Here's a shorter ghost story:

THE VISITOR
By Pamela Morrey


Amanda and David Trenby and their three children Marc, Emma and Penny had recently moved into a Victorian five bedroom cottage in the village of Oakley, North West of Oxford. David had recently taken up a partnership with a firm of solicitors in Oxford and this had initiated their move.

After the family had left for work and school Amanda decided to unpack the two remaining crates of crockery. Perhaps it would take her mind off the strange feeling of not being welcome in her new house. How could she possibly explain to the family how she felt? When they had all settled in so well.

She was awakened from her thoughts by a loud knock on the door. Leaving the unpacking, she answered the door to a young lady attired in old-fashioned dress. Young people these days do wear odd clothes, must be a neighbour calling to introduce herself; she thought. Without a second thought she had invited the visitor in – showing her into the lounge.

Amanda had a strange feeling that she was somewhat not in control of the situation. She was so eager to impart to the visitor intimate details and aspirations for the future – something she was not in the habit of doing. Eventually the young lady stood up and thanked Amanda for her hospitality and left.

The strangest thing was that Amanda no longer felt that the house rejected her, she had a feeling of being more than welcome which seemed to overwhelm her. What did perplex her, was how readily she had been to invite the visitor in, and her eagerness to talk about her family. But most of all, not once did she have any desire to question or to know the visitors name.

Life in the Trenby household settled down to normality, occasionally Amanda would think of the visitor, but then she would quickly dismiss it from her thoughts. A few weeks later David decided he would store a few unwanted possessions in the attic. Amanda and the children joined him and very soon they had found an old chest which contained a diary and photograph album. The album contained photographs of a young lady with a handsome young man; she was the girl who had visited Amanda a few weeks earlier. Amanda then decided to tell the family of the visit and how she had reacted to this strange visitor.

Upon reading the diary a very sad story emerged. The young lady was named Charlotte Ramsey, she had married Robert Ramsey in 1923 and had moved into the cottage with high hopes of having a family and sharing many years together. It was not to be, six months later Robert died of pneumonia - here the diary ended. Amanda had to know what had happened to Charlotte. On looking through church records she had found that Charlotte had died six months later, without child, from a broken heart.

Further enquiries revealed that the house had changed hands many times and that all previous owners had been childless. Amanda now knew why Charlotte had visited her, the house was now a home for a family with children which sadly was never to be for Charlotte and Robert. Thirty years had passed since the visit of Charlotte. There had been much laughter and a few tears over the years, but always Charlotte and Robert remained part of the family.


The End