The Curious Affair of The Palvine Residence: Part Two

She had invited me into her home with an offer of biscuits and a hot chocolate if I’d like one, I obviously obliged. I followed her through the Cornish cream carpeted hallway and up the wide shallow staircase to a large brown door, behind which there was a loungelike room with three white sofas, an armchair, a coffee table and a bureau with serval odd items and photos on top of it. The walls of the room were perfect white with large windows that allowed the dying daylight to seep in. She’d invited me to sit down on the sofa furthest from the door and asked what I wished to investigate , to which I was not sure how to respond, so I began by asking if she’d noticed anything strange in the weather patterns to which shetold me that she had and the wind was very strong for this time in the season and swiftly moved onto the topic of comings and goings in the neighborhood to which she had responded “ Well, there ain’t been much going on round here recently, except crying since the girl at number 10 had her baby…” She trailed off “I really must pay her a visit sometime, which reminds me, I promised you hot chocolate didn’t I” I smiled at her, she was a traditional cockney sparrow of a lady, lively bright green eyes and greying hair with a cheerful willing smile. She bustled off back down the stairs to where I assumed the kitchen was and disappeared from my view. It was at this point, against my better judgment that I decided to take a look around the room, gently spinning the old globe, at a loss for anything notable, so I continued to pour through Rita’s things listening keenly for footsteps outside. It was then that my attention turned to the photos on the bureau, in old dusty frames holding moments, one was of what looked like a much younger Rita in a long white dress outside a church kissing a strangely handsome man with curlswho looked scarcely more than a teenager, another was of her holding a small baby what looked like thirty years ago and one was of her all in black with a hat and a handkerchiefwhich looked rather more recent. My heart skipped a beat as I suddenly heard heavy footsteps outside the door and quickly tried to rush back to my seat upon the sofa.

I didn’t make it, she opened the door with a tray laden with hot chocolate and biscuits to find me with old photos in my hands.

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