Littlehall, Chapter 9, Ghosts

Pat is a boy growing up in Littlehall, A fictional town in the US. Isult is a nurse in Dublin, Ireland, and head carer for a comatose patient. This is the story of how their worlds crossover.

This is an extract of a chapter I'm putting up. Its broken up into sections. Words, Voices, views, coffee, chats, rants, epiphanies all appreciated (within reason now).

This is the story of a boy, Pat, growing up in Littlehall. A fictional town in the US. The tale follows his teenage years in a first person narrative. Running in tandem with this is a story of a nurse, Isult, in Dublin, Ireland looking after a comatose patient in a St Jude’s central hospital. At night the patient starts “talking” in his sleep. Isult begins taking notebook entries of what he says. The story hops back and forth between the two narratives. A third narrative is introduced later. That of Donal and his uncle. Both work in a private investigator’s agency used by tabloid newspapers.

This extract below begins well into the narrative where an Isult visits Littlehall in order to look into Pat’s past. The obscure nature of the extract below has made me consider using it as the beginning of the novel, and using the first person section, set years before, as the middle part of the narrative. A pretty conventional approach by today’s standards similar to the typical “jumping narrative.” I would prefer to keep the narrative direct and simple but I can’t deny the “erratic” approach does seem to add something.

Ghosts

She woke to the smell of bacon on the air. 9.34 with all of three hours sleep. Breakfast was served till ten. A dog somewhere nearby barked mechanically. Dreamy memory seemed to recall he’d started barking when she finally nodded off. Guessed by the sound of him he hadn’t stopped yet. She dragged herself up in the bed and peered at the reflection in the mirror across the room. The air travel and last night combined had left her with a face that would turn milk. Outside the rain had calmed into a half hearted drizzle. She got up and looked out into Littlehall under a grey sky. She could make out the cars and trucks going about their morning errands and messages in the rain. Wasn’t that different from small village life back home except the wellies were boots, and the jumpers were shirts and brightly colored rain jackets of reds and yellows. A gust rattled the telephone pole crossing just outside the window and its odd shape again reminded of the difference from home.

She dressed quickly. Would wash up after she’d got a bit of grub in her. Took a few dollars change to ring Bea at the pay phone down stairs.

The same greasy kid who had brought her up something to eat the night before was now helping his father serve breakfast. She walked in under the spiral stairs and dialled Bea out on the telephone.

“Hello?” a muffled voice answered.

“Hey Mam its me. You not well?”

“woke this mornen shaken and my nose running off me. I suppose it’s the flue or the like”

“you bad?”

“I’ll live. Hows day 1 been then?”

Isult squeezed in as much as she could for her call. Mentioning Dennis, The swamp, and old Sam’s Death. Her mother feigned disinterest. Started in on trying to convince her again to come home. She was in an odd place with strange people she didn’t know from Adam. Flue thinned her gusto.

“So how’s things there? All well?”

“no news is good news. Pat’s no better or worse. He’s like a little child. Asks every few hours if there’s been any news of you. It was adorable to start with but now he’s on the verge of driving me batty.”

“you’re a saint mam.”

“of course I am. Probably end up a martyr too between him spending half his days at death’s door” a loud sniffling snort down the line “..and you running off half way across the world on a whim.”

“I think once im finished here mam, and back home, we’ll have something more to go on. Pat will-” there was a click and the sound of coins dropping into the phones belly. She put the receiver down and headed into the breakfast room.

Outside, after a good breakfast, she stood on the corner off the hotel looking down main street. Looked odd. Littlehall without sun. Weather never figured much in the note books, always took the place with a sunny back drop. Threw her a bit. Yesterday with the sun she moved through it easy, as much hers as it was Dennis’s and the rest. Now under the dripping cover of a grey wet sky she was a stranger.

---

She spent the next couple of hours walking up and down Littlehall. Checking street names, stepping in and out of shops, getting a feel of the place and filling in any little gaps in the imagined picture she had drawn up to guide her through Pat’s ramblings.

