[This article was originally published in the August 2018 edition of Bricolage art magazine.]
I have lots of interests, but I enjoy writing most of all. I'd like to be a writer someday. My stories are about weird, funny things. My English teacher Mr. Mortimer says I probably watch too much Doctor Who. But this story isn't one I've made up. Every word is true! It's about when I went to spend the summer holiday with my Nana in Lytham St. Anne's. I go every year.
I love Nana's house. She lives in a Bed and Breakfast by the sea. Her parents used to own it, so it's very old. Uncle Patrick grew up there with my mum and said it was like living in the Addams Family house. Auntie Shelley says he's being over the top, but there is something creepy about it. One time I stayed there I remember waking up in the middle of the night and going down to the dining room. There's this big cabinet down there with lots of odd little things in it. Little ornaments, mostly. Nana says they're all family knick-knacks, but I don't know. Maybe she bought them in a jumble sale. Anyway, this one time I went downstairs I saw them lit up by the moonlight. There was a little model of a ballerina dancing on one of the shelves! There was also a really horrible one of a horse being led along by a stableman. It really scared me because the horse was rearing up and snorting its nostrils. I don't like horses.
It's really cool there, though. I get to meet lots of nice people and go to the beach every day. I know all of Nana's staff and they're really friendly. Except Mrs. Buckley. She's the receptionist. She only lets people call her Mrs. Buckley, never her first name. She's not even a teacher! She bosses me around - even Nana! You'd think she owned the place. Emma's my favourite. She's a chambermaid. She's older than me (22) but we get on well. Like this one time, when Nana went out for the evening, we had a slumber party and told each other our secrets and did our hair and got dressed up in all these cool clothes we'd bought and listened to music! She wants to be a fashion designer. I think she'd be really good at it. She knows all about clothes. I was looking forward to seeing her.
After Uncle Patrick dropped me off and Auntie Shelley kissed me goodbye in front of everybody, Nana took my bags up to my room. It's on the top floor and has a great view of the beach. It's like it really is my room because no one else ever uses it and I've got lots of pictures and posters on the walls. It's got a big double bed in it too. I unpacked my clothes and was things and got ready for the big dinner Nana promised me. I was just brushing my hair when I heard a door slam down the end of the hallway. Then I could hear people walking about and talking to each other. There was a woman who seemed to be telling a man what to do. I couldn't tell what she was saying to him but she sounded very bossy. I could hear a little boy with them. The woman told him to stay in her sight at all times. Being naturally curious (and not nosey, as Auntie Shelley says) I went over to the door and poked my head around it. There was no one there! They couldn't have left that quickly because the stairs were on the opposite side of the hallway near my room, and the door definitely slammed at the far end of the hallway. It was most unusual. The next thing I heard was Nana calling me from the foot of the stairs telling me dinner was ready.
A little later I was in the kitchen eating Nana's Shepherd's Pie. We were just talking about how I would earn my keep, as Nana calls it, when I got to asking how many people were staying in the hotel. Nana said all the rooms were full. Mrs. Buckley, who was helping Nana wash some bed sheets, suddenly coughed and said that they weren't all occupied and the extra £780 a week wouldn't hurt. I asked Mrs. Buckley what she meant but she just rolled her eyes and told me to ask Nana.
"How many more times?" she said to Mrs. Buckley. "I'm not prepared to get into that again."
"Did something happen there?" I asked, expecting tales of murder and intrigue.
"This is a respectable establishment," Mrs. Buckley replied. "Nothing happens here except a lot of eating and sleeping."
Nana flashed Mrs. Buckley one of her disapproving looks, then looked at me and sighed.
"All right!" she said, and began her tale of mystery and suspense. It was about 40 years ago. There hadn't been any trouble with the room before. It was one of the most popular rooms. Then one day they started getting complaints from the guests. First it was about someone looking through their belongings, and then they started hearing voices. In the end they couldn't get anyone to stay in there for more than a night. Nana said that Grandad locked the door and they vowed never to open it again.
"Do you think it's haunted?" I asked.
"I don't know," she said, picking up the laundry basket. "All I do know is I've got twelve paying guests who don't want to hear any silly stories about things that go bump in the night." I think Nana thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn't.
