Grandma's Footsteps

The fan creaked back and forth, setting the curtains aflutter with a light breeze. Even that felt warm. Sara groaned, pressing herself into the slate-tiled floor, hoping in vain for a hint of the stony coolness she'd felt when she first lay down. She knew she should be working, but it was so unbearably hot. How was anybody supposed to be productive during a heatwave like this? She hated the heat. Every year she hoped the upcoming summer would be a cool one, and every year she was disappointed.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed herself into a sitting position and looked up at the clock on the microwave. Barely past noon - she still had time. Climbing to her feet, she adjusted her dress and made her way to the dining table at the centre of the kitchen. Waiting for her was a large and garish jewellery box, its contents spilled across the pitted wooden table top. Her late grandmother's. She was supposed to be sorting through it, choosing some keepsakes to remember her by and getting the rest valued. She had very few good memories of the old woman, and had no idea what she was hoping to find. While other grandmothers had delighted in watching their granddaughters dress up, tottering around in heels several sizes too big, weighed down with heavy necklaces and brooches, her grandmother had been an intensely private woman, and Sara had never gotten so much as a look in her jewellery box. She could picture her now, scowling at her with tightly pursed lips and anger in her eyes. The heat was not the only reason she'd been avoiding this task - it felt like a breach of privacy.

Pushing aside her discomfort, Sara sat down at the table and began organising things into categories. Rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches. Many of them were tangled together, and she soon lost herself to the task of teasing out knots and separating the delicate chains. A loud clatter from the hallway made her glance up from her work. It was her elder brother, taking the last few stairs in one leap. He had used stairs that way since they were children.

"How's it going in here? Did the old bat have anything worth selling?" He appeared in the kitchen doorway and winked at her.

"Not a clue, I've been stuck untangling things. It's like a bloody bird's nest, I can't believe she let it get this bad!"

"Maybe she did it on purpose, one final way to piss you off. She's probably watching you right now and cackling to herself."

"Oh be quiet Jason! It doesn't do to speak ill of the dead, especially grandmother. You know what she was like." Sara grinned ruefully at him as he schooled his features to solemnity and mimed zipping his mouth shut. Then he hurriedly unzipped it again.

"Any idea where she kept her cleaning stuff? I'm dying for a cold shower but the bathroom is all mouldy and I'm not sure I dare use it without cleaning it first."

Sara pointed wordlessly at the cupboard beneath the sink and went back to her work. The sounds of him humming to himself while rummaging through decades old bottles of bleach and disinfectant soon filled the air, bringing a smile to her lips. Jason had always been able to cheer her up, even when he wasn't trying to. She'd been on edge all day waiting for something bad to happen. Grandmother had been far too strong, too domineering, too large a presence to simply be gone. But having Jason with her cracking jokes and just being himself was a much needed breath of fresh air. She hadn't realised how much she'd missed him. Now all she needed was for the blasted weather to cool down and the day might even end up a good one. If only grandmother had died in winter, when sorting out her rickety old house would have felt cosy rather than sweltering.

A small round object fell from within her tangle of bracelets, clunking onto the table. It was about the size of a penny, tarnished silver, and had a loop soldered to the top suggesting it was used as a pendant or charm. Turning it over in her hand she found that its surface was worn almost smooth, but still held the tell-tale marks of some sort of coin, with the ghost of a head in the centre, and faint lettering around the edge. As she looked closer she noticed that someone had very carefully scratched an x over the head's eye, the metal beneath sparkling like new. Surely that wasn't there a second ago? She would have seen it! She shivered slightly and let it fall back onto the table. The coin had felt ice cold in her hand. Goosebumps prickled on her arms and she reached over to turn off the creaky old fan on the kitchen counter.

"Erm, Sara? It's snowing outside!"

Looking up sharply, she saw Jason silhouetted in the back doorway. Beyond him, several large, fat snowflakes were falling ponderously towards the ground. As she watched they began to fall faster, thicker, the flurry becoming a blizzard. Standing up shakily from her chair, Sara crossed the kitchen and clutched at her brother's arm. Jason didn't seem to notice her. He had one hand outstretched, watching the flakes land and melt on his skin.

"What the hell is going on?" he breathed. "Snow in July?! I thought the heatwave was supposed to last weeks. Neither of us will be able to get home in this."