Otango’s diner was closed down and replaced with a GMC dealers. A sign of the new found wealth the pharmaceutical company outside of town had brought to the place. Again she felt the clash with what she knew and regretted not being able to pop in, sit on the stools at the counter Pat had worked behind, daydream about him serving the locals and the truckers, and of course play out how Sam had caused a fuss sitting in on the Otango’s without them realizing it. The glossed and waxed veneers of the pharma cars seemed to sneer out at her, taking pleasure in having robbed her of that little wander into the past.

She walked in through the large double glazed double doors; looked out of place for a little town like this. There wasn’t a sinner to be seen except a fat little man who sat behind a large desk trying to make himself look busy while having nothing to do. He looked more suited to a sitting in a combine than behind a desk in a GMC dealers. As she walked towards him he stood up all enthusiasm.

“how may I help you miss?”

“sorry, Im just making an enquiry about the old diner that was here before this place.”

“Marie and Marchelo Otango?”

“I believe they ran the diner here a couple years back.”

“that they did. But they moved off about two years ago. I’m sorry weere you looking to get hold of them?”

“I suppose I was.”

“well the two of em uped sticks and moved off to Europe.”

“Europe.” funny the word seemed out of place here.

“yes of all places, suppose they had enough money made out of the old place. It was the central eatery in Littlehall, served all the trucks coming through as well. Old Otango was set on finding his roots I beleive. Can I ask what the connection was missy?”

“friends of the family” she said. Wasn’t a lie either, seeing she was married to their star employee.

“well I wouldn’t know off hand maself where they’ve got to- ya know an address or telephone number, but I have a guy outside who knew em pretty well.”

“oh no its-” but already he was up and walking over a small door at the side of the show room. Leaning out, his fat stomach leaning on the door frame he called

“Paul come ‘mer a seck will ya.”

A man looking in his mid twenties pulled his head out from under a car bonnet and looked over at them. He had a handsome face, a little drawn, set in a permanent frown.

“two ticks Harold.”

He closed down the bonnet, went round and turned off the engine, then walked over to them wiping his hands on his backside as he walked.

“This lady here was looking to know something about the old couple who used to own the diner, told her you knew em, might have a number or an address.”

The young mechanic looked at her wondering the connection

“Friend of family,” the fat sales man said leaning back out the door before walking back inside.

--

(She meets Suzie a sister of Pat’s old friend Dennis. She offers to introduce her to Dennis)

Dennis walked in on the two of them around three. Suzie had got tea up and they'd been chatting about the place and comparing notes on Littlehall. How the things she'd stored away from Pat and the facts had weighed up. He looked embarrassed on seeing the stranger in his sister's kitchen.

"hey" he said eyes to the ground.

"Pat this is the wife of an old friend of ours," his sister said standing up and taking a canvas bag of tools from him.

"you have your usual?"

"yea...what friend would that be?"

Isult kept her eyes fixed on him, waiting to see what change once the bombshell was dropped

"pat" suzie watched now too.

His brow nit/

"Pat?"

"yea Dennis, Pat... Patrick,"

The confusion was gone and he looked at her straight, she thought there was fear there somewhere

"pat's Wife?"

"yes." she stood up quickly and stuck her hand out. This was the same dennis who had seen all those bad days; she was the peace envoy, it was important she had him on side if she was to get anywhere. He took the hand readily enough and even smiled shyly, but his eyes where reading her. Which part of Pat did this one belong she swore they were saying.

"Sweet Jesus....Pat's wife," he said looking at his sister know.

"i know Den...i couldnt believe it either. She just walked into Raster's asken for you."

"Its a pleasure mam."

"Look.." better to get it out of the way "Look i know a bit about how Pat took

his leave of this place.. Some of the stuff he did..." even though it was perfectly reasonable she felt talking about pat this way wasn’t totally right.

"That's right."

"Well I..."

"hey there's no need for going over all that," Suzie said anxiously "water under and all that."

