The Write Dream (Storage Ghosts) (7 page)

Marie
said quietly, “I had no idea she was like this, I thought we were friends. How
could she do that to my son?”

Grace
had no answer for Marie, she was finding it hard to listen to Sharon. But she
hadn’t finished with her yet.

Grace
said, “Why didn’t you let Andrew have Marie’s things?”

Sharon
curled her lip. “I wanted to remove all aspects of that woman. Andrew and Brian
easily swallowed the lies about Marie’s stuff going missing, they’re a pair of
gullible idiots, they’ll believe anything I say. I put her things in storage,
although I was tempted to burn them. I stopped paying the storage fees 6 months
ago, I didn’t see why I should waste anymore of my money on that woman.”

“My
money,” Marie amended.

Sharon’s
hand came up to her necklace and fiddled with it. “I did keep some things, like
this, it might be worth something one day. And some of  her perfume, she had good
taste in some things. I thought Brian might recognise this necklace, Marie went
on about it enough after she returned from her honeymoon, her husband had
bought it for her. He was just as soppy as she was.”

Sharon
looked at her watch. “Pass me the notebooks, I’ve got a nail appointment.” She
reached for her handbag. Her hand paused and her eyes looked down at something.

Marie
gasped. “The pasta necklace! She recognises it.”

Sharon
looked at Grace, annoyance shooting out of her eyes. “Did you find this in the
storage unit? Andrew sent me a text to say that everything had been sold. I
recognise this piece of garbage, Marie paraded it around as if it was made of
gold. I’ll take that, I’ll have great satisfaction destroying it.”

Grace’s
hand shot out towards the necklace.

Too
late.

Sharon
got there first. She curled her hand around it as if ready to crush it.

Grace
lunged forward.

Marie
screamed.

There
was a loud slapping noise and Sharon collapsed to the floor.

Grace
ran around to her and crouched down. Sharon sat up looking dazed, there was a
red mark on her cheek, the size of a palm.

Marie
said, “It was Pearl! The old woman whacked her! Grace, get the necklace before
Sharon realises what’s going on!”

Grace
took the pasta necklace from Sharon’s loose grip.

Sharon’s
eyes cleared and she focused hate filled eyes on Grace.

The
hate was quickly replaced by a hurt and confused look. Sharon looked over
Grace’s shoulder and in a pitiful voice said, “I’m so glad you’re here. This
mad woman has just attacked me! Call the police.”

Grace
looked over her shoulder.

Brian
and Andrew were looking back at them. Hate filled both of their faces.

Chapter 15

Sharon
held her hands out. “Help me up, Brian, don’t just stand there.”

Brian
folded his arms. “Get yourself up, Sharon.”

An
annoyed look flickered across Sharon’s face, it was quickly replaced by a hurt
look.  She got to her feet and gingerly touched her red cheek. She flinched as
if she was in great pain.

Grace
stood up and looked at Brian and Andrew. Their hateful looks were directed at
Sharon, just as Grace was hoping.

Sharon’s
voice trembled as she said, “That crazy woman attacked me and you look as if
you don’t care!”

Brian
gave her a cold look. “Grace didn’t attack you, it looks like you just fell
over. We know, we saw everything, didn’t we, Andrew?”

Andrew
nodded. “And we heard everything too.”

Sharon’s
eyes darted between the two men. “What do you mean? What are you talking
about?”

Grace
finally looked at the object that had been making the strange noise. She
pointed to it on the wall behind the counter. “It’s a CCTV. Is this the job you
were going on today, Andrew?”

“Yes,
your brother called us, said we’d done a survey for someone he knew,” Andrew
replied.

Frankie
must have got their details when he came round to her house earlier, Grace
thought.

“But
... but...” Sharon blustered.

Brian
unfolded his arms, he raised one hand as if to stop Sharon talking. “Don’t
bother trying to make excuses, what you’ve done is unforgiveable. I don’t know
where to start. I can’t believe I fell for all your lies, you’re not the person
I thought you were.”

Andrew
said, “I fell for them too, Uncle Brian. I didn’t go to university because I
felt I’d be letting  her down, I thought I had to repay all the money that
she’d spent on me. I didn’t know that it was Mum’s money.”

Andrew’s
voice broke and he looked down at the ground. Marie was at his side in a
second.

“But
...” Sharon tried again.

“No
more lies!” Brian thundered out. Sharon’s mouth dropped open. “I can deal with
the hurt you’ve caused me, and I can deal with the things you’ve said about
Marie, but I’ll never, ever forgive you for what you’ve done to Andrew. You
took away his dream of being a writer! No one has the right to tell someone
their dreams are wrong.”

Sharon
put her hands on her hips, her hurt look replaced with scorn. “I know better, I
know what’s right for him, and for you. You’re too weak minded, the both of
you. I’ve done you a favour.”

“You’ve
done us a favour all right. You’ve shown your true colours, and I don’t like
them,” Brian said, disgust in his voice.

“So
what? There’s nothing you can do about it now. The money and business are in my
name,” Sharon said. “You’re fired, I don’t want you two working for me anymore.
And you can leave my house.”

Brian
let out a bitter laugh. “Oh no, Sharon love, it’s not going to be like that, we
don’t take orders from you anymore. I’m seeking legal advice. I’m getting back
all the money that belongs to Andrew. It’s not going to look good for you, is
it? Telling Andrew all his mum’s belongings were lost when you were actually
paying for them to be in storage.”

Sharon
paled. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

Andrew
looked over at Sharon, his eyes glittered. “I can’t believe what you’ve done, I
thought you cared about me, I thought you cared about Mum. I’ll back Uncle
Brian up when he goes to a solicitor, I’ll tell them all the lies you’ve told
me over the years.”

