The Cottage Garden

© Sean Monaghan

Rudy crouched by the bedroom door, listening to the school principal explain to Dad about the new job. His father had already sent Rudy's sister Alice to bed.

"I grow vegetables in cottage garden," the principal said in his odd accent. The school rented the cottage to staff. "The last teacher never used the garden. Strange fellow, hardly any surprise what happened to him."

"What?"

"Well, one of the children. They found her things out by the river, body probably washed out to sea."

"My goodness."

"Yes, he's gone now, locked up for life. Dreadful teacher. Still, I hope you don't mind me continuing to use the garden."

"Well, actually," Rudy's father said, "I was keen to put some vegetables in. I read about the climate while we were on the Pegasus . We always had a garden on the common back in Leeds."

The principal grunted then said it was late and that he should get home.

After the front door had closed, Rudy's father started his record player and Rudy slipped into bed, still unnerved by the stillness after forty nights at sea.

Later something in the garden woke him. Briefly he thought it was a fox, but remembered there were none in New Zealand. He stepped onto the cold floor and pulled back the curtains. The thin sliver of moon cast a little light and Rudy saw a figure bending with a spade.

The figure turned and looked right at Rudy. Startled, he jerked back and dropped the curtain. He heard scrambling in the garden but when he got back to the window the intruder was gone.

Rudy returned to bed, shaking, staring at the leaves and fruit of the plaster ceiling. Eventually he slept.

At breakfast he told them what he'd seen.

"Hmmm," his father said.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Alice asked. Then she frowned at Rudy. "Or are you making it up?"

They went to the garden and saw trampled plants, and bootprints in the soft ground. The wooden shed's door was open and there was a spade on the ground.

"Someone was here," Dad called to Alice shivering in the cottage's doorway.

Alice screwed up her face and went inside.

Dad shrugged at Rudy. "It takes a while to get used to a new country."

"Sure."

They spent the day in their borrowed car exploring Auckland and Rudy fell asleep as they drove back. He was roused by his father when the car was already in the garage. "Big day, huh?"

"Big life."

His father laughed.

As the sun set, dinner eaten and the dishes washed, Alice said she wanted an ice cream from the corner dairy.

"Don't roll your eyes," she told Rudy.

"We could've had one when we were out."

"Come on," Dad said. "Alice and I will go. You can stay here and finish drying. We'll bring you something."

"Hokey pokey," Rudy said.

Alice laughed. "The dance? You're such an idiot."

Dad clipped her ear. "It's an ice cream flavour," he said. "Apologise, or you'll be drying the dishes."

Alice scowled and muttered, "Sorry."

As Rudy dried, he looked through the kitchen window and remembered the intruder. He hung the dishtowel and went out. Looking around, he realised that the intruder had been digging in a particular spot.

Rudy turned some earth with the spade and hadn't dug far when he hit something. He pulled crumbly soil away to reveal mud-darkened bone.

It couldn't be, he thought. Bending down he pushed more soil aside. A rib cage. Too big for a dog. Trembling, he scraped further. He didn't have to see much of the jaw and eye socket to know that he'd found a human skull.

Rudy bolted inside.

He slammed the door and leaned against it, breathing hard.

Hearing someone in the living room, he relaxed. "Dad," he called. "We'd better get the police."

"Had we now?" It wasn't his father. It was the school principal.

"I found something," Rudy said.

"In the garden?" The principal strode across the kitchen.

"Why are you here?"

"I have papers for your father." He reached for Rudy, eyes slitted.

Rudy stepped back. "It was you, wasn't it?"

The principal lunged. Rudy ducked and sprinted for the laundry.

"Come here!"

Rudy slammed the door, but it burst open almost immediately. He fled to the garage.

Slipping on the slick concrete floor, Rudy banged into the car. The principal grabbed his collar. "You little snoop."

Rudy twisted, rolling under the car and escaping the principal's grasp. Rudy wrenched the car door open and locked it behind him.

The principal lifted a long hunting knife. He put his finger at the tip, then held the finger out, showing a tiny drop of blood. "You'll be the sixth missing child." He leaned close. "You think you're safe in there?" He tapped the window with the knife's handle. "It won't take me a moment to get in there and gut you."

"Leave me alone."

"But you know my secret."

"My father's right here."

The principal laughed. "I saw them go to the dairy. They'll be another five minutes, at least." He huffed onto the glass, then drew a circle into the condensation with his bloodied finger. "Plenty of time."

Rudy scrambled into the front. The principal laughed again.

Rudy released the handbrake and the car lurched, then halted. He plunged the clutch, taking the car out of gear. It began rolling back.

"Think that'll help?" The principal put his foot against the tyre and the car stopped.

Rudy turned the key and the engine roared. The principal's face fell.

Rudy released the clutch. The car leapt back. The principal screamed and collapsed. The car smacked into the garage door, smashing through and bursting out onto the street, stalling right in front of Alice and his father, holding ice creams. The principal lay in the garage, screaming and holding his foot.

Rudy wound down the window. "I know what really happened to that girl," he said.