Life is a roller coaster

The house looked symbolic surrounded by the greenery of the hills and valleys and by the natural plant life. It was true that the Harper family had treaded into a domain alien to their current surroundings. They had left their homeland, Canada to pursue a new life chasing his dreams. 

He was an architect, Jeff Harper, it was his dream they were following. Gina Harper, an interior designer, worked on the rich and famous properties of Hollywood. The teenagers Tia and Zafra had both finished their final exams to pursue their hopes in attending university. 

They arrived on one of the volcanic islands of the Caribbean, driving through the rugged terrain of the hills and observing the valleys surrounding them, when they finally reached their destination of The Mountain View Hotel.

  It was surrounded by an archaic stone wall, depicting the image of a prison. Jeff turned towards Gina and smiled,

“Oh well, here goes nothing”

He fished about, trying to find the key.

It was way past eleven o’clock, night had fell very fast, Jeff opened the door and tried to find the switch, Zafra had a torch nearby and shone it in the room. Jeff took the torch from Zafra and went in first. 

He climbed some steps and entered into a large dining hall. There were four large windows on the right and a chunky door in the middle.  He turned back to face his family and with a smile on his voice,

“Its o k guys, bring the stuff in, we’ll kip out on the floor until the morning.”

All three looked at him, and knew what he meant. The bags were taken from the car and carefully placed in the large hall.    

The sound of the night insects filled the air; there were no curtains, just the reflection from the full moon shining in.  There were shadows everywhere from the glare of the window. Jeff couldn’t sleep, he checked his watch, it said, 03:00am, he checked to see if Gina was awake, and he could hear her light breathing. The girls too were fast asleep. 

Jeff had the torch with him and decided to explore the house. First he wanted to check out the chunky door, but it kept a lot of noise. So he decided against it. 

His attention was set on going forward, he turned a sharp right and moved along the narrow passage.  The first door on the right, looked fine to him,  this could be Tia’s room,  he closed the door quietly, he began walking a bit further on and saw two other rooms on opposite ends, he tried the one on the left and again muttered under his breath, oh yes, that would be nice for Zafra, and quickly tried the other door and shining the torch around the room and went inside, his foot touched something wet on the floor. The torch gleamed around the room, oh great, leaks, that’s all I need.   He didn’t feel tired and wanted to continue exploring.

Quietly he moved down the wooden steps which would lead to the basement of the house. The floor was quiet and bare concrete; there were three more rooms. 

He stood still and shone the torch in each direction of the rooms, he moved the light slowly, hoping to get a glimpse of anything and everything, before returning upstairs. As he was about to move, he thought he heard a moan sound behind him. He turned around, shining the torch at an empty space. He started to head in that direction, each step he made, the moaning grew louder. 

It was coming from the room on the left, so he entered; he felt a warm sensation about the room, standing in the middle of it, he could hear the moaning loud and clear, but the room was completely empty, just his torch and the light coming in from the moon outside.

He wanted to leave the room, and before he could think about doing so, the door slammed shut, he tried to open it but it would not budge. He tried again, nothing happened, the moaning grew louder. He tried to open the windows, but they were sealed. He decided to make as much noise as possible but the moaning drowned out his own voice. 

He looked about him, the torch was beginning to fade, and eventually it refused to show. Jeff stood still, in the middle of the room, looking towards the window, the moaning grew fainter, and then there was a tap on his shoulder making Jeff shudder,

“What do you want?”

He felt a warm breath to the side of his neck and the hairs standing on ends, the warm breath flowed from one side of his neck to the other, then he felt something hold his hand,

“Look, I’m a married man, whoever you are, what do you want?”

The warm breath was ignoring him. Jeff felt his body being pushed against the wall, he was unable to move, the torch fell to the floor, smashing the glass.  His body was weak with fear and tried to resist to temptation.  The moaning spoke to him softly, come with me and we will be as one in paradise.

