Intro fiction for Solemn Vale written by Ross Fisher-Davis
Tommy hadn’t spoken for a while. It had been a quiet moment as the little hatchback sped through the country lanes, and Gerald had begun to think the boy had dozen off in the back seat when, without warning, the old argument resumed.
“I still don’t get why we have to move.”
Gerald sighed, looking up at his son in the rear-view mirror. The boy has his chin in his hands, staring with glassy eyes as they passed green fields.
“Oh, come on mate. We’ve been through this.”
“But why? I don’t want to change schools again, I liked it at home.”
Gerald raised a hand from the wheel in surrender to the nine-year-old.
“We both knew there’d be some changes when we lost your mum, eh? This is just one of those changes. The house in Bristol was too much for just the two of us. Anyway, I thought you were excited to see your grandad’s old place?”
“It’s in the middle of nowhere, I’d never want to live here.”
“Lots of lads your age’d love to live in a place like Solemn Vale. Out in the countryside, lots to explore, all sorts of trouble to get into, yeah? Just wait till you see your grandad’s old house. Looks like something out of one of your games.”
The boy sulked, and didn’t respond. Gerald fought for words, keeping his eyes on the seemingly endless twisting road ahead.
“Your mum spent time there in the summers when she was your age, you know. She used to love talking about it. You’ll love the coast, much better than the old docks back home. You know there used to be pirates down in Solemn Vale back in the day?”
Tommy thought it over a bit.
“Real pirates?”
Gerald smiled to himself.
“That’s right. There’s all these coves down by the beaches that used to be full of pirate ships, and they say there’s all sorts of treasure down under the water still. You never know eh?”
Gerald thought he was on to something, and continued.
“And remember all grandma’s old war stories? All happened right there in Solemn Vale, years ago, didn’t it? All sorts goes on there. Just you wait and see.”
Tommy leaned forward in his seat.
“Why didn’t grandad ever come and see us in Bristol?”
Gerald exhaled and gave a shrug.
“Ah, well you remember what your gran said he was like don’t you? Always a bit on the quiet side, like your mum too I suppose. He didn’t like leaving his home really. That’s how much he must have liked it here. Must be lovely.”
Tommy listened. As he did, he continued to peer out of the window. They’d been driving through fields for ages, but now there were trees out there too. A thick green forest not too far away. Tommy thought it looked creepy in there. In the flashes of light through the trees, Tommy glimpsed a great shape. There one moment, then gone.
“Are there bears in the forest dad?”
Gerald smirked.
“In the west country? I don’t think we got any bears, son, but do you remember the story your mum used to tell you? About the funny lights in the woods?”
“The will o’ the wisp!”
“That’s right, yeah. Well, your mum was right here in Solemn Vale, exploring the woods, when that happened. You never know what you’ll find out there.”
Gerald could see the church spire through the trees in the distance.
“Not far now. I can tell you, I think you’re gonna like it here mate.”
“DAD STOP!”
Tommy’s scream cut through the car, and Gerald caught a flash of his son’s arm wave frantically in the rear-view mirror.
The little red car lurched aside as Gerald slammed on the breaks, swerving almost into the nearby field hedgerows, before coming to a stop.
Gerald could still hear Tommy’s cry echoing as caught his breath and checked himself over. He looked back to see Tommy safe and whole in the back seat.
“Bloody hell mate, you can’t do that to me, I nearly had a heart…”
“There’s a girl dad, there’s a girl back in the field.” Tommy interrupted breathlessly.
“You what?”
The child jabbed insistently with a finger out the window.
Gerald looked, and was close to scolding his son where he saw.
Between the hedges and the vibrant green grass, a glimpse of pale flesh, laying coiled on the ground among the flowers.
“Stay in the car,” Gerald said as he opened the car door.
“Dad, I…” the child began.
“I said stay in the car, Tommy.”
There was an old picnic blanket in the car from the trip to Plymouth a few months before. Gerald wrapped the girl up in it, after using the edge of it to wipe the blood from the corners of her mouth.
“Can you talk?” He asked quietly, lifting the girl in his arms as he stood. He guessed she might be fifteen or so. She weighed little more than a child.
She murmured, low, but didn’t respond. Her eyes were glazed, staring past Gerald, unseeing.
“It’s alright. It’s alright, don’t worry now. I got you. We’ll get you home.”
Tommy stared goggle eyed from the back window as Gerald approached.
“Dad… dad is she okay?”
“Yeah, she’s… she’s just been in a bit of accident is all. We’ll take her into the village, make sure she’s safe.”
