5
With all the excitement of coming back to cottage and finding out about their friend, the girls had not noticed that things were different, very different indeed.
They had gone downstairs and into the lounge of the cottage. They sat on the couch – tired from the adventure of going back in time – tired of coming back and in a tizzy over Lizzy and the news about their friend.
Aoife looked around the room and something was strange again – Was this the cottage they had left? It looked different. The couch she was sitting on was not the same couch – in fact it was a brown couch and not the red couch that had been there. This was a different cottage.
Aoife began to realise that they were not in the same place after all. They stood up. Niamh had also seen that things were different.
“What’s going on, what’s happened to us, have we not returned to our own time?” She said in a worried voice.
Aoife knew what the date and time should have been. She began to look around for something that would tell them what date it was. She saw a magazine lying on a table. She picked it up. “May 2006, Volume 42.”
Yes this was 2006 and it was the right month.
“Something must have happened when we were gone” she said – “but surely not a new couch and television and different paint job.”
They heard the front door opening. Niamh was just about to run to meet her Dad, when Aoife grabbed her arm.
“Hold on Niamh” she said, “I have a very bad feeling about this.”
Niamh stopped and could see the Aoife had a very concerned look on her face. The door closed and they heard the footsteps in the hall bringing whoever it was closer to them.
The door opened and a large and very fierce looking (a little startled too!) stood before them.
She jumped back and snapped, “What are you two rats doing here. Who are you? What are you doing in my house?”
Niamh said nothing at all as she was just too scared.
Aoife tried to think of something. “Errr well we were just passing and we saw the front door open and we thought maybe – we came in and we thought that you were being burgled and … ”
The woman interrupted her. “What? That door was locked from the outside. How did you too get in here?”
Aoife was out of excuses and decided that since the woman was a little bit on the chubby side, she could make a good escape.
“Niamh – RUN” she shouted and both girls ran towards the fat lady separating to either side of her, accidentally pushing her backwards and making her fall back on her feet and hit the floor with an enormous thud.
She squealed and roared, “I’ll get you two monsters and when i do, I will give you a good thrashing …. ”
But there would be no chance of that. Aoife and Niamh had bolted for the door and were almost at the front gate of the cottage. They jumped over the fence, crossed the road and ran off into the fields towards Kilkenny.
After a minute of running as fast as they had ever run in their lives, Niamh looked back towards to cottage. She could not see the fat woman chasing them. Niamh, shouted, panting – “Hold on Aoife, I don’t think that fat woman is going to chase us.
Aoife stopped and turned round – panting as hard as Niamh, she said – “yeah you’re right.” She looked over towards a small wooden style leading into another field.
“Let’s go over there” she said, “We can sit on that style and figure out what the heck we are going to do next. ”
The girls sat on the wooden style and got their breaths back. “What are we going to do” said Niamh, almost in tears. She still didn’t quite understand what had happened to them and to be honest this was a lot for a little girl to take in.
Aoife said nothing; she just looked back towards the cottage. She was deep in thought.
She began to pull her ear lobe – it was still a little bit sore after her ear infection. Just then, she froze and sat bolt upright.
“That’s it Niamh,” I think I understand what’s happened here.
Niamh was only too glad to hear of this and would be more than too pleased to find out how she could get back to her Barbie dolls and dominoes.
“We must have altered time” said Aoife – Niamh listened carefully – she said nothing. “We have gone back in time and in some way, have given Lizzy my sore ear. I should have taken that Antibiotic, and then I might never have infected her.”
“But how does that affect us?” said Niamh puzzled.
“Well don’t you see” said Aoife, “Lizzy got an ear infection from me and they didn’t have Antibiotics in those days and I think she either got very sick or died from it. Now that changed everything in the future.”
“I don’t understand” said Niamh, “what do you mean?”
“Well I think it’s like this” said Aoife. “If she died young because I gave her a nasty bacteria, then maybe she would have had children and then didn’t. Then I guess those children that were supposed to have been born were never born and so that makes everything different.
“How?” said Niamh – “I just don’t understand.”
“Let’s say that one of those children was Dads grandfather, right?”
“OK … got that” said Niamh
“Well, then if he was never born then Dads’ father could never be born and then he could not be born and we could not be born either, right?
She paused and thought. “Right Aoife, but we are here we have been born.”
