The Unnamed Lady: An Hitchcockian Story

I created this little story using Hitchcock’s movie titles. Just for fun! 🙂

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The Unnamed Lady

It’s the story of a notorious man who knew too much about the birds. He was spellbound by them. I confess that he was also rich and strange, and that’s because he had found a topaz behind a torn curtain. He decided to give it to Marnie, the farmer’s wife, but she was too young and innocent to appreciate it.

The trouble with Harry (that was his name) is that everybody had a suspicion about him. Who was he really? Was he involved in a skin game? Well, that didn’t really bother him. He knew himself, he wasn’t a psycho! He instead decided to give the stone to Mary, a young lady who lived in Elstree. She was the daughter of Mr and Mrs. Smith. Harry thought she lived at the number 17 of the street, but she lived at the number 13. Bad luck? Sat to her rear window, she saw him coming. His attitude was strange, just like if he didn’t want to be seen. He looked like a secret agent.

Harry had big projects for Mary. He wanted to marry her. He gave her the ring and they celebrated their engagement with champagne. The wedding was celebrated at the Jamaica Inn. When they lived for their honeymoon, everybody told them “Bon voyage!”. None of them had any shadow of a doubt this wouldn’t be the trip they had expected.

They went to Austria. There, they learnt how to dance the waltz from Vienna, but when they were asked to perform in front of an audience, they couldn’t as Harry had the stage fright.When they returned to England by boat, this one sank because a saboteur had caused a sabotage aboard. They had to go back on a lifeboat! What a story!

At the harbour, they were welcomed by Mary’s sister, the beautiful Rebecca. Rebecca was born under Capricorn. The lady was worried. She told them that their cousin, Mr. Paradine, was in court due to the disappearance of a lady. He was a suspect. We could indeed read in the Elstree Calling (that was the local newspaper): “The Lady Vanishes”. The Paradine Case wasn’t an easy one to solve. Was he involved in blackmail? Or worst, Murder!?

Rebecca, Mary and Harry often visited Mr. Paradine in jail. To access to his cell, they had to climb 39 steps. Luckily, none of them had the vertigo. Harry, who had made his own investigation, knew Mr. Paradine was the wrong man. He wasn’t guilty. He gave him a rope so he could escape. Harry had hoped to catch a thief with this rope, but he instead chose to be mixed up to this family plot.

Harry, Mary and Rebecca’s downhill by the stairs seemed longer than the short night. Later, Harry was happy to know that Mr. Paradine had succeeded to escape. He now was on a plane going north by northwest, flying over the country like the mountain eagle. He then took a train and met another man. He thought he knew him, but they turned out to be just two strangers on a train. The stranger was a a French foreign correspondent and was about to go to Malagasy for an “Aventure Malgache” has he was saying.

The vanished lady was later found in a place named “The Pleasure Garden”. It was a true heaven. She had gone there with the lodger of her apartment. She had decided to marry him, but had forgotten to tell her family and friends about it. She wanted to be free and knew what she wanted. She wasn’t an easy virtue either. She was known for having been last seen with Mr. Paradine at an onstage presentation of “Juno and the Paycock”, before she vanishing like a white shadow. So, that’s why the poor man was suspected. But he had nothing to do with it. The lady was madly in love with this lodger who used to be a Manxman. He was born on the Isle of Man.

When investigators found about her weeks later, their frenzy wasn’t very high. Yes, they had solve the case, but that one was a little disappointing. They didn’t have to dial m for murder. Luckily for him, Mr. Paradine was able to come back home and join his friends, Mary, Harry and Rebecca. The lady and the lodger stopped by to apologize. The case was closed for Paradine, but Harry decided to have the last word. He said to the lodger: “Dear man, don’t forget to always tell your wife not to worry us anymore!”

THE END