Braeland

Chapter 22. The Bulging House

Jim was warming up to the challenge of having his house over-filled with new occupants.  He was argued out of the need for building an extension, because of the cost and the mess but also because everyone was prepared to double up.  So Rula slept with Prudence in her bedroom.  Peter's former bedroom was now occupied by the two sisters Charlotte and Anne – although Mrs. George threatened to move them if any more sounds of fights between the two were heard.  Peter slept with his father in the main-floor bedroom.  Mrs. George was down the basement in the tiny spare room.  The only concession to Jim's desire for practicality was the building of a new bathroom down the basement.  The group was close-knit.  If anyone asked, the story was that the visitors were family come across from England.       

While the Jamiesons were out on weekdays at work and school, the rest of the extended family studied the ways and writings of the new world they would live in for a time . . . until it was safe to return to Greenwold if that time ever came.  In the evenings and on weekends, the study of mindspeak resumed, now with three teachers – Rula, Charlotte and Mrs. George – and with the rest, including Anne, as students.  Except that Anne was not an attentive student.  When Charlotte spoke, Anne had a habit of imitating her facial expressions and grimacing, then breaking out in giggles.  Peter was embarrassed when Anne sat next to him on the couch because she would pinch his leg or lean up against him.  On such occasions, he would excuse himself, go to the bathroom and then choose another place even if it meant sitting on the floor.  

Anne was two years younger than Charlotte but she was what many boys would call "cuter" than her older sister.  Prudence introduced her to lipstick and makeup and she delighted in wearing it.  During the day while Charlotte, Rula and even Mrs. George studied books, Anne was off somewhere in a room by herself watching television or exploring the internet.  She told the others that she had found a faster way of learning and that the rest were, according to her, "too set in their ways" to take some shortcuts to living in this more modern world.  

They took a break on Friday night every week from the training regime and it was on one of these Fridays when Jim was having tea with Rula and Mrs. George that he addressed a question to the latter, "Mrs. George, do you have a first name?"

"We have only one name in Greenwold and when we marry the woman loses her old name and takes on her husband's. When I was a girl my name was Mary."

"Mary is a beautiful name.  I apologize if this is rude or inappropriate of me in light of your husband's recent death but, in this world, might you consider bringing that name back?  You could be known as Mary George," Jim said.  

"Here I have not been thinking over much about my George.  When I met him I thought he looked like a good man and he had regular work cutting down trees.  But he was a slave to the pint pot and the bottle . . ." and here Mrs. George began to cry.  Rula gave her a hug.  

"I'm so sorry Mary," said Jim.

"No, no, you have nothing to be sorry for, and I would like to be called Mary, in this world at least.  Just Mary.  I am happy here but . . ."

"You are worried about Anne," said Rula.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Intuition," Rula replied.

"Could we have a talk with her?  She won't listen to me.  She never did and she only listened to George because she was afraid of him."

They agreed to have this discussion and Rula volunteered to find Anne and bring her to the living room.  But Anne was not in the kitchen and not upstairs and not down the basement. She was not in the yard and she was not in the park down the street.  Where was she?  Rula came back, out of breath, to report Anne missing.  Charlotte, Prudence and Peter were called in and they had no answers other than Charlotte's observation that Anne seemed excited earlier in the evening after using Peter's computer.  It was now nine o'clock.  Mary was embarrassed and anxious at the same time. 

Jim, Prudence and Charlotte went in the car on a sweep of the neighborhood.  Peter stayed behind with the other two women to field any phone calls and to allow Peter time to search through any traces he could find on his browser of what Anne had been doing.  An hour later the car returned to the driveway and all those in the house came running out to see if they had found Anne.  But no, not a trace.  

"It's not good news from my computer Dad.  Anne was on Facebook and a number of chat and dating sites.  But, it doesn't show where she could have gone or if she was meeting someone."

"That's bad news Peter.  I think we had better call the police.  Is that all right with you, Mrs. G . . . Mary?"

Mary said that whatever Jim thought best should be done.  They all listened as Bill punched in the numbers for the police and said, "I want to report a missing girl named Anne.  Last name? Uh, Jamieson, my niece, a visitor to the city from England.  Age 15.  She has shoulder-length brown hair, blue eyes.  I don't know what she was wearing when she went missing."

"A blue dress," said Charlotte.

"Did you hear that officer, a blue dress?  O.K. I can wait."  Jim turned to the anxious group around them and said, "She may be there."  Then there was the sound of the voice on the line again, "What!  The girl you have does not answer to the name of Miss Jamieson?  That's because . . . well, I don't know but you say all the rest of the description fits.  Yes.  Can I speak to her?  Why not?  At least let me come down to the station and bring her mother?"

The officer agreed to this and so Jim drove Mary and Charlotte to the police station which was not far away.  "Needless to say, we can't say anything about Greenwold or they'll lock all of us up."

"Oh no, will they!" exclaimed Mary.

"He's exaggerating mother, to make a point," said Charlotte, from the back seat.  

"Sorry about that.  Don't worry now," said Bill.

When they got to the police station they discovered, as they brought the girl forward to the desk, that it was indeed Anne and she was looked at them very shame-facedly.  She went to Mary who wrapped her arms around her and cried, saying, "You bad, bad, dear girl."

The police sergeant said, "She's been in with a rough bunch of heavy drug users.  We don't think she's taken anything tonight or that she's a regular user.  We raided the party and brought everyone in.  She can give a statement and then go, with a warning. Do you have her identification on you?  If not, the mother's will do."

Jim was silent for a while. Mary and Charlotte looked confused.  Anne sobbed.  When Jim spoke, his tone was commanding and yet soft at the same time, "The girl would not give good evidence.  This was her first time.  You do not need identification.  There is so much other work you have to do tonight."

The sergeant was stunned.  He breathed heavily as if a weight had just been pressed upon him.  "You can go.  Miss, don't get yourself mixed up with this kind of company again."

"Thank you for the warning sergeant.  You will not see her here again," said Jim, getting the three women to move off with him hurriedly.  

In the car on the way home Charlotte said to Jim, "That was a brilliant piece of mindspeak Mr. Jamieson.  I think you are ready to go to Greenwold."