His Silence - Chapter Seventeen

‘Looks like we’re here,’ Callum says.

I lean forward in my seat as Callum turns a corner, jutting off the end of long road, barely big enough for one car. It would’ve been a nightmare, if a car had met us coming the other way. It’s not even really a road, more of a dirt track; I grab hold of the safety bar as the car bumps in and out of a massive pot hole. Branches from the trees on either side partially block out the sunlight and scrape my side of the car.

There’s a white gate ahead of us with a sign pinned to it announcing we’ve arrived at Marsh View. I glance up at the camera on the the top right hand corner of the gate, and imagine someone watching us now; I look away from it, a nervous shiver racing through me. Is this really the place? Why would anyone want to live out here, it’s so remote?

‘Is there a button or something we need to press to tell someone we’re here?’ I ask.

Callum rolls down his window. ‘Ah.’ He reaches out with his hand, presses something; there’s a crackling noise. No one speaks. Callum looks back at me with a frown in his forehead, I urge him to say something. He looks back to the intercom. ‘Err, hi, I’m here with Danielle Olsen, we were given this address by her brother, Harvey, when she went to see him in prison, she went with some bloke, err, Jeremiah his name is.’

There’s no answer. They’re not going to let us in. We’ve come all this way and they’re not going to let us in, I sink back into my seat.

There’s a clang which makes me jump, and the gates ahead of us begin to creak open to reveal a short further stretch of road ahead of us.

‘Bit security conscious, aren’t they?’ I say.

Callum pushes the car forward. After driving for a few more yards, I catch a glimpse of a white farm house poking through the gaps in the trees. Vines snake up the walls, curling around the windows. Gravel crunches under the car wheels as we pull onto the driveway. I notice straight away there’s only one other car here, it’s parked close to the main entrance of the house; it’s the same car Jeremiah came to pick me up in the other day when he took me to see Harvey. Jeremiah’s standing ahead of us in the doorway of the house; I breathe a sigh of relief. Was it him who opened the gates? If it was, why didn’t he say anything when Callum said who we were? He knew there was a possibility I might be coming.

Callum parks the car up, next to Jeremiah's car, and switches the engine off.

‘That’s the bloke, isn’t it?’ he says, motioning towards Jeremiah. Callum will be trying to look back in his mind to see if he can remember him from the pub.

‘Yep,’ I say, my stomach keeps doing somersaults.

I open the car door and step out into the cool air, seasoned with sea salt. A gull’s cry reaches my ear, making the tension in my body turn up a notch. Keep calm, breathe. This is where you grew up.

‘Danielle, I thought it was going to be a lot longer before you came to see us,’ Jeremiah says, with a broad smile. He's wearing a white T-shirt and white trousers. ‘And who’s this?’

Callum’s got out of the car now. He’s clutching his right arm with his hand.

‘This is Callum, my best friend, I didn’t really fancy coming on my own. You met him briefly at the pub the other day.’

I remember the sternness in Callum’s voice when he told Jeremiah to piss off. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that Jeremiah met him at the pub, Jeremiah might’ve forgotten.

Jeremiah beams at both of us although there’s a hint of annoyance in his eyes. I look away. ‘Any friend of Danielle’s is a friend of ours,’ he says, keeping the tone of his voice bright. ‘Welcome, Callum. Do you both want to follow me through? Everyone’s dying to meet you Danielle, but I thought we should give you a bit of space first before everyone crowds in. But I have made an exception for Oliver. He’s so looking forward to meeting you.’

‘The man from the photograph,’ I say a shiver racing through me as I think back to how he made me feel.

‘Yes, that’s right. Oh, please don’t take any pictures.’        

I notice Callum’s taken his phone out to photograph the building.

‘Oh, sorry,’ he says, gingerly placing his phone back into his pocket.

‘That’s fine,’ Jeremiah says, although I notice his knuckles turning white. ‘I would ask you to please keep your phones out of sight whilst you’re here, we don’t really encourage phones in the house, and it might upset some people. This way please.’

Callum glances across at me with a raised eyebrow. I say nothing. We follow Jeremiah through into the porch and into a cream coloured hallway with stone tiles. A vision flashes in my mind making me stop in my tracks; I’m being pulled by my hand by Mum. Dad, Harvey, and someone else are ahead of me, wearing dark clothing. Mum keeps glancing back at me as we head outside putting a finger to her lips. Did that happen here?

‘Everything OK?’ Callum asks, keeping his voice low.

‘Yeah fine,’ I say, taking in a steady breath.

We follow Jeremiah further down the hallway, before turning left into a living area, which I’m pretty sure must’ve been a barn at one stage, it’s huge. There’s a long table stretching from one end of the room to the other, it’s already set for the next meal, knives and forks laid out. I glance at the two brown sofas at one end of the room. High above me wooden beams support the ceiling. It strikes me there isn’t a television in the room, which makes me think back to what Jeremiah just said about no one having phones here. The walls are covered in wooden panelling. There are no pictures I can see. Where is everyone?

‘I’ll just go and get Oliver,’ Jeremiah says. ‘I won’t be one moment. Please do make yourselves comfortable.’

He slips out of the room; I listen to his footsteps getting further and further away.

Callum’s frowning at me. ‘He’s a weird bloke,’ he says.

I nod. ‘Yeah I know what you mean,’ I say, keeping my voice low.

‘Why on earth did he want me to put my phone away?’  

‘I don’t know. Why were you taking photographs?’

He shrugs. ‘I just thought I better have some sort of record of this place, y’know, in case anything does go wrong.’

I’m about to respond when there are footsteps, I nudge Callum, urging him to keep quiet. God my heart’s going at a million miles an hour.

The man from the photograph appears in the doorway Jeremiah just left through. Oliver. I swallow. Jeremiah’s standing behind him. Oliver’s barely changed, albeit, yes, he might have a few more lines in his forehead, and his hairs greying, but he looks bloody good for his age. He’s still ridiculously handsome; my eyes flutter to the floor.

‘Danielle, it’s such a pleasure to see you again,’ he says, smiling the widest smile I’ve ever seen, even his eyes seem to twinkle as he speaks.