As soon as he heard those words, he took a deep breath and with the power in his lungs he let out an almighty shout, it was as if the shout broke the spell he was under, headed for the door, it opened, and ran up the wooden steps towards his family. 

The girls were awake, Gina too had arisen, the day was dawning, with the sound of a cockerel crowing somewhere in the distance. 

Gina spoke first to him,

“What’s happened, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost?”

“Nothing dear, I couldn’t sleep, I’m going outside for some fresh air”

The girls were busy on their I-phones.

“I can’t believe it, they don’t even have a signal here, and we’re as high up as we can get” blurted out Tia

“Well, why don’t you both go outside and try and find out where your father is, we need to get things sorted around here”

The morning grew brighter and the sun shone all around. The mist had eventually cleared for it was chilly that morning. Eventually, Jeff arrived back into the house to finish unpacking. He didn’t want to fulfil the task. It was only when Gina suggested that they explore the rest of the house.

“Come on Jeff, this is going to be our adventure, remember?”

“O k, where are the girls?”

“They’re outside trying to get a connection, I didn’t tell them I haven’t seen a phone mast so I doubt if they’ll get any connection anyway.”

“Oh you’re wicked sometimes; they’re not going to like it.”

“Imagine life without the use of a mobile phone, any minute now they’ll be in here...”

“This is ridiculous, not even a signal out side line,” it was Zafra who came in first, followed by Tia, both with the same story.

"The young these days, you have to admire their admiration to life." whispered Gina to Jeff. 

They all laughed it off, Jeff and Gina decided to venture around the house. Tia and Zafra were busy sorting the rest of their things which did not require connection to the internet. 

It was a cool day, the sound of the morning was stirring, with the sounds of workmen in the distance, toiling their lands. Tia and Zafra had a Birds eye view from the veranda, as they walked all around; they noticed a lot of mould on the walls and algae growing on the ground beneath them. The outside of each doors were unlocked so they tried them all and reach the conclusion that the house was falling apart.

Meanwhile, Jeff and Gina were down in the basement, Jeff decided against explaining to Gina what happened to him. Instead, he led her into the very room. She loved it, nothing untoward happened, and Gina decided to use the room for her business. 

“Good idea, it seems so quiet down here.”

He looked at his watch, turning to Gina and said,

“We’d better get going, my new boss will arrive soon, and he said he was going to show us around the island.”

“I’ll call the girls to get ready.”

Gina left him there, alone, and shouted  for the girls as she went up stairs. Jeff was left in the room again but didn't stay. 

They were all ready, waiting for the next journey. He arrived as he said he would, a tall tanned man with a short-sleeved patterned shirt, a pair of Bermuda shorts sporting a long grey beard and bald head.

The girls were excited, it was their first time on a tropical island, and they wanted to know more. 

Gina just wanted to get her business off the ground, and Jeff kept thinking about what he went through the night before. 

They left the Jeep in the driveway and took Mike’s car. Mike was Jeff’s employer; he was also the person who managed to sell him the house. The only thing he mentioned about the house was it needed a lot of repair work.

After hours driving down the mountain and on to level ground, they reached the airport.

“Where are we going?” Gina cried out.

“I’m going to show you where you will be based” Mike wanted to seem eager to let them know that the job wasn’t on the main land but on one of the exotic islands.

“I hope they have cable, wherever it is” Tia said as she had a last look at her phone.

They reached the airport; the flight was booked for all of them. The waiting time was only half an hour; Jeff looked across at Gina and smiled. 

All five were packed into a 10-seater plane, only one pilot.  Mike sat in the front with the pilot. Jeff sat behind with Gina and the girls. 

The plane was given the go-ahead to depart. As the plane gave flight, it was a spectacular view from below, seeing the island with its hills and valleys form into a tiny mass. The journey took three hours before it was ready to descend to a smaller island known to the rich and famous. 

The plane landed with a bumpy ride. All were eager to get to dry land. They were met by the owner of the island, Johnny Richmond. He shook Jeff’s hand, then Gina’s and finally the girls. 

The adventure was just beginning.