Jacuranda Hill

It was a Saturday morning, the birds singing in the trees, as he walked tirelessly across the pasture, thinking of allsorts in his head. He just finished the last drag of his cigarette before returning back to the house to finish packing. It was the day they were moving, away from England and going abroad for the first time.

His job took him to many places, sometimes, he hardly had the chance to spend time with his family. The lucky break came when the company he worked for, were relocating to the Caribbean.  He accepted the offer, most of his colleagues took the redundancy. The company gave him a month to move, which included the flights and setting up his apartment with the family.

As he got back to the house, he was able to put the finishing touches to the move, not without the continuous arguments with his wife and the girls being extra mischievous, a couple of young teenagers, full of excitement.

The last of the luggage was put away in the Jeep; he went back into the house, and sensed the hollow echoing around the rooms. Thinking about the memories, some good and sad but mostly glad to be moving to another world. The job would be the same, he hoped, but felt apprehensive of what to expect working with people from another place other than London.

All four , buckled in the vehicle, he hesitated for a while before starting the engine. It seemed like he was the only one feeling emotional. He looked back at the girls; they were just in their own little world arguing with each other on which book was theirs. He looked at his wife, who was also too busy texting. So, he started the engine, reversed in the driveway and began to drive off, only to have the final look in the rear view mirror.

As soon as he picked up speed, after driving away from the suburbs, they were already on the motorway heading towards Gatwick Airport. The vehicle was doing 70 mph on the clock; his wife, Mena turned to him,

"We're not late you know"

"So you've decided to acknowledge me"

"I'm only saying, we have plenty of time, so there's no need to speed"

"Just leave me to the driving and you go back to your texting"

There was silence from the motorway, from then on, until they arrived at the Airport.

While driving towards the car park, he was reminded of where the car was going to be parked, as he had decided to transfer the car details over to his brother.

All of their other possessions were on its way to the Caribbean via the cargo shuttle which they arranged weeks before booking their flight. The car was parked and they all got out. Each of the twins had their own case to carry, his wife had one and he had one and a laptop case, heading towards the terminal.

They reached the platform and got out their boarding passes, swiping them against the machine and were on their way to the cafe for their last taste of England.

"We just have time for a coffee and a bite to eat"

"That is one thing I  agree with"

The girls were laughing and giggling with each other while poking holes at the different people passing through the airport.

"Girls, what did I tell you about that?" their mother retorted

"It's rude to jive other people if they cannot help themselves," they replied, simultaneously while smiling at each other.

He arrived back with a tray of Goodies and two soft drinks and two coffees

"Here you are girls; this will do you for the trip"

They sat in silence, drinking while listening to the voice over speaking in different languages, with English being the first. The girls looked at each other and were about to make a second joke, but their mother gave them a look, and so decided against it.

They were the Goodall Family, Tom Goodall worked as Financial Manager for a private resort, in London, his wife Mena Goodall was self employed, which was why she was not against the move. Her job involved writing for papers and getting feedback from different lines of celebrity gossip. As for the girls, aged 17 years, Jasmine and Ayesha, they would be spending a limited amount of time with them in the Caribbean before heading off to boarding school in Switzerland, to finish their studies.

Tom got up to have a look at their flight and was seen chatting to one of the air hostess, as soon he got back, his wife, was on his trail,

"What's wrong?"

"That was a long conversation with that Air Hostess"

"I was checking our flights, I told you that"

"Yes you did, but all you need have done is look on the board, we can see it right here"

"Ah now don't start this again"

"Start what, I could plain and simple cancel our trip, if you want"

"Now why are talking so, look it's been a long day for us, let’s just get over this part, I know you're tired, we all are"

They both stopped talking for awhile until it was time for them to head to the boarding area. As luck would have it, they were all getting quite excited, being their first time on a long haul flight.

The Air Hostess who took their passes was the same person Tom was talking to, but according to his wife, he was flirting with her, as they were leading towards the corridor to the plane, the Hostess looked back to see Mena looking back at her, then she quickly looked away.

While on the plane they saw a sign for first class and headed in that direction. Mena found their number, the seats were most like arm chairs.

Tom sat beside her while the two girls sat directly opposite them. He turned to the girls,

“Everything ok, I bet you can’t wait to see where you’ll be staying?”

“Yes, We’re really excited, aren’t we Ayesha?” she answered sarcastically

Ayesha just smiled and fell back into her book.

“What are you up to?” He asked

“What ever do you me?”

“I know when you two are up to something”

“Dad, it’s all in your mind, you’re just tired”

She was really mirroring her mother’s response from earlier.

