CHAPTER FIFTEEN
buried secrets

⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰

SOME DAYS, EFFIE feels that she is stuck in a time loop on top of purgatory — today is one of those days. Sandwiched between Mary on the settee with Julian perched next to them in the library, she tries to listen to Pat:

     "And seeing as nobody else has volunteered," he chirps, "I thought that this evening, before Film Club, I would give you all a little talk on... activity badges!"

The ghosts in the room let out a collective groan of misery. Effie, Julian, Mary, Thomas, Robin and even Humphrey all recite in exact unison the same talk they have heard for centuries (or more): "There are 37 badges you can collect. Badge number one, bivouacking!"

"Alright, clever dicks! But I'm sorry, I mean, if anyone else has anything new that they'd like to..."

Robin seizes the opportunity. "Ooh, ooh, I could do my talk on how to skin mammoth. You start at the end—"

"That's not new," Effie groans, "that's prehistoric."

Everyone starts bickering at once, offering up their different ideas. Pat is still vouching for activity badges, Thomas wants to read more of his poetry, Effie would rather recall the vaudeville scene from her youth and Julian... well, he would rattle on about anything as long as it was about himself. But suddenly through all of the noise slices a quiet, meek voice, announcing:

"— I'm ready to talk about the witch trial."

Effie feels a chill run down her spine, although more akin to an electric shock. She and the others ghosts stare at Mary, stunned. It is a widely-accepted rule that there is no pressure on any ghost to discuss the nature of their death. Mary is definitely an example of this more than anyone — everyone can make an educated guess at how gruesome her end was, after being convicted in a horrific witch trial. No one ever expected or needed her to open up. So this... is huge. But is she really ready?

"Witch trial..." Mary barely whispers again. "If– if it be of interest..."

"Oh! Oh, Mary," Pat says. "I mean... if you're sure. I mean, if you feel you're ready?"

"Well, I knows it's taken me a whiles to– to talk—"

"Only about 300 years," Julian snorts, shortly before receiving a clip around the back of the head from Effie.

"— But I– I think I'm ready," Mary concludes, fiddling with her soot-stained rags.

"Brillo pads! You okay?" Pat checks with her, just to be sure, and she nods. He gives her a thumbs up in solidarity. "Can't flipping wait! And we'll do that before Film Club."

"Well done, Mary," Effie pats her shoulder encouragingly. She wants to ensure she definitely seems alright with sharing her story. Mary certainly seems less nervous than usual. Normally, at the mention of fire or anything akin to a flame, she erupts into hysterics and runs away in a bolt of lightning. Mary is a gentle soul, and the last thing Effie would want is to stir things up unnecessarily with her. She tries giving her a strong, encouraging smile, to which she returns one only much shyer and uncertain.

Pat adjusts his glasses and gets back to the announcements. "So, Film Club! Now, I know it's not my turn to choose, but I would like to lobby hard... for Top Gun."

"Not again!" Thomas rolls his eyes.

"I don't know," Effie shrugs with a smirk, "I didn't mind that beach volleyball scene..."

Maybe she'll have to tell the Captain if they end up watching it again.

Julian, who is sat open-legged — to Effie's horror — next to the stack of DVDs, crouches further down to inspect them. "Well, I don't know about you Mary, but I quite like the look of, er... Chariots of Fire?" He pauses, awaiting her reaction. Mary makes little more than a muffled noise as she remains stoic. "No, actually, how about... Mississippi Burning? Towering Inferno?" To all of Julian's film suggestions, there is barely a peep from her. He leans back, impressed by her resilience. "Huh. Maybe she is ready."

"Could be the case. Anyway, it's my turn to choose this week," Thomas claims, rising on his feet, "so tish-tish-tish."

"I don't think so, mate!" Julian retorts. "It's mine."

"Faradiddle, sir! You had your turn two weeks ago. You swapped with me."

"No, no, I don't recall that. Even if I did, it would've been a verbal, non-binding agreement."

Sizing up to Julian, now on his feet too, Thomas puffs out his bullet-pierced chest. "You show me your thumb, sir? I would show you my glove, sir! If I had one..."

"I would give you a bunch of fives, mate! I used to box for Cambridge, y'know—"

"Here we go..." Effie mutters and rolls her eyes, watching in boredom from the sofa as the two men squabble. Eventually Pat tries to intervene, his voice creeping up to inconceivable pitches.

