BE CAREFUL!

 

Chapter 6

BE CAREFUL!

 

Briony and Alden were relieved to see the motel after driving for so long. It was still dark, and sleet was falling which penetrated the bones. As the day had been so bad, Alden and Briony had the restaurant to themselves. Briony told Alden that the waiter there had told her about Magician’s Leap. She said that Donald must have known too much and that was why he’d been murdered. Alden looked at his watch, stood up, and said it was better to leave. He was sure that sooner or later they would come up against the maroon car, and he wanted to delay it as long as he could.

Once again Briony drove and Alden made himself comfortable on the back seat. Briony switched on the car radio to listen to the local weather forecast. The sleet fell stronger, reducing visibility and making the surface of the road slippery. Perhaps the bad weather would turn out to be advantageous for them.

 

Back at the motel restaurant, a man wearing a hat got out of a large maroon car. He asked one of the waiters if he had seen a man and a woman. The waiter said he never noticed the customers because he had too much work to do. The man left the motel and got back into the large car. He was angry for having lost sight of his quarry. He needed to drive faster.

 

The journey was long and boring for Briony, and she would have fallen asleep if she hadn’t had to concentrate on the road. Alden, lying down on the back seat, never said a word. Briony didn’t approve of the attitude of her travelling companion. The weather forecast was that conditions would deteriorate more, and the temperatures would go down. Alden told Briony that he hadn’t been asleep, but had been keeping an eye on the traffic. If Briony thought the first time she had gone up north it had been dangerous, the second time turned out to be worse. The area resembled an ice rink, and then she had a bad moment when she lost control and the car skidded, and finally stopped against the metal barrier. Briony was about to burst into tears, when Alden said, “You’ve done very well. I was right to trust you driving.”

Briony was silent and she drove on, passing the spot where she had originally picked up Alden. As they neared the village Magician’s Leap, the visibility became worse. The sleet that fell was more solid, almost like pure snow. They arrived at Grandfather’s house in a fog that came down like a blanket covering the whole region, muffling noise, and making the visibility impenetrable. Auntie Mati opened the front door, and Briony and Alden rushed into the house.

 

For the car travellers who were behind Briony and Alden, it was impossible for them to go through Magician’s Leap, and they were obliged to look for an alternative route. The police closed off the road to the north, and the radio informed them to either go home or find accommodation. The driver of the large maroon car got angry, but added to the already bad conditions, a heavy fog would make anyone think that all the worst telluric elements had concentrated on that small village. The man in the maroon car had no choice but to look for another route in the highly unpleasant weather.

 

Alden’s grandfather came out of the room after switching off the radar. He was more than satisfied with what he had done. His first duty was to protect Briony and Alden from the criminals. He pulled back the curtains to look outside. Magician’s Leap was wrapped in a blanket of fog and silence, as if it didn’t exist. Grandfather closed the curtains and sat at the table, he took some cloth from a drawer, a clean cloth with which he covered the radar - that was nothing more than a crystal ball used by tarot readers.

Grandfather had chosen the crystal ball in case they were burgled, and didn’t want anyone finding out about his activities. Everyone had laughed at him when he had leaped from the rock, and so, afterwards, he wasn’t willing to let them in on his discoveries. He knew Briony and Alden were in danger and was trying to protect them. They had arrived in time and Alden, had informed his grandfather of Donald’s murder. The fog would last twenty-four hours.

Alden and Briony had changed their clothes, and were drinking something hot when Grandfather entered, and they all sat down at the dining table. Auntie Mati had gone overboard with the dinner, and had prepared hot tasty dishes. The fire in the fireplace blazed, creating in the house a comfortable and cosy atmosphere. Grandfather stared at Briony in such a way, Alden felt worried. His grandfather told him that Briony was sad when she had gone there before, but she was much better now, and it was due to her having met Alden.

Grandfather asked Briony questions about Jasper, and she told him about Zoë, and how Donald, Zoë’s husband, had been murdered. She also told him about how she and Alden had visited a flat supposedly rented by Jasper and Zoë, who had never lived there, and the story of Donald’s being knocked down, and then their taking him to an hotel to be safe - which it wasn’t.

“Briony, what do you know about magic?” Grandfather asked her.

“Only what Alden told me - there are magicians and illusionists.”

“And if all this was just an illusion?” Grandfather asked her.

“I’ll tell you at the right time. Do you mind if I go to bed now? I can hardly keep my eyes open,” Briony declared.

“You can share my room. I’m tired too,” Auntie Mati said.

 

When Auntie Mati and Briony were fast asleep, Grandfather entered their room and checked their pulses. They had been drugged in order to sleep the whole night through. Grandfather knew a lot about Zoë, how she had gone off with Jasper. He sat before a set of controls, and there was a sound of something sliding along.

 

Grandfather’s story. Five years ago the villages in that area had borne witness to the disappearances of tourists. All kinds of people were involved: salesmen, day trippers, foreigners, campers, hikers; and Magician’s Leap got the blame because of its history, although the disappearances hadn’t taken place there, but in the ski resort. There had been a rise in the number of deaths in car accidents. In an area with a small population and few vehicles, it was all rather strange. At times, Grandfather had wondered whether Alden’s wife was involved. Alden’s wife had gone off with the son of Grandfather’s biggest rival - Mel-var.

