28 July 2012
Darla shuffled around in her slippers, piling freshly made pancakes onto plates. Her husband, Joe, was reading a newspaper and smoking an unlit pipe. He gave up years ago but he liked to mimic the habit. He swore it was the only thing that kept him from smoking within the first few months of giving up.
Darla looked up to see her fresh-faced daughter arriving for breakfast. "Oh good, you're up. You look like you had a good sleep"
"I had the funniest dream" Ash replied. It had left her in a great mood.
Darla continued "I was talking to Mrs Tyler a while ago. She said Mr Jenkins has gone to live with his daughter Emily in Peru! Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't know" said Ash. She was beginning to realise that things didn't quite add up. She was definitely awake when she received the call from the hospital because she overheard her dad asking why Bill had named Ash his next of kin when she was coming down the stairs.
"He left when I was filling out paperwork. He looked like he was well enough to travel, I guess. It must not have been as serious as we thought" Ash was going to have to keep quiet about the rest. She feared she would be sent to the looney bin if she came out with "He became a 20 year old man and vanished"!
"I suppose the scare made him realise he wants to spend the time he has left with his daughter" Darla muttered to herself.
Ashling cupped her mug of coffee as she was taking a sip and yelped. The heat from the mug exaggerated the pain of a little cut in the palm of her hand. "What the..." she murmured. She grabbed at her neck - nothing. Taking the stairs two at a time, Ash ran to her room and started stripping the bed. She heard the sound of metal hitting the floor and dropped to find the source of the din. There it was between her bed and bedside locker - a silver chain with the sharp charm that caused the cut. It was all real. Ash sat on the floor, flabbergasted.
She studied the necklace. It was a silver eye with a black shiny stone in the middle acting as a pupil and a strange blue ring around it. The outer stone had flecks of green and brown. It was an unusual eye colour and it happened to be the same as Ash's. The spike hung behind the eye but it was free to swing right around it like a clock or compass. There was some sort of attachment at the back allowing it's free movement.
Ash's father arrived at her bedroom door. "Everything okay, honey?"
"Everything's fine Dad. Mr Jenkins gave me a necklace yesterday and I thought I lost it" She had definitely lost it, she thought.
"Okay, I'm glad you found it" he said, seeing the chain dangling from her hand. "I'm going to work, see you later, honey" He blew a kiss and headed for the stairs.
"Have a good day!" she shouted after him.
Ash wrapped the necklace around her wrist a few times and secured the hook. She was going to get to the bottom of this - just as soon as she had her breakfast. Her stomach was growling in protest.
"Mum, I have to go back to the hospital to see Mr Jenkins' doctor. He said there was a prescription I'd have to pick up today" Ash lied.
"No problem, pet. Do you want to borrow my car?"
"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks"
Not knowing where to find Dr Harvey, Ash made her way to the room Mr Jenkins was staying in the day before. She thought she must have gotten lost when she opened the door to find a linen closet. As she closed the door again, Dr Harvey came along.
"Hello Ms Bronson. It's nice to see you again. You must have a few questions for me. Come into my office" The doctor smiled, motioning Ash towards the linen closet.
"Oh, um, hi. Yes, I...." her disjointed sentence trailed off as she was ushered into a magnificent office. Shelves lined the walls, floor to ceiling, some filled with large books, others displaying unusual objects and antiques. The only gap in the shelving hosted an intricate stained-glass window depicting the same eye as the one hanging from Ash's wrist, along with symbols she didn't recognise. The only difference with the eye in the window was that the iris was a brilliant shade of green.
"What's on your mind?" Dr Harvey asked soothingly.
Ash hesitated. "Where do I start?!"
The Mystical Eye - Ch3 • Opuss № I