"Guys, guys, guys! S'il vous plait!" Pat exclaims, silencing them. He sneaks in an impressed smirk. "French... anyway, why don't we put it to the vote?"

"Oh, yeah, put it to the people," Julian snorts, "like they know what they're doing!"

"Hands up who thinks it's Thomas's turn!"

Every ghost in the room proceeds to raise their hand, except for Julian. "I've got my hand up," Humphrey's head adds. "Probably. Somewhere..."

"Hang on, not everyone's here!" Julian points out.

Pat sighs and drops his arms at his sides. "Well, where are they?"

The scout leader guiding the pack, they go searching Button House for signs of the other ghosts, or ideally Alison to be the dealbreaker in this debate. Although Effie highly doubts she will be impressed with such an interruption — a wedding planner is visiting Button House this morning, to see whether it is suitable for potential bookings. That man in the powder-blue suit had strolled past the library with complete excitement about the place, so surely it must be a good sign, mustn't it?

They, now along with Kitty, find Mike and Alison in the garden, the expression on the latter's face souring before the ghosts even reach her. Immediately they bombard her with complaints and demands, none of which seem relevant to her right now. Effie can see her impatience clear as day, so there is only one thing for it...

"OI! SHUT IT!" Effie suddenly hollers. To her surprise, everyone silences themselves. She grins to herself with pleasure. Better be careful she doesn't go power-crazy with that. "You were saying, Alison?"

     "Uh... yeah. Well, we're trying to get this wedding booking."

     "Oh, there's going to be a wedding? How wonderful!" Kitty cheers. "The dresses, the men, the kissing..."

     "But we need to clear this whole garden by four! We're never going to do it!" Alison despairs. Gesturing to the rest of the garden, Effie can see what she means — it looks rather like a bomb site. Brambles everywhere, scrap metal poking up between it, an old rusted bicycle tossed somewhere in there as well.

     "She's right, y'all have a lot of work to do," says a disembodied voice. Everyone turns to see Linda and Lloyd standing in the brambles, departed from their usual spot in the shed. Linda then smiles brightly at them. "Oh, and hi! Lloyd and I thought we'd step out for some fresh air. Alison, have you told Mike about our idea for a green roof on the shed? You left that magazine in with us a while ago, and that article was real inspiring!"

     "Yeah, sure, I'll let him know," she mutters tiredly.

     "I can help with the clean-up, Alison! Sort of, anyway," Pat suggests. "I'll be your wingman. You know, like Top Gun. I can be the Goose to your Maverick. I'll keep this lot occupied while you do what you have to do. And Goose dies in the film so... y'know, it works out, doesn't it?"

     "Thanks, Pat," Alison sighs.

     Behind her, Mike nods in affirmation to himself. "Yeah. Of course we can fit a marquee in. I mean, how hard can it be? They put a man on the moon."

     "What?" Robin looks flabbergasted. "Wha– what did he say? Er... man on moonah?"

     The caveman isn't the only one struck by this new fact. Effie and several other ghosts are dumbfounded to discover this information. Just when did Alison plan on telling them this?! Or is this all a practical joke of some sort?

     "Okay," Alison says to Mike, "I'll go get the tools, you check the measurements."

     Mike claps his gloved hands together. "Let's get redding red– wedding read—"

     "Wedding ready."

     "Let's get wedderi–"

     "It's wedding ready."

     "Let's do this!" Mike settles for, in the end.

     But Effie couldn't care less about Mike's tongue twisters, as she is rather more concerned about the fact that they put a man on the bloody moon. "Alison," Mary warbles, sounding very troubled, "what was the man doing up there on the moon?"

     "They went to... explore," she shrugs.

     "And how did he get there? Climb up a beanstalk, did he?" Thomas huffs. "You're dicked in the nob!"

     "When were you going to tell us this?" Effie cries. "I feel like a right old fool!"

     "So they finally did it? Aw, man," Lloyd sighs, hands on his hips, "and I never even got to see it..."

     Effie glares at him and seethes. "You knew about this moon excursion the whole time too?!"

     "I don't believe it," Robin throws his arms in the air. "No. No!"

     As the ghosts erupt into uproar about the revelation of the moon landing, only Julian, Pat and the American duo remain less fazed by it all. Alison leans in tiredly to Pat and pleads, "Now would be a really good moment to be a wingman."

     "Great! Okay everyone, let's turn and burn!" Pat announces, before cringing at Mary's recoiling. "Oh, sorry Mary. It's a quote from Top Gun... let's grab the computer that folds!"

