Four Weeks - The Beginning

Day Three

The next morning, Matt woke up on the couch. He sat up on his couch and he saw, among other things, his new clothes which he still liked, as he had last night. Matt's parents were wealthy. They were also orthodox Christians – a difficult combination. They were able to imbibe biblical values in Matt although all the money made it difficult for them to follow the bible very closely. When Matt questioned their response had always been, Well, Matt we are not perfect. Doesn't mean you can't be.

It annoyed Matt to his core, but he still obeyed. In the house, nothing even remotely questionable was allowed – no alcohol, no smoking, no violent TV shows or those even subtly glorifying misdeeds. Matt pretended all his life that he was a celebrity who had too many branded clothes and so, he made it a point to buy local clothes from small street-side shops everywhere he went. In truth, he had very few branded labels as a result of this false notion. He never had too many to begin with, when he decided that he did have too many. Matt had many preconceived notions. For one thing, his main idea of fun was binge drinking at extravagant parties and driving super cars. He had been to drinking parties before, but had never yet gotten through more than two pegs of a hard alcoholic beverage. Still, he believed he was an expert and would often act more inebriated than he actually was. He had driven his fair share of fancy race cars. He had in fact gotten quite good at it. At heart, of course, he was like anyone else – fun loving, considerate, albeit a little proud.

His dynamic with Rachel was peculiar. He and Rachel had been friends since their childhood. The pair's romantic relationship started about two years ago. They were both very fond of each other at this point. They had not yet, declared their love for one another. Rachel and Matt would have late evening talks and would take many long walks together. Rachel understood Matt. She knew the real Matt. She sensed that his personality wasn't how he presented it. She knew about his biased notions, but she never questioned him about them. She wanted to let him grow at his own pace, constructively, learning through life so that he would come to see, one day that whatever he was really, was perfect.

Matt pressed his crumpled shirt and trousers, but the crease remained. He had slept like a baby, assuming all manner of sleeping postures through the course of his slumber.

'Morning, sunshine,' said Rachel.

'Hey,' said Matt, in the middle of an unabashed and uncouth yawn.

'So? What now?' Matt asked.

'What?' Rachel said, as she tossed some eggs on a frying pan in the kitchen, which was in plain sight from the couch in the living room.

'What do we do now?' Matt asked again, his tone more compulsive this time. We still haven't found Alan and Elaine yet? Not to mention, you still haven't shown me proof that I'm not being chased by a psychotic murderer.'

Matt got up from the couch and walked towards Rachel.

'Yeah, let's eat something first,' said Rachel.

'You're not taking this seriously, Rachel,' Matt said, sounding annoyed. We can eat later. Let's find out what's going on first. I wanna get to the bottom of this.'

Matt's body language was a result of a combination of fury, anxiety and helplessness. Although his fury was very evident in his manner, the helplessness of it seemed to stand out the most. It made it hard for Rachel to be mad about his unreasonable outburst.

'Fine, grab the keys,' said Rachel. 'Let's go.' She turned out the lights in the living room and turned off all running kitchen appliances.

They jumped into the car and as Rachel tried to get the ignition started Matt said, 'Let's go.'