Escape From the Country Read online

  “What time did you get up today?” Julie asked yawning as she meandered into the living room.

  “Five.” Chris replied curtly. His initial enthusiasm had diminished somewhat over the last few days as the stress of moving home had finally caught up with him.

  “Again? You must be shattered? Here, let me help.” She said as she began to open a box before Chris interrupted.

  “Please don’t, just get dressed and grab some breakfast or something. The broadband guys will be here in a few hours and I need to make sure the room’s clear so they can get the cabling in where I need it.” He knew he was being unnecessarily short with Julie, but couldn’t help it. He’d been trying so hard lately to keep a lid on his feelings, but this level of stress was just enough to bring them to the surface. Julie nodded and returned upstairs to throw on some jogging bottoms and a t-shirt before getting her daily fix of caffeine from the coffee maker, one of the first things she made sure was unpacked.

  Around twelve o’clock there was a knock on the door. “Finally!” Chris shouted from his new study as he quickly headed to the front door to let them in.

  “Mr Hanley? Sorry we’re late, got caught on another job. I understand we’re fitting your TV and broadband today?” The man was in his early twenties with a workman’s look to him and was clear he looked after himself, taking pride in his appearance. Chris led him through to the living room as he showed the guy the TV and then into the study where he’d need the best signal for the Wi-Fi.

  Soon the engineer and his assistant were chasing the cabling down the side of the house and drilling through the wall to connect the couple to the virtual world. Chris left them to it and went upstairs to unpack more boxes for the bedrooms. Julie returned from the local shop she’d seen from the car on their first day. They’d been living on take out so far and had run out of basic supplies. She entered the living room and introduced herself to the engineer.

  “Hi, I’m Julie, Chris’ wife. Have you managed to get us linked back up to the civilised world yet?”

  “Hi, I’m Matt. Yeah, nearly finished, shouldn’t be too much longer. Nice house you’ve got here, just moved in I take it?”

  “Earlier this week, need to get back to some proper trashy TV. Still haven’t found out how the Take Me Out dates went from two weeks ago! I don’t know how I’ve survived this long!”

  Matt laughed and admitted that kind of show was his guilty pleasure for a Saturday night if he wasn’t going out.

  “So that’s how you spend your weekends is it? Watching dating shows and keeping up with Z list celebs?” Julie asked, thoroughly enjoying some interaction with someone else her age. The locals at the shop seemed to be a generation past her own parents.

  “No, usually out with the lads on a Saturday and recover Sunday unless I’m working. Try to get to football the odd weekend where I can.” Matt left his assistant to finish the rest of the job and enjoyed the distraction Julie was giving him before he set off to his next installation.

  “Football? My husband’s more of a rugby man, although” she bowed her head towards him and whispered “I’d rather watch a bad game of football over a good game of rugby!”

  “Nearly done then?” A voice suddenly came from the other side of the room making Julie jump.

  “Chris, you startled me.” Without acknowledging her, he began speaking to Matt.

  “Yeah, Karl's just checking the connection speed and then we’ll be out of your way. Shouldn’t be more than another twenty minutes or so.”

  “Looks like everything’s under control then. “Julie remarked. “Would you like a drink, I’m sure Chris hasn’t even bothered to offer you one yet?”

  “If that’s ok, yeah, mine’s white with one, same for Karl.” Matt replied.

  “Can you get them Julie, I’d like to stay with the guys and make sure everything’s as it should be.”

  Julie threw a quick glance at Chris in disbelief, but went along with it just to keep the peace. She rolled her eyes once she thought he wouldn’t notice but wasn’t certain, not that it bothered her. She wanted him to see her reaction without making it too obvious. The conversation took a much sober view as Chris carried on talking to Matt.

  “Ahh, shit!” A shout came from the living room. Julie came rushing in and saw the three men huddled in the corner.

  “What happened?” Julie cried.

  “I was just trying to get a better connection on the router cos it was running slow and the thing sparked me.” Karl exclaimed holding onto his hand. As he released it, they could all see he’d suffered quite a sever electrical burn. “Must have been a dodgy router.”

