Chapter 24

Craig and Sarah lay awake in bed. Their bedroom was dark. All the kids were asleep. Both Sarah and Craig had unpleasant things to process. As Craig stared at the ceiling. He knew Sarah was watching him as she was lying on her side facing him. Although Craig could not mention certain thing in detail to the kids earlier, he could not expand much more towards his sensitive wife either. He sure as hell had to share it with someone because it would be a heavy burden to carry for one person alone. Craig gathered that Sarah was probably wondering what was going through his mind. At the same time, she had things of her own to process. Things Craig had told her earlier. Craig felt her hand on his arm and he looked at her. His eyes had already adjusted to the dark. As Craig expected, she was staring at him with enquiring eyes. He could also sense a hint of fear.

Craig looked at the ceiling again and shook his head, 'don't know why this is happening my love.' He felt Sarah's hand grow into a sensitive grip around his arm.

'I mean, it all started with that guy on the R27. We still don't know who he is or what happened to him. I asked the police to check it out and give me a call if they find any information. I gave them the paper with the case number.'

'What did they say when you gave it to them?' Sarah asked softly.

'The guy said the case was indeed handled by the Saldanha Police department, but he did not know anything about it. I hope they find out because it's bothering me you know. I mean, the boys saw that as well, and it was not a pretty picture.'

'It must have been a terrible thing you saw today,' Sarah said almost whispering.

'It was. I'll never forget that poor guy's face before and after he shot himself. He was almost like a zombie sitting in his car you know. Moments after that I heard the shot. I could have stopped at least when I saw things were not right. I could have made a difference today?'

'Don't take this upon yourself. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again. What were you doing on that road, anyway?'

Craig sighed, 'I wanted to clear my head from the heavy day at work. I know it sounds strange, but it was almost as if that road was calling me. I would have shown you where it happened, but now I'm not so sure I want to travel that road ever again.'

'I wouldn't want to see it, anyway.'

'The way his brain was splattered all over the interior of the car, oh my God. There is something else and the only reason I'm telling you this is that I'm scared I'll lose my mind.'

'Tell me.'

'I didn't want to scare you. It's probably nothing, but I found something in the attic the other day. Some strange fucking rodent nailed to a small square plank. There was a small bag as well. It had leaves and shit inside almost like that stuff I heard people use with black magic.'

'What did you do with it?' Sarah asked alarmed.

'I threw it away, of course, should have burnt it though.'

'What do you think that means?'

'Don't know, probably had some weird people living here before us. Maybe even Satanists or something, but who knows, they might have been cursed and did not even know about it. I mean, why did we pick up this house for such a bargain?'

'I think we need to speak to someone who knows Saldanha well. Maybe they can tell us what happened to the previous owners, someone who knew them perhaps.'

'Yeah. I met the neighbour the other day. An old fellow. Very nice guys. His name is Brian Kensington. He seems to know something about the house, but he did not want to tell me that day.'

'Oh my God, do you think this house is haunted or cursed?' Sarah asked alarmed. Craig could feel her nails cutting into his arm. He knew she did not realise it.

'No, no. I just think some weird people stayed here before us. I will ask when I see him again. He seems to be a very faithful man because what he said that day was out of place.'

'Yeah?'

'He said we should start believing in God. Then there was this weird guy in seven-eleven as well. He bumped into me and simply kept walking without any apology. I wanted to confront him, but didn't want to make trouble in a new place.'

'You did the right thing honey,' Sarah whispered.

'Come to think about it, I should have fucked him up right there and then. After that, I got a few things and went to the counter to pay for them. Later he was standing next to me. He did not have enough money to pay for his shit. When I offered to pay the difference he added more things to my account, so I turned around and walked out. At the kombi, he introduced himself as Jacob.'

'What an asshole.'

'Yeah, so hopefully this is the last of our weird trouble. We didn't have a warm welcome to Saldanha, hey?'

'Yeah, tell me about it.'

'Well, things can only get better from here onwards,' Craig sighed. His mind drifted back towards the lady behind the counter at seven-eleven. Obviously, he could never tell his wife about that, especially not with what happened in the past. Booze and woman don't mix too well, especially beautiful and horny women. He had learned his lesson back then when the children were much younger. The affair went on for almost a year when Sarah found the underwear underneath his car seat. Stuff like that happened when one got too comfortable and tired of hiding things, especially when one relied on your penis to do the thinking. Things can easily get out of hand when one becomes reckless and sloppy. Craig thought about Pamela. She was way too hot for words to describe. Anyway, he did not have to describe her to anyone. Craig had no friends in Saldanha yet and he sure could never describe Pamela to his wife. He knew he just had to ignore her as far as possible and be strong about it. She only meant trouble for him and his family. One more mistake and his marriage will not survive again.

Craig turned his head to look at Sarah and noticed her eyes were closed, probably tired of all the stress and strange events. He turned towards her and felt her body turning away from him. He shifted closer to her and held her tight, their bodies almost one.

Please God, help me stay strong. Help me protect my family and keep them from harm's way. Craig prayed in silence.