Graham Joyce by The Facts of Life (epub)

Author:The Facts of Life (epub)
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

IT WAS A SNOWY SATURDAY morning in January when Beatie, Bernard, Cassie, and Frank squeezed into the front of William’s van and drove out to the farm. William generally didn’t need his van on a Saturday but asked Beatie to bring it back by midafternoon so that he could make a few deliveries. The snow gusted and drifted against the hedgerows, but it wasn’t strong enough to settle on the road.

Una was thrilled to see them all, and though Tom was out attending to his beasts, she made them all tea and put out sandwiches, and regaled them with stories of how she hadn’t coped with the arrival of her twins. Frank found it easy to drift away from the laughing, chattering adults. He told them he was going into the fields. Cassie made him pull on a scarf and gloves and instructed him not to stray too far from the yard.

When he got outside, Frank immediately started walking. He could see the spire of the church in the near distance, so he just dug his hands in his pockets and made for the village. It took him no more than fifteen minutes before he drew abreast of the medieval church. He was about to pass under the lych-gate when a figure bustled out of the church, clutching bags and cloths and a sweeping brush, an odd little woman who looked rather familiar. Frank ducked back, but as she emerged from the gate the woman spotted him.

“Hey, I knows you!” Raggie Annie said brightly. “You’m the cousin of they twins up at Tufnalls’ Farm, aintcha? What have you to say, hey? Well, ain’t it cold this morning, ain’t it? You’m all wrapped up for it, though. Ain’t you all wrapped up? Ain’t you got anything to say? Forgotten me, have you?”

“Tell it to the bees,” Frank said.

Annie cackled with joy. “You ain’t forgotten me! You lovely!” She dropped her bag and reached over to pinch his cheek, hard. “No, you ain’t forgot! That’s right.” She stooped to pick up her bag. “Well, I’ve done me bit of cleaning in the church and earned me bones for the pot, so that’s me set for the day and now I’m off home, ’cause I can’t stand here freezing all hours.” Annie was already walking away as she said all this, talking almost to herself, leaving Frank to nurse his reddened cheek. He waited until she was out of sight before passing through the lych-gate and into the porch. Checking that he was unobserved he raised the giant iron latch on the huge oak door and passed inside.

The church was so different from the sparse, functional hall used by the spiritualists. Where the spiritualists had to call to the ghosts, it seemed to Frank that this church lived and breathed them. They hung over the pews and hovered at the mullioned windows; they breathed on the stained glass and tried to sip without mouths from the ancient stone baptismal font. Though the church

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