Into My Heart An Air that Kills - Brahms Heelshire The Boy

Chapter 5 - Let Me In

Laurie hugged boy Brahms to her chest. She pecked his cheek loyally. It was in the Rules and he watched.  She knew he didn't inhabit the doll; that this was just china and cloth. But it was the bridge between them, the umbilicus that bound one soul to another and in this it was precious to her, more than she could ever have imagined.

From her room she heard the insistent ringing of the phone and jumped expectantly to her feet. She was almost disappointed to hear Amanda's voice on the other end.

"Hey, sis! Just ringing to let you know I'm still alive."

"Hi, Amanda. Sorry I've not rung you. Been busy."

"How busy can a doll keep you? It's been a week. I rang two days ago."

"I'm sorry I missed you. It's the time difference...and the fresh mountain air. I'm usually in bed by nine. Time has no meaning here. There's no clocks, no internet, no signal, and I'm not one to watch crap on TV."

"What do you do all day? Entertain the doll?"

"Of course not. I read a lot. I go out walking. Thankfully, I downloaded about twenty books onto my Kindle. If I'm desperate I can always go into the village, I'm sure they have wifi somewhere."

"Listen, I have some bad news..."

Laurie's heart sank. Somehow, she knew what was coming.

"Joel came by the house last week. Morgan said he kept hammering on the door; told him some story about needing to write to you about how sorry he was..."

"Please don't tell me he gave Joel this address?"

"He's ten, Laurie. What could he do?  He found your address in my pocket book I'd left out.  He couldn't think of any other way to get rid of Joel, and he didn't tell me until yesterday."

"I know...It's ok. This is my fault, you shouldn't be involved in all this shit."

"No, it's not your fault. What are family for if you can't depend on them?"

"Well, I won't be reading anything he sends me. It'll go straight into the trash. Christ on a bike! Am I never to have any fucking peace!"

"Listen, you inform the police or whatever, if he starts pestering you. Block his mail or something."

"It'll be ok. His letters will only hurt if I read them."

"Take care, sis. I'll speak soon."

Laurie put the phone down. "God, I need a drink!"

~

The wine was Rioja Reserve, and tasted of vanilla and oak. One thing about the Heelshires, they knew how to stock a good wine cellar. Laurie took some black olives from the fridge and cut off a heel of ciabatta. Balancing her wine glass and plate in one hand, she switched off the kitchen light and retired to the music room.

As she ate, she savoured the Rioja, then thought, Do NOT drink the whole bottle tonight, Laurie!

She was just finishing off the olives when someone hammered on the front door.  Startled, Laurie jumped to her feet and padded into the hallway. The door was solid oak so she had no way of knowing who stood outside. Whoever was out there hammered more urgently making her jump. Had she locked the door? She stared stupidly at the opened bolts and was just about to lunge forwards to turn the brass key when the door crashed open.

"Joel!"

He stood there a moment his eyes adjusting to the lamplight. Laurie saw her ex boyfriend was unshaven, but he wore his usual scruffy garb, jeans, baggy sweatshirt and that filthy old leather jacket he'd stolen from a dead man.    God, she loathed that jacket. It made her skin crawl.