X) Ghosts of Ulverston Past

"Aww go on Vick, come to the shop with me." Mark had been wheedling
Vicki for half an hour.

"I've told you no, now just leave me alone I'm trying to read."

In truth Vicki liked nothing better than to go to the newsagents on
Tudor Square that's where Dean Hargreaves worked, but going to the shop
took an awful lot of preparation. First she had to soak in the bath for
half an hour, then she had to dry and style her hair and if so much as
one hair wouldn't do as it was told then the trip was off. She couldn't
wear the same clothes twice and in truth didn't have that many really
trendy outfits so she was having to be quite creative with accessories
now to ensure she looked stunningly different on each occasion. But the
hardest bit of all was getting past her mum after she'd put her make up
on. Vicki was only allowed to wear it on very special occasions Her mum
always used the same sad argument but Vicki darlin` you've got such
pretty skin, don't ruin it by not letting it breathe.

Pretty skin? Pretty skin, she thought. Couldn't her mum see the volcano
full of broiling gunk on her forehead that was just waiting for the
most embarrassing moment possible to erupt? Actually as spots went this
one was more of a pimple and wasn't full of anything&;#8230;yet. It
was of course waiting for the school disco on Friday night to fill and
develop an identity all of its own. Luckily though five days had passed
since they'd been to the Caribbean and most of the peeling skin had
finished coming off.

"Oh please Vicki. Go on it'll only take ten minutes."

" No, and anyway why do I have to come with you? You can go on your
own."

"Because um," Mark searched furiously for a valid reason that Vicki
couldn't refuse. "Because I've got something to tell you."

"Well tell me now." Her voice had risen with irritation he was really
getting on her nerves now.

"I can't it's a secret. It's, you know, personal. I don't want anyone
else to hear."

"Duh! There's no one else here stupid. So come on tell me." She put her
book over the arm of the chair. Jaqueline Wilson was good but hearing a
bit of personal trouble from Mark was better, it might be something she
could use to her advantage at a later date.

Now Mark's little plan was already set in motion by this point, Vicki
to all intents and purposes was a dead duck, but it was thoughts just
like the last one that had caused this state of constant one-upmanship
between the pair of them. It was a bother-sister thing as old as time
itself and was written into the genealogy of every human family. It
didn't matter one jot that they loved each other to bits and God help
anyone else who caused the other one grief. So in a way it could be
argued that Vicki had what was coming, coming to her.

"Oh well," continued Mark. "If you aren't interested I'll just have to
go and tell Jamie after I've been to the shop, he'll listen to
me."

"Wait," screamed Vicki falling over the arm of the chair in her haste
to get up. Luckily she'd had a bath and done her hair before she
settled for a read. "Of course I'll listen to you if you need to talk.
I'm your sister, and I'll give you my best advice free of charge. Just
give me a minute to get changed. Er you might want to watch a program
or something."

Mark knew there was little point in trying to hurry Vicki up. She was
like a stubborn donkey in that the more you pushed her, the slower she
moved. Half an hour later she came downstairs wearing her best hipster
jeans, the ones with the diamonte spider's web on the thigh and a
little blue crop top that said 'Flirt' to anyone who cared to read it.
Her lips shone, her cheeks blushed and her eyes sparkled. She put on
her denim jacket with the afghan fur trim and she was finally ready.
With a bit of luck when they went in the shop she could hang back a bit
and Dean might not even realise that she was with Mark. It just wasn't
kewl to be seen out with your younger brother. She'd have to bribe Mark
with a chocolate bar though to keep quiet and leave the shop when he'd
bought whatever it was he wanted so that she could be alone with Dean.
She hadn't allowed for the fact that Vicker's ship yard had just kicked
out and the shop would be full of wall to wall work-dirty men stocking
up on beer and cigs for the big fight that night.

"So what is it then?" asked Vicki as they walked passed the Horse and
Jockey and saw bobby Castor going in for his tenth pint of the
day.

