Daisy Madigan's Paradise (5 page)

'You have?'
she asked, surprised. 'I don't get it?'

'Maybe you
have to be in a special state of mind. You know, in the hospital,
you were pretty upset. Maybe that's what brought it on,' he
suggested.

'Maybe.'

'Why are you
so worried about it? Do you want to see more ghosts?'

'Yes,' she
laughed.

'Really?' he
asked, his face askew.

She nodded,
'Mum told me I was special. She said something big was going to
happen to me... and I think maybe it's got something to do with
ghosts.'

'Don't you
think it's got something to do with your tattoo? And the fact that
you can run really, really fast?'

'I can?' she
asked, not realising it herself.

'You didn't
realise?'

'Not really,'
she said, shaking her head.

Jack threw his
head backwards and let out a deep laugh, 'Oh Daisy... you make me
laugh. You can run faster than anyone I've ever seen in my entire,
short, life. You can sing like... like, well, like an angel and you
have this weird tattoo that just appeared on your back. Clearly you
ARE special in more ways than one. Did you never realise any of
this?'

Daisy tried to
make sense of what he was saying.

'You really
think I can sing? And run fast?' she asked and he laughed
again.

'Yes...
seriously! And, you're not going to like what I'm going to say,
but... your dad is the one person who can tell you the truth.'

'Bah,' she
said turning to look away from him as she crouched down and rubbed
the dirt from a headless angel statue. 'Let's not talk about my
dad.'

Jack raised
his eyebrows, 'You might not want to talk about him but he's the
only one who can answer your questions, Daisy.'

She sighed, 'I
know, Jack, I know.'

'Okay so
you're not ready to go and find him yet. But you will be... at some
point.'

She turned and
stuck out her tongue before smiling, 'yeah, I know.'

'Come on,
let's sit and sing something,' he suggested holding out his hand as
if she could hold it. She responded by holding out her own and they
pretended to hold each others with a smile as he led her to the
sleeping lion where they sat beneath it. There they opened their
mouths and began to sing the Coldplay song that suited Daisy, the
song she had been singing the first time he had ever heard that
exquisite voice of hers...

'When she was
just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach so
She ran away in her sleep
And dreamed of
Para-para-paradise, Para-para-paradise, Para-para-paradise
Every time she closed her eyes
When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
And the bullets catch in her teeth
Life goes on, it gets so heavy
The wheel breaks the butterfly
Every tear a waterfall
In the night the stormy night she'll close her eyes
In the night the stormy night away she'd fly

And dreams
of
Para-para-paradise
Para-para-paradise.....

Daisy was so
captivated by the moment that she didn't even notice several dog
walkers had stopped to listen. A middle aged man, and two young
women all stood, entranced by the girl's beautiful voice. They
didn't hear Jack's, of course. All they saw was a teenage girl with
a mass of red hair, sitting beneath a lion singing a song. But it
was almost as if they were in a trance, brought on by her voice.
When the song finally came to an end, the three of them just stood
watching her. Soon snapping out of it, they all clapped loudly,
making Daisy open her eyes suddenly and jump upwards in shock.

'Wow, that was
absolutely amazing,' said one of the two girls as she turned to
go.

'You really
ought to sign up for the X factor,' said the other, 'You'd surely
win with a voice like that,' she smiled before walking away.

The man just
smiled at her, tipped his hat and walked on. All three dogs glad to
finally be able to continue their morning walks.

CHAPTER
10

It was
Christmas day, it was snowing and yet, bizarrely, Daisy didn't feel
the cold.

Jack had
discovered a secret place within the cemetery for them to sleep at
night, a place protected from the elements and from any strangers
that wandered through the park.

The catacombs
beneath the War Memorial weren't creepy, not to her or Jack anyway.
It was like her new home. She felt incredibly safe down there,
especially with Jack to keep her company.

