He stopped at the first house and knocked at the door. There was a strange feeling that nobody had lived there for many years. There was a strange damp, unhealthy smell in the air, which unsettled him. As he stood there waiting for a reply to his knock he caught a flicker of light from a house further along the road. He breathed a sigh of relief - at last a sign of life. He pedalled along the road until he came to the building and propped his bike against the hedge. The gate squeaked as he opened it and he walked up the path to the front door. He noticed a sign in the window, which said “Bed and breakfast”. For the first time since the rain started, he cheered up in anticipation of getting out of the wet.
Rob rang the doorbell and stood waiting for an answer but again he felt the feeling of emptiness. He tried the door and was glad to find that it opened. He shouted to attract somebody’s attention but all he heard were echoes. There was a door in front of him, which was ajar, and a light flickering inside the room. A sweet smell of perfume tickled his nose and he could hear the sound of soft breathing. As he walked towards the door the floorboards squeaked, and a female voice enquired who was there. When he entered the room, he saw a young woman with long blond hair wearing clothes that were many years out of fashion. It was not that she was beautiful but he felt a tingle run through his body. There seemed to be magnetism about her. Her eyes were like deep green pools and he felt as if he was drowning in them.
The weary traveller explained his situation to her and asked if it would be possible for him to stay the night and where he might be able to eat. She answered that there was nowhere in the village that could provide food for him, but that she could make a light supper if that was agreeable. She explained that there was no electricity in the area. As Rob listened to her voice, it was like the gentle sound of water running over a riverbed and again he felt the magic of her presence. The woman showed him to a room which he could use and told him that when he was finished to come down stairs where there would be food for him. As he cleaned up the thought entered his head that nobody had occupied the room for a long time and he found it strange that an attractive young woman should live in a lonely place like this. When he returned to the kitchen, he found that she had prepared sandwiches and a drink for him. They sat at the table while he ate and discussed many subjects, but the thing that disturbed Rob was her luck of understanding of present day affairs. It was as if time had stood still in this place. As he was tired, he excused himself and went to bed.
Next morning when he woke up and went downstairs, he again felt the feeling of emptiness and was unable to find her. Rob searched but there was no trace. He went into the road and like the evening before there was not a living soul in sight. He decided to leave a note and some money on the kitchen table then closed the door behind him as he left. A little way down the road, he came across a cottage and saw an old woman working in the garden. When the old woman saw him, she seemed surprised and waved to him. “Who are you and where are you coming from?” - She asked. Rob explained how he had passed last night. The woman looked at him in amazement as if he were mad and told him that she was the only living soul in the village since “The Tragedy” many years ago.
The woman he had met the night before had lived in the house with her parents. She fell in love with a visitor to the house and she became pregnant by him. When her parents found that she was pregnant, they send her away to an aunt to have the baby there. While she was living with her aunt there was an influenza epidemic, which wiped out all of the people in the village.
On returning to the village after the birth of her daughter she decided that she would wait for her lover’s return to her as he had “promised“. As the years passed by the realisation that he would never return became more certain and by the time her daughter was 13, she killed herself in a fit of depression.
Rob stood in amazement and listened to the tale that the old woman told and when she had finished he asked her how she knew this story. The woman looked at him and said, “I know this because that was my mother who you saw last night”.
As Rob rode down the road out of the village, he felt as if a heavy load disappeared from his shoulders and the feeling of desolation vanished. And the sun came out…
