Old Tom a short story by Charles Roberts

 

          Tom lived quietly on his own in the ground floor flat, he didn’t bother anyone, in fact very few people in the block knew of his existence he was so quiet.  Mable, who lived directly above Tom knew of him though and visited him once a week just to make sure he was all right.  She didn’t know how old he was, but guessed at around eighty.  She thought that he must have been in the Navy because there were pictures of war ships on the walls and models of war ships on the sideboard and windowsills.

          She never asked, and he never told, what he had done before he retired, but he was always well dressed and polite when Mable saw him in the street, and his flat was always clean and tidy.  She used to say that he was a proper gentleman of the ‘old school’.  Other people in the flats might see him going out and about, catching the bus into town, or coming home carrying his shopping, but he wouldn’t speak, just nod his head if he saw and recognised them.  But he was never rude, if they spoke to him then he would reply with a good morning or evening.

          Once a year people would see Tom walk to the bus stop carrying a small suitcase, and he would be gone for a few weeks; gone for a holiday they would say, I wonder where he goes they’d ask their neighbours, Mable in particular because she knew him the best, but she had to tell them that she didn’t know, that he didn’t confide in her and lived his own life, but it was always the same few weeks every year.  In fact you could almost set your clock by Tom’s coming and goings.

          This year was no exception, someone said that they saw him walking to the bus stop with his case.  The weather was unusually hot, the country was having a heat wave and everyone had their windows open during the night just to try and cool down, even though the noise from the local pub was unusually loud.  Mable was the first to notice it, a strange smell coming from somewhere, at first she thought that the drains were blocked, or it might be the river, which was close by, so she kept her windows closed to try and keep the smell out.

          But that smell was getting worse by the day.  It’s as though something has died and is decomposing they said, the council was called in and they searched the area, but didn’t find anything.  They disinfected the rubbish bins and sprayed disinfectant on all the paths round the block, checked the drains and put disinfectant down them.  Once all that was done no one could smell that rotten smell anymore.  Someone said that old Tom was lucky he was away on his holidays because of this upheaval.

          A few days later someone said that they had seen Tom come home, well they had seen him in town walking from the railway station towards the bus station with his small case, so assumed that he was catching the bus home.  A couple of days later Mable said that she heard a noise downstairs, someone moving about, probably dusting and sweeping because it sounded like furniture being moved; and she knew what Tom was like, always clean and tidy.

          She was cleaning her windows the next day when she saw Tom going out with a carrier bag tucked under his arm, he did that when he went to the supermarket which was a ten minute walk away.  I must go down and see him, she thought, then carried on with her cleaning and thought no more about it.

          Two days later Mable walked down the stairs and knocked on Tom’s door, there wasn’t an answer, but that wasn’t unusual and she had her key with her.  Tom had given her a key just in case there was an emergency, she unlocked the door and opened it; a swarm of flies flew out and the stench hit her like a brick wall.  Mable held her nose and walked into the flat, Tom wasn’t in the living room so she went into his bedroom and saw him, what was left of him on the bed. 

          She ran out and upstairs to her flat and called the police, they arrived ten minutes later and they in turn called the coroner.  He estimated that Tom had been dead for at least two weeks possibly three, but Mable said that was impossible as he’d been seen in town coming back from his holiday, and she had seen him going out to do his shopping two days ago.