Time Portals of Norwich

The Past is Two Different Countries

"Right," Kay said, sitting down on the trimmed lawn. "Well, we both know how this started. After Mum died. When, you know, he began to take an interest in me... us."

"What are you talking about?"

"Four or five years ago, when you were nearly thirteen."

"Yes, I was thirteen four years ago. So? What started then?"

"Grandad. You know."

"Oh, when he started going mental?"

"That's one way of putting it. Wandering hands, I was once naive enough to call it."

"Eh? I meant when he started going senile. What's this wandering hands stuff?"

Kay frowned. "Senile? No, he wasn't senile at all. You mean he didn't start, um, touching you?"

"No, of course not. He would never do that."

"Oh." Kay looked shocked. "Things really were different for you."

"Are you saying...?"

"Yes. I'm saying exactly that. But if it didn't happen to you... Well, that probably explains why you didn't end up shoplifting."

"Are we really the same person?"

Kay stared at Cassie for a moment and then said, "Mum died on the twenty-fourth of January 2011 – correct?"

"Yes."

"Cancer?"

"Yes."

"And you started seeing weird people and things about a year ago?"

"No, a lot longer ago than that."

"What, round about the time your Grandad started, um, losing his mind?"

"No. Earlier. A lot earlier – before Mum died."

Kay pursed her lips, digesting the information. Then she slowly said, "My Grandad didn't lose his mind. Sometimes I thought it was me that had."

"Um, what exactly did he do to you?"

Kay's face fell and she swallowed.

"Okay," Cassie said. "I get the picture."

"No, you probably don't if, as you say, it didn't happen to you."

"It didn't."

There was silence for a while. A small flock of sparrows fought for something further across the green – pieces of bread or discarded chips probably. Cassie hadn't ever seen sparrows in such numbers before in the city. The chip shop a few yards away was closed and she wondered what time it was. She stood up so she could see the city hall clock – it said ten-fifteen.

Sitting back down she asked, "What are they? The weird people. That man on the bus and the things that chased us?"

"Some are the ghosts of real people that once lived – as far as I can tell."

"Like Robert Kett?"

"Yeah. You can't avoid him any time you go near the castle. Ones like him are mostly harmless, I think."

"You think?"

Kay shrugged. "Sometimes. A few of them are friendly like the Grey Lady, providing you don't let her chew on your legs. Most aren't. Some seem to be there just to keep an eye on you... well, us. Observers of some kind. Some can even be useful like the bus man."

"Talk crap, though."

"Yeah," Kay smiled. "Though sometimes what they say comes back to you later on and you realise it wasn't quite as crap as you first thought."