The Companion

The next morning it was my turn to open up shop. Feeling both weary and curious about last night’s little occurrence I asked Harry if he had time to stick around until Marie and the Doctor arrived.

“Sure, babe. You still seem a little nervous,” he added as we drove to the shop.

“Well, I think what I saw last night was a little more than… just a car light,” I said, playing with my fingers in my lap.

“What do you think it was?” Harry asked, taking glances at me as he drove along.

“Well, that’s just it, I don’t know. I think if we take a closer look…” I said, letting my sentence trail off.

“Are you sure about that, babe?”

“Not really, if I’m honest. But, well, I would like to know,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

We reached the car park out the back and Harry parked reasonably close to the door. We got out and I walked up to the entrance, Harry close behind me. As I went to unlock, my fingers began to shake slightly, making the task a little more difficult than usual. It wasn’t that I was scared or anything… just a little nervous. Nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened to our shop so it would have shaken the average person. But me? Well, while nerves took over my physical processes I couldn’t help but feel that sense of anticipation.

Finally I managed to gain steady control of my hands and unlock the door, pushing it open. I looked around the room and saw nothing that suggested anything unusual had happened. It was almost a let down. Letting out a little sigh, I went ahead and did the usual preparations for opening. Harry tried to help a little before stopping and saying, “So where did you see this light last night?”

“Just over there,” I said pointing towards the cupboard up against the opposite wall. I watched as Harry went over to it and began to closely inspect it.

“It was behind the cupboard,” I said, as he was looking at the cupboard doors, expecting them to look like something more than plain white bits of wood.

“Ah, of course,” he said, giving me the thumbs up and moving around to the side of the cupboard. I could help but laugh at the way he had been trying to play it cool.

I watched as he went to push the cupboard away from the wall slightly, in order to get behind it.

“Anything there?” I asked.

“No, nothing really. Just a long crack in the wall. Must be an old building,” he said.

“I always thought it was pretty sturdy,” I replied.

“Could’ve cracked over time with all the heavy trucks driving past. You know what they’re like,” said Harry.

“I can see that happening. But that still doesn’t explain the light,” I said.

“Maybe it was just a car’s lights reflecting like you said,” Harry suggested, still behind the cupboard.

“I’m coming to have a look,” I said, walking over. Harry backed out from behind the cupboard to let me in. It was a good-sized crack. It looked like the kind you’d get after an earthquake. It went horizontally across the wall and was longer than the width of this cupboard as it appeared to go on behind the one next door. It looked a tad sinister in way, almost like the Joker’s grin. I felt goosebumps begin to rise on my arms as I stared at it.

“Pretty big, isn’t it?” said Harry, pulling me out of my little reverie.

“Yeah, that would’ve taken a lot of heavy traffic,” I said backing out once more. “I might have to let Marie know about it at some point.”

Harry pushed the cupboard back into its position once I’d got out from behind it. I went on to continue prepping for the day while Harry continued to look at the cupboard, peeking inside just to make sure that nothing out of place was hidden in there. It wasn’t long before Marie walked in the door, humming to herself.

“Harry, what are you doing?” she asked when she saw him half in the cupboard.

“Oh, just looking. Kylie wanted to tell you about what she found,” he said quickly.

“What did you find, Kylie?” she asked conversationally as she walked over.

“It’s a long story,” I said.

“I’m all ears.”

And so I began to tell her about the suspicious light I saw last night and the massive crack we had found. She asked to have a look so we took her over and Harry pushed the cupboard away from the wall once more.

“That’s huge! How on earth did that get there?” she asked.

“Exactly what we were wondering,” said Harry.

“We’ll have to get the council or someone to look at it, we should be able to get it repaired,” she said.

After that there was no further talk of the mysterious crack in the wall as we pushed the cupboard back into place. It was as if I was the only one who seemed to think it was just a bit odd, despite all the perfectly ordinary factors that could be at play.

“Well, I better be off. Long day in the studio today,” said Harry, pulling me in for a cuddle. “You have a good day and try not to worry too much about that crack.”

“I won’t,” I said, smiling up at him.

“That’s my girl,” he said, kissing the top of my head.

“Have a good day, Harry,” I said.

“I will and don’t forget, Niall’s house tonight, both of you. The lads will be there,” he said walking towards the back door just as it opened.

“Oh, hello, Doctor,” said Harry, slightly startled.

“Hello,” said the Doctor, standing in the doorway, cheery as usual.

Through the awkward silence that followed, Harry had a brainwave.

“Hey, are you doing anything tonight, Doctor?”

“No… well I don’t think so, depends on what you mean by tonight,” he said, fiddling with his bowtie.

“I mean after you close up. The girls and I are going to my mate’s house. It’s this thing we try and do each week. Did you wanna join us?”

“I suppose I could spare some time. I have a lot of it anyway,” said the Doctor, grinning.

“Good, well… you can follow us there after you’re done for the day,” said Harry patting him on the back the way lads do before heading out the door with a wave.

“Welcome to the club, Doctor,” I said, smiling.

“Thank you. It’s been a long time since I was invited somewhere. Normally I do the inviting,” he said, smiling.

“Well, its nearly opening time, you two. We best make sure we’re ready,” said Marie and so we went about our preparations before the doors were flung open for the start of the working day.

Notes