5. Susans Tale Part 1

Susan was on her way to see her uncle John, she was upset and angry and her insides were screaming for answers, she didn't know why she thought the body was her mothers, while she was driving she started to believe she was being silly. But still she had driven to the old folks care home where uncle John had been living for the past 3 years.

She had printed out copies of the photos and expected to blaze in through his bedroom door and for him to confess to some terrible crime.
Instead when she arrived she met the manager who told him he wasn't well.
When she saw him frail and resting she almost turned away, but as if her presence was itself enough his eyes opened and he smiled

"Susan" he called out with an old rasping, wheezy voice.
"come closer, it's been some time since I saw you last. Tell me, how have you been?"
"I'm fine thank you.. I guess"
"you don't sound fine. Tell me what troubles you dear"
She found herself unable to be direct with him "I.. Have been thinking about my Mum, my real Mum" after a brief pause she asked. "did you know her?"
He sat in silence, for what seemed ages, then
"you know dear, I'm not sure I did, but i'm sure she will have been in my shop at some time buying things for you"

She moved closer and sat on his bed, he moved his hand out and rested it on hers.
She felt the moment was right, "Uncle John" "yes dear"
"we found a body in your garage this week"
His hand was quickly removed from hers and his gaze turned and fixed first at a chair by the door then back to Susan
"It's very important you listen to me." he said, almost as an order.
"if you don't, your life will be in danger! Has the body been moved?"
"yes!" she replied
"then maybe it is too late. What have the police said?"
"they don't know. It's kind of complicated, but she is buried in the woods behind the house"
"ok! Now listen, my life is almost at an end and i am more a burden to them stuck in here than any use. The truth of your life is far more complicated than you think and it is going to become far more complicated than you could ever imagine"
"you spoke almost as if you knew her, let me tell you this. You didn't!....... The body belonged to Debbie's mother, my sister and although I was able to raise Debbie as my family, I was unable to protect her from everything and so now she is one of them.
"what happened to her?" she asked
"she died of a broken heart.... they took Debbie away from her you see, she knew what they'd do to her! She Pined for her for weeks, wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, just died."
"that's awful. But why was she buried in the garage and what did they do to Debbie?"
"same thing they'll do to you if you don't learn the truth, then run"
"what is the truth? And what will they do to me?"
John glanced at his watch and then said
"tomorrow, I'll tell you more tomorrow, could you do me a favour though?"
"sure, what is it?"
"on your way home, stop by Brenda's tobacconist on Newton street. Pick up some pick n mix sweets. Make sure you ask Mrs Fogarty, she knows which I like"
"but you haven't told...."
"Mrs Fogarty" he said sternly "if you go now you'll get there before the shop shut's. Then you can come back first thing"
Susan was frustrated, she pushed for answers but John put a finger to his lips and shushed her then looked and nodded at the door as if he knew someone was there listening.
Reluctantly she nodded back, made a fuss about making him comfortable and left.
"don't forget the sweets dear" he called out as the door of his room shut behind her.

Mrs Fogarty was busy serving some indecisive kids when she arrived, so Susan was a bit embarrassed to keep letting other customers get served by the other young shop assistant.

Eventually Mrs Fogarty smiled and asked Susan what she could get her.
"Hi. My uncle John asked me to pick up some pick n mix sweets, he said you'd know which ones he'd like"
"we get a few John's in here love, does your uncle have a surname? Or nickname?"
"sorry! Thompson, John Thompson, some of his friends call him 'JIT'"
"of course!" "you must be Susan, my, haven't you grown, how old are you know?"

The small talk continued for a few minutes until the last customer left the shop.
"is that the time" Mrs Fogarty said
"Alice" gaining her young assistants attention
"I've been chatting so long I still haven't finished serving yet. Could you get away and drop that parcel in at the post office before it shuts"
"yes Mrs Fogarty"
"thank you dear!"
She smiled as Alice went off for her coat and the parcel.

