An Immortal's Favour

Jack- The Seaside Surprise, Part 1

*

Forty minutes into the journey, things had already become awkward. Okay. More awkward.

The road ahead, lined by swaying palm trees on either side, was pretty much empty. Street lamps towered over us as we made our way along, and Gale sunk into her seat.

"So do you still feel well? I know your mother said you're fine but I'd rather hear it from you." Every other time she'd asked me this, I'd responded with a half-assed 'fine' or 'I'm okay' before rushing off to pack away one thing or another.

"Is it weird that I don't remember much about it? The illness?" Gripping the steering wheel, I tried to pull together what I could in my head, but my memory only came back to me in blurred fragments.

"We called it Stilling Disease in my day. It could strike anyone, but it didn't tend to happen often. You feel none of the stiffness from before?"

"Stiffness?" I flexed my fingers against the steering wheel.

"Of course. You do not remember since you were so far gone," Gale said, her voice quiet. "Thank the gods it receded. Thank the gods."

A morbid curiosity took over, and I swallowed hard. "What happened to me?"

"You stopped moving, and your heartbeat was barely there. It was as though your flesh was turning to rock. A horrible sight."

"Sounds...Sounds like a curse."

"I do not think so. But then again, one can never know truly the will of either the gods or the spirits." I glanced at Gale, and she looked down at her lap. "I apologise. This is much too upsetting. I shouldn't be frightening you like this."

"It's okay. I needed to know."

The radio was still on, and I tuned it, abruptly switching from a music channel to a news station. When the rich voice of the host filled the air, I spaced out, unfocused on his words until he mentioned my name.

"-Jacob Agyakwa, son of business mogul Abal Agyakwa, has made an unusually speedy recovery from his illness and is up and about, so our sources say. In fact, he was spotted earlier driving his Angelo Marino with an unknown woman..."

My eyes squeezed shut, because- of course -I'd forgotten about them, not that we wouldn't have crossed paths either way. I kissed my teeth, switched the station back to the previous one.

"Is everything alright?" Gale peered at my frowning lips, leaning closer.

"No."

"Wait-"

"One second." Though it was still relatively empty, I pulled out of the main road and went down a more discreet path, which wound through a thicket of shrubs and trees. The path rose as the car went along, and we finally reached the summit of a steep cliff. After parking as close as I could to the vegetation, I got out.

"There's a bag in the glove compartment. Could you pass it to me?"

"The what?"

"Over there." I pointed to it.

"Oh." She tossed the leather bag to me and got out as well. "So will you tell me what this is about?"

"Paparazzi. They're people who follow me and my family around, taking photographs of us, which they give to other people so that every single person in the entire country knows what we're doing," I said, feeling a familiar stab of frustration.

"They're irritating, yes?"

"Very. Look, since you're with me now, you might run into them, even if you're alone." I looked at her sternly to make sure she was paying attention. "Don't do anything to provoke them, whether they're getting too close or not. Don't swear, don't shout, and- dear gods -don't attack them. You'll just be fuelling their resolve."

"The photographs are...bad things, too?"

"Not necessarily. Here, I'll show you." After checking back on the road behind us to make sure we hadn't been followed, I unbuckled the clasp of the leather bag.

"This is a camera," I said, pulling it out for Gale to see. "It's what they use to get the photos." I adjusted a few things and pointed the camera at the cityscape behind us, to the right of the cliff's edge.

Gale came closer as I pressed a button, opening the shutters for a split second. She tried to take the camera into her hands to get a better look, but I blocked her hands with one of mine. "Sorry. I'd rather you didn't touch it."

She nodded reluctantly, pulling her head back. "Is it new?"

"...Sure. Now we just have to get the film processed so that we can have our picture." Tucking the camera back into its bag, I swivelled around and pointed to the left side of the cliff. "Let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"Oh, alright," she murmured, frowning in mock disappointment; the edges of her lips wobbled as she tried to keep her smile down. Rolling my eyes, I moved ahead of her a little.

"Watch your step. There are lots of rocks here."

"How long until we arrive?"

"It's not too far, maybe a ten to fifteen-minute walk. We would've gotten there faster by car, but I don't want anyone following us to spoil things."

"I understand. So how does this 'camera' contraption work?"

We descended the cliff steadily, moving through shallow grass and weaving past groups of sharp rock as the moon and the stars shone in the inky sky above. The gentle sound of distant waves lapping against the cliffside intermingled with our hushed words while we picked our way across the grass. By the time we'd reached our destination, all talk of the camera was over and our conversation had progressed onto general chit-chat.

"Your father works as the ambassador of Tamara in Anglia, up in the Northern Isles?"

"That's right. Anyway, look- we're here."

*

Discussion: What do you think the surprise might be?

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