  “We need to get you down A&E mate.”

  “I’m alright for a bit. Maybe if we just stick a new one in and then get off that’d be good.”

  Julie looked at Chris to suggest that wasn’t necessary but Chris didn’t flinch. Matt looked up and read the same view. With that, he headed straight to the van to dig out a new router. Within minutes it was in and tested. Following a swift goodbye, the two men were soon back on the main road heading straight to the hospital.

  Chapter Four

  The living room was a much nicer place to spend time in now the home entertainment was up and running. The house became a livelier place with other voices filling it, albeit artificially through the TV or radio, but it was still good for Julie to hear someone else talking instead of just the terribly productive conversations her and Chris had been having over the last week, arranging their new lives. The only drawback had been they’d elected for new sofas and discarded the old ones in the moving process. They were hand me downs anyway and didn’t see the sense in trying to squeeze anymore life out of them. They’d received confirmation that the new sofas would be delivered today and were very excited to watch TV whilst sitting on something more comfortable than dining room chairs or a rolled-up piece of underlay they’d found in the one of the bedroom cupboards.

  When the delivery van arrived, Julie made herself scarce to avoid any more awkward moments with Chris. They agreed the best way get the sofas in would be to bring them round the side of the house and in through the bi-folding doors straight into the living room. The two delivery men were more than capable of handling things, as they would do on any other delivery, but Chris felt he needed to be part of the process and had to get involved. He realised he’d left the doors locked and had to rush round to the front of the house to get back in to unlock them from the inside. He rummaged through the kitchen drawer that held everything that didn't have a regular place to live, until he found a key. He tried to turn it in the lock but it was sticking for some reason. With a great deal of pressure, it finally released, but propelling Chris’ hand against the UPVC frame in the process. He quickly pulled his hand back to avoid injury, but the damage was only minor. He sucked at the graze as the taste of copper reached his tongue. He looked down to see a couple of drops had managed to land on the creamy white carpet. He gave a short sigh and opened the doors. Frustrating as it was, it wasn’t anything a good carpet cleaner couldn’t fix. Once the men had left and the sofas were in place, he quickly got to work on the small stain.

  The next morning, he woke and came downstairs as normal, only remembering the stain from the shock of seeing how it had turned out. He couldn’t seem to process what he was seeing. He remembered the small dots of blood had faded after applying the carpet cleaner and everything seemed fine. What he now had to deal with was a huge red area, dark and appeared to be still wet. He walked over to it not sure what to expect. As he knelt down to touch the carpet, he noticed a sharp glistening from the far corner of the stain as the morning sun reflected off it, about a foot in diameter. Chris tried to work out what else might have caused it and naturally looked around for any containers that may have been spilled. Not seeing anything obvious, he looked up to see if there had been a leak from the ceiling. Nothing jumped out at him and so he reasoned the carpet cleaner must have reacted badly with the fabric, although it seemed significant
ly bigger than it should have been. He opened one of the doors to let it dry out. It would be a huge pain to lay new carpet for the whole room so he got his phone out and ordered a cheap rug to cover it until they decided what to do long term.

  Chapter Five

  Later in the day Chris found himself at a bit of a loose end. Julie said she was heading to “the parade” as she liked to call the town’s high street, to find a salon as she felt her hair was well overdue its usual treatment. Chris never fully understood why women spent so much time and money on things like their hair. He did appreciate that his close-cropped style only took a matter of minutes which was probably why it never cost him too much, but could never understand the extortionate price of a trim and colour, especially considering he couldn’t tell the difference, to him her hair looked the exact same length as it did before. He resigned himself to the thought of Julie being happy. Spending money on things that would encourage that shouldn’t be a bad thing he thought. She doesn’t moan at him for his expensive taste in cars so he shouldn’t begrudge her a bit of self-indulgence that’s ultimately supposed to be for his benefit anyway.

