A Stranger Visits by Kay Yendole

“Marion are you there? Open the door it’s Win.  Marion!” 

When a strange oriental girl answered the door Win was taken aback.

“Who are you?’ she demanded, a little cross her sister had not told her she had company, which was very unusual for Marion.

“I’m Hua, Marion’s friend,”  she replied.

Suspicious, Win asked where Marion was.

‘She having tea in living room come, see,” was Hua’s response, smiling sweetly, which seemed very false to Win.

‘Are you Marion’s new carer?’  I asked her.

“No, just friend, you want tea?’ was her abrupt reply.

Marion was indeed having tea sitting in front of the television with a large cream bun, a cake and some scones, none of which were good for her diet. Crossing the room to kiss her, Win noticed Marion looked exceptionally happy. With Hua out of the room Win asked Marion who the girl was and how they met.

‘My friend Hua, she’s Chinese, she’s really nice to me, I met her in the café on Hersham Green,” she said excitedly.

“Does she come round often?’ Win asked still suspicious of this sudden new found friend and was shocked when Marion answered,

“She lives here, in the spare room, she’s been here three months now.”

Trying not to over react but feeling even more wary of the stranger, Win said she imagined she must be good company for Marion and the rent must come in handy.

“ She doesn’t pay me rent,” Marion replied, “and she’s bringing her family over especially to meet me for my birthday and we’re going to have a big party.’

 Marion was really excited now and alarm bells rang in Win’s head. She had heard of these ‘cuckoo in the nest’ stories and this was a classic case, Foreigner meets and befriends a lonely old woman of means, and  in this case one with a simple mind, dear Marion, lonely, never had any real friends since childhood. Lived alone since both our parents died and left her the house, not wealthy but comfortably off and here now a stranger ready to take it all off her.

Furious Win marched into the spare room and started searching Hua’s things for a passport and sure enough there it was, a temporary visa too and photographs of the extended family all eleven of them. It all added up to Win – a cuckoo- alright. Well Win was not ‘cuckoo’ and she would put a stop to it.  She turned to face a bitter faced Hua, staring menacingly at her.

‘Get out. Now. Get out before I call the police oh yes and the immigration board,”  Win shouted at her.

In a cloud of expletives, some of them Chinese, Hua thrust her things into a holdall and stormed out.

Marion was crying.  “But she is my friend, what about my party?’

“Don’t worry Marion, I will give you a party, the best party you’ve ever had and I promise to visit you more often so this never happens again, but please promise me you will never invite strangers in again.”