General English Level 6 Version 2.1 © 2004 acl Pty Ltd GELEV6 Unit 04 Topic 04.doc "No!" The woman sat up and stared at John with her strange eyes. "Take me home!" She reached into her dress and pulled something out. John could see it was a driver's licence, but when he reached out to take it she pulled it away. "OK, OK," John soothed her. "Just let me see the address." Slowly the woman held up the licence. It was badly faded and John had trouble reading it. He saw the name Jane Doe and an address in a nearby suburb. "OK, Jane," he said, "let's take you home, but after that I'm going to take you to the hospital." The woman remained silent, put the licence in her pocket and once again slumped against the window. John decided that the woman was in shock. He would let her decide when to talk. He started the car and, as he slowly drove along the road, looked for any sign of an accident. Once again he saw nothing. John drove on with the woman silent beside him. He tried to imagine how this woman had come to be on this deserted road on this cold, wet night. After ten minutes he turned off the road into the street on the woman's licence. He stopped in front of a large, darkened house and turned to the woman, "Is this it?" he whispered. The woman didn't speak but lifted her head and nodded. John turned to open the door but as he did the woman grabbed his arm. The coldness of her touch sent a shiver through John. As he looked at her he felt her eyes look right through him. "Tell my mother I love her," she whispered, before falling back into the seat. John hurried up to the house and rang the bell. He was trying to decide what to say when a light came on and the door opened. An old woman stood at the door in a nightdress, blinking away sleep. "Yes?" she said, noticeably annoyed. "I'm sorry," said John, "but I have your daughter, Jane, in my car. She's been in an accident and -" "What?" exclaimed the woman. "I have your daughter, Jane, in my car," John repeated. "She's been in an accident." The woman looked at John and said, "That's not possible. Jane died five years ago." Now it was John's turn to be shocked. "But she's in my car! She asked me to bring her here." John turned and ran back to his car. The young woman was gone. He stood in the rain, staring at the empty passenger seat. He jumped when he felt hand on his hand. It was the old woman. "Come inside," she said, "and I'll tell you everything." For the next hour John sat in the kitchen with Jane's mother. "Exactly five years ago, Jane was coming to see me when she had the accident," she told him. "We'd had a big argument three years before that, and in those three years we didn't see or speak to each other. In fact, I was never to see her again." The woman paused, then continued: "Two years ago, the same thing happened. Two women were driving along the same road. They were stopped by my daughter. They brought her home, only to find she had disappeared when they got there." 128