13 WINDOWS

Chapter 4 Part 1: ...The SHADOW MAN...

Hours later, after most of the police had left their house, Rupert sat quietly looking out the window towards the ravine. He could hear his mother, Sandra, sobbing in the bedroom upstairs and he could still hear his father, Andrew, walking through the ravine calling Terry's name.

Rupert knew it was his fault. That's all he knew for certain. He should have been there for his brother. He had failed. Failed as a brother. Why did they have to play such a stupid game? 'Why can't he just be here right in front of me right now, like this morning?' he asked himself. His eyes dripped with tears, moistening his pillow.

He could not sleep that night and so he spent some time praying to God. To a male God, a female God. To his dead relatives. His grandmother. 'Please send Terry home,' he begged the spirit world.

To Rupert and his family, time dragged on like some horrible eternity for the next two weeks. There was no more news. The road the car had been on, a service road, exited very close to the Don Valley Parkway, which was a major highway connecting to several freeways that led out of the city. The Buick could have been outside of Toronto within an hour.

The search was on but no one had seen Rupert's poor brother Terry. Sandra was inconsolable and her wails of sorrow were a nightmare to listen to at night. One night Andrew came out of the master bedroom with a tray full of uneaten food. He told Rupert that his mother was refusing to eat. And Rupert knew that this was his fault as well.

While his mother retreated, his father kept handling questions from the media and the police. At one point his parents even became suspects in the investigation. This was when Sandra locked herself in the attic. Andrew put his energy into making fliers with Terry's picture, and he began fixing up the house. He started with nailing Rupert's bedroom window shut. There would be no escaping an intruder now, thought Rupert.

There were a few days when Andrew would ask Rupert to recount his final moments with Terry to a detective. But Rupert was clearly having emotional difficulties with the retelling of the past. It kept the trauma fresh and alive. He even gave the vague description that Terry had given him of the man he thought he had seen in the window a few weeks before.

Dr. Kent, the family doctor, also came and spoke with Rupert quietly one day about how he was feeling. Rupert hadn't slept for two weeks and so the doctor decided to put Rupert on some mild sleeping pills. Rupert never felt comfortable around the older grey haired doctor. He was withdrawing more whenever the doctor tried to speak to him about what had happened or how he was feeling.

Dr. Kent could see that he was only making matters worse. He recommended that Rupert see a bright young child psychologist named Dr. Nina Clayborne who was from Barbados.

Andrew drove his son to The Hospital for Sick Children downtown. Rupert immediately took a liking to Dr. Clayborne. He found that her Caribbean accent and soft voice calmed his troubled spirit. And he thought she had a very pretty face. By the end of the hour he had begun to open up to her about the overwhelming guilt he was feeling. It was more than Andrew had been expecting on the first visit. He was relieved that the doctor had made a connection with his son.

On the way home in the car Andrew looked down at Rupert sympathetically and said, "I hope you know no one blames you for what happened with Terry."

Rupert looked at his father's gentle face and then looked out the window at Queen's Park, the roundabout park adjacent to the Provincial Legislature. He didn't respond to his father because no matter what anyone said, he knew he was to blame.

One morning, just before dawn, Rupert laid in his bed looking into the back yard through the window. It was easier than looking at his brother's empty bed. It was quiet. It had been another sleepless night and so his father had given him one of the sleeping pills. He closed his eyes for a moment. And for the first time in weeks he started to drift away...

There was a shuffling noise outside.

He opened his eyes again. He wasn't sure but he thought he could see the shape of a man standing in the hedges. He closed his eyes and opened them again. He hoped it was just a figment of his imagination.

He opened his eyes wider this time trying to take in more light. Was he really seeing this? He was certain he could see an outline. A man, and someone else!

                                                                  He sat up.

The man was now in the backyard. The clouds drifted out of the way of the moon for a moment, and in that brief sliver of time the moonlight shone on the head of a tall bald headed white man. Rupert could see him clearly now. And there was a child standing in front of him. A boy!

He jumped out of his bed and crawled onto the floor. He peeked above the window looking out into the backyard. Nothing. Nothing was there. Did he imagine it? He sat down again and leaned against the wall below the window breathing hard. His heart was beating against his rib cage. There was a sound. Like someone was moving outside, on the other side of the wall. A cold shiver went through his entire body. He turned around again and lifted his head slowly.

As Rupert's eyes rose above the white frame of the window a man's face also rose at that exact moment at precisely the same speed. It was a bald white man! He wore circular horn-rimmed glasses! And as they locked eyes with each other Rupert felt a wave of terror splash coldly across his chest and back. The man had no expression, but he stared deeply into Rupert's eyes. They both froze.

Terror filled Rupert and he suddenly ducked back down quickly. He tried to scream. No sound. He was afraid to move forward towards the bedroom door because he would be seen by the bald man. But he was also terrified to stay right next to him with only a wall separating them. His heart pounded blood hard through his body. He felt like it was going to burst through his skin.

"Mommmm..." his voice creaked. He heard a shuffle. Either it was his mom upstairs or the man outside. Suddenly he heard a banging on the window.

"BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!"

He scurried on the floor towards his bed, hiding behind it on the other side.

Then he heard Terry's voice.

"LET ME IN!!!! IT'S ME TERRY!!!! RUPERT! PLEASE!!!" Rupert knew it was his brother's voice. But he had never heard him so afraid. His voice was jittery and high pitched.

Rupert sprang up from behind his bed staring at his terrified brother. It was him! For a split second he wondered if he was having a nightmare.

"HELP ME!!!" screamed Terry desperately. It was all too real. He couldn't see the bald man anywhere. Terry was trying to lift the window, something he might have been able to do a few weeks before. But not after his father had nailed it shut! Rupert ran over to the window staring at his brother right in the eyes. He tried to lift the window up with his brother but the nails held the window in place. Terry's face was so different than it had been two weeks ago when he had last stood this close to him. There was only frustration and dread in his eyes. His skin was ghostly white.

Rupert turned to the bedroom door and screamed. "IT'S NAILED SHUT! DAD!!! MOMMM!!!! IT'S TERRY! HELP!!! FUCKING HELP US!!! WAKE UP!" He turned back to the window and Terry was gone. Vanished. He could hear his parents shuffling on the squeaky floors upstairs.


He wasn't going to lose his brother again. Rupert jumped up onto his bed and sprang off his mattress towards the window with his elbow shielding his head. He crashed through the glass.

There was nothing to see on the other side of the window. There was a hard thud, as he fell to the ground. He only remembered the wet feeling of blood dripping down his forehead, and across the bridge of his nose. There was the smell of wet grass and his own redness in his nostrils. He could hear his Mom's voice.

"God no, not my Rupert. Not him too! God please. Don't do this to me again!"

Then the sound of sirens...

(I will be releasing Chapter 5 Part 1: AFTERSHOCK on Monday August 10, 2020. Same bat channel.)