…

I woke up and immediately felt cold.

It was odd because when I had gone to bed the previous evening, it had been quite warm, after one of those balmy autumn days.  We had all been basking in what seemed to be an endless heatwave and finally getting some relief, and the last thing I’d seen was storm clouds gathering on the horizon.

It had been the strangest of summers, unprecedented, and as some of the more radical climate change so-called experts said, the beginning of the end.

The more rational scientists, the people the government relied on to advise them, had said that changes were occurring though not in a manner that rang ring alarm bells, but it was not part of the normal weather patterns.

Storms like that being predicted were normal, what was not normal, was feeling cold.

Also, I’d woken to an eerie darkness because there didn’t seem to be any lights on in the room. A few minutes later, that darkness had given way to a murky light as dawn broke, and I shivered.

Something was not right.

I looked at the clock, and it had stopped.  I checked my phone, and it had a seventy per cent charge where it should be full.  The charger was not working.  A few seconds later, I tried the light switch.

Nothing. There was no power.

Another shiver went through me, but this time, it was generated by fear.  I was being drawn to the window, and then when I looked out, what I saw took my breath away.

What in hell’s name had happened?

Outside, there was nothing but snow as far as the eye could see.

I’d gone to sleep after spending a few hours on a warm balmy night with Tricia, the waitress from the flat above, over a cold bottle of white wine.

Over the last few weeks, we had talked about this, about that, about nothing at all, slowly discovering that spending these few hours together relieved the boredom and inanity of our mundane lives.

For me, it had given me the hope of something else in the future than of being nothing of consequence and going nowhere.

That landing we had sat on only a few hours before was now deep in snow.  If it was January, I wouldn’t give it a second thought, but this was September.

I threw on some warm clothes, buried in the bottom drawer and smelling of mothballs because I wasn’t supposed to need them for a few more months.  It looked bleak outside, and I wanted to see just how bad it was close up.

After another look out the window to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, I went downstairs where there were a dozen or more people in the foyer and more out on the sidewalk, most of whom had looks of stunned disbelief.

As I descended the stairs it got colder, and with the door open, we could all feel the breeze swirling the lightly falling snow outside and in through the opening.  The building supervisor was rugged up, standing by the door, making sure it closed after someone entered or left.

I knew most of those downstairs.  I also recognised the looks on their faces.

Fear.

“What’s happening,” I asked.  “Aside from the obvious.”

Mr Jacobson, the oldest member of our little enclave and the most educated, peered out the door and then looked at me.  “It seems winter has come early this year.”

There was a hint of irony in his tone.  The previous day had been in the low seventies, and the weather forecast had been for rain.  Instead of rain, we got snow.  How was that possible?  I’m sure he would tell me if I asked, but I was not sure I’d understand him.  He was a scientist in his previous life before forced retirement.

“Or, if it isn’t that…”  I said, perhaps expecting him to complete the sentence.  I knew he had a thing about climate change, even though everyone else had dismissed it when it seemed the planet’s climate appeared to have readjusted itself a few years back.

Some said it was a miracle. Some said we were all worried about nothing, but some said it was a sign, one last chance to stop going down the path we were on.  If it was a reprieve, we ignored it.

Mr Jacobsen had told everyone that adjustment was only temporary, but he’d been saying the same thing for the last few years, and nothing had happened.  Now he was simply the man who cried wolf.

“Mother Earth has been waiting patiently to take her revenge, and because we preferred to be complacent, this is just the beginning.”  Mr. Jacobson wasn’t saying it out of spite, I believed he knew what was happening but couldn’t explain it in words any of us would understand.

But Harry Johnson, the man who knew everything but knew nothing, threw in his two cents worth.  “You scientists have been banging on about this nonsense for decades, and nothing has happened.  This is an aberration.  Something had to give after an abnormally hot summer.  It’ll be gone in a day or two. Mark my words.”

Mr Jacobson shook his head, but he said nothing more.  There was no point. No one was going to believe him now.  “There’s no power,” he said to me.  “And it’s going to get colder.  They should have insulated the power stations when they had the chance, but they didn’t.  My advice, to everyone, get some extra blankets.”

“Or head south,” someone yelled out.

“You think it’s going to be better there?”   Someone else asked.

“Out in that cold.”  Another resident, one from a few floors above me, came in from outside shivering as if to emphasise his point.  “You wouldn’t get far. The police are saying it only goes as far south as Washington, but everyone has the same idea, and the roads are clogged with people trying to get out of the city.  They also say we’re actually not as badly off as those further north.”

“I didn’t see any police outside,” Harry Johnson said, and I’ve been out a few times.”

“They’re moving from building to building, telling people to stay indoors and keep warm until the power is back on.  There is only limited transport options and office buildings and shopping centres are closed due to the blackout.  They say we should tune into the radio for further information. Didn’t any of you take notice after the last disaster when we were told to be prepared in case it happened again?”

“That was different,” Harry muttered.

“How?  This is worse.  Then they rationed power, but we had power, and trucks and transport could move.  This time, we have no power at all, and nothing can move because of the snow and icy conditions.  This is going to take a while for the authorities to fix. If the weather changes out there, and it doesn’t look like it will change any time soon.  Go to your apartments and keep warm.  Find a radio and keep yourselves informed.”

There was murmuring, and a few complaints about people telling them what to do, but within five minutes, they were all trudging back up the stairs.  With nothing more to see, I went back up the stairs myself.  When I got to my apartment, Tricia was outside the door, dressed in her ski gear.

“What happened?  Where’s the heat.  I just woke up freezing.”

“Mr Jabobson says it’s Mother Nature taking revenge on us horrible humans.”

“The mad scientist?”

It was one of several names the residents gave him.

“I don’t think he’s as mad as we want to believe he is.  He says it’s going to get colder and we need extra blankets.”

“I could get mine, bring them down, and we could share if you like.  I know you’d like to be with me as much as I would like to be with you.  It’s as good a reason as any.  I am assuming you like me as much as I like being with you.”

I hadn’t expected whatever we had to move quickly, but I had thought my feelings towards her were not fully reciprocated.  I didn’t want to take advantage of the situation, but it was a sensible idea.

“I do, and I’m happy if you’re happy.  I don’t think the heat or the power will be back in a hurry, so we are not likely to be going far.”

“Then let’s go up and fetch the blankets.”

It was coincidental that recently, I had been reading about doomsday events.  The oil crisis was not likely to happen again, and someone had thought about that Hormuz bottleneck, built alternative pipelines, and considered a lot more scenarios again after the recent mini-crisis.  Then there was the possibility of a meteor crashing into the earth and knocking us out of orbit, but that was a bit more extreme and unlikely.

Nor was it because I was one of those prepper types who were hoarding necessities in an underground bunker, but because for a few months, about a year ago, the Middle East went up in flames and the oil supply briefly stopped, again.

It just proved that we should never put politicians in charge of trying to de-escalate a potential war.  For those few months, it began with anarchy until the order was restored, and everything was rationed until common sense prevailed.

We saw what could happen, and it wasn’t pretty.

This, however, was a different problem.  What could be a prelude to the next ice age had just arrived on our doorstep, and it would be interesting to know what was happening, even get a weather report that could tell us it was temporary. If we had learned anything from the past, people needed to be kept informed.

Even if they told us a lie, that everything would get better soon, it would be better than nothing.  After the last crisis, everyone was aware that there had been precious little truth spoken as time passed, and inaction was met with unrest.  It came very close to martial law, and no one wanted to see that again.

After that, I bought a small battery-operated radio, knowing there would be a designated radio station that had its own power supply to advise people of what was happening and what to do in a crisis like this; once Tricia and I were comfortable and warm, we tuned in to the station. It wasn’t confidence-inspiring, and the deadpan announcer’s voice only added a sense of the sinister to the news.

It definitely wasn’t good.

What we did learn; the snow basically blanketed the whole of the northern hemisphere from the north pole to the latitude below Washington, though there were snowy conditions for a further hundred miles south past that point.  It was similar to the southern hemisphere, where it reached as far up as the bottom of Tasmania, an island south of mainland Australia.

And it wasn’t predicted to stop snowing for a few days at the very least.  The poles were apparently clouded over and in a similar situation to being fogged in.  There, the temperatures were a lot, lot colder.

No one was commenting on why it was happening, only that it was an unexpected turn of events that was not expected to last, and that the city’s services would be soon operating on a reduced scale, predicted to be within 24 hours, and that people, unless they were designated as working for essential services,  should stay home until advised otherwise.

They acknowledged that power stations had been temporarily disabled by an abnormal amount of snow.  The drifts had also caused problems in the substations and along the feeder lines, whatever that meant.

Then, the message looped after saying to stay tuned for any change in the situation.  At the very least, they would advise the latest weather report on the hour.  That was twenty minutes away.

We both listened to the weather report, and we both agreed that the wording was a signal.  Not necessarily to us, but to others, and that was most likely to say things were not going to get better in the short term and to prepare for trouble.

The announcement underlined the necessity that we all stayed in place, the conditions would soon improve, and, shortly after that, another announcer said there would be limited power returning in a matter of hours.

A specific number wasn’t mentioned.  It was as close to saying that no one knew definitely.

After several minutes of a rather sombre symphony playing softly in the background, both of us agreed it was weird because New York was never this quiet, ever. Tricia said to no one in particular, “What are they not saying?”

She was right.  The announcer had spoken for nearly half an hour and told us nothing we already didn’t know. In words we really didn’t understand.

“My father always said that when people start using big words, they’re trying to hide the truth.”

“It’s not getting better, is it?”

“We don’t know.  Mr Jacobson, the man you call the mad scientist, said that winter had come early, and while he made it sound like a joke, I don’t think he meant it that way.  I’m going to see him and ask him what he’s going to do.”

“Don’t you think he’s crazy?”

Everybody did.  Especially after he lost his job after telling anyone who would listen that exactly what happened was going to happen.  Maybe if it had been five years ago, someone might have listened.

“No.”

Outside the door, we could hear raised voices.  Had Harry decided to tell Mr Jacobson to keep his theories to himself.  “I’d better go and see what’s happening.”

By the time I got the door open, it was to see Jacobson being escorted by two policemen.  I ran up to them before they descended the stairs, yelling out, “He’s not mad, just concerned like all of us.”

He stopped and turned to me.  “It’s fine, Alex.  I’m going to have a talk with the meteorologists.  They requested I go and meet with them.  Remember what we talked about a few months back?”

For the moment, I couldn’t, but I had made a note of it on my phone.

“No matter.  When you do, it’s Z.  Do you understand?  Z.”

I repeated it, and he nodded.  Then they continued down the stairs, a few of the residents following.

On the way back to my apartment, I tried to remember what it was we were talking about.  He had been, I remembered now, rather disjointed, as though he was having a hard time articulating what he wanted to say. He’d been more distracted than normal, but I had put it down to the anniversary of his wife’s death.  It had hit him very hard, and I could only imagine what it would be like for him.

I went in and closed the door behind me.  Tricia was still under the blankets. “What was it?”

“Jacobson, your mad scientist, was being taken away by the police.  He says he’s been taken to see the meteorologists.”

“Or the loony bin.  I heard Harry say more than once Jacobson was a loose cannon.”

“Harry wouldn’t know his ass from his elbow.  Jacobson reminded me of something we talked about a few months ago.  It might not be relevant; he was rambling more than usual at that time.  He asked me to write it down, so all I have to do is find the notes on my cell phone.”

Which then took the next two hours to go through.  I hadn’t realised that I’d accumulated so much junk over the years, nor so many photographs of New York all through the year, a visual reminder of what it was like before the snow.

“We will have to think about food soon,” Tricia said. “I usually only cater from day to day, like everyone.”

It was probably what a lot of people inside and outside the building were also thinking about, and given what happened the last time food supplies were interrupted, it could get ugly very quickly.

That was why I stocked up on some essential long-life items like milk, canned meat, vegetables, and fruit.  Enough for two people to last a month.

“The thing I do remember from talking to Jacobson several months ago was to store up some essential items in case the oil stopped again.  He said it was prudent these days to have supplies because of how things are in the Middle East.”

Tensions never die down there, and rockets were always flying about threatening to extend the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians into a wider war with Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.

Who knew we’d have something else to worry about.

“For you, perhaps.”

“For two.  I have always included you in my disaster plan.”

“Then believe me when I say you are the first.”

“I know how that feels.  But only if you want me to.  I don’t want you to feel obligated or have to do anything in return.”

She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.  “I know.  Now, what was the mad scientist trying to tell you?”

I found the relevant document file and scrolled through the pages, a whole mass of disjointed and in places almost unintelligible notes.  Jacobson had been reciting stuff so fast that I could hardly get it down.  His wife had been an expert on shorthand, and he forgot that I was not her.

But then I got to the section that had a ‘Z’ on it, in capitals and bolded so that it stood out.  He must have slowed down by then.

“It says that Plan Z was to get ready for an ELE event.”

“ELE, what is that?”

“Can’t remember, hang on.”  I scrolled through a few more pages and then stopped reading.  It was not on the page, but I suddenly remembered what it was.

An apt description of what happened when the meteor struck Earth and killed all the dinosaurs.  I said, “It’s what is known as an Extinction Level Event.”

“I thought that was when meteors were coming.”

“It could also be a deadly virus like Covid, or an ice age, though that wouldn’t kill everyone, but it would make things very difficult to survive.  Maybe that’s not what he specifically meant. Perhaps it’s just some of the suggestions he made if such a thing happened.”

“He did say z, plan z.”

“No, just Z, but he did say it was what we had been talking about, and that was the only z I can remember, or made notes on. And if they’re pulling him back to be an advisor after scoffing at his ideas, then what they’re not telling us is quite telling if you ask me. If you don’t mind the irony of it all.”

It was met with a wan smile from her.  “What did you think we should do?”

I shrugged.  “If It was just me alone, I’d probably head south.  There’s no transport, so I’m not sure what I’d use.”

“And go where?”

“Always wanted to go to California, and that’s past the current freeze line.  Somewhere where there’s power for starters, though.”