"right dear, a pick n mix for your uncle John"
She started taking tubs of sweets down from off the shelves.
"now let's see, he's in the care home so let's go for a big bag to keep him going and as for his favourites if I am right I think he likes liquorice all-sorts, and some Bon Bons. Ooh what else, oh yeah hard toffees and midget gems."
As Alice left the shop Mrs Fogarty changed her attitude.
She bagged the sweets, turned to Susan and firmly asked "what happened?"
"huh?" Susan replied confused
"something must have happened if he sent you for the pick n mix whilst he's still alive" she continued
"I'm not following you"
"oh! You really thought you were getting a pick n mix" -
"right. It's a code between us, well apart from him dying of course"
"it means you have something important to tell me, whatever you spoke to him about, you must tell me"

Susan spent the next few minutes telling Mrs Fogarty about the renovation work, the body and what her uncle said and when she'd finished she started asking her own questions and Mrs Fogarty simply said "are you ready for the truth?"

Susan was taken back by this comment.
"uncle John talked about the truth being complicated!"
"oh yes. Very" replies Mrs Fogarty. Then she locked the shop door and closed the blind.
Susan hadn't noticed that a jar of midget gems was still on the counter, Mrs Fogarty unscrewed the lid and removed the card insert from inside of it.
What happened next had Susan believing an illusion was taking place.

Mrs Fogarty placed the lid on the counter and placed her hand into the lid, in fact her arm went all the way into the lid, all the way up to her shoulder a moment later there was the sound of a latch behind a wall and some cogs and pulleys in action.
The frame of the doorway that lead into the back room suddenly opened and a stone disc rolled out into the pathway. Susan thought it was some fantastic TV screen as an image rotated around until it was the right way up and then she realised that it wasn't a TV, it was some kind of doorway to god knows where that had suddenly rolled out of nowhere. The urge to faint overwhelmed her but although she wobbled she stayed on her feet.

Mrs Fogarty, said "quickly child, move", ushering her through the doorway. As she stepped forward Mrs Fogarty put the lid on the jar and placed it back on the shelf and followed her. No sooner had they made it through when the stone disc rolled away behind them, this time it was the image of the shop that rolled away and into the wall leaving a walkway where the disc had been.
"where are we?" asked Susan
"In the corridors that run between places of this town"
"what like old mine tunnels?"
"no, but if it helps you think of it that way"

Mrs Fogarty opened a few more doorways which they walked through before they eventually came to what reminded Susan of a church.
It was a cavern with bright whitewashed walls, there was about 20 rows of seats like church pews facing a raised area

Mrs Fogarty guided Susan passed the seats, up towards a rocky area that ran the width of the cavern in front of the raised area. As they got closer Susan could hear flowing water and when they got to the rocks she realised a stream flowed through it's centre coming in from one side of the cavern and straight out the other. It was behind the rocky area, where there was actually a steep drop that must have been about 20m and just above the water a bridge appeared to be coming out of a tunnel beneath their feet and disappearing into another tunnel on the opposite side.

It's a long drop and that's where we are going. Susan peered further over the edge to see if there was some stairs or something to climb down, but it was just a sheer drop.

Mrs Fogarty chuckled, then placed her hands on two rocks, twisting them away from each other then pulling on a part of the wall. What happened next was similar to earlier, but it had a more profound mental affect on Susan, earlier the rocks rolled out in front of them, this time the lower rock face pulled away to reveal a stone edge, now Susan felt like she was looking at another TV again.

Beneath the stone was mainly wall but off to one side there was a small opening to a passageway. If Susan looked over the rock face there was the 20m drop, but beneath she could see a passageway that lead ahead to what appeared to be another bridge which should be right in front of her 20m above the one she could see.

Mrs Fogarty said to Susan that if she watched carefully she could see an amazing race of creatures in the stream below.

Susan looked down and tried her hardest to focus on the water but it was too far away, then after less than a minute she was surprised to see someone walk out onto the bridge from the opposite side, in fact she was more surprised when she realised it was Mrs Fogarty who was waving at her to come down.

