THE FORGETFUL SECRET, BY EL SIDI CAMPEADOR

It was mid June in Brighton and the weather was very hot. At two o’clock in the afternoon, many people walked down to the beach where James was sitting all alone on a side of the pier hidden from the crowd in solitude, tearful and lost in his own thoughts. He was a six feet tall black curly haired white skinned shy teenager. He was as thin as a match was and he seemed to be a lonely lad.
An old man passed along the beach and walk towards him to find out the cause of his trauma.
“Good evening, young man. What’s bringing you down to tears that can’t be solved?” The old man asked him.
“Oh, I’m alright. Do not worry.” James answered sighing.
“Do you really hate the hot weather that much and so you need to cry for it?” The old man asked.
“Ha. Ha. No.” James answered with a sudden but short laugh drying his tears, leaving a light forced smile in his face.
“Perhaps is the time the cleaners have to spend sweeping the surroundings of the beach that makes you sad? Do you feel sorry for them?”
This time James burst out laughing, and his mood cheered up a bit.
“Ha. Ha. No. It is nothing to do with that. My parents are driving me nuts telling me what should I and what should not I do with my life and I do not even feel like to talk to them about it. I love them but I feel confused and I need my space. They are probably right in one thing though. I am a good student and I have to carry on studying.”
“Ah.” The old man said.
“Well that’s not worth crying about, but you have to think about it a bit more and look inside of you. Moreover, whatever happens just let the “you” inside of you decide for the “you” outside of you. Do you understand, you?”
“Ha. Ha. Ha. I do not think so. Nevertheless, you have been such a good laugh and that is helping me to recover. Thanks very much. I will have to find a job for paying the university fees and I am not very good on this kind of decisions.
My parents want me to study any subject that I can learn how to make money with at a long term, and I am not very good with numbers! In fact I don’t even like economics anyway.” James replied.
“Well, well, well, you will need to find a subject that suits you and it has to be one you really would like to learn. That only you can find, my boy, so you would have to find it by yourself. However, if you need to earn good money immediately for studying reasons, hold this card with you. The man represented in it is a very rich person and you can earn good money working for him; but he is very exigent though. His name is Mr Albert Smith. He lives in a very big mansion not far from here; his address is on the card. You can go and tell him that Michael Shail told you to ask him for a job. I used to work for him, you see.
Moreover, do not worry, because he will not mind about your age for the job if you really need it for good reasons. However, you’ll have to work hard.”
“Oh, well, thanks very much I don’t know how to thank you back.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just be happy and stop crying. Ok?”
“Ok. Thanks again.”
“Bye.”
Therefore, James went to meet Mr Albert Smith without knowing how much his life was going to change from then on…

It was five o’clock in the evening and Albert Smith was walking outside his mansion, talking to one of the gardeners.
“I think that if you plant some trees for the entrance the access to the mansion would be more protected. What sort of trees would you plant for this area?” Albert asked to the gardener.
“Well Sir” he said.
“The bars are quite tall, so may I suggest that…”
At that moment, somebody passed around.
“I wonder who can that be,” said Mr Smith.
It was James, who looked a bit gladder this time, as he was thinking to work for Mr Smith.
“Good evening, sir. My name is James and I, err…”
“Well? What do you want? We are busy here, you know.” Mr Smith said while he was looking at James’ individual style.
“Oh. I am sorry to bother you, sir. Mr Michael Shail told me to ask for you. I need a job desperately and I thought maybe I could work for you.”
“Oh. Old Mickey told you to come, eh?” Mr Smith seemed surprised and quite now.
“I have not seen him for ages. I wonder what he is doing now. That is different then, anyway. For a moment, I thought you were one of these kids sniffing out in my garden, trying to find something to break or steal, but you do not look like a burglar anyway. Oh well. Oh well. Where are you from, kid?”
“I am from North Oxford, but I have been living for three months in Brighton with my parents.”
“Oh. I see. Well, if you need a job, I might have something for you to do. How old are you?”
“I am seventeen years old but I will be eighteen in five months. I will be eternally grateful Mr Smith. I’ll need money to pay my fees because I will go to university soon you know?”
