CHAPTER THREE

 Luisa’s thoughts about the strange stone were interrupted with the crunch of car tyres on gravel. She brushed the dirt from her hands, took hold of Max’s hand and walked back to the front of the house. Getting out of a maroon Ford transit van was her uncle Hugh. 

Hugh was a burly man, with a sun-creased face, messy brown hair, a slightly bulbous nose and a disarming smile.  His twinkling brown eyes were full of easy Welsh charm. He was wearing battered light denim jeans and a rough blue knit jumper, tight round his beer-endowed belly and pulled up at the sleeves exposing two inky tattoos on each forearm. Whereas his mother and sister had no Welsh twang, Hugh possessed a strong Welsh accent.

As sometimes happens in families, he was the total opposite of both his mum and sister. With Hugh the extent was such that if there were not irrefutable photographic and biological evidence, one would make the case that he must belong to a different family altogether. Like many Welsh people he would say bach often, pronounced with the ‘-ch’ at the back of the throat like the Scottish word ‘loch’.  It meant little one in Welsh. He waved at Luisa,

 “Ooh iyaah bach! My! Ain’t you gettin’ all big!”

“Hello” Luisa smiled, and her uncle Hugh gave her a big hug.

He saw Max and, crouching down he cried,

“Ohhh my goodness! Look who it is there! If it isn’t Max ultimate super-boy hero come to visit us!”

Max giggled happily, “Haha I’m not a super hero!”

“Oh your not?” said Hugh, “you wouldn’t happen to be ‘Max, the slayer of evil dragons’ would you?” 

Max nodded, rubbed his tummy and giggled at the stranger in the free and happy way of children of his age.

“I’m Hugh,” said Hugh standing up saluting, “I’m your mum’s brother, your nana’s son and your uncle! Do you know how to do high-fives?”  Max beamed.  This was a man he could get on with.

Luisa’s mum and grandmother came out while Max was repeatedly smashing high-fives into his uncle’s rough palm.

“Maximus!” her grandmother snapped, “Are you planning to assault every member of your family you come in contact with?”

 The family turned in to the house.  With Hugh's presence it was like a great weight was lifted. They sat in the lounge and he played with Max, winked at Luisa and teased his mother and sister good naturedly.  Even Luisa’s grandmother couldn’t maintain her seriousness, and snorted a chuckle at Hugh's antics before composing herself and chiding his stupidity.

 Luisa’s mother and grandmother left the lounge to go and prepare dinner.  Hugh was sat down on the sofa, arms stretched back behind his head, with his blue jumper riding up and showing some of his belly.  Max was sorting through his box of toys with quiet dedication. 

“Hugh.” Luisa said seriously. She had decided her uncle would be a good person to confide in about her discovery in the abbey.

“I found this weird stone under the grass in the abbey, and it was like... warm.” 

“Well it is a warm day bach.” Hugh said, scratching his head and picking up a newspaper from the side. 

“No Hugh... it was really weird, it was like it was heated up, do you know what I mean? The stone was warmer than outside.” 

Hugh looked at her over the paper,

“Tell you what, you help me wash up after dinner an’ I’ll give you the guided tour of the abbey.   Then you can show me this stone thingy ok?  But we are not spending too long out there!” he pointed at her in mock sternness. “That place gives me the creeps!” 

 After a wonderful dinner Luisa and Hugh were washing up the final plate when Luisa broached Hugh about the subject that had been on her mind the whole time. 

“So Uncle Hugh,” she said, “you said you would show me round the abbey?”

“Ah bach, so I did,” Hugh replied, with a little huff, he leaned forward and looked out the window, it was not long after the longest day of the year and although it was late there was still plenty of light.  He threw the tea towel over his shoulder.

“Come on then bach... follow me.”

 They trudged through the path leading to the Abbey.  In the fading light the bleached walls looked even more majestic, the huge tree reached out from the centre. The place felt peaceful and calming.

“It must have been amazing growing up here” Luisa said absentmindedly. Hugh looked at her puzzled,

“Yeah, it was... for about a day. Bloody boring as ’ell.  Nothing to do, my ma’ down my throat twenty-four bloody seven, Hugh!” he impersonated her clipped tones “Learn your grammar, speak properly! Do this, do that! No bloody thanks bach, I was off, had a motorbike hid down the hill, used to have a propa’ good time on that!” He winked at Luisa, “yeah, that’s what being a young ‘un is all about, go down the pub, meet up with the girls, have a laugh.” He looked thoughtfully at the abbey’s walls. “Ma’s got a wee better now since some time has passed since it all happened, god, back when I were growen’ up, she were proper bloody mental.”  He leant back on the massive tree. 

