The room gradually came back into view. Had he been asleep? The sound of the needle repeatedly travelling over the innermost groove of his record helped him return to a state of wakefulness; he needed to return the record to its sleeve. As he eased himself from his armchair, he found he had the memory that another noise had roused him from his dozing, that of someone knocking on his door; he was not sure if it was quite real. Still more than a little drowsy, he opened the door to find Brenden frozen in a position of indecision, with his half-clenched fist hanging in the air between his chest and the door.
“Brenden,” croaked Adam, “is it not a little late?”
“Sorry,” replied Brenden as he dropped his arm to his side and his chin to his chest. “I just wanted to ask about something, if that’s okay.”
“Of course, come in, come in,” said Adam as he moved over to attend to the still rotating turntable. “What is it that brings you to my office so late?”
“Is it too late? It’s only nine thirty.”
“Ah, really? I think I must have lost track of the time. But if there’s still a little evening left, then I’m glad. Even when someone believes they may have many days to come, it is important to recognise the importance and pleasure of possessing the passing day.”
Adam grunted to himself. “Forgive me, Brenden, I must have dozed off and I’m not sure I’ve quite woken up. What is that you wanted to ask me about?”
“It’s about the tunnels.”
“What about them?”
“I don’t know, I guess. It’s just that you’ve talked about them a bit, but I’m still not sure, you know. I mean, what are they really like?”
Adam paused for a moment, the image of Ms Halford appearing in his mind’s eye.
“As much as I’d like to inform you about the ins and outs of the place, I think it would be misleading of me to do so. You see, as much as I have my concerns about the living world out there, my retreat has been here in this school for many decades now. Few have been down into the Tunnels - and when I say down, I mean that they have truly lived there - and returned. It’s just not how things have been done, mainly due to the difficulty of the decision and its consequences.
“I’ve heard that quite a number fear that even a brief journey back up here may draw them to stay, even though they know this world will only reject them once more. They also worry about the problem that if they come back, they have no place to live, no money to start life anew. The property they had when alive would have been passed on long before and the school always insists that it cannot help those who return: it just about manages to support those who reside here as it is. Then, there are the other poor souls who never venture out again owing to what the unfortunate circumstances of their demise has done to them. You may have seen a few such poor souls in your time here.”
“Then what can I do?” replied Brenden with a hint of desperation in his voice.
“This might seem strange a strange suggestion, but there is one person who I think will give you more informed and honest answers about the Tunnels than anyone else I know: Ms Halford.”
“But she told me it would be better for me see the world out there. And, I don’t know if…”
“I know,” said Adam as softly as he could, “but just ask her. If you do, and you still have more questions, come back to me again and, I assure you, I will do everything I can to help you. I think, though, she might just surprise you.”
***
It was already eleven o’clock in the morning and up to that point, Amanda had achieved nothing. It was unusual for her to procrastinate, but she was unsure when to return to Mary’s and she had also wasted more time than she was happy about running over the unsatisfying conversation she had had with the deputy the night before after returning to her hotel. She had thought that the man would have been interested to hear of the events at Mary’s as she believed they suggested that her investigations had finally led to something, even if she was not quite sure what it was. However, his response indicated to her that he was hardly concerned at all about the events at Mary’s as he had greeted most of what she told him with silence, and went on not to comment on the events at all once she was finished. At the end of the call, the deputy just told her to keep him informed. After he had hung up, she realised that she had not even told the man that she had been to see Caroline, nor had she asked any of the questions she had wanted to put to the deputy about Mary, such as whether it was possible that someone could be persecuting Mary or if there could be any reasonable explanation for the woman’s strange behaviour in being so adamant in not allowing Amanda to see her bathroom.
The low murmur of a vacuum cleaner down the hall distracted Amanda from her thoughts of what to do next and she automatically slipped off the crumpled mess of sheets of her bed to check if she had locked the door. After finally putting on her jeans and jacket, she decided this time she would call ahead to