“I’ve got a car.  It’s not a very good one, but I used to hang out in my dad’s workshop, and I pretty much know everything there is about cars and trucks.”

“And you waitress?”

“Girl mechanics don’t get far, just hit on.  Lasted a week before I hit one jerk with a spanner.  They’re very useful for teaching jerks lessons.  Do you have any hidden talents?”

“Aside from washing dishes, not really.  I can read, not comics, but textbooks and learn from them.  Very good at trivia questions. I can program computers, and I have a funny little program running at the moment collecting every digitised book on the planet.  Useful, of course, to no one but me.”

“Every book?”

I shrugged.  “That can be freely downloaded, yes.”

“Why?”

“The usual reason, because I can.”

“How about speaking other languages, like Russian, or German?”

“Yes, several.  Why?”

“Another quirk, I guess, that I have too.  I can speak about six or seven different languages.  I just can for some reason.  Helps to talk to the customers at the diner when their English is kaput.”

Interesting.  But time for a change of subject.  “Does the car have petrol?”

“Diesel.”

“Spare fuel?”

“Some.  So, we have a car, we have food, we have blankets and warm clothes.  Still might not be enough.  We certainly will not get on the roads with the stay-at-home order in place, but when things get better, it’s a possible plan.”

Another announcement had just been made, that if you had no reason to be on the street, stay at home, until further notice.  There was also a specific reference to looting and the fact that perpetrators would be apprehended.  This time, they were not waiting until everything went to hell.

“The question is, and don’t take this the wrong way if I was to consider going anywhere, I would not want to leave you here, not while this is all going on.  And if it does pass, I would consider going south, but again, I don’t want to leave you unless…”

“I have something better to do with my life, or I have a secret boyfriend or ex-husband, or maybe I just don’t like you.  What you see is what you get, Alex.  I don’t want to be alone, and yet that’s what always happens.  The type of guys I get to meet, well, you’re not one of them.  Let’s see what happens in the next few days when we are so close; bad habits are bound to surface.  I’m not perfect.”

“Neither am I.  Nor do I have many dates.  Talking to you on the fire escape has been the highlight of my life.  Make of that what you will.”

It was hard to tell what she was thinking, though, at times, it was easy enough to gauge her mood.  At the moment, with everything, there was an element of fear, tinged with something else.  But the fact she wanted to stay with me and see what happened was a good sign.

She took my hand in hers and held it with both of hers.  “I’m not sure if I should curse or thank this weather.  But one thing is for sure, it brought us together in a way I never expected, though part of me was hoping something might develop.  Lives such as ours don’t give scope for much, but it doesn’t mean we can’t try.  Plan for two.  I think soon, we’re going to be in for a hell of a ride if we can get in front of it.  That said, in the meantime, what have you got to eat?”

…

©  Charles Heath  2024

…

…

“What the hell?” Amelia asked her grandmother, somewhat exasperatedly, after suddenly waking, and finding her missing.

Despite any misgivings that briefly passed through her mind, Amelia threw on some clothes and went looking for her. If this was home, she would not be caught dead outside without the proper preparation, a half-hour system at the very least for makeup application and clothes selection.

Her instructions from her parents were quite clear.  Don’t let her grandmother out of her sight.  It was not that she couldn’t be trusted. It was just that she didn’t see the evil in people, and Italy was a whole different world than she was used to.

“Breakfast.  I did give you a shake, then tell you where I was going?”

“You should have tried harder.”

Her grandmother gave her one of those looks, one that bordered on disdain with a tinge of incomprehension, one she was getting used to because of the generation gap, and things were getting lost in translation

“Who was he?  Some rando imposing on you?”

There was that look again.  “What is a rando?”

“Some guy who comes up and tries it on.”

“In the restaurant over coffee?  I should be that lucky a guy would be interested in me that way.  I think your imagination is a little too fertile, young lady.  He’s just another tourist, and I imposed on him, not the other way around.”  She looked her granddaughter up and down.  “You look a mess.”

“Well, I was worried you might have gotten into trouble.”

“Your father has so little faith in me, I see.  This isn’t going to work if you’re going to stress out every time I go for breakfast and you’re still asleep.  You need to change your habits and be ready when I am.  I’ll wait here until you get yourself together. And now you’ve enlightened me about randos; I’ll try to avoid them if possible.”

Amelia simply shook her head.  She was between that proverbial rock and a hard place and regretted volunteering to chaperone her grandmother.  Of course, the alternative was equally impossible.

She needed to get away from her so-called friends and that weasel of an ex-boyfriend.  The idea of enduring the summer holidays with any of them was painful enough, but this gig was probably going to be worse.

She compromised on her morning routine, going with the minimal makeup look and a summery dress that she wouldn’t wear back home.  It was not likely she was going to run into anyone she knew.

Back down in the foyer almost fifteen minutes after she left her grandmother in one of the lounges, she spilled out of the elevator and quickly strode into the foyer where … no one was sitting in any of the chairs.

“Damn,” she muttered under her breath.  “Now, where is she?”

Her grandmother was going to be a nightmare to supervise.  Her father said as much, not exactly denigrating a woman for being independent and also having a mind of her own, but he seemed to be bordering on a man who had definite ideas about a woman’s place.  She was surprised her mother put up with it.

The one conversation she had with her grandmother on serious stuff like her life, was about how she had spent more of her time trying to fight against the strict social norms of her day, that she be a dutiful wife and mother, and not entertain any of those nonsensical ideas of going to work or going places, and worse still doing it on her own.

It was everything that Amelia had now without questioning how it came to pass; just that it was a right she had.  Like most girls her age, she knew nothing about how hard it had been just to get some of those rights.

She went over to the door and looked out.  Out by the dock where the Vaporetto came to collect and drop them off, she saw her talking to that same man and an Italian woman in a very smart suit.

She dashed out and almost ran into several people who made an unpredictable turn outside the entrance.

…

“Ah,” her grandmother said, “just in time.  Jay, this is one of my four granddaughters, Amelia.  She was the one I was telling you about.”

I looked at her, making out the similarities between the generations.  Same eyes, same amusement lurking there.  “I’ve never been called a rando before, but in any case, it has a slightly different meaning in my generation, which I was just telling your grandmother about.”

Amelia glared at her grandmother.  “Did you have to mention that?  Really?”  Scratch that idea she was not going to suffer embarrassment.

The grandmother added, “She generally speaks in riddles, and I can never understand a word of it.  This new teen language…”

“Oddly enough, I know what you mean.  I have a few teens and a few older grandchildren who, as you say, talk in riddles if they talk at all.”

“Gran, we should be getting on the boat.  We have places to see.”

The Vaporetto was just pulling into the dock.

“About that, Jay here has a private guide, and it seems to him overkill for just one person to benefit. He thinks we might benefit from Conchetta’s experience and knowledge.  I’m inclined to agree, just for today, until we get our bearings.  Unless, of course, you want to do battle with the guidebook and impress me with your Italian language skills?”

Put that way, how could Amelia refuse.  Her Italian was awful, and the last thing she wanted was to take charge of going to see old buildings and boring museums.  And don’t get her started in the number of churches…

“Just for today then, as you say.”

Rather than take the hotel’s vaporetto, Conchetta had arranged for a private water taxi that also had catering.  It was going to be a warm day, and we would need water.

I was right when I suggested that having such a knowledgeable guide all to myself was almost criminal, and when I’d ascertained from Millie that she had no other plans than getting the Vaporetto to St Mark’s Square and wandering around, it seemed simple.

To me, anyway.  I hadn’t factored in the possibility of a somewhat truculent granddaughter, but then I got the impression she had been sent against her will.  It was a surprise she was not at home with her friends.

It seemed there was a little tension between the two, which made me think that the granddaughter might have been co-opted as a nursemaid, and this trip was punishment.

Or perhaps she was a little suspicious of me and whatever my motives were.  There were none, but given time to think about it, it did seem like a pickup line, though given my age, that would be almost ridiculous.

But that notion of being called a rando did bring the matter back to a level of reality.  A foreign country and a foreign tourist, was anyone really safe?

I assured them both that I had no other intentions other than to share my good fortune, and she seemed to accept it.  After all, it was never my intention to seek out a female company or anything like that.  I was quite content to be on my own.

We took a roundabout route and covered a few canals and sightseeing points, which Conchetta was quite happy to mark on the map, along with a chart of the route we were taking.

She also gave us a history lesson, because nearly everything was as old as the hills, as my mother used to describe old stuff.  Of course, my idea of questions, when prompted, was more relatable to the topic.

Amelia had a more fertile imagination, like I’d expect of a teen, and asked about how many bodies were fished out of the canals and did the mafia run everything in Venice.  I was sure they didn’t, but it was not a question Conchetta was going to answer definitively.  In fact, she seemed amused at how Americans and the English thought.

She was very patient without being condescending.  In her place, I might have been more so.  It was just another painful reminder of how our children had abandoned their responsibility to bring their children up properly.

After the canal exploration, the morning was spent in St Mark’s Square, and then the Palace of the Doges.  My highlight was the Whispering Bridge and the story behind it.  Along with a lot of very old paintings.  Amelia, predictably, was bored witless.

When it came to lunch, I politely suggested they might like to join me, though, at the time, I was not sure what Concetta had organised.

To Amelia, it signified the end of a morning of looking at boring stuff and asked if we could have lunch at a real Italian restaurant, and I could see Conchetta roll her eyes, slightly before her grandmother did, so in a quiet moment I asked Conchetta if such a venue existed given the touristy nature of the island, and melting pot of cuisines and visitors tastes.

Fortunately, she did, and I paid her extra to be our culinary host.

It was a divine lunch for many reasons, to have the authentic food, completely dissected and described with the history behind it, the authentic wine to match the food, and the company despite the youthful brashness.

At the end of the day, when the taxi was taking them back to the hotel,  Millie was sitting in the cabin looking like she was having a nap, not very far away from Amelia, who seemed lost in thought.

“A penny for those thoughts, Am.”

The girl turned and smiled.  “It was not as bad as I thought, even if I had to endure all that old stuff.”

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg, dear.  Tomorrow, we’re going to visit churches.”

“Really?”

“You might not be interested, but I am.  And the food and wine.  It certainly pays to have someone like Conchetta along for the ride.”

“We could never afford that.  This guy must be very wealthy.”

Millie looked back into the cabin.  Not in the normal sense perhaps, she thought, because not once did he make mention of anything that gave an indication he was rich, unlike so many of his compatriots. Big, loud, brash, and demanding.

There was more to that story, but this was a one-day thing.  She had been reluctant at first to agree to his proposal, perhaps a little suspicious of his motives, but as the day progressed, it was clear to her there were none.

“Perhaps, but it is none of our business.”

The girl came back to sit next to her grandmother.  “Perhaps,” she said in almost a whisper, “you could cosy up to him, and we could ride his coattails around Europe.”

Millie put on her most shocked expression.  “I thought you said he was a rando trying it on.”

“I might have been a little hasty.  I don’t mean, you know, just if he offers, I’m sure it would be better than us two trying to muddle through.”

“I won’t ask you to explain ‘you know’, but I don’t think we can impose on him.  If he suggests it, I’ll think about it, but this is about you and I going on what your father described as the trip of a lifetime.”

“Yeah.  Dad says a lot of stuff, but none of it belonging to this century.  As you wish.”

I woke when the boat gently bumped against the dock, and Conchetta gently shook my shoulder.

“We are here,” she said.

“My goodness.  What did I miss?”

“Nothing of any consequence.  It has been a long day, even for me.”

“Perhaps less formal clothes tomorrow?”

“If only I could.”

At the front of the boat, Millie and Amelia were about to get off.  I looked over time the pontoon and gasped.

A surprise.  Jasper, second son to my daughter Samanthan was waiting, that usual lopsided grin and shock of red hair making him stand out.

That and the fact he was wearing a suit and looked every bit the formal figure like his father.

I could see that Amelia had seen him too and had that effect he had on women of any age.

I came up behind them.  “I see you’ve seen my grandson, Jasper, though why he’s here is a surprise, and hopefully not because something has gone wrong.”

“You have to be kidding, he’s your grandson?  He’s like in every magazine on the planet.  He is that guy that does those ads isn’t he?”

The red hair sometimes gave it away, but yes, his mother was one of those stage mothers.  The movie world shunned him, but the advertisers didn’t.

“Sometimes.  He has better things to do with his time.”

We were helped off the boat, and he came over and gave me a hug.  I then introduced him to the two women.  Amelia all of a sudden couldn’t speak.

“Dumb question,” I said to Jasper to break the moment, ” but why are you here?”

“I had to get away from mom.  She was making all these plans, none of which included my input, so I got on a plane and came here.  Boring churches seemed so much better than modelling gigs.”

“Then just in time.  That’s our tomorrow.  Oh, sorry, Millie, if you want to that is.”

“We’d love to, “Amelia said before her grandmother could take a breath.

I looked at her, and she smiled.  “Of course, we’d love to.”

In that moment both Jasper and Amelia were heading towards the hotel looking almost like they’d been together forever.

Millie watched them with an amused expression, then headed up the ramp towards the hotel.  “This morning, Amelia was telling me this was going to be the most boring month of her life.”

“That might also be the case for Jasper.  I wasn’t expecting to see anyone, but my daughter pretends to worry about me.  You’ll be glad to know Jasper is the sanest of the seven.  Perhaps I am glad he’s here.  And I don’t mean to put you in an awkward position.  If you have other plans for tomorrow…”

“I have not, and today was a good day.  One day at a time, I’ve been saying for a while.   I’m sure it’s a philosophy you can understand.”

She smiled, and I held out a hand to assist her in going up the ramp.  “Very much so.  Now, any particular churches you want to see?”

…

©  Charles Heath  2024

…

…

I had no idea which way Jamieson would go. 

I had damning evidence, and he would ponder why I didn’t play that card back when he was trying to stop the publication of that first story, which was essentially a parody of his discovery.

It was true that Antoine had been totally discredited, not in small part by Aristotle Jamieson himself, and when he had died in the so-called accident, any controversy that had been lingering died with him.

