As Robert Clarke and Nana Spence headed back into the beach house he immediately noticed how silent the house was. It was just him and his grandmother for the rest of the summer.
‘I’m not that thrilled about it either,’ Nana Spence arched her eyebrow, knowing exactly her grandson was thinking. ‘You think I want to spend my summer looking after you? I do have things I want to do...’
‘Oh yes...bingo, how exciting!’ Robert mocked.
‘Just because I’m old does not mean that I play bingo!’ Nana Spence glared, prodding her grandson in the side of the head and went to go make herself a nice cup of ginger and lemon tea.
Robert was desperate to talk to his grandmother about his leg but wasn’t quite sure how such a conversation would start.
‘Cora,’ Robert gulped, addressing his grandmother by her first name, as he often did when talking to her about something important. ‘Can you have a look at this?’
Nana Spence flicked the switch on the kettle and bustled through to the other end of the kitchen.
‘Look at what?’ She asked earnestly.
Rob rolled his left trouser leg up to his knee and showed his grandmother the silvery scar that covered most of the lower half of his leg. Nana Spence gasped in surprise and took a closer look.
Robert Clarke sat on one of the kitchen chairs and told his grandmother all he could remember about that night he went to the beach.
Nana Spence carefully listened to Robert and nodded every so often. She asked only one question.
‘...now what did this fisherman look like?’
‘I don’t know,’ Rob shrugged, ‘middle-aged...he had weird fingers, they looked like they were covered in jewels...oh and he had a big, green bushy beard...why is he important?’
‘I don’t know dear...’ Nana Spence looked concerned, ‘was he the only one who saw you there that night?’
‘Yes...I think so...’
Nana Spence looked pensive for a moment and then suddenly jumped into the air. She ran around the kitchen, drawing all the curtains and locked the front door.
She looked at Rob’s leg and mumbled something to herself.
‘Am I going to be alright?’ Rob asked starting to worry, ‘My leg is going to be alright? Right?’
‘Um...yes,’ Nana Spence promised unconvincingly. ‘Close your eyes.’ She told Rob.
Robert closed his eyes and listened as his grandmother rummaged around the kitchen. The front door opened then shut and then opened and shut again.
He listened to more rustling and then a wheeze of pain. His leg was then placed on one of the other kitchen chairs and another wheeze came from his grandmother.
‘What are you doing?’ Rob quizzed, opening his left eye impatiently.
‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING!’ Robert shouted and flailed his arms into the air as his seventy year old grandmother stood next to him with a sledgehammer over her shoulder.
‘Don’t worry darling this shouldn’t hurt a bit...’ Nana Spence tried to calm.
‘SHOULDN’T!’ Rob screamed.
Ignoring her grandson’s cries, Nana Spence brought the sledge hammer down on Robert’s leg with as much force as she could muster.
‘Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!’ Rob yelled in fear.
The dull grey hammer met with the shiny silver leg that presided at the end of a much shaken Robert Clarke.
Fortunately, for Robert when the two metal objects met the energy that Nana Spence put into hitting her grandson had been reflected away from him.
Unfortunately, for Nana Spence the energy she used to hit her grandson with had been significantly multiplied and was heading straight back at her.
A bright light flashed around Rob’s legs and a wave of energy exploded towards Nana Spence, hurtling the elderly woman backwards. Nana Spence shot across the kitchen and out of the beach house, breaking down the front door as she was blasted outside.
YOU ARE READING
The Bearded Man and The Ghost Girl
Teen Fiction'Robert first saw the ghost girl standing in the churchyard. Her hair was long, her skin was pale and her body glowed, bathing the nearby graves in a cool white light. She was unlike any girl Robert had seen. Her face was unconventionally beautiful...
