Heat or Hell?

Heatwave. Again.

Ugh!!! Angela Windrow thought for the umpteenth time this summer. Everything was so hot and felt so heavy. She was sitting outside her grandparent’s mini market. Her parents had dumped her with them for the summer again, even though they knew it was practically the hottest place on earth, and that she HATED being hot and having to try and cool down. Her parents were pilots. Yes; both of them, which usually meant that she was over at a “friend” for most of the time. But this time, her parents were going to be away for quite a while, so they decided to drop her off at her mother’s parents because they knew they could leave her there for as long as they wanted. You know, being family and all.. Frequently it turned out much longer than initially planned.

She, Angela, was practically a mistake, just holding them back. Not that they didn’t love her, well, at least Angela thought they loved her. You see, she always felt that she was taking someone else’s place. About thirteen years ago, during the course of a couple of weeks her mother started feeling strange, unexpectedly started gaining weight fast and having these strange cravings. So, she tried all things healthy and went on endless diets, but nothing helped for the cravings and increase in weight. Eventually she went to see a doctor to try and find out what the heck was happening, and, to her utmost surprise, it turned out she was pregnant with Angela! Her father was furious. She was angry..

“Were you seeing someone else?!” he’d yell at her.

“I swear, I didn’t!!” she’d shout desperately.

“You were probably out drinking until your drunk again!”

Yep, her mother drank. Shocking, right? I mean, she’s a pilot. She’s not supposed to drink. Well, that was a long time ago. Exactly thirteen years ago. Her mother’s drinking got worse, even as she was pregnant. She had finally broken her addiction over alcohol. Well, for the time being, anyway. So, you see, Angela’s arrival in this world was never planned, calculated or celebrated.. the thought of her being a mistake, was shared by her parents and because of her mother’s drinking.

Among other things Angela had a weak heart, struggled to breath sometimes and couldn’t concentrate for long periods at a time… As a result of her physical challenges she did extra classes of online live tutorials for school. She loathed those classes. Hours and hours of sitting there pretending to concentrate and understand. All the teachers felt sorry for her, and always looked sadly at her, giving her endless appointments with the online school counsellor. All of which she ignored, and whenever an invite to an appointment came, she outright deleted the email. Her parents never noticed; they were always somewhere far away on the other side of the globe.

This time her parents had to take a longer trip than usual and fly over to Mexico from Africa. They had to go to Africa first, then go to America, taking a longish re-route back to Africa. There after onward to Australia, which they would call their home whenever they weren’t in the skies.. But they decided to drop Angela of in the Karoo, South Africa, where her grandparents’ mini market was in a small town called Leeuw-Gamka. It was, for sure, in the middle of nowhere. All she knew was that she was going to spend at least a month there. No doubt her parents would extend her stay… 

So, Angela sat there in the blazing hot sun, very frustrated.

“Would you like some watermelon?”

Angela jumped. “Oh! Um, sure.” It was her grandpa, with a bowl of watermelon chunks. To be honest, a bowl of watermelon sounded delicious right now!

“Your mother told me you hated heat. But I tell you, you’ll get used it real quick.” Her grandpa said, handing her the watermelon chunks. Angela bit into one and groaned. Although the cool juice was soothing in the simmering heat she didn’t want to get used to it.

“Oh, and you can go and explore the farm if you want. It’s close to the market, you know, with the town being as small as it is it’s practically next to it...” He turned away, but then quickly turned back looking anxious and worried. “Just, whatever you do, don’t go near the old shack at the end of the road”. Then, seeing that she looked intrigued, he quickly added;” it’s unstable, you see. We don’t want anything to happen to you, right?”. He smiled without affection and walked away. Angela sighed. She sat there, eating her hastily warming chunks of watermelon and watching her grandparents go about closing up the shop.

They rode back to the farm. When they arrived, she decided to rather explore the next day as it was getting dark. She was still in the same clothes she took the long trip in to begin with and she felt sluggish from being jet-lagged. While changing into her nighties she noticed how bare the room was. It was a small room with only one window. Buttoning the last button on her shirt she decided to walk closer to the window to take a peek. The view was breath-taking to say the least. She stood there staring out at the landscape of dry grass and in the distance there she could make out a meandering river. Further down she could see the shack in the corner of the farm right at the end of a dirt road. In the evening dusk the landscape, river and outline of the shack far away made her feel at peace for the first time that she can remember.. After staring at the scene until she couldn’t make out anything except the moon and the stars she eventually flopped down on the bed and quickly fell into a listless, dreamless sleep.

Waking up the next day she groggily pulled on some mismatched clothes and went down to the smell of heavenly French toast. Mmmm, my favourite! she thought, and almost forgot about her personal troubles. “Morning!” she, almost happily, said to her grandma, who was over at the stove making more French toast destined for the huge growing heap on the table.

