PART ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR
5.
Six months, a whole six months pass. Best friends Heather and Hazel are still on the road. If anything, they are as much on the run as they are on a journey to find one carnival fortune teller in particular. Neither friend has done anything wrong. They are not on the run for any kind of a crime rather they are on the run from being found by the family and friends they left in the town they come from.
Reported missing, their photos have been placed in newspapers, on milk cartons, on flyers back in their hometown and they have even appeared on nationwide television with loved ones having made appeals for their safe return. Hazel could easily phone home and let both her family and Heather's family that all is well as well can be but that would bring risk of answering questions, bring risk of giving in to disclosing just where it is, she and Heather are, and she cannot do that.
Heather is as determined as she has ever been to find that fortune teller despite the fact that she herself is now eight months pregnant and of course Hazel knows of that determination. Calling home and giving in brings the fear that Heather still will find a way to go on and Hazel cannot allow her best friend to do anything of the likes alone, especially not in her current condition.
Family and friends could not understand, would not understand what Heather wants. If they knew the truth, they would not believe the truth for what it actually is. They would believe that Heather needs psychological help and would want her home or in care for such a thing. Add to that how pregnant she is too; Heather would not be given the freedom to do what it is she is doing no matter the fact that she is an adult. So, she must do what it is she must do and Hazel will do all she can to back her friend up.
Staying away from any possible recognition has not been easy. It is Hazel who interacts with others when interaction is required. It is a well-known fact of how far along Heather's pregnancy is so anyone on any kind of watch out, anyone with any kind of knowledge that two young ladies are missing will know that one is heavily pregnant, so Heather stays out of the limelight as much as possible.
Hazel has changed her own hair colour, style and length. She wears glasses whenever she deals with others and so far, so good. There has been little or no recognition, not enough to bring trouble their way and the journey continues with Hazel doing all she can to be the rational one, calming her friend down when that friend wants to launch herself headfirst in her pursuit.
It also appears that the ladies have a guardian angel watching over them for each time a struggle is at hand someone steps forward and offers aid or a random moment occurs at an opportune time not unlike that moment on the first bus trip they took when a wad on bank notes so happened to make its way into Heather's possession.
The odd one or two shifts paid into the hand opportunities come Hazel's way too. Stores or cafés who so happened to be let down by a member of staff who didn't turn in or called sick had Hazel quick to offer her services temporarily of course. So, the two were never really left hanging in a time of need. If only they could know who or what it is that is looking out for them. Darkness has been around for so long that building over two or three generations is just the blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things.
When Hazel does take a shift at whatever establishment she so happens to be at she does worry that Heather will do something irrational, head off by herself or something of the likes though indeed as it is, so far so good. The fact that there is just the one month left in the pregnancy gives her hope that Heather will want her best friend around and that this will be just as important or even more so than finding that fortune teller.
Just when it would seem that Heather's child would arrive long before their objective would, they would catch a break. Hazel took a shift at a petrol station, while working behind the main counter she would hear two customers speak of a fortune teller they had gone to see two days prior. A moment of questioning was enough for Hazel to realize that the lady in question is the very same lady as to whom she and Heather were after.
Containing her excitement Hazel managed to find out where that fortune teller was those two days prior. This also had Hazel debating with herself as to if she should finish her shift or go get Heather and head off to where they need to be, right away. The fact that one of those two customers recognized Hazel to some degree, not knowing how or why there is a recognition added to the need to move quickly.
The recognition on the customer's behalf, Hazel would be sure, coming from some report or other on herself and Heather being missing. She managed to play it down and to finish her shift and the very next morning Hazel and Heather would be on the last leg of their mission.
By midafternoon, the ladies had reached a destination. They had come to a carnival; the very same carnival which had come to their hometown almost a year prior. Answers were about to come or, so Heather was sure. Into a rather large dark coloured tent they do go like they did once before.
