Hide and Seek


Dave shuffled across the hall. He stopped and looked down, the mail had arrived, two envelopes. He stooped to pick them up then pushed the lounge door open.

“Morning Sam” he said as he entered the room not taking his eyes from the envelopes.
The girl sitting on the couch half looked up from her book.
“Dad I’m reading” she snapped at him.
Dave stopped and looked over at her. The girl was eight but looked older maybe eleven or twelve in appearance.
“And why does you reading mean you don’t say good morning to me?”
Dave stood for a moment looking expectantly at Sam. It soon became obvious there would be no reply. Dave sighed “where’s your sister?”
“In bed..”
“No she’s not I heard you talking to her when I was coming down “
“oh yeah, she’s in the kitchen”
Dave bit his lip and shook his head gently.
Samantha amazed him she could be observant to the point of annoying, picking every little inconsistency up in a film or asking a thousand questions about a photograph in the paper, then not notice you had changed the car or you had dyed your hair!
When she was concentrating on something, as she was now with her book, she lost all track of what was going on around her she wasn’t lying about Jenny being in bed, she had just forgot.

Sam focused her attention back to the book. Dave knew this was the end of any conversation so decided to see what Jen was up to.
He threw the two envelopes on the dinning table as he walked toward the kitchen door.
“Good morning Jenny wenny” Dave said with a smile as he entered the kitchen.
“Put the cat down Jen!” the little blonde girl stood in the middle of the kitchen a tabby cat swinging by its front legs wide eyed and frightened in the tight grasp of the three year old.
“he’s not well” she said with a frown
“yes he is, put him down before he has your eyes out!”
Jenny released her grip and the cat dropped to the floor and scuttled away through the cat flap.
“you are so lucky Picton is such a soft cat, any other cat would have had you by now, the poor sod, you never leave him alone”
“can I have twiss wind a “ Jen was pulling on the door to one of the cupboards as she spoke.
“no not for breakfast sweetheart, have some weetabix eh?”
Jen was smiling now, her little nose wrinkling as she nodded to the suggestion.
“come here you little monkey” Dave swung her up into his arms and walked back to the lounge.
“Sam, were having weetabix want some?”
“no thanks”
“sure?”
“daaaad” Sam frowned
“ok, what about toast?”
“No, nothing I’m not hungry”
“ok”
Dave put Jen down on one of the dinning table chairs and then went into the kitchen to fetch the breakfast things. As he returned with the bowls in one hand and the milk in the other he was greeted by his wife Ann. She stood her short brown hair still uncombed and her pink dressing gown untied.
Ann looked up from studying the post.
“what are they having ?”
Jen was no longer sitting at the table she was under it now with one of her dolls deep in conversation with it.
“weetabix was the plan for me and Jen, you want some?”
Ann screwed her face “nah I’ll have some toast I think, what are these?.... Bills?” Ann waved the two envelopes.
“Do they look open?” Dave’s eyes widened to emphasize the question, he shrugged “probably, open them and find out”
“nope, I don’t need to depress myself for the weekend, you can open them” Ann threw them back on the table then turned to Sam
“Sam I’m having toast you want some?”
“Yes please mum” Sam answered without looking up from her book
“I asked you that” Dave said with an incredulous look on his face.
Ann smiled as she glided past him on her way to the kitchen.
“come on wenny your weetabix is ready” Dave said still frowning at Sam as he tapped on the top of the dinning table.
“ok dad” came the reply from below it.
Dave pulled up a chair at the dinning table and poured some milk on the bowls of weetabix, he put the milk down and reached for the two envelopes.
“right then what joy do you two hold?” he opened the first one and before he had even pulled the contents from the envelope he knew what it was.
“ya know it beats me how these card company’s make a profit even at their interest rates with all the junk mail they send out….I mean they must spend millions on this crap…wenny come up here and have your bix poppet”
Dave took a mouthful of weetabix and then picked up the second envelope and ripped open the top sliding his finger along its length, he extracted the contents and unfolded the paper laying it on the table before him.
Ann entered with a plate of toast
“Sam here’s your toast” she held out the plate while Sam got up and collected it