“Oh. Do not worry for the money, and just call me Albert, please. You will have more than enough to pay your student fees, but you will have to work hard for me in order to earn it. Are you strong?”
“Oh. Yes Sir. I guess so. And I am a quick learner you know?”
“That is exactly what I need, since there are a lot of things to do around. Please come inside the mansion now and so I can show you where the things are. This is a big place and I always need more people to do some jobs around it, right? Well now, you will meet one of the gardeners. His name is Alfred Richard, and he is taking care of the trees outside, so if you need to ask him anything related to the garden, don’t hesitate. Alfred, please let me introduce you to our new assistant. He is very young, but he is willing to learn how to earn money. Ha. Ha. Ha. Now where are we? Oh yes, Alfred this is James. James this is Alfred.”
“Hello James. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“The pleasure is mine, Mr Richard. I am at your service.”
Shortly after they met each other, Albert Smith showed James the way in.
A huge golden table filled up the main room downstairs where Albert showed James how he the duties around the mansion were organized.
“This is the main hall, and here is where we make any schedules for the duties that we need to work on and…”
“Sorry to disturb you, Sir. I am afraid that Elizabeth needs your help again.”
That was Michael Purvis, the head chef, running towards them in a hurry.
At that moment, Mr. Smith changed his path, but he did not look in a hurry.
“Oh, I see. Mr Purvis, this is our new assistant, Mr James Williams. Would you please show him around the kitchen while I see my daughter for a minute?”
“I certainly will, Sir.”
Mr. Smith never seemed to be in a rush although he always dedicated his time to other people if necessary, whatever his mood was, especially to his daughter, so he went upstairs to her room.
It was only a month ago since Elizabeth’s last birthday, and now she was already twenty. Besides her age, she did not look more than fifteen. Albert got in her room, which was in the most complete darkness until he opened the curtains.
With the sunlight passing through the window, her room looked now like any rich teenager’s room from the sixties with lots of money invested on it. The walls were painted in pink and yellow and they were fully decorated with photographs of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Cliff Richard, and many films on fashion from the sixties, from expensive magazines. They gave a young style to the room. There was a Juke Box machine in one corner, and plenty of books related to Hollywood stars and the world of fashion at the time on another corner; the latter being above a big wardrobe designed to look like a pink elephant. A huge tiger-skinned carpet in the middle of the room and many coloured lights in the ceiling made the room look like a discotheque. Albert Smith went in.
“Wake up, sugar. It is almost mid-day. Are you going to sleep all day?”
“Sorry, Dad.” -Replied Elizabeth-” I was dreaming something nice.”
She was wearing some beautiful long pink silk pyjamas, and on a side of her bed, there was a chair with some more fashion magazines over it.
“I don’t know what’s going on, sugar. Michael just told me that you needed my help, but as far as I can see it, you were still sleeping just now.”
“Sorry, Dad, I told Michael yesterday to let you know, but you were really busy with your hunting meeting and so he probably waited until just now to tell you.”
“Tell me what? What’s all this mystery about?”
“Well, Dad, did you see my horoscope in this month’s magazine? I am about to meet the man of my life at the end of the month and you don’t even seem to care about it!”
“Oh, Elizabeth, is that what all this is about? Do you really think I have time to waste in all those…idiocies? Ah, my little princess thinks she is in a fairy tale again! I know you are twenty now. I am your father and I do not forget these things, but you are going too far, young girl. You should stop reading these magazines or you will go crazy. Now will you please get up and get dressed? We have a new assistant working from today and I want you to meet him.”
“Meet him? Whoa. Is he handsome? Can he sing?”
“Elizabeth. For the last time, I have been patient with you this month, because of your birthday and so on; but I forbid you completely to think in those terms especially with our workers, you hear me? You will have your time and then I will be the happiest father in the whole world; but believe me, that time has not come yet. Now be a good girl, get up, and come downstairs.”
Meanwhile, Michael was showing James the kitchen.
“So tell me, James, how did you get to know Mr Smith?”
