Mira observed “the intruder” heading over to the edge of the pool. He stood there for about a minute before shifting his head in a counter-clockwise position, then back around again, only making a full stop in Mira’s direction. He was eyeing her from across the way; the intensity of his gaze caused her heart to pound inside of her chest. She stared back, putting on a brave face, and realizing that she could be staring into the eyes of a cold-blooded deceased killer. For a split second, she wished she had the power to rip him apart for his possible role in destroying two families. Not only snatching away a young mother’s life, but devastating the life of her only child and that of his half-siblings. She had no clue what he might be thinking as his cold glare rested upon hers. And although he said nothing, she knew he had a plan.
The distant face-off lasted only seconds, though, for Mira, it felt much longer than that, before he vanished into thin air. Daniel wasn’t crying anymore, but just drying his tears. He no longer looked depressed either.
He got up and started heading back towards the door that led out to the courtyard and Mira hurried for the stairway. She crept up quickly and hid behind a partition on the landing. She could hear his footsteps on the carpeted stairs and watched as he walked along the hallway, a little faster than when he was leaving, passed her door, which she was glad she had thought to quietly close on her way out, and went inside his room, shutting the door behind him. Mira then sprinted to her room and locked the door.
“Whew!” She stood against it, trying to process what she had just witnessed. Soon, she heard what sounded like Daniel picking things up that had fallen and spewing a couple of profanities, then the room was quiet. Sighing, Mira disrobed and climbed back into bed under the sheets. She lay there staring up at the ceiling until she smelt something—burning. Glancing toward the left, she saw what appeared to be an explosion in the dark of night.
“This can’t be real,” she muttered, as she sat up and gazed at it. She couldn’t make out for sure what was actually burning.
Sparks flew into the air and onto her bed. She brushed them off quickly. The appearance and smell of the fire convinced her that what she was seeing was no illusion.
“I WANT IT BACK!” The deafening voice of a stranger invaded her eardrum before the scene faded to black.
Every trace of the fire was gone.
Mira now felt an even greater urgency to somehow uncover the truth Daniel had been seeking. In that moment, she was inclined to agree with Nervy that something bad was about to happen.
7
_________________
Wearing a red, sleeveless dress, Mira descended the stairs and met Daniel in the kitchen for breakfast.
“I ordered your coffee already,” he said, folding the newspaper. “Might I say, you look lovely?”
“Thank you.” Mira sat at the opposite side of the table. “You’re in a chipper mood this morning.”
Dorothy Brennan brought Mira’s coffee over and greeted her with a motherly smile.
“This is Dorothy,” Daniel said. “She’s been employed here for the better part of a decade. Dorothy, this is Dr. Mira Cullen. She’s our special guest for several days.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, Doctor.”
“The pleasure’s all mine,” Mira replied.
“I heard you arrived yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet you then. It was my day off.” She smiled again and Mira smiled back. “Can I get you one of our delicious breakfasts?” She handed her a laminated menu.
After perusing the menu, Mira selected the scrambled eggs with yellow grits, and gave the menu back.
“I’ll bring your regular, sir,” Dorothy said to Daniel.
“Great choice,” Daniel told Mira as Dorothy walked off. “All of them are.”
“I’m sure. I love grits and eggs, so that would be my first choice on any breakfast menu.”
“Now, to answer your question…”
“I’m sorry. What question?” Mira was puzzled.
“Well, it wasn’t as much of a question as it was a statement or observation,” he sought to explain. “You said I seem to be in a chipper mood.”
“Right!” Mira nodded.
“Yes, I am, actually. I’m feeling really good today.”
“Any special reason?” She was curious.
“None that I know of.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I just feel better today than I’ve felt in the past few weeks. I think something good is around the corner for me; I can’t really explain it.”
“I’m glad you feel that way.” Mira smiled.
He leaned forward slightly. “After breakfast, would it be okay if we headed out to the old house?”
“Sure. That’ll be great.”
As they ate their meals, flashbacks of the strange events which unfolded during the wee hours of the morning consumed Mira’s thoughts.
* * *
Around ten o’clock, Daniel pulled up in front of a small, blue house surrounded by a chain-link fence. All of the windows were shut in spite of it being summertime.
“Does anyone live here?” Mira asked, as she unbuckled her seatbelt.
“No,” Daniel replied. “When I purchased this property a few years ago, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. I just knew I had to buy it because it’s where my father spent most of his adult life.”
“Renting it wasn’t an option, huh?”
“I couldn’t bring myself to, for some reason. Not sure why. Maybe preservation; I don’t know.”
“Do me a favor and wait right here, okay?”
“Okay. No problem.” He wasn’t expecting that.
“May I have the key please?”
“Yep.” He pulled out a pair of keys attached to a silver chain. “The smaller one’s for the lock on the fence and the other for the front door.”