Mark made up a fictitious story about Aaron Pearson giving him a hard
time at school. Had Vicki know that was all it was she would have stuck
with Jackie Wilson for the rest of the afternoon. That wasn't personal,
how could she bribe him about that? To her personal was something to do
with girls, or peeing himself on the way home, or getting caught spying
in the girl's changing rooms. This was just plain bor-ing.

She'd gone to the effort of getting ready though, so figured she might
as well carry on. Mum could have finished the ironing in the kitchen by
the time they got back and if she was going to 'get done' for having
make-up on then she might as well make it worth her while. Dean might
speak to her today, or give her a special smile rather than just saying
'forty-two pence please' when she paid for her chewing gum. He had said
'mind the step' the other day, but it was too late, she'd already
tripped over it by then and her cheeks were blazing as she left the
shop with her head down.

Vivki had never smoked a cigarette in her life, but she thought that
if she had two pounds twenty she would buy a pack of ten, she looked at
the price last time. He wouldn't think she was just a kid then would
he? But what if he didn't believe she was sixteen and asked for
identification that would be awful. She threw away this idea though
when she looked at her brother's grinning face and knew that he would
only grass her up to their parents when she got home and then she'd get
into a whole heap of trouble when she would never smoke anyway. Well
not unless Dean offered her a cigarette. Vicki drifted off into a
daydream about her and Dean smoking cigarettes together and then him
asking her out. He was seventeen and would be considered quite a catch
at school. She just hoped he didn't have bad breath from all that
smoking. She decided that when he asked her to have a cigarette she'd
say 'nah, I've just given up thanks' even Dean Hargreaves wasn't worth
having bad breath and lung cancer for.

Mark pushed the door open and went straight over to the sweets. Vicki
hovered round the magazine rack pretending she didn't know him.

She was still leafing through the magazines, when Mark reached the head
of the queue to pay for his purchases and then to her ultimate horror
his high pitched voice could clearly be heard all over the shop.

"See that girl over there," he said to Dean. "Well she fancies you and
she told Chelsea Baker that you're her boyfriend and you're taking our
Vicki to the fourth year disco tomorrow night. She said you're picking
her up in your car and you're going to Kissing Lane on the way home to
smoke cigarette's and snog."

Vicki couldn't believe what she was hearing. She dropped the pop charts
magazine onto the floor and ran from the shop with hot tears stinging
her eyes. When she ran passed Dean, she was horrified to see that he
was grinning at her and she just wanted to die.

It was true, she had said all those things, but how did Mark know? She
ran all the way home without stopping and flung herself on the bed
crying her eyes out and burning with shame. She had been all prepared
to tell Chelsea that Dean had taken ill and couldn't make the disco
when he didn't show up, now everyone would know that she had been lying
and she'd never be able to face Dean Hargreaves again. She couldn't go
to school anymore. There was nothing else for it but to pack a rucksack
and run away.

There was a tap at the door, and despite telling her very rudely to 'go
away' Vicki's mum came in and sat on the bed.

"What's the matter sweetheart, I could hear you crying all the way down
stairs."

"Oh Mum, you'll never guess what's happened, I just want to kill
myself."

She flung herself into her mum's arms and told her the whole sorry tale
in between sniffs and sobs.

Karen tried to convince her that things weren't so bad and that
fantasising over boys you couldn't have was just a normal part of
growing up.

"And anyway if you think that's bad, you'll never guess what happened
to me when I was about your age." As Karen predicted Vicki gradually
stopped crying to listen.

"Well we had this teacher for Geography and I thought he was the best
thing since David Cassidy."

"Who?" asked Vicki.

"Never mind," said Karen. "Anyway, I was sitting on the next desk to
Janet Wharton because my best friend Lianne had gone off with someone
else. I wrote a note and passed it to her. It said ' Sir is fit. I
think I'm in love with him, were going to get married and have five
kids' you'll never guess what that Janet Wharton did to me."

