36 Misinformation

Isaac is already sleeping, but her brain is working overtime and she is lying and contemplating things in the darkness of her room. Hunter is being followed by highly professional people! Does this mean that Quinn’s underworld contacts sit behind everything? Why then all the secrets for the people in her life? It doesn’t make sense at all! She remembers Hunter mentioned a visit to a jail. What did he want to find there?

Eventually, sleep overcomes her.

The alarm yells in her ears when she awakes in the dark. Not again! She searches and finds the remote and switches it off while Isaac’s light is coming on. Slowly and despairingly she rises and sees Isaac has already switched on the kitchen’s light. She couldn’t have slept a long time and is feeling wispy as she walks like a zombie to the kitchen.

Isaac is standing like a statue and staring at the pipe smoke that hangs in the room!

Chloe deeply inhales the sweet smell of Rum en Maple and sighs despondently while she hugs Isaac tightly.

“Isaac, enough is enough! We can’t go on like this anymore! You will become too tired to go to work and you can’t afford to make mistakes! I think you are right. We disengage this darn alarm and I move in with you.”

Isaac puts his right arm around her back, hugs her tightly and kisses her softly on her lips. “Let’s pack your things right away. Only, warn Robert quickly. Just in case he will be rushing here through the dark woods.”

~*~*~

The next morning Chloe surprises Isaac in bed with breakfast. Isaac has just departed when her smartphone rings. It is an unknown number.

“Hello, Chloe Eastwood here.”

“Chloe, Hunter here. How are things over there?”

“Hunter, you skunk, what is going on? I’m worried sick over you.”

Hunter laughs heartily before he answers: “Everything’s okay here, Chloe. I will be there on Friday. My things are temporarily sorted here in George.”

“How so? Have you apprehended the perpetrators?”

“No, unfortunately, it is not so easy, but I am finished here for now. I think I will get the final confirmation when I am back with you, Chloe.”

“I don’t understand clearly, but can I ask you a big favor?”

“Of course! Anything for our pretty, little lady!”

“Would it be possible to, on your way back on Friday, pick Lyle up at his hostel and bring him along to visit his mother over the weekend?”

“With the greatest pleasure! The boy must be burning to see her.”

“Thanks so much, Hunter, at what time will you be here?”

“Listen, the lad can sleep over at my place because we will be too late for visiting hours on Friday evening. It’s from 7 to 8, not so? But he can visit her on Saturday morning at 11:00. We will meet you at the hospital, right?”

“Hunter, I first want to prepare him for what he can divulge to his mother and what not. And remember he doesn’t know about his father yet. I want to spare him the bad news until the end of the weekend.”

“Just fine, Chloe, I shall have him at the hospital at 10:30 for your pep talk.”

“Hunter, when are you going to tell me what is at hand?”

“It is better that you don’t know, Chloe. It will be easier for you and safer for me. In the end, you will understand. See you Saturday morning with Lyle at the hospital and bye for now.”

“Hunter, no, wait …”

The call has ended. Chloe decides she must go to her place and open the doors for a while for fresh air. She will have to do it regularly to prevent the place from becoming mouldy. She closes Isaac’s front door and locks it. Isaac gave her a key. Leisurely and absentmindedly she loiters over to her place and looks up. The sky is clear. No clouds and she doesn’t feel any wind. It is a beautiful summer’s day.

Visiting hours at the hospital are 11:00, 15:00 and 19:00. She will be there every time with snacks to spoil Zoey. It is fortunate that she now lives near to the hospital, or else she would have had to drive much further all the way from the farm. She is excited about Lyle’s forthcoming visit to his mother. She only hopes everything will be fine and that Lyle will understand the white lies he will have to tell his mother.

She suddenly stops in her tracks when she notices the 4x4 in front of her place. Leo is standing and watching her with his hands on his sides. Goodness, he must have approached silently and very slowly because she heard nothing while she spoke to Hunter on the phone! It must look quite suspicious that she came out of the neighbor’s home. She’ll have to think of an explanation quickly.

Leo has a question mark on his face. “Here I sneaked up on your place quietly to surprise you and I knocked my knuckles blue but Chloe didn’t come out. I thought, wait a bit, here her car is parked like a dinky toy. I wondered what is going on. Is there a problem somewhere? I just wanted to walk around the house to see whether she was at the back hanging washing or something, when I saw her coming from the neighbor’s home. She is so absent-minded and pleased with herself, it looks as if she has moved in with the guy. What is going on, Chloe?”

She stops at the door, smiles naughtily and pecks him on his cheek and deliberately diverts his attention.

“What are you doing in town, Leo? Have I missed something on your last order?”

“No, you never miss anything. The tractor broke down and Ronnie arranged a spare part. I had to come and pick it up quickly in town and I made a quick visit here. Ronnie will fix the thing quickly for my men to finish with what they were doing in the veld. We need the thing’s power. The terrain is rough and another vehicle is not an option.”

