
Walking home from school one day a little girl called Louise comes up to her house but someone else is waiting outside in the rain. She thinks to herself how odd this is seems her mother said she would be late home that evening. As she opens the gate the figure outside her house turns and stares watching Louise come up to the door. “Who is it?” The young girl calls to the figure but there is no response. As she gets closer she can see it is an old lady but she doesn’t recognise her from the village. “Hello?” the old lady turns to look at her again and puts down the hood on her coat;
“Hello” the old lady says back with a smile, “Is this your house?” Louise nods her head at the old lady who chuckles to herself, she takes a step backwards and looks up and the large house. “It’s a very nice house isn’t it?” Louise nods again unsure what to do. “Is your mum not in?”
“No she isn’t” Louise manages to get out. “Do you need me to take a message?” she offers
“Oh no, that’s quite alright” she sighs “I just wanted to see the house one last time was all”
“You lived here?” Louise asks.
“Yes I did” the old lady doesn’t look at Louise as she says this still staring at the top room of the house. Louise knew she wasn’t to talk to strangers but she couldn’t see what harm the old lady could do and it was raining rather hard;
“Would you like to come in for a bit?” The old lady looks at the young girl and begins to well up.
“Yes please” Louise takes out her key and opens the door to be greeted by her pet dog that jumps up and down at the excitement of her being home. After being made a fuss of the dog calms down and sits back in its basket and as Louise turns the door is shut but the old lady is nowhere to be seen. Just as she goes to check she isn’t outside she sees her climbing the stairs.
“What are you doing?” Louise begins to follow her up the stairs.
“I left something here a long time ago” she stops on the stairs and looks back at the girl, she doesn’t protest so the lady carries on up the stairs. She reaches the top but is out of breath and holds onto the banister for support. “It looks so different” she mutters to herself and the little girl watches as she enters her parent’s room. She walks over to a spot where her parent’s small chest of drawers sit. “Could you help me move this?” Louise struggles but manages to move it over by herself and watches as the lady gets to her knees and digs her fingernails at the side of the wooden floorboard.
“I think we should wait for my mummy” Louise now regrets her decision to let this lady in and wonders what she is going to do. The floorboard slowly comes up in her hands and a small hole is left. The old lady puts her hand into the whole and her face fills with relief as she pulls back out a photograph. Louise looks over her shoulder to see the photograph is someone’s wedding picture. The couple are beaming from ear to ear and are looking at each other in the eyes with such joy. She flips over the picture and on the back is some writing which is hard to read. “What does that say?” The elderly lady spins around and loses her line of thought and is brought back into the room.
She sits up on the girl’s parent’s bed and pats next to her and Louise jumps up next to her.
“It says”
I love you and our love will never fade
“Who is on the front?” The lady points to the man in the picture and says;
“He is called Jonathon Berrington and she is called Grace Berrington and they were madly in love”
“Is that you?” The lady seems taken back and not sure what to say. She stands up and heads towards the stairs “How did you know that was there it is you isn’t it?” the young girl shouts to her following behind. The lady turns and doesn’t respond for a second wondering what to say before she looks up at the girl. The lady turns and heads down the rest of the stairs holding onto the banister and then walks out of the door without turning round leaving the young girl confused at the top of the stairs. The young girl runs to the window of her room and watches as the lady walks out of her gate and up towards the bridge and river bank.
The lady reaches the bridge and says out loud to herself “My name is Grace Elizabeth Berrington. I see no reason to stay here any longer, why prolong what’s going to happen to me sooner rather than later”. It’s a cold autumn day and the rain has been raining for the past few weeks non-stop. She looks over the edge of the bridge to see the river flowing faster than usual and appears as if it will burst its banks within a few days. The clock in the local village chimes eight o’clock in the evening she takes a deep breath in. After managing to sit up onto the brickwork of the bridge and swivels herself round so her feet are dangling over the edge towards the water. As she stares at the water she sees some rubbish fly past and thinks to herself that really that’s what the rain is good for. To wash away the rubbish from everyone’s lives just like I will be, no one will know I'm gone as this river leads to the sea. She feels the photograph in her pocket and the thought of Jonathon springs back into her mind but she shakes the idea of Jonathon out of her head and looks down at the water and slides herself forward ever so slightly nearer the edge. Grace takes in a deep breath and....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All content copyright Michael Sweeney Photography. Well thats it. Lonely Girl is finally over all ten parts are complete. I am so happy everyone has stayed with it and its been my longest series that I have ever written on here and you have all kept coming back each time. So thank you so much again for all the support.
I would like to dedicate this series to my Grandma Joan Cross who always supports me and although my Grandad has passed away, with us here she will never be a Lonely Girl.