by William King
“That is quite alright Hillary. Do you have any more questions before you go?”
With a saddened voice she said, “Yes I do Elizabeth. How long do you expect to be gone?”
“I cannot tell you for certain, because I do not know what we will find once we are out there in the jungle, or if we will find anything at all. I can only give you an approximate time, but you must take it with a grain of salt, as many things can happen in the jungle that can delay Mason and I from returning on schedule. Hillary, Mason, and I should be back within five or six days, so do not worry until then.”
Once Elizabeth was through talking I looked directly into Hillary’s eyes, which seemed to be glossing over
with tears when I spoke. Breaking what had seemed to be an eternity of silence, but only a minute.
“Hillary, yours and Lyle’s friendship means the world to me, and I want you to understand that.”
She nodded her head while standing in the doorway stammering, searching for just the right words to say when I reassured her that everything was going to be all right. The look on Hillary’s face revealed that she was not convinced with what Elizabeth or I had told her.
“I am terribly sorry Hillary, but that is the best guess that Elizabeth can give you about how long it will take us to finish our journey into the jungle. I wish that we could give you the exact day that we will return, but we cannot.”
I hated not being able to give Hillary a precise date, but it was Elizabeth’s place to tell Lyle and Hillary that there is the possibility that we might not ever return, and inform them on what to do if in fact that happened.
I knew by not answering Hillary’s question that I had only pushed her farther away. However, Elizabeth, nor I had any choice in the matter that was short of giving Hillary something else to worry about. Elizabeth and I did the best that we could to comfort Hillary, by giving her the answers to the questions that she had, but I doubt it gave her any comfort at all. Hillary would just have to trust us.
As she walked out the door, I turned out the light and laid down across the bed wondering how badly I had hurt my chances of ever being close to Lyle and Hillary again. Then the thought struck me, I may never get another chance if Bastelet has her way. That evil bitch had already chosen a path for me, which excluded everything except the darkest depths of Hell.
I somehow managed to fall asleep without having any retched dreams about this island, and no sounds could be heard within my subconscious mind. It was as if I was at peace with myself, and that I had never come in contact with any of these supernatural forces.
The next thing that I knew I was awakened by the unusual and unfamiliar sounds of the jungle. I quickly got out of bed, walked over to the window, and looked out up into the sky and saw nothing but dark grey clouds that looked as if a storm was about to erupt, which I was not very happy to see, especially on the day that Elizabeth and I were to depart. The angry storm clouds seemed to look right down onto me, mocking my very reason for coming to this island. I quickly dressed and headed off to the kitchen where I found it as empty as my stomach. I shouted aloud, “Well if this is the way things are going to be, then so be it.”
As I reached for the teapot to pour me a hot cup of tea I heard, “Hello Mason, are you alright, who are you talking too?”
Startled, I turned and said with a smile, “Yes Hillary, I am alright, I was just talking to myself. Sometimes things in life get so complicated that the only answers you get are the ones you make up to fit the questions that you have already asked everyone else, and their answers have given you no results.”
She looked at me questionably, and I wondered if she had thought that I was losing touch with reality when she said, “Mason, what I really came in here to say was I’m sorry. I sort of put you on the spot last night and I had no right to do so.”
“Oh Hillary, you could have never said anything nicer to me. I was afraid that I had destroyed what friendship we had gained with one another.”
She smiled and asked, “Mason, are you hungry,” and the kitchen was once again filled with love and warmth, even though the sun light was hidden behind the dark grey storm clouds.
“Yes, I am Hillary. I believe that I could eat a stack of blueberry pancakes, and I bet the two of us could put together a pretty good breakfast for the lot of us. What do you say?”
She gave me a smile and walked over, grabbed a bag of frozen blueberries out of the freezer, sat them on the counter, and asked me to get a bowl for the pancake batter mix that was on the top shelf of the cabinet, and we began preparing breakfast for the household.
A short while later after everything was finished the fruits of our labor were complimented on, lavishly. Mrs. Nickel’s was thrilled to find a warm meal that had already been prepared for her by someone other than herself. Hillary looked at Mrs. Nickel’s and said, “Have we done a good enough job on your breakfast?”
“Indeed you both have,” she said with a hearty laugh. “The two of you can give me this kind of surprise anytime you like. I am so glad you have come, my life here is full of things to do, but sometimes it gets very lonely. I shall miss both of you terribly when you leave.”
Hillary and I assured her that we would never forget her even though we knew that our stay on the Island would hopefully, be a short one. I wished that none of us would ever have to return to this dreadful place, once this ordeal was over and done with. I looked at Hillary and somehow knew that she had been thinking the exact same thing. I went out to find Elizabeth and ask her if she wanted some pancakes for breakfast but she declined, saying, “I am not hungry.” Therefore, I decided to pitch in and give Mr. Nickels a hand loading our things on the pack mules. We had just finished putting the last of our things on the pack mules when Lyle and Hillary made it outside. All that I could think about was, what perfect timing, and then laughed.
