'Invisible Friends'

The Family

Lucy's parents had purchased their house when it was new, and it had been her father's ambition to own it from the moment the plans had been released. He was a local lad who had been brought up on the nearby council estate, and it was assumed that ownership of the house was a measure of his personal achievement. The year she was born had seen one of the hottest summers on record, and it had proven to be a wonderful pregnancy for her Mum. However, when it was time for her birth, a hard winter had set in, and this unforeseen circumstance resulted in Lucy being born at home. The house was perfect for a young family, and Lucy grew up to love her home and the friends she'd made. The older she became, the more time she spent talking and playing with them in her room. Initially, her parents were concerned, but after long discussions with their family and trusted friends, they'd been reassured that it was perfectly natural for a child of her age to have 'Invisible Friends'.

'My Treasure'

Dave Junior

I loved my marbles and treasured the 'Giant-Bloody', won following a titanic battle with my nemesis Pearcy, which at that point had been the highlight of the summer break. Pearcy, was recognised as the local wizard, and like magic, he dispatched the marbles so smoothly from his fingers that they appeared to be made of silk. We had been vying for supremacy in the local gutters for weeks, we battled on as the summer storms raged. The rain poured, and the gutters flooded, but even though soaked to our skin we persisted, with neither of us prepared to show a weakness. Nevertheless, even though I fought on with dogged determination during the torrents, his superiority showed, and he slowly ate into my cache. He was sensing victory and with a confidence verging on arrogance he raised the ante, challenging me to a final winner takes all face-off at the Double-Cross. This was probably another manifestation of his growing arrogance, which seemed like stupidity to me, in fact it verged on lunacy, when you consider he had far more to lose than me. The Double-Cross was no more than a pair of cast-iron manhole-covers, sat at the heart of the crossroads where Cranmore Crescent, Charfield and Coleford Roads intersected. Before the match, as was the tradition we ritually ringed the manhole with our cache of marbles. Pearcy, being the challenger, laid his marbles out first and the display was impressive, he ringed the manhole numerous times before placing his treasured 'Giant-Bloody' at the head of the spiral. As he laid it down the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, sending a shiver down my spine, it was awe-inspiring, and you could sense the crowd gasping for breath. It felt like the world had stopped spinning, and that time had slowed down, making it feel like an eternity before it was my turn, but when it came it was a little short of embarrassing, as I barely had enough marbles to create half a ring, which was made to look worse as mine was placed outside of his. The game started with Pearcy removing enough marbles into a separate pool to match my stake, and it wasn't long before I had even fewer. The first to go was my 'Green Pea', quickly followed by my 'Lemon Squeeze', and that hurt. It was turning into a rout, as marble after marble increased the size of his ring. Even in those days of light traffic this was not the safest of places to play and furthermore, any miss fortune caused by passing traffic was considered in play. Because of this ruling, when traffic passed, you were not allowed to remove any marbles on the ground, as they were deemed in play. Luck was on my side that day, nearing the end of a crushing defeat I held my last marble in my hand ready to play. Just as I leant forward to release it, one of the local Council's Road Sweeper's bore down on the crossroads. We were completely unaware of its approach, until at the last moment the crowd moved aside, to allow it through. For Percy, this was a disaster, whilst trundling past it swept up every marble, with the exception of his prized 'Giant-Bloody'. At first, we stood there aghast, looking at each other, and then at the solitary, but magnificent 'Giant-Bloody', still trembling on the cast-iron manhole-cover, as the road sweeper rumbled on by. There were no words to express what had happened, none of the crowd, children, parents or old-timers, who'd gathered to watch, moved or spoke. When we walked back into the 'Double Cross', it was in silence, and as we moved forward, our eyes remained focused on the 'Giant Bloody', now frozen on the manhole. When we neared the marble, he moved to pick it up, but with a rather wry smile on my face, I opened my hand to reveal my last marble, a frosty, motley and miss shaped 'Gobbie'. The look of devastation on his face revealed everything, for no matter the outcome, he was going to be the looser. I lowered myself to one knee and pointed my 'Gobbie' toward 'Home', the access keyhole at the centre of the manhole. The sad, miss shaped marble rolled from my fingers, and began its rambling journey by wobbling from side to side, and bumping indeterminately off the manhole's castellated protrusions. After what seemed like an eternity it miraculously found its way 'Home', and with great pleasure I assumed ownership of my booty, a 'Treasure' that I'd planned to honour, and gloat about for as long as possible, but to my great sadness, within days 'My Treasure' was lost, and nowhere to be found.

