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The Winterton Weeping Woods
Our holiday
What have I done? This is a bit different to the glossy brochure. Clever marketing had brought us to what should have been a park lodge. Instead, it is a dingy barn. A barn with a leaky roof, running water and a bathroom. Sort of habitable, the bargain price makes more sense now. Where in the UK can you rent a park lodge for £200, for a week in August? You can’t! I’m sure that wouldn’t even pay for Butlins. At least Shaun is smiling. Mike, not so much. If I hadn’t been left alone to holiday plan, then this wouldn’t have happened. Mike had liked the price though and had enthusiastically loaded up the car.
Five hours from home and here we are. Winterton Weeping Woods, weeping was right, this was a disaster. No WIFI, no heating, I look again at the brochure, did I misread it? Or have we been scammed Luckily, we have thick heavy blankets in the car. The only happy person here is Shaun and he is five. Needing warmth, we build a fire and as darkness truly settles in we became more agreeable to the situation. We needed an adventure, something to bring us together. However, a tent in our back garden would have been better then this. I have never considered sleeping in a barn. This one did at least have beds and duvets, but this was not the holiday I had planned.
Night
As the evening got darker, I started thinking of what could be hidden in the woods. We were alone, maybe there were other holiday makers equally dissatisfied with their accommodation, we would go for a walk tomorrow, or so I thought.
2am
I am woken by a howl. Something big was outside. Then a loud banging, I just wanted to sleep. I could hear Mike stir next to me. Pulling up the covers I am vaguely aware that he is going to check on the ruckus.
In life things happen, we make choices, and they are sometimes the wrong ones. Maybe I should have gone to the door, but Mike seemed like he was on a mission to get rid of them. As all went quiet, I fell back to sleep.
8am
Woken by Shaun, I realised that Mike had not come back. Looking outside I couldn’t see him, and he hadn’t left a note. The car was still there though, so he couldn’t have gone far. Checking my phone there is no message there either. Grabbing Shaun’s hand, I lead him out of the barn and now start walking. In my worry over Mike, we haven’t eaten or had a warm drink. I’ve literally just stepped into my trousers, boots and coat and dressed Shaun.
Summary
So here we are, a forty-year-old woman who should know better and a five year old, now cold, hungry and lost in the woods. No Wifi and phone reception is poor too. Shouting Dad and Mike had got us nowhere and great, it’s now raining!
Peter
Its now as we sit cuddled up under a tree that an angel appears. Not a godly angel but a man who changed this whole awful drama around. Explaining who we were and why we are here, he started laughing.
“I’m so sorry”, he said, “I don’t know about your husband but why are you sleeping in the barn?”
“Is this not Winterton Weeping Woods?”
“It is, but the barn is where I go when the missus has had enough of me. The holiday park is just beyond the woods. I can take you, but we must find your husband.”
Pulling out what looked like a radio, we soon found out where Mike was. Last night there had been an accident and the people involved had knocked on the barn door wanting Peter but found Mike instead. Mike had then obliged by going with them to the hospital after helping lift the young man on to their trailer.
Peter now told them where Mike was supposed to be, and I could hear laughing. I guess it is a funny story, but I feel incredibly stupid. Showing us the pathway back, he offers to meet us in an hour to lead us to the holiday park where we should be.
The weeping woods
Day Two of our holiday was not as we had expected. The reception staff had laughed too, this is a story that will be retold. The daft family who spent a night in a barn. Maybe the park needs better signs!
However, at least they found Mike and he had been good with the injured man, so a good ending there.
Having now found the park lodge with the hot tub we are no longer weeping. This was more like I had imagined and just as stated in the glossy brochure.
So why are these woods called Weeping woods? Well according to the internet there is a history of people going missing, taken. On a quiet night, howling and crying can be heard. I looked at my full wine glass and then out towards the woods. Was that howl last night the injured man? Or something more sinister? I looked up at the sky and thanked God that we had met Peter who had brought us to the park lodge where we should be. That barn had certainly not been safe! I’m sure there is more to this then the locals and Peter are willing to share. Maybe its not his missus that sends Peter to the barn but something else. Why was this holiday so cheap?
Yes, I need to stop thinking about it, relax and enjoy my holiday, playing detective would quite possibly get me in trouble, that’s what happens on television anyway. I could find myself buried in the woods, I shuddered.
Sipping my wine, I now lean back in the hot tub, listening to the rhythmic bubbles I close my eyes. We are okay, we are safe and all here and I need to quit the overthinking and enjoy my break from work. We are here to relax, not to solve the mystery of the Winterton Weeping Woods.
