A Dark Evening

Jessie was a 45 year old housewife. She had three children (all boys), one dog and a husband who she adored. She was the kind of person who would always want to do her best for the people around her and no matter how good her intentions were, she would always take on too much and then inevitably let people down. She was a busy person with a family and there are only 24 hours in a day.

She was exhausted coming home from work that night, and was looking forward to a nice relaxing bubble bath before going out that evening. As soon as she walked through the door the phone rang. It was Mark her brother. He asked if she could pop to his house to pick something up for his nephew Michael (her son). Michael was still at work so she reluctantly drove over to her brother's flat. Mark’s friend had recently moved house and was looking for a new home for some beautiful plants. This was one of Jessie’s incentives to make the journey. She would kill two birds with one stone and collect her plants at the same time.

She rang the bell and waited for a reply. Instead of inviting her in, Mark had his coat on. “Come on” he said,

“Where are we going?”

“We need to go to the house. They need picking up”

“You didn't tell me that on the phone”, she cried whilst they hurried to the car.

The plants were beautiful and fully grown. They would look fabulous on the veranda. The flat was empty, just a few odd bits of furniture, and she noticed a big old clock in the corner of the room. If only it could talk, she thought, “Wow, that’s unusual. It looks like an old school hall clock” she exclaimed. “That’s the thing for Michael” he replied.

“You are kidding, where on earth is he going to put it?”

“In his bedroom I suppose”.

She dropped her brother back at the flat and headed for home to walk the dog.

She was meeting her husband Steven from work. It had been one of those really hot summer days, so she thought they could idle away their time romantically strolling along the Thames. Not that they had a lot of time to idle, that’s what made it even better. It felt naughty wasting time. Why not, people tend to lose sight of what life is all about she reasoned?

As she was uncomfortably getting out of the car with this cumbersome clock, her neighbour was impelled to approach her. This was something she had never done before. Jessie always thought of this neighbour as quite ‘witchlike’. She was an eccentric hoarder, highly educated and very well spoken with curly long red hair. She would walk around her house purposely naked with no curtains to save her modesty and her house was unkempt and cluttered. She wanted to know where Jessie had got the clock. Where was Jessie going to put it? Jessie explained it was for her son and would be staying in his room. This disappointed the neighbour as she wanted it for herself.

Before getting ready Jessie thought she would surprise Michael by cleaning the clock and putting it on his bedroom wall. In doing so, she discovered that it was going backwards. In hindsight, with the events that followed that evening, this very old clock, telling the time in reverse should have rung alarm bells in her mind. It looked so ugly on the wall, but she shut the door and forgot about it. It was her son that would have to live with it, not her. Off she went for a lovely evening.

They arrived home about nine that evening absolutely starving. They would always see Suzy’s little ears at the window waiting for the sign of the car lights in order to charge downstairs to the front door, tail wagging frantically because she was so happy they were home. But tonight, there were no little ears, no Suzy. Where was she? They didn't comment to each other, but it was noticed by both of them. Suzy was getting on, they hoped she was all right. Even when they put the key in the door there was no sign of her.

When they got upstairs they found her on their bed, looking in the corner of the room at nothing. She didn't jump or stir one bit at the sight of mum and dad home. Although this was out of character Steven and Jessie didn't fully take this in until later on that evening.

They needed milk so Jessie said she would nip over to the shop and then cook. In the mean Steven noticed the ugly clock, came over all tired so just sat on the bed until Jessie came back.

When Jessie came back from the shop there was a tramp sitting on the front steps of her house. First the neighbour, then this, what was going on this evening? The man made her a little nervous so she just hung around waiting for him to go which he eventually did and she got down to cooking the dinner.

The dog was weird that night. She would not stop crying and running around the kitchen, irritatingly so. All through dinner the dog cried and barked. They could not work out why. She didn’t seem in pain, but she did seem in panic.

They were a God fearing couple and always prayed before eating. But tonight Steven couldn't seem to form the words. They giggled, he tried again and he did get to say a prayer in the end.

After dinner they sat down to relax and read the papers. Suzy would not let them relax. It was almost as though she were trying to tell them something. Then all of a sudden she ran around in circles, sounded as though she wanted to be sick, took one look at them both as if to say “im off” and scarpered down the stairs to the front door.

Boom, there was an explosion. Steven and Jessie just sat very still. It was so loud, like a gun shot coming from the kitchen. Of course they had to eventually see what it was.

Earlier that evening Steven had helped himself to a drink of water. He used a heat resistant pyrex cup. You know the type of cup I mean. One that you can practically throw against the wall and it just bounce off.

He had cold water in a pyrex cup that he got from the cupboard. No heat used whatsoever. This cup was still sitting on the draining board only it was no longer whole. It had smashed into smithereens. It was as dust. The dog had known this was coming. Jessie and her husband looked at each other knowingly. They remembered the clock. Steven flew down the stairs and took it outside.

As soon as they opened the front door the dog ran out. She had never acted like that before, what on earth had happened to Suzy while they were out? Had the demons hurt her?

They had a shed on the estate where they lived for people to put their rubbish. Steven tried breaking the clock so no-body would take it in. It just would not break. They eventually disguised it and went home.

That clock lived in that shed for another four days. Once a week the shed would be cleared. This would normally take about thirty minutes. The bin men came and Steven and Jessie watched from their bedroom window. They noticed that the men couldn't get something out of the shed. They were pulling and pulling but it would not come. Eventually it did and do you know what? That was the only thing they took that day. It was almost as though they had come over all tired, just like Steven had that night of the explosion.

The bin men left.

Suzy was never the same again. She was scared of Steven and Jessie. What had happened to her? What had the demons done? Did they imitate them? Did they hurt her? We will never know. One thing we do know though is that Jessie brought a clock into the house that night.

A clock that was going backwards.

Copyright © 2011 Lesley Sherwood