Charlotte's Prank

Another story I wrote for English.

It floated there, exactly where Charlotte left it. Earlier that day when Macy and Harley found it in the general store, they were so excited, it was perfect, and exactly what their mother would love. They had even gotten it gift wrapped with pink and yellow ribbons, their mother’s favourites.

“Harley,” she boomed down the hall, “where is it? I can’t find it!”
Harley turned towards her, his face creased with the lines of someone thinking carefully.
“Gee Macy, how would I know? Did you hide it, so she wouldn’t find it?” he asked after about a minute.
“Well I think I did, but where? You gotta help me look for it.” She replied as she lifted a velvet cushion off of the floor.
“Fine, I’ll search this side,” he sighed as he walked over to her bed.
After searching underneath, he pulled a piece of scented paper out from the dark corner, Not here, it read, close but you need a key.
“Look Macy,” he shoved the note under her nose.
“Key,” Macy replied breathlessly “What Key?”
Harley turned around and opened the top drawer of Macy’s desk. It was filled with keys of all shapes and sizes, he gathered them in his hands and placed them on her bed.

“What’s this one for?” he asked, holding up a brass old fashioned looking key.
“I can’t remember,” Macy shrugged unwilling to tell him of her discovery.
“You’re hiding something! Look I can stop helping you and go off and do something!” he replied, glaring at her.
Macy felt flustered as colour rushed up to her cheeks. Harley’s glare thickened until suddenly she broke.
“I was searching through Aunt Jules’s house, you know how old that place is, and I found a journal. That’s its key.” She sighed
“what’s so bad about that?” Harley shrugged, confused by Macy’s reluctance.
“I don’t want Aunt Jules to know I took it, it’s really old.” She insisted.
Harley replied with a  ‘whatever’ type of shrug. Macy walked over to her desk and bent down so she looked at the underside. Lying on her back she reached up and felt around for the latch she had found not so long ago. Her hands glided over it and it clicked open, revealing the old fraying book.
“Whoa, that looks old.” Harley exclaimed as soon as he laid his eyes on it.
“Be careful! I don’t want to ruin it. Give me the key.” She insisted as he handed her the key.
Macy placed the key in the lock and turned it. The cover swung open to reveal the front page had been ripped out.
“That’s strange, I remember a front page.” She whispered as she flipped through the pages.
Suddenly she came to an abrupt halt, shaking she held it out for him to see. “That definitely was not in  there before!”
So you worked that little trick out, very clever Macy. Now hrmm.... where did I leave that box of yours or I should say mine? Oh yes that’s right, try looking at the scene of the crime.

 

“Crime, what crime?” Harley screeched franticly.
Macy didn’t reply as she was flicking through the rest of the journal.
“Macy!” he tried again.
“What Harley?” she replied in an annoyed tone.
“What crime?” he asked again, this time his voice a little less shaken.
“Charlotte’s crime,” she blurted, with no idea where the word’s had come from.
“Who in the hell is Charlotte?” he pondered.
“I don’t know,” she winced searching through her thoughts to find the origin of her comment.
“You don’t know? YOU DON”T KNOW?” Harley’s voice was rising with panic.
“Shh, Harley. Let’s talk to Aunt Jules, she might have an idea who Charlotte is.” Macy said, as she grabbed her sandshoes.

The path leading toward their Aunt’s secluded house was well worn, its cobble stones had had year’s worth of use. Macy loved this about her great Aunt’s house,  the fact that many generations of the Richardson family had lived there in the big old house, up on the hill. As the twins approached they were wary, their Aunt wasn’t all she used to be. Years of hard demanding work had weakened her both physically and mentally. They were hoping that today would be a good day for her memory. Harley reached the old willow door first, reaching up to the brass knocker he grasped it and knocked. The sound was loud, echoing through the bones of the house. After waiting for a few minutes there was no response. Macy pushed on the door and it opened.
“Aunt Jules, are you here?” Harley called out.
There was no reply.
“Maybe we might just have to go snooping,” Macy whispered.
Harley nodded in response. The two crept carefully into the hallway, Macy knew the way like the back of her hand. When she was young she and Harley used to tear around the house playing hide and seek. She had very fond memories of the groaning house. Slowly they made their way towards the first room upstairs. Harley stepped in first, then stopped abruptly in Macy’s path.
“Move it!” she said as she pushed on his back.
“Macy, look,” he pointed shakily once she had entered the room.
 In the far corner of the room the once beautifully  majestic mirror was shattered into pieces. Macy gasped with shock. Who had done this? The curtains were drawn across, shielding the glass from the late afternoon sun. It was a pity to see such an antique broken and unfixable.
“ Harley, let’s keep searching,” she said pushing the aching questions she had to the back of her mind.

