Poppet

Sliding Into Each Other

IT’S FOUR IN the morning when the security light comes on outside Melanie’s window.

AJ is already awake. He’d had that dream again – the one where he was about to slip down a rabbit hole into heaven – and was lying on his back, eyes open, listening to Melanie’s soft breathing. His mind was rambling – he was thinking about so many things. About Isaac. About what he did at Upton Farm, killing his parents. And only a few miles away from Eden Hole.

Life was wonderful, but it was also deeply weird. He glanced down at Melanie, fast asleep. He still couldn’t believe how easy and obvious the decision was – how simply they’d just slid into each other’s existences. He wasn’t alone any more. Maybe he never would be again.

Then the light came on.

At first he doesn’t move. He can see insects circling in its beam, all juiced up and busy now the rain has stopped. It’s like summer has come back, seeing those flies. Not late autumn.

Silently he throws off the covers and pads barefoot across the room. As he reaches the window the security light clicks out. But not before he catches a glimpse, just a split second, of a figure in the garden.

It’s over so quickly it’s like a mirage – a burst on his retina. He blinks, trying to adjust to the suddenly dark garden. Not sure what he saw. Has he made it up or did the figure have a smooth white face? No facial contours. And a hint of laced gown.

‘AJ?’ Melanie murmurs sleepily. ‘What is it?’

‘Nothing.’ He opens the window and leans out. In the gardens the shadows are beginning to coalesce, turn into something recognizable.

‘AJ?’

‘Shhhhhhhhhh!’

He holds his breath and leans out further, listening to the garden. He can hear little noises in the trees but nothing specific – maybe a rustle of leaf, a tiny snap of twig. Or maybe it’s just the drip drip of last night’s rain. The dark path in the grass from yesterday is still there – he can’t tell if it’s been made afresh.

‘What did you see?’ Melanie comes to stand next to him. She stares out into the garden, her eyes watery with apprehension. ‘What was it?’

‘I don’t know.’

She looks up at him. ‘You don’t know?’

‘I don’t know.’

He crosses to the bathroom and switches on the light. He puts his head under the tap and lets the water fall over him. He doesn’t want to speak to her for a moment. The doors downstairs are all locked. He double-checked them before they came to bed. And he made sure the windows were locked too. The torch – the heavy thing that he could swing at someone should he need to – is next to the bed.

He wets a flannel and runs it over his hair, around the back of his neck. He’s remembering Isaac staring at Melanie, saying ‘Where does she live? Where does she live?’

He turns off the tap and pulls a towel off the rail, putting his face in it. When he lowers the towel he sees she has moved to the bed and is sitting there, watching him silently through the doorway.

‘AJ?’ she says, and this time he can’t get away from her. ‘AJ?’

‘Mel – how much do you know about why Isaac was in Beechway?’

‘I know everything. I’m the clinical director – it’s my job to know.’

‘You’re not scared?’

She blinks. ‘He was ill when he offended, we successfully rehabilitated him. Why would I be scared?’

‘It hasn’t occurred to you it might have been Isaac in the garden just now? That he might know where you live?’

She swallows. ‘I didn’t see what you saw.’

‘No, but you saw something last night.’

‘I was dreaming.’

‘No, you weren’t. I’m sorry – but we both know what I’m talking about and it’s beyond crazy now. I want to go to the police.’

‘AJ, please.’ Melanie makes a pained face. ‘You’re talking about something that is going to lose me my job. And I just can’t let that happen. I’m sorry – I fought for my job. I had to …’ She sighs. ‘I really had to fight. I can’t lose it. It’s all I’ve got.’

AJ doesn’t answer. He drops the towel and goes downstairs. Checks all the locks. When he comes back upstairs Melanie is in bed with her back to him. He lies beside her, listens to her breathing. Eventually it slows. She’s either asleep or pretending to be. AJ stays awake, alert for every sound, every creak in the woods outside.