W B Aodh Gothic Ghost Stories

Dancing in the Snow

Ellie was enjoying the silence of the house. She had been for the last hour knowing it would continue to be silent for the rest of the afternoon. Joel and Cole were going to their grandmother’s after school to spend the weekend with her and their father. May was still at school, then she was going to a friend’s for tea.

Ellie poured more wine into her glass. All week she has looked forward to this afternoon. Although they were short staffed and Julia still had not found a replacement for Joan who quit six weeks ago, Ellie had booked the day off from work. She deserved the break, putting in overtime when she would rather spend it with her children. She took a long sip of her wine. As much as she had looked forward to the afternoon, “me time” is what they called it. A time to put yourself first and to forget, she found the silence daunting.

The day had not started how she had expected it too either, and she could do with forgetting. The divorce papers had arrived this morning. The end of her second marriage, and what did she have to show for it. May, another child. She loved May, but as she stared out of the window, she wished she was on her own. That there was nothing to tie her to the house. That she could just pack her bags and go. Catch a train to nowhere.

Ellie giggled. The snow, which had started just before lunch was growing heavier. As she stared at it, she wondered if it would last. And if it did last, would tea be cancelled and would she have to collect May. Ellie shook her head, no, there was no running away today. All she could do was treat herself to a bath, another glass of wine, and a biscuit.

Topping the glass up once more, she headed for the bathroom. The bath was deep, it would take at least twenty minutes to fill. Turning the taps on, she added a liberal amount of her favourite bath oil. As the bath filled, she glanced at the window. The snow was growing heavier, and the skies were growing darker. The early nights where here but it would be another couple of hours before the sky turned black.

As the water filled the bath, Ellie turned her music up. In a silent house she could have her rock music loud without having to put up with the stares and grunts of disapproval from her children. One day, they would develop her love of rock music.

Ellie lay in the bath. Her body and mind relaxing as she sipped her wine. Her music filled the house for a change, and she smiled. The water felt good against her body. If May needed a lift, she would have to order a taxi. The wine was doing its job, and for the first time in a month she felt good. Premenopausal her doctor called it. She was to expect her mood to swing high and low. For her body to be hot one moment and cold the next. That she could cope with. It was the tears. They came when she least expected them. One moment she could be laughing, the next, despair came over her, shadowed her thoughts. She could do without going through the premenopausal. Two hormonal teenagers and a hormonal mother was what May, and the family had to endure. At times it was a great stress for them all. It was a struggle, but they were getting through it.

The water surrounding her was starting to chill, and her glass was empty. With regret, Ellie left the bath and wrapped herself in a thick bath towel and quilted dressing gown. The CD had finished playing and Ellie went to the bedroom and hunted out her fleece pyjamas. It was late afternoon; she was going nowhere and had no plans to dress.

The snow had started to settle. The garden and the path were white. Kate’s mum, May’s friend, had texted and offered to keep May overnight as it looked as though the snow was not going to stop, and there was an amber warning. Ellie rang Faye to confirm the details and said she would be round in the morning to collect her daughter. If the snow was deep; they would have to walk. Ellie smiled; they could have a snowball fight.

After she dropped her phone on the kitchen table, Ellie poured more wine. Thankfully, she had bought several bottles after dropping May off at school this morning. Her mood was lifting. She had the evening to herself. She could watch what she wanted. Listen to what she wanted too without anyone judging her.

Ellie glanced out of the window. The snow was thick on the ground. The sky a blue silver and the flakes small globules of white. Yes, the snow was here to stay, and the house was silent again.

Ellie wandered through the house. She had nothing to do. No children to feed or to drop off at their friends. She was free. No boss to look over her shoulder. It would not last long. This was freedom and she was going to enjoy it. Ellie made her way to the living room and switched on the television. She flicked through several channels then gave up. There was nothing on that had caught her attention. When she reached for her glass, the glass was empty and so was the bottle, and she went back to the kitchen for another bottle.

It was dark and the garden lights were on, and Ellie opened the kitchen door. As she watched the snow, she thought about putting up the Christmas decorations, then shook her head. As a family they had few traditions left, but this was one she planned to keep. To have her family round her as they listened to Christmas music and ate too much chocolate and cake.

