“I will work on Elise. I’ll get the book Ama started and teach her about us.”
“Thanks, Lilly, that’s a great idea. We all could try to talk to her. I swear she heard Maddie whispering about the tree when we arrived. That’s a promising beginning.”
“I’ll look in the house for clues of the past and see what the kids remember of our early life. They’ve been attached to Miss Marple. Is there any chance to contact her?”
“Perfect Ama, I know you’ll be careful not to push the kids too far. Maybe Lilly can ring Charlotte and see if she’ll work via Skype with us.”
“I’ll search the grounds for clues. I could also look for the white house behind the wall Maddie saw in her flashback.”
“Brilliant, Luke. The doll might not be the only reminder of our time here.”
“Don’t forget Auntie Amanda’s diary. We could look for information there,” Ama said and turned to the fireplace, dispersing the last bits of glowing embers.
“I’ll help Phoenix making sure we are safe here and keeping an eye on this Scottie guy. We could build a few booby traps that warn us in case someone approaches.”
“That’s a good idea. Having more security around the place would be a great relief, Amadeus.”
“We can search the internet for information. I’ve bought a USB WIFI connection; we are online again. Maybe we can find stuff from the eighties and early nineties that helps us further.” I have little hope of finding old documents that help us further, but at least I can keep an eye out for what Helen is up to.
“I thought you and Lizette would be right for that kind of research.” Sky turned to Lizette and me. “We all have to put whatever we find onto paper, so everyone knows what we discover. Lizette, you can then take things a step further and search for more information online.”
Ama got up and put a stop to the conversation. “I see everyone is tired. This was a good session. Looks like we have a long to-do list.
Chapter Fourteen
Elise: 20 November 2015, Afternoon, Wright’s Homestead
Prince has his head tipped to the side and looks at me as if to say, “What’s the matter with you?”
Why wouldn’t he be puzzled? I’m puzzled about my life and me all the time. By the position of the sun, it must be past midday. What happened to my morning? Where did the time go? Prince licks my left hand, which reminds me of getting my hand squashed in the back door. A throbbing pain shoots up my arm accompanying that memory.
I don’t have a watch, only the time on my mobile phone. I try not to look at it because it upsets me when I see how much time has passed without me knowing what went on. Anyhow, I haven’t seen my phone since the funeral.
It might seem important for other people to know what time it is. It never has been for me. Heaven only knows how I showed up on time for classes when I was at school. But I always did.
“There is no clearer sign of a person being not right in the head,” Helen used to point out, “than looking at your watch and wondering where you have been the last four hours or what you’ve been doing.”
She’s right, of course. Although, for me it just was. I knew no different. Time was a concept that held no meaning for me. For all I know, I could have robbed a bank, or killed the Prime Minister. The good news is the Prime Minister lives in Wellington and doesn’t hang out in a small town on the West Coast. Unless there is a mining accident and he/she can use this as a photo opportunity and say, “I’m sorry for your losses.”
Charlotte told me when I lose time and have no recollection of what happened, it doesn’t mean I have a bad memory or short attention span. According to her another part of me is taking control of the body and does things like cooking or driving somewhere.
I mean how can one lose time? It’s not that I wear time like a bracelet on my wrist or keep it with my coins in my purse. How can you lose it? That’s crazy stuff. I wanted to tell her I don’t care what she thinks. This ‘having parts’ thing… I don’t care about it. I didn’t ask for it. And sure as the sun rises in the morning, I don’t like having it.
I wanted Charlotte to help me get rid of whoever lives inside me like a parasite. I wasn’t going to co-operate in her crazy plan to make them my friends. Of course, I didn’t tell her that, I only thought it. It’s unkind and ungrateful to contradict someone who wants nothing but to help you.
She never understood why I don’t need friends. What would I do with them? Drinking endless cups of coffee or having a night out in town? That’s not my thing. I never had friends and never saw a need for them. When someone calls for Elizabeth Reid, I answer, even though I don’t like that name and wish people would call me Elise. I answer, and not some other internal Tom, Diane, or Harry. It’s my body, my life, so go away and leave me alone.
I did everything to get rid of them; even taking the pesky pills Helen gave me to make the voices go away. It didn’t work. I’m running out of ideas and out of patience. Even jumping off a chair repetitively for about an hour in the hope these parts, these invaders, would fall out of my body didn’t