It was almost too convenient, and I didn’t want to think that my investigation of the Jamiesons had anything to do with his death, but I guess it had, and it wasn’t hard to guess who did it.  Jamieson may not have personally killed him, but he was not above paying someone else to do it for him.

What had precipitated that critical interview was Antoine himself, having read an article I’d written about the Jamieson find, and thought I would be interested in what he had to say.  I knew before that interview his reputation was tarnished, but to me, it seemed he would be exactly the sort of person Jamieson would go to if he wanted to fabricate artifacts.

What Antoine had to say and show me was a revelation.  He was doing the interview because Jamieson had short-paid him quite a considerable sum of money, and it was the old story, thieves fall out.  He said that he would have one more attempt at getting his money before giving me the OK to publish, and it was the last time I saw or heard from him.

It wasn’t a surprise to read about his death in the papers some days later.  The fact it was believed to be an accident got my interest and set my investigative journalist persona into overdrive.  I didn’t relax until I found the evidence it was not an accident, but convincing the police became an uphill battle because they were more interested in closing the case.

It would keep.  One day, his death would be avenged.  Just not today.

Elizabeth asked me why I’d been so long, and I think she may have suspected I’d gone to see Jamieson.

 She didn’t press the matter as she was in a hurry to leave for her dig site and was ready to depart the moment I walked in the door.  I was also ready. The quicker we got away from the hotel, the less chance of Jamieson, or his odious son, coming to see me.

I hadn’t taken the time to consider the consequences of confronting Jamieson and should have realised just how unpredictable they could be, particularly Jackson.  He would be very annoyed that I had any sway over their activities.  It made me wonder whether Aristotle had told his son exactly what was going on, and if he hadn’t, I could understand why.

I looked over at Elizabeth from time to time and could see the confrontation earlier had shaken her.  I found it difficult to understand why the Jamiesons would be interested in a minor investigation like Elizabeth’s.  Pirates were never high on the glamourous archelogy list.

Perhaps it held that certain amount of exotic appeal and that in moving from the Egyptian discovery, now losing its shine due to the way they were marketing it, it would be good to have something new to divert the archaeological world’s attention.

Then there was the revelation from Jamieson that she had let the permits for her dig expire.  The Elizabeth I knew was a stickler for details and would never let it happen.  Perhaps the loss of funding had something to do with it, but she had not said anything about it.  Why?

This whole episode was beginning to take on elements that would, in other circumstances, become the makings of one of my novels.  In fact, I found my mind starting to write the outline, starting with the mysterious appearance of a renowned archaeologist suddenly coming back to an old flame, looking to renew their relationship, with the plan to convince him to fund one of her projects, one that if it played out the way she hoped, it would be the next big archaeological event.

Step in the evil Dr Blob, a notorious villain who made a handsome living out of stealing sites and plundering their treasures for personal gain and glory.  Who will win the battle?

Was it fiction or was it fact.

It seemed to me the catalyst for the real saga was the loss of funding from the university.  Jamieson might have had some influence on the decision, after all, he provided a grant to the university archaeology department and enabled graduates to gain some practical experience at his dig site.  That would enable him to swoop in.

It would not be the first time I’d based the evil archaeologist on him, and Jackson made a perfect belligerent henchman.

And what if they had, and expected the Dean to pass on the news in the hope it would drag her away long enough for them to step in and take over, perhaps hoping she might not return until after they had found what she had been looking for.  After all, ad hoc funding for speculative projects like hers was not easy to arrange.

There were just too many questions that I should have asked before embarking on this odyssey, and perhaps I should not have allowed my feelings for her to get in the way of making the proper decision.

We’d been driving for nearly two hours when she suddenly said, “You went to see Jamieson, didn’t you?”

I glanced sideways at her, and I could see she had been thinking about it.  It was a logical conclusion.

“What makes you think that?”  I’d try to deflect it if possible.  I was not quite sure how she would react, which was why I didn’t say anything.

“Your haste to leave.  You’ve never been that enthusiastic about anything in your life.”

“I could see the distress this whole affair was causing you.  You needed to see if he really has stepped in.  Yes, I did drop in and we had words.  I basically told him to leave your site alone.”

“And what did he say to that?”

“He would think about it.  The problem was, he told me you had let the permits expire.  Did you?”

Another glance told me it was true.

“I was going to renew them but the fact my funding had been cut made that a little difficult.  I was hoping I could find replacement funds and sort that out.  He renewed the permits, didn’t he?”

“You made it easy for him to swoop in.”

“How could he possibly know any of this?”

“Jackson.  You know he was obsessed with you.  He would have been watching your progress with a keen interest, especially if it meant he could use any trip on your part against you.  And the fact your ex-assistant called him, or perhaps the other way around…”

I’d been looking for a way and forgot about Jackson.  He was not the sort to forgive and forget.  Especially when she preferred another struggling archaeologist instead of one who was rich and famous, well, handing onto the coattails of one who was rich and famous.

“Well, if nothing else, you’ve got the makings of a very good story here.”

“We have the makings of a very good story here.  I’m not averse to collaborating with a real archaeologist.”

I reached out and gave her hand a squeeze.  I could see a tear or two escape and felt the enormity of the loss.  Seven years of hard work was about to disappear, and someone else would take the kudos.  It wasn’t fair, but it wouldn’t be for the first time.

Ten miles out from our destination, according to the latitude and longitude coordinates she had given me, we passed a convoy of trucks going in the opposite direction.  Earth moving equipment, generators, portable huts.  It might have been from Jamieson’s dig, it might not.  I wasn’t getting my hopes up.

She had noticed it but said nothing.

Then, we were upon the very edge of the area she had set as the exploration site.  There was a portable wire fence set up with a gate, and in front a car with a man sitting in it.

“What do you think he’s waiting for?” she asked.

“Us.  Wait here, and I’ll see what’s going on.  This is part of the area you based your permit on isn’t it?”

“We’re on about the middle.  It’s where I would set up camp.  We had two years ago while we branched out in both directions.  Our camp was about to be moved to the new site.”

“OK.”

I got out of the car and went over to the SUV.  He watched me come over and when I got there, he would down the window.

“You Alan?”

“I am.”

“I was asked by Mr Jamieson to tell you the site is yours.  For what it’s worth, we did an extensive radar search and found nothing.  We covered the whole site.  The pirate didn’t exist, and the treasure doesn’t exist.  I’d leave while I had the chance.”  He handed me an envelope.  “The permits, his gift to you.  He still expects you to keep your end of the arrangement.”

“I will.  He has my word.”

“Good.  My work is done.  Good luck, you’re going to need it.”

With that, he wound the window back up and drove off.

It didn’t surprise me Jamieson would do a radar survey.  If there was any treasure it would not be buried too deeply and would be found quite easily.  Of course, radar searches were very expensive and would never get funding from the university, and Elizabeth could never afford it.

I watched the car until it disappeared, shrugged, and went back to my car.

“What was that about?”

“Jamieson has given you the dig site back.”  I held up the envelope.  “The permits, pain in full.”

“Ehat else did he say?”

“That Jamieson ordered a radar survey on the whole area, and they found nothing.  They were here long enough to do that.  They found nothing, which is why they have gone.”

“Or they did and have already taken it with them.  Take me to the coordinates and we’ll soon see.”

Indeed, we would.

It was about a half mile, after turning off the main track to a lesser one defined by two distinct tracks where cars had been before.  It was overgrown and the trees brushed the side of the car continuously. 

At the end of the track, or what seemed to be the end, we stopped at a wall, just ragged enough to look like it was natural, but on closer inspection under the headlights of the car, showed it had been man-made.

I turned off the engine and we got out.

“This the site?”

“No.  This way.”  She had a flashlight and switched it on.

The beam was quite powerful and cut through the night like a beacon.  In the distance I could hear the ocean, waves crashing on shore.  Had the pirates tramped up here, set up camp, and buried their treasure?

With my own flashlight, I checked the ground.  There had been a second set of tyre marks on the ground, and there were footsteps, recent, everywhere.  They had definitely been here.

I followed her as she made her way along the wall, then down a track that looked hazardous.  Luckily it was dark, or I might have suspected it was on the side of a cliff.  There was nothing but inky darkness surrounding us.

All the time we were getting closer to the sound of the waves.

Then we stopped.  It was a small clearing, and to one side the rocky outcrop of the cliff face behind one very dense underbrush, the other, a view of the ocean at night.  It was not that far down, the beam of her light showing the water below.

“How did you find this place?”

“I actually got lost going around in circles.  This is where I believe they made camp.  Below the lagoon is reasonably deep and it’s where I think they repaired their ship after a battle with one of the King’s navy ships.  I’ve found a variety of objects here.”

“But no treasure.”

“Not in the clearing, no.  But here’s the surprise.”  She went over to the underbrush and did a quick search until she found a spot where the undergrowth was not as thick, then beckoned me over.”

She held a branch back and shined her torch.  Just discernible in the light was an opening, and not much further back from that, a doorway.”

The veritable entrance to Aladdin’s cave.

“How could they have missed it?”

“Easy.  If you’re not looking for it.  It wasn’t until I heard noises coming from within the trees.  Imagine my surprise when I found it.”

“Have you investigated it yet?”

“No.  For a long time sitting there, it’s still very strong.  The hinges are rusted, but intact, and the door is made of oak, and not rotted as you would expect.  It was another reason why I needed to go home.  I needed more sophisticated tools.  I was hoping no one would find it while I was gone, but this is a very remote part of the coastline.  The cove has changed a lot in 400 years, and I doubt anyone could see it from the ocean now.  Ideal to hide in.  So, let’s set up camp, and tomorrow, see what we’ve got.”

It was a find in a million, I thought. 

I also wondered if Jamieson would have given up so easily had he not done the radar survey.  It was a moot point.  He was gone, we were here, and time would tell.

She came over to me and took my hand in hers.

“Thank you for being my guardian angel.  If it is what I think it is, then the find will be as much yours as it is mine.”

“My pleasure.”

With that, and for the first time in my life, I felt that thrill of being on a real dig, hoping that we would make a discovery.  Even if we didn’t, nothing was going to take that feeling away, that sense that finally, all that study was going to pay off.”

…

©  Charles Heath  2024

…

…

Christmas was a time of surprises, some of them not always pleasant.  In fact, I don’t think I could remember one that was what I expected, and I had a very low level of expectation.

And, being that magical time of the year, once again, I had received my gilt-edged invitation to come visit my parents.  What filled me with trepidation was the address.

They had this knack of finding places, anywhere in the world, that were, well, different. 

Last year, it was a haunted Scottish castle.  The year before, they had found a dilapidated mansion in Louisiana that was once a slave owner’s residence and hadn’t been lived in for years.

This year?

A recently refurbished three-story mansion that once belonged to a railway magnate, had been a boarding school, then a bed and breakfast, and now was a billionaire’s retreat.

It was also rented out for those times the billionaire wasn’t there, which apparently was most of the time, a fact my parents seized on and most likely the reason why they took the place for Christmas.

It was going to be fun; snow, Santa and his sled, and the quaint celebrations of the small town nearby, a town which I don’t think would be quite ready for the eccentrics that made up the family members.

Good thing, then, I only had to see them once a year.

Eleanor had her bags packed, and we were waiting for the driver to pick her up and take her to the airport.  She, too, was going home for Christmas, only she had sane parents who lived in a normal town in a normal house and did normal things.

We had been together for a few months, and it was still a work in progress, getting used to a life living with someone else.  After so long on my own, it was a big adjustment.  She had just come off a bad breakup, and we were taking it slow.

I knew the last thing needed was her to meet my parents, and although the subject of family came up, more than once, I told her she was better off not knowing them. I told her, when she asked, to think of the Addams Family and then multiply it by a hundred.

As I said, early days.  This girl was big on the sanctity of family.

Just before the arrival time of her driver, there was a phone call.  If it was me, I would not have answered it because it had ‘ominous’ written all over it.

She answered, listened for a minute, said a few words, and then hung up.

“They’re snowed in, worst blizzards in a century.  No one in or out for a week, maybe more.  Change of plans.  I’ll be coming with you.”

I considered objecting but inevitably knew two things were going to happen, no matter what I said.  The first, that snippet in the paper’s star sign forecast, “unsettling news will cause a deep rift in a relationship” was as true as it was going to get, and the second, come New Year’s Day, I would be single again, though that was an optimistic assessment.

I just shook my head.  By the calendar, there were, at best, twelve days left, and I had better make the most of them.

On the plane, I tried to give her a rundown of the family members.  They were, to outsiders, very different to those who didn’t know them and those who did wisely kept their distance.

It’s why I worked and lived on the other side of the country, and overseas whenever there was an opportunity.  But, sometimes, I had to go and see them.  This was one of those occasions.  It was a matter of getting in and getting out as fast as possible.  By myself, it would be easy, with Eleanor, it would be impossible.

Only once before had I taken a girlfriend with me, the first time, and I vowed after that, never again.

I started with my father.  Inherited a fortune and kept it, unlike a lot of people who inherited fortunes and lost them.  He was brilliant but completely crazy.  He wears crazy coloured suits, dressed as a clown because he once wanted to be a circus clown, even running away as a child.

He was always interested in what I was doing with my life, and endlessly disappointed I was not married like my two brothers and sister.  His over-enthusiastic ministrations on that occasion were enough to never bring another.

Eleanor didn’t seem fazed.

Next was my mother, who once worked briefly at a circus as a trapeze artist.  I never quite got the story of how my parents met, only that she was over the top with everything she did.  That was makeup, clothes, speech, and flamboyance.  She made entrances and then commandeered the floor, extinguishing every other light in the room.

She regularly was in a story about her or something she was doing, so I was always up to date.  The latest project was a cancer wing at a hospital somewhere in Africa.

Leo, brother number one, the heir apparent, was a lazy indolent ass if ever there was one, who treated me very badly as a child and got away with it.  He was the chosen one who could do no wrong.

His wife, Maisie, was a mouse, and sought as little time with him as possible, making it what I would have called a marriage of convenience.  He often forgot he was married and featured with some socialite or starlet in the news or in what we called the ‘scandal sheets’.