A few minutes later, Alison has the ghosts huddled around her laptop in the living room, all incredulous to find out what this moon landing was all about. Effie has been told it happened in 1969 — for entertainment, she tries to imagine herself as an almost seventy year-old, in some futuristic world that was the 1960s, sitting with family and watching this event. It seems so strange.

"Think about it, Robin," Pat tries explaining to the caveman, "man has always looked up at the moon and thought—"

"Can you eat it?"

"No... can you walk on it? Press play, Alison."

She obeys, and the narrator on the YouTube video talks over footage of a huge shuttle — it looks like a bullet taking off into the sky — blasts up into the atmosphere: "In 1969," he says, "the world watched in wonder as three brave astronauts took off from Cape Canaveral. Their destination... the moon."

"Man, I wish we got to see this," Lloyd murmurs. He and Linda are perched on the sofa together; although there is a crack of distance between them after their hot-headed argument in Button House. He seems more eager to make amends than she does. Still, his comment makes something resurface in Linda, a softness towards him.

"Yeah," she whispers, "me too."

"Bet your mama made her beef brisket for the occasion. Enough to feet the whole of Arkansas."

     "And she'd have invited the whole family... and you," Linda admits sadly. "I'd have watched it with you."

     Effie frowns sympathetically. Again, she is reminded how strange and difficult it must be for the pair to have died so far away from home. The homesickness emanates from them right now more than ever — after all, if they hadn't received the fatal shock that day in the rain, they would have their own stories to tell about watching the moon landing only three years later.

     "Everyone remembers where they were," Pat reminisces fondly. "I was with Carole, at her parents'. Fish and chips for tea. It was the first time I ever tried a battered jumbo sausage. Never looked back!"

     "I missed the whole thing," Julian remembers. "I was still a student at Cambridge, busy having my own 'moon landing' if you know what I mean... my first threeso—"

     "No!" Effie quickly cuts him off, but the unsavoury image is already in her mind.

     As she shudders, the Captain steps next to her, peering curiously at the laptop screen. He seems to have missed most of the commotion while out on his morning run. "What's going on here?" he asks.

     "Pat's helping Alison," Effie explains. "Keeping us busy with this fascinating account of a man on the moon, can you believe it? Anyway, it'll give Alison and Mike some peace while they dig up the garden..."

     "Which garden?"

     "Pardon?"

     "Which garden?" the Captain asks again, more urgently than before. Only now does Effie turn and notice the colour has drained from his face. She isn't sure she has ever seen him plunged into such a state of dread. It would be fair to say the ghosts have their turn in dramatics — you need something to fuss over in purgatory — but she has the horrible feeling that Captain's woes stem from something real, and more sinister than any trivial ghost problem.

Before she can answer him, the Captain dashes out of the living room. "Cap, wait!" she calls after him. Effie can hardly believe it, but it is enough to lure her away from the moon landing in pursuit of this supposed threat. Although she had underestimated how difficult it would be to run in heels... she arrives huffing and puffing, hiding behind the corner and watching from afar just as the Captain is ordering Alison not to dig.

"Why can't we dig there?" Alison asks tiredly.

"Because that's a very special part of the garden," says the Captain. "Er, that was where our allotment was, the regimental allotment."

"It's fine, Mike, just keep digging—"

"But, no! It's where we buried our pets. Er, my dog is buried there, right there, and he was very special to me. Barry."

Barry? Effie raises an eyebrow. She can tell the Captain is lying miserably right now. And she has to admit, now she's here, some pieces of a memory are beginning to fall back into place...

"Call him off! Call him off, I tell you!" he pleads desperately.

"Okay," Alison sighs, "just one second, Mike..."

The Captain holds his swagger stick so tightly that even Effie can see his knuckles whiten. "When I was at Button House, there was a war on."

"Don't think that's ever come up before—"

"There is something buried down there that is very sensitive."

"Captain, the war's over," Alison reminds him.

"Is it, Alison? Is it?" the Captain replies, with an afflicted expression. "Please... don't dig. There is something down there that is potentially explosive if it gets out."

Suddenly, it all comes rushing back to Effie — she can remember watching from a window at night as a ghost. Seeing the Captain in his coat, smoking his pipe and staring down at an envelope. But what did it say again? With a pensive expression, she had watched him toss it into a hole in the ground, shovelling the earth back onto it.

With that comes everything else...