"I just think you two should know Pats very different now. I think he's closer to how he used to before all that, before all the weird stuff kicked off."

"where is he now?" Dennis asked

"back at home. We live in Ireland, in Dublin with our kid."

"he's got a kid?" that troubled look again.

"yea, he's nine now."

"what's he doen with himself then?"

"Nothing much these days." dont bother Iss. leave Pandora’s box alone "he's

pretty ill at the moment actually."

"Im sorry to hear that." they had all sat down at the table and Suzie had served

up Dennis's lunch.

"what's up with him Isult," Suzie asked.

"well.. its strange really. Sometimes he's absolutely perfect then other times...he's

been bedridden a lot lately. Fits of weakness, fainting, temporary memory lose."

"and what is it he's got" Dennis said. she could see, what ever had happened in between, the two really wanted to know about him.

"thats the thing.. no one really has a clue. It all goes back to something that an accident that happened a few years back..."

Dennis was still reading her through the conversation. His head was all a scatter,

wondering. It was weird and nice at the same time to see her now. The way she talked

, held herself; it all held in Pat's favor. The confidence and at the same time the care she took

, watching where she stepped, knowing what they knew. It all went in Pat's favor.

"it 's hard to believe, seein ya here, its been years." he said leaning back in his chair, arms folded. “How did you meet him?”

"I got to know Pat.." she knew they would think the next bit very odd "as a patient

in a hospital."

"what kind of hospital?" Dennis said.

"why?" her tone told him she thought the question leading.

"Dennis what does that have to do with anything?" said Suzie.

"Maybe nothing..." he looked embarrassed but didn’t apologize.

"The hospital was of the general kind. I was his nurse at the time. He was pretty bad when he came round, and from there all that other stuff I mentioned earlier had started up after he got out."

"you too got pretty close then?" said Suzie.

"Yes. We were married two years later" felt odd saying it. Sordid, like something out of a trashy novel. "The rest up till now, can wait for the moment. Nothing much of interest anyway."

"Okay" Dennis said "I’m guessing that you want to ask me a few things then?"

Dennis did pretty much fit in with the image she had in her head. But all of Pat’s talk never could have prepared her for seeing him, and Suzie in the flesh though, and it was certainly odd seeing them now. Their parents must have been lookers, because both Dennis and Suzie were handsome. Both of them had that skin wearied look that came with living in a place like this.

"If you don’t mind. I've picked up a lot and I’ve put it all up here" she tapped her temple "but there's a lot for some reason or other Pat seems to have completely forgot. Not even that. Its as if its not even in there anymore. He tells me stuff up to a point and then, its like a whole chunk of what’s in his head, years at a time sometimes, has gone missing."

Dennis looked like he was drawing conclusions.

"That is pretty strange," was all he said.

"Do you have any idea why he's like that" Suzie said.

"no"

"i'll be happy to fill you in. Pick up what ever my sister missed but i got jobs the rest of the day. I wont be free till around eight probably”

“That'll be fine. I have to go find myself a place to put up anyway."

"We'll hear none of that. I'm sure Su will be happy to hand over a bed for as long as your hear" the surgate pa mode Pat had told her about still seemed to be in the older Dennis.

"of course Den."

"if ya dont mind i'd prefer to get my own place.i keep strange hours, nursing Pat. Its

a hard habbit to break." and she'd be able to come and go as she pleased.

"Suit yourself mam. But there'll be a place here for ya if ya need it."

There was a noise from the hall and a child came waddling in, bleary eyed holding a sleepy blanket up to her nose. Suzy lifted her into her arms.

"Right ladies I best be getting back. You'll hang around here Isult till this evening anyway, after you get your place."

"sure."

"alright. See you two later then."

"See you Den," His sister said giving him a quick hug.
The two sat in silence as Dennis's pickup drove down main street. It was just beginning to get awkward.

So first impressions then?" Dennis looking at her, when they pulled up to a set of lights.

"As i see it in my head. Its funny, i've picked up so much off Pat, its like

i've been here already."