“Well, an old member of the staff told me to come here and so I did. I was not thinking it was going to be that easy to work here, I am grateful. How is Mr Smith? Do you know about him?”
“Well, yes. My father used to be a very good friend of him before he become rich, but that was a long time ago, I guess.”
“You mean he was not born rich?”
“I will tell you the story, is quite interesting...”and so he told him about Mr Smith.
Albert Smith was a forty-five years old short, bold haired, well-educated English-man, but overall he was a multimillionaire. He did not belong to the aristocracy himself, but he earned a lot of money in the 1940’s because he spent many years working hard in the industrial sector. That allowed him to save money that he would invest some time later to make a profit out of it until he was able to run his own business, which he made bigger and bigger with the time. So he became rich since then as the owner of one of London’s more important property companies, but it was 1964 now and things had changed a little bit for him. The streets were full of teenagers with new fashions and tendencies that were far away different from the ones he had in his childhood, and the world was becoming a more modern stage that was still quite complicated for him to understand in many ways. He was an old-fashion gentleman that was living the post war times, hunting and walking all day long through his big gardens, leaving the rest of the world outside his huge mansion surroundings, and he didn’t care much for anything else, as all his necessities and dreams were ensured there.
His father, Gregory East, was a tailor who worked for rich people when he was younger, and who never earned a lot of money himself, and this Albert detested. Albert didn’t see his father quite often and in return he didn’t visited him much neither, as anytime he used to go to his mansion, Albert only spoke to him about business, and this Gregory hated as well, so they had a reciprocal distance with each other. Gregory’s second surname was not Smith, it was Roberts, but he had a secret relationship with a very wealthy woman called Elizabeth Smith while working on her new clothes when he was younger. She was Albert’s secret mother, and this only Albert, Gregory and her knew it. Although Gregory never wanted Albert to adopt her surname (and of course neither did she), he did so as soon as he started to make his own way of life. He always dreamt with having more and more money since school, and always wanted to show to the people how wealthy he was and what a good life he was enjoying because of it. He was rich and selfish just like his mother, with the exception that he earned the whole of his wealth all by himself.
He lived in a big mansion in West Sussex, in the deep south of England, where he seldom left the surrounding wealthy area where he lived except (with particular interest) to leave his car -a magnificent blue Rolls Royce- on hands of his personal mechanic, David Jones, whenever he needed to put his hands on it. Albert was not particularly fond of hobbies in general, but if he ever had one (besides the money), that would be the Rolls Royce cars. He did not know much about them really, but he had a huge library within the mansion full of books that showed the history of them and had photographs of all the different models, especially the very expensive ones, for whose he had special interest. He had lots of fact-based books about the Royce’s for people who don’t know much or know very little about them. They were easy reading books with lots of images and photos and some ”It takes one man one day to make a Rolls Royce radiator, and then five hours are spent polishing it” kind of stuff. The library was also full of books that any rich man would have based on lots of subjects like wealth, travelling, hunting, cars, collections…Although he didn’t read much.
He was an excellent reader when he was younger, but he was far too lazy to do it now and he was growing old, as he liked to say. Therefore, he left them for special occasions when some people were invited to the mansion to have some dinner with him and everybody could see them and so they could speak about the wealth he had and he could show all his whims to somebody else. Albert had travelled all around ninety per cent of the world (through the most tourist and wealthy areas), with the exception of the very tiny isles. Those he feared, as some bullies at school, trying to frighten him told him once that “In the small islands you can disappear quite easily and nobody might ever find you again”, and so he lived with that fear for the rest of his life. He spent most of his time inside the mansion or outside in the huge gardens he had, since he felt more safety there because his assistants, cleaners and gardeners, always surrounded him and nothing could ever happened to him that way. He had lived this way for a long time by then, since he was even more afraid of losing all his pertinences rather than to get lost and disappear himself in a lost remote island. The mansion was a huge beautiful Victorian house with a lake in a big wealthy area, where most of his common friends were as rich as he was, in one way or another. Bank managers, rich executives and businesspersons, politicians, and all sorts of very famous people shared this huge wealth area in the surroundings of the town. It was “The Beverly Hills of Sussex” as many used to called it. As the mansion was so big, so was the number of people who worked for him to maintain it always clean and ready for guests to come and see him. The garden had a big lake in the middle with lots of ducks and many different species of birds of all kinds that needed the special attention of Harry Davis, who was the number one specialist on caring exotic and rare birds. He always kept them ready for show photographs, as many photographers and editors from animal magazines used to come with Albert’s permission to show his new birds in them.
