Spiritual, Part 2
Click here to read Spiritual, Part 1.
A week passed without Jennifer seeing something out of the ordinary. She went to school, just as she normally did. She played with Emily in the evenings and during the weekend, just as she normally did. Everything was painfully normal. Even the weather was as cold and rainy as it always was at this time in October. Jennifer wished that she at least could have seen the black dog, Bobby, again. Now that she saw nothing, it just made her believe that she had imagined everything she saw on that Friday evening last week. Her imagination had always run wild, so her parents used to say. But Jennifer had always been able to tell when she was imagining things and when what she saw was real. Now she didn't know.
Even though Jennifer wanted more than anything to return to that supposedly abandoned house and look for the girl, Mary, she didn't. She had promised her mother not to go there because it was dangerous. She used to keep her promises. At first she had been angry with herself that she had made such a promise, but then she thought it might be for the best. She should do more fun things than sneaking around an abandoned house looking for a girl that might not exist. But that girl was all Jennifer could think of. Who was she? All she knew was that she was called Mary. Such a beautiful name. And this Mary had been so scared. Jennifer hoped that there had been no real reason for her to be that scared. If only she could find Mary again and make sure she was alright! But she had promised her mother not to go back there...
When Jennifer finally saw the black dog again on the second Saturday after their first encounter with each other, she made a decision. She would go back, and if her mother asked her where she had been she would just tell her she had been somewhere else. It was by the road on her way back home from Emily that Jennifer saw Bobby. He sat beneath a stone wall and waited for her, it seemed. His eyes were locked on her from the moment she appeared at the far end of the street. He didn't move an inch during the time she got closer to him until she was standing on the road beside where he was sitting. Then Bobby turned his head towards her, tilted his head down towards one side and whimpered slightly.
"There you are!" Jennifer exclaimed. "I didn't think you were ever going to turn up here again. Is something wrong?" she added when Bobby just sat there looking at her. "Are you hurt?"
She bent down to check Bobby's paws and legs, but there seemed to be nothing wrong with them. She stood up again. Bobby ran away, stopping every couple yards to see if she was coming with him. Jennifer hesitated at first. She had made a promise. When Bobby barked Jennifer made the decision to follow him. She would come up with something good to tell her mother if she asked where she had spent her afternoon when she was really meant to be with Emily.
Jennifer recognized the surroundings from last time, although now it was all much more dry and light. It was one of those very few days when the sun was actually shining, and it was still mid-day so the sun would not be setting for many more hours. Jennifer pushed tree branches away as she ran down the forest path. She ran slowly, carefully putting her feet down where there were no slippery tree roots. Bobby soon disappeared from her sight but she remembered the way. Well, there was only one way from here so it was not that difficult. Sooner than she expected she reached the clearing in the forest. The house was there, as the week before. It was still abandoned, still having broken windows and holes in the roof. The front door was slightly open, hanging off only one hinge.
It was so quiet. Jennifer could not hear any sobbing, like last time. Good, then Mary was at least not sad today. But where was Mary anyway? And Bobby? He had disappeared. Jennifer warily took two steps into the clearing, then she stopped again. It was so very quiet! Not even the birds sang. Despite the sunlight that was streaming into the clearing, Jennifer felt the compact darkness from the surrounding forest almost closing in on her. She wished she had gone to Emily first and persuaded her to come with her. It was so scary to be here all alone!
But she couldn't leave just yet. She had to make sure that Mary wasn't here. So she walked across the clearing, reaching the front porch of the house. She first bent down to have a look in the shrubbery where she and Mary had been sitting last week. It was empty. Then she walked up to the front door. The floorboards on the front porch creaked as she walked across them and the sound was magnified by the surrounding silence. She peeked through the door but it was too dark inside to see anything. When she slowly opened it more it creaked so loudly that she immediately let go of it and went back down to the clearing. The house was too scary for her, and she still hadn't seen any sign of where Mary was. She could as well go back home and return another day — together with Emily. Not that Emily was much braver than her, but then they would at least have each other.
