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I looked at Mrs Dawson, tears in her eyes after what
the garage owner had said.
I thanked the garage owner and motioned to Mrs Dawson to get in the mini.
I drove back to her house in a sort of daze, dropped her off and said goodbye. Too numb to think anymore I left
her on the pathway to her house.
I was thinking about this for a further few days and whilst I was driving to work, I noticed the Penguin book,
the one Mrs Dawson had left in the car.
Meanwhile, later that afternoon when I finished work, I decided to go and pay a visit to Mrs Dawson and return
the book from her husband's car.
I turned into the Crescent, headed up a little and parked outside the path of no 30. The garage was there, but
definitely not like I saw a few nights ago. This one was definitely not the right garage. The number 30 was still
on the gate to the house, but not in as prisitine condition as it was, the number 30 on the garage had disappeared.
I looked inside the garage, but the windows were filthy on the inside, so I could not see inside.
I opened the gate, now sounding very rusty and entered the front garden, towards the house. I looked up, the house,
lights burning brightly, and someone in the front room.
I knocked on the door and waited for an answer. Nothing. I knocked on the door, this time a little loudly and this
time a dog barked. I didn't remember a dog yesterday, still, maybe her son was taking it out for a walk or something.
A rather disheveled man came to the door, shouting at the dog to stop it barking.
"Who are you?" the man asked in a gruff voice. I said "My name is Alan Smith, I came here to see
Mrs. Dawson."
"Who?"
"Mrs.Dawson" I said.
"There's nobody here by that name"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure, I've lived here nearly ten years". "Ethel", he shouted to his wife - "How
long we lived here?"
A rather portly woman came to the door. "Nearly ten years" she said with a questioning look.
I thought instinctively, I'm in the wrong house, but corrected myself.
"Is this no 30, Maskell Grove" I asked
"Yes it is" said the portly woman.
It can't be, I was here a few nights ago with Mrs.Dawson. I am here to return her book she took out of the car
in the garage, the one her husband was killed in some time ago.
The husband and wife both looked at each other in silence. The husband turned to me and said that they remember
the woman who used to live here, but quite a long time ago.
I asked them about the garage.
"The garage isn't used any more, I can't afford to have it refurbished and I certainly can't afford to have
it pulled down. It's got a concrete base and to dig that up is expensive. It will extend the garden, but at what
cost?"
I asked if there was a car in the garage. He said it had been removed some years ago by the scrapyard. "He
gimme Ten Quid for the car" he volunteered.
"What happened to Mrs. Dawson?"
"I don't know, the house was empty when we moved in, the garden was overgrown, I don't know where you would
go from there. Anyway, we have to leave in a few minutes, don't think I am being rude, but I 'aven't got all day
to talk to you - goodnight!"
I walked away down the path, still not believing what I had seen.
I have a day off tomorrow I thought, I'll see what information I can get from the library.
Next day, bright and early (well, bright and early for me meant 1130) I was at the library looking through all
the old newspapers. I came across the newspaper dated the 18th December 1958, on the front page of the local newspaper
was the article "Man killed in head-on collision". It mentioned Gregory Dawson and another man in the
collision. The other dead man had been driving a lorry.
I skipped a few days and found another headline "Tragedy strikes twice in two days"
Mother of Two, Edwina Dawson died yesterday at her home of gas poisoning. Her husband, Gregory, had died two days
earlier in a fatal car accident involving an out of control lorry. This resulted in death to both drivers.
It was suspected that Mrs. Dawson turned on the gas in the living room and took her own life when her husband had
died.
She is survived by a son and a daughter. Funeral takes place on Friday at St Stephens Church in Audenshaw.
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