‘Oh. How’s that?’
‘I spoke to a guy in Lochnivar and he said he had never heard of it. He knew about this place but said that there was no such town as Winter Falls.’
‘It’s no surprising to be honest. It’s not really a tourist area and if you can’t sell a stick of rock with a name in it Lochnivar people tend to lose interest.’
Joe detected the teeth in Kevin’s statement but decided not to press the matter.
‘Still good to know it’s really there. Are there any easy routes I should know about?’
‘No. There are no short cuts.’ Kevin replied bluntly.
'Oh. Ok fair enough. How long will it take me to get there, if the roads are good all the way?’
‘You won’t find it.’ Kevin said flatly.
Joe paused for a moment, unsure what Kevin meant. ‘Won’t find the road?’ He asked.
‘No Joe, you won’t find the town.’ Kevin looked serious. His words were not menacing or threatening, simply matter of fact.
‘Surely it can’t be that difficult. I appreciate that the snow is a bit of a blanket but the road seems easy enough to follow.
‘There are more roads around here than you might think.’ Kevin said.
‘Ok, well I’ll bear that in mind. I’ll make sure to keep to the coastal road that should get me there right?’ Joe asked hoping that Kevin would agree.
‘I guess we’ll see.’ Said Kevin, not giving the answer Joe had wanted. ‘But look, if you have no joy just head back here. I’ll have a room ready for yer and a meal if yer need it.’
‘Right, that’s er good of you, thanks for that.’ Joe decided that now was a good time to get out and start his journey. ‘I’ll be on my way and thanks for the whiskey, phew! Good stuff mate.’
‘Nae bother.’ Kevin replied.
Joe repeated his ‘thank you,’ smiled and turned to leave.
‘See you later.’ He heard Kevin call as the pub door slowly shut behind him.
Chapter Four
Joe left the Silent Piper at four pm and the sky had been clear of clouds. When he arrived back at the pub it was almost two am. Above, the heavens were brilliant with stars. He parked in the same spot as he done earlier, there were still no other cars, and wearily trudged back to the front door. To his surprise the Piper was fully lit and the door unlocked. It opened as he pulled on the handle.
Inside a few villagers occupied tables and the fire still burned, although not as fiercely as it had earlier. The first of the occupants of the bar to turn his head was Kevin who was sat alone reading a newspaper. He offered a consoling look when he saw it was Joe who had entered.
‘Welcome back Mr Clarke, no luck then?’
Joe said nothing. He walked over to Kevin and pulled out an empty chair. ‘Do you mind?’ Joe asked indicating the seat.
‘Not at all.’ Kevin replied.
Joe sat heavily and yawned. ‘I think I’ve been around that fucking coast a dozen times.’ Joe said with obvious resentment. ‘I couldn’t even find a road to the forest. Every time I took a turn towards it I ended up five fucking miles further away.’ He let out a terrific sigh. ‘Jesus Christ. What a nightmare.’
Kevin stood. ‘I’ll get ye a drink son, what’ll ya have?’
‘Oh great, anything...just...anything.’
Kevin went behind the bar, ‘A pint o’ Arrogant Bastard maybe?’
Joe managed to laugh a little, ‘No perhaps not that.’
Kevin returned with a mug of Steam Beer and a shot of whiskey for each of them.
‘How come you are open so late?’ asked Joe as he sipped at his drink. The Steam Beer was much milder than the Arrogant Bastard and had a sweet, nutty aftertaste he found appealing.
‘When the snow is bad everything stops around here. My place is where most of the village spends winter, so I stay open as late as I can for them.’ Kevin said. ‘Besides I knew you would be coming back.’
‘How were you so certain?’ Joe asked.
‘Och, you know. The roads around here are awful, no sign posts, no landmarks and what with the snow and all, well I was pretty confident.’