"What?" asked Vicki. There was still a teardrop glistening on her
cheek, but apart from the streaked mascara her face was otherwise back
to normal and gazing with wide eyed curiosity, all thoughts of running
away were forgotten as interest in what her mother was saying took
their place.

"She put her hand up and said 'Sir, Karen's just passed me this note, I
think you ought to read it.

So he did, to the whole class. I hated him after that and never spoke
to that Janet Wharton again. But there is a point to this story you
know. I grew up and left school and about five years later I saw Mr.
Spencer the geography teacher in a bookshop. He looked totally dopping,
and I wondered what I had ever seen in him in the first place."

Vicki laughed, "but what about this David Cassidy did you ever get to
go out with him before you met Dad?"

Well I'll tell you what, you go and wash all that muck off your face
young lady and then come downstairs and I'll tell you all about
him."

While Vicki was talking to her mum, Dean was giving Marko a bit of a
hard time, which wasn't how it was supposed to work at all.

"You know what I'm going to do next time I see poor Vicki?" he said.
"I'm going to tell her to put laxatives in your breakfast cereal. You
won't be so clever when you get caught short in the middle of assembly
will you?" Everybody in the queue behind Mark laughed and he went red.
Dean winked at him to show that he wasn't really mad at him and Mark
left the shop still blushing, but glad that his mischief with Vicki had
paid off so well. She'd be hell to live with for days now.

He was munching on his socco-bar when he walked up the back alley to
his house. At that moment a small dark figure snuck silently out of his
gate and seeing Mark began to run up the alley.

It was Adobe and he'd discovered where they live. He must have been
looking for the frame Mark thought. He began to chase the little man,
but Adobe for all his bent over shape was fast and he escaped into the
dusk before Mark even got near him.

Mark was panting hard when he slammed into the house and almost
cannoned straight into his mother who had been waiting for him to get
in.

"Aaah just the man I want to see," said Karen. "Now then you can go and
clean out the guinea pigs, and then the garden wants sweeping, if you
get a move on you can do it before the light fades. And then you can
clean all my brasses they haven't been done for a while. And then after
tea you can walk the dog and feed all the animals. If that doesn't take
you until bed time then you can go and clean your room and have a
shower."

"What! But I had a shower yesterday, It's Vicki's turn to walk the dog
and I cleaned the guinea pigs out last time."

"Well your sister's too upset to do any chores at all tonight so I've
told her she doesn't have to. So it's all down to you Mister and it'll
give you plenty of time to think about the nasty thing you did to
Vicki."

Mark wasn't pleased and told Caramel and Cornflake the guinea pigs how
unfair it all was. They appeared sympathetic and squeaked their
agreement that Vicki was 'just a big, fat, pig' but being of the
porcine persuasion themselves they seemed to see no shame in
that.

Vicki was still upset and wanted to write up the horrible trick in her
diary.

Of course, she thought that's how he knew all about it. The little
sneak's been reading my diary. Vicki was furious with him all over
again. She wanted to take the diary to her Grandparents house that
night for safe keeping, but her mum wouldn't let her out in the dark
and said she would have to wait until she went to Granddad's after the
disco the next night.

Vicki didn't want to go to the disco now. It had been spoiled by Mark.
In actual fact Mark had been given another harsh telling off for
reading her diary, and although he had been intending to spread the
story all round school the next day he thought it prudent under the
circumstances not to. They were both a little bit scared about Adobe
finding out where they lived and sneaking round. Vicki had seen him at
the end of the street when she'd looked out of her window earlier that
evening. At least the frame isn't here and that's what he's looking
for, she thought as she prepared for the disco.

So nobody at school actually found out anything about the incident in
the shop. Vicki's mum had advised that she mention Dean as little as
possible and if any questions were asked. She should just say that he
was working in the shop. Which was probably quite true? The disco was
all right and she had a fairly good time. Simon Cole asked her to dance
the last dance so at least she wasn't left without a partner. And her
friend Sarah said that Jordan Peterson fancied her too. All this helped
to salve her dented ego.

