Hotel Ambrose

Chapter 10.2

Later that night me and Sophie sat reading in front of the fire. I was reading a book I'd found at an op shop about a pirate called Henry Morgan who killed lots of people. Sophie was reading one of her women's magazines. Learning about Disorders, probably. I was in a boring bit in the book and Henry Morgan wasn't killing anyone. My mind wandered, and I started thinking about the filing cabinet.

I jumped up suddenly.

Sophie started. "Fucking hell Ben." Then, "Spark jump out at you?"

I didn't answer her – I just left the room. I went to the kitchen. I could hear her following me. When I got to the kitchen I reached up to the high shelf above the stove and felt around. My hand found something cold. I took it down off the shelf. Sophie looked at it and looked at me. I could see she didn't understand yet. The old Sophie would have asked me a million questions, but the new Sophie didn't say anything – she just followed me downstairs to the office.

I put the key in the filing cabinet and turned it. It didn't work.

"Other way," Sophie said.

I turned it the other way. Something clicked inside. For a moment I had the crazy idea that the man in the painting was watching me, and I was scared to look around in case he was.

I opened the top drawer of the filing cabinet. I don't know what I expected to see – files I guess. I never thought I'd find what I did. Not in a million years.

There was a dead man inside.

I thought he was a toy at first. He was the size of a doll, after all. I took him out of the drawer and put him on the desk. His hair was slicked over his head, but it was messy at the back. His shirt had rucked up when I picked him up, and I could see a scar on his belly. There was a kid at Crapper who had a scar like that from getting his appendix out. Sophie had crept into the office so she could see what I was doing, and now she touched one of the man's eyes with the tip of her finger. His eyelid rolled back. The eye underneath was glazed.

"Little man," I said to Sophie.

"Hmm. He's dead."

"Wonder why he hasn't gone off?" This seemed the strangest thing to me just then – not that there was a dead man in the filing cabinet, but that he hadn't gone off.

"He might've just died tonight," Sophie said.

"Nar. He died a long time ago." I don't know how I knew this, but I did.

"There's something wrong with his legs," Sophie whispered.

I looked at them. It was like he had two extra knees.

"Jesus," I said.

"I wonder how he died?" Sophie whispered.

"Maybe he died of his broken legs."

"You can't die of broken legs."

"How do you know?" In my mind I saw a dark stand of trees, and I could hear a horse screaming. Something foul was burning at the back of my throat. I swallowed it down.

"We should bury him," she said. "I'll go get something to put him in." Then she was gone, and I was alone with the little man. I looked away, but it was worse not looking at him, if you know what I mean.

Sophie seemed to take forever. When she got back she had a shoebox in her hands. "Put him inside," she said.

I didn't want to touch the little man again, but at the same time I didn't want Sophie to know how scared I was. So I gritted my teeth and picked him up from the desk as quick as I could and put him in the shoebox. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sophie put the lid on.

I looked over at the filing cabinet again. The key was still in the keyhole.

"No," Sophie said.

"No what?"

"Don't open the others. Please."

"Why not?"

"There's probably more bad stuff in there. I bet there is. Please Ben."

I was tempted to throw the key away then, like into the fountain or something, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep not knowing what else was in there – I mean, even if I didn't have the key there were tools out in the shed that would have done the job. Sophie was watching my face, watching these thoughts go through my head. In the end she just sighed and looked sadly away.

I opened the second drawer. It was empty.

"Empty," I said. "See?"

The last drawer wasn't though. There was a book in it. Joe's book.

"Whattaya looking at me like that for?" Sophie said.

I sighed and tucked the book under my arm.

"You're an arsehole, Ben. You really think I put that there?"

"What am I meant to think?"

"Well I didn't." She looked like she was about to cry. Jesus.

"Sophie, listen."

"Arsehole." She pushed past me and stamped away upstairs.

So I had to bury the little man by myself. I dug a small hole, but deep. I'd never seen any diggers around Ambrose, just birds and bugs, and Fred – but I dug the hole deep anyway just in case. I didn't say anything for the little man. I just put him in the ground then put the dirt back in. Then I went upstairs and washed the dirt off my hands and changed into my pyjamas and got into bed with Sophie. She was pretending to be asleep. I switched the light off and lay there in the dark and watched the ceiling and thought about the filing cabinet and the key. I fell asleep wondering why the key had been in Elinor's purse in the first place.

The next day, after Sophie started speaking to me again, we made a tiny cross for the little man, but because we didn't know him we couldn't write anything on it.

We didn't even know his name.