فصل 06 - بخش 05

6

Ten-year-old Grace Maitland had slept poorly ever since her father’s murder, and what sleep she had managed was haunted by nightmares. That Sunday afternoon all her weariness came down on her like a soft weight. While her mother and sister were making a cake in the kitchen, Grace crept upstairs and lay on her bed. Although the day was rainy, there was plenty of light, which was good. The dark scared her now. Downstairs she could hear Mom and Sarah talking. That was also good. Grace closed her eyes, and although it only felt like a moment or two before she opened them again, it must have been hours, because the rain was coming down harder now and the light had gone gray. Her room was full of shadows.

A man was sitting on her bed and looking at her. He was wearing jeans and a green tee-shirt. There were tattoos on his hands and crawling up his arms. There were snakes, and a cross, and a dagger, and a skull. His face no longer looked like it had been made out of Play-Doh by an untalented child, but she recognized him, just the same. It was the man who had been outside Sarah’s window. At least now he didn’t have straws for eyes. Now he had her father’s eyes. Grace would have known those eyes anywhere. She wondered if this was happening, or if it was a dream. If so, it was better than the nightmares. A little, anyway.

‘Daddy?’

‘Sure,’ said the man. His green tee-shirt changed to her father’s Golden Dragons game shirt, and so she knew it was a dream, after all. Next, that shirt turned into a white smocky thing, then back into the green tee-shirt. ‘I love you, Gracie.’

‘That doesn’t sound like him,’ Grace said. ‘You’re making him up.’

The man leaned close to her. Grace shrank back, eyes fixed on her father’s eyes. They were better than the I-love-you voice, but this was still not him.

‘I want you to go,’ she said.

‘I’m sure you do, and people in hell want icewater. Are you sad, Grace? Do you miss your daddy?’

‘Yes!’ Grace began to cry. ‘I want you to go! Those aren’t my daddy’s real eyes, you’re just pretending!’

‘Don’t expect any sympathy from me,’ the man said. ‘I think it’s good that you’re sad. I hope you’ll be sad for a long time, and cry. Wah-wah-wah, just like a baby.’

‘Please go!’

‘Baby want her bottle? Baby pee in her didies, get all wet? Baby go wah-wah-wah?’

‘Stop it!’

He sat back. ‘I will if you do one thing for me. Will you do something for me, Grace?’

‘What is it?’

He told her, and then Sarah was shaking her and telling her to come down and have some cake, so it had just been a dream after all, a bad dream, and she didn’t have to do anything, but if she did, that dream might never come back.

She made herself eat some cake, although she really didn’t want any, and when Mom and Sarah were sitting on the couch and watching some dippy movie, Grace said she didn’t like love-movies and was going upstairs to play Angry Birds. Only she didn’t. She went into her parents’ bedroom (just her mom’s now, and how sad that was) and took her mother’s cell phone off the dresser. The policeman wasn’t in the cell’s contact list, but Mr Gold was. She called him, holding the phone in both hands so it wouldn’t shake. She prayed he would answer, and he did.

‘Marcy? What’s up?’

‘No, it’s Grace. I’m using my mom’s phone.’

‘Why, hello, Grace. It’s nice to hear from you. Why are you calling?’

‘Because I didn’t know how to call the detective. The one who arrested my father.’

‘Why do you—’

‘I have a message for him. A man gave it to me. I know it was probably just a dream, but I’m playing it safe. I’ll tell you and you can tell the detective.’

‘What man, Grace? Who gave you the message?’

‘The first time I saw him, he had straws for eyes. He says he won’t come back anymore if I give Detective Anderson the message. He tried to make me believe he had my daddy’s eyes, but he didn’t, not really. His face is better now, but he’s still scary. I don’t want him to come back, even if it’s only a dream, so will you tell Detective Anderson?’

Mom was in the doorway now, silently watching, and Grace thought she would probably get in trouble, but she didn’t care.

‘What should I tell him, Grace?’

‘To stop. If he doesn’t want something bad to happen, tell him he has to stop.’