Tony Littlejohns - The Hoffmann Plague

When he awoke in the morning Jane had already risen. He remembered snatches of a dream he’d had before waking. In it he’d seen what was either a young man or woman – he couldn’t tell which because of the distance – on horseback in a marshy area with stunted trees dotted around. Then they were looking through a pair of binoculars and he could see a hunting rifle slung over their shoulder. It had all gone fuzzy after that, but for some reason he had the feeling that it was linked to him somehow.

When Megan got up and they were all sitting around the table they told her of Bill and Emma’s offer to go and live at their farm, and that they had decided it was the best thing to do for them all. She gave a little shriek of excitement.

‘Oh, wow, that’s brill! I can see Sally all the time then, and Max will love being in the country, too.’ Then she turned more thoughtful. ‘I mean, I like this house and being by the sea and all that, and I know how hard you’ve worked here, but I find Bexhill creepy now with no one around. I don’t believe in ghosts… or zombies; like that rubbish Mum and Dad used to watch on TV when they thought I was asleep; but I just find it creepy. D’you know what I mean?’

Jane and Jamie both smiled; they looked at each other and she winked at him.

‘Yes, honey, we know exactly what you mean,’ said Jamie, ‘and that’s one of the reasons why we’ve decided to go; not because it’s creepy, of course, but because there’s no one here any more. We need to be around more people, with friends who can help and support each other in the future.’

After breakfast they got the BMW out of the garage and put two shotguns inside, then Max jumped into the load area. Megan sat in the back, leaning over the seat to stroke him. As they went they could see apple trees along the way full of fruit, some almost ready for picking.

‘I was just thinking;’ said Jane, ‘as we’re not staying in the bungalow we won’t need to go mad harvesting and preserving all the apples to see us through the winter like we did with the cherries. There’s a whole orchard at the farm, isn’t there? And Bill and Emma will be picking and either storing or preserving all that they can. We can help them with it when we move there.’

‘Well, thank goodness for that!’ Jamie exclaimed, laughing. ‘That was rather a mad two weeks. We’ll probably just need to pick enough for a few months and store them for our use until we move to the farm.’

They got to the farm in about ten minutes with there being nothing else on the road, and when they pulled into the yard Jamie beeped the horn and stopped outside the house. Emma opened the door, smiled and came out to welcome them. They got out of the car and Emma hugged them all, then Bill came out, too, grinning.

‘I’m guessing you’ve got an answer for us already, as you’re back so soon!’

Jamie and Jane both nodded, grinning back at them both. Bill and Emma didn’t need to ask what the answer was; they could see it in their faces.

‘That’s great news!’ said Bill. ‘We’re really pleased, aren’t we Emma?’

‘We certainly are! You’ve made my day,’ she said and hugged them all again. Bill took Jamie’s hand in both of his and shook it warmly, then kissed and hugged Jane and Megan. Sally came to the door, saw what was going on and yelled with delight, running over to them.

‘You’re coming to live with us, aren’t you?’ she said excitedly. They all smiled at her, nodding, and she hugged them. Megan was just as excited as she was and Max was barking and jumping up at them all, almost wagging his tail off.

‘Come on, Megan,’ said Sally, ‘bring Max and I’ll show you around the farm.’ The two girls ran off down the yard with Max running along beside them. The adults all smiled at the girls and then went inside to the kitchen. They sat at the table while Emma put the kettle on to make tea.

‘Well,’ Bill said, ‘we didn’t expect to hear back from you so soon, but I’m glad. I guess you did a lot of talking last night?’

‘Yes, we did,’ Jane replied. ‘Well, to be honest, Jamie did most of the talking and I did most of the listening, although I would have arrived at the same decision if I’d had time to think about it! He had it all thought out, pretty much, while Megan and I were out checking the snares. We both love the house and where we are, and we’ve put a lot of work into it, but your offer makes perfect sense to us for many reasons.’

Jamie then took over and told Bill and Emma everything he’d said to Jane the night before. They listened attentively, nodding and agreeing at various points with what he said.

‘That all makes sense,’ said Emma, ‘and it’s good that you thought it all through properly. We thought it would be a good idea to convert the chicken shed, which was why Bill suggested it. And we understand that you’d want to stay there until the end of the season, after all the work you’ve done there – we’d do the same in your position.’

‘I agree,’ said Bill, ‘and I like the idea of bringing as much stuff as we can here from the DIY stores and builders’ merchants. There’s going to be a lot of “make-do-and-mend” in years to come and the more materials we’ve got here, the better. If something goes wrong and needs repairing, the chances of getting an exact spare will be tiny, so we’ll have to improvise with whatever is to hand; even down to having the ability to make rubber gaskets or washers for water pumps and stuff. We can turn one of the outbuildings in the top yard into a materials store. Somewhere like Screwfix will be ideal for getting all that stuff, and we can put up racks and shelving in there for it all.’

‘Good idea, Bill.’ said Jamie. ‘I think that once we’ve converted the chicken shed you and I should sit down and make lists of all the things we might need: tools, materials, fixings, etc. Obviously, you know this place better than me and can say if there are any specific things we’ll want for here.’

Bill nodded. ‘I also think we should start on the conversion now, while the weather’s good and we have the vehicles, as you both said. Once it’s done we can begin moving your things over. We can bring most of it here, just leaving you with enough stuff at the bungalow that you’ll need, until you’re ready to move in.’

They all agreed and smiled at each other, and after finishing their tea they went for a walk to look at the old chicken shed. The top yard was another large concrete apron, about forty yards long by twenty wide. Along the left-hand side were adjoining buildings for maybe ninety feet; two lower buildings nearest the house first and then three large barn-type buildings with high pitched roofs and sliding doors. At the far end was a gap and then one long, lower building ran perpendicular to them along the yard’s top edge, divided into four separate units. Beyond them were fields and farmland. It was to these that they headed. Along the yard’s right-hand side, marking the farm’s boundary, were a drainage ditch and thick hedge.

The furthest building on the right was the old chicken shed and Bill showed them inside through a door on the building’s end. The main area was a good size, with a space partitioned off at the back to make a small room. In the wall to the left was a door to another room, with an open loft or mezzanine area above it, accessed by steps against the wall opposite the main door. The room on the left had been turned into a sort of kitchen area many years before and had a large ceramic butler sink, with a hand-pump above it to supply water, and wooden worktops on two sides.

Jane and Jamie looked round the place and both agreed that it would make a great living area with some basic improvements. They would have to get used to having a lot less space than they had at the bungalow, but that was to be expected. They discussed it for a while and decided on a few things: maybe a new partition wall upstairs to make a bedroom, some better insulation and basic décor, and lots of shelving or racking for storage in the kitchen and living areas, and the wood-burner, of course.