Lavender Hill

by P. J. Garland

  “Well, Gabriel Ash lives in Oldway House – just off the main road out of the village, heading towards Totnes.”

  Jack pretended to look confused. “OK, sorry, we must have been given the wrong details.”

  Amy touched Jack’s arm. “We should hurry along, darling. We haven’t got much time.”

  Jack looked at Amy and smiled a little at her timely intervention and good acting. They left the post office and got back into the car.

  “‘Darling’ – very good, nice touch,” said Jack.

  Amy smiled as if pleased with herself and Jack’s praise.

  “Right, now where?” asked Jack.

  “Remember, I need to get back to Bristol early afternoon. I’ll search the web tonight, but I need to get back to my car.”

  “OK, I’ll take you back.”

  Jack started the car and set off for Totnes.

  *****

  3:36pm

  The clapping died down and Rebecca Hartley looked out across the crowd of people standing in the hall. Her expression was serious and focused and, as she absorbed the power from the crowd, she smiled slightly. She leant into the microphone on the lectern in front of her and pointed towards an unseen enemy.

  “We are peaceful people. We are law-abiding and God-fearing people. But, we have been ignored and made to feel like naive fools.” She banged her fist down onto the lectern.

  The crowd of people erupted into cheers and loud clapping.

  “And we are not going to be ignored any longer,” she continued. “We are going to march through London tomorrow and insist our voices be heard.”

  The crowd began to clap again, but Ms Hartley raised her hands to quieten them so she could continue speaking.

  “Friends, we insist our opinion should be given due respect. We demand this not for ourselves but for a greater good and a greater being. We demand this right for God because we know the Rapture is a message from Him and a message to His followers and believers.”

  Ms Hartley waited this time for the applause and cheering to die down naturally before she lowered herself towards the microphone and took on a deeper more threatening tone of voice.

  “The Rapture is a message from the Almighty – and tomorrow, we will march with Him beside us. With our belief and his guidance we will not allow anyone to stand in our way. No one, will stand in our way.”

  Ms Hartley stood back from the lectern and smiled and waved at the crowd as they cheered loudly and chanted her name.

  *****

  4:05pm

  Jack felt something block the path of his front door as he opened it. He pushed the door hard and poked his head around it to see what was in the way. A suitcase was placed in the hallway: Sarah’s suitcase.

  “Sarah?” Jack called as he walked into the house.

  “Daddy,” Ella said while running from the living room into the hallway. Jack knelt down to hug her.

  “Jack, is that you?” called Sarah from the top of the stairs.

  “What’s going on?” Jack asked.

  Sarah rushed down the stairs and began to usher Ella back into the living room.

  “You go back into the living room, darling. Daddy and I are going to have a quick chat in the kitchen and we need you to look after Dylan.”

  “Dylan doesn’t listen to me, mummy,” replied Ella as if her mum was silly.

  “Well, you just keep an eye on him then.”

  As Ella walked into the living room, Sarah turned back to Jack and indicated for him to follow her to the kitchen. She asked him to shut the door as they entered.

  “Sarah, Why is your suitcase in the hallway? What’s going on?”

  “I’m going to my parents, with the kids, Jack.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  “We need some time apart, Jack. This isn’t working. And, I’m uncomfortable with this obsession you’ve got with the Rapture.”

  Jack laughed a little. “You can’t be serious? The Rapture is all over the news and half the world felt it, but I’m crazy?”

  “Everybody knows it’s some kind of mass hysteria, or natural event, that scientists haven’t been able to explain yet.”

  “I never said I didn’t think it was a natural event.”

  “But you’re obsessed with it. And it’s just another example of how you’ve changed. All this stuff about living naturally but taking it to extremes.”

  “I’ve never insisted you guys did the things I tried.”

  Sarah went quiet as if holding something back.

  “What’s wrong, Sarah? Tell me?”

