A shudder ran down my spine. I stopped, unable to move. As my eyes desperately tried to focus on the figure, the light became so dim that the only way I could see better was to move closer to the sofa. I felt my foot move forward and as I did so the figure started to fade until it disappeared. My comic fluttered on to the sofa and I felt alone. I let my breath out and felt light-headed. I reached down, picked up my magazine and slumped down where the figure had been.
I rubbed my eyes. The light was dim up here. I must be seeing things. The wind was whistling through the gaps in the window. That must have been what moved the pages of my Girl Talk. That could be an explanation, I knew that.
“Is there anyone there?” I whispered, hoping I wouldn’t get an answer and yet wishing in a strange way, I did.
But nothing happened. Whoever it was did not return. A terrifying feeling of loneliness came over me. The figure had stared at me. The eyes seem to stare through me but the most worrying part was those eyes were blue like mine. But they were lifeless. Pleading. Desperate. Sad. The more I thought about the figure, the more I realised that it looked like me. It was like looking at me in the mirror, and yet it wasn’t me. Obviously, it can’t be me. The figure was dressed all in white.
Suddenly I felt cold and I started to shiver. A feeling of absolute terror wafted over me like a wave and all I could think of doing was getting downstairs to my room and to safety. I backed towards the hatch slowly, slowly. Sudden movements might make the vision reappear. My heart was thumping in my chest. My mouth was dry. I stumbled over a pile of shoes, turned and as quickly as I could, I climbed down into my room. Relieved that I had escaped; my heart stopped pounding.
When odd things happen, there could always be an explanation. Aunty M and granny made sense about the noises I heard, but this time, I really did think I saw a girl. I think I saw a ghost. The ghost looked like me and may have wanted to make contact with me, but for whatever reason this evening was not the right time. Omigod. The realisation of what I was thinking was really scary. I would have to wait until she felt she was ready to trust me or get to know me better. Well, she would need to know that I wouldn’t scream and run or rush off to tell Aunty M or granny. She needed to become my friend.
That night, I kept waking up thinking I could hear noises. At one stage I actually thought I saw a ghostly figure standing at the foot of my bed. I opened my eyes and rubbed them, but there was nothing there. There were no strange noises because the wind had dropped. Even the curtains didn’t twitch.
In the morning, I jumped out of bed and tripped over my rucksack. I hadn’t put it there. It had been moved from the bottom of the wardrobe. It must be a sign that she was trying to contact me again. I went down to the kitchen.
“Good morning Aunty M. How are you?”
“You’re very chirpy today. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes I did,” I lied not wanting Aunty M to become suspicious. “What are we doing today?”
“I must pop into town today to get some paints and paper. I need to get some serious painting done as four of my pictures have just been sold and I need to replace them. I wondered if you would like to visit Sam, the girl you helped rescue, at the hospital. We could ‘kill two birds with one stone’ as they say.”
“I’d like to do that. I’d like to meet her. I think she’s a bit older than me and it would be good to have someone to chat to so I don’t have to keep bothering you,” I replied.
“Florence, you could never be a bother to me you know that.”
Aunty M put on her helmet and goggles. We got into the car and off we roared. Travelling in a car with the hood down is one way of getting your hair full of knots. My hair blew forwards, backwards, up and down and twisted itself around and around and by the time we got to town, I looked like one of those monsters in my Latin text book. I could just imagine my Mum’s face if she could see me now, and it wouldn’t be pleasant for her or me. Now I knew why Aunty M wore the helmet.
After we bought her painting stuff, we set off to the hospital. It was a quaint building. It looked more like a pub than a hospital.
“Could you please let us know where we could find Sam Finn?” Aunty M asked the receptionist.
“Yes, she’s in room number 7. Down the corridor and turn right,” replied the receptionist. She smiled and we said our thank yous.
Sam was in the bed by the window. She turned around to look at us. She looked about my age with very short dark hair. She was covered in brown freckles and had a big wide smile.
“Hello, are you Sam?” I asked.
“Yes,” came the reply, “Hi, there. Are you Florence?”
“Yes I am. This is my aunt. Aunty Marmalade.”
“How do you do?”
“We were coming into town anyway and we thought you wouldn’t mind if we popped in to see you,” said Aunty M.
I handed Sam a huge bar of chocolate that I bought her. Aunty M said she would probably prefer it to grapes.
‘No, it’s great to meet you and it gives me a chance to say thanks for what you did for me. I’ve been sailing for ages but that day, the sea was quite rough and I just lost control of my dinghy. It was the first time it happened to me. I don’t know what would have happened to me if you hadn’t been there.”
“When are you going home?” I asked.
“Tomorrow. I can’t wait. The food in here is awful and there’s nothing wrong with me. They just wanted me to stay in for a few days ‘under observation’ they said.”
“Would you like to come over for tea when you feel up to it?” I asked.
“Yes I would. Where do you live?” asked Sam.
“I’m staying at Apple Jack’s Cottage.”
“I only live about five minutes walk from you. I’ll come over on Thursday then about four?”
“Great,” I said. ‘See you then.’
“Thanks, Florence. Nice to meet you Aunty M.”
“You too, Sam” Aunty M and I replied together.
We left and headed down the corridor.
“What a lovely girl she is,” said Aunty M, “she must live further down the coast road from us.”
“Yes she is nice. How old do you think she is?”
“No older than you I would say maybe eleven or twelve. You’ll probably become firm friends. Then whenever you come to stay you can catch up with each other,” suggested Aunty M.
“Yes,” I replied enthusiastically. I was really looking forward to Thursday. It seemed ages since I had chatted to someone my age. Not that mattered. I’d had plenty of excitement since I came to stay.