Gifted Read online

  “Yeah, it’s all good.” Charlie didn’t like talking about Blair with her sister. It had only been three weeks since James passed away. It just seemed cruel to rub their relationship in her face. They had been seeing each other for almost a year and they were happy together, really happy. She decided to change the subject: “How is Rahni doing?”

  “To tell you the truth I’m worried about her. She doesn’t talk much about James. I don’t think I’ve heard her say two words about him since... well for a few weeks now,” she said, taking a sip from her mug of coffee and stirring it again.

  “I guess everyone deals with grief in their own way. She’s probably processing it all in her head. When she’s done, she’ll talk about it. She is only seven.”

  “Yeah, I know. It’s just difficult. She’s also been acting a bit... strange.”

  “Strange? How do you mean?”

  “She’s developed an imaginary friend. This ‘friend’ goes with her everywhere in the house.”

  “Only in the house?”

  “Yes. She never talks about her - or to her - when we are out. It just gives me the creeps.”

  “And it only started a few weeks ago?”

  “Yeah, ever since then.”

  Blair found them in the kitchen and sat down in the seat next to Charlie. He picked up his mug of hot tea and took a sip.

  “What are we talking about?”

  “Rahni’s got an imaginary friend.” Charlie updated him.

  “Oh, I used to have an imaginary friend when I was a kid. His name was Cliff, he was a superhero in training. He was going to be Spiderman when he grew up.”

  Charlie looked at him and shook her head. “Your imaginary friend was called Cliff? Couldn’t you have thought up a more manly name? Especially if he was going to be Spiderman?”

  “I didn’t name him,” he defended. “That’s what he said his name was.”

  “So you think it’s just a bit of harmless fun then?” Cate looked concerned.

  “I’m sure it’s just her way of dealing with everything. What’s the friend’s name?”

  “Alice.”

  “She’s probably just read Alice in Wonderland at school and uses her to escape into a different reality. She’ll get over it.”

  “I hope so. She has full-on conversations with the girl and gets angry when I don’t acknowledge her. Sometimes she even makes me set a place for her at dinner.”

  “That’s cute. Just think, Blair had an imaginary friend and he turned out fine.”

  “Yes, a perfect male specimen - even if I do say so myself,” Blair smiled a cheesy grin.

  A silence fell over the table. Charlie grappled for something to talk about. It hadn’t been easy being around her sister the past three weeks. She didn’t stop coming though. Sometimes just sitting in silence was enough to help Cate through her mourning.

  “What are your plans for the house? You have some muscle here this summer so feel free to use Blair for any jobs that need doing.”

  Blair nodded in agreement. “Certainly, I’ll be more than happy to help out with anything you need done.”

  “Thank you for the offer. I’m not sure exactly what to do. I don’t know whether I should just sell this place and find somewhere smaller, or to go all out and fix it up. James’ life insurance policy is more than enough to get this place restored. I don’t know whether I want to stay though, we had so many plans together. It kind of just reminds me of what we don’t have any more.”

  “You can create new plans. You just need to decide what’s best for you and Rahni. It would be a shame to leave this place without restoring it though. It’s a beautiful old house.”

  “That’s true. I guess a bit of sprucing up here and there wouldn’t hurt. At least then if I did decide to move, I could ask a bigger price for it if it’s in good condition.”

  “Exactly. You may as well take advantage of us while we’re here too. Free labour - what more could you ask for?”

  “Thanks guys. I really appreciate you being here. Did you find the room alright, Blair?”

  “I sure did. Turns out the Blue Room is very blue. What do you call that shade, it’s unusual?”

  “It’s called shadow blue. I don’t know how they arrived at that name. I was thinking that it resembled the blue eye shadow from the eighties, maybe that’s how they named it?”

  “You could be right there,” Blair laughed and collected the empty mugs from the table. He placed them into the sink. “So, where should we start?”

  “You’re keen. I’ve got to pick up Rahni from ballet. Do you want to come and we’ll swing by the hardware store on the way back?”

  “Sure, sounds like a plan.”

  “I’ll stay here and explore the house, if that’s okay?” Charlie was already filling the sink with water to attend to the washing up.

  “Of course, but remember you’re a guest here. You don’t need to be doing any of the housework.”

  “Washing up isn’t housework, don’t worry about it.”

  “Okay, we won’t be long.”

  Blair kissed Charlie on the cheek and followed Cate out to the car parked in the driveway. She drove a green 4wd which had been James’ pride and joy. They climbed into the car and sped off down the road. Charlie finished with the dishes and walked into the lounge room, trying to take in all the details of the old house.

  She loved the home almost as much as Cate. It had so much character to it that it was almost impossible not to. That kind of character only came with age, and this house was two hundred years old. A lot can happen in a house over two centuries.

  She walked through each room on the lower floor. There was the formal living room at the front which had an impressive fireplace in the centre of one wall. It was encased in marble and was used every winter. It gave the house a cosy and inviting feel when it was roaring and crackling.