  “I saw one of the mums from Dylan’s playgroup earlier. She said she saw you with some girl in town.”

  Jack laughed awkwardly. “She’s someone I met at the Pointers meeting I went to. We went over to Totnes to research something to do with the Rapture. Her name is Amy. You can meet her if you want.”

  Sarah laughed. “I don’t want to meet anyone who believes in all this nonsense.” She paused. “I believe you that there’s nothing in it, but we’ve got to be honest with each other. We’ve got problems and the idea of one of us meeting someone else isn’t completely ridiculous, is it?”

  Jack looked at Sarah, but kept quiet.

  “We need to have a break for a while,” Sarah continued. “You need to decide what you want out of life and whether you’re going to continue obsessing over this Rapture thing. We can decide what to do after that’s happened.” She looked at Jack for a few moments before continuing, “I need to pack the car. Don’t make a scene or the kids will get upset.” Sarah walked out of the kitchen.

  Jack sat down at the kitchen table, placed his elbow on it, and then rested his head in his hand. He could hear Sarah moving around the house and out to the car. After a while, the kitchen door was slowly opened and Dylan walked in. He walked over to Jack and placed his hands on his knees.

  “We’re going to see Granddad,” said Dylan matter-of-factly.

  Jack put his hand on Dylan’s head. “You’re gonna have a great time, Dylan. You’ll have to tell me all about it when you come back.”

  “Mummy said we might stay with Granddad for a while.”

  “Yep, just for a while though.”

  “Will you look after my fish?”

  Jack laughed. “Yes, course I will.”

  “You can put loads of food in the tank, so you can come and see us for a few days...”

  Jack laughed again and then turned to look at the kitchen door as he heard Sarah walk towards the kitchen.

  “Ah, here you are,” said Sarah as she opened the door. “Come on, Dylan. It’s time to go.”

  Dylan took her hand and they all walked out to the car where Ella was waiting. Jack could see Ella had a better sense that something was wrong and he knelt down to speak to her.

  “You’ll call me later?”

  Ella nodded her head but didn’t speak. She then put her arms around his neck and hugged him.

  Sarah opened the back door of the car. “Come on, everyone get in. We’ve got a long journey ahead.”

  Jack helped the kids into Sarah’s car and then watched as she drove it away and up the road. He walked into the house and sat back down in the kitchen. He didn’t move as the daylight gradually faded and left him sitting in the dark.

  *

  Jack sat alone in the kitchen. He stood up to turn the light on and jumped as he heard a beep telling him he had received a text message. He grabbed his phone from his pocket hoping it was a message from Sarah or the kids but saw it was from Amy. He opened the message:

  Call me, I’ve found out something about Gabriel Ash!

  Jack was about to reply, but he suddenly felt conflicted as if he was choosing between the kids and Sarah, or the Rapture. He put the phone down onto the table.

  Jack stood up and paced around the room before sitting back down and staring at the phone. For a brief moment, he felt the sense of understanding, hope and purpose that had gripped him on the day of the Rapture, and without consciously
deciding to his hand automatically reached out for the phone. He held it for a while before dialling a number: Amy’s number.

  “Jack, is that you?”

  “Yes, hi – it is. How are you?”

  “I’m great. You won’t believe what I’ve found out.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Are you OK, Jack? You don’t sound OK.”

  “I’m fine. What have you found out?”

  “This Gabriel Ash guy used to be a physicist at the university here in Bristol. I’m going to go the university library tomorrow to find some of his publications. He was a bit of a maverick apparently, controversial.”

  “That’s great, Amy.”

  “What’s wrong, Jack? I can tell something’s wrong.”

  “Sarah and the kids left earlier. She couldn’t handle my obsession, as she put it, with the Rapture, and... well, we’ve been having problems for a while.” He paused. “I shouldn’t be telling you this stuff, really.”

  “It’s OK. I don’t mind listening. It must be difficult. You should come here tomorrow and help me find out about this guy.”