{⋅. ✯ .⋅}

DATE: JUNE, 1940

EFFIE remembers the Great War. Four years had never felt so treacherous. In four years, her younger brother went to and came back from the frontline a changed man, and she saw the world transformed before her very eyes. Effie remembers being sixteen and standing under the shadow of a zeppelin as it passed through the skies over Portsmouth. She remembers hearing about sons, brothers and fathers of people she knew being lost in the war. Never again, she thought.

They said it would be the war to end all wars.

But now here is the world, yet again fighting each other. And now, already a few months into this second war the house has been transformed to train soldiers. Leading them all is a Captain with silvery hair and a matching moustache, surprising to Effie as she heard he is the same age she would've been now — although she knows how a war can age you.

The Button House take-over has opened a door into a world Effie never had access to before. She only had her brother's letters from the front-line, or worse, had to read the announcements about classmates or neighbours who had died. Now, she follows the Captain around without his knowledge, shadowing his every move as she anxiously tries to stay informed about what is going on. Effie does it with certain men in mind — her brother Fred, her husband Philip and... oh God, her son Ernest. How have they all been roped into this war? Surely Ernest is too young, isn't he? Then again, that didn't stop Fred from lying about his age so he could fight the first time round.

     On a lighter note, through this process Effie has noticed many little quirks about this Captain fellow. She spends quite a bit of time in his office — a room where she once sat smoking and drinking cocktails next to the phonograph, is now a hub of military planning and communication. There is almost always the sound of a typewriter, someone barking orders or admittedly the Captain's knees creaking like floorboards whenever he squats. Quite often she sees him scribbling in his diary at his desk. If she could turn the pages, maybe she'd snoop inside it. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a ghost who could do that?

Today is a particularly busy day. Effie had been in the room with a few other ghosts when the news broke: France has surrendered to Germany. The soldiers-in-training have rushed around to set the emergency lockdown into motion. During it all, her stomach still swirls anxiously at the thought of everything unraveling again, so she distracts herself by hiding in the Captain's office.

Effie has been stood for the last minute inspecting a poster on his wall. More morale-boosting propaganda, it seems, just as she remembers from the first war but only on a larger scale. She squints slowly at the the face of an immaculately-dressed soldier, next to the silhouette supposedly of the enemy, as the message above is emblazoned:

"REMAIN GAY
BECAUSE HE WANTS YOU TO GO DOWN"

"Hm," Effie hums, tilting her head to the side.

The Captain clears his throat, getting up from his desk with a click of his knees. He walks over to stand in the window's sunlight and stares thoughtfully at a sealed envelope in his hand. Effie steps away from the poster and peers over his shoulder.

"What've you got there?" she asks in an upbeat tone.

There is no answer. Of course there isn't, he can't hear her. But sometimes it's nice to imagine...

A knock on the door alerts both hers and the Captain's attention. "Come!" he booms, quickly tucking away the letter in his breast pocket. In walks Lieutenant Havers — Effie is remembering all their names, knowing this man in particular by the unmissable warmth in his eyes, subtle but reassuring. The Captain certainly reacts to him with instant delight. "Ah! Havers. At ease, at ease," he smiles, as does Havers. "I was just thinking about you, actually. How's the emergency lockdown coming?"

    "Very good, sir," Havers informs him. "Most items have been squared away, as per the order."

     "Excellent!"

     The Captain circles round, Havers tracking his every move. Effie backs away to the corner of the room — she may be a ghost, and one of the nosiest among them, but she always gets the strange feeling that she is intruding whenever Havers comes in here to speak with the Captain. The air seems to become charged with something. An electricity, of some kind.

     The two men go to speak at the same time; cutting themselves off politely, they smile. "Sorry, you first, Lieutenant," the Captain laughs nervously.

Havers's expression fades, draining slowly of his usual amiability. An uneasy silence bloats in the room. "I'm afraid I'm leaving you, sir. At 1800 hours this evening."

"So soon?" the Captain's breath hitches.

Effie looks from the evident disappointment on his face, to the flicker of sadness from Havers.

"That would explain your new service revolver," he adds. Havers glances down at it and smiles softly. "I don't suppose they sent one for me, did they?"

"Only for front-line personnel at this stage, sir."

"Right. Yes."

"It's North Africa, sir. I'll be able to have a proper swing at Fritz."