Gerald leant back the passenger seat and placed the girl in on it. Her head rolled restlessly, as if in dream. Her brow creased.
Gerald seated himself back behind the wheel, and the little car creaked into gear and off back down the lane.
A few moments later they passed a sign by the side of the road. A wide old sign, colours dimmed a little by years of rain. An elegant image of curling trees reaching for the skies above curious blue blossoming flowers. Framed neatly above were the words in a classical typeset.
Welcome to Solemn Vale.
It was hard to put his finger on the feeling that came over Gerald as they crested the hill and the village of Solemn Vale spread out before them. Trees dotted the roadside, pleasant little buildings began to appear, and faces turned to see the little red car go by.
It was a curious feeling, finally coming to the place. He’d heard so many stories over the years. His wife had spoken so much of the place, of her childhood in the odd little village. It had never occurred to Gerald in all that time to ask her why she never wanted to go back, why she’d never wanted to take their son to see her childhood home. That question had kept Gerald up at night. Even when her father, in the early days of his ill health, had first started the calls offering them the house, she’d never wanted to go back to Solemn Vale.
Gerald wasn’t sure what he’d expected, exactly, from the village that had loomed in faded photographs through his wife’s past, but it wasn’t this. They passed quiet shops, rusty bicycles and a milkman out on his morning rounds. There were smiles and waves. A bent old man stood on the street corner, shaking his donation jar and praising the unseasonably fine weather in a ringing voice.
The names of passing streets lit vague memories of past stories, and Gerald knew that down one of them lie the beginning of his and Tommy’s new life. He looked back over his shoulder briefly to find his son looking at the girl laying in the passenger seat.
“I think she’s awake dad,” Tommy said. Gerald looked, to find the girl peering at him, her eyes still vacant, but her gaze a little more focussed.
“Are you okay love?” Gerald asked, smiling reassuringly. The girl opened her mouth to speak. Gerald could barely hear the whisper over the tinny engine rattle.
“I got…I got out. I need to…” she started. Gerald reached to place a hand on her brow.
“It’s okay, don’t you worry, we’ll get you somewhere safe, we’re taking you into town, everything’s gonna be fine.”
The girl’s eyes darted to the window, and with a grasping hand she fought to bring herself up to look out.
“No…I don’t want to go back. Don’t…” she fell back against the seat, beads of sweat on her brow. Gerald shushed her softly, and the girl seemed to lose consciousness once more.
“What’re we gonna do dad?”
“I saw a sign back there for the police station, I think she needs to get somewhere safe, don’t you?”
The stone steps of the Solemn Vale police post were wide and unforgivingly high, and Gerald almost stumbled as he blindly stepped up them with the girl held in his arms.
As he entered the police station, and the light of day dimmed to an unpleasant neon glare, the girl in his arms cried out suddenly, her hands grabbing at the stone around the entrance and clawing for purchase.
Immediately two constables were up and striding over to Gerald, stunned expressions on their faces.
“What the Hell’s this?” the younger constable asked, his weight all on one leg, as if to sprint away at any moment.
“We just found her on our way in, by the roadside. I don’t know who she is.” Gerald said.
The second constable was an older man, an after a moment sizing Gerald up through rheumy eyes, he put out an arm to take the girl’s weight.
“Where you say she was lad?” he asked.
Gerald could only point, and gave a shrug.
“I…I’m sorry I don’t know the roads. About a half mile out? Past the forest.”
He helped the girl into a nearby chair and knelt down before her.
Tommy was suddenly close by Gerald’s legs, and he tugged at his father’s shirt. Gerald took his hand, and gave him a smile. Something about the place was giving him the willies too.
“What you doing out past the fields?” came a sudden question, and Gerald turned to see a tall man peering at him over a neatly trimmed white moustache. The man had a stare that put Gerald’s nerves on edge.
“Oh, I…we were just heading into town. The girl was just…” Gerald began, and was swiftly cut off.
“What’s your business in Solemn Vale?”
“We, uh, we live here! We’re just…”
“No you don’t,” the man interrupted again. He took two heavy strides forward, bringing his bulk uncomfortably close to Gerald. The silver identification on his crisp black jacket read ‘Sergeant Bounds’, “I know everyone who lives here.”
“We…we’re just moving in today. The address is, um, 16 Old Cat’s Crescent.”
Talking to the man gave Gerald the awful feeling of being ten years old again and being summoned to the Headmasters office.
The Sergeant gave Gerald a long look, and peered down at Tommy. Slowly, a knowing smile spread across his face.
“Well, about time someone came in to brighten up the Ashcroft place. I’m betting that would make you a friend of little Maria.”