The set up appeared to be exactly the same as before. Filled with many emotions the two friends went inside the fortune teller's dark coloured tent. A small area void of all life is what they see, just as they had on that previous occasion. The same front area as before, the same curtain as before, the same lighting as before beyond that first curtain. The tables, chairs, the lighting and the second curtain all the same as before and there is no sign of that teller, not immediately. The voice of Madam Russo is heard before she is seen indeed quite like before.
'You should not be here' she says seconds before she comes through her beaded curtain. 'She is coming, and she is coming with a purpose. Oh, she is so near.'
'Who is coming?' Heather asks.
'You should go home and be with your family, your mother misses you dearly. Mother can help you.'
'You said someone is coming ... coming for me? Who is coming?' Heather asks again.
'Your granddaughter, she is not of this world, not entirely. She is close, so very close. Go home, quickly ... protect yourselves.'
'How can she be close ...?'
Madam Russo moves away back beyond the curtain she had only just come through moments earlier. Heather hasn't spent all that time looking, searching; she hasn't come all this way only to hear what Madam Russo has just spoken. Hazel has to agree, all she has done to ensure her best friend is alright, all the shiftwork she put in to help ensure they had enough to get by, all that just to be told to go home. No, this will not do.
The girls, neither having had time, need or desire to sit, begin to move after this Madam Russo person though as soon as they pass through that second curtain there is no sign of her and there appears to be nowhere for her to have gone. There are no apparent gaps in the tent for her to slip through and it makes no sense for her to have vacated her own tent.
They move back through to the section with the table, chairs and lighting and both are immediately surprised by the sudden appearance of a young lady, this stranger is a little younger than either and both Heather and Hazel and she walks slowly with a smile on her face as if she were expecting to see those with whom she has come in contact with.
Could this girl be ...? No, that would be ridiculous.
Heather wants to stay, go find that fortune teller and have a proper sit-down talk with her. Hazel would like to complete this task too. After all, this is what they have come to do but with what has occurred and is occurring they decide to vacate the fortune teller's tent without so much as sharing a word with the stranger.
There is the shared thought as to who that young lady might be. With what has occurred nothing is directly discussed except for what the girls speak to one another once outside.
'So, what now?' asks Hazel.
'I feel uneasy, probably best we do go home. I don't want to, not yet but ...'
'I know, you don't have to tell me. C'mon, let's do this.'
'This baby of mine ... it won't be long now.'
Both are weary, both have plenty to wonder and ponder about. The sane thing, the best thing is to do is to head home. The relief and acceptance upon return is both beyond belief and perfectly natural. They are both safe and well and this is what is important. Questions, there are many questions though the fact remains. Heather and Hazel are no longer missing. They are home, they are safe.
Three weeks later Heather gives birth to a healthy girl. The birth comes at a cost. Complications have come and Heather ... she does not survive. Her mother has only just got her back. This can't be happening ... but it is ... happening. During the complications something else is lost. No one can answer the question of where the child was placed.
In a waiting area of the maternity hospital, friends and family have gathered and the news has come through. Hazel stands alone and her tears don't even begin to tell of how overwhelming her feelings are. She is soon approached by a young lady, the same young lady from the fortune teller's tent.
'Don't come looking' the stranger speaks. 'Stay here, live out your life. Any attempt to find your friend's child will cost you more than you are willing to give.'
The stranger moves away, and Hazel does not follow. Maybe if Heather survived there might be some investigating on their behalf, but she will not do anything alone. She ... this other girl ... is she who Madam Russo said was coming? This is not right ... this is not on ... still, Hazel must do ... must do what? Nothing like the stranger said.
It will be thirty-nine years before Hazel will be drawn into something which is way beyond her, for in the year 2018 she comes across a young lady with whom she had some contact with in 1979, once in a fortune teller's tent and once in a maternity hospital on the day her best friend died.
Questions remained all through those thirty-nine years. Hazel won't be able to do anything other than be drawn in, as long as the opportunity to get some answers is there then she may finally be able to put a thing or two to sleep.
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