I asked her once why she stayed, and the non-answer told me.  Some people could sacrifice a lot for a life that could hardly be imagined.  It was not every day you could mingle with royalty.

A word of warning, Leo would try his darnedest to take her off me.  He always had, and another reason why I didn’t bring anyone.

Younger brother Tom didn’t care about anything and just did his own thing.  He was an amazing painter, and one of his murals graced my lounge room wall.

The youngest sister, Francine, aspired to be a trapeze artist like her mother and actually got an audition at a circus but fell.  There was a safety net, but somehow, it collapsed on one side when she landed, spilling her onto the ground and ending any aspirations.  Now she had a slight limp, and a chip on her shoulder, but was my closest ally.

That relationship was forged over the six months I stayed with her in the hospital while the doctors put her back together.  I gave her the nickname Humpy Dumpty, which in hindsight was in very poor taste, but she loved it.

There were eccentric aunts and uncles, some of whom were egregious, some innocuous, others not so much, but I just avoided them.  By the time we touched down at the airport, if you could call it that, she knew as much about my family as I wanted to.

It was no surprise that Francine was at the airport with a card that said World’s Best Brother in that calligraphy hand that looked amazing.

So was the smile, and her general demeanour that for a long time had been sad.

Eleanor recognised her before I did.

Then I got the biggest hug, and right after that, Eleanor got one almost as big.  What she whispered in Eleanor’s ear I couldn’t hear, but the smile said it was probably about me.

“Just when I was beginning to think all of his family were crazies,” Eleanor said.

“We are.  Just some less so.  Did he tell you about the last time he brought a friend?”

“Only that it went badly.”

“‘And then some.  Just keep away from Leo.  He’s a serial pest.  The rest, well, I’ll make sure I’m with you at all times, and everything should be fine.”

Eleanor looked at me with a face that I recognised as ‘what have you got me into’.  I shrugged.  “Maybe being stuck in a blizzard had its advantages.”

“No.  It had to be done.  If we are going to spend the rest of our lives together, it is best to get it over and done with.”

Francine gave me the look.  “Who is this girl, and where did you find her?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Good.  Log fires and hot chocolate will never be the same.”

Of course, it was 20 questions plus another 200 during the drive to the mansion, another of those reputed to have a lot of paranormal activity, also famous for being used as a film set.

How my father discovered this little-known fact outside the film and paranormal investigators’ world was beyond me, but not unexpected.

“You’re going to love it.  Footsteps on the creaky stairs, noises from the attic, we’ve had a couple of blood-curdling screams.”

Turning off the road and onto the driveway, the arch formed by overhanging trees made it darker than usual, and with a noticeable change in atmosphere.

I shivered, half expecting to see a couple of headless ghosts crossing in front of us.  Then we came out into a clearing and the house before us bathed in sunshine.

“Well, there’s something I haven’t seen before.  Usually, it’s dark and dismal with snow falling.  Today was one of the few days we’ve been able to get up the driveway.  The gods must know you were coming, Alex.”

She stopped just short of the portico, and we got out.  It was freezing cold, sun out or not.

“Is it going to be the usual circus?” I asked. 

That circus, it was tradition that the visitors already there would line up to greet the new arrivals.  No one was spared the meet and greet session, which was why I’d left it as late as possible to arrive.

I had warned her of what to expect, and again, I was surprised it didn’t seem to faze her.

“Leave the bags.  We’ve got house staff to help.  Dad took the all-inclusive package.”

“Including the fright night show?”  Eleanor chose that moment to show she had a sense of humour.

“Especially the fright night show.”  Francine laughed.  Perhaps it was a joke of sorts passed in whispers earlier.

I braced myself.  This was going to get ugly very quickly.

Just past the hallway and where the building opened out into a very large entertaining area, perhaps the size of a ballroom, the family were spread out in a line, parents first, children and their children, uncles, aunts, and finally special guests.  There were about thirty in all, and I could see we were the last to arrive.  Francine stayed with Eleanor.

My father decided to play it reasonably straight, having a matching Christmas jumper with my mother, the sort no sane person would wear.

It was one of those traditions, and I was sure there was one waiting for me in our room. Francine didn’t wear one, but Leo and Tom would have to.

He ignored me and looked straight at Eleanor.  “I’m glad to see my son has finally decided to bring one of his friends.  How are you?”

“Why do you ask? Do you think I’m ill?”

It was not a response he expected, nor I.

“No.  It’s just a normal response when you greet someone.”

“Your son told me you and everyone else are anything but normal.  I hope you haven’t changed just to please me.”

He looked confused.  Finally, some who was not afraid to speak their mind.  And to me, it was a surprise that she would be what I would have said, annoyed.

“We are normal people, I assure you,” he said.

I shook my head.  “This isn’t going to be a very long visit, Dad, so don’t spare the horses.”

“Why, are you not staying for Christmas day?”  My mother decided to chime in.

“After the last time, what do you expect.  I doubt much has changed in ten years.  I expect that by the time I get to Leo and punch his lights out, you’ll be asking me to leave.”

“It doesn’t have to be like that.”

“Perhaps, then I suggest you talk to your favourite son.  The one I really feel sorry for is Tom.  He has to endure the bastard all year round.”

I could see Tom skulking in line, but there was no sign of Leo.  Probably he forgot I was arriving and was trying to make out with one of the staff.  Maisie was there, waiting, anxiously looking for her miscreant husband.

“Well, even if you are not pleased to see us, we are pleased to see you.  We would like it to be more than once a year though, now you have a friend.”

“It remains to be seen if she still is at the end of this circus.”

I felt an elbow in the ribs and looked to see that it was Eleanor, not Francine.  “Play nice, Alex.  I can stick up for myself.”

As we stepped sideways to greet Maisie, Leo came dashing in looking dishevelled, then slowed and smoothed out the wrinkles before stopping in front of Eleanor.

Leo at his best worst self.  Maisie groaned.

“Well, what have we here, Alex?” he gushed.

All smiles, he reached out to give her a hug.  She stepped back slightly and said, “You would be well advised not to invade my private space, Leo.”

He stopped almost crashing into her.  “I’m sorry.”  The urbane affable mantle slipped slightly at the rejection, but if I knew anything about him, it was just a minor setback, a challenge to be overcome.  “You are Alex’s friend?”

“Girlfriend, yes.  Alex’s girlfriend, are you that stupid that I need to spell it out slowly for you so you can understand me.” She said the last words very slowly like she was talking to the village idiot.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Francine grinning like a Cheshire cat.

The whole group had stopped what they were doing, and all eyes were now focused on Leo.  He was used to being the centre of attention, but not like this.

“I am not stupid.”

“Fine.  Let’s run with that.  Who am I?”

“You are Alex’s girlfriend.”  He said it quietly.

“Louder, much Louder, Leo.  Who am I?”

“You are Alex’s girlfriend.”

“I am.”  She looked up and down the line.  “Everyone get that?”

She had their unfettered attention.  It was a side of her I’d not seen, but it was one I liked.  I was hoping to punch Leo’s lights out, but this had kyboshed my moment.  She had them all in the palm of her hand.

Everyone nodded.

Then it was back to Leo.  “Whoever you were schmoozing before you arrived late, late, I might add to greet your brother, was just simply rude.  It’s not the sort of behaviour I would expect from a brother-in-law, so from today, it stops.  You can now tell everyone and, particularly, your wife that you will no longer be sleeping with other women.”

“I was…”

“Are you going to add liar to the list of your misdemeanours, Leo?”

She had that look of a woman who didn’t like men who lied or slept around, and I’m guessing that had something to do with her last breakup.

“No.”

“Then…”

He made his apology and promise. It was the biggest humiliation I’d seen him take.  I doubted whether it would have any impact on his behaviour, but it was a highlight, nonetheless.

She came back to where I was standing next to my mother, who had been astonished more than anything else.

She looked my hand in hers and I looked at both my father and mother.

“Despite what either of you might think, Alex is not a failure.  If you’re looking for utter failures, try Leo.  You have spent far too much time pandering to a complete idiot, and in the process, you have ignored the three other children in your lives.  I expect this will be the year you address that issue.  Yes?”

They got a disapproving glare in their direction, so they agreed.  Loud enough that everyone could hear.

“Excellent.  Now let’s get on with this meet and greet.”

I saw the meaningful look between Francine and Eleanor and just put two and two together.  Eleanor knew far too much about my family for her to pick that up from my briefing, so there was only one other explanation.

“When did you and Francine first meet?”

She smiled.  “What gave it away?”

“I belatedly realised the hug at the airport was a little more effusive than a first meeting?”

“It was the first time we met in person, not the first time we talked.  She called, I answered your phone, and we clicked.  You’re her hero, you know, and would do anything for you.  She wanted to shoot Leo, and I had to talk her out of it.”

“I want to kill him too.”

“I know.  Now you won’t have to go needlessly to jail over a worthless piece of shit.”

“He won’t change you know.”

“He will.  There’s a clause in the will that drives the inheritance.  Maisie has filed for divorce, and if it goes through, he’s no longer the heir.”

“Who is?”

“You.  But it won’t come to that.  Unless he really is that stupid.  So let’s not dwell on that loathsome creature.  There are so many eccentrics and so little time.  Who is that guy that looks like Uncle Fester?”

…

©  Charles Heath  2024

…

…

Some things happen randomly.  Some things are unexplainable.  Some things happen for a reason.

What happened to us didn’t happen for a reason, nor was it random or unexplainable.

Well, not at first.

…

I remember that day as if it were yesterday.  I came home from school and there were seven police cars in the street.

I was not sure what I thought from the top of the street, but it wasn’t that the police were in our house.

They were.

I had to plead my case that I actually lived in what they were calling a crime scene.  No one would tell me what happened until a woman about the same age as my mother came out to see what the shouting was about.

I was trying to tell people who wouldn’t listen that it was my house.

I’ll never forget the way she looked down on me like I was dirt beneath her feet.  A person who would want to reach me would have come down to my level.  She did not.

“Who are you making all this noise?”

“I live here.  This is my house.  My father and mother and my sister live here.  Is my mother here?”

“Wait here.”

She went back inside and came back with my mother.  My mother’s face was expressionless, and I only saw that look once before in my life, when she was told her brother had died.

I remembered that day too, and what she said.  ‘Do not trust these English people, they lie, they twist your words.  They say they do not hold grudges, but they never forget.  Never.’

I had no idea what she meant at the time, but seeing the woman and the fact a man was standing close to her as if she were a criminal, was enough.

“Your father is dead.”  It was a simple and succinct statement.  She would say no more until the police left.

The only question in my mind then was who that woman was because she certainly wasn’t the police.  Not the normal police that is.

They said my father committed suicide.  I didn’t get to see the crime scene but was taken to a friends place where my sister was, and we were not allowed to return home for a few days.

My mother had been questioned for three days by both the police and other people, people she thought were security agents, though she had no idea why my father would interest them.

Except, of course, he was German.

We were never asked any questions and allowed back after the house had been cleaned and restored to normalcy.  A day later, when looking for the first time ever, since we were never allowed in his study, I found a small smudge of blood.

It didn’t seem significant.

My mother, our mother, outwardly was the same as she had been, except now, without her husband, she seemed different, not so frightened.  I could see the fear in her eyes every time he came home.  In her eyes and my sisters.  I didn’t know why and didn’t ask.

Not then.

A week passed, and I came home to the same scenario.  Five police cars, flashing lights, and they were at my house.

Again.

I didn’t have to go through the same identification. The policeman at the door knew who I was.

He asked me to wait, and a few minutes later, the same woman came out.

“This is getting to be a regular event,” I said.

“It won’t happen again.  Come inside.”

From the front door, I could see the tail of destruction.  Someone had searched the place and looked everywhere.

And I mean everywhere, down to ripping the plaster off the walks and ripping up floorboards.

“Who would do something like this,” I asked.

“Exactly the question we would ask.  It seems someone thought your father had something worth stealing.  It’s equally obvious by the damage they didn’t find it.”

“That’s because he didn’t have anything.”

She gave me that grown-up, I don’t believe you looked and then took me to my mother.  Equally resolute and angry as the time before.

“You might want to consider moving.  These people might come back.  They did not find what they were looking for.  I suggest you think long and hard about what it might be these people want.”

“I do not know anything about my husband’s business. I did not want to know, and he didn’t tell me.  I never went into his office. None of us did.  We are not being chased out of my home.  My husband did nothing wrong, I have done nothing wrong, and we are not moving anywhere.”

We were forced to stay with a friend while the house was put back together, and life returned to a semblance of normalcy.  An elaborate alarm system provided security so we could sleep at night, but odd noises kept me awake for a long time after.

But they did not come back.  Whoever they were.  At times, I used to think there was a similar car sitting down the street watching us.

In time, it all passed.  In sccprdabc3 with my father’s wishes, I studied engineering and eventually graduated.  My sister eventually married the boy she started dating at university and then moved to France for his work, leaving my mother and me alone.

My mother found a job, something she had not been allowed to do while my father was alive and kept mostly to herself.  We kept the house, and my father’s study exactly as it had been before he died, and life went on.

Then, instead of taking up an appointment at my father’s old engineering company, I changed my mind and decided to do journalism instead.  My mother wasn’t pleased but didn’t try to change my mind.  She just stopped talking to me.

Then, almost to the day, ten years later, it all started again.

This time, the person who broke in hardly left a trace, and everything had been put back, all except one piece of paper.

Whoever it was, they were interrupted because I thought I heard a mouse from downstairs, and instinctively, I knew it was in the study.

At first, I thought it was my mother. She sometimes went down there to read a book. All of the novels on two of the shelves were written in German.

It was not her, but I did see a shadow, and by the time I reached the back door, that shadow had disappeared.  That door had been opened with a key because I had stuffed the lock with a putty substance and fragments if it were on the inside floor under the lock.

Back in the study, I checked the papers in the top drawer, and one was out of place.  In the middle, as if it had been hastily replaced.

