fear ? 4 My clunky WIP title was ’ A Child Crying. Somebody else’s fear, someone else’s consciousness ? 5 For short, especially for non-physicists, more things in heaven and earth.

Then I met the Viking. Pool our resources, find another house. ? So we did. Twice as old, far away from any public transport, no sign of any ghost.

1 https://thehistoryjar.com › 2017 › 06 › 22 › bonnie-prince-charlie-retreat 

2.bbc.co.uk › bbcthree › article › f8ce7277-5945-470a-b1ad-0c637d8265c1

3https://theboar.org › 2021 › 10 › can-ghosts-be-explained-by-science

4 https://bigthink.com › hard-science › theres-no-such-thing-as-ghosts-instead-one-of-these-phenomena-is-at-play 

5 https://www.newscientist.com › article › mg25634130-100-roger-penrose-consciousness-must-be-beyond-computable-physics