He looked at them with their angelic eyes and smiled, before he could catch himself; fell asleep to wake up in time for lunch.

The journey was long and the climate was changing, within the high altitude, it was beginning to feel uncomfortable.

The flight was eight hours with extra for the turbulence as they were flying through a tail end of a hurricane. The girls didn’t get up to any mischief; they were silent all the way through. Mena, had almost forgiven her husband and was holding his hand, and the journey finally reached its destination landing in Barbados. This was not the end as they had another plane to catch before they were at their new home.

The plane touched down, everyone on the plane got ready to gather their things together to get off, mainly because being confined in one place for so long, and itching for fresh air.

The doors slid open to reveal a breath of hot heat, enveloping them, it was already night time, and each one followed the person in front to the isle in the luggage area.

It was a long and arduous task, sifting through the stalls, until they finally got hold of their luggage and were ready to board another plane. When they saw the plane that was to take them to their final destination, they were shocked, the plane looked second-hand, rust looking and small.

Mena looked around to see if there was anyone about, only an elderly couple who frowned and smiled at her,

“It’s fine, we made this trip several times, is this your first time?”

“Yes, we just came from England”

“Oh, new blood, they’re going to love you”

Mena looked puzzled

“Mosquitoes, always after new blood”

“We have repellent”

The old man interrupted

“Oh they’ll go through that in no time”

“As I was saying, we’ve been here many times,”

The old woman pulled out of her bag a round, spiral object, and said,

“Take this, light it at night, you should be fine, but it can be a bit smoky at times, but I’m sure you’ll get used to it”

Mena took it reluctantly and quickly put it in her bag.

The small plane was ready to be boarded, it was getting late, and the girls were now feeling the exhaustion, Tom, doing his best to keep things together.

The plane finally left the runway, and with a struggle reached its altitude. The journey was bumpier, and continuously choppy. It took three hours and had made it all in one piece reaching the island of Mustique. As the plane rounded the corner of the runway, it gave a sudden jolt before stopping, and the door was quickly opened, by one of the baggage handlers. The steps were pulled down and the six of them got out.

Mena turned to Tom,

 "Where are they...they said they would be here to meet us!"

As they got out, they were welcomed by a tall grey-haired tycoon, Jeff Anderson. He presented them with the key to their new home. The station wagon shifted in to automatic gear and whizzed them to a mountainous terrain. After an half hour journey, the car pulled up into a drive, 'Jacaranda Hill.'

It was a large purpose-built 2-storey building, very grand in stature, exquisite gothic windows, and an oval swimming pool. Inside were marbled flooring, and wide winding stair case. To the left was the dining room and to the right a living area. They left their luggage down stairs and went straight up stairs to find somewhere to rest.

It was a quiet evening, and the air was warm, from the outside of the house, the night lights glowed to see the beauty of the plants, and surrounding the house was a wooded forest with a high fenced border.

The time on the clock in the hallway showed 03.30am and they were all fast asleep.

There was another man, he was standing in the corner of the room. He walked towards the kitchen and could visualise her making her famous brew. He looked up for he thought he heard someone stirring and within a flash, he was gone.

Tom had got up to go the bathroom, he didn't notice anything or felt anything just the urge to relieve himself. As he finished, he looked towards the stairs, but headed back to his bedroom.

The man appeared again, looked up and muttered under his breath,

“Yes, this is going to be easy”

The next morning, they were still asleep, the sound of birds and other insects in the air. A car could be heard up the driveway, the horn was tooted, several times, but no sign of life stirred. So the driver decided to stay in the car, until someone came to the door which would have been several hours later.

The girls were the first to be up and busy exploring the interior of the house and noticed a strange car in the drive,

“Dad,”

“Yes”

“There’s a man in a car parked in our drive”

“OK”

It had not dawned on him who this man could be but due to how sluggish he felt, his mind was not all it was supposed to be.

“Dad, shall I ask him what does he want?”

It now occurred to him to get up to find out what was going on,

“No, sorry Jasmine, I’ll find out”

With that he opened the door to see an old dark-skinned man, asleep.

“Hello, excuse me, can I help you?”

Tapping on the car window, almost giving him a shock, the man replied,

“No sir, yes sir, Mr Anderson, sir, says I am your chauffeur for the day, it’s your first time on the island, so I am here to take you, wherever you want to go,”

“Well, I’m flattered... Kids... come out here”

The two came rushing out,

“This, is your chauffeur, to take you around the island...and don't be cheeky like last time... how about that?”

They both looked at each other and back at their father but said nothing.

“Well, don’t all speak at once, isn’t great for you both?”