A couple of days into my stay the Bed and Breakfast was facing a crisis and only I could help. Carice (one of the chambermaids) was ill and had to take time off work immediately. Being fully booked there was a danger that not all of the guests would have their laundry done and the beds in their rooms turned down. Nana said it would be a good way to keep me out of trouble. I don't know why grown-ups say that. I think ot just shows how boring they are. I didn't mind helping out, though. I'd met some of the people staying there and they were really nice. I was talking to one girl in the guests' dining room one night and she invited me to the beach with her and her parents the next day. We had fun laughing at some of the boys who were windsurfing. They kept falling off! But anyway, there I was - helping out Nana and the other staff. I won't bore you with the details of the all the little jobs I was doing around the place. As I said before, though, one of them was turning down the beds in people's rooms. Nana gave me a set of keys to get in if the guests were out. I was just doing the top floor when I remembered Room 22: the ghost room! My curiosity got the better of me again and I thought I'd have a bit of a look to see what it looked like inside. I put the key in the lock and heard it go CLICK! I paused for a minute, gathering my wits about me. You know when you pull a plaster off you do it very quickly so it doesn't hurt so much? I was a bit scared there might be something behind the door waiting for me. so I opened it very quickly...
I don't know what I was expecting, but there wasn't any blood on the walls or a moose's head on a plaque over the bed, or anything. It was just an ordinary looking room - like mine! It was very dusty. There was a paining on the wall with lots of little yachts in it. No people, just these funny little sailing boats. I pushed the chair over to the wall to have a better look (it was quite high up). In the corner of the painting I made out a couple of initials. 'L.S...' Suddenly there was a voice behind me.
"Hello."
I almost jumped out of my skin! I turned round and saw a boy standing there. He was about my age. He had a very goofy face and was wearing strange clothes. Olden days clothes. I was really creeped out. He sounded very nervous.
"Who are you?" he asked. "What are you doing in our room?"
"I'm Daisy Dawson," I said. "What do you mean 'your' room? No one's allowed in here."
"Mother's calling me," he said quietly. "We're going for a walk on the promenade. I have to go."
He went to leave the room. I could tell he didn't really want to go. He looked a bit sad. I didn't ask him if he was all right because everybody knows when you ask someone that when they're upset it's going to make them cry. Nicola at school did that to me once when my mum was ill at the home. I thought I'd never stop crying! I think Nicola did that deliberately, though. She pulled my hair once and I stamped on her foot. We're not exactly friends. But anyway, I didn't ask him if he was all right. I just said the first thing that popped into my head.
"Would you like to go to the beach tomorrow?"
He blushed.
"That would be very nice," he replied. Something about the way he said it made me think he didn't have many friends. I told him to meet me at 1pm outside Giuseppe's ice cream place on the sea front. He said he didn't know where that was. I told him to look out for the building with the big ice cream cone on the top. I don't think he was listening, though. It was like he was trying to get to the door. Suddenly I heard a woman's voice outside the door. The same one I heard a few days earlier in the corridor. She was still being very bossy. She told him to get himself outside at once. He seemed worried that she should catch me in their room. I told him I'd let myself out. He smiled and said he'd see me tomorrow. I waited for a minute before poking my head round the door to make sure they'd gone. They were nowhere to be seen... Vanished into thin air! Grandad was right all along: the room was haunted.
I went to bed that night thinking about ghosts. I wondered if you only became a ghost because you wanted to or if you had to die in a terrible way. I don't think I'd like to be a ghost. It must be very boring. But you'd get to scare people you didn't like, so that would be good. It would be horrible the rest of the time, though. You'd probably have to repeat the circumstances of your death over and over. I also got to thinking about Grandad and if he was a ghost. If he was it was a bit strange he hadn't come to visit Nana or me at the Bed and Breakfast. After a while I started feeling a bit sad. I switched on the bedside lamp and started reading one of my Jelly books. I'd read that one a few times, but it was better than just lying there thinking about death.
He was there the next day waiting for me at Giuseppe's. He looked different. A bit older, somehow. He was very polite. He even shook my hand when I arrived! I told him it wasn't a date. He blushed again. It took a while to get him to talk. Everybody was looking at me. I thought it was because of his old clothes.
"I didn't know you could go out in the daylight," I said. He gave me a funny look.
"Of course," he answered. "I can go anywhere. I've been everywhere."
I didn't know what to say to that so we kept on walking.
"I wish everyone would stop looking at us," I said.
"They're not looking at us," he laughed. "They're looking at you."
That really creeped me out.
"Why are they looking at me?"
"You're talking to yourself."
"I'm talking to you!"
"They don't know that," he said. I felt a little frightened. I didn't want people to think I was mad.
"So no one else can see you?"
He shook his head and smiled.
"Not if I don't want them to."
I thought about that for a minute. It's strange but I didn't feel scared anymore.