Michael ended up “Albert used to tell them to go to the lake and do the photographic sessions and so everybody would know about his wealth, and that is basically the story and…”
In that moment, Albert came along with her daughter, who was dressed as if she was going to a beauty contest.
“James, this is my daughter, Elizabeth. Whatever she needs you to do within the mansion if I am not here, please obey as if it was my own order.”
“Please to meet you, misses Smith,” said James.
“Oh please call me Elizabeth. Moreover, please do not talk to me as if I were my father. After all we are about the same age, are not we? So we can be friends too.”
Albert Smith went red for a moment.
“Elizabeth, what is this rudeness in my house? Go immediately to your room and start to do your homework!”
“Well father, first you tell me to leave my room and now you tell me to go back. Will I ever have a life of my own to choose those decisions by myself?”
Pointing with his finger towards her room, he shouted at her in a very sincere way. “Now!” he said.
As she went back to her room, he carried the talking with James and Michael.
“Well I should apologize for that, gents, but you know the new generations are growing up in a much-unsubordinated way nowadays. I hope you do not learn these bad manners from my daughter and grow as a real straight man, James. You must learn to think with your brain and not with what you just copy from others around because you must take the right choices sometimes all by yourself. Do you understand me?”
“Oh. Sure.”
Many thoughts appeared in James’ mind at that stage, but he chose to deal between two facts only from that moment:
I can have a very good friend on that girl.
If she rebels against her father and chooses her own way of life, I could too.
Thinking back on his job, he looked to Mr Smith in the eyes and said:
“Mr Smith, I can assure you that I would give all my effort to my duties and I won’t fail you.”
“That’s my boy. And please, call me Albert.”
Therefore, a good relationship between all the presents in there emerged, and James started to know secretly what his real job was going to be, not only in the mansion, but also in life.
There are a lot of cleaning duties to do in a big mansion, but the main thing James was learning in there was the real meaning of things, how we interact with each other upon the circumstances of classes, for instance, and so he become more and more aware of this as he was working for longer. His friend ship with Elizabeth grew up in a very fast way, since he was the only one in the mansion who understood her, and vice versa. They were both living with the same position as both of them wanted to change their ways of life. As the time passed, James started to see when was easier to hide from his work to talk with his friend privately.
Elizabeth was a very spoiled girl, as she had all the material things any girl of her age would have wanted, but there was something her father never could have bought for her even with all his money, and that was love. As he was a busy rich man, he could not afford to spend much time with her because his businesses were more important, and this Elizabeth had in mind before anything else, so she wanted to change her way of life.
One day, as Michael went out for a break and Albert was not in the house, James found a book on a table, and he took it. It was a big book and it looked more like a teacher’s one than a novel.
“Mm” he thought. “Is a bit strange that Albert did not read a lot, but there were many books in the house, would all be his, or maybe some of his guests left them there sometimes?”
As he was digressed in his own thoughts, he decided to read it.
It was a book about languages, the meanings of things, that opened James’s mind, and he decided to tell Elizabeth about it, when suddenly Albert came in talking with his chauffeur, Louis Pierre, about his Rolls Royce.
“I can believe it, Louis, between all the things that are keeping me busy this week, this is going to be the one that will drive me crazier. You know my love for this car, is my biggest whim and I cannot take any chances on it right now. I will have an important dinner tonight with some important friends and you just tell me now about it when you knew this yesterday? You should have told me.”
“I am sorry sir”-Louis carried on-“but you seemed to be so busy on preparing cautiously tonight’s dinner that I thought I’ll better tell you tomorrow.”
