Whispers of the Past

Red - I am sorry that you weren't engaged in the characters of the story, I hope that you give it another try.



Marcus Licinius Crassus - Thank you, and here is another chapter. I hope that you continue to stay hooked.



Dropping Whispering Eaves



Hank woke up on Saturday feeling relieved that it was the weekend. It was the most unusual week he probably ever had. He turned over and groaned; he was hoping to have a lie in but he just realized that it was his Aunt and Uncle’s monthly visit. He also realized that no one had told Ralph this; and that no one had told Ralph about his other relatives either. He got out of bed and unhooked his towelling robe from the door. He laid it on his bed. He undressed himself and then wrapped the robe around his body.



He walked out of the door and saw his brother James standing out of the bathroom door. He smiled at his brother. His brother shook his head and rolled his eyes. James picked something out of his pocket and showed Hank a stopwatch. He pointed to the door and then pushed his hair up in a girly fashion. Hank poked his brother in the arm and was about to tell him off when Ralph appeared on the top of the stairs. He’d been downstairs having breakfast.



“Want to hang around with me today around town?” Ralph asked Hank.



“Sorry, no can do,” Hank replied. “I should have said something yesterday, but it only dawned on me today. Every month my aunt; uncle; and cousins all make a trip down here to see us. We have offered to go see them but our house is bigger than theirs. “



“How many cousins do you have?” Ralph asked.



“Three,” Hank replied.



“Who’s in there anyway?” Ralph said pointing to the bathroom door.



“Anna,” James groaned. “She’s always the first in there when Philip comes over.”



“Philip,” Hank said. “Is the only male cousin and Anna is rather attached to him.”



“So the other two are female?” Ralph asked.



“Yes,” Hank replied.



“What else is there?” James asked. “There are only boys and girls.”



“I don’t know, I think James’ are a separate sex aren’t they?” Ralph mocked.



Anna walked out of the bathroom and looked at the row of boys all waiting to go in. James brought his stopwatch out and stopped it.



“Half an hour!” James exclaimed. “You were in there for half an hour! And you still look the same.”



Hank thwacked James around the head; James rubbed his head and scowled deeply at Hank. Hank ignored his little brother and swerved him into the bathroom. Anna had disappeared into her bedroom, as Hank had made sure she couldn’t answer back.



“You know,” Ralph said. “I’m not used to this.”



“No,” Hank sighed. “This is my family and I’m not used to it.”



James walked out of the bathroom and looked at the two boys in front of him and shook his head.



“What did you do in there? Did you just introduce the flannel and soap to you?”



“Shut up, Hank,” he replied sullenly.



“Hey, after I’ve showered I’ll tell you a little bit about them so that you know what to expect,” Hank said to Ralph.



“Sure thing.”



Hank nodded and walked into the bathroom and switched the shower on. He stepped in and let the warm water splatter itself all over his body. He sighed. He smiled and then looked at his reflection. He wanted to be a man and shave. He was sure that is all it would take to get Rachel to notice him more.



He sighed as he looked at his body. He wanted to grow up and be a man. He was tired of being a child. He wanted to be an adult. He shook his head ruefully and walked out of the bathroom.



“Sorry,” Hank said when he stepped out of the bathroom. “It’s all yours.”



Hank got dressed in a sweater, jeans and trainers. He dried his long floppy hair. He smiled at the overall result. He sighed, again wishing he was older.



“Hello,” Ralph said. “What are you smiling about?”



“I was just – wishing,” Hank said.



“Wishing?” Ralph asked. “What did you wish about?”



“About me being an adult and not a child.”



“Why?”



“It’s silly, but if I was older and better looking then maybe she – she might notice me.”



“Who might – Rachel?” Ralph asked.



Hank nodded glumly. Ralph’s eyes widened and looked at Hank.



“Hank, mate, you’re only eleven years old. Aren’t you a little too young to be noticing girls?”