“Dad, we’ve only just arrived and want to…..”

She was given a nudge by her sister who made her stop talking, the other replied back,

“That would be great dad... just wonderful”

Tom looked at them a bit bemused but waved the jester off.

He turned to the driver to finalise the transaction, on where he was going to take them.

The girls would be entertained for the day, while he and his wife would begin to arrange their home and sort out the luggage.

All was quiet at the Jacaranda household, Tom and Mena were unpacking and organising things. The twins were off on their chauffeured tour of the island. Tom decided take a dip in the pool and offered Mena to come and join him, but she complained that she was too busy sorting out different stuff.

While at the pool, Tom fixed himself a drink, lounging in the chair, and opened his laptop to familiarise himself with the people he would be working with.

The house was quiet, sitting at the edge of the bed reading the last of the letters from her parents, she thought she heard Tom coming up the stairs and called out to him,

“Is that you Tom, I was just going through some things I’d like you to have a look,”

There was no answer, but she could still her footsteps approaching the bed room, and breathing quite heavy.

“Well, aren’t you going to come in?”

Still, no answer, the footsteps came nearer towards the entrance of the room. She gets up, heading towards the door, but there was no one there, and decided to join her husband by the pool. When she got there she asked,

“Have you been here all this time?”

He thought about the question but did not answer

“So you prefer not to answer?”

“What am I supposed to say?”

“I thought you went up stairs”

“I can assure you, I have been lying here all this time”

“Oh”

She didn’t question him further but poured herself a drink before taking a dip in the pool.

Soon after, a car had pulled up in the drive, it was Jeff Anderson, coming to see how they were settling in, and wanted Tom to go with him on a tour around the company and meet the people.

“If that’s o k with you, Mena”

“Oh that’s fine by me, by all means”

But deep down she was feeling pretty anxious but dismissed it by saying,

“The girls should be back soon, anyway”

“Are you sure it’s o k?” Tom was sympathetic

“No you go”

“I’ll just go upstairs and change,”

While he went up stairs, Jeff began a long conversation with Mena telling her it was the right time to move and that they would not regret it, and speaking about a whole multitude of facilities for her and the girls. Mena was listening but not actively as she kept thinking about the footsteps and the heavy breathing she experienced within that short moment.

Tom came back down, with his laptop, and got into the car with Jeff. The car pulled out and reversed out of the driveway.

She was alone, as usual but in a strange house she had to get used to. The girls were still out; it had been over two hours, surely, she thought, they should be on their way by now.

She decided to have another swim, doing a few laps of the pool, before retiring on the sun lounge, sipping her Sangria. She fell asleep; the sun was hot but cooler in the shade as she drifted into a senseless dream.

She saw a man hovering over her, and bending down to get closer to her face, the man smiled, with gleaming teeth, he came nearer towards her, she opened her eyes and he was gone.

Cold sweat formed on her forehead, wiping it away, she decided to get up and have another go at making their new home hospitable.

Moments later, a car pulled up, it was the girls, laughing to each other. The driver seemed glad to bring them back. Mena came out to address him, but he was already on his way speeding down the road.

“What happened?”

“Oh nothing, the island is great, mother, you should have come with us”

“We toured everywhere, they have everything here.”

“Well, I think you ought to go and get change as we are due to go out to lunch later”

Reluctantly they obeyed their mother, but pined into swimming in the pool first. She gave into them like always, frolicking and messing around and trying out the cocktails while she wasn’t looking. They decided to abide by their mothers wishes before she came down one last time to give them one of her looks.

Upstairs, all three were in and out of the bathroom and in each other’s hair, trying out different outfits, to out dress each other. The music was playing, a local song, they didn’t recognise but dancing along the way, soon Mena had forgotten all about the incident and joining in with her girls.

They all stopped for a moment, when they heard the front door slam shut so hard as if there was a gust of wind. One of the girls shouted out,

“Dad, is that you, we’re all up here getting ready?”

There was no answer, so Jasmine decided to go downstairs to meet him, calling to him as she descended each step, when she got to the last step, there was no one there. She looked around, walked towards the kitchen, nothing, then to the living room, nothing again she called out a second time,

“Dad, where are you, hiding I suppose?”

Unwilling to look any further, decided to go back up stairs to finish dressing.

“Who was it?”

“Obviously, no one, strange because we all heard the door slam”

 Tom arrived at the house excited.

“This is the life; oh I am going to enjoy working here”

“Will you dear”

“Just think what I could achieve in just a few years”

“Well it seems like you and the girls have had a time of your life and I am yet to see for myself what the fuss is all about”

Mena, by now was feeling downtrodden and alone.