The other's were already at Nanna's and were asleep by the time
Granddad picked her up. This meant that she had some time to herself to
look for a suitable hiding place for her diary. She found the perfect
place, but would have to wait for the next morning to hide it. She
smiled to herself as she drifted into sleep. After all Jordan Peterson
was even better looking than Dean Hargreaves and at least he didn't
smoke. Shame he was too young to drive though.

The next morning Vicki slipped quietly out of bed while the others were
still asleep. She'd only had six hours sleep but wasn't tired. She
wanted to write her private diary in the special place she'd found
before the other's woke up.

After she washed and dressed she quietly took the oil painting outside
the bathroom off the wall and put the picture into their frame. It was
too big and hung out of the ends but it was okay the important part of
the picture was in the frame and that was all that mattered.

She had taken their frame into the bathroom and locked the door. Very
quietly she chanted the sand lizard rhyme and leaped into the
picture.

Although Vicki had travelled through time and space she hadn't actually
travelled very far. The oil painting depicted a local Dalton beauty
spot and Vicki had leapt less than half a mile from her house.

The Hags was one of Dalton-in-Furness' best kept secrets, running
parallel to, but completely hidden from the main road, the Hags was an
area of pasture land with a stream and public footpath meandering
through the middle. Despite its unsavoury name it was beautiful. Sheep
and cattle grazed, birds sang and Mother Nature skinny-dipped in her
wonder away from prying eyes.

It was early in the morning real time, but this bore no relevance to
'leap time', however apart from the wildlife she had the place to
herself entirely. It seemed that in this instance, leap and real time
had synchronised watches. As she walked through the grass it washed her
trainers in the nourishing morning dew and her socks clung soggily to
her ankles.

She made her way to the signal box half way along the top path. A
disused railway blanket stitched the top edge of The Hags and these
days was home only to rabbits, voles, dormice and foxes. The bench
beside the old signal box was damp and she had to put her jacket down
to sit on. It may have been early morning on the leap, but far from the
early January morning that she left behind in the cold bathroom, this
was summer. Even at this early hour the sun was warming the fields and
the temperature was pleasant before the heat of the day became
stifling.

Vicki felt truly at peace and spent a happy half-hour writing her diary
without prying eyes, or taunting voice tormenting her. Her pen flew
over the pages of the red book as she disclosed all her secrets and
humiliations of recent days. Her diary was a friend who always listened
but never judged.

When she had finished writing, she sat for a few minutes watching the
young lambs feeding from their mothers. It was a lovely feeling sitting
there alone while the world slept. She thought she heard a voice and
looked around her, it was little more than a whisper. There was nobody
there. It must have been the breeze forcing itself through the sycamore
trees.

The next time she looked up a lady was walking towards her. She was a
slim lady wearing a long brown dress and a straw bonnet. She held a
wicker basket full of freshly cut daffodils and she was singing softly
to herself.

Vicki felt a tremor run the length of her spine and all the fine hairs
on her arms and on the back of her neck stood on end. What she was
seeing was impossible. That lady couldn't have walked so far along the
path from the last time she looked. As the lady continued moving
towards her, Vicki saw that she was just-and-so transparent. She could
see the sun shining through the lady's body. Vicki realised she was
watching a ghost walk towards her.

She was terrified and stood chanting the spell to cast her back home,
as the world began to spin she lost her grip on the diary and it fell
from her hand. She bent to pick it up, but it was too late she was
spinning out of control now and the diary was gone.

She hit the bathroom floor running.

Mark was on the other side of the locked door. "Hurry up I'm desperate.
Come oooon."

Vicki wrenched the door open and pushed passed him as she ran for the
safety of her room. Mark forgot about his 'desperation' and followed
Vicki to find out what had upset her. His sister was sitting on the bed
rocking backwards and forwards her eyes were wide and frightened and
she was as white as her newly wet socks.

