I should have been happy, I had a lovely girl friend, I had a nice home, I had an interesting job. I was happy, but bad things happen.
My hour-long phone call with my girlfriend was over, the sun had set, but it was light outside. Five minutes of light, a few seconds of darkness, then more light. And so it continued through the night. Was an animal moving about the garden triggering the automatic lighting? But I saw no animal, I could sense something in the garden. Somethings alive? Somethings bad?
The next day I called my girlfriend and mentioned the light. She told me not to worry, she would ask her parents, they always knew what to do. Another night of light.
She told me to make a grounded wreath to hang on the front door. A length of barbed wire bent into a circle, wrapped with a length of aluminium foil and grounded with a thick wire to a metal rod hammered into the ground. “That'll stop'em!” she exclaimed.
A funny idea, but I made it and hung it on the door. The night however was light, very light, every few minutes there was a big shower of sparks, what was happening?
“Oh, that was the things touching the wreath out of curiosity, discharging and dying. There won't be so many tonight.” she said. And that was true.
The next morning the doorbell rang, a policeman wanted to know why I had lit fireworks, Roman Candles he named them, all night long. I looked around – no burned out fireworks, just heaps of black powder, burned black powder. I could not help the policeman. I showed him the grounded wreath and he left as fast as he could.
The next morning the doorbell rang, two policemen showed me a photo of an older woman and demanded to know how long I had known her. And when had I last seen her husband. “I don't know this person.” They were not happy about that. “We'll be back.”
That night I kept watch through the window next to the front door. I saw a dark shape walk up to the house, the outside lighting turned on, but the dark shape remained a dark shape. It continued to the front door, which I opened. I saw a dark shape disappearing in a shower of sparks.
The next evening the doorbell rang, the older woman was standing there. “This'll be the last time we meet together, we have a lot to do, you have to know what to do the day before yesterday.” She walked in, slammed the door behind her, picked me up and walked straight past my girlfriend who was sitting on the sofa. She ignored my girlfriend.
She carried me into my bedroom and threw me on the bed. “Right!” she said. “We're got a lot to do.” She jumped on top of me.
Perhaps you have the idea that she could do what she liked with me – correct – she could and she did. My girlfriend watched us.
The next morning the older woman instructed me how to get to the day before yesterday, find her husband and kill him. “OK? Good! Because I have to go now.”
What to do? I didn't want to kill anybody. I had an idea. “Have you touched the metal wreath on the front door? Let me show you.”
She did and disappeared in a shower of sparks. A number of policemen appeared, touched the wreath and disappeared in a shower of sparks.
My girlfriend put her arms around me and kissed me. “Don't worry! My parents told me that sort of thing could happen. It's all over now.”