Joe thought about this. While at first it sounded vaguely reasonable, further consideration led him to decide that it was really quite weak, given the steps he had taken to try and locate the town. He had driven carefully. Maintaining as best he could a view of the coast on any road he took. He had taken time to check for signposts, road signs of any sort even just AA or National Heritage. Eventually he had found himself driving on roads with tyre tracks in the snow that only his vehicle could have made. He was going in circles.
Kevin was also wrong about the landmarks. There was one, a Cenotaph. A tall, grey structure that stood on a stone base with two steps leading up to it. He had passed that particular point of reference at least three times.
‘So what’s your plan? You heading back to London tomorrow?’
‘Back to London, God no. I’ve got to find this place, my job depends on it.’ Joe drank more of the beer. ‘I couldn’t even phone my boss. No signal.’ At this he pulled out his phone and saw the same lack of bars which he then showed to Kevin. ‘It’s like being on the moon around here.’
‘Dunnae worry about that. You can use our landline to make your call.’
‘I would appreciate that, thanks. I’ll call in the morning I don’t think my boss will be happy with me waking him at this hour.’
Kevin nodded. ‘So you are going to look again tomorrow?’
‘Yeah, first thing I’ll head out. Clear head, positive attitude, you know.’
‘Aye, I suppose.’ Kevin replied. ‘Well your room is at the top of the stairs on the left, the key is in the door. Twenty five pounds fer the night and ye will have a breakfast waiting for ye if are up no later than eight.’ Kevin stood and Joe followed suit. ‘Pay in the morning son. Go and get your heed down.’
Joe picked up the whiskey and knocked it back. This time the fire was welcome and he let the sensation linger. He liked the way that Kevin pronounced down as doon.
‘Thanks Kev. I’ll see you in the morning.’
Joe made his way up the stairs and found his room, the key in the lock. It was compact but looked comfortable. He undressed and wanted to wash himself down but tiredness won him over and with barely a thought he crawled into the bed. He was asleep in seconds.
Chapter Three
Joe awoke two minutes before his alarm was due to go off. The digital display on the small travel clock read 7:58. He had always been quite a morning person. He had been jogging since his late teens and only missed a run if work or perhaps an excessively heavy night out forced him to grab as much pillow time as possible.
He felt pretty good. The frustration of yesterday was a distant memory and he was ready to get the job done. As he dressed the smell of bacon frying began to permeate the room. He recalled that Kevin had offered breakfast. He dressed, happy that he had packed jeans, a sweatshirt and trainers in his travel case.
Downstairs he found Kevin sat at a table facing the stairs. He was busy eating from a plate filled with everything an unhealthy breakfast should consist of. Across from him was another plate comprised of the same ingredients.
‘Mornin.’ Kevin said.
‘Good morning!’ Joe replied, brightly.
‘Breakfast.’ Kevin said pointing to the plate opposite his with his fork.
‘Great!’ Said Joe. ‘Good job I’m hungry that looks like a lot of food.’
‘Start your day with a good breakfast and it won’t matter if you miss your dinner.’ Kevin replied.
‘I suppose that’s so.’ Joe said as he sat and commenced an attack on the bacon.
They ate in silence for a few minutes until Joe felt compelled to offer some conversation. He asked Kevin about the village, the bar and as many questions about the area that he hoped would not seem naive or stupid. Kevin happily answered and in turn questioned Joe about his work and life in London. Whenever Joe brought up the subject of Winter Falls though Kevi
n deftly ignored the question or quickly moved on to something else.
Something had begun to niggle Joe about the cryptic way that Kevin spoke, or rather didn’t speak about the town. Despite him at least acknowledging its existence he had offered no actual directions and there had been no discussion of if he had ever been there. Kevin had also been so certain that he wouldn’t find the place. He rationalised this as best he could, yes there was snow on the ground, certainly no signs that indicated where it might lie and yes as he had said the roads were very confusing. But still, the man was so certain that he had prepared his room and hadn’t been at all surprised to see him return.
Joe was surprised at how quickly he finished his meal. In London breakfast was a fruit juice and a croissant. By the time he had finished his run there was little time for sitting down and eating so he would grab what he could en route to the office.