Written for Writers Unite! photo prompt
For more see – Back on the road written for writers unite
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Back on the road
On the road
Tell me, why is it that when life finally gets good, it quickly turns bad? After working and building on my hopes and dreams, here I am, again on the road alone. I had it all, a husband and three kids, and now they have gone too. Unable to fix myself, a burden to others I packed up my backpack, wrote a note, walked to the busy highway and stuck out my thumb. Now miles away from home I sit and contemplate my life.
When I met Lewis, I had been working in a school. Assisting the teachers and helping the children. After a poor work review, I quit and was soon packing groceries in the local supermarket. Depression hit; this wasn’t me; I had a university degree and should be doing more.
Then expectations from the children. Drive me here, drive me there, help me with my homework. Cook my dinner and no I don’t want the same as my sister. Lewis just sitting playing with the TV remote control, of course his job was harder than mine!
Life
Is this just normal life or should we be demanding more? I am an expert at letting life push me down. My heart was well and truly in my boots and I’m not sure if I can sink any further. Looking at the world around me I watch a squirrel running up a tree, busily going about its day. Would my life be easier if I was a squirrel? I’m sure squirrels have their worries and problems too.
Dragging myself off the floor, I glance at the road ahead. I pick up the heavy pack and check my phone, As I suspected, no messages, 9am and they were pleased to be rid of me. They must have sorted their own breakfasts, got them selves to school. See I knew they didn’t need me to chauffeur them.
Last night
James and Glen, had sat watching the big house. They saw the woman leave, with what looked like a heavy pack on her back, she had walked straight passed the car and headed at a fast pace down the road. They wondered if she knew what was happening, was she running? Surely not. However not their problem. Their job was the man of the house, Lewis. Accountant to his family but guilty conspirator to their boss. Their job was to put a bullet in him and if they failed then they would be the ones found dead.
Attaching a silencer to the gun, James slid out of the car while Glen sat and watched. This job had to be done right. Twenty minutes later he reappeared. Having broken in the back door he now could confirm that the deed was done. Their plans were now safe, Lewis would not be repeating anything.
Lucie
Lying in her bed she saw a black shadow. It wasn’t daddy, It was too tall. Pretending to be asleep she lay still. As the shadow left she heard a scraping sound then a possible muffled scream. She was scared, pulling up the covers she wanted mummy, she would know what to do.
10 am
Sat in a road side café I was warming my hands on my coffee mug. Looking at my phone I wondered why Lewis hadn’t messaged or phoned, Surely, I didn’t really mean nothing to him. As it rang, I jumped, it was the school. Maybe he hadn’t managed this morning like I thought he would. As I answered I felt myself sink even further. The children had not arrived, and Lewis was not answering his phone. At the offer of a welfare visit, I asked myself how had things got this bad? Surely their dad wasn’t this incapable. I remembered the squirrel, was its life simpler? Foraging for food, looking after its family and staying away from predators.
Apologising I advised that I was miles away and consented to the visit. Hoping that things were alright at home. Knowing they would let me know if there was something wrong. An hour later my phone rang again, and my life fell apart once more.
Home
In life there are no certainties. Did I really think I could just walk out? Just hit the open road. I had let life’s pressures get the better of me. Now I was suddenly a single mum. Lewis hadn’t even known I had left. Why hadn’t he told me that he was in trouble? Had this contributed to his arrogance over the last year?
Holding Lucie, it appeared she had seen her dad’s killer, a dark shadow in the doorway. At ten years old she would possibly be traumatised for life. If I had been lying in bed next to him, would I have been shot too? I do love my children, but their demands are relentless, it was Lewis that had finally driven me away but now it really is just me parenting alone. I had wanted to leave but I didn’t want him dead.
Now was not the time to be discussing this. We are all heartbroken and the police are investigating and trying to keep us safe. No school or work for a while, there would be time for the four of us to talk properly and try and start to rebuild our lives. The police have referred me for counselling, but I haven’t told them the full extent of my mental exhaustion. The children need me now, guilt and mixed sad emotions are weighing me down.
Lewis
Would life ever be good again? For now, we are in a safe house, The police are saying that Lewis was not a bad man, but he had been mixed up in something through his business. They suspected that he had been a loose end that had needed cutting off. We didn’t need to be loose ends as well so until the killer was behind bars we remain here where no one can find us.
Hold on to those you care about, the future is not certain. Had I saved myself by leaving? We will never know, but I do know that my children need me. Maybe they are my purpose and I’m not such a failure after all.
Written for Write the story on Writers Unite!