Apart from my day at the 'Double Cross', the summer break hadn't been particularly inspiring, my leadership of the 'Ragged Ass Rangers' had been at best less than average, that was not acceptable.

It was the first week of September 1962, a special week in any child's calendar, a week that must be cherished above all other weeks of the year, perhaps with the exception, of Christmas.

This was because only a few days remained until our scheduled return to school after the summer break. In every child, there is an indefinable need to do something exciting and memorable, providing something to talk about on our return to captivity, relieving us of the boring humdrum of the curriculum. We the 'Ragged Ass Rangers', the lower end of the social order, didn't have the wonders of summer holidays to share with our peers, as we rarely had the opportunity to travel beyond the Estate's boundaries.

'Colin'

Lucy

Colin was great fun, he and Lucy spent hour after hour running through the seemingly endless grounds of the Manor House. There appeared no limit to the games and the boundless excitement they shared, she grew to love and trust him implicitly. No matter what, he was always there when she called, she never had to wait, with just a whisper and he would appear beside her.

'The Shilling'

Dave Junior

For the unwashed and unwelcome 'Ragged Ass Ranger' there were no prolonged trips to some magnificent coast or the adventure of sailing to the Isle of White. If you were extremely lucky the climax of your holiday was a day's outing with the local Baptist Church to the Seaside, but only if your parents could afford the shilling it cost. However, even that was for just a few, so we had to be tenacious, resourceful and create our own adventures, by exploiting the unknown at Estate's boundaries. Time was running away from us, we had to do it quickly, we had to do something unbelievably amazing, and beyond the reach of the posh kids limited imagination. We would go to any lengths to meet with our expectation, to make them envy our holiday in the rough.

'Infectious'

Lucy

"Come on Lucy, catch me if you can!"

Colin shouted teasingly as he charged off through the orchard, dodging behind one tree, only to magically appear from behind another, holding a rosy red apple or maybe a sweet juicy plum. She could not resist his infectious smile, which brought an inexplicable feeling of joy to her tummy.

'The Haunted Manor House'

Dave Junior  

We all knew there was an old Manor House, beyond the wall, beyond the magic garden, beyond the orchard, beyond the golf course, and beyond the fields in a place where those with any common sense feared to tread. That was our target, an adrenalin junkie's holiday, a nerve-jangling visit to the haunted Manor House.

'The Promise'

Lucy

Today was to be a new adventure, he'd often talked of the magical place beyond the orchard, and at last, he'd promised to take me there. I tingled with excitement as he held my hand, and it felt like we were flying as we whizzed around the lakes, in and out of the trees, over fallen branches and brambles. We were stopped as we found ourselves before a high wall, which towered over us, and stretched from one end of the orchard to the other. But, there was no stopping us, and soon we were attempting to scale the high walls of the magic garden, it was so high that we had to use a nearby Cedar tree, jumping from branch to branch as if they were steps, and then skipped along a branch that reached up and over the wall.

We sprang from the branch onto the wall, from where we could see the exquisite garden set out before us, at its heart was the most intricate and fascinating circular maze, cut from shrubs bursting with beautiful flowers. To get there we ran excitedly, weaving our way along the wall's capping stones, until we reached the far corner, but even here we were still a long way from the ground. He was so brave.

'Trust me' he said.

Grabbing me by the hand he launched us into the air where with arms outstretched we spun around in dizzy circles until the world was a swirling haze around us, we finally landed with a huge puff and a cloud of dust on the hay pile. We rolled giddily around in the hay, play fighting, we threw huge armfuls of hay and straw at each other, until our laughter turned to tears of joy. The moment ended with us hugging each other in sheer delight, we must have looked like little scarecrows, with our hair spiked with bits of hay and straw.

