6
The Abandoned House
Three days later Mattie unbeknown to me had snuck out of physio while Pat was in the lavatory, he wanted to join me on my quest. We then had to persuade the other nurses that I needed to go over to Westfield, a separate building close to the abandoned house which was mainly used for admin. I tried everything from needing to see a doctor because I had a cold. The nurses knew I was trying to pull a fast one; the symptoms I described sounded more like I was dying from the bubonic plague. So instead I asked if I could go over to the fields near Westfield to look at and draw the horses. That seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately Danielle seemed to get the wrong end of the stick, saying that she wanted to see the horses too, so I had no choice but to go with her, with Mattie following close behind. We were just about to make our escape, when from over our shoulder we heard Sarah, our main nurse shout out our names. We froze, glancing at each other in disbelief.
“And where do you think you lot are going?” she demanded.
“We’re heading off to Westfield to get the post, we thought it would be nice to be useful!” we said smugly, lying through our teeth.
We were almost as far as Westfield, when Mattie offered to take over from Danielle who was pushing my wheelchair. Danielle looked at us suspiciously.
“Where are you two going and what are you planning to do over here?” she asked.
Mattie remained silent; I guess he didn’t know how to get out of this one. So I said to Danielle –
“Oh leave us alone won’t you!”
So without any more questions she left us to it. As I pushed the button for the doors to open at the entrance to Westfield, Mattie started running whilst pushing me towards the opening doors. As we got closer I quickly glanced around and saw Angie, Mattie’s nurse of the day yelling -
“Stop!”
We took no notice and carried on through the doors. As Mattie tried to catch his breath I took the opportunity to ask why he had decided to come with me.
“Because I believed you about the lights in the window and I thought you would like some company!” he replied.
Mattie pushed me towards the back entrance of Westfield, where we could then continue our journey alongside the road.
“To the abandoned house!” I said enthusiastically, pointing towards the house’s entrance.
We then carried along up the road past the bungalows, under the bridge, past the church and then into the house that I saw the lights coming from. We both checked the time; it was dead on 7’o clock. As we walked inside we entered a grotty room that was covered in a range of high-tech equipment and a man who looked as though he was in his 20s with long hair, sitting in front of a large computer, staring so intently at the screen he didn’t seem to be aware of our presence. Mattie leaned over towards me and whispered into my ear.
“You were right.”
“I knew something dodgy was going on. Right this must be kept between me and you; you’re not allowed to tell anyone what went on tonight.”
“You’d better go back now, Angie’s probably got your death certificate ready” I said to Mattie.
“But how are you going to get back and what am I going to tell Angie when she asks me where you are?”
“Say I’ve gone to get some fish and chips.”
Meanwhile the man sitting at the computer noticed me and pleasantly offered to show me around some of the rooms upstairs, using the lift that was in the far corner of the room, obscured by wiring. As we stepped out of the lift the brass plate on the door opposite read “Mario”, I guessed it was the same Mario from C.H.I.S. This struck me as being odd, was he using his I.T skills for something more sinister. The room next door to Mario’s office looked far more interesting. On the door it said “Warning High Voltage Equipment”, but to my disappointment all it had inside was a large old spotlight, like one maybe used in World War II to spot enemy planes. Why on earth would they be keeping something like this here! Behind the spotlight I could see a large window that had been covered in a heavy black blind. Whilst the man was shutting down his computer I pushed myself towards the window and peered behind the blind. Behind the abandoned house were vast open flat fields that spread out into the horizon. As I stared out into the distance I wondered what the fields were used for as there didn’t seem to be any animals grazing or crops being grown there. My imagination was running away with me. The man turned his head towards me just as I replaced the blind; he had obviously noticed the sun glinting in from behind the blind. I knew that it was time to head back to C.H.I.S before I arose anymore suspicion.
As I headed towards C.H.I.S I thought about who was on duty, Sue and Shirley were on shift. Both Sue and Shirley are usually easy going and understanding. However Sue didn’t appear impressed with my explanation of where I had been. Even when I told Danielle the truth of what we had been up to she thought we were nuts. But I was convinced that Mario was up to no good and in some kind of underground terrorist group.
The next morning both Mattie and I were up early, getting to the abandoned house by quarter to eight. We didn’t want to give Sue a chance to handover to the day staff about our evening escapade. At the door to the abandoned house I let out a big yawn, with all the excitement the night before I hadn’t managed to get much sleep. We sneaked around to the side window to see if anything was happening. This time there was a different man sitting at the computer console. He looked Asian, and by the side of him was a large box, which he seemed to be desperately trying to cover up with a blanket of some kind. He then proceeded to brush the floor, apparently to get rid of his footprints that were obvious on the dirty floor. The Asian man then went upstairs, from where we could hear him talking quietly to someone. It was difficult to distinguish what they were saying, but we did hear amongst the muttering the word “launch” and then the sound of an engine start up. That was when our inquisitive natures got the better of us and we decided to take the risk and go inside to investigate. We quickly glanced around the rooms, finding everything pretty much the same as the night before, until Mattie found an odd looking archway.