The pair continued to search through the upstairs rooms of their great Aunt ‘s house until all that was left was a small bedroom.
“Ladies first,” Harley said in his most ridiculous voice.
“You sound utterly pompous,” Macy giggled as she walked over to the small window.
Swiftly a wave of sadness flooded her thoughts, she couldn’t think of anything else other than a longing, a deep hunger to be outside.
“Do you feel that?” she managed,
“feel what?” Harley asked as he walked over to her.
‘The gut wrenching sadness?” she began, “the need to be out there?’”
“I have no idea what you are on about,” he stated cautiously, looking as though his sister had gone mad.
“I have to go outside!” Macy cried out as though she was pained.
Harley grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.
‘Macy?” he asked, dragging her by the wrists out of the room.
As soon as she was outside of the bedroom Macy’s pain stopped as swiftly as it had came.
“Oh my god,” she exhaled, “there is some sort of presence in that room that only I can feel.”
“What do you mean?” Harley was so confused.
Macy shrugged. Now that her head had cleared she wanted to know what was going on.

“Hello?” called a shaky old voice from downstairs. “Is anyone there?”
Silently they both deciphered it to belong to their Aunt.
“It’s us,” Harley reassured her as they walked down the stairs.
“Oh, Harley, Macy, why are you here?”  Aunt Jules asked them.
“The door was open,” Macy insisted.
“Uhuh?” Aunt Jules nodded, not completely understanding.
“Who is Charlotte?” Harley asked, cutting straight to the chase.
“Charlotte who?” Jules replied with a thoughtful look on her face.
“Charlotte Abigail Richardson,” Macy blurted, again unsure where it had come from.
“Oh God,” Jules cringed, as she reached out  for the banister, missing by an inch she stumbled sideways.
“Aunt Jules,” Macy gasped reaching out to steady the old woman.
She supported her Aunt toward the den. Harley followed and sank onto the floor next to the seat which Jules had lowered herself slowly and carefully into. Macy sat beside her brother.
“Charlotte...” Jules began with a pained effort.
“It’s okay,” the twins whispered soothingly.
“She... she was my twin sister, she died, when we were eleven, from falling down a well.” Their Aunt told them, her voice full of emotion.
“Which well?” Macy asked worriedly.
“The one you can see out the window of the bedroom upstairs.” She said alertly.
The twins both gasped as they put two and two together. The room in which Macy had acted so unnaturally was the room that you could see the well from.
“That would be the scene of Charlotte’s crime!” they chorused.
Quickly they got to their feet and raced outside to the well. Macy peered over the edge and spotted a little box floating in the water.
“Harley,” she gasped.
He came over and peered into the well.
“Whoa, how did it get in there?” he asked as he looked around for the bucket.
He grabbed it and dangled it down until it hit the water. As the surface tension broke it sent ripples to the edges. Carefully he worked so that the box floated into the bucket. Pulling it out it was obvious that the box itself was ruined. Macy grabbed it from her brother’s hands and pulled it apart to reveal the silver locket inside.

By this time their Aunt had caught up with them and stood in shock.
“I thought it was lost forever!” she exclaimed, gesturing for Macy to hand her the piece of jewellery.
She took it and opened it up to reveal an old photograph.
“Charlotte was so jealous of this,” she remembered.
“Wait it was yours?” the twins asked.
“Yes. My mother gave it to me when we turned nine. Charlotte was a bit of a tomboy and received a book instead. But she fell in love with my locket. She always wished to borrow it. Sometimes, if wouldn’t let her have it, she would threaten to throw it down the well.” She laughed at the memories.
“She eventually did,” Macy whispered.
“What?” their Aunt asked, taking a sudden interest in trying to read between the lines the twins shared.
“Charlotte, she eventually threw your locket down the well.” Harley informed his Aunt, as Macy shot him a quizzical look, sizing up their aunts response.
“Charlotte?” she asked, panic rising into her grey eyes.
“Shhh,” Macy soothed the old woman, “We think Charlotte is still around.”
Their Aunt stared at them blankly, as though she was unwilling to take in all of the information present.
“Are you okay?” Harley asked concerned with her mental wellbeing for the day.
There was no response.
“Aunt Jules, maybe you should go upstairs to rest.” Macy said, as she helped her Aunt into the house.

Once Jules was lying on her old oak bed it was obvious a little colour had returned to her face.
“I need to tell you something,” she motioned towards the twins to come nearer.
They sat either side of her.
“Your great Aunt Lottie was very adventurous. She loved the outdoors. We were like chalk and cheese.” She smiled. “I was supposed to be with her whenever she went to the well. But that day I wasn’t. I would not go down to the well in my new dress! She was a stubborn child. I suppose that was because of her red hair.” She paused, giving them time to take that all in.
“Anyway, she decided to go down there alone. She had stolen my locket from my dresser in hate and thrown it in there.” “I was furious. I insisted she go back in there and get it out. At the time I was to upset, crying into my mother’s skirts, to follow her out there. It was then, when she was rescuing my locket that she fell.” Tears flooded into Jules’s eyes.
Macy put a comforting hand on her aunt’s arm.
“We need to put this next to her grave!” Jules said determinately.
The twins nodded in agreement. They could easily get their mother a new present.

Charlotte’s grave was hidden by the trees at the back of the property. There was a cobblestone path leading towards it. Macy and Harley stood and watched respectfully as their Aunt bent down and placed the locket next to the head of Charlotte’s grave.
“I’m sorry Lottie.” She whispered as she stood and turned away.
The twins each linked arms with her.
“So you two, who wants to stay for tea?” She asked, a cheeky smile on her face.
Macy and Harley laughed in reply.