Watching You, Watching Me

‘Wait …’ he whispered. His hand was holding my arm so hard it hurt.

I scanned the bleak façade of number twenty-five. And then I froze. He was right. Just the faintest glimmer of a light, but it was moving through the rooms. You caught a glimpse of it every time it passed a crack in the boarding. It would pause and glimmer and then it would flicker on. It was moving up now as if something was floating upwards through the house …

‘What are you two up to?’ Mum pulled the curtains back and found us sitting there.

‘We’ve found a spook,’ said Jamie, now emboldened by the presence of Mum and the cheery light of the room.

‘Tasha …’ said Mum with a warning look.

‘No … its not me this time, honestly. But there is someone or something in number twenty-five … See for yourself.’

The three of us huddled behind the curtain. It took some minutes before Mums eyes became accustomed to the gloom, and then she pronounced:

‘Squatters.’

‘What’s squatters?’ asked Jamie, his lower lip wobbling. To his six-year-old brain ‘Squatters’ were quite possibly as bad as spooks, or maybe they were worse — a special kind of spook, one that moved around by a kind of legless elevation like those weirdo yogic flyers.

‘That’s the limit,’ she said. ‘I knew something like this would happen if that house was left empty like that.’ She set off down the stairs to find Dad.

‘Tasha — what are squatters?’ demanded Jamie again in a wavering voice.

I put an arm round him. ‘Squatters are people who haven’t got homes of their own. So they find empty houses and they break in and squat in them.’

‘Why can’t they stand up straight?’

‘They can, silly … ‘Squat’ is just a word that means … umm … to take over an empty house and live there, without paying rent or anything.’

‘Why isn’t there a proper word?’

‘I don’t know!’ I hadn’t time to get into ‘why-mode’ for a discussion with Jamie — I wanted to know what Dad was going to make of the situation.

Dad came striding through my door at that moment. He stuck his head through the curtains and stared out.

‘Can’t see a thing — you’re all making this up.’

‘Wait until your eyes get adjusted,’ said Mum.

‘Hrrmph,’ said Dad.

‘It’s not spooks, it’s ‘squatters’,’ said Jamie importantly. They’re people who haven’t got houses so they go and live in other people’s houses while they’re out …’

‘I know what ‘squatters’ are, thank you Jamie … shhh!’ He waved a hand behind him for silence. I joined him, and we stood together for a moment straining our eyes towards the shadowy house.

‘See … There it is in the top room,’ I said.

‘Yeaahhh,’ said Dad. ‘Flickering … must be a candle …’

‘Right. I’m going to phone the police,’ said Mum.

‘No hang on …’ said Dad. He extricated himself from the curtains. ‘Let’s think about this for a moment.’

‘What’s there to think about?’

‘Well … How long has that house stood empty?’

‘Two years … could be three.’

‘So that’s two or three years when the house could have provided a roof over someone’s head. Some poor individual who’s been sleeping rough in a doorway or something.’

I loved the way Dad was like this — always surprising me — always ready to see the other side of the question. I slipped an arm through his.

‘Dad’s right. Mum. There could be some poor homeless person in there, trying to shelter.’

‘Poor homeless person! Next thing we know there’ll rubbish all the way up the street, rats, needles — God knows what else …’

‘It’s a situation this country’s brought upon itself,’ said Dad.

‘This is a respectable street. Families, children … the last thing we need is squatters.’

At that point Jamie upset my entire carefully-stacked collection of CDs. This mini-landslide brought Mum’s attention back to him and she remembered the initial reason for coming into my room.

‘Bed for you Jamie. Goodness, look at the time!’

She went off with him, still grumbling over her shoulder at my father.

‘You and your oh-so-liberal views.’

‘You may or may not have forgotten … I lived in a squat myself once,’ Dad called after her.

‘You? You were a squatter?’ I exclaimed.

‘Not for long. When I was a student. We were so hard up we had no choice. But we got the place running like clockwork. I reckon we did the people who owned it a favour. Damp old house it was before we cleaned it up. Mended the roof too — all the ceilings would have been down in another few months.’

‘So what do you think we should do?’

‘I reckon I ought to pay our new neighbours a visit. See if they’ve got forked tongues and fangs …’

‘What if they have?’

‘You willing to stand watch?’

‘Sure …’

‘Bring the portable in here and if you see someone coming at me with a meat cleaver — ring 999 straight away. Oh … and … Don’t tell Mum, OK?’

I stood at the window grasping the portable really tightly. I had a sick feeling in my throat. What if there were violent people in there — criminals — thugs?

I watched Dad cross the road and make his way up the overgrown front path. He hammered on the front door. The sound echoed down the road. I wondered if Mum would hear, but by the sound of bathwater running, I could tell she was busy bathing Jamie.