As she stared into the garden, music filled the air and Ellie looked around her. One of the neighbours must have their window open as ‘Marie’s Dream’ from the Nutcracker, filled the air. Ellie sipped her wine as she listened to the music. Her body swayed. She knew she was slightly drunk, but she did not care. Ellie always wondered if it was a neighbour. That they had a projector, and this is what they did.

She shook her head. She knew she was deluding herself. That the music was not coming from a neighbour. That they were not the ones projecting the image into her garden. And she knew it was not the wine. She may have drunk a bottle, but she was not drunk, just a little tipsy.

When the apparition first appeared, she had been fazed. Had not believed what she saw in the garden. She had thought it was some teenager trespassing but had been too mesmerised to go outside and tell the girl to move on. It had been another month before she had seen the apparition again. And again, she had been convinced she had trespassers. It had been going on for a while before she realised that what visited her garden was not a person. Not a living person anyway.

They never spoke about it in the house, and Ellie often wondered if she was the only one to see her. To see their monthly visitor. For three nights, while the moon was full, she came. Ellie glanced at the garden lights. That was why she had the lights fitted. She told the children it was because she enjoyed sitting in the garden with the fire burning. It was her way of unwinding. Of releasing the stress in her. But when her visitor continued to visit, she knew she had put the lights up for her. For three years she has watched this performance.

Ellie sipped her wine as the music lulled her into a dream world. The snow continued to fall but she did not feel the cold. The lights shimmered and she came. The snow and the cold never bothered the young woman. Her arms bare as they fluttered in the air. Swaying from side to side. Up and down when the slim body bent forward or back. Her summer dress swirled around her knees. The spaghetti straps never moving from her shoulders as she swayed and twirled.

Ellie glance at the sky. The moon was a shimmering white ball. Casting extra light as the snow continued to fall. It was deep now. An easy foot deep, but this never stopped the dancer or the music. Neither did it persuade Ellie to close the door and return inside.

When her visitor first came, Ellie watched from her bedroom window. She would look at the fences surrounding her garden and her neighbours’ gardens, wondering how the woman, who could be no more than eighteen, found her way into her garden. After her third visit she went down to the garden to confront the interloper. To tell her to move on and never to come back or she would call the police.

The dancer had ignored her. She had continued to dance. The music had been louder, and Ellie had looked around the garden. Looking for where the music could be coming from. But there was no CD player or iPod to be seen. Ellie had approached her. Moved in closer and called out to her.

“Hey, you. What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

The dancer continued to dance, and Ellie found herself swaying to the music. There had been something about her that drew Ellie. A peace had come over her. Ellie had no recall on how long she watched her. But when the dancer faded from sight, she vowed never to drink again

.
It was three days before Ellie took another drink, and when nothing happened in the garden, she knew it was not the wine inducing a hallucination. It was as she listened to Joel and Cole argue, she realised they were not stressing her out. Each night she stood at her window, waiting for the dancer to return. It would be the next full moon before she visited again. Only this time, she came the second night, and the third night of the full moon.
That was when Ellie took an interest in her garden. She bought the string lights and attached them to the fence. When the next full moon came, she waited to see if her visitor called again, and she had. From that night, she always sent the boys to their father’s when the moon was full. School night or not, they went. Ellie usually sent May to her mother’s, but this weekend she had been invited to tea at Kate’s. She looked at the snow. The times May had been home on the full moon, she had slept. If she saw the dancer, she never said a word to Ellie.

Ellie tried to find out who the dancer could be. She asked her neighbours about previous tenants and owners. But no-one knew of anyone dying at the house in the last fifty years. Mrs Henderson at no eleven had lived on the street for that long. If someone had died there, it had been long before she moved in. She visited the library and the churchyard looking for clues. For a piece of paper to tell her who the woman was, but nothing came of it.

The music was raising to a crescendo and the woman’s body moved in time with the orchestra. Then it was slowing down. The dance was coming to an end. The woman turned to Ellie, she smiled, and Ellie smiled back as she stepped onto the snow-covered grass. The snow crunched under her bare feet, but Ellie had no cares. The music filled her body as she accepted the dancer’s hand and joined her. She was free. As her body swayed and twirled with the dancer, Ellie danced and danced. The snow crunching beneath her feet. The white garden covered in her footprints. The bottom of her pyjamas soaked from the snow did not hinder her as she danced.
As the music faded, Ellie stepped away from the dancer. The evening was over. But she would be back tomorrow, and Ellie would be waiting for her.

©W B Aodh 2024

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