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Not sure whether she was dreaming or awake, Alison could hear a man’s voice in her ear, low and distant like an echo of the past.
“Remember, remember, the fifth of November,” the man said softly to which Alison’s eyes opened and realised that another echo of the past, Thomas, was sat beside her bed, reciting to her as though she were at a personal poetry reading. He continued. “Gunpowder, treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.”
Alison groaned. “Yes, thank you, Thomas.” She looked at her phone quickly, glancing at the time. “Just what I need at seven on a Friday morning.”
“Just thought a nice soothing melodious voice might be apt, a nature’s alarm clock if you will.”
“Right, because you reciting poems is totally natural.” She turned away from him. “Go back to bed, Thomas,” she said placing the pillow over her head but Thomas persisted, deciding to recite the rhyme another time.
“What’s up?” Mike asked as he heard a grumble from Alison who was now facing him, attempting to block out Thomas’ voice. “Ghost thing?”
“Yeah, wish I had no ears.”
…
Humphrey’s body crashed into the sofa as he wandered aimlessly into the living room, arms outstretched, manoeuvring as best he could. From the wooden floor, his exasperated head called out for him.
“Down here, down here. Not even close. Not interested? Still not talking to me, no? Fine, silent treatment, is it?” He huffed as from his eyeline he saw his body move from view entirely. “Useless.”
As Thomas arrived in the room excitedly, he collided with the roaming body of Humphrey. “Sorry, Humphrey. Happy November 5th to all!” he said before Pat shushed him, noticing Mary from his eyeline in the next room.
“Ssh, mate, Mary isn’t aware it’s the fifth yet. I think it’s best if we keep it secret as long as we can.”
“We can hardly keep it secret,” Fanny said. “She’ll soon know when Michael sets off all those fireworks he has planned for tonight and lights a giant bonfire right in front of the house.”
“We’ll break it to her gently,” the Captain said. “We must protect Mary and get her back safely from enemy lines. We all remember the last time this happened. We mustn’t be slow to act on this occasion.”
“Oh, but I love fireworks!” Kitty enthused, swaying in front of the Captain. “All the colours of the rainbow.”
“So why we celebrate such a day anyway?” Robin asked, shrugging, feeling the same way about it as the other fad, Christmas. The only day he seemed to appreciate was the day of the moon.
“Oh, I thought it’d suit you, mate, a day of fire in the sky!” Pat replied, adjusting his glasses.
“Yes, it is whoa and ahh! But all this fuss for man who simply try to go boom boom in the big hut where Julian’s people sit and eat and make stupid laws no one likes.”
Thomas snorted, looking at Julian. “If they were all like Julian in parliament, it’s no wonder Mr. Catesby and Mr. Fawkes wanted to blow them sky high!”
Rising to his feet, waving his fists in the air, Julian stammered with annoyance, unable to get out a sentence for a few moments and then only managing: “Excuse me, how dare you! I think you’ll find, Thomas—”
“—Please!” Kitty screamed. “Do we have to do this every year? It’s not in the spirit of Guy Fawkes night.”
The ghosts all glanced at each other.
Julian adjusted his tie and scowled at Thomas. “What you mean work-shy cretins with nothing better to do than plot and disrupt everyone else, sounds exactly fitting, Kitty?”
Thomas raised his fists and was about to reply when both the Captain and Pat shouted to hush him.
“No, Kitty’s right, guys,” Pat began with a calm voice. “You two do tend to have this same argument every November fifth. Why is it we never talk about the good memories of the occasion?”
“Not such a good memory for the conspirators,” Humphrey’s head remarked. “Hung, drawn and quartered for some. Nasty way to go.”
“Coming from someone who lost their head in a treasonous plot that’s saying something,” the Captain added, waving his stick from side to side.
“I funnily enough also agree with Kitty,” Fanny said, “Button House is an excellent location for festivities relating to Bonfire night. Its gruesome origins aside, we can’t let the honour of the house down. In my day, people flocked from all over the county to see our grand bonfire and our firework displays. Alison and Michael have a lot to live up to if they’re to hold a candle to my days as hostess.”