“Hold on a minute Chris what’s that archway?”
“What archway?” I asked.
“This one, behind this old washing machine, it looks as though it leads to a corridor”
I looked down onto the corridor floor where a set of old clothes were piled up next to a manhole cover. I struggled in vain to lift it but it was far too heavy. We went back to C.H.I.S with dirty mud up our arms. On our return, Danielle instantly twigged that we had been up to something. “What have you been up to?” she asked.
“We’ve been talking to Shelley, the old nurse from here, the one that helps with the horses.”
“How do you explain your arm then?” She demanded, pointing to my mud covered arms.
“I had to hold a horse still whilst I was talking to Shelley.”
“Suppose that figures.” She said in a huff.
Chris P then came through the door followed by Claire, another carer.
“Another day, another beginning” they said in unison.
We then gathered in the dining room. Danielle had her normal toast, I had Coco Pops and Patrick had marmalade on toast. As we chomped through our meal Pat the physio arrived holding a Daily Mail in her hand.
“Morning all!” she said.
When we had finished our breakfast we all went back upstairs. Whilst I changed my top, Chris P did my hair and I told her about last night. At first she was convinced I was telling the truth until I told her about the hidden corridor and the archway, which seemed less easy to swallow. Later in my speech and language therapy session I reflected on what I had let slip earlier to Chris P. How stupid did I feel, she wasn’t renowned for keeping her mouth shut. By now she had probably told everybody apart from the man in the model shop about what happened last night to me. As Val didn’t say anything about what happened last night during our session I thought that Chris P had managed not to say anything. Paula another carer came to S.A.L.T to pick me up and to take me back to my room, on the way back she told me about Danielle leaving C.H.I.S.
“By the way Danielle is going, I’m sure she’ll keep in touch.” Paula said.
A tall guy came in through the main doors of C.H.I.S and addressed Penny.
“Where are the hatches?”
Penny giggled to herself and said -
“What the kitchen hatch or do you mean my hair?”
Penny then surprisingly took off her wig. He shook his head.
“What do you want to do then?”
Then the penny dropped, Penny apologized.
“Sorry you’re the fire inspector, if there’s anything else I can get you just ask.”
“A cup of tea would be nice.”
Just then, there was an immense noise coming from upstairs.
It sounded like a sledge hammer was hitting the side of the building from outside, which was obviously the fire alarm. It stopped after 3 minutes. Penny was standing on the heels of her feet with her mouth wide open in shock. The fire inspector soon returned to Penny after checking the downstairs corridors to reassure her.
“I don’t think you should look so frightened, it was only a false alarm!”
Once the fire inspector had finished inspecting C.H.I.S’s fire alarm system he drove away satisfied that everything was in order. Later that evening I had mashed potato with beans for my tea.
The next day I had John the carer looking after me all day. I slept until quarter to nine, apparently. I had yet another busy day in front of me. First of all I chose a purple t-shirt with three-quarter length shorts. I decided to have Shreddies for breakfast for a change, it was whilst I was eating that Mattie came downstairs to join me and Patrick, who was sitting opposite me.
“Morning” he said.
“Morning Mattie.” I spluttered through my Shreddies.
Mattie had a bowl of Weetabix. I’d just finished my Shreddies when Pat the physio came through to the dining room, looking at her watch and then her diary.
“Come on Patrick!” she said “It’s your turn first to see me this morning.”
My first session of the day was S.A.L.T with Val in the music room. I heard Patrick’s crutches go past the music room at about half past ten when Hilary and Lori entered the room. Hilary and Val started singing, while Lori accompanied them on the keyboard. It wasn’t long until I realised I was getting dirty looks as I was meant to sing too!! That seemed to make the time go quicker and before I knew it Claire arrived to pick me up at the end of the session.
“Unfortunately you’ve got Eleanor. Patrick and I are making a cake” said Claire.
She then dropped me off at Occupational Therapy. It turned out that I would have two Occupational Therapists with me today. The other woman with Eleanor introduced herself as Jayne. She was about 5’6’’ tall, fair hair and with blue eyes. My first question was-
“Do you smoke?”
“Why do you?” she replied
“No, although I did try one when I was eleven!” I said regretfully.
She then showed me how to make slide shows on Power Point, and how to make a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. By the time we had done all that it was about it for the day.