I thought of each of my friends, knowing that we were now at the point of no return, it was either all or nothing, and there was no turning back. We said our good byes and mounted up as Elizabeth said to Mr. Nickel’s, “You have my orders, and I do expect you to carry them out to a “T.”” Mr. Nickels looked directly at Elizabeth and nodded his head, giving the gesture that he would, but did not answer her as he handed up our rifles. Then we were off, not daring to take even one look back in their direction. We could not afford the luxury of letting each other know our thoughts, so we rode on ahead in silence. Silence is a strange thing, the more of it that surrounds you, the more time you have to hear your own thoughts. I knew that we did not need any more time to think. Therefore, I broke the silence as I asked, “Elizabeth, what did you mean when you told Mr. Nickels that you expected him to carry out your orders to a “T”?”
“I only told him to keep a watchful eye on Lyle and Hillary, and to make sure that they got back on the ship in case we did not make it back. Let’s not talk about it anymore. Why don’t you tell me again about the awful dream you had of this island, and tell it to me exactly the way you remember it?”
I had left all the questions within my subconscious mind unasked and unanswered as I began to tell her again about the dream that I had two nights before.
“I had been wondering Mason, what was the first thing that had caught your eye about the place in your dream?”
“I think it was all the beautiful flowers, why do you ask?”
“Only because it had been a well-known fact that my aunt Cassandra loved the rarest and most extravagant flowers there was.”
“Elizabeth, I see your point, except for one thing, there were no rare flowers.”
“Mason, I think if you stop and think about it for a moment you will change your mind. After all, how many roses, daisies, or carnations would one expect to find growing wild within the jungle?”
I thought about what Elizabeth had told me at least a hundred times before I came up with the only logical answer that could possibly support her theory, and that was the grave itself. It would only be circumstantial, but when you a
dd the flowers to the equation, it makes perfect sense. Nonetheless, I knew that unless we could find the place within my dreams, we were back to square one. Elizabeth watched me like a hawk with a smile on her face as I rode along without saying a word back to her. Therefore, she broke the eerie silence that I had created saying, “I have faith in you Mason, after all, you have gotten us this far.”
“Thanks for the credit Elizabeth, but we have to give credit where it is do. It was your mother who has gotten us this far.”
She never said another word and we kept ridding for an hour or so when Elizabeth decided that it would be a good time to set up camp. The spot that she picked was breathtaking, and my eyes could not stop admiring its beauty. There was a large river that flowed swiftly to the left of our campsite, uncrossable by foot, and it was the perfect spot to keep away unwanted guests, as the only way to the camp site was from the direction that we had come. We dismounted and tied up the pack mules, and while Elizabeth set up our tent, I gathered the firewood. I also replenished our supply of drinking water and prepared us something to eat. I laughed as I discovered that it took very little effort to prepare our food from the tin containers that contained our food.
When Elizabeth and I finished our so-called dinner, I repacked the unused portions of food and went to spread out our sleeping bags inside the tent. Once I had finished I walked over to join Elizabeth by the fire, and as I sat down beside her, she looked up at me and gave me a great big smile as I asked, “Elizabeth, are you still trying to make sense out of the things that I had seen within my dream?”
“No Mason, I was actually trying to guess what the odds were of ever finding the dilapidated shack here on the island, within the dense jungle.”
“What do you think our chances are of finding the old shack Elizabeth?”
She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Very slim I am afraid, I would say our chances are about a million to one.”
“A million to one Elizabeth, come on, those odds are
just too great. I believe that our odds of finding the old shack are better than that. In fact, I believe that our odds of finding the old shack in my dreams are about a hundred to one, maybe less. If it was not meant for us to find the old shack, I would have never dreamt about it in the first place.”
“Ha, so much for your psychology Mason, we better get some sleep if we expect to get an early start in the morning.”
We made our way into the tent, and her reaction startled me. She stared wildly at the picture that I had taken great lengths to tie up to the center post of the tent with a small twine and said, “Mason, of all places, why in God’s name have you brought my mother’s portrait with us into the jungle?”
“I do not know exactly. I just felt that we would be a whole lot safer if it were here with us. Elizabeth, without your mother’s picture I am afraid that I will never be able to find what we are looking for. Your mother’s picture has given me many clues to things that I might not have managed to stumble upon myself, even if I was extremely lucky.”
“Mason, this is only a painted canvas, it is not a living person that can speak. I loved her very much, but she is dead, and I cannot bring her back to life and neither can you. I do not ever want to hear you say that my mother’s picture has told you anything again, do you hear me! What are you trying to do, drive me insane with this utter nonsense?”
“Elizabeth, whether you believe me or not, the fact of the matter is, your mother does and has spoken to me, even though she is just a picture on a canvas. I think she was, and still is a wonderful human being whom I feel a tremendous amount of respect for, although we had never met each other when she was alive.”
When she spoke again she had tears within her eyes as she said, “Indeed she was a wonderful and caring woman,” she exclaimed looking deeply into the face of her mother’s portrait.
“I miss her terribly with each passing day. She was the one thing in my life that had been a comfort to me. I only wish that I had told her more often while she had been alive.”
“Elizabeth your mother knew that there was never any need for words, she could see your love.”