Jennifer turned to go back to the forest path — and found herself looking straight at an older girl. She screamed.
"Whoa, you don't have to scream like that!" the other girl said.
"I — I'm sorry. I was just so surprised to see you, that's all."
"Who are you anyway, and what are you doing here?" Then the blue eyes of the other girl widened. "No, wait. I recognize you."
Jennifer thought that was a strange thing to say. She had never seen this girl before. The girl was way older than any other girls that Jennifer played with; she looked as if she was in seventh grade or something.
"No, that isn't possible." The girl shook her head furiously as if trying to get rid of a stupid idea, her long dark brown braid swinging back and forth as she did so. "You just look like her, that's all."
"What are you talking about?" Jennifer said. "Who do I look like?"
"Like a girl I met many years ago, when I was a little child. She just disappeared. I only met her once."
"That's weird. What was her name?"
"Jennifer, I think. She looked just like you."
Jennifer froze. "My name is Jennifer. What is yours?"
"Mary."
"Mary? Like the girl I met here a week ago?"
Mary frowned. "I don't know of any other Mary around here. I'm the only one."
"Then, was it you that I met? But how could you be so young then?"
"What do you mean?"
"Last week I was led here by a black dog, Bobby–"
"That's my dog!" Mary closed her mouth when she realized she had interrupted Jennifer in the middle of a sentence.
"I was led here by Bobby, and found a girl called Mary in the shrubbery over there. She was about five years old I think, and she was crying because she was scared of her stepmother."
"That was like when I met Jennifer! I was much younger, and my father had just remarried. I was scared of my stepmother, and when I sat in that shrubbery, Jennifer came and talked to me."
"But, how can you be so old–" Jennifer started saying, right when Mary said, "But, why haven't you grown older?"
They both stared at each other without saying anything for several minutes. They just thought about this weird situation. Finally, Mary spoke again.
"I don't know how it can be that you are still so young. But why didn't you come back to me all those years ago? You said you would come back and play but you never did."
"Years? It has only been a week for me! I wanted to come back the next day already, but my mother doesn't want me to go here. So, I waited until today."
"Why doesn't she want you to visit me?" Mary asked, frowning.
"Because–" Jennifer hesitated. "Because the house is a dangerous place to be, she says it will probably fall apart very soon."
"Fall apart?" Mary turned to look at the old house. "To me it looks okay. There's nothing wrong with it."
"Nothing wrong? But the windows are broken! The roof has holes in it. The door is barely connected to the house!"
"What are you talking about? That's not what it is like!"
"Well, that's what it's like to me," Jennifer said.
"So we see different houses?"
"It seems so," Jennifer nodded. But she didn't know what more to say to Mary. She had never played with or talked to a girl of her age before. They didn't go to school here, so she rarely met the older girls in this village.
Just then, Mary turned to the house as if listening to something.
"I'm coming!" she shouted. "I have to go," she said turned to Jennifer.
"Go?"
"Yes, my stepmother wants me to come and help her with something. Again.... I bet it's something easy. I always have to help her with everything. She can't manage to do anything by herself; it's like she's not functioning anymore."
"How can that be?"
"She's been so ever since–" Mary took a deep breath. "Ever since my father died."
"He died?!" Jennifer was shocked. How could so many things happen in one week? But then, to Mary it had obviously not been just one week.
"Yes. Four months ago. An accident at work." Mary straightened up. "But I'm a strong girl. My teacher says so. I think I'm stronger than my stepmother. She is weak. She's crying all the time, but I'm not." She looked at the house again. "I really have to go now. Will you be back later?"
"I don't know, maybe," Jennifer answered hesitantly. "I'll try."
But how would things be if she returned again? Would another ten years have passed for Mary? Would she keep getting older while Jennifer didn't get any older at all? Jennifer didn't like that idea. With relief she entered her own house, where everything was perfectly normal.
"Jennifer? Is that you? Where have you been?! I've been worried sick!"
Jennifer sighed. Now all she had to do was come up with a good story to tell her mother.