An Unexpected Guest

Annie timidly pushed open the old barn door and peered in. As her eyes became accustomed to the gloom, she could make out a dusty tractor sitting in one corner, a stack of disused tools in another, and piles upon piles of hay sitting in the old stalls where horses used to live. At the very end was a ladder leading to an open attic that looked out over the rest of the barn.

“This is so cool!” Ben shouted as he barrelled past his sister, flinging the doors wide open as he went. The sun streamed in, and the barn suddenly became much less spooky. The tractor was even bright red like in a children’s storybook. Annie followed Ben in, and watched as he raced around the barn, jumping into piles of hay in delight before climbing up to sit in the driving seat of the tractor.

“This is going to be the best summer ever!” Ben said, pretending to turn a key in the ignition and then reverse out of the barn, supplying the necessary noises himself. Annie nodded. “We’re going to have so much fun,” she agreed, excited about all the possibilities that lay ahead. School was finished for the year, and instead of being cooped up in the city all summer, their parents had allowed them to stay on their grandparent’s farm for the first time. It was going to be amazing.

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Their grandparents had given them free rein of the farm, seeing as they were old enough now to more or less look after themselves. They weren’t allowed near the working side of the farm on their own – too much dangerous machinery and equipment and activity going on – but the rest of the property was theirs to explore to their heart’s desire.

Annie and Ben spent several days discovering every nook and cranny on the farm. They went on adventures through the woods, they searched for an old well they spotted on a map, they investigated every ancient crumbling storehouse and building they came across, and at night they collapsed exhausted into their comfy beds in the centuries-old farmhouse. Their favourite place was without a doubt the old barn.

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About a week after their arrival, the kids took a morning trip to the barn, having decided to build a fort out of the old hay bales. They strode in, chattering excitedly about how to start the project, when suddenly they heard scrambling in one of the stalls, and the sound of feet slipping over hay. Annie jumped and clung onto Ben’s arm for dear life. Ben stared back at her, eyes wide in fear.

“Someone’s there!” Annie whispered furiously in Ben’s ear. “We need to get out of here.”

“Maybe they’re a friend?” Ben replied, not sounding too sure of himself. “Someone that works on the farm?”

“If they were a friend, why would they be hiding? They could be dangerous.”

“But if they’re hiding, they must be scared of us. If they were dangerous, they wouldn’t hide from us,” Ben reasoned. “Hello? Is somebody in here?”

They waited for a response, Annie still digging her fingers into Ben’s arm. She didn’t know if she wanted the mysterious person to answer or not. No reply came.

“Maybe it’s an animal?” She suggested. “Shall we look?”

With careful steps, the pair edged towards the stall and peered round. They saw a pair of white trainers poking out from a pile of hay, which retracted further as they got closer. The feet looked like they belonged to a girl not much older than them, early teens. Annie tapped Ben on the shoulder and pointed to the door. “Let’s go,” she mouthed silently.

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They stood in the brilliant sunshine of the barn’s doorway and tried to decide what to do.

“We should tell Grandma and Grandpa,” said Ben matter-of-factly. “It’s their farm.”

“But she was trying to hide,” Annie countered. “She could be in trouble. Maybe Grandma and Grandpa will be angry and then she’ll be in even more trouble.”

“Well, if she’s in trouble then she needs help.”

“Why can’t we help her?”

Ben thought for a moment. “Okay. Just for a few days. Then we’ll see if she will talk to us. She’s probably hungry and thirsty, so we should give her some food so she knows that we want to help.”

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Annie and Ben returned to the barn about an hour later after raiding their grandparent’s fridge. They couldn’t hear or see any sign of the mysterious guest, so they went to one of the stalls and dragged some hay bales to form a table and chair, and deposited the plate of food and the water bottle they had brought.

Annie nodded approvingly at the spread. Their grandparents always had the best food, all straight from the farm. They'd brought juicy, perfectly ripe tomatoes and apples, delicious, thick ham and homemade bread and, best of all, a slice of Grandma’s famous chocolate cake.

“Maybe she’ll get bored,” whispered Ben. “There’s not much to do in the barn if she’s going to live in here. We should bring her something to do.”

Annie looked in her backpack. “I’ve got a book,” she suggested, holding it up.

“That’ll do for now,” Ben sighed in pity, imagining how disappointed the girl would feel at the sight of the tween vampire novel. “We can gather more stuff tonight and bring it tomorrow.”

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The next day, the kids arrived to find the plate licked clean and water bottle emptied. The book, however, had not been touched.

