Bad Return by Martin Price

Author:Martin Price
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal, science fiction, ghost, undead, horror short stories

*****

As it happened, Hawk had no such thing. But Joey was a god, just about. He cooked them both a plate of sausage, egg, and chips, and after that, he sat Hawk in his favourite armchair by the fire and put a blanket around him. Even took off his work boots, put on his slippers, and made him a mug of hot, sweet tea. That left Hawk staring out the window, looking up at a sky that was now bloated with snow, along with a wind out there that could cut a man in half.

After washing the dishes, Joey said, 'I appreciate you telling me that story, Grandad. It was weird to say the least, like something you'd only see in a film, or read in a book. I still don't know what to make of it, either, and that's the truth of it. But do you mind if I ask you something?'

'Of course not. Fire away.'

'Did you ever tell my mother about what happened that morning, you know, up at the cemetery?'

'No,' Hawk said, without having to think. 'Your mother was already worried about me, because of my depression. If I'd told her about that, she probably would have thought I'd had a total mental breakdown. But it wasn't just that. Your mother had a hard time of it, too, back then. She'd lost her mother. That's not easy to deal with, either, especially when you're young and you've got a child to bring up. She could have done with her mother around, to help out and to give support. On top of that, I was something of a pariah around Drake's Common, after what happened to Hazel Deeks.'

'A what?'

'A pariah. An outcast. I was pretty much ignored or given the cold shoulder by a lot of people. It didn't last for long, I must say, a few years or so. But it made my life difficult, and your mother's, for that period.'

'Christ, over a damn handbrake?' Joey said, pissed off. 'On top of that, you lost your wife, my mother lost her mother, and I lost my grandmother. How can people be so...so heartless?'

'People can be like sheep, Joey. They're not being heartless, not deliberately, anyhow. They just fit in with the way things are, mostly because they like to be part of the herd, and wouldn't want to be an outcast themselves. Don't let it get to you. I know I didn't. It got to your mother, though. She used to drink a little too much before then. But after that, I think she sank into something of a depression herself, and began to drink even more, just to get away from the misery of it all. And I blamed a lot of that on myself. After all, her mother would still have been alive, wouldn't she, if I'd just remembered to apply that handbrake? That's all it would have taken, too. If I had remembered, I would have saved Hazel Deeks. Probably would have saved a lot of other things to go with it.

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