“No,” Hank replied stubbornly. “Should I be? I think Rachel’s beautiful.”



Ralph smirked and shook his head. “Whatever, mate. But take my advice, eh? Hang onto your childhood. You don’t want to grow up too quickly.”



Hank smiled. “Yeah, I suppose so.”



“So, you said you’d warn me about your relatives.”



Hank laughed. “Yeah, come downstairs with me, and I’ll warn you. You definitely need to be warned about them.”



Hank walked out of his room and Ralph followed. They walked into the kitchen. Hank got a bowl and a box of cereal and poured some cereal and milk into the bowl. He ate his first spoonful and crunched a bit before pointing the spoon in Ralph’s direction and swallowing:



“First, there’s Uncle Mark. Mark is the same age as Grampy. They’ve been best friends for practically all their lives. Then there’s Aunt Sarah. She’s my father’s sister. She dresses up rather brightly, and has the personality to match. She is also quite emotional. Then there’s Louisa; she’s got brown hair and eyes. She’s rather shy and quiet and she wants to be a nurse, she has the personality for it. Then there’s Philip. Philip goes by the name of Dracula because that is what he looks like. And last but by no means least, is Julia. She’s like her mother in so many ways. She’s pretty and emotional. She also takes to people easily. “



“Is your grandfather coming to?” Ralph asked.



“Oh, yeah, but he knows about you. Don’t be put off by his irascible nature. He’s a bit gruff but he’s great. Don’t worry about it though. My family are bound to like you.”



Hank shovelled his cereal into his mouth and washed the spoon and bowl up and placed it on the rack. He turned around and looked at Ralph. “I suggest you get dressed first though.”



Ralph smirked. “All right.” He walked back upstairs to get dressed.



Hank turned around and shook his head. He was just about to get around to starting the washing up when the doorbell rang. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled as he walked out of the kitchen and answered the door. His grandfather came in.



“Hello, Hank,” Charles said.



“Hi Grampy, do you want me to take your coat?” Hank asked. Charles nodded and he turned around and Hank took his grandfathers coat. He hooked it up and Charles stepped in the hallway.



“I hear your parents have taken in a stray,” the old man said.



Hank led his grandfather to the living room. Ralph walked down the stairs and was just about to reach the last one when he saw the back of an old man’s head. He fidgeted slightly in his new clothes. He wasn’t used to this sort of stuff. He felt his stubbled scalp. Gertrude had insisted he begin growing his hair.



“Yeah,” Ralph heard Hanks voice. “He’s called Ralph. He’s nice when you get to know him.”



“Hank, you believe everyone is nice when you get to know them,” Charles replied. “Why do we do this?”



“What?”



“Meet once a month?”



“It strengthens the ties of family love.”



Ralph squared his shoulders and walked in the living room. Charles head was bent down. He appeared to be studying the intricate pattern on the carpet.



“Hello, I’m Ralph,” Ralph said to get the old man to look at him. Charles looked up and his complexion paled considerably, his eyes widened and he staggered slightly.



“Nice to, er, meet you, Ralph,” Charles said after he had recovered from his shock. “So, er, how are you?”



“Apart from having my mother murdered, I’m cool, you?”



Charles narrowed his eyes and sighed. “Yeah, sorry to hear about that. It must be, er, awful for you.”



“She wasn’t much of a mother but I loved her,” Ralph said sitting down on the sofa. “I’ll kill the bastard who did it!”



Hank turned and offered a reassuring smile to his grandfather. Charles sat down on the nearest chair, which was the furthest from Ralph as possible. Hank felt he could cut the tension with a knife. He decided to break the ice.



“Cup of coffee, Gramps?”



“Please,” he said.



Hank went to make the coffee leaving Charles and Ralph alone. He felt that they needed a few minutes alone.



“So, how did you two become friends?” Charles asked in a cold voice.



“I bullied him for a whole day, he got fed up with it and stood up for himself earning my respect. He’s a cool guy!”



