The Rose of Anthacena

Chapter 9

          "I made it back to Anthacena by suppertime that day. In his letter, Mr. Lochwood offered to let me stay with him and his family while I was there, so that's what I did. That evening was when we caught up on things about our families and all.

"The next day, he took me to the storage unit where he had been keeping the cargo for me."

"What was it?" Dereck asked.

"A few silks, several rare teas and spices, and a small crate of pearls," his father replied before continuing his story. "He was about right in his estimate of the cargo's worth, or so I though. After taking a look at the cargo, I immediately began looking for a buyer.

"The third day I was there, I met with Luke Nabor, the pilot of the crashed plane, for those of you who don't remember. I wanted to hear the story directly from him. That took basically all morning." He shook his head. "It's not something I'd willingly repeat, and I don't think Luke was too willing, either.

"Anyway within a week, I had found a potential buyer for the cargo. The only problem was that he offered $10,000 for the lot, and I knew it was worth a lot more than that! So I spent the next several days haggling with him over the price. Three days ago, however, he told me out of the blue that he would pay me $30,000 for all of it-deal or no deal. Knowing I wouldn't get a better price for it anywhere, i of course agreed.

"Then I made arrangements for the money. He's going to send me a check for a certain amount each month until it's completely paid off. And finally, two days ago, I started home." Here, he paused and stared at his lap.

"Two days ago?" asked his wife in astonishment. "You started for home two days ago, and you only got here last night?!" He sighed.

"This morning, actually," he corrected her, "but yes, that's right. Two days ago." he fell silent again, but just for a moment. "Here's where it starts to get a little incredible." He looked around at his family, and his gaze stopped on Rose. "I'm sorry, Rose," he said heavily, and she noticed for the first time that his face was sad. "This is all my fault. If-If I had never bought your mother that rose perfume-this never would've happened if it weren't for me."

"What do you mean, Dad?" Rose asked, clearly puzzled. He waved a hand at her.

"Let me explain," he said. "I'm not done yet." He paused once more, collecting his thoughts before continuing. "As I said, I started home two days ago. I left Lochwood's home at about one in the afternoon, and expected to be back just about in time to go to bed.

"But shortly after I got out of Anthacena, it started snowing hard. It was very difficult to see, and I had to kind of inch my way along. To say the least, it was slow going-after I had been on the road for almost five hours, I had gone only 90 miles.

"But anyway, right about the time I noticed that, it stopped snowing. The roads obviously hadn't been plowed yet, but it wasn't a problem, since I was using a four-wheel drive vehicle. So I was able to go a pretty good speed. Well, apparently, another guy was, too, because he came tearing around that curve so fast(and he was in my lane, too!), the only thing I could do was swerve, which I did.

"Unfortunately, there was a tree right there. Only one for about fifty feet, and guess what I manage to hit." A collective gasp went up from the group. "Don't worry, I wasn't injured, but I can't say the same for the car. The front just-crumpled. It's completely useless.

"Anyway, the guy that caused the accident was long gone by now, so I was left alone. By this time, it was getting dark, so I decided to try and find the nearest house, and I started walking down the road. After I had walked maybe a mile, I came to the corner of a high iron fence, so I knew I was near a house of some sort.