“They
won’t believe you,” Sharon said, her voice trembled slightly.

Grace
spoke, “We have your confession on CCTV. I presume it’s being recorded?”

“It
is, I’ve already taken a copy, if that’s alright with you, Grace?” Brian asked.

“Of
course. Andrew, you heard about the necklace, the pasta one, would you like
it?” Grace opened her hand, the necklace was still intact.

Andrew
smiled as he took it. “Thank you, it means a lot to me, Mum loved it.” He
looked back at Sharon. “You can keep the one you stole from Mum, that one
you’re wearing now, I don’t want it. I don’t want anything else from you.”

Sharon
fiddled nervously with the necklace. “Brian, I’m sure we can sort this out.”

Brian
shook his head. He took hold of Sharon’s elbow and propelled her towards the
door. “We’re going home to pack your things. I want every last item of yours
removed from the house. Then we’ll collect anything of yours that is in the
shop.”

“But
where will I live? Where will I go?” Sharon wailed.

“I
don’t care. You can rent another storage unit and live in there,” Brian said.
“Andrew, I’ll catch up with you later. Will you finish this job off? Show Grace
how the CCTV system works? We’ll talk about universities when you get home.”

Andrew
closed his hand gently around the necklace. “Will do, Uncle Brian.”

Brian
shoved Sharon out of the door.

Andrew
turned back to Grace. “I don’t know what to say, I can’t believe that this all
just happened. I didn’t know Auntie Sharon was like that.”

Marie
smiled gently at her son.

“You’re
in shock,” Grace told him. “Let’s have a cup of tea and some choccy biscuits. You
can explain the CCTV to me. I’ll close the shop, we can go through to the
kitchen.”

“Okay,
thank you,” Andrew said.

Grace
locked the shop door. She took a deep breath and said, “I need to make a
confession, I’ve done something with your stories. You might not like it.”

Chapter 16

They
sat down with tea and biscuits at the kitchen table, Marie hovered at their
side. Grace told Andrew about his story.

Andrew
took the news remarkably well, much to Grace’s relief.

“So
you posted the first part of my story on that website under my name,” Andrew
said.

“I
did. It’s so other writers can review it, give their opinions on it,” Grace
clarified. “It’s automatically copyrighted, no one can steal your ideas.”

“I
like the sound of that. Well? What did people think of it?” Andrew asked.

“I
haven’t checked since I posted it. Do you want me to check it now?”

“Yes.
No! I don’t know!” Andrew said. “What if everyone hated it?”

“They
won’t, it’s a brilliant story,” Grace said. She opened her laptop and was soon
logging onto the website. She could feel Andrew’s eyes boring into her head.
She had no worries, she knew his story was good.

She
scrolled down the page. Her smile grew as she read the comments. She turned the
laptop round to face Andrew. “Read the reviews.”

Grace
watched his reaction as he read. Disbelief to joy, joy to overwhelming happiness.
He jumped up and punched his fist in the air. “They love me! They love my
work!”

Grace
added, “And they want more, they all want the rest of the story. And so do I!
When are you going to write it?”

Andrew’s
hand flew to his forehead. “Of course, I need to write it. I need to write the
next one too. Oh, Grace! I’ve got so many stories to write. My heart’s
pounding! It’s like my dream has woken up!”

Marie
clapped her hands with joy. “This is my Andrew! Look how alive he is, Grace.
Look at him, you can almost see the stories running through his head.”

Andrew
began to pace the floor, muttering to himself. “Of course, if he did that then
it would lead to the dragon war, but then The Cloven Wizard will appear ...”

Grace
stood up. “I think you need to go home, you’ve got writing to do.” She reached
into her handbag and took something out. She held them towards Andrew. “Your
notebooks, you’ll need these.”

Andrew
stopped pacing. He took the notebooks and pulled them to his chest. “Thank you,
thank you so much for finding these. I don’t know what’s happened today with Auntie
Sharon and everything but I think you’ve got something to do with it. I can’t
thank you enough. If I ever got a book published...”

“When,”
Grace amended.

Andrew
grinned. “Okay, when I’ve got my first book published I shall dedicate it to
you.”

“Oh!”
Grace’s heads flew to her chest. Her heart suddenly felt as if it had grown.
Her eyes stung, she blinked quickly, she didn’t want to cry in front of Andrew.
She briskly said, “Thank you, that’s very kind. Off you go now, I’ve got things
to do too.”

“I
haven’t shown you how the CCTV works,” Andrew said.

“I’m
sure I can work it out. Is there a handbook?”

Andrew
nodded. “It’s all straight forward.”

“Good,
I’ll read the book, my brother will ignore it. He says instruction books are
for idiots.”

Andrew
laughed. “He sounds like a character.” His eyes glazed. “I could use a
character like that in my story, he could help the wicked elves...”

Grace
put her hand on his arm and led him out of the kitchen. “Go home! Get these
ideas written down.”

Andrew
muttered to himself as Grace took him to the front door. He said thank you
again to her and then wandered off down the street. Grace could see his lips
moving, he obviously didn’t care what anyone thought of him, he was in his own
fantasy world.

Grace
closed the door. She motioned for Marie to move away from where the CCTV was
aimed.

“I
don’t want any footage showing me talking to myself,” she explained to Marie.
“Although, if your brother and son saw me talking to myself earlier they were
kind enough not to mention it.”

Marie
smiled at Grace. “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done. You’ve put
Andrew back on the right path, I know he’s going to be fine now.”

Marie
started to glow white. She said, “I think it’s time for me to go. You take care
of yourself, Grace.”

“I
will, and I’ll keep an eye on Andrew. I think he’s going to be my favourite
author. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No,
you’ve done more than enough. Goodbye, Grace, thank you.”