Liverpool Revisited Page 12

  “End of journey.” said Billy, opening the car door. “Come on.” They left the car and Billy opened the gate which slid effortlessly open, as if it had recently been oiled. Once on to the path the house was much more visible. A large white painted building with broad bayed windows sat at the end of the garden which contained several neat bushes placed tastefully around a newly trimmed lawn. Billy noticed several stone ornaments around the garden, none of which he had seen in any of the garden centres they seemed to have spent the last few days in. Sue grabbed Billy’s arm and pointed to one in particular which seemed to be some form of a stone carved tree trunk, around which several creatures were gathered. Billy just nodded and they continued along the path. Beneath the bay windows several clay pots filled with various colourful flowers were placed, each seemingly carefully spaced. Sue approached the tall front door and rang the bell which sat beside another, though smaller stone plaque showing the house’s name. They stood on the step as the sound of the bell echoed inside the house.

  After a minute or two Sue rang the bell again. After what was probably another minute, but to Billy felt like five, Sue pressed it one more time. Still nothing.

  “Bugger.” said Billy. “There’s nobody in! You wouldn’t believe it, would you?” They stood there unsure as to what to do. Sue gave the bell one more, although longer push this time but still nothing happened. Billy looked around the side of the path which was hidden from them by a large wooden garden gate which was firmly shut. Sue watched him as he tried the latch on the gate. To her surprise it rose easily, and the gate opened. Billy vanished through it, leaving Sue standing alone on the garden path.

  “Hang on, Billy!” she shouted after him, moving away from the front door and peering in through the garden gate. “You can’t just go wandering around somebody else’s house! You’ll get us locked up!” She followed him however, and they found themselves in a large garden. Again, several stone ornaments stood out amongst the borders across the wide lawn.

  “They might be in the garden what with it being nice.” said Billy, even though it was obvious by now that the garden was completely empty. Along the side of the house however, there was a lower building which had a long window running along its length. The window was, Sue noticed, quite dusty. She joined Billy as he held his hand up to the glass, peering through. They both saw that it was some sort of workshop. The dust on the windows was grey and in places quite thick. Off to the far side of the room sat a small hearth and a potter’s wheel stood off to one side.

  “Well that proves it.” said Billy. “It’s definitely the right place.” Sue agreed and pointed out to Billy a large pile of junk gathered at the far end of the workshop. Various lumps of stone and bags of some strange dust filled the corner. On top of one of the piles was an oddly shaped object that looked a little like a vacuum cleaner but with a large circle of metal at its base. “What’s that then?” said Billy but Sue just shook her head.

  “No idea.” she said. “It wasn’t that I was pointing at though. Look just in front of it. There’s another ornament that looks half done, but it has a little bit of a mirror in it. Just like the one we bought.” Billy peered in and could see that this was indeed the case.

  “It’s exactly the same as ours.” he said. “Doesn’t look quite finished though.” They continued to peer through the window, trying to see if there were any signs of life. The only thing that they noticed however was a small door at the back of the workshop that remained firmly closed.

  “Can I help you?” Came a loud voice from behind them, and Sue gave a short yelp whilst Billy spun around almost instantaneously.

  “Jesus!” he blurted out. “You nearly gave me a bloody heart attack then!” Billy found himself facing a tall man who although clearly wondering what they were up to, had a smile on his face at the fright he had given the couple, whether it had been an accident or not.

  “I’m from next door.” he said. “I’m afraid Charles is not in at the moment. “Are you relatives?” Billy thought that it was a strange connection to make. Fair enough, he had found them acting suspiciously in the garden but to reach the conclusion that they were relatives seemed to be a bit of a jump. Billy decided to play along.

  “Once removed.” said Billy, and he tried very hard not to take into account the expression on Sue’s face. The man nodded at this.

  “Terrible business.” he said. “And so talented too.” He seemed to notice a vague show of bewilderment on Sue’s face and obviously began to think that he may have said something that he shouldn’t. “Still...” he began, but Sue interrupted him.

  “Indeed.” she said. “Though we have been driving for some time. Perhaps you could bring us up to date on...” and then it was the man’s turn to interrupt.

  “Ah.” he said, and seemed to be trying to extricate himself from whatever situation he thought that he was now managed to place himself in as fast as he possibly could. “I don’t really know that much. Just saw the ambulance yesterday morning. I would imagine that it was the Royal they were taking him. Always has been in the past, or so he told me last time I saw him.”

  “Very well then.” said Sue. “We shall be off there then. Thank you for your time, Mr..” and the man looked visibly relieved.

  “Timmins.” he said, finishing Sue’s sentence. “And give my very best wishes to Mr Hanson when you see him.” With that Billy and Sue shot up the path and got back into the car. Billy burst into laughter.

  “We’re going to end up in prison at this rate.” he said.

  “Actually, that was very lucky.” said Sue as Billy started the car up.

  “What?” he said. “Bumping into the neighbour?” Sue frowned at him.

  “Not that!” she said. “We couldn’t go to the Royal Liverpool hospital just looking for someone called Charles now, could we? No. Now we have his last name as well. Charles Hanson. Sounds very distinguished.”

