Oh, Lordy, Miss Veronica!

I lowered my book a fraction and surreptitiously watched Mildred as she sat at her computer; her eyes squinted, and her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth in earnest concentration. She flicked away a wisp of her auburn curls that kept falling over her eyes before leaning closer to the screen. A hiss escaped as she sucked in a deep breath. 

      ‘Oh, Lordy,’ she declared, throwing her hands in the air as if to surrender to the computer.  ‘I give up! I’ll have t’ get Ann t’ help me again. I can’t make head nor tails of this thing.’
 
It was five years ago that Mildred ‘came back from the dead’ and resumed her life with us. Ann and Michael now called her Aunty, even though they knew right away it was their nana who had walked in through the front door after we returned from her ‘funeral’. They both ran over and threw their arms about her waist and laughed, their pleasure at seeing her obvious. There had been no questions as to how, and no doubt in their young minds as to who she was. 

     When Ann told us later that Mildred had visited them just after she’d died, and that she’d told them she would soon be back with them, I was gobsmacked! How had they managed to keep the secret from me?

     It all began to make sense now that I had learned why the children hadn’t been upset. We’d told them, as gently as we could, that their beloved nana had gone to Heaven. They'd known all along they would see her again! 

     Poor James. He was the one who’d had the biggest shock. I was used to strange things happening, as well as seeing ghosts. I’d even helped people who were alive before I was born! James only knew of these things through me describing my trips into the past, so to actually see Mildred walk back from her own grave, alive and looking so much younger, had totally thrown him.

      We’d sat talking for hours that night after the children had been put to bed, trying to find out how it was possible. ‘I dunno for sure, but somehow I wasn’t at all surprised,’ Mildred had told us with her brows knitted together as she thought about it. ‘It’s as if I knew it were goin’ to happen, and when I found meself standin’ behind you in the cemetery, it felt right … but I didn’t know how I knew … Oh, Lordy, that don’t make no sense at all. All I do know is, I died, yet here I am, and I’m still me! A bit younger, though,’ she added with a smile.
    
     ‘And you look good, too. You said we would be working together now … that I wouldn’t be on my own if I’m called back to the past again. What did you mean?’
     
     Mildred leaned forward, rested her elbows on her knees, and cupped her chin in her hands. ‘I did, didn’t I?’ She closed her eyes for a moment. ‘I should remember, but it’s all going hazy now.’
    ‘Don’t worry about it,’ I told her. ‘We have you back with us, and I’m just thanking God for that’
     I’d almost been right when I’d guessed her age to be around thirty. She told us she was twenty-eight, two years younger than me. That I found to be really weird. After being years younger than her, to suddenly become the elder, well, it took some getting used to.
 

Now, five years later, she decided she’d like her own computer after seeing the one that James had bought us all. This, from the woman who at one time, in her previous life, wouldn’t entertain having a dishwasher because she considered them useless contraptions!

     ‘Come and have a cup of tea,’ I suggested. ‘Ann will be back from her piano lesson in half an hour, so you can have a chat then.’ I smiled as she threw her head back in frustration. It was no good her asking for my help as I was even worse. I hadn’t a clue how to use a computer, and my knowledge was limited to turning it on. ‘I’ve an idea, though. How about we both enrol for a course on computing at the local college. I’m sure they do further education classes for adults.’

     Mildred looked across at me and beamed. She stood up, after she’d turned the computer off, and tucked her chair up to the table. ‘I like that idea. It’s strange, but I don’t even remember goin’ t’ school.’ 

     ‘I recall you mentioning your school-friend once after Ann had been upset one day. So, you must have gone to school at some point.’

     ‘Mmm, it’s possible, I’m just not remembering that life … yet I remember my whole life with you.’ She looked at me, then smiled and shrugged. ‘So long as your friends, the ‘powers that be’, let me keep those memories, who cares about the rest?’ 
    
‘The powers that be’. Goodness, that goes back a while now. It’s been five years since I’ve done any time travelling, so I presume I’m not needed any more.’  
    