"You make sure you give him a bloody nose!" the Captain jokes, miming a fist through the air. Havers lightly careens as if to dodge the attack, chuckling softly beneath his breath. The atmosphere is still charged, but somehow light as a feather at the same time.

     "I shall miss you, Havers."

     Just like that, the atmosphere shifts. Effie can feel it in her own ghostly form. Suddenly they are not an officer and a lieutenant, but two men — two people — who care about one another. Havers drops his smile instantly and seems to catch his breath. Even from here, she can see his pupils dilate ever so slightly, and hear the careful breathing of the Captain next to her. The clear epiphany occurs to her to see what has made the shift, that palpable energy filling the room:

     Longing.

     "By which I– I mean, of course," he adds hastily, "we shall miss you—"

     Effie frowns. It is difficult to miss the disappointment that deflates Havers.

     "— and I know that the Button House XI shall certainly miss your cover drive!"

     "Thank you, sir," says Havers diplomatically. "Well... if that's all?"

     There is the slightest of pauses, the Captain making a non-committal noise. Havers seems to take this as a sign to leave. And so, any more words masking truer feelings are brushed under the carpet. Effie lets out a sigh, beginning to understand — in a different story, there would be nothing for them to hide. There shouldn't be a need to hide in an ideal world. But this is not that world. Not yet. The realisation makes her heart sink as she stares at them both with sympathy.

     "I say, Havers?"

     The Captain's sudden remark stops both Effie and Havers in their tracks, the latter turning so quickly she thinks he'll get whiplash. He watches his CO swallow thickly and try to find the words.

     "It's a bally shame we won't get to finish the operation together," says the Captain.

     Havers smiles once more, before shutting the door behind him. The Captain lets out a sigh of defeat and reaches into his breast pocket. From it, he unveils the envelope again and traces his gaze over the front. Effie is still reeling from the surprisingly tender moment — if she has her finger on the pulse, she thinks she knows exactly what was left unsaid between the two men. She almost forgets to snoop and lean in over his arm to read the envelope.

     It simply reads a name:

     William.

"Who's Willia— eurgh!" Effie shudders, a wave of nausea washing over her as the Captain walks through her phantom body. She folds her arms and sulks at him. "Well, thanks for ruining the moment."

{⋅. ✯ .⋅}

UNDER the Captain's guidance, Alison and Mike take their digging elsewhere in the garden, lest something explosive gets out from beneath the earth. But as Effie recollects the time she spent watching the Captain before he died, remembering that letter, she is all the more curious. It was something she had filed away in her memory until now. Who was William?

     Leaving the moon landing behind her, Effie has other things on her mind. Mary and Kitty are embroiled in a game of hide-and-seek a,o get the brambles, while Thomas and Julian have resorted to settle their feud over a game of ghost volleyball.

     Well... maybe there is one other thing entertaining Effie.

     As Mike huffs and puffs and heaves, trying to remove a statue from the garden, his gloved hands cup her chest rather indelicately. What he can't see is the ghost of Fanny behind him, jaw slackened and eyes wide with a wild confusion of lust in her eyes. She tries to retreat from the scene, but only ends up running into the Captain.

     "Fanny, are you quite alright?" he asks, inspecting her flustered state as Effie stands beside him.

     "No, no, I find myself having, er... a conniption fit," Fanny admits. "Er, I have become attracted to someone..."

     "Good Lord..."

     The Captain clears his throat, and Effie grins mischievously at her Edwardian predecessor. Stiff upper-lipped Fanny Button, barely able to contain her attraction? This should be good.

     "Well, Fanny, I'm uh... very flattered," he says, "but I've got a lot of problems of my own at the moment—"

     Fanny suddenly recoils and shakes her head fiercely. "Oh, good heavens, no! Not you!"

     "No, no, no—"

     "Never you!"

     "Yes, I see..." the Captain dips his head, uncertain whether to be offended or not.

     "No... I– I cannot say who..."

     "I don't think you have to, Fanny," Effie interjects, tracking Fanny's gaze to Mike spilling some Diet Coke down his shirt.

     "But I know not what to do," she sighs, ignoring Effie's cheek.

     The Captain suddenly snaps upright, seeming stern in his resolve. "Now, steady, Fanny, steady the buffs! Look here. Nothing good will come of it." Sniffing, he turns to stare into the distance, a tightness slipping into his voice. "You must take that emotion, and you must bury it. Never let it out..."