"So tell me then what you can pick out. I'll put ya right where ever you go amiss."

"Well that for one, there" she pointed over to a building on a corner. Flowers

were in the windows and a stand outside saying deliveries on the hour "that's

Mrs Coaty’s Flower shop."

"yep Francis has ran it for years"

"she's married to a teacher."

"yea right again, but Mark has retired. If she could have here way she'd be buried under the floor boards and haunt anyone who tried to do anything with the place."

"what's she like?"

"you couldnt ask for a better friend in Francis, as long as you

stay on the right side of her."

"she's a Baptist."

Dennis looked at her and smiled looking ahead again "Pat's wife all right."

She colored a little "well no...i didnt mean it in that way. Its just...

I think you probably know yourself."

"yea Pat had a thing about the baptists. I remember that well" they drove on and

he was quiet again, thinking.

"thing was all of us had a thing about the baptists. The catholics i mean, just as they had a thing with us." he turned onto Bleacher’s street "there’s history in this place and a lot of it aint too pleasant. And for Pat that was a sticker.”

"They liked each other a lot though?"

"Yeah, weirdest thing is Pat was one of her favorites, and

he was pretty attached to her too." He tapped the wheel impatiently "and that was the thing. That was him in a nutshell. There was just so much going on around that head

of his i couldnt get. And it only got worse towards the end.." he looked at her "sorry mam. I didnt mean to-"

It wasn’t hard to see Dennis was of two minds about Pat and all that happened. It was strange watching him.

"Dont worry about it. I need to hear all this so you feel free to fire off when ever the need catches you."

They left the town behind as they drove further down out the road. To the right in the distance Isult noticed something else she recognized.

"that’s the old tyre factory isnt it?"

"was the old tyre factory. Has been empty for years now. There used to be

these two massive Alsatians that would give me and Pat hell anytime we came along

here."

"I remember Pat mentioned them before."

"we used to come around here some nights. Pat liked the swamp. One time, when

we came down here real late one night we ran into this old guy who chassed us off the place, taking pot shots at us as we ran."

"Old Sam" she said a little nervously. How much did Dennis know about what had happened? Was she going to spend all here time here trying to tip toe round secrets only to find he knew most of them anyway?

"yea old Sam....Pat and him were real close." he was looking at her again "its

kinda unnerving."

"what?"

"You knowing all this stuff. Its like your in on this towns big dirty secret too."

"is that how Pat's seen then?"

"no it wasnt just Pat." still looking ahead "there was a lot of trouble back then, and it all just kind of came to a head at the same time"

"can i get a look at the swamp at some point."

"sure. We can go have a look now if you want to cut the trip short."

"i thought you wanted to head back to your place."

"my place is there." he turned onto a dirt track that led past the abandoned factory and up towards the swamp. He pulled up to the same gat he and Pat had climbed over all those long years before. They both got out.

“wasn’t that the way in?” Isult said pointing to a barely visible gate.

Again the uneasy look from Dennis.

“it’s just that, a few months back I sat down with pat at the dinner table and we mapped out the whole place.”

“really?”

“yea…” she walked through some of the over growth, “it was through here wasn’t it.”

“it was. But I havn’t used that way in a long time. I usually go round that way” he waved off somewhere towards the left “more private.”

Isult bent down to pull something out of the grass. A square sheet of metal about a foot each way. She rubbed at the algae covered front where she could make out lettering underneath revealing the words keep off.

Dennis Smiled.

“that’s the old sign. Sam was very proud of it. Pat painted it up new for him in everthen. Keep rubbing, I think the rest of it goes ‘trespassers will be shot." He led her on through the little side way in, and they disappeared into the dark overgrowth.

Author's Note

This is an extract of a chapter I'm putting up. Please bear that in mind, re questions about not knowing the characters, time, place. Im just getting a feel. Hope to put the whole thing up properly soon. Its broken up into sections. Words, Voices, views, coffee, chats, rants, epiphanies all appreciated (within reason now).