“Since what happened?” said Luisa, looking up at Hugh quizzically.

“Ah,” Hugh swept his hand through his ruffled brown hair, and looked down uncomfortably.  “God I don’t half faff on, Ah-ha! Here is what I wanted to show you.”  He gestured to the circular walls.  “So, a bit about what I know, first off, these round walls in here, well these are really old, no one knows who actually built ’em or when, but we think that were built in the time of the Welsh King Cadwaladar, back in 600AD, but what we do know that this building was the under special protection by the famous Llywelyn the Great, which is why it was never destroyed.” 

Luisa looked at him blankly.

Hugh looked exasperated,

 “Lleywelyn the Great? Ring any bells?”

Luisa pulled her mouth in a downward smile and shook her head. 

“Bloody hell, English schools! Good ‘fer nothing, jus’ typical! Well, he were a Prince an’ ruler, an’ all out hero that protected us against the English in the 12th century. The English kept trying to take over and destroy Wales.  Loads of battles. Anyway, the coolest thing about this place is this ...let me show you, if I can find the first one, behind all this bloody ivy.” 

Hugh reached up, and with all his weight pulled at a large piece of ivy, after a hefty tug it broke away.

“As I was saying the coolest thing... is this.”  There was nothing there.  Luisa looked, there was just a large white blank stone, much like the rest.

“Wait for it...” said Hugh.

Luisa took several steps back and craned her neck up.  What the ivy had obstructed was the fact that making up a large part of the inner wall was a monolithic piece of stone, almost thirty feet in height, and twelve feet across. It was all one huge single slab. So large that she had to step back to see it. 

“Oh... my god” whispered Luisa.

 “Right en!  Hugh said, “He ain’t the only one, check this out,” he skipped ahead, “There’s an another ‘ere,” he said, Luisa followed and saw another giant stone making up part of the wall. “And another, ‘ere,” Hugh was running now, patting the stones, some slightly visible, others completely claimed by the ivy, Luisa jogged after him, “then there is one there, there, over there, and there!”

  He made it back to the tree out of breath. Luisa trotted over, also perspiring in the late evening heat.  Now she could see the stones she realized that they were in the centre of an ancient stone circle. 

“But where do they come from?”

“Bugger knows.” wiping his face with the tea cloth, “What I reckon is that someone had ‘em standing here long before anything.  The buggers used ‘em as a kind of foundation for the chapel.” He flapped his arm out at the abbey walls in the fading light but I tell you wha’ I really can’t get my head around” he gestured towards the car.  “Who took ‘em up the bloody hill? That’s a pretty steep incline, even in a car, an’ these bastards must weigh a hundred tons each! Just imagine that... how did they do that, thousands of years ago, and why? Urrgh,” he shivered, “gives me the bloody willies, that does.”

 Luisa shook her head in amazement, looking up at the giant stones. 

“But how come this isn’t all famous?” she asked. 

“Haha,” Hugh looked at her and winked, “one guess.” He pointed a thumb in the direction of the house “What do you think ’er in there would say to a bunch ’o bloody random people turning up, sniffin’ round, with their hocus pocus! Prayin’ at sunrise and doing god-knows what else!  And if you think ya’ nana’s bad, now you should’a met my nana, phew blimey, it were a good day when she passed on, god bless her.”

  Luisa sat for a while taking in what her uncle had said. Her mind whirred. Her grandmother had been right, this place really was ancient. 

“Can I show you what I found Uncle Hugh?”

“Oh yeah,” said Hugh standing up, “come let me see bach.”

They walked over to the piece of ancient rubble in the centre of the stone circle. Luisa crouched down to it. 

“Well, I just noticed this pattern of stones in this bit of ruin down here,” she said.  Hugh looked at it. 

“Oh Luisa, good spot that, very good spot I’d ’a never seen that in a million years.”  He seemed animated, 

“So originally, this old bit here was a huge circular room, now this little part here is right in the centre, probably used to hold up the floor, so actually… Under this would have been hidden.  This could be important.”

Luisa smiled and with a feeling of butterflies went to her hands and knees and pulled back the clump of grass she had disturbed before. She put her hand against the dark stone below, it was definitely warm. It made her hand tingle a little. She gestured her uncle to do the same.

