Banshee Angel Of Judgement (10 page)

She had held
his soul firmly in her grasp as she sailed through the night back
to her home to imprison it like those before in her glass prison.
She cackled as those held within beseeched her for mercy. ‘Mercy
indeed,’ she thought, ‘what mercy did you show me?’

The night
began to fade as she hid her jar back below the cold stone where
she kept it hidden from anyone who might come nosing about her
cottage
for there had been one
or two since her death, seeking for any valuables not already taken
by those that came before; she too had remained in hiding in those
early days.

She wished
then for some secret room but when it came and the little food
store was boarded over
she had
come to regret this wish but once freed to roam the night again was
thankful in a strange ungrateful way toward the hag who’d had her
boarded in and kept her trapped with the crosses placed everywhere
around the small cottage.

C
hapter 13

They collected
the brushes and the shovel from where they had left them before the
break for lunch. With them they headed into the walled garden
making their way up the hill inside to the top passing
rides on either side and the large
green house on the left half way up, that now housed one of the
many eating places in the park as they went.

“
Where did
all the mud come from?” Andy asked as they got near the top of the
hill with the new ride, to the left, at the back of the walled
enclosure, behind the glass eatery.

“
Off the
tyres of the Manitou’s,” Micky said as he thought where best to
start.

“
I think we’ll
need to use the shovel to loosen it before brushing it up,” stated
Andy as he looked at the thick muddy clots of earth that covered
the wide concrete pathway.

“
Yeah, well I
think we’ll leave that till last and get the rest of the paths done
first,” Micky put the shovel against a hut used for selling ice
cream even though the same type of refreshment could be gotten at
the glass house a short distance away. Andy nodded his approval at
this decision as he dreaded the effort it would take to lift the
muck from the concrete.

As they began
working away from the path that led to the
Troika
, as voices came up the
garden as the maintenance crew headed leisurely back to
work.

“
Why do they get longer than us for lunch?” Andy thought it
a little unfair and had asked this same question
befor
e.

“
It’s not for us to questi
on why but just do or die,” Micky used the old saying as he
had previously for it was one of his favourite sayings when it came
to work.

“
Well I don’t
fancy dying so I suppose I’ll just have to do, what ever that is,”
Andy joked.

“
Well when
you’re ready you can get started then,” Micky said
cockily.

“
Cheeky shit,”
Andy brushed some leaves towards Micky’s feet.

“
Watch my good
shoes,” Micky sound truly offended.

“
Right, if
that’s you’re good shoes I’d hate to see your other ones,” Andy’s
wide smile beamed at his friend.

“
Are you
dissing my shoes,” Micky acted shocked.

“
There’s
nothing to diss,” Andy giggled the words.

“
That’s just
plain nasty,” he acted hurt as the crowd of maintenance works
turned along the other path towards the ride they had been toiling
at all morning.

“
What? The
truth hurt,” Andy laughed.

“
It would
only hurt if it were true,” Micky tried to sound suave.

“
Okay old man
if you say so,” Andy pretended to be sorry as he pushed more leaves
to join the slowly growing pile both men were creating as they
worked.

“
Less of the
old if you don’t mind,” Micky laughed at his nerve.

“
As I
said, does the
truth hurt,” he laughed aloud.

“
YOU TWO PACK
IN THE CARRY ON AND GET SOME WORK DONE!” Charlie shouted from the
main pathway with a big grin plastered across his face.

“
WHEN DO YOU
GET STARTED THEN?!” Micky called back.

“
PRIVILEGE OF
BEING GAFFER!” Charlie replied as he turned the corner on his
way.

“
Get the shovel and we’ll dump this lot in a bag,” Micky
said putting his brush against
the Crazy Worm’s fence, with its large apple tunnel, then
took the roll of bags from his belt where he’d kept them since that
morning ready for when they were needed.

“
Okay,” Andy
laid his broom up against the opposite fencing before casually
going to retrieve the shovel.

The winter
debris was scooped up into the open bag that Micky held, as he had
all morning, whilst letting Andy do the work; which he did without
thinking
or
questioning.

So they worked
through the afternoon in a like manner, sweeping up a small pile of
dross, putting it into a bag then sweeping some more. Once they had
two bags full Micky would take them down to the skip using the side
gate that led straight to the large container. A
ndy would continue to sweep while Micky was
away.

By late afternoon only the
main thoroughfare remain to be done with its muddy tracks from the
heavy machinery used to deliver the parts for the new ride to its
location.

“
You scrape
with the shovel to loosen up the muck and I’ll brush into the side
verge,” Micky said as he lifted the last bag he hoped he’d be
dumping that day.

“
Will we not
need to put it in a bag for the skip?” Andy seemed surprised that
Micky just wanted to brush it to the side verge of the rides rather
than pick it up and get rid of it.

“
No
, it should be okay
to just brush this lot to the side, after all it just soil off of
the tyres of the Manitou,” Micky said as he turned on his way to
the skip, “you get a start at loosening it up.”

“
All right,”
Andy still had the shovel in his hand from lifting the last load
into the bag so began scraping at the concrete. The metal grated
loudly as the dry earth broke up easily. He had made good progress
by the time Micky returned.

“
In a bit of a
hurry for more work or something?” Micky joked as he took his brush
from where he’d left it.

“
Just giving
you something to do then you might actually do some work for a
change,” Andy raised his eyebrows playfully.

