Prophecy

In movies, it usually rained when there was a funeral.

Dark skies, arctic wind, water falling from the sky, usually captured the very essence of sadness. However, today the sun was out in all its brilliance.

I folded the hand kerchief and placed it back into the small black handbag I’d brought with me. I thought today would be the day that I remembered how to cry. Things didn’t quite work out that way. Instead, I’d used it to wipe my mother's tears.

Through the entire ceremony, she tried holding in her emotions. But it was at the graveside the southern end of the property, when the body of my aunt was being lowered into the earth, where she would reside for eternity, was where she finally broke down.

Alex and I led the procession away from the graveside, with our mother between us. The men had stayed behind for the covering of the vaults.

I tried coming up with something comforting to say, but I knew that the overused clichés, like death is a part of life, or that my aunt is in Heaven smiling down on us, and would want us to be happy, were only a bag of baloney that none of us needed to hear right now. The more I thought of it, the angrier I became. Death was a part of life yes, but it cheated and came too early. And I know that my aunt would have been just as happy to spend her time smiling with Uncle Frank, Caleb and the rest of us down here on Earth.

The wind kicked at the hems of my black dress as we trudged up the hill. It was about to take my veiled hat with it, but I caught it and pressed it down on my head with my free hand. I looked up at the sky. It looked like the weather had started co-operating with our mood as dark clouds had began rolling in from the northeast.

The tall grasses rustled and whipped at our legs. The limbs of the trees swayed from side to side, sometimes appearing that they were going to break. A fat drop of water splashed on my hand.

“You two better hurry up to the house. It seems that the rain is coming, and it is coming pretty hard.” I felt another of the drops on my back and then two more on neck.

“We’ll take the short cut through the trees.” said Alex before unhitching her hand from mother’s and ran swiftly into the tree line where she stood and waited.

“What about you?” asked my mother.

“As of late, I’ve taken a liking to this kind of weather. I’ll be fine.” I smiled.

“I’ll see you at the house,” she said pulling away from me and running towards Alex. They soon disappeared into the trees.

I kicked off my heels and carried them in my hands, as they were sinking into the soft mud. I also took off my hat allowing the water to beat down on my head. I could have taken the road that was in front of me, but I chose to walk to the main entrance at the north gate.

A small chill crept up my back and goose pimples shot all over my skin. I stopped for a moment and held up my palms to the sky allowing the heat from my body to wash over my skin. I then continued on my way to the north gate.

There was a white car parked at the front, with the wipers on. I looked curiously at the parked vehicle. The headlamps flashed on and off twice, obviously meant to get my attention. I stopped in front of the vehicle, still deliberating whether or not I should proceed.

“Ms Dayse, is that you? I need to talk to you.” said a voice coming from the driver’s side of the car. I growled softly as I’d recognised the voice that had been splintering my mind for weeks.

I walked slowly towards the side of the car and waited until the window had been fully wound down. “Detective Adams, what are you doing here?” I asked calmly.

“You should come inside, it is pouring out there,” he said stretching across to the passenger side of the vehicle.

“Thank you, but I’d rather stand out here. What are you doing here?” I asked again, letting signs of my agitation slip through.

“I came to pay my respects. I hope I am not too late.” his voice creaked.

“Really, do you do that for every case you are investigating Detective, or are you just here to spy on us? Besides, how did you even find out about the funeral today?” I said folding my arms.

“I have ways and means. And I’m not here to spy on you, like I said I am just here to pay respect to the dead.”

“It is a closed ceremony, close friends and family only, besides my aunt and uncle have been buried already, so you see there is no need for you to be here.” I said shifting my weight to my other foot.

He rocked back into his chair and folded his arms casually. “For someone coming from a funeral, you seem highly unremorseful,” he said accusingly. “I bet you couldn’t wait for the dead to be buried so that you could get on with your life.”

The low burning embers in my chest burst into an angry flame. I folded my fists as I tried to keep the building inferno at bay.“ I don’t know what gave you and all those other people the gall to think that because I don’t showcase my grief in the open, I was the one who did this to my family. I loved my aunt and uncle, and would never hurt them in a thousand years.”

“Loved. How quickly you have adopted the past tense. Besides evidence doesn’t lie.” he said smoothly.

I bit my lower lip and inhaled deeply. “Detective, I think that it is best that you leave now,” I said in a strained voice. I clenched my fists even tighter and closed my eyes briefly, to prevent the burning energy swimming through veins from escaping.

“I think that is best I leave too. It is getting late and I want to get to Kingston before night. You enjoy the rest of your day.” he said starting the engine and reversing out of my driveway. I watched the car as it turned the corner. It reappeared further down the road and then it disappeared again around another bend.

I skipped opening the gate blocking me from the inside and simply chose to jump over it. I sped up the hill and didn’t stop until I stood just outside the door.

I mean how dare he accuse me of such cruelty. My hands shook as I couldn’t hold in the energy that was pulsing through my body anymore. I had to let it out.

