Four Weeks - The Beginning

A New Chapter Begins

Matt and Rachel were stuffed after the dinner.

'That was really satisfying,' said Rachel.

'Yeah, I thought so too,' said Matt.

'Matt, I'm gonna go now and try to get that information out of my father.'

'But Rachel—'

'Matt,' said Rachel, grabbing his arms. 'Don't worry about me. I'll be fine.'

'I want you to keep an eye on that phone. She's still sleeping. She's been sleeping for a while. She should be waking up soon. She's gonna make a move. Watch her next move very closely and decide very carefully on what you're gonna do about it. I could be a while and you better be safe when I get back,' she concluded.

Matt smiled.

'Good luck,' he said.

Rachel left smiling.

'Rachel?' Matt asked.

'Yeah'

'Are you sure about this?'

Rachel looked down, seemingly thinking for a bit.

'Yeah,' she said. 'Look, we have to know what they know.'

Matt flexed his right cheek, half-heartedly with a compliant manner about him.

'Alright, good luck,' he said, still feeling reluctant to let her leave.

Rachel trod down the road as Matt watched. Soon, it was too late as Rachel's path took her out of sight. He then switched his attention back to the phone. Julian was up. She was moving.

'Okay, what are you up to now, Julian?' Matt muttered to himself.

Julian was moving all about the room. She picked up her phone and stared at the screen for a curiously long period of time. It was as though she was caught in some sort of trance. Matt continued to watch, observantly. Julian gingerly sat herself down on the couch. She sagged into her hands, yet again. This time though, she didn't remain that way for long. She looked up sharply after barely a second had passed. She rose keenly. She went over to the center table, picked up her folded clutch, and headed out the door, phone in hand, at a brisk and steady pace. It looked as though she meant to reinvent her life.

Now, as Matt watched on, very closely, Julian did not slow down. She marched along the sidewalk, undeterred, her expression, however, still markedly dispirited. Her eyes showed a fiery resolve, her laughter lines dimmed from the way her lips lay, covering her gritted teeth. Matt was quite unclear about her apparent disposition. He had built up an immense expectation in his head of what was to come, which was fast fading. Julian seemed to be close to a convergence. She had been walking the same way and in the same direction for much too long. Matt's detective senses were tingling. He felt alive and a little guilty that these pleasures came at the expense of his two dear friends. As the tense moments drew to a close, the scintillating moment very quickly transitioned into an 'are you kidding me' moment as Matt began to see that she was headed for the front door of a big, beautiful church. She entered through the door.

Meanwhile, Rachel had reached her parents' house. The whole way there, she did not let herself think about the consequences of what she was about to do. She kept telling herself that it was the right thing to do. She stepped in, feeling meek and a little nervous.

It was a pretty big house, a two storey house with a sash window along the lower part of the outer wall stretching down into a basement. The house was thatched with a red, tiled roof that ran all across its undulations at the top. Over the front door, there lay a skylight. It saw into what looked like a study. The front door looked strongly built, impenetrable and indestructible, which was in keeping with the tone of construction of the rest of the house. The front gates were big, jet-black in color and had square shaped holes along the cross-section. In through the gates, the cement flooring ran into a stepped platform that rose up to the porch and continued down the other end in steps into a pathway to the back gate. The outer walls were stone, some flattened into the walls and others protruding slightly out of it. Along the right side of the house was a brown garage. You could guess the depth; tell that it could probably store a mid-sized sedan in there. The back gate was positioned across from the garage at the end of the pathway that lead up to it over a steep elevated platform at the end. To the side of this platform, lay a common house garden. The path looked into the living room of the house through large, horizontal, fixed windows, grilled inside through the glass for extra protection.