I stood there stunned,
this was something I did not want to see. I felt the wrongness on a
deep and spiritual level. Why did I have to be here standing watch,
waiting for the inevitable. I knew that at any moment Claudia was
going to come through the door, I would be powerless to stop her.
Claudia was a vision to
me, she always had been. I remember the first time I saw her,
drinking a hot chocolate outside a café. I was walking past and
stumbled. Holding the steaming mug in two hands she took a sip. Her
dark eyes looking into mine, the faintest smile playing across her
lips as she watched. I righted myself looked at her and found myself
laughing out loud. I had asked to join her at the table and the rest
was history.
Claudia has a way of
affecting my equilibrium, whenever she is around me I think up is
down and left is right. Truly I have never met anyone who inspires me
and understands me so well. From that first meeting I found Claudia
to be generous, warm and a delight to be around. Love grew quickly in
the fertile ground of our new relationship.
We had bought a house
together, a little rough around the edges but it had character.
Claudia swore blind it was haunted but I had just laughed. Work had
been progressing nicely and now we had finished the guest bedroom.
Our first visitor was Claudia's elder uncle visiting for a family get
together. Claudia was excited about our guest and had been driving me
crazy about keeping tidy.
Having to work late
this evening Claudia had instructed me to get home early to check on
Arthur. I had stopped off to get some wine for dinner. I wanted to
make a good impression as it was important to Claudia. I called her
from the store to see if she wanted anything else. I knew from the
sound of her voice she was having one of those days. I decided to
pick up a little treat to put a smile on her face. Roaming up and
down the aisles I finally found her favourite hot chocolate. We
enjoyed sitting out on the patio, early evening watching the sun go
down whilst sipping at our drinks. To me the hot chocolate is a
reminder of our meeting but for her it is a favourite drink.
I headed home to start
dinner. It had been just my luck to get a flat tyre. I am not the
most practical of men and it took me a while to wrestle the new wheel
in place. I was sweating heavily and cursing my luck as I finally
parked at home. I had grabbed the bags and got to the front door. I
was disturbed as I noticed the door was ajar. I pushed it open
slowly, something did not feel right. If there was a spirit residing
in the house it would have been screaming do not go in. I should have
listened.
I had moved through the
house towards the kitchen, I quietly called out Arthur’s name to
see if he was okay. Now standing here feeling the wrongness but
paralysed with indecision I looked down at the body face down on the
floor. I heard Claudia enter the house and call out my name. I wanted
to shield her from this but was too weak. The door opened and she saw
the body. Rushing past me to kneel on the floor. She called out
“Arthur” over and over again. I felt her grief, a kick in my my
guts that nearly doubled me over.
Claudia started to roll
the body over, tears were streaming down her face. The head turned
last of all. As I looked into my unblinking eyes, Arthur finally came
into the kitchen....
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