Robin pointed and laughed. “Ha candle!”
“Figure of speech, Robin.”
“I used to love bonfire night actually,” Julian said.
“You enjoyed a day celebrating men trying to blow up parliament?” Kitty asked, surprised.
Julian smiled. “I think you’ll find that as they failed, Kitty, even better, and a celebration is the best way to honour it. Booze. Class B drugs. Keeping the girls warm as they freeze outside in their mini-skirts. Throwing effigies of the opposition onto the bonfire and watching them go up in one puff. The fire, orange, red, clouds of smoke, ash, decay. Burning the guy slowly…” There was suddenly a scream from behind him. He spun around. “Ah, sorry, Mary, didn’t see you there.”
“Who be burnings slowly?” she asked, fear creeping into her croaky voice.
“No one, thank you, Mary,” the Captain said. “Though I’m afraid tonight you might like to fall back as it were, confine yourself to quarters until the worst of the friendly fire is over.”
Pat approached her slowly and tapped her shoulder. “What the Captain’s trying to say, Mary, is for your own good. It’s Bonfire Night and it might get a little…hot and bright and loud. But I promise you, there are good things about this day. I remember as a kid, dressing up the guy for the celebrations. We all got involved on our street, had a little wheelbarrow that we put him in but one year the front wheel fell off, couldn’t get off the estate and we just held sparklers in the car park.”
The Captain moved to the window and stared out in contemplation. “I know what you mean, Patrick, as a boy, a friend and I, Andrews, used to frolic in the November air. I was fond of guys I suppose. But during the war it all changed. It was a different kind of fire that burned then, blazing on and on, night after night, not just November but what felt like eternity. Standing at Button House staring at the country burning, lights in the sky for a very different, terrible reason, it was devastating, and yet there was a strange beauty in the orange, smoke-drenched sky that quite captivated me.”
Thomas folded his arms, put out that someone else had waxed lyrically before he had the chance.
…
For the remainder of daylight, the ghosts did anything and everything to distract Mary from seeing Alison and Mike setting up the party decorations. Kitty played hide and seek with her whilst Mike carried a big box of fireworks into the garden and the Captain peered inside, placing his head into the box as it was laid on the lawn.
His eyes widened and he made a strange excitable noise. “Good lord, big ones, bad boys.”
“Daddy’s gonna let off some fireworks tonight,” Mike said to Alison.
“He does know what he’s doing, does he?” Thomas said.
“You do know what you’re doing, Mike?” Alison repeated. “Because I remember that story Obi told me about you guys and the fireworks.”
“We were five and they put our incident in a warning ad the next November.”
Julian snorted. “I remember those telly ads, scaring you over nothing, health and safety gone mad. Nothing says firework night without someone’s hand being scorched or a cat being blinded by some stray rocket.”
Mike placed his arm around Alison’s shoulder. “Course I know what I’m doing. I got this, don’t worry.” He got out his phone and typed in ‘how to safely set off fireworks.’
Suddenly Mary and Kitty appeared behind them outside.
“I thought you were supposed to be playing hide and seek? Honestly, Kitty,” Fanny moaned.
“We were but I found her,” Kitty said. “She was in the wardrobe!”
“What be happening out here?” Mary said. She looked at the box of fireworks that Mike was unloading. “Oh, they be the devil’s lanterns. Hell-fire and damnation.”
“With sensible people and good directions, it can be done quite safely. No reason anyone should be hurt,” said Pat.
“If you want to skip the bonfire part, Mary,” Alison said, “we can just do the fireworks later. I mean, we are all gonna chuck stuff on the fire so maybe you could not be there for that bit.”
“Throw stuff on the fire?” Mary clasped her hands over her cheeks.
“Stuff, Mary, just stuff, not people.”
“Yes,” Thomas said, “Effigies of the pope, that sort of thing.”
“No,” Alison said. “Nothing like that, no effigies of people or religious figures, we’re just getting rid of some stuff and Mike’s too lazy to go to the tip.” She smiled at him.
