Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Chapter 18.2 - January 2024: part II – The graveyard, mystical stones and voices of the past (and present).

 
..and as always, Ranveig stood outside watching until the van was completely out of sight, before turning around to head inside and watch tv.
 

 

Looks like she has found a new favourite channel this time. Has she finally given up on love? Could be... or maybe she was just trying to learn a new recipe before making dinner..


Cooking had over the years seemed mostly like a chore, something she had to do in between everything else to keep her kids fed, but now as they were getting older and more independent she was perhaps starting to enjoy it a little and even felt a little inspired to experiment with some new ingredients...

 

She had heard about the death fish and that supposedly one could be caught at the graveyard.. and she was starting to wonder if it could be used as an ingredient in food.. it wouldn't hurt to try, but first she would need to catch one, of course...

 

..but you can't catch a fish without bait (probably not), so before doing so she needed to take a trip to the grocery store to buy a random assortment of fruits and vegetables for experimental purposes to begin with.. The death fish is a bit of a mystery, and she didn't know excactly what baits would get it hooked and what wouldn't..



..after completing his homework Robert wasn't done with the lettes, books and food for thought and wanted to improve his logic skills, so he got a taxi (oh, how much better it would have been if only he was old enough to get a drivers license and drive a car..) to head for the book store..

 

..or at the very least borrowing his moms trusted old purple pick up truck, but alas that's still 4 years and two months into the future...


..so while Ranveig drove up towards the graveyard to catch some fish, Robert headed over to the park to read through his book.. nothing beats spending some time outdoors to breathe in some clean fresh air, and if it can be done while simultaneously expanding ones brain that's a double win..

 

From her fishing spot at the graveyard Ranveig has a good view up towards the Goth Manor, now only inhabited by Mortimer, the only child of Gunther and Kornelia (both deceased from old age). Ranveig has no relation to the Goths, but everyone in town knows about the Goth family and their house as it sits on top of the hill eerily overlooking the graveyard...
    Anyone that would marry Mortimer would definately marry rich, and though Mortimer is around the same age as Ranveig, she always found him to be a little odd and their house was always a little to spooky for her to be comfortable paying them a visit... with everything else she had to deal with, paying a visit to a house that was rumoured to be haunted and then some just wasn't something she was into.. well, that and marrying rich wasn't something she cared about.. She was never in it for the money.


This was an area of town that had appeared closed off to her, one that she hadn't been able to visit, but ever since she started taking medications, more of the world had opened up and she had come to realize that the graveyard was actually quite nice and peaceful.. life in general had become quite peaceful, no whispering voices to haunt her... well, atleast as long as the sun was still high in the sky..



...not trickery from anyone, except for maybe the fish themselves.. did they bite, or where they just eating up the bait?

...well, if it was anything she had learnt from her struggles and making it as a chess champion, it was to remain patient and to not give up.. she had plenty of bait, and she wasn't going to let some simple fish gain victory over her..

 

..but trying her luck from a different position probably wouldn't hurt.. when your fist strategy doesn't work...

 

As darkness began to fall some of her relatives had decided to take the trip up to visit the graveyard. Her brother Knut had gone up there with his sons Anton (who will turn 6 and start school later this summer) and Bjørn-Yngve meeting up with a new kid from his school.
    Knut is like Ranveig used to be, pretty terrified of hanging out in this part of town, but didn't want to appear to be a chicken to especially his oldest son Bjørn-Yngve.. but it was difficult to hide as he could swear he was already hearing voices coming from the trees, from the pond and most certainly from the graves themselves..


Anton however wasn't the least bit scared, and his young curious mind was soaking up as much as he could from this place, and it was him that spotted a faint blue light glowing from the far reaches of the graveyard..
    "Daddy, what's that?"he asked and wondered if they could go over to have a look.. As Knut expected it was a meteorite that had crashed down. Anton wanted them to collect it, but Knut was wary... he still remembers the gigantic space rock that crashed into their backyard shortly after he started school... and he didn't want something like that in their house..