So she stepped down beneath the large stone into the tunnel and soon enough there she was on the bridge looking up almost expecting to see herself looking down.
Mrs Fogarty back tracked to ensure the entrance had now closed behind them.
"where on earth are we?" she asked "there's no way we are under the streets of Millom"
"my dear girl, you have no idea!"
"these tunnels do move between certain places in town, but they go so much further" "to be honest. I don't believe we are always on earth"
Susan stopped walking for a moment and then started giggling as if laughing at a joke.
"I'm not joking with you"

At the end of the bridge Mrs Fogarty stopped and turned to Susan and said in a low voice "in the tunnel ahead you must be very quiet. You will hear voices, but do not speak, it is forbidden to speak here"
"why?" Susan asked,
Mrs Fogarty frowned at her scornfully and without speaking it Susan knew she meant SHUT UP.

Mrs Fogarty walked ahead and Susan followed,
As they entered the tunnel Susan felt like she was being swallowed through a giant’s mouth and along the way there were stone busts of heads with gaping mouths which she thought were depicting people screaming out.

As they walked further beyond the entrance the noise of the river faded into the distance and was gradually replaced by voices. They all seemed a long way away but she could hear talking in the distance.

She was disorientated as each step brought her closer to someone’s voice, yet the next step further away again, yet closer to another voice.
Every now and then she paused tilting her head to pin point the location of the sound and try to listen to the words. Most of it was in a different language and when she heard her native English she couldn't pin point its source and was distracted by yet another voice.

Mrs Fogarty reached out to assist Susan with moving forward, reluctantly she succumbed to this encouragement and found herself moving past more and more voices.

It took a short while for her to realise that the wall had narrow ledges on it and they were crammed full of stone rings
"oh my god!" she mouthed out when the penny dropped, slightly louder than it should have been.

She reached forward to pick up one of the rings but was surprised when Mrs Fogarty again reached out to her, but this time it was to stop her from reaching up to a ring. Susan glanced at Mrs Fogarty who was now shaking her head furiously at her.

Susan's curiosity was overwhelming, who did these voices belong to, were they talking to each other, what were they saying, why didn't she recognise the language of many, most of all why couldn't she speak.

“HELLO, WHO’S THERE?” Susan turned her gaze to Mrs Fogarty, her eyes set fixed open, startled, one of the voices had suddenly gotten louder and appeared to be talking to her, the voice was not a pleasant voice a hint of crazy seemed to seep though.

“I HEAR THE VOICE OF A STARTLED BITCH
THE GENTLE VOICE OF A STARTLED WITCH
BUT SHE’S GONE SILENT AND PRETENDS SHE’S GONE HOME
BUT I KNOW DIFFERENT COS I’M SANTA’S GNOME”
“HA,HA, HA, HA funny eh, do you think it’s funny? Boring twat!”

His voice had started loud but got quieter, almost distanced as if now talking to someone else with him.
His voice seemed to turn back towards her again though not as loud

“Is that Michael’s friend? I have him you know, I’ll swap you for the stone, you know the one, the one he uses to go back and back and back and back, oh yeah and back and back!

She suddenly realised that all the other rings had fallen silent, literally all of the voices had suddenly stopped and they were all waiting to hear her reply.

Because they had fallen silent, she was able to fix her gaze onto the offending ring, it was bound in a gold case like a pocket watch flipped open, she could almost see the whites of his eye trying to get a glimpse of her, then he put his mouth to the hole to speak again.

“hey baby, don’t you want to speak to good old Raul? I don’t bite, do I Michael?”
Then he started calling his name like a howling wolf “Rauuuuu ow ow auuul” “Rauuu” snap! Susan had had enough and quick as she could she snapped the case shut around the ring.

She didn’t need any prompting this time, she happily moved on, to get away from his twisted voice, the further along they went, the walls became covered in more and more elaborate and intricate art work and stone carvings, many that wouldn't look out of place in an art museum.

