The Children of Hare Hill by Scott McKenzie Page B

Mummy too," he said. "Forever and ever."
    Charlotte and Ben both said, "I love you too" and hugged their father even tighter.
    "Now, close your eyes," he said, "and wish yourselves back to the real world."
    They each closed their eyes, took a deep breath, and they were gone.
     

 
    Part Four
     
    Back to the Real World
     

Chapter 23
     
    "Excuse me," came an unfamiliar female voice in the darkness. There was silence for a moment, then the voice said it again.
    "Excuse me."
    Charlotte opened her eyes. The blazing sunshine came as a shock and all she could see was the dark outline of someone standing over her. She heard her mother's voice.
    "Sorry, I think we fell asleep," Alison said. "Is everything okay?"
    "I have to ask you something."
    "Sure. What do you want to know?"
    "We think someone has been going round the park scattering ashes today. I realise this is a sensitive matter, but was it you?"
    "Scattering ashes?" Alison said, without answering the question.
    "Yes," the woman said. Charlotte realised she was the member of staff who had welcomed them into the park. "We sometimes have visitors that want to scatter the ashes of their loved ones in the park. Most of them do it around the wooden hares, and it looks like someone has done that today."
    "People do that, do they?"
    "Yes, they do. It happens more often than you might think."
    "Well, I'm sorry, I can't help you," Alison said. Charlotte noted the fact that her mother hadn't lied to the woman, at least not technically. The woman left them alone.
    Ben was still asleep. Charlotte rubbed her eyes and looked around. The garden was just as it had been when they had their picnic. The remnants of their lunch were scattered over the rug, but it felt like so long ago that they had sat down in the walled garden.
    The look on her mother's face was one Charlotte had never seen before. It was filled with love, hope, and expectation. Alison wanted to ask her daughter a hundred burning questions, but asking any one of them would make her sound like a crazy person if Charlotte and Ben had just had an afternoon nap and nothing more.
    Charlotte's heart was pounding as she said, "Daddy is very happy. He said he loves you very much."
    Alison's hands went to her mouth. Her eyes squeezed shut, but tears still made their way past her eyelids and down her cheeks. She grabbed her daughter, held her tight, and sobbed. Then she wiped her tears away and said, "What else did he tell you?"
    "He said you were one of the children of Hare Hill when you were a little girl."
    "That's right," she said. "My mother died when I was ten and my father brought me here to scatter her ashes, just like we did today. Your granddad was a child of Hare Hill, too. He never told me how he knew about the magic of Hare Hill and, to be honest, I never wanted to know. At least, I didn't until my eighteenth birthday. I asked him over and over again, but he said he didn't know. It's something that has been passed down from generation to generation, but nobody knows how it all started."
    "What was it like for you?"
    "It was amazing. A miracle. I thought my mother had left me forever, but then I found out I could still see her, play with her, and talk to her for another eight years. She helped me so much through my time at school, being a teenager, and everything to get me ready to be an adult. Sure, your granddad was still there for me, but somehow I just made more of the time with my mother. I guess it was because I knew it would end."
    "What happened the last time you saw her?"
    "We didn't really talk all that much. It was the day before my eighteenth birthday. We just walked around the park one last time and watched the sunset together. Then we said our last goodbyes and I woke up in the walled garden. At that moment, I would have given anything to go back again, but I knew that if I ever had children and they lost someone close to them, I would give them the same chance I had."
    Alison laughed to herself. "You should