For more see, The cold truth behind the shoes on the line
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Fortune at the fun fair
The fun fair
It had been a long exhausting day, Janey looked at the ferris wheel and just wanted to go home. Not a fan of the fun fair, she listened to the children happily laughing. The commitment as a mum to do things and enjoy new experiences. She would have preferred to be a home with a mug of tea and her book. Instead, she had endured the prickly heat and rode the scary rollercoaster. Team tagging dad to buy souvenirs, food and drink, the kids had helped them spend a fortune.
The truth behind the enviable photos on social media. Janey knew that if everyone posted how much they had paid for their happy days out, she would be shocked. The inflated prices for an ice cream or coca cola, the cost adds up. She also knew that people don’t show the arguments and hard day either. Their photos showed her as having had a good day with her family. Not the depressed sad mess she really felt.
Her heartache of the last few years, thoughts that she held inside. Constant feeling of four against one. Maybe things would have been different if they had had a daughter. She loved her boys but felt a deep nagging loneliness, something or someone was missing.
It started five years ago, things were good once, and then they suddenly weren’t. A trip to the funfair and an old woman in a tent. She had told her that she would have another baby boy, disappointment had swept through her and then something bad happened.
The child
Elizabeth looked at the child next to her. Five years ago, she had met an old woman at the funfair who told her that things were about to change. She was not sure where the pretty blonde girl had come from. Everyone said that she was hers, but she didn’t feel the love for her that a mother should. She had been back to the fair many times, but the woman had not been there again.
Trying to puzzle out why she felt this way she had started having strange dreams. A lady who rarely smiled and a man who never showed much emotion. A deep sadness had broken them apart. Who were these people and why was she seeing them in her sleep?
What happened?
Gifted with foresight, Doris could change lives. The power to change life paths and take someone of one path and place them on to another. The day a lady came to see her at the fair desperately wanting a daughter she had made the terrible decision to give her someone else’s. Why would a family need four children? She thought the new baby would soon replace the loss of the girl and she wouldn’t remember her anyway.
Doris didn’t realise the mistake she was making, not then. Events of the last five years now had taught her different. How many lives had she changed? How many people had she harmed at the fair? She didn’t know but she needed to put things right. Visiting the great man, Hans who could correct all the messed-up lifelines she knew she was in trouble. He didn’t take mistakes well.
Hans
Sat watching his ball of life he saw Janey distressed. Her husband didn’t appear to have been affected by Doris’s plans. He then noticed Elizabeth; she was not as happy as she should be. Sending her messages to try and communicate the problem he needed Doris to put things right. Everyone was suffering and lives had been changed that shouldn’t have been.
The job of a lifeline changer is a complex one, important decisions that change lives. Lives that should not be aware that things are different.
Doris
Sensing Hans, she knew she needed to sort this, after five years she had left it too long. She had given up on telling fortunes at the fun fair but today she needed to see Janey again. Sitting in the tent she knew that Janey would not be able to resist coming in. She also knew that Elizabeth would visit in the near future.
Janey
Looking at the lights on the ferris wheel she held back her tears. She must stay strong for her family. It was then that she saw them. Watching the woman, she felt a strong pull to the small blonde girl. She had never met the child but somehow, she recognised her, maybe from a past life. As they now walked towards the small tent, Janey had the urge to follow.
Elizabeth
Walking into the tent, Doris smiled at her, relieved that they were here. As Janey walked in she could feel her heart jump, this was a first. The two messed up lives in the same place. The little girl looked up at Janey and smiled, did she recognise her?
Elizabeth’s jaw dropped as she saw Janey, the sad woman in her dreams. Doris looked at them both, it was time to do what she needed to do, what she had been hired to do, now with the help of Hans, it was time to correct the lifeline.
A year later
Sitting in the warm kitchen, Janey could hear the shouting, normal family life with four children, three boys and one girl. This was how her life was meant to be. Feeling contented she drank her tea,
A few miles away Elizabeth was with her new husband Brian, and toddler William. Sat stroking her baby bump they were happily expecting a daughter.
Hans
With the lifelines corrected it was time to retire Doris. Mistakes were not allowed, people had to be allowed to live their destiny. Intervention happened when people were not living their correct destiny, not just because Doris is trying to help. Hans had his orders and he followed them. He could see that Janey was now truly happy, and the little girl, Emily, was laughing with her brothers. Should fortune tellers be at fun fairs? Maybe he needed to discuss this with his boss. A god much greater than him!
Written for Write the story prompt on Writers Unite
For more see, Giving more time and care
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