“Eat up!”, she sweetly said. Angela stared at her plate that her grandma continued to put more and more French toast on. “Whoa, that’s enough, grandma!” she exclaimed but the pile kept growing. “Nonsense! You have to have a full stomach to go on exploring today sweety!”, she answered, putting another two hot slices on her plate. “The maple syrup and butter are on the table, help yourself!” So, Angela made her way towards the table where the butter and maple syrup waited for her. Angela sat down and buttered a piece of French toast wondering whether she could actually be happy here.

After stuffing herself with the toast and syrup she finally asked between mouthfuls of sublime; “Grandma, what is the shack in the corner of the farm for?”. Her grandmother quickly whipped around and nervously replied; “Didn’t your grandpa tell you? Uhm, It was used as a workshop, but it’s really boring, you.. you wouldn’t want to go.”

Angela was extremely intrigued. Not just intrigued by the shack, its shape and location on the farm but also because she could sense that whenever her grandparents referred to the shack they seemed nervous, as if they didn’t want her to know something..

After breakfast she wandered around the house and finally came across her grandpa working in the garden. “Grandpa, what was that shack used for before it became unstable?” she asked.

Her grandpa looked up worried.

“Oh, it was my uhm, you know, “man cave”. After some silence he added; “Had a mini bar and everything. It’s really broken down now. And dangerous so, don’t go there, you hear!”

This made Angela even more suspicious, why would they say different things? One of them must be lying, but why? Angela thought. I’ll just have to see for myself then, she decided. So, after a while when she was sure that no one was looking at what she was doing she set off. It was in the far corner of the farm at the end of the dirt road and it took her a while to get there. On the way she saw a butterfly on strange flowers. It was amazing. Walking in the middle of nowhere. The only problem was the heat. After some time and fairly out of breath she eventually came up to the shack. Turning around she quickly looked back in the direction of the house to make sure no one knew of her trip to the forbidden shack. No activity there and when she turned her attention to her destination she suddenly felt uneasy. After a few moments she was convinced that she made a mistake by coming for a closer look.. It felt…. dangerous.

For a moment it crossed her mind that her grandparents might have told her the truth that the shack was unstable and that she shouldn’t go near it, but in a bizarre instance, she numbly decided that it was impossible that they were telling the truth and went in as if she was being led by some unseen force. Immediately after reaching the door she wanted to turn back but she couldn’t. She was totally powerless, hypnotised and utterly scared.

Inside, it wasn’t a workshop. And definitely not a mancave… The inside looked entirely like a doll house. Exactly like the one she had at home in Australia. It was clean. Not speck of dust, so it couldn’t have been old and must be in use.. by someone. There were dolls seemingly having a tea-party at a small table. Then something caught the corner of her eye. It was a box. No real feature to the box other than looking like a good place to put jewellery. So, she went over and opened it. Inside were paper and something she could not make out initially. She picked up the piece of paper and on it she read;

Angela Windrow, My sister, This is Aubrey Windrow, I am your twin. At birth you denied me. You were born and I was left inside. Did you not hear me suffocate? I died because of you. NOW you will die because of me..

As if in a trance Angela flipped over the piece of paper and with shaking hands read aloud the last part of the note:

Do I? Love you? ……..

No..

look behind you.

Without having control over her own movements Angela turned slowly and looked behind her as total chaos reigned in her emotions and brain. What? I have a sister? Suddenly she froze. The dolls were there, not sitting at the table anymore but standing upright in front of her in creepy silence. Waiting. With great effort Angela turned back to the box and saw the other object was a necklace. It was the other half of a friendship charm and then she completely froze. In this moment she realised that she had the other half of this particular charm around her own brittle neck. Without really knowing why ever since she put it on many years ago, it was her most prized possession. Her mother had always said she had the other half, but now she knows that this was not the truth. In her right hand, without thinking, she reached for the charm in the box and put it against the one around her neck. With an almost diabolical hum it fit perfectly, creating the yin and yang sign.. Without warning and Angela still being absolutely mesmerised it then mercilessly tightened around her neck and started choking her!! Struggling for breath she hear a voice as if inside her own mind; “I told you you’d die because of me!” Flailing wildly she struggled desperately for a while with the words repeating over and over until, eventually, with bulging eyes and gaping mouth she saw a mirror image of herself saying the words to her while the two parts of the locket became one. Finally, she saw a large stain beneath her and she realised; her own blood.. This was the last thing she saw. There after an eerie silence except the echo of her own voice ringing; “Come with me Angela Windrow! Come with me, your sister, Aubrey Windrow , let’s go and play in the Hell’s heat of the Karoo forever………