"What's the matter," Vic, he asked with genuine concern in his voice.
"Are you ill? Do you want me to get Nanna?"

"I've just seen a ghost," Said Vicki in a small shaky voice.

"No shi&;#8230;" began Mark excitedly before stopping himself. "No
way Vicki."

Vicki waited until he got Kerry and Vicki to join them and then told
the story of the lady down the Hags. "The thing is," finished Vicki
We've got to go back."

"Hey," cut in Emma quite savagely. "I don't know where you're dragging
your pronouns from, but 'We' `ain't 'me' it's you and whoever's daft
enough to go along with you. Girl you can count me right out with a
capital GET LOST. I'm not going anywhere near any ghost and that's
final."

"Here we go again," said Vicki. "Listen up Emma, we have no choice. We
have to go back. I left my diary there. It's got everything in it,
everything. All about the leaps, Whence, Sylvia, Everything. If that
diary falls into the wrong hands and someone with any influence takes
it seriously, can you imagine what the frame's going to do to the
world? Humans will invade Whence for a start, we'll lose the frame, and
George bush will probably find a way to cause the third, fourth and
fifth world wars all on a grand slam."

Vicki was looking closely at the painting to see if she could see any
sign in the picture of the ghostly woman. "Hey look at this you
lot."

They all crowded round the picture. Beside the bench was a tiny flash
of red.

"It's my dairy," said Vicki, "Because I left it in the leap it's become
part of the picture."

"Wow," said Emma "So does that mean that time goes on in the picture
all the time, even if it's just hanging on the wall? Or is the place in
the picture dead until we leap into it and set it off?" It was
something they hadn't considered before. And after much discussion Emma
decided to set up an experiment. She wanted to leap into the picture
with Vicki and Kerry while Mark rode there on his bike. Now that she
was a woman on a mission of scientific discovery it seemed her fear of
the unknown was forgotten. In theory if time continued, Mark should
appear in their leap even though he had gone there on his bike. If he
didn't appear then it meant that leaps were only real to the people who
leaped and lasted only as long as they were in the place.

Kerry didn't like the way Emma had taken command. She was the one who
was going to go to university to be a scientist, not Emma. It wasn't
fair that Emma should rule the show like this.

"Well I don't believe in ghosts," Said Kerry to get their attention.
"In fact Vicki I think you're telling a big fat lie, and to prove it
I'll go by myself and get the frame." She stood up and began to
chant.

This caused three reactions.

"Good on ya Kezza," from Emma.

"Don't you call me a liar you over sized bookworm," from Vicki who
suddenly looked murderous."

And&;#8230; "Hang on Kezza you're not going alone it might be
dangerous." From Mark who grabbed hold of Emma and Vicki and dragged
them quickly into the leap zone before it was too late. Secretly he
wanted to cause a smoke screen to save him having to cycle to the Hags
alone. He did believe in ghosts and wasn't going to go there on his own
for love nor money. He wouldn't even do it for fifty Socco-bars and was
just glad that it wasn't going to come to a confrontation. Emma could
be so bossy sometimes and he had an uncanny habit of losing when he
tried to go head to head with her.

The landed in the same place that Vicki had earlier, though whether it
was earlier, later or at the same time here was difficult to tell.
There had been a change since last time. Although it was still
pleasantly warm and the sun was rising, a thick mist had fallen over
the meadow and clung at ground level to about ankle height. It all
looked very spooky and Vicki told the other's to hurry while she ran
back for her diary.

Kerry was the only one who didn't run up to the bench with them. She
moved off the wet grass and onto the path, but then instead of going
with them she spread her arms wide and said in a silly voice. "Is there
anybody there? C'mon spooky ghost lady, come and spray us with
ectoplasm."

"Oh shut up" Kerry, shouted Vicki I'm going to batter you in a minute,
you're not funny you know."