“Anyway, you are right on that. There is an important new bank manager coming on tonight and my mind is just there, that’s all. I am going to call David Jones right now and let us see if we can take it now to revision. “
Louis was a French chauffeur who had been working ten years for Albert.
In his uniform, he just looked like any other person doing his job, but the truth was that he was one of the fastest men in France who happened to win some very important races in England, nevertheless, not anymore. He loved cars like Albert, although not just Rolls Royce. He had an accident, which made him stop racing, and now he just watched the races on television whenever he could. Besides, he was working for so long to Albert, and his salary was so good, that he liked it that way. Albert went to his office to call by telephone to David Jones, his mechanic. David was the only person in the world to which Albert would let his car alone with, especially if it was in a hurry to do something else and he needed it soon.
Albert never used to let Elizabeth go far off the mansion unless it was for an important reason, or like in this case, to follow him to his mechanic shop, where nowhere would take any chances of thinking who she was, as he thought.
Albert was getting ready to go to David’s mechanic shop when Elizabeth went to the car jumping and shouting:
“Free at last. At least for a couple of hours!”
“Ok. Sit down and don’t be a scandalous girl, don’t embarrass me at least for a while please.” Said Albert.
Therefore they went. While they were on the road, Elizabeth asked: “Louis would you have changed something in your life if you had the chance?”
“Not a chance” answered Louis.
“I love my life just as it is and I don’t…”
In that moment, a car just crossed them and Louis had just enough time to use the brakes for a few seconds. They crashed though.
The crash was not very big, but the rolls’ mudguard broke into two pieces, and Albert was extremely disgusted.
“Not the mudguard! Not the mudguard!” he said.
“What have you done? Are you blind?”
“Sorry sir, but I am afraid that I had the preference to go my way, and you had to let me go,” said a man going out of the other car.
“I am sorry to say that it is true, sir.” Louis said.
“Are you all against me today? I am going nuts with all the Elizabeth’s issues and now this…”
“I am sorry sir I got distracted by Elizabeth’s conversation and I missed the signal, but we were going to David’s mechanic shop anyway. He can fix this I am sure.”
“You are sure, you are sure! That I am going to pay for this is something I am sure of!”
After a while, they carried on to David’s and Albert told Elizabeth:
“Eli listen to this, you cannot always get what you want!”
“Dad please calm down that’s a Rolling Stones’ song by the way which is quite nice and…”
In the middle of that surrealistic conversation, Louis said:
“Sorry to interrupt you both, but we just arrived at David’s.”
The street in which David’s mechanic shop was looked like a horror film movie.
It was dark and gloomy with all that gothic mansions around. Besides David’s mechanic shop, there were three big stores. If you did not know exactly what to do there, it looked like you could find Jack the Ripper at any moment and you would have to run away.
In the middle of the street was a row of big bushes and behind them there was a huge lighted area, which was David’s place.
As you got into his place, it looked like you were in a different world. The mechanic shop was huge, and so incredibly tidy and clean that you could almost cook on the floor. David was a Welshman who decided at early age that he was to become a mechanic. His passion for cars was such that he was one of the best mechanics in south England at the time. Although he was 40 already, he was a sort hippie adapted to that time who was born just too early, but he was still tall and tan and loved to find women around to go out with and they loved his style. He was addicted to psycho Delia and psychotropic drugs, but this of course none of his clients knew. That was his life when he was not working, and he took good care of making two separate realities to keep his job for long.
He made the entire mechanic garage by himself and worked hard, but now he was the boss and many important people who happened to live in Sussex used to leave their cars to him to repair. He was not stupid and always used to leave some unfinished works on cars and so the clients would have to come back to have some more repairs eventually. He took care of special edition cars and was paid a lot of dough for it, but the rich people did not care because he was the best.
At the time Albert came in, he had only one assistant helping him, Simon Harris.
