Moonlight Magic

Eric was obviously well practiced at lighting a coal fire because in only a few minutes he had it blazing away, bathing the walls in dancing orange and yellow light from the flames which slowly began to warm his living room.

Sarah and Julie were sat together on the small two seater settee which backed onto the window overlooking the street, eagerly waiting for Eric so they could talk about what just happened in the churchyard. Eric was in no hurry and was sat on the edge of his favourite chair moving the coals around in the fire with a long iron poker.

“Eric.” Said Julie nervously fumbling with her fingers on her lap. “I’ve a confession to make.”

Eric slowly placed the poker on the black slate hearth and leant back in his chair.

“Right Julie.” He said slapping his hands down on his thighs. “What is this confession you want to share with me?”

“Well…” She said slowly, looking across at Sarah as if looking for encouragement. “Sarah and I came here…to your house…yesterday evening.” She stopped.

“Yes.” Replied Eric with no show of emotion…at all.

“And…”

“Yes…and.”

“And…we couldn’t get in through the front door, so…we went round the back and let ourselves in.”

Eric just sat in his chair motionless.

“The door was open…unlocked I mean.” Piped up Sarah. “We didn’t force anything.”

Eric didn’t move a muscle for a couple of seconds then just as Julie was about to speak he beat her to it.

“It’s alright ladies.” He said with a small smile on his face. “You’re my friends. I’m sure you did no harm.”

“Well…” Started Julie. “I…we…” She said gesturing with her arm towards Sarah, “went upstairs and…found your box of photos and things in your chest of drawers.”

And before Eric could utter a word she blurted out…

“We didn’t mean any harm…we just wanted to know more about you. We were worried. We were trying to find something…anything that would give us a clue as to where you might be…honestly.”

Eric stood up from his chair.

“Wait there.” He mumbled as he turned towards the door and the stairs.

Julie and Sarah shuffled around on the settee and didn’t say a word all the while he was gone. They were still dazed and confused from what they had witnessed only minutes earlier in the churchyard.

Eric had gone upstairs. They could hear the drawer of the chest of drawers in his bedroom moving in and out followed by his slow footsteps down the steep staircase and back into the, now very warm, living room where he sat down with the wooden box on his lap. The two ladies looked at each other and then back to Eric. He opened the box and one by one took out the photos studying them as he went. Not a word was said by anyone until Eric broke the silence. He held the pictures in his hand and looked across at the two ladies perched on the edge of the settee like two little girls expecting a telling-off from their schoolteacher.

“I had almost forgotten about these.” He said handing them across to Julie who was sat closest. Slowly she reached out a hand and took them from him.

“Aren’t you angry Eric?” She said looking down at the photos.

“Angry.” He replied with a puzzled look on his face. “Why would I be angry?”

“Well…” Said Sarah, “We came into your house uninvited and went through your things…I’d be angry if someone did that to me.”

Eric smiled at her.

“Sarah.” He said calmly. “Life’s too precious…and too short to be angry.”

Julie was almost bouncing up and down on the settee with excitement. She wanted to know about the pictures...and lots of other things. Without any warning she blurted out what she’d been holding in for too long.

“Eric…I need to know…so many questions…I…I…”

Eric laughed out loud and leant back into his arm chair.

“Ok Julie…I can see you’re about to explode.”

“Ok…”She said taking a deep breath and relaxing her shoulders. “Ok. Why did Charlie appear in front of us last night? How are you so old? How is Charlie in all your old photos…or is it not Charlie? If it’s true…why has it happened to you? Why…?”

“Whoa.” Cried out Eric with a huge smile on his face. “I think the best thing would be for me to start at the beginning and I think everything will fall into place for you. Ok?...But don’t forget what I said ladies. You mustn’t tell anyone about this. I don’t want people nosing around the churchyard.”

“Ok…” Replied Julie and Sarah together sombrely.

“Ok.” Said Eric taking a deep breath. “Here goes…I was born on the 22nd January 1897 during the reign of Queen Victoria who died on my birthday in 1901. I have lived here on Victor Street all my life and on the day of the Queen’s death…and my birthday, my father came home from work that day with a surprise for me…it was a puppy…a long haired terrier with a white and brown coat. My mother played hell with him because food was short, let alone having to find enough to feed IT as well. After a few choice words between my mother and father, I was allowed to keep him but it was made very clear to me that he was my responsibility and if I didn’t walk and feed him…and the first sign that I wasn’t looking after him, he would be gone. Well…from the second we met, it was as if we had known each other all of our very short lives…we were inseparable. Wherever I went, he followed. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a dog…” He said looking at Julie and then Sarah, “but you can really build a special bond between you. So much so that you can almost read each other’s minds. It’s the way they look at you sometimes cocking their head to one side…or the way they sit in front you with their ears pricked up. You begin to talk to them like they’re human…well…Charlie and I were no different. As I grew older and went to school he would wait by the door for me to return and as soon as I pushed open the front door he would leap on me and lick my face so much I thought my freckles would come off. He truly was my best friend.”

