Everything to Nothing

by Mark Henthorne

  Peter left the bathroom and walked around the house retrieving Sarah’s clothes while she washed. By the time he got back the bathroom door had been closed again so he knocked on the door and Sarah told him to leave the clothes on the landing. He did this and went into his bedroom and got dressed.

  Peter then went downstairs and flicked on the television and watched some Premiership football for what seemed like an eternity. Unimpressed with the level of skill on show he stuck it out for a few more minutes until another overpaid sports star missed another easy chance so he turned the television off in disgust. He was waiting only another couple of minutes until he heard Sarah start to make her way downstairs. She took the few paces from the bottom of the stairs and stood in front of him while he was still sat on the sofa.

  ‘I guess I’ll be going then. Would you, erm, like to see each other again?’

  ‘Yeah, I don’t see why not.’ he said. He was thinking that if she was that wild on a one night stand, hell yes he wanted to see her again.

  Peter then stood up and gave her a hug and a kiss on the lips. ‘Look, about the cocaine, don’t tell anyone. Sorry it had that affect on you. You really shouldn’t have taken that much though, you need to get used to it.’

  ‘After that nose bleed I don’t think I will be touching the stuff ever again.’

  ‘Well, if you ever want to, come round and I will give you some. You will have to pay for it though.’

  ‘I can’t see me doing that. But I would like to see you again.’

  ‘Here is my mobile number,’ said Peter, giving her a business card, ‘so give me a call whenever you want to go out. I am free most evenings apart from, well, Friday and Saturday, for obvious reasons. Do you want a lift home?’

  ‘No, it is okay. It is not far from here. Could do with the walk.’

  ‘Okey dokey then babe. Give me a call and I will take you out.’

  ‘Sounds good. I will definitely call you.’

  With that Peter leaned forward and gave her a passionate, deep kiss and took her hand. He led her to the front door and they parted with another kiss and as the door closed behind her Peter said out loud, ‘Now that was what I call a wild, wild night!’

  Chapter 12

  Sally slept fitfully that Friday night. Although what sleep she did have was dreamless, she awoke often and one of two images were always there when she awoke.

  The first image she saw was the man, the second was always David. When she tried to get back to sleep she focused all her mind on the image of David and desperately tried to force out the image of the man.

  After waking up for what felt like the one hundredth time during the night, Sally gave up with sleep at about six in the morning. It was pitch black outside but she still decided to go for a run, then a swim and hopefully catch her father at breakfast before he went to work.

  At first she could not believe that she was going back out into the dark after all that happened to her during the last night. She flicked on the bedroom light and she rummaged in a chest of drawers for her running shoes and sport clothes to wear. She slipped the clothes on, not bothering with underwear, and tied her shoes tight. She heard a noise outside her door and guessed it was one of the maids.

  Sally quickly decided that she did not want to see anyone so she walked over to the French windows, thrust them open, and stepped out onto the balcony. She sucked in the crisp, clean night air and she was surprised about how mild it was for the time of year.

  Her balcony faced east and she could see the first hint of dawn just touching the horizon, but she knew that full sunrise was still at least an hour away. Sally continued sucking in the fresh air as she did some light stretching of her legs.

  She then closed her eyes and purposefully brought the image of the man to the front of her mind and then she said out loud, ‘I will not let you affect my life! I will sleep at night, I will not be afraid of the dark!’

  With that she sprung over the balcony wall and gracefully fell the ten feet to the lawn below. She landed with her knees bent and instantly started to jog. She jogged for a minute and then sprinted for thirty seconds. As she was running along the lawn she sidestepped bushes and trees, occasionally leaping over the smaller bushes which appeared out of the early morning gloom in a classic hurdlers pose.

  After about five minutes running, the lawn ran out and she entered woodland. There was a path through the trees that she followed until it finished against the estate’s internal wall after another five minutes of hard running. The path split into two at the estate’s furthest wall and Sally took the left hand path.

  Here, amongst the trees and firmly against the estate’s inner wall it was practically pitch back. However, the darkness did not slow her repetitions of sprints and jogs, nor did it slow her overall pace. Every kink and turn in the path was second nature to her after living on the estate all her life.

  When she reached a particularly thick patch of trees she stopped where she would normally have never stopped and closed her eyes. She was not out of breath at all, her breathing was normal, even though she has been running hard and fast for fifteen minutes. As she closed her eyes she again brought the image of the man to the forefront of her mind. She stood there in the pitch dark with this image in front of her for five minutes.

  At first she panicked and her breathing did build up, but then she thought of David and this calmed her. Then she was able to focus all her attention on the image of the man. After a few more minutes she opened her eyes and was comfortable that she had managed to already rid herself of the man’s presence over her. She was proud of her own strength of mind and will-power to not let this, what she thought of as a pathetic attack, affect her.

  Closing her eyes one more time, and just for fun, she brought the image of David to the front of her mind, only this time he was the image of what she imagined he looked like naked. She chuckled to herself, at her own boldness and then muttered to herself, ‘Back to work young lady!’ and she resumed her run.