Daniel watched as Mira opened the gate and headed along the narrow walkway where tiny weeds poked through the cracked concrete. She inserted the key into the door knob and went inside, closing the door behind her.
Inside the house was quite stuffy, and after having been vacant for years, Mira was surprised to see that the furniture was still there: A brown couch and a matching sofa, the center table stacked with figurines, a box television set, and dusty, brown curtains that were in harmony with the seating. Nothing was covered.
As she moved further into the space, through her peripheral vision, she spotted a figure walk across the tiny hallway which led into another room. She immediately followed.
Just off the hallway was the kitchen. Inside was a woman standing at the stove, stirring a large pot of soup. She was wearing a long-sleeved gray blouse and a black skirt that fell to her ankles, and flat, white shoes. Her jet-black hair was tucked neatly into a bun at the nape of her neck. From side view, Mira could see the concern on her face. Something was troubling her. The woman placed the wooden pot spoon on the counter and went to another doorway which led out of the kitchen into some other part of the house. The house wasn’t big. Each room Mira had seen, thus far, was small and cramped.
Mira followed her out of the kitchen and around the bend which, strangely, led into a huge open field with rows and rows of crops. Tractors, harvesters, and other machinery could be seen in the distance and many people of different ethnicities, some wearing hats or shirts tied around the heads for shade from the scorching sun, were working the fields. The woman she saw in the house was nowhere to be seen, so Mira advanced a few yards onto the land. She instinctively knew she had entered a different sphere; an era of long ago. She got the impression this was somewhere around the early to late 1940s, and in her mind’s eye -- though not in that very location -- she saw fighter jets in the sky, transport planes and bombs going off in various locations. A war, she thought.
She heard whispering behind her and turned quickly, only to realize it was no longer daylight, but dusk had fallen. And she was no longer in the field, but what looked like a house or apartment, watching two people getting lost in each other
’s embrace. They were lying in bed, partially nude. Mira recognized the male right away. He looked like – Daniel. Only, it wasn’t Daniel; she could tell by her recollection of the photograph on the wall of New Life that this was his father. And there was no doubt by those hazel eyes she had barely caught sight of during the couple’s romantic interlude, that the woman was Ellen - Daniel’s mother.
Mira noticed the pictures on the bureau – one matched the one of Ellen which hung inside the guest house. This is her home, Mira thought.
Children’s laughter filled the air as Mira found herself inside the little house again. She was standing in the dining room near the back door. Five children – three girls and two boys, all appeared to be well under the age of fourteen – were chatting and playing. The youngest was holding up a spoon and chanting: “Food! Food!”
“Just a minute!” went a voice from the kitchen.
Mira silently made her way there and saw the same lady from earlier. She was chopping sweet peppers on a cutting board, but Mira noticed something. Tears were streaming down her face onto her bosom as she prepared the meal. From the spot where she stood at, Mira could see a man sitting in the living room, reading. It was Daniel’s father.
Then without warning, she saw the woman in the kitchen angrily drive the large knife into the cutting board. For a moment, she stood there with her hands covering her face, sobbing. Mira could sense her deep, emotional distress.
“What’s your problem?” The man got up quickly and confronted who Mira was now certain was his wife.
“I had enough of this! How dare you do this to our family?” the woman snarled. “You think I wouldn’t find out you brought that whore you been seeing here to this island to laugh in me and my children face? She had a whole baby for you who you tried to hide away in America. Daniel Stephenson Smith, you got a nerve!”
Mira knew then who Daniel was named after.
“Why we have to keep goin’ through this, Jackie? I didn’t bring anyone here and I already told you, I can’t go back and change the past.”
“The thing is it’s not the past. You invited that woman here – where we live! You couldn’t leave her in Florida where she come from? You gotta smear what you done to us all in my face?”
He didn’t appear to know how to respond.
Jackie stepped closer to her husband. “You went over there on the contract to be able to work and provide for your family, not to go and have another family with another woman!”
The children in the dining room were all quiet now and their father was obviously ashamed.
“I goin’ for a walk!” She yanked off her apron. “You feed the children! The food on the stove.” She grabbed her coat from a rack near the front door and stormed out.
Suddenly, the entire house was empty again as Mira was left standing alone near the kitchen. The family was gone; not a trace of their life as she had seen it remained – no meal being prepared, no cutting board, no knife, no laughter.
She heard Daniel outside calling to her and found herself choked up a bit. She swallowed hard, composed herself and walked out the front door, locking it behind her. Daniel was at the end of the walkway near the gate.
“I was starting to wonder if you were all right in there,” he said.
She nodded quickly, clearing her throat. “Yes, I’m fine.”
As she passed him by and headed to the Suburban, he asked: “Is everything okay? I mean… are you really all right?”
She arched a brow and avoided eye contact. “Yes. Yes, I’m good.”
They drove away in silence. Daniel could tell that maybe right then wasn’t a good time to bend a conversation. Yet, curiosity was killing him.
A couple of minutes went by before he said: “Did you sense anything in there?”
