firegap | ( december 5th )

In the village, they say, Caroline Becker talks to the deceased, that she won't let them rest in peace as any good Christian should and they are pious in these parts, if nothing else.

The boys run after her whenever she passes the church and the old cemetery in extension of it to go into town. They are hoping to see her gifts at work, at one and the same time excited and frightened that she might raise the dead on their watch.

Caroline Becker doesn't raise the dead, though, except in her dreams, when the old grief gets too overwhelming and leaves her bedridden for days. She simply knows they are still present, those spirits of the past and she can feel, the manor is alive too, it has a history.

A pulse, calming her.