He was a yodi and seemed to be a good lad. Whenever the people talked around him, he was always listening, and then he loved to talk and talk whatever he thought he learned from there. He talked too much but he was not very intelligent and clever as David was. He was 27 years old and had a mould to correct his tooth since he was 8, because he did not use to brush his tooth quite often. He grew up in full contact with nature among butterflies and goats. His parents were mid-class and always spoiled him in their farm because he was so good when he was a kid. He grew up with his sister which is 10 years old older in a tender and romantic familiar environment. He loved The Carpenters (the band) and he cried each time his mum read “Bambi” to him. His dream was to live in a farm with a flock of goats once he found the woman of his dreams. In the farm where he grew up his family did not make a lot of money, and so they sent him to the south to look for a job, where he is now. Although once he started to speak he never stopped, he did not have very good luck with women so far. He had a sort of a girlfriend recently that left him because never stopped talking and she was annoyed. He missed his family, did not have a lot of friends and he felt alone in the world, but he was sure that his situation would change some day and he would make his dreams come true. He was short and fatty, with a funny moustache.
David and Simon were at the end of the store. It was almost time for Simon to finish and go home, and they were having a conversation about their dialects.
“So why do you always say (wey-ay-man)? What does it mean?” David asked Simon.
“Well, in Newcastle is just a way of talk. You can always say just yeah man or whatever, but that does the trick there. So tell me how to say something in welsh, mate.”
“Ok.” David carried on “The pronunciation is very difficult for outsiders, but let’s go. Gelwch am gab I mi. You say that if you want a cab, and after you went to your destination, you’ll say:
Pa faint sydd genyf I dalu? Which means how much do I have to pay?”
“Ha. Ha. That’s lovely wey-ay-man. It really is.”
“Yeah. Imagine an Englishman trying to speak like that. Anyway, Edrychwch ar eich oriadur. I mean look at your watch. Have you done the tyres yet? That’s about your time to go now, so unless you want another coffee…”
“I’ve already done ‘em. Thanks for the coffee mate, but ganna-gan-iam wey-ay-man.”
“What?”
“Well…that’s the same than saying I have to go home now man, in yodi. Thanks and see you tomorrow right?”
“Ok. Take care buddy.”
“Bye.”
In the meantime, our three friends were getting inside the place and, as Simon was leaving, Albert went straight to David with a very ungry-looking face.
“Hi, David. Look what somebody’s done to my precious car. They broke my mudguards. Rags! ”
“Hi, Albert. Well that is easy to mend don’t worry mate. I was going to close in a minute but is going to take two minutes to repair it.”
Meanwhile, Louis the chauffer was looking different car pieces in the store, which reminded him his glorious days on the best car races in England, and Elizabeth was just delighted in the entrance as soon as she saw Simon going out. That was a flash. They soon fell for each other.
“Hi. My name is Elizabeth. Who are you?”
“Hi. I’m…I’m…Simon Harris at your service, ma’am.”
“So what are you doing here, Simon?”
“Well, I’m working here. You know, keeps the money coming in and that sort of thing…”
“Whoa, I wish I could see the outside world just like you. I’m entrapped in my father’s mansion day and night. In fact is just a miracle that I’m here today. I think this is the only place where my father would let me stay while he is doing his businesses. He’s afraid of anybody even looking at me if they’re not from the rich world, so I’m so happy to meet you now.”
Looking at her eyes while he was on fire, he said:”Believe me the pleasure is all mine, Miss Elizabeth, all mine. I just hope I can ever see you again sometime, or else that this moment never dies in time.”
“Well.” She said “I hope so too. I do not like my father so much you know. He treats me like I’m a child and I’m not, but as far as the Rolls Royce gets broken, which happen to be quite often lately, I’m always happy to come back here if he allows me and If I can see you here, although this must be our little secret, ok? If my father ever knows I have a friend outside the mansion, he will take care that we will never see each other again. Understand?”
“Perfectly Miss. In addition, since you do not have a very good relationship with your father anyway, I must tell you that between you and me, I can make things work for you to come eventually since David leaves some pieces of the cars unfitted sometimes for the customers to come back. I know that’s not fair at all, and I carry on telling him about it, but he’s older than me and he’s the boss, so…what can I do?”
“Don’t worry for that. That is perfect, so I can come more often to see you. You know? I like you a lot. You’re intelligent and clever.”
Simon turned red like a tomato.
