Strange Noises Fiction by Rachel Greenham

I’m woken by knocking on the front door downstairs. It must be late. Not too late, as I can still hear people in the streets and music and the occasional slight turbulence from nearby taverns. I look across and see Ateis still sleeping in the child’s bed nearby, and Asuti in the second full-size bed with the baby. I remember now, I’d said they could come in with me in the hope that Sam and Beni coming home wouldn’t wake them.

I can hear Jalsone going to answer the door. Is Sam back yet? I wonder. I think I would have woken at the sound, unless she was supernaturally quiet about it.

Jalsone’s coming up the stairs. Nothing for it then. I swing my legs out of bed and find a tunic to put on before the soft knock on my door.

I open it quietly from my side.

“There’s a man wants to talk to you,” Jalsone whispers.

“Me?” I ask. “I’ll be right down. The others aren’t back yet, are they?”

“No Miss.”

A little wrench of fear starts in my belly. What if something’s happened to them? This could be a watchman coming to tell me— I do know there’s no purpose in delay. “I’m coming,” I say, feeling my voice shake.

I recognise the man standing in the parlour instantly. It’s not a watchman. “Lord Hajarean,” I say, surprised into courtesy. “Can I… help?”

“What are your intentions?” he asks curtly.

“What?” It takes me a moment to realise he spoke in English. And from that everything follows. “Simon it is you!” I exclaim. “Sam was right! What… Why did you pretend?”

“What are your intentions?” he asks again. His English has a thick Jeodine accent. “Why did you come here?”

“What do you mean? We don’t have any, we just… we’ve been looking for you. We’ve been trying to find you.”

“Do you know a way to return to the other world?”

“No.”

He sighs, and a load of tension drains out of his shoulders. For a moment he looks like a much older man. Then he straightens, but only in a manner of regaining poise, not tensing up again. “I’m glad,” he says in Jeodine.

“So am I,” I reply, and break into a smile, It’s good to acknowledge that sometimes. “Oh, sit down pleas— No wait, let’s go to the kitchen, it’s comfier. I’ll make some tea,” I suggest, already leading the way.

“Ahem.” He didn’t clear his throat. Gaspode-like, he said ‘ahem’. Until now, I suddenly think, he might have been anyone who learnt a few phrases of English from somewhere. Now I know this is Simon.

“Hey, I learned to make tea, finally,” I protest. “I mean, Jeodine tea anyway,” I add, flashing a grin back to him as he follows. “We’ve got some Waker, Sleeper, Talker, lots of Calmer. Kids,” I explain. “Absolutely essential, trust me.”

“Oh I know.”

“You do?”

We reach the kitchen and I point him to one of the comfortable chairs around the stove.

“Four children,” he says. “Six grandchildren and counting.”

“Wow. So you… how long… I mean—”

“Right after the Kaleshha campaign ended,” he replies. “I’ve been here thirty four years.”

“Shit. We wondered if… Shit, I’m sorry.”

“Why?” He takes his seat. “I have a life richer and more full than any I could have achieved back in that other place. I have a beautiful wife whom I love very much, and children and grandchildren who illuminate my world. I have a home and a life here I wouldn’t leave for anything that other place could offer me. I have wealth and position and that allows me to make a difference to people’s lives here. Don’t feel sorry for me because I am older. My time has been well spent.” He smiles. It’s that old slow smile I remember. “That’s what the young do, back there, isn’t it? Pity the old.”

“That’s why you pretended you didn’t know us,” I say. “You were afraid we’d take it away from you.”

He nods. “But it was rude of me, and for that I apologise. I should not doubt old friends. And anyway, I’m curious.” That smile again. “What have you been up to? Did James and Dave come through too?”

“Y-Yes. But they… We lost them.”

“Tell me the whole story,” he says. He sounds so kindly, like a favourite uncle, I think.

“Do… Do you want tea?” I ask again.

“Let’s have some Talker then. A mild inhibition-loosener shouldn’t go amiss at a time like this.”

“I’ll just get some water. Pump’s outside.”