Kerry took no notice. "Is there anybody there? Knock three times on the
ceiling if you want me," She said "Twice on the pipe if the answer is
no." Secretly Mark thought this was very funny, normally Kerry was the
serious one, but he didn't dare laugh while Emma was mad. Things had a
habit of turning on him in times of trouble and quite often he ended up
with all three of them shouting at him.

"See I told you there was nothing there. It's a well-documented fact
that there is no recorded evidence of life after death in any country
in the world. No cold hard proof in any of them. If Ghosties were real
I think there'd be something by now, wouldn't you? It's just a load of
Rubbi.."

The other's had picked up the diary and were ready to go when the voice
answered Kerry.

"Shoooo Shiiiii" It said in a song-song meter that carried on the
breeze.

Kerry almost jumped three foot into the air. She ran to catch up with
the other's now. "Atmospheric pressure," she explained. "It's just
atmospheric pressure caused by the ground warming and the air flow
reaching a cross current with the ..er."

It was then that an invisibly person brushed passed her and caught her
arm. She screamed and started crying.

"It touched me, Oh God someone touched me."

"Shooooooe Shiiiiiiine" repeated the voice. It was unmistakably human.
It was close to them but had no visible form. But perhaps the scariest
thing was the fact that it wasn't coming from the same direction as the
invisible person who had touched Kerry and it wasn't Vicki's lady from
earlier, this was definitely a man. The place was full of ghosts.

Strange that nobody had ever seen them before. A mile down the road was
Furness Abbey one of the oldest monastic ruins in England and that
place was rife with ghost stories of floating monks singing, and grey
lady's and little girls killed in a car crash there, but they had never
heard of ghosts down The Hags.

"Flipping heck," said Mark grabbing Vicki's arm and pointing. About
three hundred yards ahead of them a large stone cross had risen from
the mist. There was no cross down The Hags, never had been. And then
two seconds later it was gone.

The cousin's huddled together too frightened to move, let alone chant
the rhyme to get them home.

A man and a little boy dressed in old-fashioned clothes appeared on the
path only yards from them, they had a pig on a rope and were dragging
it along the track. They were clearly visible but transparent and could
easily be seen through. The image of them was not stable and came in
and out of view.

"Will we get a good price for the pig Pa?" asked the little boy as they
drew level with the kids."

"I don't know lad, but if we don't then there's going to be no food in
the larder this month."

The cousin's could smell the sweet, ripe smell of the pig as it passed
them by.

"They can't see us whispered Kerry."

"Trout, fresh trout, poached from Ulverstone `Nal just this morn." This
new faceless voice finished with a phlegmy laugh.

They still called the canal at Ulverston, The Nal even today, but Kerry
noticed that the man pronounced the word 'stone' in full instead of the
modern equivalent of 'ston'.

More voices were calling their morning wares. "It's an old fashioned
market." Said Kerry. "Wow."

"Bows for ladies, bowties for Gents."

"Flowers, pretty roses. Flowers from my own garden. Only hapenny a
bunch."

The voices were coming faster now, each of them over cutting the
other's all trying to be heard, all trying to sell their wares before
anyone else took the precious pennies. Every few seconds a picture
would materialise out of the mist. A long cobbled street became clear
laid on the wet grass of the meadow. Either side of the street
stall-holders tended their wares. And people walked up the centre with
horses and cart, squeezing vegetables and stroking material. Sometimes
they could glimpse the large stone cross at the end of the road. And
then it would all be gone for a few seconds and only the voices
remained calling across the fields while the sheep grazed unconcerned
or unaware.

"Flipping heck don't you realise where we are?" said Mark in a voice
filled with amazement. "It's Ulverston town centre. Look at the cross
next time it comes. It's exactly the same as the one near the Bradyls,
and if you look closely you can see Hewitson's chemist on the
corner."

"Let's get out of here." Whimpered Vicki clutching her diary tightly to
her chest. "I don't care where it is, I just want to go home."

"Can't," said Emma emphatically.

"What!" chorused the others in a whisper, even though the ghosts
couldn't see or hear them.

