Tamsin’s Dream
It was a big day. It was Saturday, Parents’ Day for the boarders. Tamsin’s parents were making their way from Loch Awe to Oban to meet my parents where they were to board a little airplane father had hired. The parents of the Blodwyn and Myfanwy sisters were traveling from Brecknockshire, as were parents of a number of girls whose homes were in the west counties, all heading Denham Hall, Rickmansworth.By mid-morning, the hub-bub in the huge dining room where many of the parents were assembled had increased, as the teachers were being quizzed by parents as to their daughter’s tertiary progress and exacerbated by the noise of those girls who had skilfully managed to separate from their parents and were generally socializing with their school friends.
Most of the parents of the boarders were present so perhaps there were almost a hundred or so visitors including people other than parents that included aunties, uncles, brothers, and sisters.
Denham Hall was a very large gothic structure and as a precaution against any lost parents found roaming the long corridors days later Miss Sefton had the foresight to have printed up and placed at strategic places around the college corridors placards bearing the legend ‘YOU ARE HERE’, not unlike a supermarket when alerting shoppers as to which aisle to search when looking for, say, baked beans.
For the benefit of visitors and parents alike Miss Sefton and Miss Pringle had arranged a little marble plaque be placed on the west wing wall in commemoration of young Sophie who died in 1835 of meningitis. Sophie’s young body was interred in a grave in a quiet corner of the chapel grounds under a mulberry tree.
Although her body lies in the chapel grounds she has been seen by a number of the girls over the years as she roams the corridors of Denham Hall after lights out, which triggered both Miss Sefton and Miss Pringle to arrange the small memorial to be placed on the wall of the corridor where she had been seen on more than one occasion.
Many visitors, after sighting the marble wall plaque, ask the question ‘who was Sophie?’ Thanks to the foresight of Miss Sefton and Miss Pringle she will never be forgotten. There will always be a permanent memorial to our dear Sophie, one of the original Denham Hall College girls.
In fact, Jessica said she had a discussion with her on a number of occasions while in the infirmary. Nurse Mayo suggested she had been hallucinating after ingesting toadstools thinking they were mushrooms, that’s Jessica, not Sophie.
Talking about hallucinating reminds me of the dream Tamsin recounted to us she had the other night. Only Tamsin can possibly have dreams of this nature and as Nurse Mayo pointed out it could only be explained by a person hallucinating after ingesting or even eating toadstools…or maybe toads. I hesitate to do this but let us enter Tamsin’s world.
I would like to warn my gentle readers from the outset, if you have any doubts at all I can assure you this is an account of a dream. It did not actually happen. We were in the library, we being Elspeth, Tamsin and I. This dream was recounted to us by Tamsin. Now I admit I have had strange dreams in the past, as we all do, but as I told Tamsin hers ‘takes the cake’.
I asked her if she has had regular dreams of this nature because if so it could signal the suspicion of a much more deep-seated, psychological problem. Tamsin sniggered. Now Tamsin might think this is funny but I was concerned it might be more serious, possibly a genetic anomaly.
I have met Tamsin’s parents, Mr and Mrs Lacey, many times and they appear to be level-headed, down-to-earth God-fearing Christian people. I would even go as far as to say they are pillars of society, and as I have commented before to my gentle readers her father even plays the clarinet.
I really don’t know where to start other than at the beginning.
Tamsin described her dream she had the previous night and she said it was so life-like she thought it was real. It was that comment, dear reader, that triggered my concern. I really don’t know if I should put this on paper, some people might find it disturbing and other people, well not so disturbing.
I will try and relate this ad verbatim or in other words as Tamsin told it to me. Again I must emphasize the fact for people who might be of a delicate disposition and/or who are easily aroused it was only Tamsin’s dream.
She was in bed when she saw this colored spider hanging off the shade of the bedside light. She said it was huge and its colors reminded her of someone wearing a turtle-necked knitted fair-isle jumper. That was when I realized no-one could possibly make this stuff up so I sat up and started to pay attention.
She said, that’s Tamsin, it looked frightened, bewildered and alone. Her actual words. She said she scooped it in a glass jar and went down to the kitchen to get some crumbs of bread and some milk because she said it looked distressed and generally undernourished.
Yes, readers, this dream gets even more bizarre.
The dream continues. She said she was in Woollies. Hang on, no I tell a lie, I think it could have been Selfridges and she had Jack on a leash and they were going up the escalator to the food hall when Jack, that’s the Spider, tripped and fell over.
Suddenly there was a stifled scream from Elspeth. She pointed a quivering finger at Jack who was now on his back as she cried out ’Look, look, heeth not a boy, heeth a girl’. Elspeth has a lisp. I did warn my readers. I am still not sure what triggered this observation of its sex and I was not about to ask Tamsin.
They helped ‘Jack’ up and walked her into the food hall. There was further discussion about Jack the spider and whether the name change should be to Jill. Anyhow Tamsin cannot recall the exact words but what was important it was essential there was a name change for Jack.
There was much deliberation which Tamsin cannot recollect, well not word for word. She said it was just a blur before Elspeth came up with the name of Mith Mithy or for those of you out there without a speech impediment translated it means Miss Missy. At this point, I decided not to ask any more questions of Tamsin.
Now that was yesterday. Today was parent’s day and I decided to obey the old adage that ‘discretion is the better part of…..’. Hang on, I think I might have got that wrong, anyways look I decided not to relate Tamsin’s dream to Mr and Mrs Lacey. They might put her on something.