“Well what’s that one?”
“I got the set, one trying to give me money the other asking for it back”
“well pay it today last time you left it you forgot and we got a late payment surcharge” Ann raised her eyebrows and gave him one of her stares as she went back into the kitchen.
Dave dipped his head under the table “wenny come and have your breakfast please”
He sat up right and called back to the kitchen “ok I’ll do it now online ok?.....you seen my wallet?”
“no, is it in your jacket?”
“Well I wouldn’t ask if I knew that would I?”
Dave polished off the last of his breakfast and took his bowl out to the kitchen passing Ann as she carried her toast into the lounge.
A quick scan of the work surfaces told him he hadn’t left his wallet in the kitchen. He clicked the kettles switch as he passed it
“you want tea Ann?”
“yes please”
Dave came back into the lounge
“I’ll just check my jacket” he said hurrying over to the hall door “Jenny, eat your breakfast, be a good girl please” he called back then he was gone out of the door and bounding up the stairs the door left to close by its self as he took the steps three at a time.
A minute or two later the door opened again and Dave was back.
“Nope not in my jacket” he said as he re entered the room
Ann sat at the table looking at a catalogue while eating her slice of toast, Jenny sat on her lap spooning weetabix into her mouth.
“It hasn’t gone down the back of the sofa again has it?” she said looking around at him.
“AH HA the old sofa trick, that’s a distinct possibility” Dave spun round to face the couch where Sam sat reading, he was just about to ask her to move so he could check the back of it when he heard the click of the kettle from the kitchen.
“Kettles boiled” called Ann.
Dave rolled his eyes “of course it has” he said changing direction again and heading for the kitchen and the boiled kettle.
“Its alright I’ll make it, you look for your wallet” Ann was standing and clearing Jens bowl up.
Dave considered saying something thought better of it and again turned to the couch
“Sammy can I have a look down the back of the couch for my wallet, just for a minute pops”
“Yeah, I’m going upstairs” Sam stood up leaving her plate and a piece of toast on the arm of the couch, and left the room.
Dave thrust his hand down the back of the couch he moved it all the way along the length but nothing was found except the usual crumbs, sweets and lint. He extracted this dubious booty and dropped it into the small bin by the television.
Ann came back into the lounge with two cups of tea and Jen in tow.
“Find it?”
“eh?” Dave looked up from shaking his hand at the bin “oh no, I can understand how kids lose sweets down the back of the couch, but explain how they loose half eaten ones to me, I just don’t get that…” he looked at his sticky fingers and grimaced
“YUK!!”
“bet you left it in the car didn’t you…”
Dave was wiping his hand on his pyjama bottoms.
“Oh yeah, bet I did, where’s your bag I’ll need the car keys”
“Down the side of the chair” Ann nodded her head toward the arm chair by the window “where do you want this ?” she lifted the cup of tea up.
“Just put it on the table I’ll get to it in a min”
Dave opened up Anns handbag and lying on top of its contents was the car keys
“Da daaa, got em” he said shaking them with his fore finger and thumb.
He quickly went to the hall and over to the door to the garage.
When they had first looked at this house Dave had been really taken with the idea that he could park his car and then go directly into the house without going outside again, he didn’t know why but that seemed really posh to him, he smiled as he took the key to the door from the hook where it was kept and unlocked the door to the garage.
He leaned into the darkened garage and felt along the wall until his fingers reached the light switch and turned it on.
At first he didn’t notice, he stepped into the garage looking at the car keys in his hand.
It was only as he pushed the key into the car door lock that he saw it.
There on the roof of the car lay the severed head of a dog its tongue lolling from its gapping mouth, blood trickling idly across the roof then down the windscreen and finally the bonnet to the floor.
The gruesome sight shocked him all at once. Dave let go the keys and they fell to the floor, he stepped backward, the sight too strange for him to comprehend clearly, his face more puzzled than shocked now.
“Ann…..” he said quietly
Then again a little louder “Ann…”
He started to go back in to find her, immediately he turned he saw the bloody message on the wall.

‘I FOUND YOU’

Dave paled
“Ann….start packing….he found us”