The Ghost House  Bill Nagelkerke

The Ghost House                        

Bill Nagelkerke
Cuba Press (2022)
Novel, 180 pages, Paperback

 

The Ghost House

"He watches the boats and their crews, wide-eyed. He had no idea that all this activity existed so close to home."

This young adult novel will appeal to young readers as a ghost tale but they will also find it a lively story about discovery, memories, gaining independence and awakening to the world.

Told in the present tense, The Ghost House follows young David Parkhouse as he copes with the after-effects of his life-threatening medical condition. Frustrated by the slowness of his return to a normal life, David leaves his home "in a mad run" and finds himself in Christchurch’s Red Zone.

(Following Christchurch’s earthquakes, several unstable areas were cleared of their houses and fences, and now remain as re-zoned urban pockets of open grassland, trees and bushes.)

Bill Nagelkerke has created a carefully constructed world of ambiguity and mystery within the unsettling but familiar world of the Red Zone.

Amongst the greenery near the river, David spots an old house, hemmed in by trees and bushes.

"Indeed, the house is old, splendidly intact, but also splintered, bruised, wrinkled with age."

The house, with its protective screen of trees, seems real enough. "…Kauri weatherboards and rimu panelling, a ceiling with a high stud, a steep front gable… a large but plain bay window patterned with pieces of coloured glass that are held in place by leaded strips… "

Yet David is uncertain. He feels summoned by the house, but he also has some doubts about it, A mirage? A dream? A ghost house?

Fascinated and drawn by the old villa David begins regular forays into the Red Zone, meeting some of the foragers, bee-keepers and community gardeners who frequent the region.

Things begin to change for David when he encounters Agnes Bright, the elderly owner of the house, and a forthright speaker. "Are you a squatter? A vagabond? A prowler? A thief?," she demands of David, "Tell me. I’m curious to know."

Agnes doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and she has a poor opinion of young David’s manners.

"Did anyone ever tell you its rude to gawp?, " she snaps at him. Nor is she impressed by his acumen. "Your lack of knowledge in this age of ignorance doesn’t surprise me."

David wonders if Agnes is wacky and worries about his own safety but since he is also very curious about her house, he stays to listen to Agnes’s stories about life in its heyday, with boating parties coming to picnic on the river bank. "Now the land has reverted to what it was before," concludes Agnes, "Earthy and green and empty of houses. A wonderful irony don’t you think?"

There are plenty of ironies in the world David is gradually rediscovering; anomolies created by the quakes. But has he seen everything as it really is? He certainly gains a better idea of himself as he delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding the old house. The alarming list of his symptoms which David compiles at the beginning of the story is amusingly shortened by the end. David also manages to come to a better understanding of his poetry-writing sister, Amber, who resents have to ‘baby-sit’ him.

It is heart-warming to find that Ros and Jamie, two characters from Bill Nagelkerke’s first YA novel, Old Bones (2006), turn up briefly in this story. It was Ros who helped Jamie to find pleasure in boating on the Avon River and, sure enough, the loving couple who paddle up to David in their orange kayak have their own fond memories of the Red Zone to add to the mix.

The conclusion is subtly written and moving but also deeply satisfying.

Bill Nagelkerke’s mastery of words is a constant delight. The authority figures who strike alarm throughout the story are recognised as the lanyard people from the ID tags they wear. It may be the best term from this decade to enter the dictionaries.

The cheerful black and white illustrations throughout the novel by Theo Macdonald do the old house justice.

 

Trevor Agnew