Susanna bent down near the rockery and stood up with a stone in her hand. On closer focus Addie could see it was the tortoise, mostly unaffected by the passing years, with a little coating of moss, and gleefully Susanna undid the bottom of it to reveal a key.
Addie shivered. She thought she’d heard something rustling in the bush. ‘Let us in, then, I’m getting cold.’
Susanna tried the key in the back door and smiled when it clicked to open up. ‘Hey presto, we’re in.’
They took themselves and their luggage inside.
Addie hadn’t been prepared for seeing the cottage from the outside, but that was nothing to the nostalgia that flooded her as they passed through the narrow utility room and into the kitchen. They were met with a sweet aroma that had always hovered in the air the whole time they’d lived here. It was unlikely to really be the same and yet somehow it was.
Susanna grimaced. ‘I meant to grab some milk and tea and coffee at least so we’d have provisions for the morning.’
‘I didn’t think of that. And I don’t suppose we can do an online order around here.’
‘Better check nothing has gone rancid inside.’ Susanna opened the fridge but quickly turned to Addie. ‘That’s odd… It’s really well stocked.’
Addie peered inside for herself and sniffed. ‘I’m surprised it doesn’t smell. It must have been a while since?—’
She was silenced when they heard the back door open and a voice yell out, ‘I’ve called the police! Get out unless you want to be hurt!’
‘I told you we should’ve informed the neighbours!’ Addie hissed in a panic, grabbing Susanna’s arm as she yelled back, ‘We’re not burglars, I promise! We are family. Gayle’s family.’ She wasn’t about to confront the person – who was female, given the voice – because if they had a weapon, she didn’t want either of them to get injured.
Footsteps drew closer. Clumpy boots, bronzed legs and then the face of a young woman with the craziest blonde curls all the way down her back appeared. ‘You must be Addie and Susanna.’
Addie nodded, relieved this person seemed more friend than foe. ‘I’m Addie, this is Susanna.’ She pointed at herself then her sister. ‘You must be a neighbour?’
But the woman didn’t answer because they heard movement from another part of the cottage.
What was going on?
‘Louisa, is that you?’ came a voice.
Addie shook her head. She was hearing things. It sounded so much like Aunt Gayle it was uncanny.
And when the owner of the voice came into the room Susanna spoke first, with a word beginning with ‘f’ that she’d never been allowed to utter under this roof.
Addie stumbled back into a chair at the shock. She didn’t believe in ghosts, but she didn’t believe in people coming back from the dead either.
She looked at Aunt Gayle and her eyes filled with tears. ‘What is this?’ Her voice trembled. ‘Is this some kind of sick joke?’
Susanna fixed their aunt with a stare that could have turned a person to stone. ‘You’d better have one hell of an explanation.’
9
SUSANNA
Susanna slumped down at the table next to Addie. In situations like this, when it was clear that someone was playing games, she usually walked away, refusing to be a part of it. Like the time a group of girls she hung around with at school decided to invite everyone to a house party but not her. She could tell by the way they were looking at her in the classroom that they wanted her to beg, to find out why she wasn’t invited, but she’d packed up her books and left them to it. She’d got an invite in the end, but she hadn’t gone. She didn’t need the drama. And she definitely didn’t need drama now. She wanted to walk away, out of this cottage and back to her life, but this was such a shock it kept her right where she was.
At least she hadn’t lost the ability to demand answers. ‘Are you going to explain?’ She looked her aunt right in the eye but her voice almost wavered as she said, ‘You’re supposed to be dead and you’re not.’
‘I’ll leave you to it, Gayle,’ said the neighbour, who had put down the broom she was holding, which was presumably intended to be her weapon. Clearly the neighbours knew their aunt was alive. Were she and Addie the only ones who didn’t?
Gayle sat at the table in a long, bright floral nightdress with an equally vivid pink dressing gown wrapped around her shoulders. She hadn’t always worn bright colours but now the wording on the funeral invite made more sense. She must have changed over the years. They all had.
When the back door clicked shut Gayle settled her elbows on the tabletop, her fingers steepled in front of her. Susanna remembered her doing that exact thing when they lived here. She’d do it when she had bills to pay, when Susanna had stayed out late and not told her where she was going, coming back only when she was ready. Susanna had always been waiting for Gayle to explode, yell at her, except she never really did.
‘I made a mistake,’ said Gayle into the eerie silence that had fallen over the kitchen on Evergreen Close.
‘How can you accidentally plan your own funeral?’ Even to Susanna’s own ears her tone felt mild, when all she should be feeling was rage. She shivered. It was chilly in here without the sunshine that usually streamed through the windows.