Eric leant back in his chair and closed his eyes for a good ten seconds before opening them again and continuing, looking blankly at the ceiling.

“The trouble with a dog is that once they become fully grown, you forget how old they are. Year after year passes by and they seem to stay the same…always there…always faithful. I was growing into a young man and completely forgot that Charlie was also getting older…what do they say? One human year is the same as one dog year…well I don’t know if that’s true but if it is by the summer of 1914 I was 17 and Charlie will have been…13 times 7…he will have been 91. Now that’s old by anyone’s standards.” Eric said turning to look at the two ladies and smiling.

Sarah and Julie leant back in the settee and smiled back.

“That was the year that war broke out. All the men were excited at being able to join up and fight for their country…although the women weren’t so eager…they could see what would happen…they didn’t want their men to die.” Eric leant forward towards the fire and clasped his hands together as he remembered those times.

“My father was amongst the first to sign up leaving me and my mother behind. My mother used to cry at night when she was alone…Charlie and I could hear her in the next room crying herself to sleep…I hated it.” Eric paused dropping his head down and then lifting it again after a few seconds with tears rolling down his cheeks which he brushed away with his hands.

“My father died in the Battle of the Marne just outside Paris in September 1914. I’ll never forget it. A man came to the house to deliver a telegram and the whole street new what that meant…KIA, killed in action. Funny thing is Charlie used to bark whenever anyone would come to the door…but on this day he seemed to know and just stood at his feet. My mother took the telegram and didn’t even open it. She knew what it was. I took it from her, opened it and read it…It was a telegram from the war office in London…Regret to inform you Private Barraclough killed in action France, Paris September 9th…that’s all it said…and I can remember it now all these years later.” Eric closed his eyes again and tears could be seen rolling down his cheeks along with Julie and Sarah who were both wiping their eyes.

“Oh Eric.” Said Julie wiping her nose with a tissue. “I’m so sorry.”

Eric opened his eyes and without showing any signs of emotion carried on with his story.

“Not long after that I was out walking with Charlie, who by now had slowed down a lot from his early days. Apart from thinking he was human, he also thought he was half race horse, half lion because he loved to run…run as fast as he could everywhere and if ever there was trouble, he was the first to try and sort it out. He didn’t care how big his opponent was, he would have a go. Anyway, this day Charlie was lagging behind which was unusual for him. I had to keep stopping and wait for him to catch up. I never needed to use a lead.” Said Eric smiling and nodding slightly. “He always walked by my side…to heel.”

Eric paused for a few seconds.

“I’d walked round the corner from over the road there,” He gestured by throwing his arm in the vague direction of where he meant. “In those days there was a lot more grass around which is why I walked Charlie around there. I’d stopped for him to catch up but he never came. I waited and called and I thought nothing of it so I slowly made my way back round the corner only to see Charlie laid flat on the pavement. I ran to him and knelt down running my hand gently over his body. He was panting as he laid there and then I thought he was Ok because he tried to stand but he collapsed…and he was gone…”

Eric paused again dropping his head and Julie and Sarah were wiping their eyes as they waited for Eric to continue.

“I picked up his limp body and walked slowly home with him. My mother and I were crying in the kitchen and she said I should find somewhere to bury him…well the only place I could think of was the churchyard which made complete sense to me…after all…Charlie thought he was human…and so did I…But my mother said it wasn’t allowed because animals didn’t have souls like humans so he would have to be buried in a field or a ditch somewhere…well I hated that idea, and anyway, I knew Charlie had a soul, I’d spent the last thirteen years or so talking to him and understanding his every move…and he knew mine.”

Eric leant forward with his elbows on his knees and rubbing his hands together nervously.

“That night I wrapped Charlie in one of my sheets and walked down the street to the churchyard where I buried him in the green patch you saw us in earlier…In the morning I told mother I had buried Charlie amongst the trees in the park by the river…She believed every word.” Said Eric leaning back in his chair and letting his head fall back as if he was relieved to have told his secret.

