BY JUDY INGMAN
“No, listen, Sue, I know it sounds silly but I’ve been watching him.”
“My God Mother, don’t tell me you’ve drilled a hole in the fence. Although the way you’ve been obsessed with him, I wouldn’t put it past you! Look I’m going now, see you next week and take care.”
With that Sue blew me a kiss banging the front door on the way out.
“I knew she would be like that, Puss, I shouldn’t have told her. From now on it will just be our secret.”
Puss looked at me adoringly. After all I was the lady who fed her. Purring throatily she moved to her dish as I crept out to climb the oak tree. Luckily Sue hadn’t noticed the stepladders leaning against the first branch. I giggled out loud at the face I knew she would have made had she seen them. I could hear her teacher voice,
“Mother, for heavens sake what are you doing climbing a tree at your age? Have you no sense?”
‘What can she know about my age , anyway,’ I thought grumpily as I climbed up and sat safely down on the firm thick branch. Then I moved along slowly to heave myself onto the cushion I had strapped round it. Snuggling down into it I took out my telescope and gazed down through the leafy fronds into Mr Merryweather’s garden. I focussed the telescope onto his back door which I knew would open like clockwork at half past five precisely. Sure enough he came out as usual looking round to check if he was being watched. Then he went to the same exact spot and dug up a rather dirty looking bag, took something out of it, looking round furtively all the time and then buried it back into the earth just as he’d done on the other occasions when I had observed him.
I knew I was quite hidden behind the foliage and could not be seen, but I remembered with embarrassment the first time when I had climbed up during the end of Winter and he had looked up and seen me.
He had shouted out shaking his fist,
“You Tildy lady, you big busybody, you watch out.”
I’d done very well by promptly saying that I had a mobile phone and could only get reception from a height. I’d waved it at him to confirm the truth as I always carried it in my apron pocket. I think he believed me because he had tutted and said that I must have one of the very first to be brought onto the market!
Mr Merryweather had moved in towards the end of Winter and I, Tildy, had been suspicious from the start. As I’d said to other neighbours,
“Merryweather in itself is a funny name for an Arab and he has such funny visitors at all odd times of the night.”
Sadly the other neighbours didn’t seem interested so I knew it was all down to me to keep an eye on him. I’d tried bringing it up with Sue but she’d told me it was none of my business and if I wasn’t careful I’d be accused of being racist and then I would be in trouble.
She didn’t realise how unsettling it was having a stranger next door having visitors late at night and digging up packages in the garden. So I’d ended up confiding in Puss telling him I was convinced Mr Merryweather was a spy and the more I watched him the more convinced I was that there was something very wrong and that some day after all my observations I would be recognised as a saviour of my country. Maybe I’d even be invited to the Palace and meet the queen. That would make Sue and the neighbours sit up and realise they should have listened to me.
I’d already written an anonymous letter to the Police about him but of course as it was anonymous I didn’t know if they had acted at all and I hadn’t seen a single police car come down our avenue so I knew it was down to me. At first if I had heard a siren on the main thoroughfare near us I would put my outdoor shoes on and rush to the front door ready to discuss ‘the Merryweather case’ as I now called it in my mind. But no one came!
I relaxed into position as I quietly looked through my telescope again into his garden but while I’d been musing he’d disappeared back into the house again.
I realised the evening was darkening and it was time for me to climb down. Then, I heard a rustling through the leaves near me. I nearly fell off the branch but then saw it was Puss, who gave a leap and landed in my lap nearly over balancing me. Luckily I managed to hang onto the branch saving myself from a fall but not before my mobile phone and purse fell out of my pocket.
Rather scared and shaken I straightened myself only to hear a voice beneath me, a foreign voice, a Mr Merryweather voice.
“Enjoy your evening, I’ll be away for a while so you can spy to your heart’s content, busybody Tildy Lady. You like the tree, eh? So you can stay there all night yeah” and laughing he took my stepladders and put them in my shed.
He even turned and waved grinning at me, “ciao, busybody lady.”
I suddenly realised my predicament and wailed to Puss,
“Oh Puss, no mobile phone and Sue won’t be back until next week!”.
And that’s how I ended up, up in a tree!!
Last Updated on August 10, 2022