  “Doesn’t it just?” said Billy, and they set off on the next stage of their journey.

  ***

  Billy was hardly delighted to find that not only did you have to navigate the one way system around the hospital to park up in the first place, but that when you got there the car park was actually five minutes’ walk from the hospital (at a brisk pace) and that it cost small fortune to park there for more than a few hours.

  “It’s a bloody disgrace!” he grumbled as they made their way up the street in the direction of the hospital. “I think they’re actively trying to get people not to visit.”

  “Oh, stop moaning!” said Sue, tired of his grumbling which, despite the telling off, continued all the way up the street until they entered the hospital and approached the main reception desk. Sue enquired after Charles Hanson, and having been given a ward number, they began to negotiate their way through the numerous arrows on the wall and lifts that led to the ward. Eventually they found it. Nurses busied themselves about the various corridors and beds they passed until they came to what was obviously some kind of ward reception desk.

  “Can I help you?” asked a nurse behind the desk, turning her attention away from the computer screen to one side.

  “We are looking for Charles Hanson.” said Sue, expectantly. The nurse frowned slightly.

  “Are you relatives?” she asked. Billy could not help but notice a slight edge of sympathy in her voice. He decided to try the same vague line that Sue had used at the house.

  “Not blood.” he said, and the nurse smiled.

  “It’s not really visiting time.” she said, “But given Mr Hanson’s circumstances I can’t see there being any harm. He’s in room 216 at the end of the corridor.”

  “Thank you.” said Sue, but the nurse was already concentrating on her screen once more. Billy led Sue along the corridor until they saw a door numbered 216. The door was slightly ajar. Billy knocked on the door and they both entered.

  The room was quite small really, Sue thought. Just a couple of small bedside tables and a closed, narrow window through which the r
oof of another section of the hospital could be seen. The bed in the room took the majority of the space. Wrapped up under the bedclothes was a man. He was well tucked into the bed. Only his head and shoulders were visible, but his arms were stretched out on top of the bedclothes before him. His eyes were closed.

  Billy spent a few awkward seconds thinking that the man was dead, but then he noticed that his chest was rising and falling at regular intervals. He was not a well man though, he figured. What they could see of him was shrunken and wasted; painfully thin. His head had no hair at all and dark black circles shone beneath his eyes like bruises. Sue gave a small polite cough and the man opened his eyes. Billy was shocked at that point. They were young eyes. Young eyes, yet an old body. He noticed Sue stifling a gasp before him. She had noticed too.

  The man seemed startled, as if he was not quite sure where he was, but then he reached slowly across to the bedside table and dragged a small pair of glasses from there and carefully placed them on his face.

  “Can I help you?” he said, and his voice was almost a whisper. Drawn out, as if every syllable was an effort.

  Sue considered blurting it all out from start to finish. That would take some time, for sure, and she was already putting the sequence of events into some order in her mind when Billy spoke. Summed it up perfectly.

  “The last riddle.” He said. “The answer is, “a promise.”

  Silence filled the room. Sue noticed Charles’s eyes go wide, and then, finally he smiled.

  “Ah.” he said. “I was beginning to wonder if I would see anyone finish my little trail.” he laughed, and again it was a weak desperate laugh that ended more in a series of gasps and coughs. Sue took charge and noticing a tumbler and a jug of water on the side table poured him a glass and then helped him to a sip of it. “Thank you.” he said. “You must forgive my current situation, I am afraid. Unfortunately it is something that I have had to put up with for some time.” His face darkened. “Though it has been a trifle worse of late.” Then his features seemed to change quickly, excitement appearing in his eyes. “How many did you find?” he finished. Sue put the glass back down.

  “We started with the clock. Then the wheelbarrow. Then the shadow.”

  “That one was quite hard.” sighed Charles. “I must have been having a bad day when I did that one.” Billy laughed as Sue continued.

  “Then it was the candle and the bed, ending up with the thorn the key and of course, the promise.”

  “Yes. The promise.” Sighed Charles. “The mirror reversed the longitude and latitude too. I take it you have been to the house?”

  “We certainly have.” said Billy. “Though there was nobody in.” Charles smiled at this, and shuffled in the bed, as if trying to escape the weight of the bedclothes.

  “You shall have to forgive me for putting you through my little quest.” he said. “It started as a whimsy and grew a little as time went by. How long did it take you from finding the riddle on the clock to getting here today?”

  “This is the fourth day.” said Billy. Charles looked shocked.

  “My. You are good, aren’t you? Those pieces took me some two years to carve. Such little time...” and his words faded and then he seemed lost in thought, as if far away. He snapped back to the present as if it was something that took him a great deal of effort.

  “Though I have made you a promise. I’ll need a phone if you could arrange one to be brought through?” Sue looked concerned.

  “We’re not here for any reward.” she said. “It’s just that it is here that the trail took us. Well, your house, anyway, Mr Hanson.”

  “Charles.” he said, smiling.

  “Charles.” repeated Sue.