"So you're like an imaginary friend?"
"If you like, yes."
"I don't have to share you with anybody!"
"Am I not my own man, then?" he asked. He seemed a little cross. I didn't know what to say. "I don't belong to anybody. I'm my own man and that's that."
I told him I was sorry. He looked at me and said he didn't mean to snap like that, it's just he always felt that other people were making decisions for him all the time. I asked him if he was talking about his mum. He sighed. Then he said we should get some ice cream. I said I much preferred a Smoothie. He didn't know what that was. He said he'd like a cup of tea. I asked him if he could still drink being a ghost.
"You're a strange girl," he said.
Anyway, we went to this little café and got our refreshments. I paid because he said he didn't have any modern money. Then we went to sit on a bench on the promenade.
"Are you from here?" he asked.
"Peterborough," I said. "I'm staying with my Nana for the summer."
"Your mother wanted a rest, did she?"
I knew he was only joking, but I didn't like him saying that.
"I live with my Auntie and Uncle. My mum's in a home. She can't look after me."
He turned and looked at the sea.
"Look at it rolling away there. It's been like that for thousands of years."
"Do you like the sea?"
"Oh. definitely. It's a part of me. Everything here is." He sipped his tea. "Do you see her often? Your mother, I mean."
"Only when Uncle Patrick says it's okay. We made a cake together at Christmas. But she got confused and it got burned. She's always doing things like that."
"My mother's ill, you know."
"What's wrong with her?" I asked. I knew it was a bit rude but I couldn't help it.
"Disappointment," he said, and stared back out at the waves. I couldn't understand what he meant, and I didn't ask in case he thought I was stupid. We sat there for a while not saying anything. I don't know why, it was so silly. There were lots of things I wanted to ask him, like what it was like being a ghost. I knew it wasn't the right time to ask that, so I didn't. I just finished my Smoothie.
"The tide's turned," he said suddenly. "Can you imagine what it would be like if it didn't? Ever, I mean. Everything would be swept away. There'd be nothing left."
"We'd get soaked!" I said. He smiled. "What about you?" I asked him. "Are you on holiday?"
"In a manner of speaking. I've been trying to find something. Something I lost a long time ago."
"I'm always losing things," I said. I don't think he was really listening. He was still watching the waves.
"I never had time," he said quietly. "It was always running out on me." He turned to look at me again. There were tears in his eyes. "Don't be like me," he said suddenly. "Don't be like me, living your life through other people." That set me off. I didn't know what he meant, but I did if you know what I mean! I held his hand and told him I wouldn't live my life through other people. It's weird, but he seemed much older than he was that morning. It was like he was ageing all the time I was talking to him. I just didn't notice. He dried his eyes and I asked him if he was okay. He nodded. "I should take you back to the hotel now," he said. "It's getting late." I looked at my watch. It was almost 6pm.
"Where did the time go?" I said (like you do).
"The clock's still on your side," he said. "Make the most of it."
I asked him if I would see him tomorrow. He shook his head. I was upset about that. Spending a day with a ghost wasn't what I expected to do on my holiday. I told him that, and I said nothing would would ever be as exciting or strange again.
"Don't say that," he replied. "The world's full of fascinating places and people." Then he waved his hand like a conductor standing in front of an orchestra or a painter does on a canvas and suddenly everything seemed so much stranger. The blue sky melted into a creamy white and the people walking past started to walk funny, like in one of those really old films where nobody talks. I could see all these yachts with bright yellow sails bobbing away on the horizon. Everything was so colourful! A blur of reds, yellows, greens and blues. It was beautiful.
"Turn your mind sideways," he said. "That's all you need to do. You have to look at everything as though you've never seen it before."
"It's fantastic!" I said, and turned to look at him. But he was gone. Disappeared!
I ran back to the Bed and Breakfast to see if he was there. I asked Nana to give me the key to the empty room. She wouldn't, but then I told her my story. She was angry at first and couldn't understand why I'd gone in there in the first place, but she gave in in the end saying it would keep me quiet. We went upstairs and unlocked the door. The room was completely still. Everything looked just as it was when I went in before. I'm not sure why, but I knew I had to take a closer look at the picture. I pulled the chair over to the wall and climbed on top. I turned the picture over and on the back of the frame were the words:
'This is for you, Daisy Dawson. Thank you'
Nana looked at me. She knew I hadn't written it because it was in paint and looked like it had been there for years. The painting now hangs on my bedroom wall at home. It's a reminder of the greatest holiday I ever had, and the wonderful things this man taught me.