“Mason, stop this madness right now, why do you say these things when you know there is no possible way for you to know the things you profess to know? How in God’s name could you when you have never even met my mother? Mason, I have my own opinion, and if you ask me what my opinion would be, my answer would be quite simple, and that would be...you are making this whole thing up.”
I smiled looking at her mother’s portrait and said, “Is that a fact Elizabeth. Is that what you truly believe?”
Elizabeth walked over to her sleeping bag shaking her head back and forth, unzipped it, crawled in, and then pretended to fall asleep.
I was not tired, and felt as if I could not fall asleep even if I tried. Therefore, I decided to leave the tent to clear my mind of the many unanswered questions that were occupying my thoughts. I unzipped the tent door, walked over to the fire, and sat down on the ground. I grabbed a couple pieces of wood to place on the fire to keep it going and looked up at the stars hoping that they would reveal the answers that I solely longed for. I lifted the pot of hot tea from the fire and poured what was left into a cup and sipped away.
Things were becoming complicated very quickly with the fact that I was completely in love with Elizabeth. I was not quite sure that I knew exactly how to handle that kind of complication, nor was I sure that I even wanted too at that. Elizabeth was the model of perfection, so I was not concerned for the time being, but I knew that I would never be able to sleep in the same place with her. The truth of the matter was, it was not Elizabeth at all that I did not trust, it was that I did not trust myself, and knowing Elizabeth’s feelings towards me placed me in a rather difficult position. I knew that I could not keep my hands off her being so close to her in such a confined place. Oh, lord she smelt so good, and every time that I am around her she makes my mouth water.
For some unknown reason I decided to take a short walk to clear my thoughts. I got up, left the warmth of the fire, without telling Elizabeth where I was going, and walked into the eerie jungle, which was alive with all kinds of mysterious and deadly creatures that I could hear, but could not see. There was not a single cloud in the night sky. The grey clouds that filled the sky this morning moved through, and you could see millions of brilliant pulsating stars along with the faint glow of the moon shinning down, reflecting through the openings of the jungle canopy. Evidently, it never dawned on me how far away from camp I was. However, as soon as I heard the awful sounds of beating drums I was fully aware of my dire situation. I looked around trying to get a fix on my surroundings when I came to the conclusion that I was lost. I could no longer see the campsite, despite the fact that there had been a substantial fire when I had left.
Chills pierced throughout my body. I started running in the direction in which I had thought I came from, and before I knew it, I was completely out of breath and had to stop to rest. I had no way of knowing how far, or for how long I had wondered aimlessly into the dark mysterious jungle. Straining to hear just the slightest sounds, I listened for the beating drums, but the jungle was silent, all except for its usual sounds. In fact, the only thing I could hear was the pounding of my heart, so loud in my head that I swore that it could be heard throughout the dense jungle. It had been pounding so loud and fierce that I was certain that someone could track me by it.
The fact that I could no longer hear the beating drums gave me little to no comfort. I knew that I was hopelessly lost, and Elizabeth would not discover me missing until morning, and by that time, anything could happen to her or me. I wondered if I would even be able to last through the night with the jungle being filled with so many things that could a person in an instant. I rested just long enough to slow my pounding heart beat back to its normal rhythm, and replenish my deprived lungs with the oxygen that they needed, bringing my breathing back to normal again. I tried my best to get my bearings an
d began walking, trying to find my way back to camp. However, this time I was being cautious, and listened for any sounds that could be a potential danger to me. Unfortunately, I saw nothing that I could recognize to regain my barring’s, and just as I was going to change direction, I came upon a small clearing that was strangely familiar to me.
My eyes strained to get a closer look, but I still could not see anything, until the moon suddenly appeared out from behind a stray cloud that had moved through, and within an instant, flooded the forest with a pleasant glow of light. I took a few steps and suddenly something jolted my memory. I knew why this place seemed so familiar to me. I was standing in the middle of Elizabeth’s aunt Cassandra’s flower garden from my dream. I knew that the house would be just beyond that flower garden, shielded by the jungles undergrowth. I knew because I had seen it in my dreams.
I slowly inched my way through the undergrowth, drawing closer, until there it was, so close that I could almost reach out and touch it. My dream had now become a reality. I had told Elizabeth of its existence, and now that I had actually found it, I was doubtful of ever showing it to her because I did not know if I could ever find my way back. That is if I could ever make it back to camp. I knelled down onto the jungle floor and did something that I had not done since I was a small child. I cried out until I could cry no more. Then all of the sudden I thought of dying here without Elizabeth knowing where I was, or why I had even left camp. I had to face that thought because it could soon become a reality. I dried the tears from my face and decided to gain control of my situation. I had always been told that I was a fighter, and now it was time to become one, or I would not have any sanity left.
I screamed out Bastelet’s name, tantalizing her, and daring her to face me, once and for all. I felt the warm feeling of serenity, and then the smell of roses filled the air. I knew right at that moment I had company. I was not sure if it was friendly or not, but I knew one thing for sure, and that was, it was not Bastelet. I was sure that it was Elizabeth’s mother Gwendolyn when I heard a familiar voice inside my head saying, “Everything will be alright Mason, you are safe now,” and the next voice I heard belonged to Elizabeth, as she was calling out my name.