"Remember the man on the lounger? If we leap and any of these Ghouls
are near us, we might take them back with us. And I don't think Nanna
is going to like a ghost pig crapping all over the house do you?"

She had a point.

"What are we going to do then?" Asked Mark He was still terrified, but
felt a little bit braver because if they couldn't see him, they
couldn't hurt him could they? This was his reasoning anyway.

A man appeared a little way down the path from them. He picked a live
hen out of a wicker box and showed it to a fat lady with a huge bustle
on her bottom.

"Rhode Island Red," said Kerry knowledgeably. Even now when scared out
of her wits, she couldn't resist imparting what she called her amazing
facts.

The lady felt the meat on the hen's breast and nodded her approval.
Then right there in front of them the man wrung the chicken's
neck.

"I want to go home." Said Kerry as tears streamed down her cheeks.
"This is horrible, horrible." Kerry had a great affinity with birds and
hens were such gentle creatures she said they didn't deserve to be
treated like that.

"People had to eat Kez," said Mark appalled at the slaughter yet
fascinated. "They didn't have McDonalds you know." They had barely
realised that as they talked their fascination had drawn them along the
'road' they were walking sometimes between rows of brightly adorned
stalls and sometimes in a grassy field between grazing sheep.

"Ponies shod, only one 'n' six." Shouted a man beside them.

"Oh my God," cried Kerry. "We've got to stop him, he's going to shoot a
pony."

"Duh" He said shod stupid," chided Emma. "He's a farrier and he's going
to put shoes on them."

Kerry did indeed feel stupid, she was supposed to be the clever one and
hated it when Emma made her look silly in front of the others. She
pouted.

"Right this is the deal," said Vicki. "We've got to find somewhere away
from the market where there are no spooks. Then we can all spread our
arms and turn round to see that there are none near us and then leap
quickly before any of them get close."

They all agreed that this was a good plan. It took some time to find a
place that was suitable. One or other of them would always scream out
as they came into contact with another person or a piece of a market
stall. Kerry was beside herself when a stall became visible just as she
thought she was stroking a piece of rich velvet material, only to
discover she had plunged her hand into a side of honeycombed tripe. It
was then that she discovered that she wasn't beside herself after all.
It was a big red-faced butcher with blood all over his blue and white
apron that was beside her. She set about screaming and the others
agreed that it was high time they managed to get home.

Finally they were able to leap in solitude and leave all the ghosts of
the past behind them.

Back in the bedroom Vicki and Emma got into a huge row about the
picture. Emma wanted to cut it down and put it into her leap file, but
Vicki insisted that it belonged to Nanna and had to go back up on the
wall before her grandparents noticed and started asking awkward
questions. She argued that, as they were never going to go back there,
surely there was no point in keeping it in the file.

Emma said that Nanna hated the picture and once told her it was boring,
but covered a white patch on the wall so wouldn't mind if she had it.
Emma said she wanted a record of every leap they did for the file, even
the bad ones. She took hold of the picture of The Hags and said that
she would go and ask Nanna if she could have it.

Vicki not backing down tried to grab it, to return it to its original
frame. Neither of them would give in and the picture ripped down the
middle, leaving each girl looking guilty with a piece of picture in her
hand.

"Hang on a sec. Look at this." Kerry had taken hold of Emma's half of
the painting and was looking closely at it. Part of the paint had
chipped away in the rip. There was something underneath the topcoat, it
looked like a piece of a lady's dress.

"It's another picture underneath."

For the next half-hour they chipped away at the picture with nail files
and fingernails. It didn't come away very well and the picture ripped
often, but they managed to clear enough of the top painting to make out
a market scene underneath.

"So they weren't ghosts after all," said a smug Kerry. There was
another picture underneath and it was interfering with the leap. "We
were in two leaps at once. Isn't that amazing?"

"Just think," said Emma great Granddad Jim might have been alive then.
We might have passed him walking down the street.