  “I will, definitely. The thought of being in the house when it’s so empty is horrible.”

  Amy hesitated for a moment. “You can drive up tonight if you want.”

  Jack went quiet before replying, “OK... yeah, OK, I’ll do that. We can spend the whole day researching this guy then.”

  Amy gave directions to her apartment and then they said goodbye. Jack immediately got up and prepared to leave the house. He packed quickly and then rushed into Dylan’s room and sprinkled plenty of food into the fish tank. As he walked out of the house and went to close the door, he paused. From the front door he could see down the hall, through the kitchen, and out of a window to the moonlit fields beyond. The fields he had seen the iridescent light pass over some days before. He stared at the fields for a while before carefully closing the door.

  *****

  DAY 6

  8:45am

  Jack walked through the crowd of people. They smiled at him as they walked past. In the distance he thought he saw someone he recognised, but they disappeared into the dense crowd. Then again, but this time closer, he saw someone that looked like... No, it couldn’t be, he thought. He kept walking forward while trying to see through the people moving towards him. The crowd parted, and Gabriel Ash walked quickly towards him. He was smiling and just before he reached him he—

  Jack woke with a start. He looked around the room and felt disorientated and confused until he remembered he was in Amy’s guest room. He sat on the edge of the bed and waited for his head to clear.

  After a while, Jack noticed the smell of freshly brewed coffee, and bacon cooking. He got dressed, looked in a mirror to tidy himself up, and walked to the kitchen.

  Amy smiled as Jack appeared. “Hi, how are you? Did you sleep well?”

  “I slept great, thanks. I was absolutely exhausted last night. Sorry we didn’t have much time to talk about Gabriel Ash.”

  “That’s fine. We’ve got all day now.”

  They both sat down at the kitchen table and began to eat breakfast. Amy began to tell Jack about Gabriel Ash again.

  “So, as I was saying last night, I found out he used to be a physicist based here in Bristol. He was trying to develop something called a ‘theory of everything’, but people didn’t like his ideas and he left his position some years ago.”

  “A theory of everything?”

  “Yes, a scientific theory that can explain everything in the universe, but I couldn’t really understand the explanation of his ideas I saw on the web. The most important thing he insisted on was that science wouldn’t be complete until it could explain human experience, emotions, consciousness, etc.”

  “Maybe things will be clearer when we get to the library,” said Jack.

  The doorbell rang.

  Amy looked surprised. “Who’s that at this time? I’ll be back in a minute.” She left to answer the door.

  Jack continued eating his breakfast. He was thinking about his dream earlier and the news about Gabriel Ash when he began to notice raised voices.

  “Jack!” Amy called.

  Jack got up and rushed into Amy’s living room to find her surrounded by three men. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

  “They say they’re from the government, Jack.”

  “Where’s your ID?” asked Jack.

  The Tall Man walked towards Jack and showed him an official looking badge.

  “We represent Her Majesty’s Government, Mr?”

  “Clarke, Jack Clarke.”

  The Tall Man lifted the lapel of his jacket and spoke into a hidden microphone.

  “Can we have a check on a Jack Clarke?”

  As he turned away, Jack noticed a small, skin coloured earphone placed in his ear, with the thin cord running down the side of his neck. The Tall Man turned back to Jack after appearing to listen to something.

  “Residence in Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, London?”

  “Yes,” replied Jack, and looked over to Amy to check she didn’t react to him giving the wrong address.

  “OK, Mr Clarke, some of our colleagues would have called at your house in London, but seeing as you are here with Ms Stola we can request that both of you come with us back up to London.”

  “Why? Why do you want us to come with you?”

  “We are requesting interviews from a selection of people that have stated they experienced the Rapture, and your names were amongst that group.”

  “Do we have a choice?” asked Amy.

  “We can request a more formal demand for you to attend these interviews, Ms Stola.”