Effie is taken back to Button House in the wartime, remembering the way he watched Havers leave that night. An idea flickers in her head like a light bulb — his talk of buried secrets, his apprehension against Alison digging it up again, the envelope addressed to William that she saw the Captain toss into the earth back in 1940. Could it all be linked?

     Her curiosity blooming out of control, Effie still lingers by the Captain's side as Fanny charges briskly past. Unfortunately, her behaviour is rather suspicious, for he picks up that something is off rather quickly.

     "At ease, Effie..." the Captain raises an eyebrow at her. "Is everything alright?"

     "Mhmm," she nods, before getting straight to the point. "What's buried in the garden that's so sensitive, Captain?"

     "Knew you were sticking your nose into something—"

     "Well? What is it?"

     "You heard me," the Captain says, "it could be explosive if it got out. But luckily, Alison and Michael have resumed their digging elsewhere, so there is no need to panic. Just keep calm and, er... carry on. Yes."

     "I was just wondering, because... well..."

     If the envelope contains what Effie thinks it does, the thought of Captain's fear makes her heart ache with sympathy. A large part of her is so bloody curious to know what was inside that envelope. At the same time, she wants to refrain from her usual line of thinking... which is don't think at all. Or rather act first, think later. Effie feels the need to tread more carefully here. And, just in the same way that she'd never force Mary to discuss her death, she would not want to provoke the Captain into revealing anything he is not ready for. Not for the sake of her own nosiness.

     "Captain..." she says tentatively; is she really about to have an earnest moment with him? "You know, some secrets don't have to remain buried forever. There comes a time when they can rise to the surface. Surely you can see that the world is different now, and better hopefully. I hope you know that... well, you know... you can feel safe here. I can only speak for myself when I say that I would."

     The Captain blinks at her, slowly digesting this information. He stares at her and tries to dissect this sudden sentimentality from her. Effie hopes she hasn't rattled him too much or said the wrong thing. She has a tendency of doing that. So far he hasn't told her off or anything of the like, which she keeps her fingers crossed is a good sign.

     "Well... thank you, Effie," he replies, surprisingly casual. "But I really don't think this secret should be dug up. It would be much safer if it stayed below the earth, untouched."

     "But—"

     "Anyway, as you were." The Captain slips his swagger stick under his arm, marching off. Effie tilts her chin to the skies and lets out a loud sigh. I can't fault him, she thinks begrudgingly. She tried her best. Effie walks out from behind the house, hearing the sound of the other ghosts bickering to Alison beside a mound of brambles and scrap wood.

     Having cleared up most of the mess, Mike sets the scrap heap aflame to burn the remnants. A large, bonfire-like inferno engulfs the space where Mary stands with her hands covering her eyes — currently counting in the game of hide-and-seek — but it is too late to warn her. She opens her eyes and finds herself in a grotesque deja vu, standing in the middle of towering flames like those that she perished in. Mary lets out a shriek of horror, fleeing the gardens for safety.

     No witch trial story tonight, then, Effie thinks guiltily.

     "What the bally hell do you think you're playing at?!" the Captain booms, never sounding so urgent. "Alison! Get away from there!"

     The ghosts and humans stand idly by, still perplexed by his panic.

     "GET DOWN! IT'S GOING TO BLOW!"

     The pieces fall into place. "Oh my God," Effie whispers.

     It's a bomb.

     A literal bomb.

     "Mike, just get back! GET BACK!" Alison cries.

     In blind panic, Mike obeys her and dives out of the way. The Captain goes charging towards the flaming heap and tosses his body onto it — BOOM! The ground shudders and the detonation blows debris and dirt sky-high, only showering Alison's feet but making everyone scream in terror. Tendrils of smoke fizz out from the giant crater left, which very nearly turned out fatal for Mike and Alison. A deafening silence greets them in the aftermath...

     "Captain?" Fanny calls out.

     A horribly long beat passes.

     Then, from the hole in the ground, the Captain rises to his feet, surveying his surroundings like a meerkat. Everyone breathes out a collective sigh of relief, but Effie can still feel her hands trembling (even if she is dead already).

     "Now," says the Captain casually, clambering out of the crater, "I realise that was an utterly futile gesture, but I was very much caught up in the moment."

     "Wh– what the hell was that?" Alison gasps.

     "Er, I was very clear, Alison."

     Frazzled, she glares daggers at him. "What? I didn't think you meant literally explosive! I thought you meant it was, like, scandalous."

     Ah, Effie thinks, realising her mistake.