'Not so Lucky'

Dave Junior  

The Manor was shrouded in mystery, burnt out in many of its rooms, by a fire so fierce that it was rumoured to have taken the lives of the family, who were not so lucky to have lived here. The Manor was bordered by intimidating, high walls and a huge lake. The terrace was huge and covered by exquisite flagstones with elegant steps leading to a luscious Croquet Lawn, which appeared to flow into the lake. It didn't take much imagination to picture the landed gentry, dressed in all their finery with the ladies in frilly frocks, playing Croquet and sipping on iced lemonade, whilst the Lord of the Manor sat back in his chair, puffing away on a hand rolled Havana cigar.

'The Sequoia'

Lucy

Today was an unusual day! It was more about performance for Colin who danced like an elf, shadow boxing at the foot of an enormous and ancient Sequoia tree, punching away frantically at its bark. He was electrifying to watch, as he floated back and forth gradually circling the tree, his feet never seemed to touch the ground. It was a tree, just like the one at the edge of our garden, with that sponge-like bark, that you could squeeze with your fingers or punch without pain. I could sense that his mood was a little greyer than normal, not unlike the colour of the Manor House wall that stood behind him, where the shadows of dusk were falling.

'The Magic Garden'

Dave Junior  

We chose our time well, it had to be just before dusk to maximize the fear factor, we approached the Manor house via the 'Magic Garden', through the cover of the huge Cedar trees that blanketed the pathways. Clambering over the Cedars huge branches, each of us ritually punched the trunk of the tree with soft bark, before scaling the tall grey walls which surrounded an overgrown courtyard. Once we were safely on top of the wall, we dropped down the other side into the shadow of the walled courtyard. We were immediately taken back by the cold, dark, damp and sinister atmosphere that enveloped us. Our freewheeling journey had now become more of a stumble, as gingerly we navigated our way through the unfriendly undergrowth. The crawling roots had uplifted much of the courtyards cobbled surface, making it even more difficult to walk, but unperturbed we battled our way toward our planned point of entry, what was most likely the Manor's original service entrance.

An appropriate entrance for the 'Ragged Ass Rangers'.

'The Stampede'

Lucy

"Colin, do we really have to go in here; I don't like it at all, it's so dark, damp and unfriendly?"

"I can barely make out where we are going, these loose stones are difficult to walk on, the long grass is cold and wet, and the bramble barbs are scratching my legs".

But, before he could reply the dark silence is shattered as the air is filled with shrill screams and the sound of frightened voices, emitted by some panic-stricken young boys. I was just as terrified, and Colin grabbed my hand in reassurance, when from out of nowhere the group of terrified boys came blundering through the undergrowth as if pursued by the devil himself. I jumped into Colin's arms for protection, trying to avoid the largest boy leading the stampede, but to my surprise he ran straight through me, as if I wasn't there, all I felt was a chill tingle sweeping through me. In all our play together, we'd never got this close before. He hugged me so tightly, I could feel him trembling, and when our faces touched I felt the warmth of the tears that trickled from his eyes and sensed a deep lonely sadness I hadn't felt before.

'Dark Silence'

Dave Junior  

All the doors and windows were boarded up, so we shimmied up a drainpipe and entered via a gap in the broken boarding of a small upstairs toilet window, which led us to the first-floor landing. Once inside we were surrounded by a dark silence and unable to see. In the pitch black we had to use our other senses, it felt mouldy and smelt of dampened fire, and the air was so thick it congested your breathing. Eventually we were able to see, but only with the aid of the narrow shafts of twilight cast from the boarded windows. Meekly and tentatively we made our way through the desecrated interior and felt our way to the lower floor, from where we descended in complete darkness to what we called the dungeons via a narrow spiral staircase. By this time, we were filthy, where the ashen banisters and door frames had left charcoal streaks on our clothing and exposed body parts. It was now getting very tense as the only light came in via the cast iron grids of the courtyard paving. It was also becoming obvious that some of the lads were clearly too young to be doing this, the tension and anticipation were becoming too much for them to bear. When suddenly, one of the youngest started to panic, screaming out in horror that a wet slimy hand had grabbed his leg. The fear and confusion quickly escalated, and swept through the younger lads like a wave, and washed into the minds of the older boys, who drowned in thoughts of demons, and chaos reigned. The dark silence was shattered as the air filled with shrill screams and the sound of frightened voices, they turned and fled from the Manor, with me in hot pursuit and way too frightened to look back over my shoulder.

