Silent, A Ghost From The Past

Two Years Earlier, Lucy

She took a step back, struggling to control her breathing. Arthur Harlesden had arrived, rosy apple cheeks and specs. Another vague figure from her childhood, always on the outskirts. He reassembled Dad. Older, though. Much older, and taller. Eerie. Almost as if Dad had come back.

The Ogre (Agnes) and Arthur Harlesden, both together in the same room. No way could this be happening.  Apparently, they hadn't spoken since the fire.  They never got on.

It was time to go over to the staff table. Her hands shook when she served the elderly Arthur Harlesden the medley of vegetables, but fortunately he didn't appear to know who she was, even though he smiled at her. The Ogre totally ignored her, but that meant nothing.  She knew that the Ogre had a habit of getting what she wanted.  

Not this time. She was a Harlesden too. She wouldn't let Agnes Harlesden win. In exactly three weeks time, she and Maxine and Ash would interrupt the final concert at the Grand Theatre and publicly demand the truth about the fire that killed Mum and Dad. The Harlesden family might not have killed her parents, but they were keeping secrets about the police investigation and Dad's affair with the woman. Especially the affair. The affair never came up in the police investigation, even though it would have been crucial information.  She intended to find out everything.  

But right now, she needed to make a decision about Arthur Harlesden.  According to her adoptive family, she and Arthur had been close when she'd lived here ten years ago  Arthur a type of pretend granddad, along with his wife Lily - but she had no recollections of that sort of relationship.  Only memories of an ancient looking man who'd gone about dressed as Mayor.  A man whose presence had caused her to think of ghosts.  Thinking about it now made her feel tingly all over. Cold, as if she'd just stepped over an invisible gravestone.

Later, she would surprise Arthur.  She would ask for his help, as he was the last person to speak to Dad before the fire ten years ago.