  “Can we get ready? We’ve only just woken up,” asked Jack.

  “Yes, of course – ten minutes let’s say?”

  Jack and Amy went to walk over to the bedrooms, but the men quickly stopped them.

  “Check the rooms,” ordered the Tall Man to the other agents, who then quickly checked the rooms for possible ways of escape. “Take enough for an overnight stay,” he said as the men returned.

  Amy and Jack both instinctively went straight to the bathroom so they could speak to each other.

  Jack whispered to Amy, “Don’t mention my house in Devon, or what we’ve discovered.”

  “OK – why do you think they want to speak to us?”

  “I don’t know, Amy. But I’m sure it’ll be OK.”

  They collected some things from the bathroom, and then their rooms, before going back to the living room.

  Jack and Amy followed the agents out to their car. They sat next to each other and held hands as the car was driven quickly out of Bristol and towards London.

  *****

  11:32am

  Jeremy sat in the studio watching Katie on a large screen. She was standing on a balcony overlooking Trafalgar Square in central London. The square was full of people and the crowds were swelling onto the surrounding streets and blocking traffic from moving around the square. At one end of the square was a stage and the sounds of speeches, applause and cheering resonated within the arena created by the beautiful old stone buildings surrounding the square.

  Katie turned to address the camera. “We can now see Rebecca Hartley taking to the stage. She has become a focal point for this rally, and the crowd have been waiting for her speech. Apparently, she intends to speak to the crowd about media bias in the reporting of the Rapture.”

  Jeremy momentarily looked uncomfortable before quickly saying, “How would you describe the rally so far, Katie?”

  Katie seemed hesitant as if she was about to talk over an important part of the rally, while in the background Rebecca Hartley began to speak.

  “Uh... it’s been peaceful. The speeches have focused on a religious interpretation of the Rapture, which we haven’t heard much in Western countries.”

  “...we should begin with a pray to our saviour...” Rebecca Hartley could be heard to say in the distance as small snippets of her speech waf
ted over the square and through the cheering crowds.

  Stating matter-of-factly, Jeremy said, “Well, it’s clear from the size of this rally there isn’t much enthusiasm from the religious community for a religious interpretation of the Rapture.”

  “I don’t know. There have been reports of other gatherings around the country.”

  “...our views are not being represented in the media, friends...”

  Jeremy’s expression hardened as he heard Ms Hartley in the background. “Yes, but these gatherings are small in comparison.”

  “Yes, I suppose so,” replied Katie.

  “...I was forced off 24/7 News by—”

  “What was the food like in Cambodia,” said Jeremy quickly, loudly and awkwardly to obscure the voice of Rebecca Hartley.

  Katie looked at the camera with a confused expression. “It was great, Jeremy – really nice...”

  “...we have received some important news today about the so called Pointers...”

  “So, uh... Katie, has there been any mention of the scientific interpretation of the Rapture?”

  Katie was obviously trying to listen to the speech and didn’t respond to Jeremy.

  Jeremy raised his voice. “Katie?”

  “Uh, no – could I just... Ms Hartley is saying something interesting about the Pointers.”

  “...some of the Pointers are in there now, and we should march down to Thames House and demand to know what information the government has about the Rapture...”

  Katie turned back to the camera. She raised her voice to be heard over the noise of the cheering crowd.

  “It would appear the government may have arrested some of the Pointers and are interviewing them now in MI5 headquarters, although this is an unconfirmed report.”

  “I can confirm this latest development is true,” said Jeremy hurriedly. He then turned to the camera and with glib confidence said, “Apparently, these interviews are simply a routine procedure and nothing to get excited about.”

  “Why are they—”

  “Don’t go away. We’ll be back soon,” Jeremy said to the camera.

  As a technician indicated they were off air, the smile on Jeremy’s face quickly disappeared and was replaced by a vicious scowl. He reached under the news desk and pulled out a hand towel, which he used to wipe sweat from his brow.