Chloe throws her arms up in the air and jumps playfully up and down. “Eureka America!”

“What are you doing?”

“You have not only spoken to each other! You, by golly, cooperated to solve a problem!”

Leo smiles. “Yes, you can come home now. We made peace. When I approached Ronnie, he instantly offered to help and after he took out the part, he turned towards me and looked me in the eyes and held out his hand while he, for the first time, apologized for assaulting me that evening. We shook hands and I also apologized for my ugly demeanor. I had harsh words for him that evening and provoked him heavily and I wasn’t innocent at all. And there we chatted like old friends just as in the old days, Chloe. We are just worrying about what is going on with you here, and now I caught you red-handed. I don’t trust this Isaac guy a bit!”

Chloe hits him hard against his shoulder. “Ouch! Are you mad? This is painful!”

She grabs Leo by the shoulders and kisses him on his mouth. “Thank you for bringing me the best news that you could bring.”

“Does this mean you will be coming back now?” He hugs her and frowns. “You are a little witch, you know!”

“What now?”

“You deliberately misdirect my attention. Have you moved in with the guy? Do you sleep with him?”

Chloe decides the truth will be best. Do what the communists do and divulge part of the truth and then most people believe it. They call it misinformation. Wait, she is going to frighten him and kick his feet from under him.

“Yes!”

Leo’s eyes widen in shock. “What?!”

Chloe is splitting her sides. “I wish you could have seen your face now! I’m only sleeping over in his guest room, you shit! Almost every evening I get a false alarm and it keeps me, Isaac and Robert from sleep. Isaac begged me to rather sleep in his guest room and to deactivate the alarm so that we can get some sleep.”

Chloe sees how relief lights up his face but he is still suspicious. “I just don’t trust the dude. It looks as if he has a plan with you.”

Chloe smiles naughtily: “And what plan could it be?”

“A plan that has to do with your unbelievable, irresistible sexyism.”

Again Chloe laughs out loud. “Sexyism! What kind of word is that? You are quite comical, my dear Leo! I could have sworn you are my real brother of blood and flesh. Wait, let me open the door.”

“When will we see the fellow? What does he do for a living?”

Chloe opens the door wide. “Let’s go to the kitchen. I want to open the back door for fresh air to blow through. Can I in the meantime put on the stove for coffee?”

“No, leave it. I don’t want to drink anything. I am in a bit of a hurry and just wanted to peep in to see how you are doing.”

Chloe sits down at the table with him after she has also opened the backdoor. In her heart she is happy that he is in a hurry because she doesn’t want to miss visiting Zoey at eleven and Zoey’s recovery is still kept a secret from him.

Leo shakes his head. “Chloe, you are struggling here. Why don’t you leave your shit and come back to the farm? You can’t even sleep in your own place or are you sleeping so nice and warmly over at Isaac’s?”

“I see you remember the guy has a name, Leo. Have you thought about the fact that Zoey might come out of the coma soon and then I will be near enough to support her during all the visiting hours?”

Leo shakes his head again and seems despondent. “I don’t know how you do it, but you seem to have the correct answer to every question …”

Chloe smiles. “Why all the opposition against my plans, Leo, everything will work out fine in the end.”

“I miss you heaps; the pleasant times we had on the farm. You were always full of sports from the day I set my feet on the farm. Do you remember how we raced on horseback and I never could catch you, because you jumped over the most impossible barriers. I never knew how you achieved it.”

Chloe smiles happily. “Leo, have you ever considered the fact that I am lighter than you, you stupid, and I don’t hesitate like you. The horse can feel it when you are unsure.”

“Remember how we played catches underwater in the dam? And how you made a fool of me by navigating the most frightening declines on the quad bike? I didn’t have the guts to go down there and I worried and held my breath. I saw in my mind’s eye how I would have had to explain to your parents that their lovely daughter had a fatal accident. They would never have forgiven me. And you raced with the scrambler as if it was part of you.

“But what I miss the most is that contagious laugh of yours. You are so full of life. It is contagious, my girl, it simply beams out of your whole being. We all miss you: the dogs, Susan, Ronnie, Sam, and the workers all are howling together.”

Chloe feels a little guilty because she had been rude to him. “You are right, Leo, we had quite enjoyable times on the farm, and will again, I promise, we’ll have again, okay?”

Leo smiles happily like a little boy who just been promised an ice cream. “Really? Promise!”

Chloe rises and kisses Leo on his forehead. “With this kiss, I promise: Leo and Chloe will one day, not too far in the future, again play with each other and enjoy our farm, like in the old days, together.”

Leo smiles surprised. “Have I heard you correctly? You said: our farm …?”

Chloe nods her head in confirmation. “We all are one family, Leo. All of us: Leo, Zoey, Lyle, Hayley, Ronnie, Susan, Sam and all the workers on the farm are one big family and the farm belongs to all of us.”