Poppet

Frost

AJ DREAMS ABOUT the cave again. And this time there’s a woman there too. She is standing at the entrance to the cave, but her face is turned away. He thinks it’s Melanie. He calls her, but she doesn’t respond. Melanie? This time she stirs a little, but just as it seems she’s going to turn, the dream dies and crumbles. He wakes, reaching into the cold air.

It takes him a moment or two to remember he’s in Melanie’s bedroom in Stroud. And then he realizes she’s awake too – sitting next to him. The curtains are open and the moonlight streams through the window, lighting her blue and almost supernatural.

She is bathed in sweat, staring in disbelief at the window.

‘Melanie?’ He props himself up on his elbows. ‘Melanie? What’s up?’

She points at the window in a trance. He can’t tell if she’s awake or asleep. ‘It was wearing a—’ She bites the sentence in half. Shakes her head and holds her knuckles up to her forehead. ‘No. I didn’t see anything.’

‘Melanie?’ He puts his hand on her back, leans forward a little to get a view out of the window. He sees the trees beyond the garden moving slightly in the moonlight. ‘What do you think you saw?’

‘Nothing. I was … I don’t know.’ She gives a long shudder. ‘I must have been dreaming.’

‘Yes, but what do you think you saw?’

‘Nothing. Nothing at all – I just—’

‘Just?’

She swings her legs out of bed, grabs a pillow to hold in front of her naked body, and goes to the window. AJ gets out and comes to stand next to her, looking over her shoulder at the garden. The ground is frosty – and a clear dark slash extends from the treeline to about halfway down the garden. Exactly as if someone has walked into the garden, stopped to look up at the bedroom window, then turned and gone back the way they’ve come.

He snatches up his T-shirt and jeans and begins pulling them on.

‘What’re you doing?’

‘Someone’s out there.’

‘No – there’s no one there. I dreamt it.’ She sounds panicked. She is shaking, bewildered. ‘AJ – don’t go outside – please don’t.’

‘Have you got a torch?’

‘Please. I’m scared now.’

‘Have you got a torch?’

‘Oh God.’ Moving clumsily, she goes to a chest of drawers and rummages through, dropping things in her hurry. She pulls out a torch. It’s big and reassuringly heavy. He weighs it steadily in both hands.

‘That’ll do.’

He goes down the stairs. She comes trotting behind him, pulling on a kimono. ‘There’s no one there – there can’t be, please stay in here with me.’

The back door is closed and when he tries it he finds it’s unlocked.

‘Shit,’ she hisses, tying the belt of the kimono. ‘I forget to lock it – I never think about it. This is such a safe area.’ She cranes her neck to see past him into the garden. ‘Don’t go out – please. Don’t leave me.’

‘Put some shoes on.’

She obeys, jamming her feet into wellingtons. He pulls on his shoes – no socks – and together they step outside, closing the door behind them with a soft click.

It’s very quiet. Distant traffic sounds from the town float over the roof from behind them, but from the direction of the garden is nothing but the slight rustle of wind in the branches. They stand on the doorstep, listening to the night, hardly breathing. Overhead a security light has come on, but it isn’t strong enough to reach the front of the garden.

AJ switches on the torch. It’s got a strong beam that illuminates the trees down there.

‘There’s no fence,’ Melanie whispers. ‘The builders walked off site – never finished the garden.’

Nothing in the trees is moving – there’s no eye gleam, nothing suspicious. AJ runs the beam into the grass. He takes a few steps into the garden – the frosty ground crunches underfoot. He stops at the place the dark slash from the woods finishes and shines the torch at his feet. Nothing. He’s not a tracker – some Navajo or scout – he’s only pretending to know what he’s looking for. A ghostly blur on his imagination – a nightgown and a patter of small feet. More likely an animal. He thinks about the muntjac that wander from the forests through Patience’s lettuce rows. Better to fix that in his thoughts than anything else.

‘Anyone there?’ he calls into the trees. ‘Something you want?’

Silence.

‘Let’s go inside,’ Melanie hisses. She’s trembling now. ‘I want to go back in.’

AJ stands a few minutes more – trying to put some width into his silhouette. It’s probably nothing, but if there is someone wandering around in the trees he wants them to know there’s a man here. But there’s still no sound. Eventually he switches off the torch and silently re-enters the house. Melanie locks and bolts the door. They check all the windows, then, shivering and cold, they go back to bed.

They lie together trying to get warm, but Melanie is strange. She turns away from him and although she is silent he knows, without looking at her, that she’s wide awake, not likely to go to sleep. ‘Hey,’ he whispers. ‘What did you see? What did you think it was?’

She shakes her head. ‘I didn’t see anything. I was dreaming.’

‘What did you dream?’

‘I don’t even remember now. Something – stupid.’

They lapse into silence. A long time passes and AJ is just falling off to sleep again when Melanie says suddenly, ‘AJ?’

‘Mmmmm?’

‘Do you believe that if you worry about something long enough you can make yourself dream about it? Or even hallucinate it?’

‘Of course. I’d say it’s very likely. What were you worrying about so much that you dreamt about it?’

She shrugs. ‘I don’t know – can’t remember.’ She gives a big fake yawn. ‘Night night, AJ. Night night.’