Aoife was keen to get her point across – “Yeah yeah, I know but it could mean that Lizzy did something else – something else that didn’t affect us but did affect where the cottage was and who owned it.”
Niamh, at last, began to see too. “Oh my God” she said slowly and in her very melodramatic style. “What are we going to do then?”
“We have to try and go back and make sure Lizzy is ok and that she doesn’t get an ear infection. If only I could get some antibiotics for her.” said Aoife.
This was going to be a problem for sure.
“How can we do that?” said Niamh. “We are stuck in a field, no Dad, no idea where he is, how on earth can we get back?
It will take ages to walk back to Kilkenny and I’m hungry.”
She reached into her jacket pocket hoping to find a bit chewing gum or sweets. This time she sat upright. “Oh my God” she said again. She pulled out the bottle of antibiotics. “I must have put it in my pocket – you know when you came into the kitchen?”
Aoife looked at her and let out a scream – “Wonderful! Niamh you are one clever girl, I take it all back!”
Aoife could see a way out of this now. She explained the plan to Niamh.
They would go back to the cottage and try to get in somehow – they could go back into the attic, go round again, hear the thunder and come out in Lizzy’s time.
They would find Lizzy and tell her to take the antibiotics when she got a sore ear and then come straight back and never go in there again.
That would, she hoped, get them back and Niamh could have some supper.
Firstly, they had to work out a plan to get back into the cottage. That fat lady was not going to be so kind as to open her door and just let them walk upstairs and disappear into her attic. “Oh yeah” Aoife thought, “that would be an interesting conversation – Hello there, I am sorry we pushed you to the ground and hurt your fat butt but could we just come in for a second. I think not.”
They decided that the best way would be to entice the woman out of the house and then somehow to get in.
They only needed a few seconds to get in and then they would be gone anyway. That fat woman was not going to be able to catch then once they were in the attic.
They started back over the fields, back towards the cottage. They kept low and walked slowly. Once then cottage came into view they stopped and squatted down.
Then they crawled up to the fenced on the side of the road. They could see the cottage and right into the kitchen window. The fat lady was walking from room to room. There didn’t appear to be anybody else in the house.
Aoife looked around and then she spotted the clothes dryer in the yard. On it hung a large number of clothes – large being both number and size! Aoife thought hard and then she came up with a plan. “OK Niamh, here’s what we will do” and she smiled a wicked smile.
“We creep down there, take all those clothes off the line and then put them in a trail from the front door round the cottage. We hide round the corner and then we sneak up and ring the bell, then make a run for it. She will come out, see the clothes and then go off round the other corner to pick them up. We run into the house and into the attic. Got it?”
“Got it” said Niamh.
Quietly they pulled the clothes from the dryer and then crept around the yard laying them on the ground, leading a sort of Hansel and G rete I trail of big pants and bras. Niamh went and hid round the corner of the cottage.
Aoife went up to the front door. She rang the bell three times and for as long as she could. She waited until she heard footsteps and then she ran round the corner beside Niamh.
The door opened and the fat lady came out.
She looked left and right and tried to see where the person ringing the bell was. “Hello” she shouted, “who’s there?”
Then she looked down.
The fat lady let an even louder roar this time. “Who did this – I’ll get you”
Aoife and Niamh dared not put their heads round the corner, but they had to. They heard the woman shuffling and they reckoned she was picking up the clothes – she was.
Aoife very carefully looked round – she was gone – “let’s go” she said to Niamh pulling her arm.
Both girls ran into the house and up the staircase. They got to the top of the stairs – the attic doors were in front of them – “at last this whole nightmare was about to be over” Aoife thought.
The doors were in front of them but there was a chain round the handles.
“Oh no” said Aoife with desperation in her voice, “she’s locked it. She must have realised we came out of the attic last time and just locked it.”
Niamh looked down the staircase and said “What a bit ….”
Aoife interrupted – “No time for that Niamh, we have to get this thing open – we won’t get past her this time and there is no way out.”
Aoife darted past Niamh into the bedroom. She was looking for something to get that chain off. Being only an 8-year-old and probably not finding a pair of chain cutters in someone’s bedroom, she realised she was up against it.
Niamh was standing looking at the chain in disbelief.
Then she heard the door slam shut and big stomping footsteps.
“Aoife,” she shouted “that fat woman is back.”
Aoife looked up – “Oh great Niamh, now she knows we are here.”
A third roar and this time and it my goodness was it a blood curdling roar.
