Lost Souls

9

Katie found her father still inside the small grocers shop that seemed to serve the villagers with everything they needed to survive being tucked away in such a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. He was talking to an elderly woman half way up one of the four aisles. This particular one stocked a vast variety of breads as well as every kind of biscuit Katie had ever heard of. Briefly she wondered if the Scots enjoyed sandwiches with chocolate biscuits as the filling!

​The old lady was rather small, only just reaching up to her father's shoulders, who at five foot ten, she'd never considered overly tall, but he looked enormous standing next to her. She was wearing a very baggy looking knitted woollen lilac dress, which looked as if it could fall off her frail body at any moment. She had grey, brushed back short hair, thick rimmed glasses, and she stood next to a shopping trolley filled with frozen meals, along with of course bread and biscuits. Katie guessed she lived alone, couldn't be bothered to cook, and when she felt hungry she just popped something in a microwave, or had a snack with a cup of tea.

​As she walked towards them, Katie picked up the aroma of the old lady's perfume. It filled her nose with the smell of roses and freshly cut grass. She'd never smelt such a strange and pungent odour coming from another person before. It was overpowering and almost made her gag.

​"Oh, hi honey," her father said happily as he caught sight of her. "Are you okay? You look like you're going to be sick."

​Katie forced a smile. She couldn't exactly march up and tell him it was the old ladies perfume that was causing her to want to empty her stomach. "I'm fine dad, no worries," she lied, fighting the urge to hold her nose and turn her head away from the smell.

​"That's good sweetheart. You do look pale though." Mr. Rusk paused while he studied Katie's ashen face. Realising his daughter wasn't about to say anymore, he smiled at her again and then added, "Anyway now that you're here, this is Mrs. MacDonald, she's the secretary of the local British Legion. She's very kindly suggested that we go along to one of their meetings and meet some of the villagers. There's a few kids your age that go and play pool and darts."

​Katie clenched her teeth. She didn't particularly enjoy pub games, and absolutely hated being put into awkward situations where strangers could stare at her, making her feel like she was walking around like a beast with three heads. "That'll be fun," she said, sarcastically.

​"Anyway, say hello." her dad suggested politely, fully understanding his daughter's annoyance.

​"Hello," Katie said, shaking Mrs. MacDonald's hand warmly.

​"What a beautiful young lady," Mrs. MacDonald beamed. "I'll bet the single men of the village will be after you soon enough," she added cheekily.

​"She's only sixteen Mrs. MacDonald," Katie's dad pointed out.

​Mrs. MacDonald swallowed hard. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought she was a lot older than that," she replied clearly embarrassedly, as her rosy cheeks grew even redder.

​Katie chuckled, "Don't worry. It's nice to be thought of as older than I am, really it is."

​Mrs. MacDonald smiled brightly, showing a row of rotting teeth. "Your daddy has been asking about Dovecot Manor. My mother used to be a house cleaner there during the Second World War, and then she did a bit in the fifties.

​Katie thought the use of daddy was quite funny, and wondered if she'd now be treated like a small child instead of the grown woman Mrs. MacDonald had thought she was. However, she was more excited to learn if the old lady could tell them anything useful about their new home. "That's great," she said, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible. "Who lived in the house back then?"