Kevin had finished before him and left the table, returning a few minutes later with two mugs of steaming coffee.
‘What’s your plan then Joe?’ he asked
‘I want to get out there as soon as possible. Find this place, get my work done and be home to be perfectly honest. I’m against the clock and I can’t really afford more fuel and stop overs.’
Kevin took a few sips from his tea. He appeared to be thinking, ruminating on something. He placed the mug down and closed his hands around it as though soaking up the heat from it.
‘What will you do if you can’t find the place today?’
Joe blinked. He hadn’t even considered this. ‘I can’t imagine that’ll be the case to be honest.’
‘You could’nae find it yesterday.’ Kevin remarked.
‘Well yes, but I had been travelling all day, there wasn’t much daylight left when I set out and let’s face it, as you said, the roads around here are confusing to say the least.’ Joe countered.
‘Aye, there’s that.’ Kevin said. ‘But see. What if ye still cannae find it. Will ya be away to home, to London?’
Joe thought about this for a moment. ‘I guess...yes I would. I’m not entirely sure what my boss would think about that but yes I would, probably.'
‘Aye.’ Said Kevin. He pushed the remains of his breakfast around with his fork and then stood.
‘Well I need to get started here. Roscregan folks are farmers so they are up and aboot already and they have very little tae do come the afternoon.’
Kevin nodded. ‘Yeah I need to get moving too. Thanks again for the breakfast, really good.’
‘Nae bother.’ Kevin replied. ‘And listen if this is stretchin yer finances a bit just send up the payment for the room when ye get home, okay?’
Joe was almost speechless, he stammered out an attempt at a polite refusal. ‘Kevin...that’s good of you to offer but...’
Kevin waved Joe’s attempt at rejecting the offer away.
‘It’s nae bother, just send a cheque or something. There’s none of us going hungry up here and I don’t want you running out of fuel and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere.’
Joe felt incredibly humbled and began to redden a little. He did have limited cash in his wallet and if there was no cash machine in Winter Falls it would mean surviving on a few pounds until he got back to Lochnivar at the earliest.
‘That’s very kind of you, thanks.’ He said.
‘Nae bother.’ Kevin replied. He gave Joe a smile and turned to leave but then remarked. ‘Oh one other thing, on your way back just head to Inverness. It will cut your journey time loads and you can get a train home or down to Glasgow if you need to.’
‘Cheers, good idea, thanks again.’ Joe replied. He had expected another ‘Nae bother,’ from Kevin but instead the nicest Scotsman he had met smiled and walked towards his bar.
Joe was out on the road within fifteen minutes of finishing his breakfast chat with Kevin. It was only when he had made decent headway into the trip that he realised that he hadn’t called his boss.
‘Fuck,’ he cursed out loud as he pulled out his phone and saw that there was not a single bar showing.
Against the evidence he tried calling but was met with the ‘Beep Beep Beep’ that indicated no signal. He placed the phone on the dashboard and made a mental note to check it every time he came to a passing place. He forgot for most of them.
A light dusting of snow had fallen through the night but not enough to cover the tracks he had made yesterday. Joe was pretty certain from the look of the road that his had been the only vehicle to have travelled upon them since the blizzard. He glanced up at the sky. It was no longer clear, patches of cloud moved at a slow pace and each had a dull grey base.
It wasn’t long before the coast came into view on his left. The road was for the most part at least the length of a football pitch away from what he presumed was a steep drop, but every now and then he came close enough to witness the sheer fall from the edge down to dangerous looking rocks being bashed by the sea. His grip on the steering wheel increased.
As before he tried to maintain a route that kept the coast in view. His logic was that as Winter Falls was a port it had to be by the sea. Stick with the sea, find the port. Unfortunately the road occasionally turned away from the coast and headed inland. Usually because a sizeable hill or fast moving stream or a river blocked the way but sometimes, Joe was convinced, for the sheer hell of it.