     We’d finished our tea and had cleared away our cups just as Ann came through the kitchen door.  ‘I’m starving!’ she said, plonking her satchel on the kitchen table. ‘Can I have a cake?’ Not waiting for an answer, she went straight over to the tin that held Mildred’s delicious home-made buns.

     ‘You’ll not eat your dinner,’ I told her, taking the tin lid from her and replacing it. 

     ‘Aw, come on, pleeease, Mum,’ she whined. ‘I’ll eat my dinner as well, promise!’ She looked from me to Mildred, hoping to get the thumbs up. ‘I missed lunch at school today,’ she wheedled, ‘because I wanted to use the music room to practice that piece before my lesson.’ 
     
     I frowned. She knew I didn’t like her missing meals. It wasn’t good for a growing ten-year-old girl, and I told her so, too. I couldn’t fault her for her dedication. Music was her passion and she would happily practice every evening after dinner for an hour … longer if we let her. We certainly enjoyed listening to her because it seemed to come so naturally.
 
     I was about to say something else, when Michael came dashing in. His school tie lop-sided, his blazer tied around his waist like a bit of old rag, and his hair looking like he’d been dragged through our blackberry bush. Typical eight-year-old! ‘Oow, cakes! Yes, please. I’ll have one, too.’ Ann looked at me as she sidled up to Michael to create a united front. 
 
    ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake! Just one, then. I don’t know why I always give into you both.’ I took the lid back off the tin and, keeping hold of it, watched as they both took a cake each. ‘If you don’t eat your dinners, there will be no pudding—and I mean it!’ I scowled at them, and that only made them grin more.

     ‘When you’ve finished, you can get changed—and make sure you hang that blazer up, young man! Ann, I think your aunty wants a word with you when you come down.’ 

     Mildred grinned after they’d both left the room to put their things away. ‘Well, that told ‘em!’
 
James came home early, which was a pleasant change. The hospital had new management, and it had meant a lot more work for all the medical staff. The extra stress it put on James had worried me. I hated seeing the shadows around his eyes. Today, though, he looked relaxed as he sauntered into the sitting room after showering and changing into his t-shirt and jeans. He still managed to make my tummy flutter when he smiled at me.

     ‘Dinner won’t be for a while,’ I told him, reaching up to drop a peck on his cheek. ‘Do you want anything?’ 

     ‘No, just this…’ He grabbed me by the waist and pulled me close. The tingling sensation I get when his lips touch mine, always leaves me breathless.
 
      ‘Well, if that’s all you want,’ I gasped. ‘There’s plenty more going free,’ I said, lifting my face for more of the same. He chuckled, and then our lips met.
 
     ‘Not again!’ Ann’s groan broke us apart, both grinning like a couple of kids caught in the act.
 
     Later, after our meal, James took a ball into the garden for a kick around with Michael while Ann went to practice her newest piece of sheet music. Mildred and I sat back on the garden bench and listened to the music as it drifted out the open sitting room window.
 
     ‘She’s a natural,’ Mildred said dreamily. ‘I could listen to her playin’ all day.’
 
     ‘Mmm, me too….’
 

‘Here, help me with this, will you?’
 
     Startled, I turned around and found myself facing a young woman, her hands thrusting a pole with a banner attached towards me.
 
     ‘Sorry, but who are you?’ I shook my head, trying to make sense of the scene that had replaced the tranquil ambiance Mildred and I had enjoyed while sitting in our cottage garden in 1996.

     ‘I said, will you help me with this while I tie my boot laces up.' And with that, she pushed the pole into my hands.

     ‘Oh, Lordy, Miss Veronica! Where are we?’ Mildred asked when she moved over to stand next to me. 

     At the same time the woman knelt down, my breath caught violently at the back of my throat as my eyes tried desperately to understand what they were seeing.
 
     Mildred’s hand tightened on my arm as we found ourselves confronted with a road heaving with women dressed in long skirts. Stranger still, they all were waving banners demanding the right for women to vote….


 
 
Continued....