“The following night I visited Charlie’s grave and I did so every night until one night the moon was full, the sky clear and the moonlight was really bright bathing everything with a silvery light. As I knelt on the grass looking at the freshly dug soil and grass of where Charlie was buried, I could see strands of what looked like cotton standing up a couple of inches from the earth, waiving around and then falling back into the soil…there were thousands of these little strands everywhere all around Charlie’s grave. Further out from his grave there was a raised edge forming a circle about eight to ten feet across…I had no idea what was happening. As it got later into the night, mist began to appear…but just on the grass…inside the circle. Well…you can imagine, I was only a young lad…curious, but not stupid. I was starting to get scared. What the hell was going on? Well…curiosity overcame the fear and I stayed there, within the circle until the early hours of the morning…I must have fallen asleep because I woke with a start. I was laying on the damp grass and there in front of me was Charlie…I sat bolt upright. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought at first it must be a dream…it had to be…this sort of thing doesn’t happen in real life, but there he was. Sat in front of me wagging his tail, panting slightly with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and…I swear…it looked like he had the biggest dog-smile across his little face you’d ever seen. I slowly stretched my hand out towards him…” Eric was re-enacting every movement whilst sat in his chair. “Charlie lowered his head slightly…and I touched him. He felt real. He was real. We played together the rest of the night all the time staying inside the circle until daylight was taking over when Charlie began to fade with the disappearing moonlight.

By now it was nearly breakfast time so I legged it home just in time for me to jump back into bed as mother shouted it was time to get up. I can remember plain as day laying there in bed wondering if it had all been a dream…but when I went downstairs mother noticed my arms and hands were covered with red marks. They were Charlie’s claw marks from when we’d played that night…then I knew it was real. I had no idea how or why…but it had happened…to me.”

Eric had been staring into the fire for the last couple of minutes and turned to look at Julie and Sarah. They were leant back into the cushion with Julie’s head resting on Sarah’s shoulder.

“Go on.” Whispered Julie looking completely content where she was. “Don’t stop.”

Eric smiled and continued.

“Well as you can imagine, I continued to visit Charlie’s grave every night but it took me a while to realise that he only appeared when there was a full moon. But I didn’t mind because that meant I got to see him once a month, sometimes twice, depending on whether there were two full moons in a month… My mother died in 1935. I was 38 and the night she was buried was a full moon so I didn’t go to Charlie’s grave…well, for obvious reasons. That night after people had left my house and I had gone to bed, I heard scratching…like fingernails against a piece of wood. I tried to ignore it but it wouldn’t stop so I went downstairs. It was coming from the back door. I opened it expecting to see a cat, or even a rat…but it was Charlie. He had come from the churchyard to see me. How…I’ve no idea. Charlie has come and stayed with me for many times over the years…”

“Hey.” Said Sarah bursting into life,.“I knew it was Charlie in your photos.”

“Yep. It’s him alright.” Said Eric with a small smile.

“Why does she come to see you…and how…” Asked Julie sitting back up straight.

“How…I’ve still no idea. Some magical force lets him come to see me…but why? I’ve had a long time to think about it, and it seems every time there’s a trauma in my life…or something is going wrong he comes to see me. He doesn’t stay long, just a few hours.”

“Aw…well that’s lovely Eric.” Said Julie. “And absolutely amazing. But that doesn’t explain why you ended up in hospital with a piece of paper of all the full moons in your pocket…does it.” She said, “Oh and why you’re over a hundred years old…mmm?”

“All I can think Julie is that when I went to see Charlie’s grave the first time, some of the magic…the stuff…that went into Charlie, went into me. It altered my body somehow and let me live longer than normal. But Julie look at me now. I’m an old man.”

“Yes…I know…but you look great for 124 years old.” She said smiling.

Eric smiled back.

“Thing is Julie…Sarah.” Began Eric solemnly, “I haven’t had Charlie to stay with me for many years now…probably over thirty years…and all of a sudden out the blue Charlie has appeared at my front door three times in three months. He’s only stayed the night but it’s got me to thinking.”

Julie interrupted him knowing what was in Eric’s mind.

“Hey. Maybe he just wanted to see you.”

“It doesn’t work like that way Julie. He’s here for a reason…I think it’s my time. My time to go.”

Both Julie and Sarah jumped off the settee and flung their arms around Eric.

Julie pulled back from hugging Eric and gazed into his ice blue eyes.

“Eric if it is your time to go. What a beautiful way to go…with your best friend Charlie.”

Eric gave a little smile and stood up from his chair by the fire.

“The other thing is Julie…Sarah. You must never tell anyone about where Charlie’s buried. I don’t want anyone to…to…”

Julie and Sarah hugged Eric again.

“Whoa ladies. Those are bear hugs.” Said Eric wrapping his arms around them both.