As they moved even further along Susan sensed a pattern, this became even clearer when a section of the art looked very familiar. The voices slowly started again, as if they felt safe or there was nothing to be nosey about, the ones she could hear now were recognisable, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and even English.

Then all of a sudden she remembered Mrs Fogarty's comment from earlier about not always being on earth and then she realised that the strange languages and unfamiliar art must be all linked.

It wasn't much further before they were out of the tunnel and stepping out into an area that was like an immaculate garden lawn, there were no weeds and the grass was short with tightly packed blades, Susan realised that the Walls and ceiling here too were white washed and there was a low rock wall straight ahead of her and the sound of a stream flowing, as she moved to the low wall she realised that she was on the raised area overlooking the pews they had passed earlier and below was the stream flowing by.

"why didn't they just build the bridge here" she said
"why build a bridge at all, is what I think you should ask" said Mrs Fogarty from behind her.
"true. Why didn't they just put magic rings between here and there?" she said nodding over to the other side.
"magic ring's, I guess to some they might be magic, but they are called 'memory stones'"
"is that what you call them?"
"dear! that's what everyone calls them!"
Susan inquisitively replied "even the voices?"
"oh yes! Even the voices"

Susan turned to try and read Mrs Fogarty's expressions, but was momentarily blinded. Her eyes had adjusted to the dim light in the tunnels and all of a sudden she realised that there was natural light beaming into the cavern.
She raised her hand to block out the light and after a few moments her eyes adjusted and she could now make out what appeared to be an opening like veranda, moving forward she found herself looking into a forest or a jungle.

Flocks of birds were flying everywhere, the tree tops were an abundance of amazing colours. There were few clouds in the sky, and they appeared to have a golden hue about them, in front of them stretched out a bridge that extended out to a platform which surrounded a tower of some kind.
"beautiful, isn't it?" said Mrs Fogarty
"where are we?" asked Susan
"we are here!" replied Mrs Fogarty
She walked to the edge of the veranda and reaching out, Susan watched as Mrs Fogarty's hand seamed to touch an almost invisible barrier.
The only thing that made it visible now was the way it reflected the images on the other side.
"what you really mean to ask, is where is there!"

Susan reached out herself to touch this barrier, it felt like some kind of membrane, it was soft and smooth, as if it was lubricated. She moved forward to try to reach a vine on the other side, moving deeper into the membrane she felt it first against her face, then even though she held her breathe she felt like she was drowning as the membrane travelled up into her nose and down her throat.
Mrs Fogarty reacted quickly to grab Susan’s arm and pull her away, coughing and spluttering, even though the membrane removed itself as she moved backwards.
"I've never seen that happen before! Well, I've never seen anyone try to reach through before either. You really are inquisitive aren't you?"

Susan was wiping her face and brushing off her clothes. But there was nothing there to brush off. "It doesn't stick to you, weird stuff; last person that touched it said it was like camel snot without the stickiness. Don't think I want to make a comparison myself"
"Oh! That's new" she said looking up over Susan’s shoulder, then walking past her to look out at the forest.

Near to where Susan had reached through, a small creature resembling a monkey had actually walked across the bridge and was peering not at them but at the membrane.
It was as if it couldn't see them but knew they were there.
Susan put her hand forward to touch the membrane and slowly moved it side to side. Both were amazed that the creatures gaze followed her hand.
"this is so cool!" she said, the creature jerked back startled as she spoke.

"that is so strange, with you touching the membrane it must allow sound to travel through, or at least some vibrations"
"I don't know, whatever it is, it's oooh!..."
Susan pulled back as the creature pushed into the membrane, it was now on the ledge by their feet.
"oh you poor thing" said Susan reaching down low to touch the membrane close to the creature, again the creature followed her hand movement. Susan laughed "it's like a monkey or a cat or something"

The creature changed its technique and placed both of its tiny hand's onto the membrane, as it gently pushed forward it soon became trapped as Susan had been.
With no assistance to pull it back, its whole body was slowly sucked between the Walls of the membrane; the creature struggled helplessly to get back out.