I looked at it.  A letter from his father to his son, very short, reminding him to send the book he had recently mentioned.  That was all.

Except…

It could not possibly be from my father’s father he had died many years before the date on the letter.  Or could it?  A fragment of a conversation I overheard a long time ago when my grandparents had visited, came back, a name, and if I was not mistaken, a very familiar name.

I put it back neatly and went back to bed.

I will check everything else that was in the drawers tomorrow.  And I would send a letter to the German Government in charge of Stasi files.  If I was not mistaken, my father’s parents had been stranded in East Germany when the wall went up, and that made my father East German too.

And if that were the case, it would explain everything.

…

If you were to ask any child what their first scary memory was, it would more than likely involve a relative.  I think I was unlucky.  I had two, relatives that is, and both were scary.

It might be that they were from a different country, across the sea, and for a child what was a long, long way away.  We were not rich so unless they visited, which as far as I was aware, was once when I was about very young, we never saw them at all.

My only memory of them was that they were tall, dressed in dark clothes, and spoke differently to us, though it surprised me that my mother could speak that way too.  Later I learned a different way was a language called German, and my mother decided to teach me it.  My father wasn’t pleased, especially when she and I spoke in German, because he never bothered to learn it himself.

It should not have come as a surprise that I was told not to annoy them.  Perhaps someone forgot to tell my parents I was a child, and invariably inquisitive, and that we rarely did as we were told.  Pity then that first encounter was fleeting and decidedly unmemorable, and being too young to care, erased the almost from my mind.  I don’t think I endeared myself to them.

Move forward 20 years, and although there were some references to these strange people that my mother referred to as distant and unforgiving members of an intransigent and disinterested family, we had not seen them again, but my mother had travelled to where they lived several times, always returning very upset and angry.

Until one dark and gloomy morning when a letter arrived, delivered to the door by the postman.

That morning she had been putting away some of my father’s stuff in the study, and, being nearest to the front door, went to see who it was.   When I called out to ask her who it was, there was silence, except for the ticking sound of the grandfather clock in the entrance hall.  Yes, it was that loud and, at night, sometimes annoying.

I slowly came down the stairs, unconscious trying to avoid the creaking steps, and stopped at the bottom.

 “Mother.” 

I knew she had been in the study, so I went up the passage and stopped in the doorway.  She was sitting in my father’s chair, something that would have been forbidden, for any of us, when he was alive.

She looked as though she had seen a ghost.

“Is everything alright?”  I could clearly see that it wasn’t.

In her hand was a piece of paper and what I assumed was the envelope it came in on the floor.

She looked up at me.   “Your grandfather is dead.  My mother wants us to go to the funeral.”

Was it significant that she called her father my grandfather, and did not refer to her mother as my grandmother?  But what was more significant was the look on her face was the same as it had been when she had been attacked.

It wasn’t hard to put two and two together; the breaking had something to do with my grandfather, and she had been dreading this day.

“Where?”  It was a question I knew the answer.

“Germany.”

We had in recent times started to have conversations about where she came from and how she arrived in England.  We’d got as far as her mother’s grandparents leaving before the second world war to escape the Nazi regime, how she had returned to Germany as a child and met and married a German engineer, my father, a boy from a good German family approved by her father.  It felt, she said, as if it had all been arranged in her absence, but he had been attentive, polite and generous in those first years before and after marriage.  It was only later he changed.

She said after she married him and they returned to England where he had transferred for his work, that he became a vain and possessive husband who had virtually cut her off from all her friends and relations until his death.  My father’s parents had passed away at the time of the pandemic, much to my mother’s relief, and as for her father, it seemed that he and her mother were more supportive of her husband than her daughter.

Since my father’s death she had been a lot more at ease if not wary of people she didn’t know, although she still tended to prefer her own company.

“Perhaps it would be prudent to simply ignore the letter, pretend you didn’t get it.”

“I had to sign for it.  They are nothing if not thorough in dealing with matters such as this.  It would have been far worse if Gerhardt had been alive.”

“Do you have to go?”

“You know the answer to that question as well as I do.   It might have been better if I had returned to Germany after Gerhardt had died, but I refused, and it resulted in being excommunicated.  I can’t for the life of me understand why I’m being summoned now.  I told them then, when I was leaving, I never wanted to see or speak to them again.  When his parents died and we had to return for the funeral, he wanted to stay there, telling me only after we got there that he was going to transfer back to Germany, and we could live near my parents.  Gerhardt was always their favourite, and when my parents insisted, I obeyed my husband’s wishes I told them my life was in England and I had no intention of moving back to Germany especially anywhere near them.  Gerhard admonished me, taking their side, and I told him in no uncertain terms that if he still wanted to have a wife when he returned to England, he should not speak of the matter again.”

This I was learning for the first time, and it explained the frosty relations on their return, though that had been when I was younger and didn’t understand why grown-ups were always so cranky.

“What would have happened if we had gone back?”

“You would have been taken away from me.”

It was a simple response, but one if I let my imagination run wild could have had any number of connotations.  My father had always told me I was going to be an engineer like him and his father before him.  It was not a request or a suggestion.

It was not what I wanted, but I was terrified of him.

It was only after he died that I was able to switch to a less intense field of study, a journalist, and one day, to become a best-selling author.  It was hardly the occupation of a Schroder would be what he would say in barely restrained anger, his usual mode of addressing me.

“Then we have much to be thankful for.  I guess it means we have to go, but this time I’m old enough to look after you.”

“It may not be that simple.  My family are not noted for being what one might subjectively call normal.”

“Then let’s be unpredictable.”

I remember a few weeks before my father died, he had dragged me into the study and proceeded to give me a dressing down, not for the first time, but that time I had deliberately pushed him. It was the lecture on what the Schroeders stood for, and that was not flippancy.  Then when I back chatted with him, for the first time, he completely lost it.

And wittingly or unwittingly he let slip that family honour went back centuries that generations of his family had served their country proudly in many wars and that if his great-grandfather was alive, I would be shot.  German soldiers, given the wealth and standing of his family, were the chances…

At the time I just didn’t want to think about it.

When she didn’t respond, I said “I think it might be time to let you into a secret.  I have been seeing a girl who works with me at the newspaper.  I didn’t think she liked me but apparently, she does.  And surprise, surprise, she speaks German, as well as French, Spanish, and Russian.  I’ll ask her if she would like to come with us.  They won’t know what hit them.”

For the first time, in the wake of what was the worst news, there was a glimmer of a smile.

“I knew there was something.  Perhaps you are right.”

…

©  Charles Heath  2024

…

…

There was very little that interested me at school.

I used to think that all I wanted to be was a scientist, even when I had no idea what that meant, and that school was nearly 12 years of distraction.

As I got older and the various branches of science were brought to my attention, I started to think it was going to be too hard.

Botany, biology, chemistry, physics, and then each again part of something else, or a name that loosely held together a lot of other branches.

I was not interested in trees, animals, or humans.  I didn’t like the idea of exploring elements or minerals.   I wanted something big that few had seriously studied, that might have potential for a groundbreaking discovery.

Then I went to the space exhibition at the Smithsonian, and I was sold.

Like a great many others, I watched all the science fiction television shows like Star Trek or Star Gate, read books, and pondered over the possibility of there being other people out there in an endless universe.

After all, only so much could be conjured up by the writer’s imagination, and I spent a lot of time and effort investigating what was possibly right and what was definitely wrong.

That research managed to disprove a lot of the imaginary parts but left a few that might have the distinct possibility of being true, and in one instance, a large number of writers went back to a single piece of so-called evidence.

A place in a mountain range in Peru where there were caves with drawings that could be detected as actual sciences and their spaceships, and over the years, the number of sightings of UFOs.

According to some, it was a meeting place because most sightings were of multiple sets of lights.  Of course, there were photographs, but the thing with photography was that they could be faked.

I was going to have to see it for myself.

Hiking camping and living in rough terrain was second nature.  I was an outdoors person and a lot of the research required going to remote and sometimes dangerous places.  Aliens, it seemed, didn’t like urban areas.

I was going by myself, but in conversations with a fellow UFO enthusiast, one of the sceptics I often butted heads with, in internet forums, asked if she could come along for the ride.

Her reason was to provide a counterbalanced view.  She didn’t believe in UFOs or aliens.

I thought about it.  The fact I disagreed with her views, and we argued might have made it sticky at times, we had a strange sort of rapport in everything other than aliens.  I did say it was not for the faint-hearted, but she took that to mean not for girls and simply made her more determined.

She was going whether I liked it or not.

I shrugged.  That last video meeting, up till now the only way we’d met. was almost a fight.  I guess when I ended the call, I was going to finally meet her in person.

That was three days later at Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport.  I arrived the day before and had arranged accommodation, and then went to the airport to greet her.

I was not sure what to expect.  I’d seen her face over time, but that was about it, and being hopeless with faces was worried I might not recognise her.  It didn’t matter, she recognised me.  As it turned out, she was almost nothing like what I imagined.

“Peter Jacobson, I presume?”

It had to be the same day some football team was arriving back home, the waiting area was packed with fans, and it was going to be impossible to find her.  And, typically, they came out first, and the crowd went wild.  It was inevitable that I would miss her.

“Jennifer?”

“The same.”  She saw me looking at the crowd, now chanting.  “I would have to pick the same plane as the national football team.  It’s nice to meet you in person. You seem less professor-ish.”

I took that as a compliment, though with her I could never be quite sure.  What I could see was she was a hugger, which wasn’t a bad thing.

Given the nature of my studies and work, I didn’t have a lot of time for a relationship, and although I had girls as friends, there had never been one I could call a girlfriend.  Jennifer was the one I’d known off and on the longest.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”  I was practical because the next few days were going to be difficult, and seeing her, she seemed to me to be more accustomed to less vigorous pursuits.

She had labelled me as sexist once or twice for reasons I couldn’t understand, but now I think I could, and realised it the moment she frowned at me.

“Tell you what.  When we get back to the hotel, we’ll square off and see who wins.  I know who I’m betting on.”  Her tone had an edge to it, not the best way to start an expedition.

I shrugged.  This girl was going to change my attitude and a lot more before we were done.  “I’m sorry.  I guess there’s a bit too much of my father in me.  It’s no excuse, though.  I’ll try harder to be less of a moron.”  I held out my hand.

She took it.  “We make a great pair.  I’m overly prickly, taking offence about everything.  Most men think I’m a model, and the rest hit on me. You’re the only one so far who hasn’t.”

I could see even now that she was attracting attention.

“I’m hoping that’s a compliment.”

She smiled.  “It’s going to be fun.”

I thought it was going to be anything but fun.

…

Jennifer, I soon discovered was one of those people who was easy to get along with, and in another sense, it was easy to misinterpret the easy-going and almost flirty manner as something else  She was one of those touchy-feely types, and I was, to a certain extent, uncomfortable with.

I didn’t want to be misinterpreted but knew eventually I would because it was inevitable.  I was to a certain extent a standoffish and reserved sort, or so I had been told.  I tried to explain this and became tongue-tied, something that had never happened to me before.

She thought it amusing.

It was when I finally realised she was also very beautiful, and when we went out to dinner, she attracted a lot more attention, something she didn’t seem to notice or perhaps deliberately ignored.

It was just something else that concerned me, but it would not be for very long.  Where we were going, she would be completely wrapped up, and no one would be able to tell who or what she was.

The next day, we were heading for Cusco in the mountains where we would be staying with a friend I’d met on the internet and who had told me about the significance of the area.

He dropped us off at the start of the walking track that would take us 2km up into the mountains, to a place where there was a plateau about the size of 12 football pitches, reputed to be a UFO landing site.  We arranged to meet him back at the drop-off point in 4 days.

It took the better part of that first day to Trek up the side of the mountain and reach the edge of the plateau which when first sighted looked as though it could definitely be a landing site for large craft.

Winter was not far away, it was covered in patchy snow but soon it would be completely covered.  It would also be very cold, and I was thankful the real cold had not yet set in.

We set up our tents in a sheltered area at one end.  I had to admit I was surprised when Jennifer had shouldered her pack for the Trek and then made it to the top.  She had stamina and determination.

We cooked dinner and had hot drinks, then rugged up and went to bed.  It was dark early, and the wind had picked up.  The skies were cloudy, but a clear sky was expected the next day.

A rather strange noise woke me, and instead of pitch-black darkness, there was an odd eerie glow that was bright enough to be seen threw the tent material.

I put on the outer layer of clothing and put my head outside the tent flap.  Above us, quite some distance up in the sky was a bright light.  It was too big to be a star or a planet.

I would have said it was the landing lights of a passing plane, but it was too low, there was no sound, and it was not moving.

“You saw it too?” Jennifer put her head out and was looking upwards.

“I saw a light shining through the tent.”

“What do you think it is, without stating the obvious.”  She gave me one of her sceptical looks.

It suddenly moved sideways, slowly, then did a wide circle to come back to the original position.

It could have been anything.  I wanted it to be a UFO,

“Perhaps some local with a large drone with powerful LEDs making it appear that it’s a UFO.”

She smiled.  “I’ll make a sceptic out of you yet.  I mean, if this place had been cited as one where odd events occur, you have to ask why aliens come here all the time and not other places as well.”

The light suddenly went out, and we were shrouded in darkness.

“Well, that was exciting,” she said.

Fully awake now and needing to stretch, I got out of the tent and stood up.  Jennifer joined me.

“Coffee?”

The cold was seeping through the layers and a hot drink would help.  She nodded, looking up at the sky.  It was clear and now the focal point had gone, there were stars.

I lit the camp stove and put the kettle on.

Suddenly there was a humming sound and instinctively looking up I could see where stars had been a blackness.

Something was blotting out the stars.

Then a few seconds later bright lights came on, not the sort that were a single or several searchlights but hundreds in a very large circle, slowly descending a short distance from us.

At a guess, it was an aircraft about the size of a football field. Now visible side on, it was about eight or ten stories tall, with rows of pale light indicating the levels, and the shape more or less a dome.

I looked sideways at Jennifer, and she seemed awestruck.