“So whens it starts burnings, you’ll let me know?” Mary said.
“Will do, Mary,” the Captain said, losing his trail of thought as Mike held up a large rocket shaped device. “My word, long and slender. How much power do you suppose is in that? Range? Velocity?”
“Wait and see, Captain,” Alison said.
…
As soon as it was dark, the ghosts minus Mary, stood outside the house with the Button House guests, watching as a giant bonfire burnt on the grounds.
“Look at her go!” the Captain said gazing at the raging flames. “Remarkable.”
“Quite,” Fanny said. “Excellent effort, Alison, if it is a little unorthodox to be throwing old chairs onto it.” She screamed as Mike threw a footstall onto the fire. “Not that you heathen, that was 16th century! It didn’t even have woodworm! And it was worth a fortune!”
“Mike!” Alison called. “Don’t…oh… too late.”
“What’s wrong?” Mike asked.
“Nothing, you just threw a fortune on the fire,” she said quietly.
Robin and Pat meanwhile stood beside some children who were holding lit sparklers in their hands. Robin oohed and aahed whilst Pat scowled.
“You should be wearing gloves!” Pat cried. “When the flame lingers, you lose some fingers!”
Looking up at the window, Kitty pointed. “Mary’s watching but she’s hiding behind her hands.”
“Can’t be easy for her,” Pat said. “To be reminded of your death every day.” He looked at the arrow in his neck. “Then again.”
“Then we shall take duty shifts,” the Captain said. “Operation cheer-up Mary. Who wishes to go first?”
“You know guys,” Alison said, interrupting. “Getting her to hide from it isn’t going to help her in the long run.”
“Not this talking about our feelings guff,” the Captain said, clearing his throat. “I think we know Mary better than you. We have been living with her for many, many years.”
“Maybe but it’s good to talk, no matter what you say, and it can be good to face your fears once in a while.”
“Be that as it may, Alison, at this precise moment we need to reassure one of our own. Who would like to go first?”
Kitty raised her hand. “Oh! Oh! Me!”
“For the mission?”
“Oh sorry, what was it again?”
…
Moments later, Kitty was at Mary’s side by the window where Mary was half-looking at the fire burning with curiosity and half peering back in the room with fear.
“I find it’s best to think of happy things when we’re frightened,” Kitty said. “Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles, warm woollen mittens. That’s what Maria says on that DVD.”
Humphrey’s head which was resting on the table spoke next. “Yeah, think of the positives. We’re young— sort of. Alive— well not really. Whole lives ahead of us— well deaths anyway. But we’re seeing things we never might have seen. I never thought in a million years I’d see this age, years into a new millennium, watching some random people celebrate some event that happened after I died, watching them commemorate some bygone day just because it’s the past and an opportunity for people to come together, year after year even when it’s freezing outside and the original meaning or celebrations have long disappeared— given ways to new traditions and new people. I don’t know about you, but it’s pretty special.”
Kitty and Mary stared at him, both taking in his thoughtful words. Mary smiled but Kitty ignored him. “Yes, kittens and rainbows!”
Jumping behind the sofa, Mary screamed. “But they still be burning, Humphrey! How do you stop them from burning?”
…
Next, ordered by the Captain, Julian and Robin entered the room, attempting to help her. They sat on either side of her on the sofa and for a few moments didn’t say a word. Robin was more interested in the chess board.
“Now, it’s best to just get on with things,” Julian said, leaning back casually. “No good with this whole nanny state nonsense. We need to get you out there and doing it, that’s what you need to conquer it.”
Robin pointed at a chess piece. “What Julian mean is, life is danger and danger is life. We carry the fear in death but with each other it easier to face. One piece at a time, prawn against king, facing it head on.”
“Pawn but yes. You can’t cower away because of a bit of fire and people burning, Mary.”
Her eyes widened and she screamed again.
“Sorry, Mary, it’s tough love honestly, cruel to be kind. We’re all fond of you really, well, you know, we have to be, don’t we?”
…
Thomas and Pat were up next, Thomas standing looking out of the window whilst Pat sat next to Mary, unsure of how to comfort her. In the background a radio was playing some pop songs which Julian had turned on to calm the mood.