He'd found it
by following a ghost who wandered down there one day. Although the
main entrance to the catacombs had been closed up, the ghost had
led him to a secret passageway. The moment he'd entered it, he'd
known that Daisy would love it down there. She'd feel safe and that
was all that mattered to him now.

Daisy had collected a number of old candles that she'd found
in the back of the old corner shop. Shariq had let her keep them,
so she'd taken them back to the catacombs, where she'd kept them
for a special occasion.
One like
today,
she thought.

Lighting them,
Daisy then opened the bag that Balvinder had given her and took out
the food that had been so carefully prepared by the old woman.

Aromas of
spices filled the room and Daisy smiled as she began to tuck
in.

'I wish you
could taste this, Jack,' she said as he just sat and watched her
eat with a smile on his face.

'Yeah, I know.
I do miss it... food, that is.'

'I'm sorry
Jack.'

'What
for?'

'It's
Christmas Day and you're stuck down here with me. Don't you want to
leave? You must miss your parents?'

'Of course I
miss them but... I'll have an eternity with them when I cross over.
I just don't want to... not yet anyway.'

'Would you
know what to do when the time comes? I mean, is there a light or
something?' she asked.

Jack turned to
look over his shoulder with a smile, 'yeah, it's there, always
there right behind me.'

'Sometimes I
wish I could cross over with you,' she admitted without even
thinking about it.

'No Daisy,' he
scolded. 'Don't you dare think like that.'

Daisy looked
up at him suddenly, her face reddening.

'You have your
whole life to look forward to. Don't even think about... about
dying yet. It's not your time.'

'Sorry,' she
whispered.

'It's okay,'
he whispered back before he glided upwards with a giggle as he
suddenly started to sing,

'Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way.... oh what fun....'

Daisy began to
giggle before she started to sing along with him.

Soon, another
voice could be heard. At first Daisy was so startled that she
quietened into silence, but the sound was so jolly and fun that she
carried on.

And then,
another voice joined in and another and another until it sounded
like a full choir singing Christmas Carols.

As the song
came to an end, Daisy laughed as the other voices cheered, but not
one showed themselves to her. So she began to sing another.

'On the
Twelfth Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me.....'

The voices
sang along with her, all full of joy and excitement, as if they
hadn't sang in such a long time.

As they sang
the last few words, Daisy stopped singing and just listened, hoping
that at least one of the ghosts might reveal themselves to her.

And sure
enough, one by one, she watched in delight as their forms began to
materialise in front of her. Soon, about twelve ghosts sat quietly
in a circle, all grinning from ear to ear.

'Hello dear,'
said a lady of about 40 with curly blonde hair pinned up in true
1920s style. She wore a beautiful pleated blue dress and blue
shoes. A trickle of dried blood stuck to the side of her face.

'H..hi,'
replied Daisy.

'We've been
watching you, you know?'

'Why... why
did you wait so long to show yourselves?'

The lady
smiled, 'we didn't want to frighten you,' she answered simply.

'Oh... okay.
What's your name?'

'I'm
Elizabeth. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Daisy,' she
smiled.

'It's nice to
meet you too.'

The other
ghosts introduced themselves. They included a man called Simon who
was about 30. He wore seventies style clothes and had a huge afro.
He also had a hole in his chest.

Terence was
around 60, his cheeky face was deathly pale and he was missing an
arm as well as his left ear. Charlotte was the youngest of the
group. She looked like a regular girl of about 18 or so and had
long wiry auburn hair that draped all the way down to her bottom.
Daisy had never seen anyone so thin. Her face was gaunt and pale
and her expression looked like she was going to sick. But she was
friendly... like all of them were.

'We've never
had anyone sing Christmas carols here before,' she whispered. 'Its
nice. It brings back memories of when I was alive,' she sighed.

Daisy was
desperate to know how these people died but she knew asking the
question this soon after meeting them might scare them off. It
might be a bit, you know, personal.

