Dream weaver

Mums Tale Chapter 2

By the time we got to Shars it was half five, the sun was still out spreading a warming glow over the house. Her parents as promised were nowhere to be seen only the gardener and a few maids who were busy fussing about putting last minute finished to the decorations were about. I stopped by the car watching enjoying the last of the summer light before a sudden sharp pull on my arm made me jump.

"Come on no time for that we've only got two hours to get ready in"

"Two and a half I protested, come on just enjoy the peace and quiet won't you" I dug my heels into the ground as she tried to drag me into the house. A tug of war broke out and soon we were both laughing on the floor as we lost our grip and fell backward with some force.

"Great now I have bruises to set off my dress" Shar said as she got to her feet, " I'm going into get ready but you better follow sharpish I can't work miracles in a hour and you going to take much more than that you know" she turned and fled before I realised what she meant and chased her in intending to get my own back. But I stopped just by her porch a sudden shiver climbing up my spine, the gardener and maids had gone but I got the sence I was not alone.

Her room was huge in fact it was three times the size of my lounge at home, this wasn't the room I remember the last time I came round and it was in the further wing of the house. Seeing my face Shar said "I'm grown up now so mum and dad decided I needed a bigger more adult room"

"Yeah your bigger room " I said trying my hardest to sound sarcastic "is bigger than my whole house

"Ok now where do I start" she said as she walked slowly round me eyeing me up and down as if sizing me up " oh yes bath now you" and she pointed to a small door at the far end of her room\/

"ooooooo an ensuite to haven't you gone up the world" I managed to fit in before ducking through the bathroom door to avoid a flying pillow.

The bathroom was as big as I had guessed it would be with a bath tub of grand scale to match\/. The water within it was already run and full of sumptuous bubbles. Maybe it had run by a maid I though as I slipped out of my home made dress and peered at myself in the steamed up mirror.

My scruffy blonde hair now lay in a fuzzy mess on my shoulders, and the dim bathroom light made my skin look pale white and accentuated my pale blue eyes and rose coloured lips. I couldn't call myself a beauty but I knew my mum called me her true English rose.

I always wondered if I took after my father or his family as I looked nothing like my mum and her side who all had naturally olive skin, brown eyes and dark curly hair, my complete opposite, but alas this was something I would never find out as dad had died before I was born and the only photo of him in my mother's possession was a very old dog eared black and white photo of them from when they first got together a frozen image of time that we would never see again. They were so happy and full of life smiling not knowing what lay ahead.

Mum had said they had moved into their first house together not that long after I saw the tears in her eyes as she remembered all the fond memories they had created together. But then one dark night she had continued a thunderstorm rolled through the sky cloud spun and wind gushed, knocking out he power plunging them into darkness. She said they had clung together on the bed upstairs terrified by the ungoddley sounds outside as hell broke loose. They listened to the banging of the garden door and the howling like an animal being strangled the roof tiles lift and cluttered down making a noise like hail stone the size of small brick pattering a tin roof. Dad had bravely approached the window in time to see a garden shed lift from its concrete base and summersault like a feather across the garden and into the house opposite, smashing their windows with the force. A second crash and they dived to the floor for cover as the house began to tremble. Then a flash so bright that could bling even the night itself shot through the house. I grinned as I remember mums words "I thought the aliens had arrived"

Then there was nothing just silence like the storm had never existed like it had only been in their mind, sighing with relief and after they had release each other from their blood tight grasp, they decided to survey the damage and with a torch they kept by their bedsides the opened the bedroom door , thick smoke crawled like a creature of death into the room curling its fingers round there bare legs and arms and the heat followed not long after. Dad turned to mum cuddled her and told her to stay there shut the door and he would go for help and come back for her but he never did. Mum had only escaped when a neighbour seeing the fire put a ladder against the bedroom window and shouted to her to climb down.

Dad's body was found at the bottom of the stairs, covered in ash, dirt bruised and battered. The police said it looked liked he had lost his footing on the stairs due to the smoke and had died from the fall. Soon after mum had moved to the house we are in now taking what little possessions that had escaped fire damage and tried to start again. On her first night there she had gone to bed and dreamed of dad he was happy and smiling and although she didn't go into details she become blessed with me, a piece of him she could keep forever her dream child a gift from an angel. I'm not sure weather she said it to make me feel better as a child but I always felt loved and wanted.