“Look at her, so brave, so beautiful.”
“Aww that’s rather nice, Thomas,” Pat said, “you must appreciate that, Mary.”
There was an awkward pause. “I was speaking of fair Alison, the way the silhouette of her against the flames is so awe-inspiring.”
“That’s great, mate, but we’re actually here for Mary.”
“Oh right. Yes, sorry Mary.” He perched himself awkwardly next to her. “How can we help?”
“Renounce this devil’s celebration!”
“I can’t…really…do…that.”
“Mary, we’re all here for you,” Pat said. “Friends look out for each other and if you just want to sit here, pretending it’s not happening then that’s alright with us too. Go at your own pace, ok? Ok?”
For several moments not a word was said, the only sounds were from the radio.
…
Later on, the Captain paced in front of Mary whilst Fanny paced in the opposite direction, making Mary feel dizzy but at least temporarily distracted from the view outside.
“They be merry-making outside,” Mary said.
The Captain’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, and you could be merry-making with the rest of us if only you’d brave the storm, hmmm? Maybe Alison is right, maybe facing it is best. It’s just a few more yards to the crease. Surely you can face the enemy just this once, charge into the valley of death as it were?”
Fanny rolled her eyes. “What he means is, if you put aside all the chaotic side of the occasion, it really is just a social event, hob-knobbing with one’s peers, showing off one’s decorations and fireworks to end the night. It need not be about torture and death.”
“So, I should watch the fireworks laters and be knobbing hobs?”
The Captain stood to attention. “No knobs, Mary, just friends. I think that would be a very good plan. So, twenty-three hundred hours, private display. We shall expect you there?”
Mary smiled shyly. “I’ll be trying.”
…
As the evening turned late and the guests had been treated to a few fireworks and the bonfire was down to its last embers, Alison, Mike and the ghosts stood on the grass with some remaining fireworks just for their own private show. Mike stood with a match, ready to light a fuse.
“It’s a shame Mary didn’t want to join us,” Alison said, signalling for Mike to light. But as he did, Mary sheepishly appeared behind them.
“Mary!” they all said happily.
“Oh, how wonderful. We can see the Catherine Wheels together,” Kitty said, “I can’t believe they named a firework after me.”
“Well technically it’s not—” Fanny began but was blocked out by the sound of the first firework blasting across the night sky.
“Ooh!” Robin said, his eyes wide and alert, his mouth gaping open. Suddenly an array of fireworks went off in the sky creating a myriad of colours and patterns. “It go….wheeeeeee, boom, pop, pop, bam, fizzle. And wheeeee….”
“It is indeed beautiful,” Thomas said, looking first at Alison and then the sky. He walked closer to her. “I have written a poem for you.”
“Have you?”
“I’ll recite it. ‘Do you know that there's still a chance for you because there's a spark in you and
You just have to ignite the light, and let it shine…because baby you’re a firework, come on, show them what you’re worth.’”
Alison laughed. “Oh, I hate to do this but you’ve been listening to the radio again, haven’t you?”
“What?”
“That’s a song by an American singer, Katy Perry. Easily done though eh?”
Thomas covered his eyes. “Not again!”
“So, what do you think of the fireworks, Mary?” Pat said, noticing she was still there and gazing at them in thought.
“They still be a devil’s weapon but they are quites beautifuls, if I’m allowed to say such things.”
“That’s wonderful, Mary, yes sometimes dark things can be beautiful.”
The ghosts stood staring up in silence for a few moments as Mike and Alison kept each other warm, watching the last fireworks light the sky above Button House.
“Remarkable,” the Captain said. “During my time, in the war, we thought the world was ending.”
“But it’s barely started,” Pat said. “Still so young.”
“Speak for yourself,” Robin added.
“Just like fireworks finding paths and patterns, us humans do the same,” Pat said, “well at least the non-dead ones that is.”
“Happy bonfire night, guys,” Alison said, looking at the ghosts and smiling.
“Happy bonfire night!” they replied.