“Yes, he is a nice guy,” Charles agreed. “I don’t want any one messing with him.”



“You’ve got no problems with that,” Ralph laughed. “Hank can take care of himself.” He turned to look at Charles and his smile dropped as he looked at the stern look on the old man’s face. “Well,” Ralph coughed. “He’s a great kid.”



“Who’s a great kid?” Hank asked Ralph.



“You are,” Ralph replied.



Hank smiled at him. “Thanks mate!”



Charles narrowed his eyes at the two boys. Hank sat next to Ralph and they pulled out a book on old cars. Charles sat back and observed the two boys he could not believe how similar they were to him and – he shuddered at the irony.



Anna, James, and the twins soon filled up the living room and Charles was too busy observing the twins latest prank and listening to James singing songs from Walt Disney movies. Anna, though, just sat in a corner checking the clock on the VCR every few seconds; Charles sighed, he knew whom Anna was waiting for and it filled Charles with a sense of discomfort. He hated the thought of how this could develop.



The VCR clock turned to 11:30am and the sound of a car was heard outside. Gertrude opened the door and Ralph heard some new voices. One of the female voices was cheerful and light.



“Aunt Sarah?” Ralph asked.



“Close, Julia,” Hank replied.



A hearty male voice joined in. “Uncle Mark!” Hank and Ralph said in unison. Both ended up laughing.



A dark haired boy rushed in the room, he scanned the room looking for a specific person. She was sitting next to a strange boy. Ralph guessed that this was Philip. Philip looked at Ralph with coldness as he saw how close Ralph was to Anna. Anna looked up and her eyes lit up when she saw her favourite cousin. She jumped up and ran to Philip and threw her arms around his neck.



“Have you got a new story for me?” she asked.



“Yes,” Philip said; he brought out a pad. “It’s extra bloody and scary just for my favourite person in the world.” Anna beamed. Ralph looked at his new sister and it seemed she had grown prettier as soon as Philip walked in the room. They scuttled over to a corner and she sat on his lap. He started whispering the story in her ear.



Another girl walked into the room. Ralph guessed from her light exuberance that this was Julia; she certainly knew how to make people notice her. She sighed and ran to her grandfather.



“Hugs and squiggles!” Julia exclaimed thrusting herself on his lap. “For my special Grampy.”



Charles laughed. She slid off the lap and she turned around and noticed Ralph. She blushed and looked down on the floor.



“Hello, stranger,” she said.



“Hello, my name is Ralph,” he said. He looked at Hank.



Hank rolled his eyes and smirked. “That’s spelt R A L P H.”



Julia giggled. The last to walk in was a small, petite brunette. She had a quiet elegance about her and Ralph felt calm just looking at her.



“I am Louisa,” she said.



Ralph blinked feeling a bit overwhelmed. He had never been surrounded by this many people before in his entire life. He smiled a little until a rather large bosomed woman came in. She found Ralph immediately and picked him up by his hands and hugged him fiercely. Ralph awkwardly patted her back. The woman began crying.



“Oh it’s just too dreadful,” she said. “To think that such a tragedy should happen at this time in your life!”



“What happened, mum?” Julia asked.



“I don’t know how you pulled through it,” she sniffed. “To think it could happen to any one of us! You poor, poor boy! I don’t know how I would have coped if it was me. And I hated my mother!”



“It’s all right, Mrs Smythe,” he said.



“No, no, you are to call me Aunty,” she sniffed. “After all, you have no family left now that your mother has been murdered!”



“What?” Julia said stunned. Her mother stroked Ralph’s cheek and walked away.



Ralph soon had another pair of arms wrapped around him. “Now you need the hugs and squiggles.”



Ralph stroked Julia’s hair and hugged her back. He had never had this much attention and love before and he rather liked it. He could get used to this. Sarah sat down on the arm of the chair next to her father and Mark walked in. He walked to his wife and looked at Ralph.



“What’s your full name?” he asked. “I want to know about my new nephew.”