“Unless the Peruvian government is secretly experimenting with a new form of aircraft, this has to be a UFO,” I said.

“It’s not possible.”

We watched it come down and then settle on the surface about three or four hundred yards from us.  The main lights went out and a new yellow set around the base replaced them giving the whole area an eerie glow.

“And yet something is over there,”

She came over and took my hand in hers.  “We can’t stay.  Who knows what is in that thing.  How do we know it’s friendly or dangerous.  Do you really want to find out?

It seemed we would not have a choice.  I felt a slight tingling sensation and then lost consciousness.   My last thought was, whoever or whatever it was, they didn’t want any witnesses.

…

When I woke I was standing, still holding Jennifer’s hand, but inside a large room with no furniture, windows or anything.  Just walls and doors.

Seconds later a man suddenly materialised in front of us, a man dressed in a sort of outfit ancient monks used to wear.  A man who looked very much like us, though with less refined features.

He looked like he was trying to speak, or marshall his thoughts.

Perhaps overawed or suffering from the effects of whatever they did to us, I went with “You’re obviously not from this place?”

His expression changed, perhaps one of recognition.  “No.  Perhaps not.  Why are you here?”

Odd question.  He or someone else on board had transported us here.  Or did he mean here as in the plateau?

“We were expecting you,” I said. We weren’t but I thought it was a good response.  I could see Jennifer was simply stunned.

“That is not possible.  We had troubles and set down to make fixes.”

“Why here?”

“One of many ports in what you call the universe.”

“You’ve been here before?”

“Many times.  Sorry, the problem is fixed.  We must go.  Perhaps we will meet again.”

He slowly disappeared, we got tingly again, and then nothing.

It was light outside when I woke.  The sun was out, it was quite warm, and there was no sign of the patchy snow.  It was like prewinter had turned into summer.

Jennifer was beside me, slowly waking too.

“What happened?” She asked.  She’d also realised the change from the night before.

Coming up over the ledge was my friend and several others.   When he saw us, he came running.

“Peter, Peter, you’re alive.  We didn’t know what happened to you.”

He hugged me then Jennifer.

“What do you mean.  We were here the whole time.”

‘”No.  You disappeared.  When I came back four days later you were not there.  We came looking for you. Found your camp, and nothing else.  It’s been almost a year.  Where have you been?”

…

©  Charles Heath  2024

…

…

The email I received said:

“Go to Newark airport, go to the United booking desk and give them your name.  Take proof of identity.  Pack for five days, light.”

It was going to be, supposedly, a magical mystery tour.  I read in a travel magazine that a company offered five-day inclusive trips to anywhere.  You do not get the destination, just what to take.  Then, just be prepared for anything.

I paid the money and waited until last evening when the email came.

I was ready.

When I presented my credentials as requested, I found myself going to Venice, Italy, a place I had never been before.

When I looked it up, it said it took about 10 hours to get there with one stop in between.  Enough time to read up on the many places to go and see, though according to the instructions, everything had been arranged in advance.

I could also take the time to brush up on my schoolboy Italian.

When I got off the plane at Marco Polo airport, in Venice, it was mid-morning, but an hour or so was lost going through immigration and customs.  A water taxi was waiting to take me to a hotel where I would receive further instructions.  I was hoping it would be on or overlooking the Grand Canal.

At the airport, I wondered if there was going to be anyone else on this trip or whether I would be doing it alone.  I’d read that sometimes like-minded people were put together for a shared experience.

We had to agree and then fill out an extensive profile so they could appropriately match people.  Sometimes, people join at different times along the way. You just never knew what was going to happen.

That random unpredictability was just what I needed, having just gone through a breakup after a long period of peacefulness and stability, and frankly, I would not have chosen this type of tour if I had not.

It was a pleasant half hour or so winding our way through the canals, having paid the driver extra to take a long route.  I’d not been to Venice before, but I had read about it, and while some of the negative comments were true, it didn’t diminish the place in my eyes.

And the hotel, on its own island overlooking the main canal, was stylish and elegant, and my room was exactly where I’d hoped it would be.  I think I spent the next hour just looking out at the city and the boats going by, like a freeway, a never-ending stream of traffic.

A knock on the door interrupted what might have been described as a dream.

On the other side of the door was a smartly dressed youngish lady in a uniform of sorts, who looked like a summer day.

“Mr Benson, my name is Conchetta, and I will be your guide for tomorrow.  I am delivering a folder with the places we will be going for your perusal.”  It was the most exquisite, accented English I’d ever heard and just wanted to hear more.

She handed me the folder with a smile.  “Until tomorrow.”

And left me wondering what just happened.

…

The next morning I went downstairs to the restaurant where breakfast was served and found a wide variety of different items that could serve any number of different tastes.

Mine ran to cereal, followed by bacon and eggs on last to fruit and coffee.

I brought a newspaper down with me, mostly to practise my very bad Italian, and had set it to one side after finding a table.

A waiter came and filled my cup with coffee, black, no sugar, my preferred type for breakfast.  Then it was simply a matter of watching the other people come and go.

Ten or fifteen minutes passed with the usual arrivals, and being the peak time, there was a wait.  Except some people who thought they were more privileged than others and pushed forward.

I’d seen the particular gentleman the previous evening when he checked in and was making a point about having booked the best room in the house, a statement I last heard in an old Hollywood movie.  Mr J. Dexter Pierpoint.

Now it seemed he was too important to wait in line, virtually shoving a woman ahead of him out of the way.  The staff at the door were trying to deal with him, and the melee had attracted everyone’s attention.

Meanwhile, in what had to be karma, the lady was shown in without having her room checked, a privilege she thanked them for.

It took five minutes to get Mr J. Dexter Pierpoint under control, by which time my attention came back to the lady.  It might not have except she was standing next to my table, looking for somewhere to sit.

“If you can put up with a much less boisterous American, you may want to sit here.  I do not take up much room.”

She turned slightly to see who was addressing her and then smiled.

“I have nothing against Americans, well, perhaps just one.”  She inclined her head lightly to give me a second look over, perhaps trying to decide whether to accept the offer.  “Thank you.”

She sat.  Her breakfast was healthy.  Muesli, I think, and multigrain bread.  She had the appearance of someone who looked after themselves, a few years younger than me, but at a guess, recently retired, either a schoolteacher or librarian.

Of course, she could equally be a top MI6 agent because all I knew about her was that she had a British accent.

“I apologise for my fellow citizens’ brashness.  It seems an element of our people seem to think the world owes them a favour.  I do not.”

“You don’t need to.  It just seems like the world has gone crazy.  I hope it’s not in the water.”

She had a look on her face, one that made it impossible to tell if she was serious or not.

“Do you talk over breakfast, or should I sit in companionable silence?” Best to find out if she’s a talker or a quiet one so that I could not be construed as ruining it one way or the other.

“You mean you want to interrogate me?”

“I rather think it might be the other way around.”

“What would you do if I were not here?”

The waiter came with coffee, but she was a tea drinker.  There was no surprise there.

“Go back to studying the room and its inhabitants, hazarding guesses about who and what they are.”

“For what reason?”

“So that people think I have a purpose being here.”

“Do you?”

Another waiter delivered a pot of tea.  I could see the tag sticking out of the top.  English Breakfast.

“Not really.  It’s the first morning of a tour, Venice is the first stop.”

“But that is a reason is it not?  You’re on holiday, or as the Americans call it, vacation.”

“I have another name for it, but that’s a long story you don’t want to hear.  My name, by the way, is Jay, named after Jay Gatsby of the F Scott Fitzgerald novel.  My mother was an avid reader.”

It elicited a smile.  “I gather you get that comparison a lot.”

“Yes.  It’s better to get it out of the way and move on.”

“I am Millie, short for Millicent to which I refuse to answer if you use it.  There is no relation to any character in any book that I know of.  My mother didn’t read books, just magazines.”

She poured some tea out of the pot into her cup and stirred it for about a minute, then took a sip.  It looked quite dark, which meant strong.  I preferred tea weaker.

She looked around at the hustle and bustle, taking a moment to look at each person, and then came back to me.

“What category did you put me into?”

I looked at her, having switched from bemused to something else.  Was it a challenge, and if I didn’t get it right, she’d lob a breakfast roll in my direction.

“Is that the same category of question; do I have a death wish?”

There was, all of a sudden, a hint of laughter in those blue eyes.  I suspect once upon a time she was a very beautiful blonde.  Still was very attractive, though I told myself I was not here to pass judgment.

“Death wish it is.  Retired schoolteacher or librarian.  Or just for something different, a top spy for MI6.”  There, it was said.

She laughed outright.  “I’ll own up to the librarian.  As for the rest, possibly a dream I had once.  Now, about you?  Let me guess, a retired executive of a multinational company.”

I guess I had the look.  I was not in a suit this morning, I had dressed down to a tie, vest, and jacket.

“Close.  My family has owned a shipping company for a century or so, starting with one ship, and now, it’s so successful that they don’t need me.  Someone suggested I take a world tour.”

“By yourself?”

“My wife died about five years back, and I thought I found someone else, but it didn’t work out.  I think I still hadn’t got over Ellen.”

“It’s hard.  My William passed two years back.  I miss him but I have to move on, so I’m told.”

She looked up, and I could see a young girl, late teens perhaps, searching the room and then stopping at Millie.

“Oh, dear.  She found me.”

“Your granddaughter, I presume?”

“My son didn’t like the idea of me visiting Italy alone.  Had this strange idea I might be taken by a fancy young Italian boy.  She’s here as his spy.  Apparently, she speaks fluent Italian.”

“And perfectly capable of fending off the would-be Italian Romeo’s.”

“That too.” She stood.  “Thanks for offering me a seat.  We may or may not run into each other again, but it was interesting.”

Another smile, and she was gone.

The first day, and I’d already said more to a stranger than I had in years.  I hadn’t realised that my life had got so boring or that I had so irrevocably wrapped myself up in my job that I’d missed everything else going on around me.

Perhaps that was why my last relationship failed.

Perhaps that’s why my children had practically forced me into getting away from everything, what Harry, my eldest son had said, “Take the time to wake up and smell the roses.”

I saw Conchetta, the guide appear in the doorway, and realised it was my cue.  The first day, quite literally, of the rest of my life.

…

©  Charles Heath  2024

…

…

Some coincidences could never be explained.

It wasn’t long after Janine had died that I was sent out of the room while the hospital staff did whatever they did after a patient died.  I was by the nursing station, and two were talking.

“You wouldn’t believe it.  just as one patient died, the other came out of her coma.  The exact second.  It had to be divine intervention or something.”

I didn’t ask, but I could guess.  I walked up the passage to Margaret’s room and looked in the door.  She was awake.  Well, her eyes were open, and she didn’t look like she was in a coma, but I wasn’t a doctor.

But I had to wonder if there was a connection between the two events.

Those last few days with Janine were impossible.  I don’t know if she realised the pain she caused me in making those baseless accusations or not, and I could only put it down to the medications the doctors had her on.

She was certainly not her usual self.

Something that did come out of it, not that she had intended it, or that I had consciously thought about it until now, was what would have happened to Margaret if she had not recovered.

I’d noticed that there was no next of kin on her paperwork, which meant that she might have died and just been cremated or just would have disappeared.

No one deserved that fate.

It was only a fleeting thought because the moment the hospital staff had completed their work, the administrator arrived and wanted to know what I was going to do.  Whilst sympathetic to my loss, they still had a hospital to run and a bed to free up for the next patient.

That meant for the next few days I was tied up with arranging funerals and organising the three children who had been on a rotating cycle of being with her at the hospital, and then altogether at the funeral, a feat only manageable at Christmas.

They stayed just long enough to see if there was anything to inherit and when they realised it was all passed to me, asked me if I would be OK, each said they were willing to stay if I needed them but were on the next plane out when I said I didn’t.

Perhaps I would see them again at Christmas.

I know the day after the last child left, I was sitting alone in the dining room with a cup of coffee and the morning newspaper wondering what I was going to do without her.

Someone had suggested I should pack up all her things and donate them to a charity.  The girls had taken what they thought she would want them to have, and suggested I hire someone to do it.  They couldn’t; the memory of her passing was too raw.  It was for me too, but then I had a whole house filled with reminders and memories.

That’s when I had to get out of there, if only for a few days, and it was where, as if driven by an unseen force, I ended up back at the hospital, and after an hour of wanting to but not wanting to I found myself knocking on Margaret’s door.

I didn’t know if she was well enough or had even recovered enough to have visitors.

She turned her head, saw me, and smiled.  “James, come in.  What a pleasant surprise.  Oh, and I’m sorry for your loss.  I was devastated when I heard that Janine had passed.  How are you?”

It was probably more than she should be saying.  She looked tired if not very sad.

“I don’t know how to feel or what I should do.  I couldn’t stay at home, and I know it sounds stupid, I didn’t have anywhere else to go?”

“That’s not stupid at all.  You’ve just suffered a terrible loss, and it can be very disorientating.  Come and sit.”

I went over to collect the chair and sat where she could see me without having to move too much.

“You don’t have to say anything.  Perhaps you simply take the time to reflect on what you had and what you still have.  That will never go away, not as long as she remains in your heart.”

Had I expected those words?  No.  Perhaps coming from someone else, they may have sounded hollow, but I got the impression she meant every word.  Perhaps having suffered a hugely calamitous point in her own life, she had gained an insight into how precious life was, and it was not meant to be frittered away or ended until it was the time.  She certainly sounded different to the last time we met.

“I was told that I woke up the exact moment Janine died.  I doubt there was a significance that it was just a coincidence.  I certainly never expected to come back, and no, what I did was not because of something I did or said.”

Those were the words that Janine had used, almost to the letter.  it had crossed my mind, but what I had said, someone needed to, and if it could not come from what was once a friend, then she was beyond help.  “Janine seemed to think that I was responsible.”

“Is that why you’re here?”  she asked when I didn’t say anything. There was no reproach in her tone, just curiosity.