  Sally followed the wall right round the estate, noting as she jogged past the front of the mansion that her father’s bedroom light was on. She kept on going, round the west side of the mansion until she came back to the original path through the trees that led back to the lawn. She turned left onto it, however, this time she sprinted as hard as she could back along the path, over the lawn, again leaping over some of the bushes, until she reached the landing place below her balcony. This time Sally was out of breath and she bent over with her head between her long legs sucking in mouthfuls of air. She remained in this position for about thirty seconds until her breathing returned to normal and then she lightly jogged around the east side of the mansion to the rear.

  As she approached a rear door she caught the aroma of a cooking breakfast, a smell she loved and the memory it brought of a mother hardly known.

  She entered the kitchen and quickly but silently made her way through it, desperately hoping that none of the kitchen staff spotted her as she did not want to speak to anyone. Thankfully, they all had their backs turned and she managed to get through unnoticed. Sally exited the kitchen and walked along a long corridor to the end where there was another door and she quietly exited the servants’ quarters.

  Instantly the décor changed and it became more opulent. Instead of tip-toeing along thin carpet she was now tip-toeing along marble, instead of single burning lights in simple light shades, there were numerous chandeliers burning many lights. Sally, of course used to such opulence, did not even notice this most impressive inner hall.

  Instead she continued to tip-toe across it until she reached double glass doors which she quietly opened. As she stepped through them she entered a passageway, on her right side a marble wall, on her left marble columns, beyond which lay a large, deep swimming pool.

  She walked next to the columns looking at the crystal clear water and the slight layer of steam that hovered over the pool, until she reached a door with the usual symbol on it that indicates a female changing
room. She entered through this door and instantly the sensors detected her. Automatically the lights came on and she made her way over to large, ornately designed wardrobe.

  Inside, on a shelf, were a bikini and a large, thick luxurious towel that were always prepared for her. She took the towel out and draped it over a towel heater that she then switched on. Sally changed into her bikini quickly, just dumping her running gear on the floor, and stepped into one of the five shower cubicles where she rinsed off the sweat from her run. She stayed there only for a few moments, and then she went back to the pool and started her swim with an elegant full length dive that made hardly a ripple.

  Her front crawl technique had been drilled into her from a young age and it was near enough perfect. She used this technique to quickly do twenty five lengths, after which she switched to breast stroke for another twenty five. After this, she threw technique to the wind and hammered out ten fast, powerful, front crawl lengths, which left her gasping for breath at the end.

  Knowing that breakfast would be served in the bright, informal breakfast room promptly at eight o’clock, she had plenty of time for a long hot shower. While she was in the shower, to the casual observer, she appeared to be fondling and stroking her breasts. However, concerned that breast cancer may run in her family, ever since she had developed them, she had been checking them.

  Usually she would start by looking in the mirror, but today she changed her routine and did the usual last step while she was in the shower. When she had finished though, she made a point of standing in front of the mirror and examining them with her arms by her side, also with her arms raised. She also checked her nipples by squeezing them, as she had read was the right thing to do, looking for any kind of unusual discharge. There were exquisite carved benches all round the changing room with thick padding on them, so she lowered herself down onto one of them and continued to examine herself while she was lying down.

  Sally heaved a huge sigh or relief as she sat up, thankful that she had not found anything worrying in her examination. She had noted that it was best to do a full breast examination at least once a month, so she made a point of doing it on the first of the month after her daily swim. It was not the first of the month, and she cursed herself for not sticking to her routine. Also, she knew she had been a bit naughty doing the steps out of turn, but all she was thankful for was that there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was also coming up to the time of her regular check at the doctors of which her father insisted she partake in.

  She had not decided whether to go for a genetic test yet. It was something that she was giving a lot of thought to, but she was worried about how it may change her life if it turned out that she had inherited an abnormal gene from her mother. Her thoughts now lingered on the beautiful lady who she knew so briefly yet desperately wanted to know more. She had left Sally and her father when Sally was young, devastating both of them. Her father became a recluse, not holding an audience with anyone, running his business empire from the end of a phone or through emails. However, without his steadying hand being always present the whole of his empire nearly came crashing down. It took a brave young director to barge his uninvited way into her father’s office in the mansion and laid it all down for him in black and white that the company was going down. With her father’s strong hand returned to the helm of the company, it went from strength to strength.

  Sally loved her father so, so much, but he had never quite filled the void that a lost mother does. He ensured that she was sent to the best schools that money could buy, given the best tutorship that money could buy in everything that Sally fancied doing from one week to the next.

  When she wanted piano lessons, he employed a world renowned concert pianist to come and teach her. When she announced that she wanted a pony, he invested in a full stable set up for her, with an Olympic gold medallist show jumper to teach her. The gold medallist did not last long with the spoilt little brat as he described her when he told Sally’s father that he refused to teach her anymore until she developed some manners.