That's when the voices started talking, and he blamed it all on that rock.. he never liked how his mom wanted to keep it, and place it on a balcony just by their bedrooms... even if this rock was much smaller, and probably very valuable, he was not picking it up and taking it back home..

Ranveig and Knuts mother Eirin admiring the space rock, from Chapter 14.3 - December 2022 part IV: Painting on the wall..

 

After it had started raining Robert had retreated to the library to complete the logic skill book and continue reading various works of fiction to get inspiration to finish his romance novel and other future writing endeavours.. Other readers found at the library were Ethan Bunch, a local police man, and Kleopatra Motorsen-Karlsen, another of the towns teenagers and Oliver Freddys cousin.


Darkness continued to fall and after a good while of fishing Ranveig caught her first fish for the evening, a kissing gouramis. Not sure if she wanted to use it as bait or not, she decided to stick it in her pocket for now. She still had plenty of fruits and vegetables to experiment with, and besides.. the kissing gouramis was kind of cute...

 

..and it looks like Bjørn-Yngves new friend was starting to think the same of him, as she was now handing him flowers which he happily accepted.. 



She did so repeatedly, until he thought that this was his opportunity to go for a kiss, in the rain, at the graveyard, in the distant light from the lighthouse.. the perfect romantic setting... but nope.. not yet..

 

Ranveig was luckier though, getting her biggest (non-human) catch yet. A gigantic frog, of all things.. maybe that would be a good bait for the death fish...

 

Bjørn-Yngve wasn't going to give up either, and had switched to give her flowers, hoping it would be the perfect bait.. but again he had no luck there as she didn't want to bite..

 

..or maybe she did. Kids not knowing what they want to do, because a little while later she tried to go for the kiss, but after having been rejected by her, Bjørn-Yngve chose to reject her in return!


It looked like nobody was going to get what they really wanted this evening. Anton still hadn't convinced his dad to pick up the shiny gemstone to bring it home and Ranveig hadn't caught a death fish yet, and was getting tired so she gave up for now to go home and rest.



It didn't look like it was going to well between Bjørn-Yngve and the new teenager in town Sonja when Ranveig left, but what's going to happen between them is still out in the open, so we'll just have to wait and see..


The kissing gouramis was a keeper, unlike the frog which was a little to grimy and probably better suited as bait. So after Ranveig came home she put the kissing gouramis inside a fish bowl and named it Mari-Ann.


The fish looked good on the small table in the kitchen, but the rest of the house.. well, it has always been a little.. run down.. It's not that she hadn't noticed it before, but with everything that had been going on in her life up until recently, she just hadn't found the time or the resources, financially and otherwise, to do something about it... but now that the voices had finally subsided and eventually gone away completely, she started to see the house more for what it really was... a trashy, rundown shack... maybe it was time to do some serious renovation.. or atleast give the walls a coat of paint.. and perhaps buy some new and better furniture to go with it...



When Robert at last returned from the library he was to tired to do anything but go to sleep, however someone on the other side of town was still awake and decided to wake him up with a phone call...


Kristina Reppe, Inges sister, called him to ask him to go to the upcoming school ball... knowing very well that he was in a relationship with Margrethe, so his date was already set.. and to make matters worse, she too was in a relationship with Lise Veronica... and he had absolutely no interest in Kristina in that way, and he certainly wouldn't want to go behind his girlfriends back like that, with someone that was already taken, too! The nerve she had to even call him and ask him out like that.. he quickly told her "no" and went back to sleep..

 

Downstairs Ranveig made sure to feed Mari-Ann before going to bed as well, not being interrupted by any phone calls or anyone asking her anything from anywhere.. she hadn't been asked out on a date since forever, or so it seemed..

 

..going to bed alone was the norm in this house, and that's just how it was.... good night. ;)

 

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