“Hey Dad, you never guess what happen, just before you came?”

“Sssh dear, we’ll speak about this another time,” as Mena hurried her daughter to the other room.

 At the Great House, all the dignitaries were present at the guest ball. Jasmine and Ayesha dressed in similar dresses, sending facial messages to the waiters, Tom and Mena to match their compatriots, sipping champagne before they were called to the table for the grand dinner. All of this was to welcome Tom to his new job.

The evening got off to bright and cheery start and ended wonderfully, they were ready to go and rest for their second day on Mustique. They had completely forgot about the incident in the house and came home laughing, jovially.

The evening was crisps and clear, the starry night sky filled the horizon, Tom and Mena were by the bar chilling to the soft music in the background. Jasmine and Ayesha were listening to their iPods. They had decided to take separate rooms, but would still be together for the rooms were entwined to each other.

Jasmine was busy on her iPod laying on her bed in her nightwear; Ayesha was on her Ipad, talking to her friends from home.

The outside was still and quiet all except Tom and Mena having a romantic rendezvous.   Inside, the main corridor, he reappeared again.

The time was coming up to midnight; the strange, airy mist filled the air around the room and flowing slowly up the stairs towards the girl’s bedroom. None of them were aware what was going on, the main front door closed, simultaneously the windows and the shutters, and all around the house. This alerted Tom and Mena, so Tom tried to get inside the house but the door would not open, he went around the back of the house to try the door there, that would not open. He tried affixing something to prise the door open but it would not budge. He thought he had left one of the windows open but they were tightly shut as well.

In the meantime, Mena was becoming hysterical fearing for her girls lives as they were inside.

Tom tried to aim a heavy object at the glass door but the object rebounded back nearly hitting him had not he moved out of the way in time.

The girls were preoccupied with their music and texting, the strange mist was emerging itself, first into Ayesha’s room, aiming at her earphones and she became propelled by a supernatural force rendering her paralytic, her eyes became a wide stare, and she began to behave oddly.

Jasmine finished on her computer and was about to head to her sister’s room and noticed she could not open the door. As she tugged, the door flew open, sending her flying to the other side of the room. She got up and brushed her self off and tried the door again, thinking it would be opened, and then she called out,

“Ayesha, what’s going on?”

All that could be heard was the slight moaning which she thought did not sound like her sister.

She tried her bed room door a second time, still it would not open. She was at the bedroom window, banging on it, reached for an ornamented iron pole in the corner, began banging as hard as she could, hoping that it would break. She saw her father, but was unable to hear him.

All she could do was to watch her parents, clinging to each other. Then the presiding door opened slowly, she looked in but afraid to go inside, the strange mist came in, closing towards her, hypnotised, walking in the next room with her sister then door slammed shut.

Outside, Tom and Mena were helpless, wondering what kind of activity they had moved to. Unable to help their girls, Tom decided to try and get help, the trouble was, his vehicle would not start, and Mena was in the passenger side crying and becoming more and more hysterical that Tom had no alternative but to give her a slap,

“Look, there’s nothing we can do from the inside, I’m just as scared as you, we’ll have to make a run for it and alert someone”.

The nearest neighbour was around hour on foot, taking the short cut through the forest, running and being hit by low branches, Mena, crying and trying to keep up.

Finally came to an opening and saw the nearest house and attempted to find the owners but there was no one there.

Travelling further a field, Tom realised Jeff was not living too far away, so he mounted the steps of his house and pounded on the door, several times, there was no answer, he kept on rapping on the door and decided to go around the back, to see if he could find any contact.

At the back of the house, what he saw, he could not comprehend. Quickly and quietly he went back to the front and motioned to Mena,

“Quick we have to get out of here”

“What, what is happening?”

“Now, we have to go, now!”

They ran back to their own house, and were soon at Jacaranda, all the lights were off; as they inch forward, found they could not move.

There was an airy silence, nothing moved, not even the sound of the night insects, time stood still, until through a clearing of the mist, surrounding the inside of the house, the girls appeared.

The door was opened.

That same night, all four of them slept under the stars. None of them mentioned anything about what had happened inside the house. It was the first time the girls were quiet and not playing any practical jokes. Tom and Mena looked at each wondering what kind of place they had brought their family to.

Eventually, they managed to get some sleep, but Tom was the first to awake, as the dawn was breaking, and the first cockerel crowed.

They had to go inside and plucking up enough courage, the four of them walked along the path to the main entrance, the door opened, and what they saw inside was a change to their entire home, they could not believe.