 

At three a.m. Grandfather switched on the crystal ball. It looked milky because of the fog, he pressed some buttons that operated the aerial. The road on the opposite side of the village appeared on the crystal ball. There was no vehicle in sight. The desolation upset Grandfather, because the lack of traffic was unnatural, as there were normally one or two lorries travelling at night. He felt put out because his fun was being spoilt.

 

The next morning, Briony awoke to the sound of thunder. Auntie Mati woke up too, and the two women saw it was eight o’clock. Briony said, “I have the feeling I’ve slept much more than usual.” Auntie Mati went to prepare breakfast, and Briony got dressed and then went to look for Alden. Together they went to the living-room where the curtains were drawn back, showing the exterior world. Briony was shaken at the sight of a storm and said, “Alden, last night there was fog, and now a storm. How can we go anywhere in such changeable weather?”

Alden went to see his grandfather, who was in his room. “I should have known you were behind all this. I thought you had given up all these tricks years ago.”

“I don’t want to lose practice. Anyhow, it was useful last night,” Grandfather declared

“I don’t know what Briony will think of us. A house buried inside fog, a drugged drink, clocks changed. Looks like you’ve overdone it this time!”

 

Alden left his grandfather. Briony and Auntie Mati were having breakfast. Briony wanted to use the car radio, because the radios and television in the house weren’t working. Alden persuaded her to wait till the afternoon, when the boys wouldn’t be at school. Alden went to see his grandfather and told him Briony wanted to ring her sons. Grandfather told Alden he’d switched off the television and the radios, because on the news it had said the police were looking for Briony as a person of interest, as she was still married to Jasper Tello.

Alden told Briony that she was safe in the house with them, while the police were searching for her. Briony said that the only thing she knew, was that ever since the two policemen had called on her and had told her about Jasper’s hospitalisation, she had been in continuous motion. She wasn’t happy, because none of it was her fault, and she regretted having made the first journey.

Briony asked Grandfather what he had to do with all that was happening, and Grandfather told her. “I’m the magician in the local legend.”

Briony told him she didn’t believe it.

“What can I do for you?” he asked.

“Give me back my old life.”

Grandfather said, “That’s out of my reach and I’m glad, because you’re on the brink of a new life.”

Briony left Grandfather, and found some paper backs, then went and sat down beside Alden on the sofa, who was writing in a notebook.

 

Alden left Grandfather’s house as a storm threatened the northern region and Magician’s Leap vanished in the fog, yet at the same time thunder was heard. The road Alden and Briony had followed a short time before, was no longer a white wonderland. It had lost all that, and had become a world of dead winter colours. The hospital Alden and Briony had visited, was the only one in an area of small villages. The cars that were parked at the hospital belonged to the medical faculty. An ambulance arrived bringing patients who were pensioners. The rain began to fall heavily.

The house where Donald and Zoë had lived, was small with a garden back and front. The next door neighbour said that Donald’s wife had gone off with another man, and that he would kill him.

The neighbour, who believed Donald had killed Zoë, invited Alden to come round to her house. The woman disappeared, and returned holding a large cloth bag over her arm. She unzipped it and pulled out an expensive fur coat. The woman added that Zoë was always wearing it, and that she had bought it in a second-hand shop called ‘Madame Antoinette’ in the ski resort. She had been given it by Donald.

 

The hoardings announcing the ski resort and slopes were large and colourful. There was very little snow, due to the torrential downpour. All the shops were open, and Alden soon found the shop ‘Madame Antoinette’. Inside the shop there were rails of clothes of all kinds. Antoinette was a woman of indeterminate age, heavily made-up, and with hair of different shades of red.

Antoinette asked Alden what he would like, and he said a dark winter coat of pure wool. He then went round the shop, perusing the goods on sale. He acquired a black coat for himself with special buttons, a watch, a wallet, and a fountain pen - all of them very well-known makes.

 

Alden got back into his car with his purchases hidden under the back seat. He realized he was being followed by a maroon coloured car. Alden smiled to himself he had flushed the bird out of his hideaway.

Alden played with the other man by accelerating and then slowing down, and driving through mud. Night was falling as they reached Magician’s Leap. Alden rang his grandfather, informing him of the proximity of the maroon coloured car. The storm got stronger and stronger, leafless trees were falling down blocking the road. Stones and rocks fell from the hills and mountains. It was like the end of the world.

Alden’s car was untouched, but the driver in the maroon car had to return to where he had come from.

Alden drove as fast as he could and parked in the carport. He went indoors to the living-room where they were all waiting for him. He showed them his new coat, which had special buttons, that would be easily identifiable. Grandfather got up and went to his room, and with his crystal ball he sealed off the house and let a dense and freezing fog descend.

 

That night, nobody would be travelling on that road, it was too dangerous - and the police got ready for a quiet night.