  With Julie gone for what could be several hours, enjoying some pampering and a few posh coffees, (another concept he struggled with, having a hot drink whilst having your hair cut) he decided to explore the area and take advantage of the good weather. He was proud of his new home and revelled in the fact as he wandered down his drive towards the street that linked them to the main road. It was by far the biggest house on the development and clearly had the largest garden. It’s dominance in the road was boosted further by the garden wrapping around the entire house with two huge outbuildings set to one side. The developers clearly had a problem with the plot as they couldn’t demolish the farm house and build over it as it was a listed building. They did the best they could by converting the surrounding area with a row of tightly packed terraced houses to the front and a pair of reasonably sized semidetached houses to the rear. As Chris reached the street he could see directly opposite the three workshops the adjacent landowner had constructed. Their shabby appearance made it clear how old they were, especially in comparison to the new buildings that now neighboured them. As out of place as they seemed, now surrounded by such clean-cut living, it comforted him that the natural look of the area wasn’t being quashed from new development, leaving some of the character still intact. Like Julie, Chris was never a country person, but was so excited by the idea of creating a new life for himself with a notion of reinvention. As he looked up the street and away from the main road, he noticed a man climbing a stile into the field a short way up from the workshops. The man froze for a moment and stared Chris directly in the eye. It was the briefest of moments but the intensity was so unsettling that it made Chris stop dead in his tracks. The man quickly turned and ran into the field. Chris was naturally alarmed by the man’s behaviour and ran up the street to the style. He wondered if it was a neighbour who’d got the wrong idea, maybe he thought Chris was watching him and got scared. Though he wasn’t aggressive in nature, his build sometimes gave the wrong impression. As he reached the style, he noticed the man had already made it to a lone tree on the far side of the field. The ground was hard from the summer sun and the farmer had recently harvested the crop, leaving only stubble under foot. It made things a bit easier to pursue the man and settle any misunderstanding, providing he treaded carefully to avoid any awkward holes in the ground. Between looking for the man and checking for flat earth to run on, he’d suddenly thought this guy might not be a worried neighbour but a potential threat. He wondered what would happen if he inadvertently cornered a burglar or drug dealer? His pace slowed at the thought as he approached the tree cautiously. As he looked around, the man was nowhere to be seen.

  “Hello?” He called. “I’m sorry if I startled you, my name’s Chris, I’ve just moved in.” With no answer, he called again. “Hello?” He called, a little quieter this time, chills running down his spine. He knew it might be a bad idea to continue around the big oak that was most probably concealing his new acquaintance, but he thought he’d come this far, silly not to continue now. He stepped away from the tree about six feet to create a reasonable distance between them once they met. Slowly he moved round the oak in anticipation. The first thing he saw was a boot but couldn’t understand why it was so high in the air. Startled, he moved back another few feet and continued to move round the tree. As his gaze rose, and the temperature in his blood dropped, he stared ominously at the figure, hanging by his neck from a low hanging branch. Chris stood there, albeit for only a second, but never been presented with such a situation, his fear claimed him and rendered him immobile. He quickly regained himself and grabbed at the man’s feet, trying to prop him up and slacken the noose around the man’s neck. After realising his efforts were in vain, he looked around to find something to stand on to reach the rope. He couldn’t see anything of use. The tree had no other low branches to help him to climb up. He reached for his phone only to find it had no signal, one clear drawback of this new rural life he’d chosen. There was no other choice, he ran as fast as he could, back towards the street, watching his phone for that vital bar of signal. Finally, as he crossed the style and was within a few yards of his drive, his Wi-Fi kicked in and could make an emergency call. 999.

  “What’s the nature of your emergency?”

  Chapter Six

  The operator’s voice was strangely calm. He understood she had to keep her composure whilst he couldn’t, but her reaction felt cold as he presented her with news of the man he’d found lifeless, hanging from a tree. A man he’d seen running with great vitality only moments before.

  “How long will they be?” He asked the lady as calmly as he could.

  “Not long, I can see they’re less than a mile away.”