'Don't Leave Me'

Lucy

Cradled in Colin's arms I turned my head to see the boys clambering up the wall, and watched as their silhouetted shapes disappear, and only the frame of the largest boy paused, seeking to ensure no one was left behind.

Letting go of me quite suddenly, Colin began to wave his arms frantically, and called out in vain, "Dave, Dave, please, please don't leave me again!"

But sadly, his plea went unheard as the ghostly figure of his brother disappears. There was nothing I could do to help, and the sight of his unanswered and heartrending plea just made me cry.

'Missing'

Dave Junior  

In the panic that ensued, it was each to their own, we fled into the garden, by window, by drainpipe or by door, we stumbled and fell, as we charged through the unpredictable undergrowth.

Amid all the shouting and screaming, I'm sure I'd heard a heavy splash and stopped to look back to make sure that all the lads had made it safely up and over the wall. I was relieved to see that the courtyard was empty, and it wasn't until reaching the safety of the Golf Course that we realized Colin was not with us anymore.

'Rising Damp'

Lucy

My room had often felt cold and damp, Daddy always said it was because the bungalow had been built over an old wishing well. Every time he said this Mummy had a little chuckle to herself and gave Daddy one of those looks and said.

"Stop trying to scare the poor girl and turn the heating up, before she catches a cold".

It was at this time of year when I first met Colin, as he rose up through my bedroom floor, like rising damp, dripping wet and forlorn. At first, I watched him as he floated aimlessly around my room, muttering away to himself. He seemed oblivious to my presence, which made it even more scary than it needed to have been, so it took me quite a while to gather the courage I needed to speak with him. So, when convinced he was not a threat, but still with little confidence, I reassured myself it was safe to speak, and asked what seemed like a sensible question.

"Would you like a towel to wipe yourself, rather than drip water all over my bedroom floor?"

I guess it seems strange, but I scared him, I scared a ghost!

In fact, I scared him so much he leaped full across the room, and by the time he'd recovered his composure, I was holding out a warm dry towel.

Recovering his composure quickly, he looked at me with a rather quirky smile on his face and accepted my offer. I think this was because he expected the towel to pass right through him and shock me.

What a surprise he got, when I gently wrapped the towel around his shoulders, before carefully sweeping his shiny, wet black hair back from his face.

However, today as I ran into the garden to meet Colin, I found him watching Daddy, he was wearing the saddest of faces.

Daddy had been shadowboxing with the Old Sequoia tree at the bottom of the garden, and now exhausted he rested against its trunk, with tears rolling down his cheeks.

Colin turned to me slowly and said.

"Lucy, you know after all these years he still blames himself for my death, he needs to be released from his vigil.

"I need you to give him a message from me, or I'm afraid he's going to stay here watching over me until his last day comes."

"He probably won't believe you, so I want you to do exactly as I say, and held my hand tightly, making sure I listened carefully."

I spoke a little too loudly.

"Colin, I don't know if I can do it!"

The mention of Colin's name, seemed to startle Daddy, who'd not realized I was in the garden and he quickly tried to hide his tears.

Smiling at me as only your Daddy can, he asked.

"Did I hear you say, Colin?"

My heart was racing, as I nervously looked back and forth between Colin and Daddy, unsure of what to do or say.

Sensing my nervousness, Colin urged me to speak up.

"Come on Lucy, please tell him."

Reluctantly and sheepishly I started to tell Daddy, what Colin had said.

"Daddy?"

"Yes Baby?"

"Colin asked me to tell you that he never blamed you, and nor should you!"

Daddy replied softly.

"Baby, you shouldn't spend so much time with your imaginary friends...

But, as I opened my hand, to reveal his 'Treasure', he stopped abruptly, astonished and lost for words, allowing me to continue.

"He also asked me to tell you that he is sorry, and that I was to give you back Pearcy's 'Giant-Bloody'."

Now aghast, he reached out and cautiously touched the marble with his fingertips, and rolled it gently about my palm, as if it was a precious gem. A few breath-taking moments passed before he carefully picked it up between thumb and forefinger, to examine it more closely. A smile, beaming with childish delight leapt from his face, when realising his 'Treasure' had been returned. His relief was obvious, and now freed from his parental pride, what were now tears of joy flooded from his eyes. Looking back toward the place where he'd seen me speaking with Colin, he tried to speak but was only able to raise these three words.

"Thank You Bro".

THE END