I threw back my hands and drew on all the energy within me. I sent continuous bursts of flames across the lawn until a maelstrom of flames surrounded me. I poured out all the rage I had within me until there was nothing left. I released a final cry of despair and dropped to my knees as I was weak from exhaustion.

I felt his touch on my shoulders. It was only then, I open my eyes. Small blue flames were scattered across the lawn, burning brightly and steadily, despite the heavy showers.

“Summer, what happened?”

“Rain, could you take me inside?” I said weakly as sleep pulled down on my eyelids. I’d over-exerted myself in my anger.

“Okay love,” he bent and lifted my feeble body from off the ground.

I walked out to the balcony adjoining my room and leaned on the thin bronze rails. The night was still, and the sky the midnight blackness was only disturbed by the millions of stars strewn across it. Dark, mounds of earth were scattered haphazardly across the lawn. I could figure out why they were there, a soft knock, and turned back towards the lawn. “I was wondering when you would come.”

“I wanted you to get your rest. It has been a hard day for you.” he came to stand beside me.

“You could have come earlier as I didn’t really get much sleep anyways,” I replied still focusing on the dark mounds on the lawn. “What are those hills on the lawn?” I said trying to change the subject.

“Dirt mounds. We had covered the strange blue fires you’d started earlier with dirt as the flames were water-proof.”

“Waterproof, really?" I didn’t even realize what I was doing. I was just angry and to channel my frustration somewhere. “Does Seidon or mom have any theories on how it came to be?”

“They did. They thought it might have resulted from your newfound water-bending abilities. You might actually have found a way to combine the two elements so that they would no longer be antagonistic. Alex had coined the name fire-water, two elements working as one.”

“Can you do it too?” I said after I’d chewed over what I’d just learned.

“I’ve tried, but I can’t figure out how exactly you did it.”

“It’s not hard. You just need a lot of anger, and the rest will happen all on its own.” I said starting to get flustered as I remembered my earlier discussion.

“You never did tell us what happened between the time you left the graveyard and the time I found you at the door,” he said breaking the silence that had surrounded us.

“Adams. We had a conversation, this time he went as far as to say that I was unremorseful and happy that my aunt was dead and being buried.” I heard him let out a soft growl.

“You should have told me about this earlier,” he said.

“And what would you have done then, hurt him? Kill him? It wouldn’t have done any of us much good. It would only bring more attention to us, and we don’t need that right now.” I said finally turning towards him, but his face was set and was looking out at the lawn.

“You do know that none of this was your fault. You had nothing to do with the death of your aunt and uncle,” he said turning back towards me and stared directly into my eyes.

“Not directly. It was my fault that Omayra had come over to the house in the first place. It was my fault that I didn’t check that she was really dead before we left. I made all of those mistakes, but I can promise you the next time we do meet, I will not repeat any of those mistakes. I will make sure she’s dead.” I said void of all emotions.

“You don’t intend on taking her on single-handedly? You could get hurt. Summer you have to promise me that you will not do anything like that.”

I looked at the small creases formed over his brow. “I love you more than life itself and would do anything for you, but I can’t make you that promise.” I said tipping and softly placing a kiss on his hard lips.

“Summer please.” his eyes pleaded with me.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t. I’ve already promised myself that I would kill Omayra. We can’t break our promises.” I said reminding him about a fact of our existence. We both knew how binding such oaths were. I could see the resigned look on his face as he knew that there was nothing he or anyone else could do to stop me.

“Just tell me one thing,” he said as I was walking back to the inside of my room.

“Yes,”

“When?”

“I’m not sure as yet, but probably pretty soon.” I lied. I knew that I would start looking for Omayra as soon as I got back into Kingston tomorrow. I knew that if I gave an exact date, he would follow me and I didn’t want him anywhere nearby when Omayra and I clashed.

I remembered the dream that I had months ago with her killing him, when he’d tried to save me. I knew that it was just a dream, but my dreams always had a strange way of coming true. The settings might be different, but the outcomes were always the same. I couldn’t risk it. Too much would be at stake.

“Just please tell me when you are going.”

“Okay, I will.” I smiled softly. “Let’s go inside,” I said holding out my hand and he took it and we walked in.

The bright screen of the computer illuminated the room. I was on the Jamaica Coffee Board website, looking for coffee processing plants on the island, particularly those in the Blue Mountain regions of Portland, St Andrew, and St Thomas. Dad had said something about it being close to home, but which one?

I took out a pen and scribbled down the names of all the plants and where they are located. It would take some time, but I would have to visit them all personally.

My door moved slightly ajar and Thorn popped his head in.

“Was going to the bathroom and saw the glow from under the door, was wondering if everything was alright?”

“Yeah, everything is fine. I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I was just playing Solitaire to keep me occupied.” I said turning the screen to face him.

“I’ll see you later then,” he said still sounding unconvinced. He closed the door and I was alone again.

I shut off the laptop and placed it on the other side of the bed before sliding under my covers. Tomorrow would be the first night of my search. In the back of my mind, I hoped that I wouldn’t find anything but the quicker I found Omayra, the quicker I would deal with the problem.