“She was my wife.” Gerald said, after a moment. The Sergeant nodded.
“Shame, her passing, and all that. It was like the light went out of her old dad when he heard. Broken heart will lay an old man low faster than any of that cancer if you ask me.”
Gerald held onto Tommy’s hand, and tommy gripped back.
“Yep, never should have left if you ask me. Solemn Vale is a nice place to live.” the Sergeant looked over at the girl, seated in a chair, her vacant eyes staring ahead.
“Still, nice to have the new blood back in the village,” he suddenly said, turning his gaze down to Tommy, “eager to see your old grandad’s place I’ll bet?”
Tommy looked to his father, unsure, before nodding shyly.
“Well how about I show you up there myself. My name’s Sergeant Sam Bounds, and I know everyone in town, and now,” he crouched to give Tommy a playful nudge on the shoulder, “well now I know you too.”
Straightening up, the sergeant gave Gerald a firm nod.
“Good of you to bring the girl to us, we’ll make sure she’s safe, don’t you worry a bit.”
The Sergeant reached for his hat. He pointed to the two constables present and barked sharply.
“Robbie, you make our guest comfortable and let the relevant parties know. Steve, take care of things here, and tell Angela I said to go check the road near the old Counthouse again.”
The constables nodded. Between them, they lifted the girl up. As the Sergeant extended a hand to gesture Gerald out of the building, she looked back over her shoulder. Her gaze met Gerald’s, a moment before she was moved out of sight. Her eyes were glistening and red, and her mouth opened as if to speak just as she was moved out of sight.
Gerald couldn’t concentrate as they drove through the village, following the sergeants black and white car. There was something he couldn’t put his finger on that was setting him on edge. The quietness of the roads and the shops they passed seemed to conceal something unseen. He realized he’d been silent since they’d left the police station, and reasoned with himself that it was the girl that had shaken his positivity. She was in safe hands now.
“Some excitement for our first day mate?” Gerald said, and Tommy looked back at him.
“That policeman is creepy.”
Gerald sighed, but nodded.
“Yeah, yeah I think so too. Thing about these little places is, it’s not like back home in the city. No one needs to hide, because everyone knows everyone, sort of. Like, it’s good for people to have your back though yeah? Being part of a community. People just get a bit close is all.”
The car ahead pulled to a stop, and Gerald and Tommy found themselves staring up the old house, the rusty number sixteen on the open metal gate designating it their new home.
“What if you need to hide though?” Tommy asked, quietly.
Gerald opened his car door, before answering him.
“Who’d we need to hide from mate? You’re safe out here. This is…this is home now.”
The sergeant stood, arms crossed over his broad chest, looking up at the old building. Shutters closed, grass overgrown, it had the look of a building vacant a decade, not six months.
“Glad someone’s gonna make something of the old place,” the sergeant said, looking to Gerald, “Lot of history here. You may not know it but your wife’s father was something of a local celebrity.”
He began to walk towards the building, and Gerald, closely followed by Tommy, went after.
The key that his wife had kept all these years still worked, and slipped so neatly into the front door’s ancient lock it was like it had been greased. Soundlessly, the door swung open.
It wasn’t as dark within as Gerald had somehow expected. There was dust on the floor, pictures on every wall. A coiling staircase leading up into the higher floors.
“He was an architect, wasn’t he?” Gerald said to the sergeant, as Tommy took his first steps into the looming building.
“Oh that he was. He was a builder of many things. Solemn Vale is always growing, you see. We like people who build around here.”
The sergeant took a step back from the front door, and gave a tilt to his hat.
“I’ll let you folks get settled in. Sure, you need a little time to get your bearings. I’m sure the welcoming committee will be around soon enough. Now that we know you’re here, the local ladies love meeting the new folk.”
“Thanks for the escort, we…we appreciate it.” Gerald said. Tommy took a tentative step up the wooden staircase, peering up into the unknown above.
Gerald was glad to see the curiosity on the boy’s face, but something was stuck in the back of his mind. The look on the girl’s face. Every time his thoughts wandered.
“You’ll let me know if the girl is okay? I’m the guy who worries, you know?”
The smile on the sergeant’s face was wide, but didn’t reach his eyes.
“Don’t you worry, I can assure you, here in the village we look after our own. When someone needs taking care of, we take care of them.”
The sergeant gave Gerald a hearty slap on the shoulder as he turned to leave, and Gerald might have toppled if he hadn’t been holding the door. He moved to close it, when the figure of the sergeant twisted to meet his gaze once more.
“I almost forgot, I wanted to be the first to say, on behalf of our quaint little village, welcome to Solemn Vale.”