“Is that you two up there, I am going to kill you both.”
The piercing squeal left Aoife and Niamh in no doubt they were going to be in trouble.
Aoife was franticly looking for something. She went into the en-suite bathroom and she saw a toilet brush. She looked at it, “worth a go” she said and grabbed it. She ran out and past Niamh.
Niamh looked at her and said “what on earth are you going to do with that Aoife – shove it up her ar… ”
Aoife interrupted again – “Niamh, we really have to talk about your language … No I am going to try and break the wooden handles – you have got to help me or we’ve had it.”
Aoife jammed the toilet brush into the space between the chain and the handles. The handles were small and Aoife hoped they would break. The woman was on the bottom staircase and they could see by her bright red face that she was hopping mad and out for blood. Both girls pulled as hard as they could – “come on Niamh,” screamed Aoife “pull it, pull”.
The fat lady was on the 4th step and for a woman of her size was bounding up those stairs with a real purpose – a purpose of giving those girls a good hiding.
“One last pull” shouted Aoife and with all their weight they pulled. There was a loud crack and both girls, two handles a large metal chain and a toilet brush all crashed back into the bedroom.
The girls picked themselves up and ran towards the attic – which was now open.
They didn’t even see the fat lady as she reached the last step. Niamh was first to the opening and she clambered in.
Aoife followed but the fat lady was right on top of them. She managed to grab Aoife’s leg as she stumbled forward. “Got you, you little rat.”
She might have been fat but she had a very tight grip on Aoife’s right leg and Aoife felt herself being pulled back.
Aoife still had a hold of her toilet brush and she turned round and gave the fat lady’s hand a good whack.
“Owe” fat lady yelled.
Aoife decided this was it – so with mighty wield of the toilet brush and with a vision of Joan of Arc she whacked the fat lady’s hand again.
“Owe, Owe you little bit.”
“Got ya” shouted Aoife and the fat lady let her go.
By this time Niamh was out of sight round the corner.
Aoife dropped the toilet brush and just crawled as fast as a beetle with its butt on fire round the corner. Round the corner into the dark passage and hopefully back to her friend.
When they rounded the last corner Aoife had caught up with Niamh – “Is she going to follow us said Niamh?”
“Not likely unless she has some dynamite handy to make a hole big enough for her fat butt” replied Aoife.
They crawled along the darkness and the distant thunder rumbled again.
The came full circle and found the attic doors again – the big floorboard attic doors. This time they prepared themselves.
Lizzy would know who they were but they didn’t want to spend any more time in the past – so it was a case of making sure Lizzy knew what to do and took her medicine when the time came.
They heard some voices and they knew it was Lizzy.
Aoife decided to go because Niamh would get distracted and go off to play with some wooden dolls somewhere.
She climbed out of the attic and made her way down the staircase. She saw Lizzy.
“Lizzy” she whispered. Lizzy was delighted to see her.
“Aoife” she squealed with happiness “you came back!” – but at once she could see from Aoife that something was not quite right. She stopped – “what’s wrong” she said.
Aoife explained to her as quickly as she could.
“When we came to this time – the last time – we brought something that will make you ill and you will be very ill. We need to make sure that does not happen otherwise we won’t ever see our Dad again.”
“If you get a sore ear or throat in the next week, you must take some of this liquid in this bottle.”
She held up the bottle. “About a thimble-full” she said.
“You must take it 3 times each day until it’s finished and then you must put it into the hole in the wall once it’s finished. That way no one will ever find it.
“Then do you have to leave?” said Lizzy.
“Yes” said Aoife, “we must and we can’t come back- ever. You will always be my friend but for me to be here means I could change everything. I, we must leave now. Please take that medicine – it will make everything right and you will be fine. OK?”
“Yes” said Lizzy. She knew that this would be the last time she saw Aoife.
Aoife smiled and said – “take care Lizzy – look after yourself, for all of us.”
“You take care too” said Lizzy and she moved to give Aoife a hug.
Aoife pulled back – “No Lizzy” she said, “we can’t touch it might make it worse. Goodbye Lizzy” and she smiled.
But she was crying and Lizzy was crying too with tears running down her cheeks.
Aoife remembered everything that had happened. “I have to make this right again” she said quietly to herself and with that she waved goodbye to Lizzy and ran off up the stairs to meet Niamh in the attic.
For the last time, they crawled into the darkness and heard the rumble of thunder.