     The Captain scoffs knowledgeably. "No! It was a prototype limpet mine. It was so secret that only I knew about it, and my second-in-command Lieutenant Havers, but... he left me." Realising his Freudian slip, he quickly course-corrects: "I mean, he left for the front. So, er, I had to bury it on my own, along with the blueprints. Operation William, it was called."

     Ahhh, Effie thinks again, the mystery finally solved.

     Well. One mystery, anyway.

{⋅. ✯ .⋅}

MERE moments after the explosion rattled Button House, Alison and Mike's visitors arrived for their viewing of the wedding venue. It seemed like an impossible feat to make anyone fall in love with this literal bomb site of a garden. But through some last-ditch efforts from Mike, he managed to whip it into shape and charm their guests. So by the time Film Club rolls around that night, most people are in a celebratory mood.

     "Alright, Mary?" Effie asks her, and she feebly nods. Mary has been rather withdrawn and quiet ever since the incident in the garden. No one was surprised nor angry when she revealed that she couldn't, in fact, cope with discussing the witch trial just yet. Effie is just relieved that she seems to have put herself back together in the hours since.

     With the witch trial presentation off the cards, and Thomas and Julian still torn on the results of the volleyball game, Pat has decided to volunteer a film to watch.

"Is it Love Actually?" Kitty bats her eyelids. "I love Love Actually, actually."

The ghosts begin calling out their suggestions, until Pat says, "Please don't shout out, okay?! The film I've chosen has something for everyone: drama, visual poetry... it's got some of your lot in it, Robin."

"Ooh!" Robin sits up straighter. Cavemen? Effie thinks distastefully.

"And... some pretty ladies for Julian."

"Yeah!" Julian snickers with delight.

"It is, of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey." Pat scurries out of the way from the television, finding his seat huddled amongst the ghosts. Effie is perched on the armrest on one end with Thomas, sucked in by the blue light from the screen. Even Linda and Lloyd are here, leaning on one another as they sit at Mike's feet. And then the Captain... where is the Captain?

Effie cranes her neck around and finds him. Sat by himself in the windowsill, lit by the moon, the Captain gazes out of the window lost in a memory. He pays no attention to the film nor the epic theme music blaring from the speakers. She sighs and stares at him whilst he isn't looking. It is a rare moment where he doesn't appear as a Captain, some military figure, but simply... a man. A soul thinking about the passage of time and the life that was cut off so abruptly.

For all her teasing and annoyances with him, Effie knows that they share this in common. They all do.

"To our first wedding booking! Cheers!" Mike raises his glass to Alison, filled with champagne. Effie stares at it jealously as a little clink rings out.

Alison turns in her seat, catching the Captain's eye. "Here's to buried secrets," she whispers.

The Captain exhales softly with a ghost of a smile on his face. He sees Effie, too, staring at him, and she gives him a gentle nod. Maybe he'll know what that means. And perhaps he knew all along, when she spoke to him earlier, that this was about more than some buried mine. It is difficult for her to decipher exactly what he is thinking...

Anyway, it doesn't matter. Whenever he is ready.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

AUTHOR'S NOTE !

( date: 16th August, 2024 )

look at me updating again so soon! redding weddy is such a fantastic episode, i loved writing this. the storyline with the captain and havers gets me every time. i can only hope i've done them justice so far! (btw the "remain gay" poster is a detail i found in the button archives book, it's full of little gems about the characters)

as for effie and what she saw, i think she assumed (like many of us) that the letter addressed to 'william' was meant for havers. she saw him burying the same letter at button house, so she assumed that was what captain was worried about... not a literal bomb... hence her snooping. she definitely knows that he had feelings for him and suspects it was mutual (i certainly think it was, to whatever degree). but i love the show's subtle portrayal of it all, so effie learns not to follow an impulse for once and kinda gives him his space, so it's almost a bit of growth for her as well.

also there was another layer to this, which was effie's relationship with the war. wwi affected her life greatly, losing friends and it changed her brother forever. i wanted to explore the sadness she'd have probably felt at wwii starting only a decade or so after her death, because effie always celebrated being past all that in the 1920s. i hope this came across to you guys?

next chapter is one i've been excited to write since the very beginning... the thomas thorne affair!!!

(p.s. not exactly a happy note, but today was effie's death day - 97 years ago)

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horrible histories
icon of today:
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[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

( aka: the cause of the captain's death
i was going with until season 5 )

have a good day/evening,
— IMOGEN  ♡