  She’d asked him how the man had reacted to his efforts. When he said there were no signs of movement, she advised him to stay where the ambulance could see him on the road. Another shiver ran down his spine realising she’d written him off and knew he was dead. It would be pointless trying to get back to the tree now, as his phone would just cut out with the lack of signal. With communication lost, the ambulance may never find him. As his thoughts started to speculate on what would happen next, blue lights reflected in the signpost on the main road.

  “They’re here.” He told the emergency operator and hung up the phone. Two men exited the vehicle and grabbed their equipment. As quickly as they were responding, he couldn’t help but want to scream at them to hurry up, his anxiety getting the better of him. He led the crew across the field to the scene. As he rounded the tree he paused for a moment, bewildered by what he saw, or in fact, didn’t see. To his utter shock, he found nothing, absolutely nothing, just a never-ending circle of a tree’s trunk. The man had vanished. He knew what he’d seen but couldn’t prove it. Was it a sick joke, or had someone murdered him and retrieved the body whilst he’d been on the phone? Surely not, there wasn’t enough time he thought. He turned and looked at the paramedics, whose expressions were quickly moving from sceptical to frustrated. “I’m telling you, he was here.” Chris exclaimed.

  “Are you sure this is the correct tree?” One of the medics asked.

  “Yes, well, yes of course it is. It’s the only one here!” He replied as he started to doubt himself.

  “Get onto dispatch and update them. I’ll have a quick look around.” One of the paramedics said to the other.

  “I don’t understand.” Chris mumbled to himself. “He was right here, I swear!”

  Chris paced around the tree feeling more awkward by the minute as the paramedic updated his dispatching office. Finally, the other paramedic returned, giving a look of annoyance and time wasted that could have been used to help someone in actual need. They walked back to the road, the silence was unbearable, only broken by intermittent small talk between the two medics. They offered a courteous farewell and quickly left the road. As quickly as this tragedy had started, it was all
over, leaving Chris just standing there alone in the road, utterly bewildered by what had just happened. As the sun beat down on him he wondered if a combination of dehydration and the stress of moving had made him imagine the whole thing? He’d never suffered like this before but then considered the stress he’d been through prior to moving. He conceded that must be the cause and thought a cold beer in the sun might soothe some of his worries away, or at least bring the tension down a notch or two. Probably best not to share this with Julie he thought. He was acutely aware of her hesitance to the whole situation and didn’t want to give her anything else to worry about.

  After spending a good few minutes negotiating around the tightly stacked items in the shed, he managed to get hold of a garden chair and pull it out into the sun. He reached down and picked up his cold bottle of Bud and sat back, taking in the heat of the summer’s day. As he kicked off his shoes and placed his bare feet in amongst the grass he started to calm down and was able to process things a little more clearly. The grass felt good around his toes, giving him an earthy feel you can only get from sitting in the countryside, away from the prying eyes of urban life. As much as he tried to soak in the serenity of it all, he couldn’t get the image of the man hanging from the tree out of his head. The picture was so vivid. He remembered the feel of his boot as he tried to lift the man up to take the pressure from his neck, dried mud rubbing off onto his hands. The more he thought about it, the more he could picture it in his mind. His trousers were made of some sort of linen he hadn’t seen before and his shirt had been white at one time, but was stained heavily with dirt and grease that hadn’t been washed for some time. He remembered his hands were wrinkled, not through age, but through a hard life as a labourer, leaving a rough aged look to them. But as he probed the image of the man’s face, his mind seemed to draw a blank. Nothing. He tried to fixate on the man’s hair colour, his eyes, was he clean shaven? Probably not, by the state of the rest of him, but couldn’t seem to get a clear enough picture to be sure. He clenched his fists in frustration and then his toes, pulling up blades of grass between them. He then realised he’d neglected the garden in his haste to get the house organised. He considered mowing the lawn to distract him from his recent misadventure, but then remembered the challenge he’d be faced with by solving a giant jigsaw to get the lawn mower out of the shed. He relaxed back into the chair and took a long sip of his beer. It was no use, all he could think of, or see in his mind for that matter was the image of this faceless man hanging, dead as a door nail from the limb of the tree. A sigh escaped slowly as he got out of his chair. Mowing the lawn it is then.