  Charles continued. “Yet I have made you a promise. If you go and have a snack in the cafe’ and be back in an hour that should give me long enough to get my partner to pay us a visit.” he raised his eyebrows, and Sue and Billy agreed. On the way out Billy had a phone sent in to Charles’s room.

  A long hour passed over a highly priced and relatively stale ham sandwich and two cups of lukewarm weak tea that Billy considered to have cost a small fortune. Added to that the cafe was heated to the point of being almost tropical, and was packed to the rafters. Badly piped in guitar music played constantly in the background, like some form of reminder of the possibility of life and music outside of the hospital walls. Eventually an hour passed and they made their way back to the ward and knocking on the door marked, “216” entered the little room again.

  This time Charles was not alone. A man of about forty sat on the bed, holding Charles’s hand. “This is my partner, Paul.” said Charles, and Paul rose to greet them, shaking Billy’s hand firmly, and then Sue’s as well.

  “I believe you have solved Charles’ riddles.” said Paul, smiling. “I must admit they were a little difficult for me though, and I thought he had made it all a bit vague, but you seem to have cracked it!”

  Paul put his arm around Billy and shook him gently, thanking him, before producing a piece of what looked like typed paper and putting it and a pen on the bed before Charles. Charles slowly but carefully took up the pen and signed it at the bottom.

  “Both of you need to sign this now.”

  “What is it?” said Billy suspiciously as the paper and pen was passed to him, but neither of the two men answered him. The page seemed to contain a lot of legal mumbo jumbo but had a space below Charles’s signature for both him and Sue to sign. “Ah well.” he said. “In for a penny...” and signed the paper before passing it to Sue, who did likewise.

  “It’s just a formality.” said Paul, folding the paper and putting in back into his inside jacket pocket before producing a small cloth bag which he passed to Sue. “Just to indicate that the item inside the bag is now your legal property etc. etc.”

  “Open it up.” said Charles, and his voice contained an edge of excitement again. Sue pulled the drawstring on the little bag and opened it up, pulling a single small coin from inside it and placing it flat on her palm. It shone brightly as Billy drew near to get a better look. Examining it she noted it seemed to have some faded, strange writing on it, and a small picture of what was probably meant to be a crown. The metal was odd too. It was obviously gold, but it seemed to have a reddish tint to it as well.

  “The Wenceslas Red.” said Charles, proudly.

  “It’s beautiful.” gasped Sue.

  “It is indeed.” continued Charles. “And now it is yours.”

  “We can’t take this.” said Billy.

  “Oh but you can.” smiled Charles. “This is the promise I made to those who could follow the little trail that I made. Your reward, if you like.”

  “Where on Earth did you get it?” gasped Sue. “It looks ancient!”

  “It’s certainly very old.” said Charles, warming to the subject. “I used to be a member of the Formby metal detecting club. Used to travel the country, we did. This is one of a pair we found on one of our trips.”

  “It is quite valuable historically.” continued Paul. “It disproves several theories in the field of numismatics in the time of the dark ages. Where they were smelted and the like.”

  “Numismatics?” said Billy.

  “Yes.” confirmed Charles. “Numismatics or numismatology. The systematic study of currency. Not quite coin collecting. Barely related at all, in fact.” Sue put the coin back in the bag and made to hand it back to Paul.

  “We can’t take this.” she said. “We only followed a couple of riddles. It doesn’t seem right.” Billy stood beside her, obviously in agreement.

  On the bed Charles sighed. “This is one of a pair.” he said. “Though I have sold its twin, this one is mine to do with as I will. What started as a whimsy has brought you here and you deserve this. Indeed I would go as far to say that I think you have earned it.” He sighed loudly, and Sue noticed Paul’s shoulders slump as if he knew what was coming next. “Besides. It is not as if I am going to be needing it much longer now, is it?” Paul reached ou
t and held his hand again. “And Paul is already well provisioned for.” There was a pause. The clock ticking on the wall. “Take it.” he finished.” Please.”

  “Thank you.” said Billy. It was all that he could think of to say, and he carefully shook hands with Charles, and then with Paul too. Sue joined in with the hand shaking. Charles was almost grinning continually as he lay in the bed now.

  “Just one thing.” said Billy, getting all of their attention. “Exactly how much is this coin actually worth?”

  ***

  “Six thousand pounds?” shouted Sarah, almost dropping her pad. “Wow!”

  Sue broke into laughter, somehow managing to look embarrassed at the same time. “I know.” she said. “We didn’t want to sell it but it was too much to turn down, really. It didn’t even go up for auction. Private sale it was. All arranged by Paul, would you believe?”

  “Not bad for solving a few riddles, eh?” laughed Billy. “Makes quite a story too, don’t you think?” Sarah agreed heartily, finally placing her notepad and pen back into her bag. “Our readers will be made up to hear about your story too, I would imagine. Even though it’s not exactly the article I started to write. I’ll let you know when it’s going to be in the paper.” She stood up to go. “Thanks for the tea and what have you. Lovely to meet you as well.”

  “You too!” said Billy, showing her to the door with Sue following behind him. As she stepped onto the doorstep she paused, as if remembering something.

  “What about Charles?” she said, and the sad look on Billy and Sue’s faces told her all she had to know.