The group sat
chatting about Christmases gone by for a while, in between a good
old sing-song, but later on there seemed to be a heaviness in the
air. There was no reason for it, it just changed the ambience in
the catacombs. A slight breeze blew out the candles and when Daisy
went to re-light them, she noticed that everyone, except Jack, had
vanished.

'What
happened?' she whispered, a bit freaked out. 'Where did they
go?'

Jack shrugged
his shoulders but shivered at the same time.

'What was
that?' she asked.

Jack's
expression suddenly changed and the smiley boy she knew
disappeared.

Daisy felt a
shift in temperature and the hairs on the back of her neck
prickled. Shivering, she climbed back into her sleeping bag and
zipped it up tightly.

'Jack?' she
whispered. 'Jack... where are you?'

When he didn't
return or respond, Daisy pulled the cover over her head and closed
her eyes.

CHAPTER
11

Jack didn't
come back for three days. When he did eventually show himself,
something about him had changed. Daisy noticed it immediately.

'Jack? Where
the hell did you go? I've been worried sick,' she scolded as she
watched him float around the sleeping lion before he settled down
in front of her.

'Well?'

'Well
what?'

'Where have
you been?'

'I... I...
don't know.'

'What do you
mean you don't know?'

'I mean
exactly that... I don't know where I've been. The last thing I
remember was singing Christmas carols with you in the catacombs.
Why? I haven't been gone long... have I?' he asked.

'Long? You've
been gone for three days,' she almost shrieked angrily.

Jack looked
shocked.

'But... but,
it seemed like I was just there with you.'

'Yeah well,
you weren't. You left me, alone, for three whole days.'

Jack lifted
his face to look into her eyes, stroking his hand on her cheek.
'I... I'm sorry, Daisy. I don't know what happened.'

A tear fell
down her cheek as she realised something freaky was going on and
whatever it was, she was determined to get to the bottom of it.

'It's okay,
Jack. I'm sorry for freaking out. It wasn't your fault.'

'So you have
absolutely no memory since the catacombs?'

Jack shook his
head sullenly.

'What about
the others?'

'What
others?'

'The
ghosts.'

'What
ghosts?'

'You know,
Elizabeth, Terence, Charlotte, Simon and the others,' she
replied.

Jack laughed,
'I have no idea what you're talking about, Daisy. I've not met any
ghosts around here. You know that.'

Daisy squinted
at him, 'Jack, they introduced themselves to us the other day and
they sang carols with us. Don't you remember?'

Again he
laughed, 'You're so funny, Daisy. There was nobody with us. It was
just you and me, the candles and the songs.'

But Daisy
shook her head firmly, 'No Jack, you're wrong. What's happened to
you?'

Jack gulped,
suddenly realising that something had indeed happened to him. His
memory had all but disappeared.

'I'm surprised
you even know me,' she huffed.

'Of course I
know you!'

'How did we
meet?' she asked.

'That day in
the park... you were, um... you were...'

Daisy raised
her eyebrows.

'Drawing?'

'Um, yeah I
guess you were drawing.'

'What happened
to your house, Jack?'

'My house?
What house?'

'The house you
grew up in? The house you lived with your parents?'

'I don't know
what you're talking about. There's no house,' he chuckled
nervously.

'Jack... how
did you die?' she whispered.

'Die?' he
asked, a silly grin across his face, 'now I know you're messing
with me. I didn't die,' he laughed as he rolled backwards so he lay
on the ground across from her.

Daisy's eyes
opened wide. Jack had forgotten almost everything about his life.
The only thing he did know was her.

CHAPTER
12

The next few
days were tough. After Daisy had tried to explain to Jack what had
really happened, he'd gotten angry with her and disappeared
again.

She'd told him
about his mum and dad and the house fire... she'd even ventured out
of the park to show him the charred remains of their semi-detached
house, where he had lived all 17 years of his life. But he had no
idea. He acted like he'd never seen the place before and after a
few more hours of Daisy trying to drum it into his head, he'd
shouted at her to shut up and had walked away.