“Well, I’m actually impressed that you’re saying that because you’re the most beautiful girl I ever saw and…”
At that precise moment at the end of the store…
“Ok then.” David said. “That’s done, sir.”
“Thanks David” Albert answered, “You saved my life once again.”
“No worries mate. Anytime.”
“By the way I am going to celebrate a party next month at the mansion. I am making a fancy dress thing and I invited many important people, but since my Rolls is as important for me now as anything else, you’re invited too if you’re free to come. I’ll send you an invitation with terms and conditions. Ha, ha. I’m only joking. I’ll send you an invitation anyway. Thanks a lot. Hope to see you soon, my friend.”
While all this happened, Simon was looking at David with a surprised look in his face.
“What happen, Simon?” Elizabeth asked.
“Oh nothing important I guess. Is just that I haven’t seen David working an extra minute when he’s about to close the store for more than a year. He normally leave the stuff to do for the day after. Oh well…Oh is already late isn’t it? I’m going to have to go anyway my landlord is coming today and I have to pay him on time and, and, and…oh was this a dream? Am I ever going to see you again Miss Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth was about to kiss him for the very first time when suddenly she heard her father’s voice coming from the back:
“Ok. Everything arranged. Louis, Elizabeth, we can go home now. I still have to prepare the dinner reception for tonight. Are you ready?”
“Yes, father.” Therefore, they went back to the mansion. While that happened, David and Simon were still in the store. “Simon. Are you all right, mate? I thought you already gone home. What are you still doing here, kiddo?”
“Well, I’m going now, anyway. You know, it’s the first time in a year I’ve seen you working extra hours, if any.”
“Yeah, well it took just two minutes to repair that mudguards and it’ll keep that old rich man to come back again at some point, you have to spoil your clients somehow if you want them to come back. Anyway I am waiting for an old friend to come here to pick me up to go to the movies today. An ex-girlfriend ya know? Well I don’t want to bore you with my stories, so I’ll let you go. Ha ha. I’m happy is all I must say. “
“Ha, ha. I’m happy too I must say.”

Back to the mansion, Louis was talking to Albert about car pieces before to get in.
“You know, Albert? If I hadn’t got my legs problem, I might still have known you, but not as a chauffeur, as a car racer friend of yours.”
“I know, I know. I wish I ever got more interested in cars, my friend. But the thing is… you know business keep me busy, especially in a big mansion like this one.”
“Yeah, I suppose so. If I were to become rich like you, I would rather spend my money buying fast cars. Anyway, I am tired now. It must be about ten o’ clock or so. Do you mind if I am going straight to sleep? I will have a really busy day tomorrow.”
“Yes, Louis, I think is time for all of us to have a rest.”
The night was dark and foggy, and everyone went to sleep except Elizabeth. The mansion remained silent. This was not particularly difficult as the whole neighbourhood where they were living was always quiet at nighttime. Elizabeth switched her TV on in hope for finding a good program for her to watch.
Most of the programs were far too boring for her to watch, so at the end she decided to listen to the radio instead.
She fancied the program that was on and, as the program went on, she slowly fell asleep at the bed, with the radio on. She was having a nice dream as the radio station turned to the next program. In this program, the presenters were having a gas telling silly stories about ghosts. One of them told the story about certain magic people living among the souls of the dead ones, buried on earth.
They should fly around the houses while people were dreaming, and, at the end of the story, they were having a laugh on the people alive. Elizabeth felt thirsty after two hours or so, and woke up to drink some water. The trouble was, she listened to the story long before they started getting funny on it, and they were talking about magical beings by then.
The atmosphere of the story was so scary by then that Elizabeth jumped off her bed and turned the radio off. Her heart was beating hard by now and she turned on every light in the room, as anything to do with magic, just scared the creeps out of her.
At that moment, there was a strange sound coming from outside the mansion, low at first, but continued.
She thought of going outside to see what was it, but the noise was louder now and she seemed to be the only one awake.
What to do now? As the noise went louder, an owl crashed against the window. Its face was smashed and flat now and by looking towards her with its huge eyes only made the situation worse for her.