“Ralph William Green,” Ralph said.



Mark and Charles exchanged looks. Hank noticed the way that they looked at each other.



“I think it’s perfect,” Julia sighed.



Ralph shrugged his shoulders and sat down on the sofa back in his position.



^*^*^*^



Mark and Charles were sitting out on some garden chairs smoking their cigarettes. Hank was behind the garden shed looking for a football. He shook his head at their conversations. He stopped when he heard something that he didn’t like.



“I don’t like that kid!” Charles exclaimed.



“Who, Ralph?” Mark asked. “He seemed all right to me.”



“Did you catch his middle name?”



“Will you relax, Karl? Just because he looks like HIM it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”



“Since when has my instinct failed me, Manfred?”



Hank forgot all about the football as he heard the different names. He edged closer to the conversation.



“Since never!” Mark sighed; he took a drag of nicotine and puffed the smoke up in the air. “Listen, Karl, you have to stop being so bloody paranoid over this!”



“HE’S out there, Manfred, I just know he is.” Charles looked at the fence. “Oh, yes, he’s out there: bitter, twisted, evil, and planning revenge. Why the hell do you think I allowed you to marry my daughter? So I could keep an eye on you. Why the hell do you think that I still keep in contact with the rest of them; Joachim; Hans, Herman, and Adolf? So I know that they are still alive.”



“Shh!” Mark said. “I think someone’s listening. Use their English names.”



Charles shook his head. “They all have the same feeling.” And after another drag of nicotine he said. “I’m going to ask my son to get rid of him!”



“After what he’s been through? Are you serious? Besides, I think I can safely say that if it isn’t Harry and Gertrude, it’s going to be Sarah and me. I couldn’t sleep at night knowing that there was a fifteen year old orphan out on the streets.”



He smiled at Charles. “Yeah,” he said. “All right, but I don’t like the way they struck up friendship.”



Hank had never listened as hard as he was now. “Well,” Mark sighed. “What does your extinct say about – her?”



“Oh, she’s alive all right!” Charles exclaimed. “I know she is.”



“Why? Have you been secretly keeping contact with her to?”



“If I had I wouldn’t have remained married to that troll!”



“Hey, Karl, that troll gave me my beautiful Sassy.”



“She didn’t want to, remember.”



“If you haven’t been keeping contact with her then how do you know she’s still alive?”



“Because my heart is still singing that same tune, Mark. She’s alive because I am – I know it doesn’t make sense but it’s the truth.”



Mark sighed. He stubbed his cigarette with his foot on the patio and Charles did the same. They both got up and went back in the house. Hank blinked as he leant against the wall of the shed. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard.



It appeared that his beloved grandfather and uncle were not who they said they were. He began to chew his lower lip and swiped some of his hair out of his face. He may be only eleven years old but even he knew that changing names was a way to hide from someone or something. He couldn’t even begin to think about what the two old men could be hiding from or whom.



Hank was just about to make his way out of the back of the shed when Philip, James, and Ralph made their way into the back garden.



“Where’s Hank?” Philip asked.



“Probably still looking for that bright orange football that is sticking right out of the bush there,” Ralph said.



Hank peered round the corner of the shed and noticed it sticking out of the bush. He slapped his forehead. He decided to sneak back in the house. He had lost the urge to play football now. He had a lot to think about.



He watched his grandfather and uncle the rest of the day. Nothing seemed untoward in their behaviour. He chewed the inside of his cheeks as he began thinking that there was more to his German heritage than met the eye. He began to think about their real names; Karl and Manfred were as Teutonic as they came.



He had to admire them for their acting abilities. They had played the same role for forty odd years. His mind began to wonder through to theorising on their real surnames. He was going through as many German surnames as he could. He could only think of two. Schröeder and Schmidt! And they didn’t seem like either of them.



“Hank!” Mark exclaimed. Hank shook his head. “Could you please pass the salt?”



