The Book of Winshire

Chapter Six

A rhythmic knocking on their door surprised Jeremy. He was trying to knit a jumper by watching a tutorial on the television. It was very late in the evening, so he thought it was, in all probability, his neighbour, wanting his help on something. But when he opened the door to Zack and Henry, he was even shocker.

‘Hi,’ he said in unsure. His stubbly face made him look miserable when it wasn’t so, previously they had met. Henry was a bit envy at this, because he actually looked handsome.

‘We’re here to return her book,’ said Zack, holding it out to him.

He opened the door wider to them as he took it. ‘Come in, it’s deadly cold outside. I’ll get you some hot drinks,’ he said, leaving them unattended.

Henry took a leap over this one two-worded doormat that said ‘Come In’ when someone enters the door, but ‘Go Away’ when they leave; and then he suited himself to Jeremy’s words.

And Zack, too, went to sit where the fella last sat whilst his mate wandered around the cosy lounge. He liked it that the place was engulfed with things he knew she made, possibly with her brother. He saw Jeremy’s winter project.

‘He’s knitting.’ Zack watched as Henry picked the unfinished woolly-clump. ‘I can help him.’

‘He probably wants to do it himself, Henry,’ said Zack, pointing to the television.

‘Do you think he made this himself?’ Henry asked, putting on a woolly hat with pompoms he had found under the table, on his head. Zack was studying the hat, himself.

‘I did,’ said Jeremy. He put two mugs of hot chocolate in front of them that they took to themselves right away. He took a place next to where Henry now sat.

‘Tell her I’m sorry because I made you give me her journal. And that we’ve kept it for quite a time now.’

Jeremy looked at Zack from the television. He was picking up from where he had left off with his knitting.

‘She was mad when she left The House the other day,’ said Henry.

‘Yours or ours?’ Jeremy asked in confusion.

‘Yours, too?’ asked Zack.

Henry sighed quietly. But then Jeremy had said something. ‘She’s all right, now. She wasn’t really furious. T’was a face of disappointment I’ve got when she was home.’

‘Tell her, too,’ said Zack, glancing at Henry, ‘if we won’t do what other people before us did.’

Jeremy furrowed his brows, dropping his hands on to his thighs slowly.

‘Why?’ he asked.

‘Why not?’ Zack rhetorically answered.

‘I don’t know why people find her horrible. It wasn’t her choice. Many other people, too, go through the same phases every day. It’s not that we are all normal. Everyone has their own absurd attitudes that they keep to themselves.’

What Henry said had put a smile on Jeremy’s face. He looked down to his quarter-finished jumper in awe. ‘We’ve had our fair share of people telling that, but they also come and go. Edith and I start every year with different faces.’ He patted the young brunette’s thigh. ‘I still believe that blood is thicker than water. But thanks for being nice.’

Henry thought he had said something good, which he actually did. But he was devastated that Jeremy had given up on life like she did. ‘We may not be there for her all the time, but so would you,’ he said.

‘Therefore, as me and my mates had agreed, I came here with Henry to make sure that you and Edith are aware that we are there when you’re not around for her, and when we aren’t available for her, you can fill the space up,’ said Zack, putting up with what Henry had mentioned.

‘And Jeremy,’ said Henry, ‘the blood of the covenant is also thicker than the water of the womb.’

*

Edith sat in her thick blanket on the top stair, watching the back of the blokes’ heads. Jeremy saw her feet when he came to join them by the table.

She listened to what they had got to say and walked back to her chamber when she had heard enough. Jeremy didn’t notice this sight of her, so he thought she was still there when Henry was talking about wanting to have her for dinner a few days later.

‘You now know to whom my subtle mocks were about,’ Jeremy said a little loud to their ears, hoping/thinking that his sister would as well get it.

 ‘So that’s what you meant by “only” friends, the other day.’

Zack laughed at Henry’s obliviousness, but he said, ‘We also now know how she recognises us.’

‘Sorry to break it to you, but by the way she’d described you lot in her book? It was illogical. I don’t understand how she knows who’s who from her chart of you lads.’

‘Who was I?’ Henry asked.

‘I identified you only by your eyes.’

‘And me?’ asked Zack now.

‘Your hair.’

‘I really can’t wait to have her for dinner so she can tell us directly on what she had written about us,’ Henry sarcastically said.

Jeremy took no offense to this, but when he glanced back for her, his heart skipped a bit. He wished he knew it earlier if she wasn’t there any more.

He’d make the blokes sit in front of her room and talk.

*

‘Can I come in?’

Edith glanced over her shoulder whilst she was stacking her books in order. There were a few notes on the covers, and a couple pairs of photos were taped on to the doors of her cupboard.

‘Yes.’ She put her hands on her hips and sighed. ‘Just don’t step on any of those books.’

‘You should go to sleep.’

‘No,’ she said, ‘you should go to sleep.’

‘It’s Saturday. I’m not working tomorrow.’

‘I’m not working at all,’ she whooped.

‘How is that supposed to stop you from sleeping?’

‘It’s not.’ She spun around. ‘Jeremy, go to sleep.

‘But it’s a party down there.’

‘I hope you and your knitting friends are having fun.’ Jeremy narrowed his eyes. ‘I’m having fun with my books, too. Thanks for asking. Good-night. Close the door as in close the door or else I’ll take down every flapper in the house so there would be no more silent grievance of I know how a closed door looks like. Ex oh ex oh.’