The Mysteries of Brambly Hollow

ability. Cal cast Meli a ‘help me look’. But what could she do? This mountain of a man was less likely to listen to her.
    Cal’s fingers were bunched into fists and the veins in his neck began to dilate. “But there must be some mistake,” he insisted.
    “No mistake.” The milk float was released and the front wheels landed on the ground with such an earth trembling thump that Cal and Meli were amazed that the wreck didn’t disintegrate into a million corroded parts. The driver was facing them now. “Take it up with Ms. Vitty.” He swung himself back up into the cab.
    “No, wait,” Cal urged. “Let me go and speak to Mrs. Vitty. Maybe I can get her to agree to keep it somewhere else.”
    The driver regarded him for a moment down his red veined, bulbous nose before shaking his head. “Sorry.” He didn’t look sorry in the least as he slipped the ear defenders over his head. He looked more like a man in a hurry to get to the pub for several pints of cider and a punch up in the car park after closing, to round off a good evening. The growl of the engine sent Quassi into a renewed frenzy. He obviously shared the same sentiments about the whole thing as Cal and Meli.
    Meli grabbed his collar and yanked him out the way, choking out the sound as the tractor headed down towards the farm to turn round. Within minutes it trundled past them.
    The dilated veins in Cal’s face turned his complexion as pink at the tip of a Swan Vesta match as he stared at the second rusting hulk sitting serenely in its new home outside theirs. “What is that woman up to?” Beside him, Meli shrugged, too stunned for words. “I’m not standing for this. Let’s go and sort this once and for all.” Turning, he charged off, not even checking whether Meli was in fact following him. Sensing that Cal was on a mission, with all the subtlety of a cruise missile, Meli hurried after him, and quickly catching him up they made the short journey in silence.
    Elsa was home. To be precise, she was outside her home, standing on an upside down milk crate, staring in through a window. Meli could hear her mumbling something. She sounded disturbed. Was someone inside?
    “Elsa,” Cal announced their arrival, not even trying to conceal the irritation in his voice.
    “I’ll get you.” Suddenly making out some of the old woman’s words, Meli fervently hoped that the threat wasn’t aimed at Cal.
    “Get out ’ere.” Hearing this, Meli concluded that the threat was aimed at someone else, in fact she would bet her last pound that Elsa hadn’t even realised they were there, even though they were right behind her now. This notion was further confirmed when Elsa raised her fist and pounded it against the glass, startling several half dead flies who flapped pathetically until they tipped themselves over the edge of the sill, and vanished one by one into the chasm beyond.
    Amazingly, Cal seemed oblivious to the bizarre setting they found themselves in. “Elsa, I need to speak to you,” he demanded, using his most authoritative tone.
    From out of nowhere, a black tornado whizzed between Meli and Cal’s legs and vanished through the open doorway. Whilst Elsa seemed impervious to the presence of the Nobles’, she didn’t miss the flash of darkness that was Quassi. “See, he’ll get you. Kill, kill,” she began to chant, pounding her fist on the crumbling remains of the window ledge.
    It was at this point that it seemed to dawn on Cal that there was something odd about the situation. “Elsa,” Cal tried again, his voice cautious this time as he tried to catch her attention, whilst not actually wanting to attract it. Moving closer, he set himself to one side, although he was careful to leave a good distance between them. He was visibly shocked when she turned flashing eyes to his; there was no recognition in them. Watching all this curious activity unfold, Meli was struck by an unnatural desire to laugh.
    With all the grace of a hippopotamus, trying to turn on a fifty pence piece, Else shuffled her body in a semi circle on her large, chunky feet, and then held out a filthy hand to Cal, as though expecting him to help her clamber down. Meli didn’t blame him when he withdrew a step out of reach. Her fingers looked like they were covered in poo. Undeterred, Elsa let her self down, and as soon as her feet touched terra firma she turned and marched away, heading towards one of the sheds in the yard. In some far distant recess in her brain, Meli