After such a diversion he would try to find his way back to the coast and would eventually do so, but only after a great deal of driving around empty expanses of snow covered fields or between large and ominous looking hills. He also looked for virgin snow, free of his tracks from the previous day to see if there may have been a route he had not previously taken. He had no luck in such a find.
Every road he took featured furrows he had made earlier. Occasionally he came across roads in which he saw wider track marks but figured that this would be where he had started to go in circles.
Once again he began to lose his patience with the situation. No signs, seemingly random roads and a landscape that was at once different yet almost impossible to tell apart one mile to the next. It began to grate at his nerves. He checked his phone. No signal. He pulled over on to a passing place.
‘This is insane.’ He said out loud.
He sat, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. He could just turn around and go home, just drive on to Inverness as Kevin had suggested and be back in London by tonight. He had no idea what the fallout would be but surely there was some way around the problem that could be managed from home.
He sighed and started off again, looking for a road to bring him back to the coast.
A short while after this a familiar object came into view. The large Cenotaph stood proudly against the snow. Joe could see the vast forest beyond it, which had been his first proper glimpse of Ardach Coille, the ‘big forest’ he thought wryly. He pulled up alongside it and decided to take a look, deep down hoping that it might offer some clue as to where he should be going.
He had not noticed from his car that the obelisk had names and dates cut into it. At the bottom on the side facing the road was a plaque but this was obscured by snow. Joe crouched down and wiped it away so that the whole of the text was visible.
1914-1918 1939-1945
In Remembrance of the brave souls of Winter Falls
Who gave of themselves that we may live
In peace and freedom.
There was another line at the bottom that Joe couldn’t make out. The metal looked to have been hammered and scratched, mutilating the text. He studied the names that filled the rest of the monument and realised that he had seen many of these in the records he had gone through in Glasgow.
What he joked was his ‘super-power,’ his superb memory, flicked through them and highlighted those that were the same. Just a minute or so of observation allowed him to soak up the information. It formed a pattern in his mind that he could recreate at will.
There were Macgregor’s, Callans, Cambells and more made up long generations of Wi
nter Falls families. He knew that in the First World War almost the entire population of men eligible for service had been wiped out in some villages. For some reason he hadn’t associated that with places in Scotland and now realised his ignorance as to how far the sacrifice for the wars had been felt.
He placed his hands on his hips and looked around. He could hear the sea crashing against cliffs somewhere beyond the forest ahead. For a moment he contemplated walking through it to find the town. It was a passing fancy. Water was already seeping into his training shoes and a short bluster of wind reminded him of the fact that he was wearing a jacket that wouldn’t keep him warm and certainly not dry.
He got back into the car. If he returned to Inverness now there would be time to try to sort out a solution. If he spent the rest of the day looking for the town and didn’t find it he wouldn’t be able to get home until tomorrow. The weather was due to turn again. God knows what he would do then.
He could always return to Roscregan and from there call home and get Mike to look into getting some decent directions. And there was Kevin, perhaps he could introduce him to a villager who would be prepared to escort him there. Joe felt that this idea had merit. Maybe he could even drag Kevin away for an hour or so. He settled on this. He had no intention of wasting any more time. Joe started back towards Roscregan, following his own freshly made tracks in the snow.
When he returned to the Silent Piper this time the bar was busy. It was early afternoon and the fire was back to its fearsome heat. Kevin was serving a big man with a large and expansive beard. The patrons looked up from their drinks and conversations once again but quickly lost interest in Joe’s reappearance.
Kevin saw him and Joe thought his gracious host looked a little confused. He finished serving an old gent who wore a drab brown coat. Once a pint had been pulled for him the old fellow walked to a table where he and Kevin had eaten earlier. Kevin left the bar and came to Joe.
‘I did'nae expect tae see you.’ Kevin said.
‘What can I say, you were right, the place is fucking impossible to find.’ Joe shook his head. ‘However I had an idea’.
Winter Falls Page 4