“I’ve got a short figure, I’d say a child,” Freddie murmured as she kept aiming it at the moving trolley.
“Alone or is there another?” I asked, grabbing my recorder.
“Alone for now,” Freddie replied.
“Temperature is falling rapidly,” Connor added.
“Hi, my name is Callie, and I’m here to talk to you. Can you tell us your name?” I said quietly. If this were a child, I wouldn’t want to scare them.
“We mean no disrespect, nor do we want to harm or scare anyone. Are there others with you?” I continued.
Ever so slowly, the trolley kept heading for us. Fiona had moved completely away from the trolley and was watching intently.
“Could you tell us how old you are?” Jack spoke.
The trolley came to a halt, and I glanced at Freddie.
“They’re still there,” she replied to my question that wasn’t asked.
“Can you talk to us?” I asked a final question and waited a few moments. I hit stop, then reversed it to play it back.
My first two questions seemed to go unanswered, but on the third, there was a whisper of a reply.
“Was that a baby?” Michelle asked, leaning closer.
“Not sure.” I rewound it once more, grabbed a speaker, and placed the voice recorder next to it.
“Janie.”The word could be heard better this time.
“Janie,” Sunny said again, and I nodded.
“A little girl,” Cherry said, her voice laced with sadness.
I pressed play again, and after my final question, we heard a second whisper. I didn’t catch it and repeated my actions once more.
“Play,”Janie stated.
“She wants to play?” Cherry asked.
I looked at the trolley and then frowned. “Could she want to have tea parties? Fiona, what do you use the hostess trolley for?”
“We do a special Christmas afternoon tea as an extra,” Fiona replied.
A smile crossed my face. “Janie wants to do tea parties!”
The trolley moved back and forth in agreement.
“How do we do that?” Liv asked.
I turned to Fiona. “Do you have some china we can use?”
“I certainly do,” Fiona said and hurried out.
I smiled in the direction of the trolley. “Janie, Fiona is going to get you some cups and a teapot for your tea party. Is that okay?”
In reply, the trolley moved again, and I guessed that was perfectly fine with Janie.
Chapter Three.