“Not really.  I thought I would come and see how you were.  Perhaps it was the notion that I could lose two people I cared about was worrying me.  You know me well enough to know that I speak my mind when I’m with friends, and I always wanted to believe you were one.  I was hurt when you chose William, but it was not unexpected.  You were raised with certain expectations, and I could never fulfil those, for your parents, or you.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.  I know what I did, and I’m not proud of it, and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about you.  But I can’t blame my parents and their expectations, just my stupidity in not realising that I should have chosen love.  Because of that, I have the rest of my life to pay penance.  I do hope, though, despite everything, that we might still be friends.  God knows I don’t deserve it, but I promise I will never hurt you again.”

That thought, a leopard never changed its spots came into my mind, but then, most leopards don’t go through near-death experiences.  I shook my head, though I couldn’t say why.  “This is too soon,” I said.  “I feel sad, and I feel angry, and I feel cheated.  It’s not your fault.” I stood.  “Perhaps another time.”

Why was I there?  What on earth had made me think going to see Margaret for any reason was going to assuage the pain I was feeling?  And it was pain, far stronger than I imagined it would be.  An onlooker would say I was a mess, and they would be right.  Janine, if she knew what was happening, would be disappointed.  I knew she would want me to be strong for the children’s sake, and I had been.

But in those hours, days after they had returned home and I was alone, that was when it came home and hit me.  I was alone.  I had no one to talk to, no one to do the things we did together, no one to just be there.  it might be said that I took her for granted, but I think over time, you both do that to a certain degree.  You do stuff, you argue, there a good moments and bad moments, but that was what a relationship was, and you look forward to being together for the rest of your days.

When that is cut short, when one or the other dies, there’s an empty spot that can’t be filled.  And it was the reason why, at that moment in time, I couldn’t function.  It was why, a week later, after several phone calls from my eldest son, David, not being answered, the police came to see if everything was ok, and I was found unconscious on the floor.

I woke up in the hospital, and an odd sensation went through me moments before I opened my eyes, an image of someone waving to me as they disappeared into a bright light.  Had I just experienced my own near-death experience, had I just spent some time in heaven’s waiting room, where Janine had told me in no uncertain terms that I had to pull myself together?

I certainly felt like I used to after she told me off.

“Thank God.”

I turned to see David; concern written all over his face.

“I thought we all thought we’d lost you too.  why didn’t you simply ask one of us to stay with you?”

“You have your own lives to live.”

‘You are a part of those lives, and we want, no, need, you to be in them for as long as possible.  I should have realised.  Mum said you’d be lost without her, but we thought she was joking.  You’ve always been so solid in the face of every catastrophe.”

“Perhaps I’m the one who should be sorry to cause you trouble.”

“You are no trouble.  And I’m here for as long as it takes.”

…

Time heals all wounds.  Well, most of them anyway.

With life again in the house, people coming and going, the sounds of children running around and being nuisances as only children could, a new life was created, a new normal.  Janine was not gone. There were photos of her everywhere, things that were hers everywhere, and it was like she was still there.

A year passed, the anniversary of her death, and the whole that had been created by her departure was not as large as it had been, and the subject of whether or not I would ever find someone else, not to replace Janine, but to be a companion, a friend, someone who might make life a little less lonely was actually discussed at the table.

I thought it was too soon. They thought it was time I considered it.  After all, they knew that their mother would be happy for me if I found someone who could be, as David put it, a special friend.

I was sitting at what might have been called my favourite spot at the Golden Bell Cafe, overlooking the town’s botanical gardens.

It was a time of reflection, the gardens were the place where I’d proposed to Janine, and she had accepted, and it subsequently became a place we made time to be together.

When I’d finished the coffee and cake, I would take a walk there, the excuse being I had to walk off the calories.

It was also an excellent spot to see comings and goings, and being the small town it was, I knew most of those going by.  Usually, it was the same people, but this morning there was a new face.

And to be honest, I knew I was going to see her again, and the thought of it did not upset me.  It might have once, but I was in a better place now than I was.

This was not a coincidental meeting.  I had long suspected David had discovered that Margaret had been an old girlfriend and knowing him he would have checked her out and had thought if I saw someone familiar from the past, it might be beneficial

It had his sticky fingers all over the plot.  David always meant well, especially when trying to help his siblings, sometimes with hilarious results, and they were used to his interceding.

When our eyes met, she smiled.  She, too, had benefited from time passing and had almost become her old self again, at least physically.

When she reached the cafe, she joined me at the table.

“It is nice to see you again, Margaret.”

“And I you, but I have to be honest with you.”

“David came to see you and ask if you’d try and brighten up an old fossil like me?”

“He didn’t call you an old fossil, but I believe he believed he had the best of intentions, but not the history.”

“No.  But he means well.  And if you want me to be honest, I’m glad to see you.  Life is too short for both of us to hold onto the past.  Whatever happened then did for a reason, and probably with the intention that it might be possible to have a second chance later on.  Maybe this is our later on. I know Janine would be upset with me if she knew how sad I’ve been since she passed, and perhaps at some point, she might give me a sign.”

“I don’t deserve a second chance, James.  I should not have done what I did.  I loved you, you know that.”

“Then perhaps we will take it one step at a time.  Today. Coffee, cake, and a walk in the park.”

“One day at a time is fine,” she said, with what looked like teary eyes.

I had no idea what she was expecting, perhaps for me to be my usual bad-tempered self when I saw her, but it didn’t seem right, and enough time had passed before seeing any other women

At my age, it was going to be impossible, which is why Margaret was ideal.  I still had feelings for her, probably always did, and just suppressed them while I was with Janine, but now seeing her across the table, those feelings were being given a workout.

I put my hand on hers, and she looked up.  A tear escaped and ran down her cheek.  “Then you pick what you want us to do tomorrow.  Where are you staying?”

“The guest house.”

“Then tomorrow I’ll come and get you.  I have a big empty house and you can stay with me.  There’s a lovely room with your name on it.  Now that’s settled…”

I think I knew at that moment, when I’d looked into those teary eyes that whatever we had those many years before had not gone away but just lay dormant, waiting for the chance to re-emerge and take both of us by surprise.

Even so, there was a measured reluctance to go that next step, not until I got a sign from Janine that she was happy for me.

And when I got to a point where I thought it would never happen, it did.

We went to the cafe and the usual walk. We talked about the usual things and what we were going to do, but I sensed she was getting frustrated that I was still hesitant.

It had been over a year since Janine had passed, and everyone had thought enough time had passed that I had a perfect opportunity to be happy again.

We got home and she went upstairs to her room.  We were not sharing the room or the bed, not yet, and that might have added to the frustration because there was no reason not to.

I noticed a letter on the sideboard near the front door and picked it up.  It was addressed to me in Janine’s writing.

A letter from the grave.

I held it with a shaking hand.  All I could think of was that it would be advice, or just one last word, her penchant for always having the last word.

I opened the envelope and there were several sheets, handwritten.  It was dated after we had that argument when I dropped on to see Margaret when she was in a coma in the hospital.

It was a rather odd time to write a letter to be delivered a year after her death.

…

Dear James

This might feel a little creepy, and I’m guessing that thought has passed through your mind.

It is not.  It’s an apology because I admonished you for no reason other than my jealousy running wild, but perhaps underlying that, it was my insecurity.

I had in the beginning of our relationship wondered if it was going to last, that the moment Margaret came to her senses and saw what she had lost, she would come back and take you away from me.

It was silly, but I could not believe my fortune when she left.  Of course, you were very sad but I had no doubt that I could make you happy, happier than you would have been with her.

The truth is, we were meant to be together.  All I had to do was put away those fears that I might lose you one day and just get on with it.  I can’t say I’m not glad she didn’t come back.

Then, when she did, those fears rose again.  When you went to see her, I wanted to stop you, but doing so may have had the opposite effect.  I was glad to learn whatever you may have felt for her, that you were not sorry for her or her situation, nor did you want to pick up where you left off.

I guess it was the only part of you I never understood, and I never asked because it might stir up demons that didn’t need to be woken.

I went to see her after you did, and it was spooky to come face to face with your worst fears.  She had hardly aged, whereas the rest of us had been worn out by living a hard life.

Sorry, jealousy again.

I told her about us, the highs the lows, everything she would not have experienced, and as far as I could see, didn’t.  She was not a mother, she was not a housewife, and she didn’t work crazy jobs to bring in enough money to ensure we could give our children the best life they could have.

As you can imagine, she had no answers.

But as I understand it, she now had no life, and the people she thought she could rely on later in life had abandoned her.  Those sorry circumstances led her to where she is now, and for that, I am sorry for her.  No one should ever finish up alone and unloved.

So, having duly thought about it, I can see no reason why you should not consider letting her back into your life.  She could use a friend, and if nothing else, you would be a very good friend.  If it becomes something more, then so be it.  You have a lot of love in that heart of yours, James, and it won’t hurt to share some of it with her.

If I know you as I believe I do, you will have thought about it, and think it is too soon, or that it would sully your memory of me.  It won’t.  You will never forget me.  I know you that well, James.

All you have to do now is make the first move.

Jan

…

©  Charles Heath  2024

…

…

I remembered once hearing my mother say after my father had died suddenly, that she regretted not doing more travelling when he was alive.  I also remembered her often saying there never seemed to be enough time to get everything done, that there would be time enough later on to do all those things they never seemed to get around to doing.

It was a familiar lament made by many others during what seemed to be, rapidly passing years.  Until, inevitably, something completely unexpected happened, and equally inevitably, all those plans became moot.

For Janine and me that moment came when we were both sitting in the doctor’s surgery right after he told us the test results were not as good as he had hoped, and more tests were needed before he could positively tell us what was wrong.  Those words of my mother’s came back and hit me like a ton of bricks.

Janine had been tired much more than usual, and lately, everything had become much more difficult.  It was harder to get up in the morning, harder to contemplate cooking, let alone eating, and all those daily chores were more of a chore than before.  When I asked him to hazard a guess as to what the problem was, he refused to speculate but said it was possible he would know more after the next round of tests.

To be honest, I think he knew already.

I think Janine did, too, and was prepared to put a name to it simply because she was now living the same sort of life her mother had, as had her mother before her.  A rare and debilitating form of cancer.

Janine had known it was hereditary, but when it hadn’t affected her the same time as her mother and grandmother, she had believed it had slipped a generation.  Her mother had the first effects of it in her late 30s and died just before she turned 45.  Janine had reached 45 and wasn’t expecting it.  It could still be something else, the doctor said, but his expression that day was not one of hope.

After that first day, I wondered if our lives would end in a sea of regret, wishing that with the benefit of hindsight, we would have done things differently.  But there was a silver lining.  About a year before, we had talked about the possibility of her getting ill and had drawn up a bucket list and began to tick items off it.  Had Janine always known subconsciously that this might happen?

It was a question I was never going to ask her.

We had moved into the room we both knew was going to be Janine’s final home.  She was too weak and in too much pain to be far from the hospital, and this was, the doctor said, the final leg of the race.

I wanted to believe her when she told me she had made her peace with God and the rest of the world, and that she was not going to go out with any regrets.  We had not finished the bucket list, but we had given it a good shake.  I tried to be stoic in the face of her impending death, but sometimes, that was a little hard. 

We had been looking forward to growing old together, and it was one regret I found hard to reconcile.

Her favourite saying had become better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. 

And then, one morning, she had asked, “Why was Margaret, given who she was and how badly she treated people and the fact you were one of them, was your first love?”

Margaret had been the subject of many a conversation in those first few months we dated after Margaret had effectively dumped me.  It had made Janine angry, and for that reason, Margaret was persona non grata

It was something I’d not thought about in a long time. I guess it had been on her mind, especially when in the beginning she had said she always believed she had been my second choice.

“You were never a second choice or the rebound girl,” I said then as I did now. 

And while I wanted to believe that was true, to a certain extent it was a lie.  If the truth be told, she had been there and had always had a ‘thing’ for me, and my sister had always maintained Janine had hoped Margaret would revert to type, untrustworthy to the point of inevitably letting me down.  My sister had also always believed Janine and I would end up together.  In her eyes, we were much better suited, and as time passed had proved.

But Janine asked in the next breath, had I always held a torch for Margaret, with the hope that one day she would come to her senses?

“When you accepted my proposal, my heart was never anywhere but with you,” I said, wondering why she was bringing the matter up now.  “I never had any intention of taking her back, or talking to her, not after what she did.”

“You had not the tiniest regret that you wouldn’t get to be with your first love?  After all, that’s the one that makes the most impact on your life and how it plays out over time.  I always believed part of you was always with her.”

Why would she think such a thing when I had never given her the impression that I was anywhere but with her?

“I have no regrets marrying you.  None.  Margaret sowed the seeds of her destruction for better or worse, and I was not inclined to rescue her or help her in any way when everything fell apart.  Going to see her a few months back was not because I was still interested in her or thinking we might get back together.  Just seeing her and what she had become was reason enough to stay away.  No, believe me when I say she was a bullet dodged.”

I didn’t understand why Margaret was even a subject for discussion in her last few weeks when we should have been reminiscing on what we had.  It caused me some concern she should ever think that she was not the woman I had wanted to be with for the rest of my life.

And what had brought this on? I had not mentioned Margaret since that night I left her at the restaurant, and I had made a point of not talking to Margaret either over the phone or by email.  She had tried to contact me, and I had ignored her.  There was nothing she could say that would make me think that she and I should be together.  Ever.

So, I had to ask why she was so worried about my loyalty or that she could ever think that my heart belonged to anyone else but her.  I had, I said, never given her reason to ever think it was not.

“Because she is about six rooms up the passage from here on life support.  She tried to commit suicide and I suspected that might have been because of something you said or did.”

It bothered me that she could think that, but I guess it was not entirely unexpected given her state of mind.  Margaret had never been the subject of any conversation when she was well.

When we first started dating, I told her exactly where I stood regarding Margaret, and it had never wavered since.  It had helped that Margaret was wise enough to stay away.  I might have done something stupid had she shown her face, even after her relationship with William had fallen apart.

I was never going to be her second choice or backup plan.  But I could see, now, those thoughts had crossed Janine’s mind, how the fear of being a second choice could be considered.  The thing is I had no idea how to reassure her I was not interested in Margaret, in a coma or not.

