It sometimes seems to take a lot of time to find inspiration for a random theme, but in this case, the theme (Skeleton in the Cupboard) provoked many ideas. I settled on this one, trying my hand at a bit of black humour in the process.
SKELETON IN THE CUPBOARD
“I think there were some – scandal – in t’ fam’ly.” The blind old lady grasped the hand of her great-niece. “Could yer find out?” The brief glimpses of the past that Stacey had gleaned from the Census records and shared with her great-aunt to help her memory had triggered something. “We ‘ad a cousin called Jack Bell. ‘E were great friends with yer grandfather. But there were whispers.” She shrugged. “You know?”
Stacey did not know. The stigma was something lost in time. She traced the link between her grandfather and the cousin with great care. It was so easy to follow the wrong branch line in a family tree when grandfather was called Brown and Bell was a common name in their town. The mystery unfolded in 1877. Theodosia Brown married John Bell, a miner, and delivered Walter Bell five months later. That was not quite illegitimacy, and common for the time. John Bell died soon after, but Stacey could not find a cause of death. An accident? Disease? Early deaths were common too. Baby Walter stayed with his grandparents when Theodosia married a Brown cousin with indecent haste, but Walter must have been much loved. Browns and Bells ended up in the same street two generations later. This was a heart-warming story of warm cousinage; no hint of shame that Stacey could discern.
She explained all this to her great-aunt. “Oh!” said the old lady. “’Appen Gran Dozie poisoned the first’un then. Mebbe that were it.”
First published in 2024 in FLACK, a publication from Marlow Writers’ Society.