“I knew it,” said Ben, shaking his head sadly. “I didn’t want to say yesterday as there was no other option, but I knew she wouldn’t want to read Twilight.”

Annie made a face and opened her bag. She carefully laid out the food they’d brought with them, and some cartons of orange juice she’d found in the cupboard. Ben unloaded his backpack with everything he’d brought for entertainment. He’d felt so sorry for the girl being left with only a book about vampires that he’d brought her some of his favourite things – a remote control car, a Rubix cube and a book of puzzles. Annie put down some more novels as well as some coloured pens and paper.

“Shall we write her a note?”

Ben shrugged in response, which Annie took for a yes. She pulled a piece of paper towards her and wrote, “Dear visitor, we hope you are okay. We are friends! We want to help you. Love from Annie and Ben.”

As they left the barn, Ben looked back over his shoulder. He saw a blonde head quickly dip back down behind one of the stalls and smiled to himself. She had definitely been looking at the car.

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Annie and Ben quickly developed a routine where they would go down to the barn every morning to replace the girl’s water and bring her some more food. Grandma and Grandpa didn’t seem to notice – they were too busy on the farm most of the time, and besides, it had been so long since they had their own children that they’d forgotten how much kids eat. They didn’t notice the extra food going missing, and Grandma was just pleased that they liked her baking.

“Have you noticed that she never touches the books?” Annie asked Ben one day, while they sat on their makeshift hay sofa and surveyed their little barn collection.

“I’m not surprised, to be honest,” Ben replied pityingly. “Your books are rubbish.”

“They are not! Anyway, she hasn’t touched the books you brought either! Seems like James Bond is boring too.”

Ben looked thoughtful for a minute. “James Bond is definitely not boring, so why doesn’t she read them?”

Annie flicked through some of the puzzle books. “Look!” She pointed out the pages. “She only does the puzzles that you don’t need reading for, like mazes or this drawing one. And she’s used up all the paper to draw, but she hasn’t written anything. She didn’t write back to our note.”

“Maybe she can’t read?”

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When the kids came back to the old barn the next day, they were feeling proud of themselves. The farmhouse still had a lot of their old books from when they were kids and first starting to read. Annie had even brought her tablet and downloaded a selection of YouTube videos about learning the alphabet and basic words.

They looked surreptitiously around the barn, and noticed the girl was hiding up in the attic section, peering over the rail at them. They sat almost directly underneath, where they were sure she could see them, and went through how to watch the videos.

Satisfied that she’d be able to use the tablet once they’d gone, they laid out the food and the rest of the books. They’d completely forgotten that they would tell Grandma about their guest after a few days. This was a long-term project now.

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Summer was drawing to an end, and it was almost time for Ben and Annie to go home. With a week to go, they trudged sadly into the barn to deliver their daily food and paper parcel. This had been the best summer they’d ever had, playing all day in the sunshine, helping on the farm, caring for the animals, exploring the acres of land, adventuring through the woods, and most importantly of all, looking after their new friend.

Even though they’d still never spoken to her, they had felt a friendship forming through the food they shared and the pictures she drew and left for them by her empty plates. Annie thought to herself that she would keep the drawings forever.

“We have to tell Grandma and Grandpa now,” said Ben miserably. “We should have told them a long time ago really.”

Annie sighed. “Who knows what would have happened if we told them and where she would have gone? At least we know she was safe here and had food and water and shelter.”

“But we’re leaving soon. We won’t be able to bring her food and water anymore. Someone has to know.”

Annie stood up and walked around the barn. Sometimes they knew where the girl was hiding, other times she was better at it. They didn’t know where she was right now.

“Hello?” Annie shouted. “Can you hear us? We are going home soon, so we can’t look after you anymore. Can we tell our Grandpa and Grandma that you’re here?”

They waited for a few minutes, but the barn was silent. They looked at each other sadly, then headed back to the farmhouse.

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The following day, Annie and Ben returned, as usual, to deliver food for their guest. When they entered, however, it felt different. The barn felt empty and vacant. It felt like that first day when they had peered through the doors: gloomy and abandoned. “She’s gone!” Annie shouted. They ran round the barn, searching every stall, combing through every pile of hay, investigating every corner of the building. She was nowhere to be found.

In the last stall they searched, the one where they had made their very first table and chairs and left the first meal, they found their books, games and the tablet neatly stacked and tidied. On the hay bale table, she had left them a beautiful drawing of the old barn and the three of them standing side by side. Underneath, she had written in her unpractised, inexperienced lettering:

Tɧɑͷƙ Уou Ƒriєͷdƨ 🙂

Ƒrom Ƨam