Hank narrowed his eyes. “Sure thing, Uncle,” he said as he picked up the saltshaker and gave it to his uncle.



Mark accepted the saltshaker. “Thank you,” he said coldly.



Hank was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t realise he was actually sitting at the dinner table. He looked at his dinner and picked up the chips and ate them slowly.



^*^*^*^



“You know I said that I thought someone was listening?” Mark said to Charles on their second cigarette.



“Yes?” Charles said slowly.



“I think that someone was Hank,” Mark said.



Charles choked a little. “Oh come on, Manfred, you know that Hank is not the least bit inquisitive to listen to a conversation that he’s not supposed to hear.”



“Didn’t you hear the catch in his voice when he passed me the salt?”



“He’s eleven!”



“What’s that got to do with anything?” Mark asked.



“You have children, don’t you?” Charles asked.



Neither knew that this time Hank was deliberately listening in to this conversation. He was inquisitive enough to find out if they would slip out their old surnames.



“Hormone’s,” Charles sighed. “He’s getting to the age now when he’ll start to question authority. You have a son; you should understand.”



“I have no problems with Philip, it’s Julia that I’m more worried about.”



“You’re not even worried about the idea of Anna and Philip being as close as they are.”



“Again, they’re cousins, why can’t they be best friends?”



Charles sighed and drew some nicotine in his lungs. He looked at his stub and dropped it to the floor. He squished it with the tip of his shoe.



“Well, Mark, if you’re right then maybe we shouldn’t give any reason for Hank to be inquisitive.”



“What do you suggest?” Mark asked.



“I think we should quit smoking,” Charles said. “Besides I only did it to annoy Louisa. Since she’s no longer around it’s kind of lost the fun.”



Mark laughed. “You haven’t changed a bit, mate.” He stubbed out his cigarette. “Well, Sassy hates it to.” Mark drew his hands through his silvery blond hair. “I love Hank like he was my own kid, you know!” He looked up at the sky. “I don’t want Hank or any of the kids to be mixed up in this, including Ralph.”



“I just thought,” Charles said as he collapsed on a chair. “What if HE killed Ralph’s mother?”



“Are you serious? You really have to stop this, Charles. We haven’t seen him since – well – for decades.”



“And like I said before,” Charles sighed. “I know he’s out there.”



“I know, I know,” Mark said. “Look, if you’re right, and that’s a big if, then I suppose that we should warn our friends at least. And not tell anyone about him either.”



“If I know him he’ll make his presence known when he’s ready.” Charles said, “and he’ll start with the kids.”



“He ain’t taking a step near my kids!” Mark said.



Charles nodded. “I won’t let him harm anyone,” he said. “Not as long as I draw breath. “



Mark nodded to. “Hey, they’re playing charades in there!” he indignantly exclaimed. “How could they without me?”



Charles laughed. He knew Mark wouldn’t stay serious for long; it wasn’t his personality to do so. They both walked in and Hank blinked as he came out of the bushes. He didn’t like that conversation any more than the first one.



He didn’t like the possibility of a nameless person watching him and his family. He especially hated the fact that this nameless person was striking fear into his grandfather; the most important man in the world to Hank. He sat down in the same chair that his grandfather had just occupied.



“Right,” he said. “Let’s think this thing through rationally. They are not certain that this person is after us. “ He chewed his lower lip. The rational was soon taken over by the emotional. “Well they seemed pretty certain that HE is still around. Whoever HE is!”



“Whoever who is?” a voice asked behind him. It was his mother.



“No one, mum, “ he replied.



“Want to come in and play charades?”



“Sure,” he said eagerly.



He followed his mother inside the house. He sighed with relief. He lost himself in the game of charades. He smiled and as the game got more interesting and heated the less he thought about the strange conversations.



The whispering stopped … for now.



A/N = Well, this is it for now. I do have loads written up but it takes a huge chunk of emotion for me to type this story. Please, leave a review. I also would love someone to beta this story for me before I send it to various publishers.