  These words struck home with her father, especially considering that she was eleven at the time. The first time he remembered these words and actually said no to her it created a little bit of commotion. Well, not exactly a little bit, more like a small, yet potent hurricane had hit the mansion.

  The sobbing, the tears, the tantrums were a sight to behold and lasted for a week or so. Ever since then she had been expected to work and earn her treats. Her Mini was paid for out of her own money that had she earned when she worked for her father during a summer. He still brought her presents now and then. Most of her attire was straight off the catwalk and he made sure no expense was spared when sending out one of his secretaries to get his daughter a little something during one of his many business trips overseas. The little somethings usually equalled at least a month’s pay of the aforementioned secretaries, sometimes two or three months. Sally knew that she had been spoiled as a child, and that she was still treated like a little princess by her daddy. She sometimes wondered if her life would have been any different if her mother had still been alive to see her grow up.

  Now she had to confront him about her eventful night and her trashed car, a chore she was not looking forward to. She knew that his reaction would be for personal bodyguards to be assigned to Sally and this worried her because she hated being followed by the guards everywhere she went.

  Opening the ornate wardrobe when she was fully dry, Sally took out a silk robe in a Japanese style, draped and fastened it around her amazing body. Not giving another thought to the clothes and towel on the floor, knowing that somebody would tidy up behind her, she left the changing room and quietly and quickly made her way back to her bedroom.

  Here she started to change into horse riding gear, and while she was doing so she glanced at the gold carriage clock on the mantelpiece and realized that she had enough time to check her emails before she went to breakfast. Switching on the computer in the corner of her room, she continued to get ready while it was booting up.

  The top of the range computer started quickly and it automatically connected to the internet. When she was ready, Sally checked her email account, and also the B.B.C. website to keep in touch with current affairs. Nothing was happening on either website, no interesting emails or interesting stories. She did note, however, that her father’s rugby league team that he owned had won last night which should hopefully put him in a good mood. She was meant to have accompanied him to the game last night, but she could not stand going there. She loved the sport, the excitement and thrills and big hits made football look like the most boring sport in the whole wide world, but she hated the players who were always making hits on her, trying desperately to get her into bed. The football players were even worse. Always flashing their money around, inviting her out for drives in their Ferraris and not seeming to realize that her father paid their wages and that if she wanted to, with a sly word in her father’s ear she could end their careers.

  Aimlessly she continued to flick through the pages on the B.B.C., noting on the technology pages that one of her father’s subsidiary companies was due to release a new MP3 player that was apparently, for the price, the best on the market. She was halfway through the article when the grandfather clock at the end of the hallway outside her room started to chime eight, so quickly Sally flicked off the monitor and made her way back downstairs to the sumptuous breakfast room.

  She always briefly stopped and looked out of the window at the view every time she stepped into this room through the double doors. Out of the huge French windows was a large balcony, on which, in one corner, stood a Jacuzzi. Beyond the balcony were the large front lawns and also the driveway which ran along the side of a lake. Past the end of the lake the road disappeared into a coppice of trees towards the imposing wall and enormous gates of the estate.

  At this time of the morning, there was still a light mist over the lake giving it an eerie appearance. The island that her mother loved, and
where her body rested, was peaking faintly through the mist adding to the eeriness.

  Her father was already at the table helping himself to some toast. When he saw that it was his daughter who had come through the doors he leaped to his feet, his face beaming. ‘Now then young lady, to what do I owe this pleasure?’ he said as he made his way across the thick carpet to greet her. ‘Saturday morning and you are up?’

  ‘Not exactly daddy, no.’ She leaned forward offering a cheek to accept his offered kiss. ‘Couldn’t sleep and I haven’t seen you all week.’

  He took a step back from her, holding her shoulders in his hands, studying her face. ‘You haven’t slept at all have you? I can tell. Was that you I saw scampering through the trees this morning at some silly hour?’

  ‘Yes, it was.’

  ‘Crikey! Must be serious if you are well and truly up before me, especially on a Saturday! Come, sit down, eat and tell me about it.’

  Sally made her away at her father’s side to the breakfast table and sat down in a seat next to him.

  ‘Have some toast while it is still hot.’ He picked up a little hand bell and rang it. Instantly, from a side door a servant appeared. ‘More tea and coffee please, an unexpected guest.’

  ‘Yes Mr. Gallagher.’

  ‘How’s the toast?’

  ‘It’s good thanks.’

  ‘Now, why don’t you tell me what has happened that has made you go for a run before sun-up?’

  ‘Well, you know the road off the B5671? The short cut to town?’

  ‘Yes, of course, goes under the bridge.’

  ‘I was driving along it last night and the car…’

  It was only then that Sally noticed the telephone that was resting next to her father’s hand as it started ringing. She of course knew that breakfast was the only time in the day that her father refused to be interrupted. You had more chance of phoning and being able to speak to him at three in the morning than at breakfast. If the phone was by his side then she knew that something big was happening.