FOREST OF THE LOST

PART SEVEN

11.

From the nursing home, where Dale Blake currently resides, it a forty-five-minute drive to where Susan Lynch lives, and her home is found without any hitches. What is known about this is lady is that she currently is sixty-one, the first born of five sisters. She never married, has no children of her own and she lives alone in an average sized home. She knows not of Dale Blake but has experienced loss in a manner similar to what he has. Still, to her, such a thing depends upon point of view.

Having spoken with Terrence and Mary the previous day, Susan has been expecting them both and has no problem inviting them into her home where she prepares tea and an assortment of biscuits for her guests.

At first glance, Susan appears to be more than pleasant, her physical appearance suggests that she is younger than what she actually is, and her demeanour suggests that the disappearance of her father has not had too negative an effect on her life. Terrence and Mary are about to find this out about Susan Lynch, as well as one or two other things and yeah ... this is going to be strange, maybe just as strange as what they got from the chat, if that is what could be said about it, a little while earlier from Dale Blake.

It may be more than twenty years since Susan's father Cecil became lost and it may just be something she has moved on from, though this is definitely something that Terrence wants to inquire about, and Mary knows this so she will begin the conversation. Cecil has been missing five years longer than what Mary's brother Todd has been and Mary knows that she more than likely will not be letting go of what happened to her brother any time soon.

'Do you mind if I ask ...' speaks Mary from the living room seat she sits on which is right next to where Susan has come to sit, '... as to where you were the day your father went missing and when did you find out that he was gone?'

'Yes dear, I don't mind at all ...' Susan begins to answer in a manner to the other two that seems as if she were recalling a pleasant memory and something that is in no way troublesome. '... I was with my father that day. I was at his side. I was coming up to my forty first birthday, so I had come for a visit and to spend some time with him and my mother.'

'Really?' asks Terrance being a little more than surprised by what he is hearing. He sits forward on a couch he is sitting on which so happens to be also across a glass table from the other two.

'He had been telling me stories of this particular park. He told me that it often called out for him. Of course, I thought these were only stories, fibs maybe. It was possible his marbles were beginning to go, so I went with him for a bit of a ramble.'

'This was on the day he went missing?' asks Mary.

'Oh, he is not missing dear; he simply has only gone somewhere else.'

'What do you mean somewhere else?'

'I don't know exactly, somewhere that keeps him as he was that day. If it is a separate plane of existence or something different, I do not know, I do know he is safe. The trees took him in, and they keep him safe. I think he speaks for them now.'

This lady has lost her own marbles and that if she ever had any to begin with and Mary is a little disappointed. She is not getting any answers or getting any closer to finding any kind of reasoning as to why her brother disappeared. Oh, but she is ... she just cannot understand just yet. Terrence is not so sure that Susan has lost her marbles. For him it is possible that things are adding up somewhat.

'So, what exactly happened?' asked Terrence.

'We were walking one of the trails, the chestnut trail I think it is called, and were maybe about ten minutes into our walk. He was telling me about the different walkways and how the trees sway when there would be no signs of a breeze. As I looked up at the tree tops my father stopped speaking while in mid-sentence. Well, I think he didn't really stop talking mid-sentence, it was more that I could not hear him anymore.'

'He was gone in that moment?'

'Taken, I believe, by the trees. I could no longer see him; still I knew he was there and there he still is, on that other plane perhaps.'

Mary seriously believes this Susan lady has lost it. Politely she and Terrence stay another fifteen minutes, keeping things simple before excusing themselves stating that there are other appointments to be kept.

12.

With any and all appointments on the cards for the day done, Terrence and Mary are back on the road and as she has done all day long Mary is driving, after all it is her car and not his Ford Mustang that they brought out on this road trip.

The daze Terrence had been in when the day began has long since ended, a possibility neither Terrence nor Mary have yet to consider is that daze was connected with the first visit of the day, maybe he had been provided with a connection or two or indeed he is being eased in slowly to what lays ahead for him.

Dale Blake had his own kind of daze, one with which he went in and out of. That first connection ended to make way for a second connection, a belief going through Terrence that what Susan Lynch spoke of was something spoken honestly and true. The connection moved on through the day, a day not yet over, as is a connection moving from one onto the next in itself not quite over.

So, with connections coming Terrance's way, thrust upon him or otherwise, and whether or not this force is still intact or not, or even if what is being felt is something natural or unnatural, there is a thought as to what may be done about the connection he feels he has with Mary. If anything is to happen, then Terrence will not be and does not want to be the instigator. He thinks that he shouldn't allow anything to happen either, then again there are those eyes and that smile, and Mary is not so afraid to display either one or the other or both.

'We have had a long day' she states as she drives neither particularly quick nor particularly slow.

'Yeah, and a rather strange one too' Terrence says with an inkling as to what Mary is wanting to suggest while he is both wanting to change and not change the subject at the same time.

'We could always find somewhere to stop over for the night instead of driving all the way home' she says deciding to go a little more direct. 'It's not like either of us would be in a rush to get back to being alone. I don't have any family staying over and am not expecting any arrivals tomorrow. If there is something, you need to get back to then we could forget I said anything.'

He should really reply that home would be the best place to head back to and alone in each owns home too. Her smile really gets to him, and she knows that too and then those eyes, they are focusing mostly on the road ahead though they do glance his way every once in a while. He did not make a move to a new town to find love. It had been peace and relaxation he had been after, a change of pace and routine. Not much peace or relaxation has come his way and they don't look like they would be coming any time soon.

So, if he does let her in, there still is the notion that he will be going into that park at some stage or other. What if he too goes missing within that place? What would that do to Mary if he gets close to her and her to him? She may not be wanting closeness at all, maybe she wants a release of sorts, something temporary. Maybe she is not looking for anything; either of those thoughts do not seem all so likely.

'Err ... maybe we best be getting home' is what he eventually gets out.

She looks his way a little longer than she should, and this worries him, she should be watching the road. Her smile has also left her face.

'Perhaps you are right, silly of me to have suggested such a thing.'

'Ah what the hell?' he speaks possible thinking that exact thing. 'I'll have a look on my phone for somewhere decent and close.'

Mary's smile returns and Terrence can't help but display one of his own.