They sat under an old oak tree on the south side of the park looking up at the stars, they were talking about their futures and what they wanted in life, when suddenly an old women emerged from behind an other tree, screaming some foreign language,
“Weder sonefrad burken!” she mumbled.
“Oh my God!” Karen screamed a meter up in the air.
The old lady just looked at Karen and Andrew like she was a stray dog and they were food, she had an old walking stick with ‘Italian blood’ in small print on the side,
She had long plaited grey hair with big brown eyes somewhat similar to Andrews; she was a little woman and had a rather peculiar collection of jewellery and was wearing a ‘Versace’ dress.
She took a long look of Karen then Andrew and ran away.
“Weirdo.” said Andrew.
“Scary, I wonder why she was on her own, and on the south side as well no-one comes over here on their own.” said Karen in a curious way.
“ And why was she shouting ‘remember, please’ in Italian.”
After a few minutes of looking around they sat back down and carried on there conversation. Hours past and it was now around 11pm and was getting a little nippy. Karen told Andrew she had to go home so they walked hand in hand.
They walked through the town when Andrew heard something. They stood in silence and heard light little footsteps coming from behind them.
“Hello” Andrew shouted in a shaky voice.
No answer just silence. They carried on walking and he heard it again. Karen turned and looked at a bunch of old boxes she saw a shadow, that looked a bit like the old women, in the speed of a blink the old women came from behind the boxes and repeated,
“Werder sonefrad burken.”
“Why are you following us, what do you want.” said Andrew angrily.
She just looked at them it was as if she was in a trance, lost in her own mind and thoughts. Andrew reached into his pocket and brought out what change he had in there and handed it to the women then walked away, but Karen didn’t move she just stood and looked into the old woman’s eyes she could see them filling up with water and a few pure tears falling of her soft cheeks,
“ Are you alright?” whispered Karen.
More tears ran down her face, she then ran away.
That night Karen couldn’t sleep all she thought about was who was that women, why was she following her and why she was crying.
She got up of her bed and looked out of the window, she felt something, something she had felt before, but it wasn’t a picture it was a feeling, she thought and thought where had she felt it before then she remembered and pictured what she had seen when she was looking into that woman’s eyes, it was heart broken and loneliness, it made her think even more about that women, she had all these questions but no answers.
The sun rose and she had been thinking about her all night, Karen went down stairs picked up the phone and phoned Nicki to tell her about her date.
“Hiya.” she said.
“Well, how was it.” Nicki asked.
“Weird, we were talking and this old women came running at us.”
“ What, who was she?”
“That’s the thing I don’t know, but she looked at me as if she knew me, Nicki I could see right through her I felt what she felt it was horrible.” Karen replied rather emotionally.
“ Hold on I’ll be there now.”
Nicki rushed over to Karen’s. When she got there all they did was talk about what happened, they were both confused but more curious about who she was. After a long conversation they went down to meet the others and tell them.
They where all lost in their minds and thoughts, who she was? Was she a reporter or just a tramp looking for friends? No one knew, she was a mystery. Later that day Karen met up with Andrew again, he didn’t seem to care about what happened the night before, so they didn’t talk about it that much.
It was around 10am on Saturday, it was among the hottest days they have ever had in Holyhead, and every one was either at the beach or in the swimming pool. So Karen and Andrew decided they would join every one and got to the beach.
“Hey!” shouted Karen to all her girlfriends who were already at the beach.
The temperature was rising, and more people arrived at the beach, Karen lay out her towel in her usual spot and asked Claire to put cream on her shoulders, Claire was a bit late putting on cream her face had burned real bad, she was the bossy one out of them all, she has red with a hint of brown hair with green eyes, she is very tall and looks like a younger version of Jennifer Lopez.
Andrew was in the water fighting with Nicki, Steph and Kerry who hardly ever leaves her mothers side, so it was a miracle to see her at the beach.
Karen lay on her back for a while to catch a tan on her front but looked up towards the hills and saw the old women, she doesn’t hesitate to go and talk to her, she runs up the hills and walks up to the women and asked,
“ Are you lost, or hurt, please I’ll help?”