“Bloody hell Luisa!” he said, “that is... well that is bizarre!” He pulled another large lump of grass up, and another so two foot of the black sheen rock was exposed. 

“Look its got an edge here” he said, “an it curves round, like a big circle, ah, can’t quite get my fingers under it.”

He sat down looking at the puzzle before him.  His face reacted with a eureka moment.

“Got it!” he said.  “Luisa, I bet you ten beers, that under that stone of yours, there is a natural hot spring jus’ like Taff's Well near Cardiff.  It’s probably been there the whole bloody time, bubbling away, for thousands of years.  Maybe even the reason why they dragged the big ‘uns up ere in the first place!” he winked at her “I bet they used it for ancient Celtic rituals, drenched gorgeous maidens, maybe even King Cadwaladar washed his goonies in here!” he chuckled to himself. 

Luisa looked at him unconvinced.

“I don’t know,” she said, pressing her hand down on the dark stone.  Her uncle looked at her thoughtfully then his face creased into a smile.

“Luisa, I’ll tell you what, never mind me and my bloody theories, let’s get a professional here.  I know a man down the pub, he works at Aberystwyth University, he does archaeology an’ trips all round the world. John Grattan is his name, Professor John Grattan I’ll have you, he is a good lad.  I’ll tell him about this and we’ll sort out a time, when the old girl is out. A Sunday… she never misses her church.” he nodded his head towards the stones “We’ll get ’im here and he can take a look. It’s about time we had a professional to check this place out.”

 Luisa smiled and nodded, a real professor! If anyone could explain this it would be him. 

“Thanks Uncle Hugh,” she said, “that would be pretty cool.” 

“Right ‘en,” Hugh ruffled her hair, “you better be getting to bed miss.”

He looked up, the light was fading, but the moon was already in the sky, ready to go to work.

“If you'll even be able to sleep in this that is, full moon tonight Luisa, it'll be bright as day out here!”

With that they turned towards the house, and Luisa started to think that perhaps her summer would not be so terribly boring after all. 

Once in bed Luisa tried to get comfortable, as she leant over to switch off the bedside light, she saw a something scratched into the nightstand.  She leant forward. Scratched into the side of bed stand was a name,

 ‘Anne.’ 

Luisa shivered, who had scratched this name into the bedside table? Her mum’s name was Catherine and her uncle was Hugh... who the heck was Anne? She fumbled with the old woven cord and clicked off the light.

Luisa was used to just a duvet and was too hot swaddled in antique blankets.  She kicked about. The pillow felt lumpy too, she plumped it up and laid her head on it again, still lumpy.  She turned and looked up at the ceiling and sighed.  She eventually fell into the fitful state between sleep and waking when she heard a noise by her window. Again. She sat up, holding her breath. Something was outside her window.  She pushed back the covers and slowly crept to the arched window. Her mouth felt dry as she pulled back the curtain. Nothing. She pulled down on one of the double handles that sat in the centre of the window. She gave it a hard tug and the window gave way and swung open.  Outside the abbey looked beautiful. She saw movement, a white cat darted across the lawn.

Luisa snuck downstairs and took the big key off the hook in kitchen and fiddled with the door lock.  It opened into the cool night with a light creak, Luisa stepped out into the garden.

She caught sight of the cat padding confidently into the abbey and decided to follow. In the moonlight the abbey looked even more majestic, the white stones lit from the darkness. Wet by the grass her feet had begun to chill a little in the night air.  Luisa smiled to herself, she knew what would warm them. She felt calm as her pale little feet worked their way through the ruin. She was now in the centre of the abbey, the branches of the old tree sent the moonlight down in shards, creating moving shadows on her small pyjama clad figure. The monolithic stones surrounded her.

She could see just ahead to the centre of the ring where Hugh had pulled back the grass from the warm stone. She stepped over to land both her feet onto its smooth black surface.  She closed her eyes as its warmth rekindled the life to her bare feet with a tingling sensation. When she opened them she noticed something else, around the outline of her feet was a pale blue glow, she looked closer and saw the glow continue and slowly brighten, she squinted down, was it a trick of the light?  It was now quite clear, she could see a full outline of her feet, the stone was glowing!  She went to look up to see if it was some trick of the moon, but as she lifted her head, any solid substance she was standing on vanished and she fell through the stone.

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