  Further down the hall was the formal dining room. It had red walls and a long table that almost filled the room. It could seat a dozen people quite comfortably. Charlie remembered seeing it full only a few times. Every one of those occasions was a family gathering. When the Sinclairs and the Lanes gathered together, you needed a lot of space to accommodate them.

  At the back of the house was a study on one side and another small living room on the other side. Both rooms had a door on to the back conservatory which was usually glowing with sunlight. Today was no exception. The sun’s rays brought in heat too, so the room was rarely used in mid-summertime. It was more a room for curling up in with a good book during winter. James, Cate and Rahni had spent hours playing board games in this room when it was too wet to venture out into the world.

  She walked back into the entry foyer and took the stairs to the second level. The stairs were a masterpiece of their own, they were a loose spiral that joined the two levels. You could easily imagine Scarlett O’Hara gliding down the stairs dressed in a full ball gown, Rhett following close behind in his hat and tails. They were an original part of the house and after two hundred years they still carried people in all their prestigious glory.

  At the top of the stairs there was a corridor that ran right down the middle of the house. One side of the hallway led to four bedrooms, most with their own bathrooms. There was a large open room at the end, Rahni used this as her personal play room. On the left side of the stairs, the corridor ran down past another four bedrooms and three bathrooms, leading you into another living room at the end.

  Each bedroom had a theme. It wasn’t just for decoration, it was used to easily identify which room they were talking about at any given time. You couldn’t just refer to ‘the upstairs bedroom’ in a house like this. Cate had decided to theme the rooms based on colours. Consequentially, there was the pink, beige, green, red, floral, mauve, yellow, and the blue room where she and Blair were staying for the summer. The system worked well. You could never confuse two rooms.

  All the rooms were furnished in traditional decor. Cate and James had stayed true to the hous
es past and used antique furniture to fill the rooms. It had taken them years of scouring flea markets and antique shows to find the perfect pieces. It had been an empty shell of a house for quite a while before they were finished. The furniture was made out of sturdy dark wood. In a modern house it would have looked overbearing. In these rooms, however, it looked like it fitted perfectly. Cate had never taken to modern houses anyway. In her mind, they were cold and had no personality.

  Charlie walked past Rahni’s room which was right next to her play room at the end of the right-hand corridor. It was the pink room. She had gone through a fairy stage only a few months before, so decorating the walls were magical pink fairies, dancing to an unheard beat. The bed was a queen size with more cushions sitting on it than you could ever use in a lifetime. Even with the adult-sized furniture, it still looked like a little girls’ room. It had that whimsical charm to it.

  Cate’s room was the red room, it had almost an oriental flavour to it. Instead of the furniture being dark brown, it was covered in a black lacquer. While still antiques, the previous owners had decided to paint the furniture black during the mid-1800’s which was the fashion at the time. If only they’d known then what they were doing to the value, they would have thought twice before proceeding. Charlie didn’t dawdle in the red room; it felt like an invasion of her sister’s privacy.

  She moved on past the remaining rooms, lingering in each one long enough to take in all the finer details. The cornices were stunning in every room, hand carved in delicate detail. They were undamaged when the house was purchased. It was a big selling point by the real estate agent. Craftsmen in the twenty-first century find it extremely difficult to reproduce the same type of carving. We may have electricity and the internet, but they had exceptional craftsmanship.

  At the end of the hall, Charlie entered the upstairs living room. In the corner was a beautiful grand piano. It had been the most expensive piece of furniture they had purchased. Cate had agonised for days over whether they could afford it or not. In the end, she decided that it was too much of a bargain to pass by. It had been placed in the room by a crane, right through the French doors that led out onto the balcony.

  Charlie sat down on one of the chaise lounges. This was her favourite room of all in the house. She could easily picture fine young ladies and gentlemen sitting around sipping on tea while listening to classical music being played on the piano. The dresses they wore would envelop them in material and the men would be proper and courteous.

  The doors right around the room all opened onto the balcony. The music on a twilight summer night would float outside and down to the grounds below. If only walls could talk, Charlie knew they would have some romantic and interesting tales to tell.

  As Charlie sat there daydreaming, she thought she heard some noises coming from downstairs. There were clunking footsteps on the wooden floorboards. She checked her watch, she didn’t realize how long she had spent wandering around the house. She quickly got up and headed down the stairs, excited about seeing her niece again.

  She hurried down into the living room, but there was no one there. She did a circuit of the lower floor, checking the kitchen first. The rooms were all empty. She opened the front door to see if they were unloading the car. The driveway only held Blair’s car, the 4wd was nowhere in sight.

  She turned to go back inside, certain that she had heard footsteps. If it wasn’t Cate and Blair back from their errands, then what was it? She wondered to herself. She shook her head, she was probably just hearing noises from outside and got confused about their origin. She closed the front door and returned to the living room. Turning on the television, she waited for them to return for real. Charlie hoped they would come home sooner rather than later.

  She settled into the sofa lounge and was quickly engrossed in a soap opera. The dramatic lives that the actors portrayed was almost laughable. How anyone could be addicted to the ‘soapies’, she couldn’t work out. At least it took her mind off the empty house. It had served its purpose well and before too long, the 4wd pulled into the driveway outside. Charlie switched off the television with the remote control and walked to the door, opening it just as the others had reached the front porch.