She could not keep it together any longer, so she screamed loud and held herself very tight to the bed’s legs for a few seconds until she recovered.
Every single piece of furniture seemed to look at her and she frightened when all of a sudden she realized how embarrassing could it be if everybody else in the mansion woke up and find out nothing happened and she was frightened out there.
She was a woman and should show herself as a hard person full of courage, not as a coward becoming intimidated from some stupid noise.
Meanwhile, Albert just woke up from a weird nightmare and went to the kitchen. There he heard some babies crying somewhere around.
“This is impossible. The mansion is closed in its totality.” He thought, “Its safe guarded and nobody went out of the guards’ house.”
A wasp got in the kitchen and got stacked behind the fridges. It took a few minutes until if found the way out, but the sound of babies added to the buzzing created an unpleasant atmosphere for Albert. There were some plates at the edge over the table from the day before, and, as Albert jumped in panic, they fell over and get broken against the floor.
The sound made Elizabeth even more afraid as the situation was unbearable to handle it any longer.
Jimmy Stance was a young and tall guard at the guards’ house who could not sleep either that night. He spent a good deal of the night reading a book and he crossed his arms while resting them against the window ledge sighing when he stared at the mansion for a tick.
Somebody forgot to turn the lights off! Decided to go and help it, he headed for the mansion. It was a long way to go walking from there, and it was a dark and cold night, even for summertime, so he carried a torch and a big coat with him.
As he walked half the way through, he noticed that somebody was shouting from within the mansion. It was Elizabeth, but he could not recognize the timbre from that distance, so he ran towards the mansion to see what was happening. On his way, he stepped over a bush but, as he was running in complete darkness, he did not see it and therefore, he fell off and broke two teeth. On top of that, his left foot was in deep pain. Limping and bleeding he went all the way through as he wasn’t going to surrender so easily.
Albert was ready to go outside the kitchen but he was aware at all times though, as he was still scared mainly because of the nightmare. When he was about to open the door, the wasp was release from the fridges and buzzed around him. “Oh, this can’t be for real. Not now!” he thought, and trying to get rid of the wasp before it bitten him, he looked after something useful to defend himself against it, with no time to think and in deep agony he grabbed a long kitchen knife in order to kill the wasp in desperation. Man and wasp were fighting against each other, while Elizabeth encouraged herself to leave her room. Slow and silent, she went gradually towards the door. The sound of babies crying outside was very loud now.
As she went out of her room, looking scared at everything as she walked, she found Albert getting out of the kitchen, shaking the knife towards nowhere, frightened and unaware that the wasp had already gone. He left the kitchen shouting many times trying to kill the wasp, what made Elizabeth stare at him like mad and scream even louder in anguish. Somebody knocked at the main door, that was scarcely two metres behind them, and both father and daughter relied on each other, hugging themselves hard and, by looking at the door, Albert raised the knife on one hand while slowly going towards the door. As he opened, the dark figure of Jimmy appeared dirty and bleeding outside. Pulling the knife hard in his hand and closing his eyes, he was about to kill whoever or whatever it was, when Elizabeth shouted at him.
“Stop, daddy, stop. It’s just Jimmy out there!”
It was too late as Albert already pushed the knife towards him, and Jimmy fell on the floor. Everyone yelled for the very last time now, included Jimmy.
“Don’t worry, I’m alright!” he yelled at them.
“For god’s sake, please tell me you are ok.”
“Yes I am. It is my work to defend myself in case of somebody attacking anybody here, included myself. I am sorry to say this to you sir, but you are not a good warrior. I had more than enough time to disarm you before you strike me.”
“Oh, I am so glad to hear it, Jimmy.” Albert said breathing heavily.
As they all talked to each other about what happened, both father and daughter were so embarrassed to say what they thought it happened in their own views, that they still wanted to go outside with Jimmy and confirm there was definitely nothing going on. After the incident, they all went back to sleep, and no one left the lights off that night.
In the morning,
TO BE CONTINUED....
(NO SE PUEDE SER BUENO SIEMPRE, HAY QUE RESIGNARSE DE VEZ EN CUANDO)...