Susan knew how it felt to feel like you were drowning in the membrane and was overwhelmed with both guilt and panic, after all the creature was following her hand. She pushed through with her hand, up to and passed her elbow desperately trying to grab the creature. She screamed out in agony, but still she struggled against the membrane, until eventually the creature was pulled through and its body lay slumped, lifeless upon the floor. She was sobbing, "don't be such a cry baby, this is how you learn things" said Mrs Fogarty.

As Susan turned to face Mrs Fogarty, that's when Mrs Fogarty realised how badly ripped her arm was. Two of her fingers were gone and huge chunks of flesh were peeled back to reveal bone on her forearm.
"quickly - we have no time to waste now. Let me help you up" with that Mrs Fogarty tried to talk calmly to Susan
"the monkey, we can't leave it" said Susan
"Mrs Fogarty agreed and leaned Susan against what appeared to be a bird bath, "wait here" she said turning back for the creature, she returned quickly having scooped it up under one arm.
"Put your arm around me and rest it on my shoulder.

I want you to stay with me, don't pass out, now I want to take you somewhere nice. I want you to think about when you last saw your mother your real mother, just relax and focus.
Susan was light headed and wanted to sleep "my mother" she said as if drunk "my real motherrr!"
The lights went out. All of them.

As Susan woke, she felt a bit groggy, and her vision drifted in and out.
She looked at her wrinkled hands, "oh my..." she said, in a voice unfamiliar to herself "what's happened to me? Where am I?"
"Mrs Palmer, I'm so glad you are back with us"
"huh! I'm not.."
"at home!" the voice interrupted "I know Mrs Palmer, you've had such a day today, been on a trip, hurt your arm. If it wasn't for that young man calling me I don't know what state you'd be in"

Susan tried to recall a young man, but couldn't, "he is a cheeky monkey" continued the voice, "said his name was George"
The voice moved closer "if you're feeling better, I've asked one of the other nurses to escort you to the common room later"
Susan felt someone move even closer, puffing up her pillows then whispered into her ear "that's where your uncle John will be, I've put some eye drops in to make your vision blurry for a while, but they will clear soon, just imagine that your mind is in a different body, I'll explain in due time, just don't panic.

Susan closed her eyes and tried to rest for a while, every now and then she opened her eyes, before closing them again, as she could only briefly focus on close objects.

This gave her a little time to think things through; the voice said that her mind was in a different body and also associating a young man with a cheeky monkey. Susan didn't wonder if the man could be the monkey in a different body, she knew it, although she couldn't explain how she knew it. Nor could she explain why she wasn't panicking and screaming for help being sat in a hospital bed with blurred vision and wrinkled hands.

Eventually her eyes fully cleared and she could now see the young man sitting on a chair reading a book. "You waited for me" she whispered, still not used to her own voice. "and your reading a book"
The young man raised his gaze from the book smiled "yeah! Mrs Thompson thought i'd find it interesting" "Mrs Thompson?" Replied Susan
"the lady who spoke to you earlier!"
"oh! that lady" "so your George then"

Their chat doesn't last very long before George offers to take Susan or rather Mrs Palmer into the day room where she can chat with her uncle John

"Hello, Mrs Palmer is it" called out uncle John, cheerfully, then a little quieter as If no one could hear but her "Mrs Fogarty is very good at this type of thing" "if only we'd known each other when we were younger!" his last comment came with a sly look of mischief.
"uncle John!" she said.
"Shh! John, he said, just call me John, we don't want to draw any unnecessary attention"

"so! I guess you have a few questions"
"yes.."
"but you'll have to wait a while" he interrupted.
"well, at least until I've told you a few things"

"this whole thing is about the memory stones, or rather one memory stone in particular.
You see, we don't know where they came from or whether we are using them right."

"what we do know is that they are very useful and they make our own world look very small and insignificant”

To be continued...