27
The café was fairly quiet. Occasionally a raised voice and a clattering of cutlery from the kitchen pierced the ambience, but the place harboured a sombre atmosphere, and provided students with a welcome relief from studying and classes.
Yet, the only students in there, Melissa Callum, Jane Fielding, Adam Leonard, and Stuart Harper, were rather anxious about their group project. Jane and Adam both had steaming cups of coffee before them.
“Right, OK, this seems to be the only thing we’ve got so far,” said Adam, holding up a folder containing the project brief and details of their chosen subject. Their project was to make a ten minute documentary on any topic. They had chosen ghosts, and had printed from the internet, details of an urban farm, four miles away which had a reputation for being haunted. Ted Lester had owned the farm, and ran it single-handedly. He had been 57, and had not given retirement any consideration at all.
Sometimes he accepted youths from government schemes on work experience over winter, but most of the time he liked to keep the wheels oiled and turning himself. There were not many animals kept. There were a few chickens, two horses, several pigs, and four goats that made up the inhabitants. For 19 years he had kept order, and enjoyed his little urban outcrop on the fringe of Rainhill until 1979. The nearest bus stopped half a mile away, and it was not signposted.
He never appreciated too many visitors, and those that he did have had not been searching for it. A lot of them were ramblers coming into the town from their walks, and spotted the farm on the way. It was when he received a letter from the local council stating that a dual-carriageway was to be built in its path, that he decided to sell all of his livestock and fight the battle against what the committee had called ‘progress’. Ted had simply called it ‘pollution’.
Chartered surveyors and architects had to bring police with them when they inspected the site, as while Ted always preferred negotiation to violence, he thought he was justified in nearly breaking the jaw of one of the surveyors when they had first examined the site. Basically, Ted had thought that no matter how intelligent and diplomatic a person, there came a time when a simple strike to the jaw was reasonable. Bureaucratic red tape had meant that Ted was not entitled to sell the farm, as it had never technically been his.
Deals were not finalised when the place was built, and Ted had lived there rent free, but never the actual owner. It meant the council could repossess the property and basically evict Ted, giving him no alternative accommodation. It did not matter to them where he went, or what he did.
Ted knew that if they got their way, he would be homeless. He didn’t have any kin, or any real friends who could even let him stay until suitable accommodation arose. When the vehicles came to flatten the farm, Ted had picked up a pitchfork and chased one of the workers. The man had left his lorry and ran into a hay-barn, next to the stables, in panic. He had left the handbrake off, and while Ted followed the man into the shelter, the vehicle gathered speed on a gradual incline. All Ted saw was fury. Everything around him was shut out.
The scared, cowering man had become even more terrified when a shadow had fallen over them. He pointed and screamed for him to look out, but Ted realised too late. The huge machine had crushed him beneath its wheels. The worker pressing himself against bales of hay as the vehicle had thundered past, crashing through the wall, to gradually come to a halt in the field.
Despite Ted’s demise, the only damage done to the farm was that done by the lorry. Funding for the project had been cut, and it meant that the dual-carriageway would never be built. In the story, as the students understood it, people that went there were soon leaving, as Ted’s ghost soon haunted them into leaving. He believed they had come to take his home away from him, and was also bitter about dying for nothing. The farm was now derelict, home to rodents and insects, his company.
The students were to try and film the spirit and basically establish whether or not there was any truth regarding the activity of any supernatural occurrences. Any evidence at all that they deemed to be mysterious, and unanswerable by logical means, meant that they would have to give serious consideration to any implications and connotations of the reality of the paranormal as they saw it, and record any deductions and conclusions they would reach in their documentary.
“How are you getting on with the equipment?” Melissa asked Stuart.
“Well, I’ve got two digital video cameras, a Geiger counter, and a Gauss Master,” “A what?” asked Adam.
“A Gauss Master. It detects energy levels around it, and makes a noise when it fluctuates.
I got it second hand in a market. Tenner, which I think was a bargain”.
“That’s it then,” said Jane. “If we’re starting this tomorrow, then surely we’re going to need more than that”. Jane was 24, had red hair, was small and thin, and wore no make-up or cosmetics that could have enhanced her looks. She even ‘dressed down’.
“What happened to that psychic we were going to ask?” asked Melissa. Nobody answered. They hadn’t given it serious thought.
“He could help us a great deal. If we have a genuine psychic there, then it may boost our marks”. Melissa was 27, tall, had dark brown wavy hair, and wore a stretch trouser suit. “Let’s just see how things go for now,” said Adam. “We might require his services if it all screws up”. Adam was 31, slightly overweight, wore thick rimmed glasses, and most of the time wore different shades of green.
“We still need to finalise exactly how much we are going to film, and what exactly we’re going to say,” said Jane, “ So I’ve written a few notes down in case you may want to say them in the event of the ghost not showing up. ‘Cos if it turns up, then that’d be great, we’ll have our doc”. She rummaged in her bag and brought out a notebook, flipped it open and rifled through the pages until she had found what she was looking for.
“Here we are. This is not like a script or anything. Say it however you like: ‘With the popularity of this place as what can be called a haunting ground, I believe that there has to be some truth in it. Not everybody can see the same apparition without it being based in reality. Therefore, the spirit of Ted Lester must still be here. Not all believers can be wrong’. There what d’you reckon?” Melissa shrugged.
“That’s a concluding statement isn’t it? I suppose I could say that, but obviously nearer the time it comes to say it, it might change”. Jane nodded. None of them noticed Anthony approaching. They all looked up when he loomed over them.
“Hi,” he said, a little nervously. Being around females was never a strong point of his. “How’s the project going?”
“Not very good,” said Stuart, “We haven’t got much equipment. We don’t really know how we’re going to go about it. I think most of it’s going to be improv, but we’ll just have to see how it goes. We could do with the ghost showing up”. Anthony was holding a newspaper, folded to a specific page. Placing it on the table, he pointed to the article.
“It’s that psychic you were going to ring. Five in a row now. He must have genuine ability, and look, there’s his number. Anyway, hope you get on alright, see you later”. He then turned and wandered away to the entrance.
In the foyer, Tom was waiting for Anthony while he gave the students the newspaper. Anthony crossed to a confectionary vending machine near the main entrance. He slotted in a few coins and waited for the spindle to drop his bar of chocolate.
“So how long do you think Ryvak will stay open?” Anthony asked. Tom looked deep in thought.
“I dunno. I’m hopin’ that it will close before any animals are brought in. Imagine their faces if they realised where their money is actually going”.
“So you’re definitely still going to close it?” Tom nodded.
“Absolutely. It’s my moral obligation. The money will be distributed to those charities until it closes”. Anthony retrieved his chocolate bar, and ate it as they both walked out of the building into a sunny morning.