A few days later, though, when I put my head in the door of the room where Margaret was sleeping, I realised it was a mistake.  I should have realised Janine would have spies everywhere.  She was not normally this paranoid, but in her heightened state, everything would have a meaning even if I couldn’t comprehend what it was.

When I walked into the room, she had that expression on her face that I equated to trouble.  Much like being on the Titanic just before it sank.

“You went to see her,” she said before I could even sit down.

“It would seem out of place if I was not curious as to her condition.  And given the fact she was in a coma and didn’t know I was there, and the fact it was only for a few minutes, is hardly worth mentioning for obvious reasons.  You should not have told me if you didn’t want me to go there.”

Her health deteriorated rapidly, the doctor saying that once the pain reached a certain level, she would become virtually comatose because of the pain medicine.  That morning I reassured her that Margaret meant nothing to me and despaired that our last conversation was not of happier times.  The doctor had said the medication would mess with her thoughts, so I should just nod and agree.

That afternoon she slipped into the final stage, and for all intents and purposes, looked like an angel sleeping.  Twenty-three hours later, the longest period of my life, she died peacefully.  She opened her eyes just before passing and smiled. 

…

©  Charles Heath  2024

…

…

Here’s the thing.

What happened should not have happened, but it did.  I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and met the wrong people.

It earned me a beating simply because the arresting officer was a belligerent fool, and of course, I had to stir him up.  I wanted to see what I was up against, and what I learned, I rather wished I hadn’t.

And it meant, if I got to walk away from this, I had a lot of explaining to do, and not just to my captors.

I sighed.  It could be worse.

The bench in the cell was hard and uncomfortable, but it was meant to be like that for a reason.  The occupant was not meant to be comfortable.  It was cold, then hot, then cold again.  I’d expected a few buckets of ice-cold water thrown at me, but they were holding off on that treat.

Big ugly looking guards with guns came to the front of my cell and banged on the iron bars with those guns, making what they thought was a statement.  In the end, they were just big ugly men with guns banging on the iron bars to keep me awake.

Do that for a few hours.  Alternate light and dark.  Disorientate.

Deliver water, and make it look like you’re not the bad guys here.  Lace that water with something terrible, yes, been there, and had that treatment.  Stomach pains, dehydration, deprivation.

It was all part of the softening-up process.

Number six visitor was different from the rest.  He came and went, staying only for a minute, two at the most.  He was dressed impeccably and had a well-groomed manner about him.

The rest, the guards, perhaps the jail chief, all looked like they slept in their clothes, hadn’t had a shave or a wash forever, and looked perpetually angry.

He was the master interrogator.

He let the theatrics continue for another 14 hours, making sure I got little sleep and no relaxation.  He sent in a few soldiers to give me mini beatings, just in case I forgot I was the trespasser, not them.

Then he had me half dragged, half escorted to a lower room, one that had nothing in it but two chairs.  No tools of trade, just a bare room, with, I noticed, blood stairs around the drain, under the chair.  A predecessor may not have had a good time in this room.

The guards secured me to the chair and then waited outside, facing away from me.  They’d obviously been instructed not to engage in conversation or answer any questions.  When I thought about it, they probably didn’t speak English.

An hour later he sauntered in as though he had all the time in the world.  He did.  He stood outside the cell for a few minutes, looking at me, perhaps daring me to speak.  Later maybe.

Then he dismissed the guards.

Unsurprisingly, the door wasn’t locked.  I’d guessed as much, so perhaps it was a test to see if I could escape.  It was a bit difficult, even for me, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey.

“So, Mr Tomlinson, what have you got to say for yourself?”

Good start, give me a chance to incriminate myself.

I thought briefly about the circumstances, about having an invitation to a party, using this as cover to case the residence, and, if it was possible, making my way upstairs to the owner’s study and looking for evidence of his participation in various illegal activities.

It was a long shot at best, my contribution to the briefing before I embarked on this folly, was that no so-called legitimate businessman would keep that particular type of evidence at home.

I was told I would be surprised just how many people in a similar position thought they were above the law.

Anyway, I was caught out before I started looking and only managed a cursory examination, which in my mind justified my belief there would be nothing there.

“Wrong place, wrong time.  I took the wrong door.  As corny as it sounds, I was looking for a restroom.”

“When everywhere from the ground floor up it was very clearly labelled no trespassing?”

“The need for a restroom sometimes outweighs the risk of breaking house rules.  There was an unusually high demand on the lower floor aside from the fact the main restroom was out of commission.”

“Come now, Mr Tomlinson, we both know that’s not quite true.”

“Then why, firstly, was the upstairs room not marked out of bounds, and secondly, why was the door unlocked.”

“It was not.”

“At the risk of starting a childish to and fro, it was unlocked.”  It hadn’t been locked, that was true because we did have a little inside help, but that was not for me to explain.

I could see a reddish tinge starting to build up at the top of his cheeks, a sure sign of impatience, and the fact he was not going to let me verbally spar with him for much longer.

“You were caught where you were not supposed to be.  What were you looking for?”  There was an edge to his tone, impatience showing through.  He was a man of quick temper, which may or may not be an advantage to exploit.

A little nudge perhaps, “This is going to become tiresome for one of us.  Do you have a name.  It seems only fair you tell me since you know mine.”

“My name is irrelevant.”

“And yet I will find out eventually.  You do realise I am, among many things, a journalist, and that I am here to cover that party, and the announcement both Lady Pelham and Mr Davies were going to make.”

“Then you should not have been poking around in places you have no right to be.”

“A judgement call made by a man who too readily jumped to the wrong conclusion.  My understanding was that the deal could not be sealed if the three organisations didn’t sign the letter of intent, which, I was informed, was going to be at the celebration, after, of course, the usual dull speeches.  I have a feeling at least one of the organisations didn’t sign.  Not yet anyway.  You might want to check that small detail before we continue.”

He shook his head.  “You think I’m a fool.”

“Not yet, but it may still come true if you make a hasty decision.”

I’ll be honest, round about then I was praying for a miracle because his patience was at an end.  I was stalling, but it couldn’t last much longer.

Just as he stood and was about to leave the room, we both heard the resounding thump on a door and accompanying shout, which if I was not mistaken was, “Open this door, you fool.”

No prizes either for guessing who it was.  Davies.

The door was opened and Davies and several other men, representatives of the government, including the Interior Minister, the man we all believed was also the head of their so-called secret service, and no doubt boss of my interrogator, all came in.

A look passed between the minister and the interrogator, which told me he had been on borrowed time to get to the truth.  It also told me the minister had known where I was all the time.

“What is the meaning of this intrusion?” The interrogator met the men before they could get much further into the room.  If he was hoping to stop them from seeing me, it failed.

Both Davies and the minister both saw me tied up, at the same time.  Davies was shocked to see me, the minister not so much, but trying hard to look surprised.

“What is he doing here?” Davies demanded.  Then he swung around to look at the minister, “Did you know he was here?  You told me you had no idea where he was.”

“I did not.  Fontaine?”  He then turned to his interrogator.  “Explain this situation.”

“We caught him in Mr Davies’s study, a room strictly out of bounds.”

Davies glare went from my interrogator to me.

“Looking for a restroom, the one downstairs was suffering a malfunction, I believe,” I said.

Davies took a moment, then said, “Yes, it was.  Someone had stuffed a lot of paper down the drain.  It’s a bit difficult to mistake a study for a restroom.”

“The door was open, just one of many I tried to see if it was a restroom.  It was in darkness so I’ had to step inside to find a light switch.  Apparently, this man,” I nodded to the interrogator, “thought I was up to something else.  I guess, when you’re a journalist, most other people consider us as bad as, if not, a spy.  I apologise for not making it to our interview, but as you can see, I was tied up.”  It was a joke in poor taste.  “Out of curiosity sir, am I to assume the agreement was signed, sealed and delivered.”

“It was not, and I believe we now know the reason why.”  He glared at the interrogator.  “Free this man right now, he’s coming with me.”

“And the charges of trespass,” the interrogator asked.

Davies glared at the minister.  “We can continue with this charade and lose several billion dollars of investment, or we can label this a very bad mistake, and end it now.  I’m sure Tomlinson here will be glad to forgive and forget this matter.”

For a minute it didn’t look to me like the Minister was going to give in, but then he simply sighed and relented.  “A mistake which will have consequences, Mr Tomlinson, I assure you.  Whatever we can do to make up for this, please let me know.”

With a wave of the hand, the misunderstanding was over.  I’m not sure what the Minister could give to make up for the 14 hours plus of bad treatment, but I was sure, judging by his expression, that he wanted nothing more than to have me executed by firing squad, but had to sacrifice that satisfaction by taking a large share of the billions on offer.

The thought that the country would benefit from this deal was an idealistic notion that some people thought possible, but everyone else knew it was just a payment to the current government to keep their allegiance and the supply of certain minerals that were otherwise quite scarce.

No doubt once I reached safety I would be advised not to write about my experience.  Nothing would come from embarrassing our new ‘friends’.

Davies took me back to the hotel, and directly to Alexandra Pental’s suite.  Davies apologised profusely for the overzealous guards at his house, and my incarceration which, to explain the cuts and bruises, equally overzealous prison guards who would be punished severely.

She smiled and nodded, said all the right words, and then dismissed him with the promise she would be attending the signing in one hour.  It was her preference for a more low-key event.  After that, we would be taking our leave, and requested the private jet at the airport be refuelled and cleared to leave the moment we were aboard.

It was clear in her manner that she was less than impressed and had given serious consideration to cancelling the deal.  I had no doubt the Embassy officials had several heart attacks for various reasons when the signing was postponed.

The door had barely closed when she glared at me across the room, then, after a minute, which was worse than the 14 hours in that cell waiting for the interrogation, she shook her head.  “Drysdale told me that he had demanded to know what they’d done with you, and all he could get was denials.”

“The minister knew all along, I don’t think Davies did.  He was too shocked when they burst into the cell block.”

“What the hell were you doing in a cell block?”

“Preparing for the interrogation.”

“Not like that we see on TV?”

“That would be far more acceptable than what I was probably going to get.  Except the interrogator was holding back.  Perhaps he knew U wasn’t going to talk, or he was hoping the minister would bail him out of trouble.  The minister, by the way, doesn’t want this deal.”

“Why?”

“I suspect he made a promise to the Chinese.  There’s an unofficial report there was a Chinese delegation here last week, wrapping up the details of another offer, one that gets the Minister a bigger share of the proceeds, and a lot more say over internal affairs.  Your deal just gives him money.  I believe he wants to run this country as a dictatorship.”

“But that is going to happen?”

“Not today at any rate.”

There was a knock on the door and the butler went to answer it.  She was in the presidential suite and had brought several of her personal staff. Including security.  The minister wanted to install two of his men, but they were pushed outside the front door.

A moment after the butler came in from the anteroom.  “It’s Sir Hugh Drysdale from the British Foreign Office, Miss Pental.”

Read one of the secret service representatives who had been at the briefing in London, and for the local briefing in this very room 72 hours before this fiasco unfolded.

“Show him in.”

He was alone, which surprised me.  He nodded towards her and gave me a curious look.  “Nearly a day in the infamous dungeons, Hugh, and they let you walk out.”

“They had a choice between the deal or nothing.  I was part of the deal, apparently.”

Alexandra shrugged.  “I’ll ask the difficult questions, then.  What went wrong?”

“They knew I was coming.  Someone told them, though I don’t think it was the person who unlocked the door.  If they knew, then they would not want the person who told them known which is why they didn’t press me for answers or go straight into a full-blown interrogation.  If they did, they must have thought I’d guess who it was.”

“Can you?”

“An educated guess, maybe, but it is a person who they can talk to at will, and here, so it’s someone in the Embassy.  Get a list of those who knew about what we were going to do and narrow it down.  As for the mission, I just got in the door when they pounced so my reason for being there was quite legitimate.  I was surprised, once you postponed the signing, they didn’t come sooner.”

“The Minister confessed he was shocked that you had disappeared from the Davies residence.  No one had seen you leave, and they traced your movements up to the passage where Davies study is, but there was no other coverage.  You simply stepped into a dead spot and disappeared.”

“Or the surveillance footage was wiped.”

“Anything is possible,” Drysdale said, “It was your opinion that we would not succeed.  Care to explain how you came to that conclusion?”

Did I blow my own mission?  No.  “I have a source here, one close to Davies, who knows quite a bit of what’s going on with him and his involvement with the government, and with the government itself, and sometimes shares information that can be traced back, so there are caveats.  Davies has three houses, one here, one in a resort by the Black Sea, and a Dascha not far from Moscow.  No one but Davies goes to the Dascha.”

“You could have shared that precious piece of information earlier.”

I could, perhaps, if I had it earlier but it was not forthcoming until I received a coded message under my door the day we arrived.  To anyone else, it was suggested tourist destinations.  But more importantly, it said that Davies was aware I was a journalist looking for a story, and they would be watching me.  The problem was I had to let myself be caught or there would be a witch hunt for my source if I didn’t.”

“I suppose it’s not possible to get a name.”

“This place is worse the East Germany and the Stasi.  Some secrets will go with me to the grave.  That is one of them.”

“You know where exactly this Dascha is then?”

“That’s for your people to find out.  My guess is that what you seek will be there.”  I glanced at Alexandra who looked impatient.  “Once I get that interview, we’re gone.  I don’t like this place.”

“Some of us don’t get a choice.”  Drysdale was trying to sound philosophical and failing.  “Pity this country is landlocked.  I used to like the idea of British gunboat diplomacy.  Things have changed and not for the better.”

“It’s a brave new world,” Alexandra said.  “A year ago, I would not be allowed in the country if I wanted to do business.”

Drysdale handed me a folder which he had taken out of his satchel  “The interview questions, pre-vetted by the Minister.  No deviations.  I know what you’d like to ask, but those are questions we don’t need answers to.  Now right now.  Let’s get this done and call it a win.”

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©  Charles Heath  2024

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