"I can't check my phone, we've never had signal here. I'll go see if the telly is working, there might be something on the news." Sara let go of Jason's arm and hurried through the house, perching awkwardly at the edge of grandmother's pristine cream sofa and reaching for the remote. The TV made a small click, and a 'No Signal' message popped up on the screen.

"Ugh! Nothing on any channel! Why did she even have a TV?"

"It's okay, I can drive up the lane towards town and see if I can get a phone signal" Jason spoke from the doorway. "Want to come with?"

"No! We'll catch our death of cold and it's snowing too hard to see properly."

"I've got blankets in the car and we can put the heat on high. We need to find out what's going on before the roads get too bad to drive on. Besides, nobody lives up here but grandmother, we won't meet any other cars." He patted her arm gently. "You don't have to come if you don't want to, I don't mind if you just want to cuddle up with a hot drink and wait for me to get back."

Sara swallowed nervously and shook her head. "I need to come with you to make sure you don't do anything stupid. Stace would kill me if I let something happen to you."

***

A short while later the small car was inching its way down the lane at a snail's pace, Jason squinting furiously through the windscreen, struggling to see anything past the blizzard.

"Nothing yet!" Sara pulled a dog-hair-covered blanket from the back seat and wrapped it round herself, then glanced back at her phone screen. "Wait, I've got signal now!"

Jason breathed a sigh of relief. "Good timing! We can pull into the lay-by just ahead and I can check my phone too."

"That's odd, the date is wrong." Sara stared at her phone, puzzled, as the car slowly slid its way to a stop.

"Probably just a glitch, see if you can find anything online about what's going on. I'll ring Stace and see if she's -" Jason's phone began to ping repeatedly as he pulled it from his pocket. "What the hell?"

"Jason, the news says the same date as my phone, December 5th. Something is wrong, I don't understand what's happening."

"This is really bad Sara, really really bad. I've just gotten hundreds of missed calls and texts from Stace and the kids. They called the police. Officers were sent to the house looking for us and they found it empty" he scrolled frantically through his messages, his eyes darting across the screen "The texts go on for months. They've been begging me to come back or contact them if I can."

"I don't understand, it was sweltering July heat just an hour ago. You were about to have a cold shower! This has to be one huge sick joke!"

"Hold on, let me call Stace. She'll explain, maybe this is all a misunderstanding." Jason pushed the call button and held the phone to his ear, hand shaking.

***

Several hours later they sat together at the kitchen table with steaming mugs of tea, the jewellery haphazardly shoved to one side. Jason stared down at his phone screen blindly, thumb scrolling up and down his texts. Weather permitting, they'd arranged for Stace and the kids to travel up to meet them at the house tomorrow. He was desperate to make amends.

"I just can't believe it" he broke the silence. "How could we miss months worth of time?"

Sara shrugged and shook her head, eyes downcast. A glint on the table caught her attention. That coin again. Hadn't she been daydreaming about winter when she first discovered it?

"I think I have a theory. This is going to sound a little out there but bear with me okay?" Sara spoke slowly, thinking things through. "Do you remember when we visited grandmother as kids and she'd say really strange things to us?"

"Sara, not this again. She had you convinced magic was real and you dressed up like a witch for weeks. She was just an eccentric old woman in a creaky old house."

"But earlier today when I was sorting through the jewellery I caught myself thinking about how much more enjoyable it would be if we were sorting her house out in winter instead of in the middle of a heatwave. This coin fell between my fingers and when I picked it back up it was ice cold and someone had scratched its eye out. It was right after that it started snowing. I know it sounds silly but just look at it!" Sara pointed at the coin and Jason picked it up off the table to inspect it.

"It's just an old coin Sara. There's nothing wrong with its eye." He turned the coin so she could see the heads side. The surface was smooth, not a scratch in sight. "I came to help you sort out the house so you wouldn't have to feel afraid or superstitious. There's always a rational explanation."

"Really? For losing months out of our lives? The police came to look for us and we weren't here! That doesn't just happen."

"People don't just pick up old coins and magically have wishes come true either Sara. Look, I can wish all I like that grandmother hadn't passed away so we didn't get stuck with sorting out her crusty old house in the middle of nowhere but that doesn't mean it's going to happen!"

"Why would you even-" Sara's protests died in her throat and her eyes went wide. "Jason, the eye is crossed out again! What have you done?"

They both jumped as a shuffling noise sounded from the hallway. Then the tell-tale creak and click of a zimmer frame being repositioned. Then another shuffling sound. Another click. A shuffle. A click.