THE MR "X" INTERVIEW - Part Two
Damon: What did you think of the map I came up with for you? Does it appear to be fairly accurate in terms of how you remember the place?
Click on the thumbnail to view Damon's map - as annotated by Mr "X"
(94kb)Mr X: I have added some details to it. I had to use MS paint of all things. The morgue was somewhere up the pool end. If you enter the main entrance, turn right, go along... that way. The pool was the other side.
Damon: Okay. Now I'm even more confused. My initial gut instinct was that the morgue was at the southern end near the Animal Lab / Black Room. But you think it was right up the northern end. Actually that makes sense - dare I say, because the boiler room and incinerating things are all up there. A horrid thought.
Mr X: I can't quite remember where the 'stage' room is - but it was behind the pool if you think of looking at the pool from main corridor.
Damon: Absolutely - you're spot on.
Mr X: There was also a large hall there - for jumble sales etcetera.
Damon: That is what we call the stage room. It is a hall - but there's an actual raised stage at the northern end of it. Theatre backdrops, curtains and all. Perhaps you never noticed it because "Hamlet" wasn't on the day you went there or something. And there was a nice old decaying piano in the room off to the side. Knowing the place as well as you do, reading the tale of "The Flincher" must have stirred up all sorts of strange memories. Could you follow the account effectively in your mind?
Mr X: What struck me about your essay was the description of the corridors - a labyrinth. I know a bit about what was where. For instance, once you came in the main entrance, you turn left, then right into a corridor that went to the main corridor...
Damon: The Grand Corridor no less.
Mr X: Yes. And parallel to that short one - which had windows on the right looking out to the square lawn in the centre - was the Yellow Corridor. There were offices there. This would be on your left before you came to the diagonal corridor, if you were heading down the main one. I have just paused and looked at the map. Did you know by the way, that the main corridor is longer than the Queen Mary?
Damon: I do now. It's a daunting sight when you stumble upon it for the first time, I'll tell you that much. Probably as close to the feeling of shining a torch through a little dark hole and seeing Tutankhamun's treasures as I'll ever experience.
Mr X: Hairs are standing up on my body. I do really need to read the essay again. But, looking at the location of the Flincher...
Damon: What?
Mr X: I am spooked. I'm not quite sure of where you are describing in some of it - the hydrant.
Damon: Well, I said "hydranty thing" - it may not have been an actual hydrant. My mind just keeps saying "red metal" and I'm only ever going to find out for sure if I go back and have another look.
Mr X: There was a hydrant at the end of the diagonal corridor, near the Flincher spot. The area you describe as "off to the left" when you come in the main entrance was the outpatients bit. Tiny really. I'm pausing to think as memories come back.
Damon: Take your time.
Mr X: When you describe the "maternity wing" - it would be at the lower end of the corridor. Ward 1 was the maternity ward. I think there may have been a maternity "section" around there I never saw. Somewhere around the region of the diagonal corridor which was on your left as you got towards the bottom. This area reminds me of one of our ghost stories which I'll tell you later. Through those bottom doors down a slope was the Library. If you went around to the right - outside, beyond Ward 1 - you would come to the Animal Lab. I don't know if that is the proper name for it, but it's what we called it..
Damon: We've always called it "The Black Room" - which is self explanitory now because it's all burnt out - but I unmistakably know we're talking about the same building. I thought at first it might have been the morgue - until we ventured inside. And that took a while to happen, because it was amongst the creepiest places in the whole hospital.
Mr X: It was disused, slightly derelict and scary as fuck as long back as the 1970s. I would never go that close to it. I am not sure, but I think that it may have been burned a long while back. We could see it if we walked down a bit from the end of our ward. When you got close, it stank, and there were cages everywhere, broken windows too I'm sure. And that was back in 76!
Damon: Sounds plausible. The place is a wreck.
Mr X: And did you know there is a path through the woods? Well two, kind of...
Damon: Near the Animal Lab? Yes. We walked through the woods to Cliveden from there one evening. We emerged at the far end of the great lawn and had to avoid all these chauffeur-driven cars ferrying guests to-and-fro what was clearly some big social evening party-thing there. It was quite dodgy actually - and we were nearly caught several times in-between dodging in and out of the shrubbery.
Mr X: Ha! Well, the first - a track my dad used to drive around, went from near your "jump over the wall spot", round the left of the whole building to end of ward 2/3.
Damon: Yeah, that's just the path under the pine trees that follows the perimeter wall - not exactly a "secret passage."
Mr X: The other, was from near the Animal Lab.
Damon: That must be our Cliveden one.
Mr X: Yes. Well it went away towards the right, that is if you exit ward 3, turn left, then go right after the Animal Lab. It went quite a way, then came to a point high above Cookham village.
Damon: Whoa - we never took it that far. You must have had some fantastic times there. But for a child, being away from home can be a traumatic experience. Now, you weren't just away from home for extended periods. You were away from home; miles from anywhere in the middle of a dark forest - and as if that wasn't enough - confined in one of the scariest buildings I've ever seen in my entire life. How on earth did you cope with that?
Mr X: There are 2 types of "scariness". There's the one where you are in hospital and maybe have to have a blood test or something. And the other one is that fear that you remember for the rest of your life. I think you know what I am talking about.
Damon: I'm all ears.
Mr X: Well, apart from the Animal Lab, and the morgue, there's the incidences of people dying. Not a common event, but disturbing at a young age. The fact that many soldiers may have died there never really crossed our minds. Sleeping in a bed, where above your head, the old repeatedly painted window frames never allowed the windows to close tight, letting a draught sweep past you as you lay there with only the dimmest "hospital nightlight" on, surrounded by woods and the trenches outside your window where some spooky fiend could - and it was often claimed did - hide, would be enough for any 12 year old. It was a test of guts at times.
Damon: To me, you've just described the place as it is now - as a derelict building. No wonder I've always thought that I could never have imagined a time when it was a working hospital. From what you're saying, it makes the thought even harder to comprehend in that it even looked derelict when it was occupied. That's horrifying. How did you get through it all?
Mr X: Well, we did have some fantastic fun there too. There was a daring group of 2 or 3 boys that used to make a trek to the morgue on dark nights. They'd set off, usually in secret, and then return exhilarated. Invariably, one of them would turn and run, at the doors, making the others shit themselves. I think I made that trip once.
Damon: Good old childhood pranks.
Mr X: Exactly. When someone new came along, the "regs" would often play Elton John's "Funeral for a friend". I don't know if you have ever heard it, but as far as I remember, it starts with bells chiming. I am imagining wind too, but...
Damon: I get the picture. "Black Sabbath" would also work effectively in that situation. It's possibly a tad scarier than anything off "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."
Mr X: I confess to once throwing a light book or similar from my bed, its fluttering pages inducing a boy to scream out that there was a bat flying towards him. Hehehe. There does seem to be something about that place being haunted.
Damon: Haunted. Now, there's a word I find interesting. Tell me how you associate the word "haunted" with the CRCMH.