Without answering his question directly, Mira shifted in her seat and said: “Tell me, Daniel, what was ‘the contract’?”
“Um…it was an agreement set in place between The United States and The Bahamas where citizens were hired to do agricultural work in certain parts of the States during the Second World War. This wasn’t an agreement the U.S. made with the Bahamas exclusively, but with Jamaica and other nations as well. And if I’m not mistaken, it lasted some years after the war had ended. From what I gathered, not only was there a shortage of food supply in the U.S. during that time, but a shortage of farm laborers too since a lot of people were off fighting in the war. I understand men and women of this country who were hired under the contract were quite pleased to go because jobs were scarce here and they were bound to make a good living abroad in agriculture. They would send money back home to their families. And when it was all said and done, many workers returned, but some didn’t. On top of that, some of them who came back put their earnings to good use by starting businesses of their own. So, this was a really good thing,” he explained.
“That’s how your dad got over to Florida – this contract thing.”
“Yep.”
“And that’s how he met your mother.”
“Right; although she wasn’t a farm laborer. She worked as a maid for some rich, white folk. What made you ask about the contract, Mira?”
“I think I saw what you were just explaining… when I went inside your dad’s house.”
“What? You saw it?”
“Uh huh.” Mira gently bit her lip. “Scenes of their lives unraveled in front of me.”
He was fascinated by what she’d revealed.
“It’s best we talk some more when we get back to the guest house,” she proposed as she could tell he was being distracted from his driving.
“Okay. I’m really eager to hear all about it. I just have a few stops to make. Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
“It’s a shame you’re not hanging out at the beach and enjoying yourself, if only a little. After all, you flew all the way out here.”
“No worries. I had my mind made up before coming that this was not gonna be a vacation. I don’t want you to feel guilty about anything. Helping you is my priority and getting to see my brother and his family again is a bonus. The beach can wait.”
“I’m glad you feel that way.”
“I do,” she replied.
8
_________________
“When are you coming home?” Rosie asked, as her mother sat waiting in the parking lot of a convenience store. Daniel had dashed inside for a pack of cigarettes.
“Maybe in a few days, honey.” Mira kept an eye on her side-view mirror to not be oblivious of her surroundings. “How’s your Nana?”
“She’s fine. You wanna speak to her? She’s right here.”
“Yes, honey. I love you and I’ll be home soon, okay?”
“Okay, Mom,” Rosie replied.
They blew kisses through the phone and said I love you and I love you more repeatedly before Sara picked up.
“How’re you doing, Sweet Pea?” she asked.
“I’m fine, Mom.”
“Wade and those?”
“They’re great.”
“Listen, I know you might not be able to talk right now, but if you are, I was wondering how the gentleman is doing.”
Mira glanced through the side-view mirror again. Daniel was on his way to the car.
“He has some issues, Mom, but I guess we’re making progress here. Look, I gotta go now. We’ll talk later, okay?”
“Okay, dear. Just be careful and give my love to everyone.”
“I will, Mom. Love you.”
“I love you more, Sweet Pea.”
Mira was flattered that her mother was still using that term of endearment. She hoped to mean as much to Rosie as her mother meant to her.
Daniel hopped in with his cigarettes and started the engine.
“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”
“No. It’s fine,” Mira said. “Made a quick call home to check in with my mom and daughter.” She eyed the cigarettes he had put on the dashboard.
“I didn’t know you smoked. But then again, there are a lot of things I don’t know.”
“I don’t. I mean, not that often – only when feeling a little tense.” He pulled out of the lot.
“Tense?” Mira was concerned.
“Just when I’m faced with a serious decision like when I’m about to start a new business venture or…”
“Or what?”
“Nothing. I just find I’m sort of spontaneous when it comes to smoking nowadays,” he said.
“You mean, you just picked it up as of late?”
“Yep.” He nodded.
They returned to New Life shortly after 1:00p.m., after grabbing a quick bite from Freddie’s Chicken Shack.
“Would you prefer to chat inside or out in the courtyard?” Daniel asked, as they approached the front entrance.
“Outside in the yard would be fine,” Mira said.
They headed over to a quiet area on the grounds and sat on a white bench beneath the shade of a large, rubber tree.
Mira shifted a little in order to face him. “Daniel, I need to ask you a question and I need you to really think about this, okay?”
“Okay,” he agreed.
“I know you said you’d been through a lot due to the death of your mother at such an early age. I want you to tell me when it was that you first started feeling severely depressed. I mean to the extent that you were having thoughts of suicide.”
Daniel took her advice and carefully thought about it. “I think I’ve always been depressed to some degree ever since I’ve known myself. And, of course, not having a sense of belonging due to the absence of my parents contributed to that. But I must admit, I didn’t start having suicidal thoughts until I was around forty-two or forty-three years old. That would be about five to six years ago.”
The Cornelius Saga Boxed Set Page 33