  Rahni raced up the few small steps and ran into her aunt’s open arms, giving her a great bear hug.

  “I missed you Auntie Charlie.”

  “I’ve been missing you too sweetie. How was ballet?”

  “It was okay. I’m going to go play with my toys, will you come with me?”

  “I’ll be there in a minute.” She let go of the little girl and watched as she ran up the stairs, her pink tutu bouncing with each step. She looked at Blair and Cate as they were unloading paint tins from the car. “Did you get everything?”

  “I think so, enough so we can get started anyway.” They each grabbed a can and took it into the house. They placed all the materials in the kitchen, ready to get to work with the house renovations.

  “Where are we going to start?” Blair asked.

  “Probably the conservatory. It’s the most in need of some tender loving care. But let’s leave it until tomorrow. It’s getting late and I wouldn’t want to wear you out on your first day.”

  Charlie looked out the kitchen window, it was starting to get dark - she hadn’t realised just how late it was. The afternoon had passed by quickly.

  Remembering her promise to her niece, she excused herself and found Rahni in her bedroom playing with a dollhouse. She sat down on the floor beside her and picked up a small wooden doll.

  “Hello, my name’s Rachel. What’s your name?” She put the doll into one of the rooms in the house where Rahni’s doll was sitting in a small plastic chair.

  “My name is Jessica. Charlie, can I ask you a question?” She nodded for her to proceed. “Do you believe in heaven and angels?”

  “I do. The angels watch over us at all times and make sure we’re protected,” Charlie was concerned for her niece, who seemed sad. It was apparent from the moment she had walked through the front door. “Why do you ask?”

  “Mum says that Daddy is an angel now. But then Chris at school said that angels didn’t exist and she was just lying. He said all adults lie about things like that.”

  “Chris doesn’t know what he’s talking about. You know I wouldn’t lie to you, don’t you? I don’t need to lie, I’m not an adult - right?” She nudged Rahni, trying to get a smile out of the child.

  It worked, she giggled. They played with the dolls for over half an hour before Charlie felt like she could get some more information out of Rahni. She decided to broach the subject that her sister was worried about. “I heard that you had a friend that lives here in the house.”

  She put down her doll. “I do. Her name is Alice.”

  “Is Alice here with us now?”

  Rahni looked around the room, scanning each corner with her eyes. “No, she’s not here.”

  “Where does she go when she’s not with you?”

  “I don’t know, around the house I guess. She only comes and visits me sometimes. She likes to play with my tea set.”

  “Tea sets are fun. It sounds like she’s a good friend.”

  “I guess,” she picked up her doll again and started moving her about the dollhouse, talking to the other dolls sitting in their poses along the way.

  Charlie excused herself from playing any longer, she had pulled all the information out of her niece that she was going to get today. She walked down the centre staircase and back into the kitchen where Blair and Cate were busy making dinner.

  “Something smells good.”

  “Don’t get too excited, it’s only leftovers tonight, I’m afraid. I hope that’s okay.”

  “Of course it is - we don’t expect any special treatment. I just spoke to Rahni about her friend Alice.”

  “Oh? Did she give anything away?”

  “No, apparently Alice wasn’t there. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about though. Besides being sad, she seems lik
e the old Rahni we all know and love.”

  “Let's hope so.”

  Chapter 2

  Blair and Charlie retired to the blue bedroom in the late evening. It was located towards the end of the corridor, right next to the upstairs living room. They had spent the rest of the evening catching up with Cate, making sure she was okay. Charlie could tell she wasn’t coping with her husband’s sudden death, which was the reason why they had offered to have an extended visit. Now, she knew her hunch was spot on.

  Cate had always been a guarded person, she never let just anyone know the real her. It was like she held a shield around herself. Friend or foe, she wouldn’t lower it for anyone. It was her way of protecting herself. Exactly why she needed that level of protection was incomprehensible to Charlie. Her suit of armour was transparent to her sister though. Growing up so closely with someone, you got to understand the person behind the public mask. She couldn’t hide the fact that she was so completely devastated by losing her soul mate she wondered how she would survive the hurt. Charlie didn’t say anything in front of Blair, but she planned on having a heart to heart with her sister before too long.

  Staring up at the ceiling, listening to Blair’s steady breathing, she wondered exactly what she was going to say to Cate. How do you comfort someone and tell them that everything will be alright? She didn’t know that for sure, she didn’t even fully realise just how much it hurt to lose someone so close. Touch wood, she’d never lost anyone like that in her life before. The level of grief involved was beyond anything she’d ever felt.

  She slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, all her questions remaining unanswered. She slept soundly for a couple of hours as she delved deeper and deeper into sleep.

  Then the dreams started.

  * * *

  Charlie was walking through the old house, it was dark - she assumed it was night time, for no reason other than the lack of light. She looked down at her feet and realized she wasn’t walking at all, instead she was in fact gliding along the floor, her feet hovering an inch or two above the wooden boards.