She didn’t reply, just looked Karen straight in the eyes, opened her mouth slowly to release the words,
“…………Heeell…llll………ppp!”
She stuttered but still tried, she didn’t know much English but that didn’t stop her.
“ What do you need help for, are you hurt or in trouble?”
Karen asked.
She didn’t say anymore. Her mouth closed. Her eyes filled up with tears. Her head went down. She was like a child who had done something wrong but Karen sensed that she didn’t do anything wrong but wanted something put right.
Karen looked at the woman and put her head down she then muttered to herself,
“Please let me help her, she is lost, please.”
She turned around and started to walk away but the old lady put her small, bruised hands on Karen’s shoulder and said,
“ ……Mm..Yyyyy …baabbby!”
“Your baby? Where?”
She pointed down at Andrew, who at the time is looking for Karen,
“Andrew?” said Karen confused
The old women just looked at Karen. Then at Andrew. And ran over the hills.
“No way!” thought Karen.
She walked down to the beach again; she looked at Andrew and started questioning herself, could it be true?
“Andrew.”
“Yeh Karen.”
“Can I ask you a personal question?”
“Sure.”
“Where are your parents?”
Andrew looked at Karen In a weird way as if to say ‘ whats it to you’ or ‘its my business’, but he didn’t say anything, he was silent for a few seconds, then he said,
“My father died when I was 3 and my mother…”
He paused; it looked like he was also questioning himself,
“ I’ve never heard nor seen my mother, she left when I was a baby, I can remember her saying something to me when I was upset, that’s all I remember.”
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason.”
There was a silence and a lot of tension surrounded them, Karen gave Andrew a smile so he went back into the water. Later that day Karen had a thought, so she put on her trainers and headed down town to the police station looking for answers. She gave a full description of the woman; the policeman that was helping Karen was a young man, in his 20’s, tall, and very polite.
He posted the description of the woman and waited for a reply, days went by and still nothing until a young lad only a teenager phoned the policeman and told him that he had seen the old lady hanging around an old shed, he thought maybe she lived there, Karen was relieved to hear something so she rushed to where the boy said.
It was an old rusty, damp shed; it had ‘Dream catchers’ around the door and a ripped welcome mat.
Karen looked inside the windows but didn’t see anything. She went round to the side of the shed and saw a door, as she went in the door and old floorboards started creaking, the next minute the old woman came out she still has the look of loneliness and being lost,
“Are you okay?” Karen asked politely,
She just looked.
“Your baby, is he or she here?” she asked again.
Little shake of the head but still no answer,
Karen took out a picture of Andrew and showed the old woman, the look on her face was like some one had just answered her prayers, she took the photo and started to cry.
Karen looked around and on a broken table by her bed was a snapped leather band with the same symbol as the one on Andrews necklace, Karen thought again, ‘it couldn’t be’ it just ran through her mind until she thought if it was true and this was his mother, but how would he know that she was real, suddenly her answer was spoken,
“Werder sonefrad de”
The woman answered like she knew what Karen was thinking. Like she could read her thoughts.
Karen couldn’t wait another second she asked the woman to go with her, not even knowing if she understood what she was saying but she still went, the policeman took them to where Andrew was staying, Karen ran so fast up those stairs she didn’t even take a breath,
“Andrew, Andrew!” screamed Karen.
“What?” he replied
“ I have something to show you, come bring your necklace.”
“ Why my necklace………………”
He didn’t even have time to finish the question, Karen had dragged him down the stairs and towards the car, he looked inside and thought “why have they brought her here?”
“Look at the necklace, Andrew look!”
Andrew looked at the necklace but was still confused, when suddenly the woman repeated,
“ Werder sonefrad de.”
“ NO!”
His eyes started to fill up like a waterfall with tears as she got out of the car. He looked at her and she looked back, he started saying ‘why’ in Italian, maybe to say why did it take so long to find you or why did you leave, who knows, but he turned to Karen and looked at her with the look of happiness and said,
“Thank you”.