“
Oh, is that
right maybe I should just stand here then and let you get on with
it, eh?” Micky nodded toward his tall friend.

“
Well there
wouldn’t be much of a change there then,” Andy
sniggered.

“
Cheeky big
shit,” Micky also laughed a little at the younger man’s cheek as
the stiff bristles of his brush created clouds of dust, as he began
to sweep, which the soft breeze carried slowly away.

“
When do you think Charlie will need us?” Andy asked as he
scooped some of the loose soil throwing it under the fencing
at the side of the
path.

“
No idea,”
Micky answered, “that’s if they even need us,” he added looking up
beyond the greenhouse to where the other men laboured but couldn’t
see much as the glass structure blocked most of the
view.

“
What’s the
time by the way?” Andy looked at the sun low in the sky.

Micky stopped
to look at his watch. “Fuck, its going on five,” he declared his
shock at how late it had gotten.

“
I hope you
don’t swear like that when there are customers in the park?” The
voice of their boss came from behind them.

Both men turned to see
what the woman wanted. “Oh, sorry about that just taken aback at
the time,” Micky quickly answered.

“
Yes, well anyway
, how
are you getting on?” She said looking at the muddy
tracks.

“
Slowly but we’re getting there,” Micky looked at
t
he progress they’d already
made which didn’t seem much to him as they really had only
begun.

“
Well it
needs to be done before we finish tonight,” she said before adding,
“so, when can you both work to?”

“
Well, till
the light starts fading I suppose,” Mick frowned
thoughtfully.

“
I’m the
same,” Andy agreed with his more experienced colleague.

“
Well let’s
hope you finish before then,” she smiled at the two men, “but thank
you for helping out, we really appreciate it.”

“
Charlie said
he might need our help with the cars on the Troika but we should
still get this lot finished though,” Micky thought it best to let
his boss know about Charlie.

“
Will you still be able to sweep this u
p?” She asked with a look of concern at not
listening to what Micky had fully said.

“
Yeah, no
problem with any luck,” Micky straightened his stiff
back.

“
Good, good,”
the woman nodded her expression relaxing, “alright then, I be back
in about an hour to see how you’re getting on then, okay.” At that
she turned around and left the men to their work.

“
She could
have given us a hand if she’d wanted,” Andy said after she had
gone.

“
Yeah right,”
Micky shook his head, “we’ll really see that happening, won’t
we.”

“
Well if we
had a hand we’d get finished earlier,” Andy paused his scraping as
he spoke, leaning on the handle of his utensil.

“
Well we’ve
not got that option have we so let’s just get on with it,” Micky
pushed more loose earth aside as the breeze picked up the dust
cloud as if it were smoke.

“
But you have
to admit it’s true though,” Andy persisted.

“
Yeah, but
the same could be said that if you’d stop just standing there and
got some work done, we’d be finished sooner too,” Micky grinned at
Andy as he spoke.

“
I was just
let you catch up a bit,” Andy smiled back then returned to
loosening the dried mud.

“
Never mind
about me catching up as you can help sweep after you’ve done that,”
Micky created more clouds of dust.

“
Sure you
don’t want me to just get on and do it all myself,” Andy joked over
his shoulder.

“
Well if you
want but I thought you’d need a hand,” Micky pushed some soil at
Andy with his broom. It clouded around Andy’s legs.

“
Hey,” exclaimed the taller man as he threw some muck
back towards Micky. Both laughed at
the other then got back to the task at hand.

Finally they
reached the top of the hill. Micky looked back down at the now,
much cleaner wide main pathway. His back niggled painfully at him
as he stretched to loosen the stiffness from stooping all day to
brush.

“
MICKY!” Charlie’s shout brought him to look in the
direction
of the Troika, “CAN
YOU AND YOUR MATE GIVE US A HAND NOW!”

“
BE RIGHT
THERE!” Micky called back. “Looks like they need us after all,” he
said to Andy as he past the younger man and leaned the broom he’d
been using against the ice-cream hut. Andy put his shovel next to
the broom.

“
What do you
think they need us for anyway?” Andy asked as they strolled along
the path to the waiting maintenance man.

“
Well we’ll soon find out,” Micky
replied as they approached Charlie.

“
Give us a
hand pushing the cars down so we can lock them in place,” Charlie
explained.

“
No problem,”
both men said almost as one, both with a similar dumb look on their
faces.

They joined
the other men grouped near one of the cars.
Micky looked at his wrist to see the time, knowing it
was getting late as the sun was dipping towards the misty horizon.
The hands of his watch told it was almost twenty past
six.

“
In a rush to
go some where?” Chippy asked cheerily.

“
Home for
dinner,” Micky smiled back at the carpenter, “So you got nothing
else to do today I take it?”

“
Well, not
really but I’ll need to be in early to fix the fence before the
park opens,” he motioned at the large section of the wooden
enclosure that had been removed for easier access to the ride, as
Micky nodded understandingly.

“
Right,” Charlie said as he approached the group of men
standing next to the red car, “let’s get this car locked in place
and then get the last of them done before it gets
to
o dark to
work.”

The crowded group turned
to face the car ready to push as one.

C
hapter 14

As the shadows grew longer
she left her room and made her way up into the main house to wait
for dark. She watched from the window waiting to see the two men
from the previous day.