The Concealed Culture Deep Within (part four.)

The walk back along the way from the surgery to home once more was a very quiet but intensely isolated period of time for Lucy. The atmosphere was so deep that neither of them was able to grasp what had just taken place with the doctor. Lucy was walking a little way ahead and was totally unaware that her young daughter was not close by her side at that moment. Continuing slowly walking back through the normally quiet village, the area suddenly appeared alive with villagers, rapidly seeming to be in a flurry of conversations that Lucy was completely oblivious to, even if she felt like being nosey and wanting to listen in to the chatter around her, she wouldn't have been able to pick up on anything said, as her thoughts remained back in the consulting room of Dr. Deetrick's. It was peculiar, to say the least, for the village of Stumpton to be so busy. Usually, at the time approaching late morning, the village was devoid of its inhabitants who would have by now, discharged their children into the waiting & eager arms of their school teachers, who would have been anticipatingly waiting for their pupils to be dropped off for the school day ahead that was due to begin.

But today just seemed somewhat strange & mysterious to Lucy in particular. She shook off these thoughts almost as quickly as the feelings had popped into her head. But they refused to be shaken off, keeping invading her thoughts each time she tried.

'Where was Josie?'

'Why was she not by her side?'

'Why are there so many people milling about today at this time after school, and what the hell are they so excitedly talking about?'

All her thoughts and unanswered questions were whizzing through her head, repeatedly going round in circles. She was all of a sudden beginning to experience nausea and dizziness, as they kept echoing around her mind, as if several people all at once what talking to her, with many different versions of the identical questions from within her head.

As she began to near the most densely part of her village, the many citizens indigenous to Stumpton, all unexpectedly started to part from those that had been so rapidly gibbering away to each other before she came into their view. The whole scenario looked more like a 'village hall Sunday meeting.'

'Just what the hell is going on here, and where the devil is Josie?' shouted Lucy, silently from inside her head.

The last thing that she was able to remember was that they had both been together in the doctor's surgery, they had walked out together but, now she could not recall seeing anything more of her, everything after walking out together had been so silent.

Mrs. Crevin turned her head forward-facing with her head up high and started walking again, but this time with a much more purposeful action in her stride, to head home as fast as she could make it.

First things first. Mug of strong coffee. Find her mysteriously vanished daughter.

Lucy struggled with the front door key to her house, as the key stuck in the locking mechanism and stubbornly would not turn. Jiggling the key out finally, she tried again. On the second attempt at the door lock, it made a resounding clicking noise and the door swung open.

'Damned door, I've been meaning to get this lock fixed for ages now. My husband usually sorted it out when this happened, but what did he do, and what with?' she thought to herself suddenly thinking back to her late husband who had been killed instantly in that car crash.

Elliott, her husband, had always wanted to change the original door locks with one of those new-fangled electronic wifi locking systems, that you unlock and lock simply by using your mobile phone. But, Lucy had desperately protested about him doing it. She had never been much for the new-age technology that had just come out a couple of years ago. Lucy had forever remained a fierce protestor against such technology ever since she had been but a child in her own parent's eyes. Living in Stumpton had been lovely & peaceful when she and her husband had settled there years before now. She had put up with her husband's love of electronics but he had never spent actual money on purchasing a computer, rather he spent much of the home income on the home and his loving family.

Although, thinking back a couple of years, Lucy recalled her and Elliott succumbing to the winges and tantrums their daughter displayed until they both relented and took her into the city to buy her eagerly awaited laptop for her bedroom. It had been the highlight of that day for Josie, getting that computer.

Thinking of that, 'where the hell was she today?'

Sighing and draining the last drops of her coffee mug, she picked up the telephone diary next to the telephone on the living room desk. Lucy having her dislike of technology, refused to program the telephone numbers into the phone's memory store, preferring to keep an A5 size diary where she stored all her important numbers.

Her first call was to the school, she decided that maybe, just maybe, Josie had (for some strange and unexplainable reason that she could not fathom right now) had actually gone to school. But then that wouldn't make any sense either, after her daughter's strange behaviors whilst there, and then again, it wouldn't have explained away why (if Josie had gone there) just why she had gone straight there from the doctor's to school without telling her mum first.

'But then, why do kids at that age every make any sense to adults anyway,' thought Lucy as she tracked the number in the book, and began dialing.

The call to the school turned up with a blank. The headteacher had been expecting her to return to school for the afternoon period, as she had been made aware of the morning's appointment but, she never saw her turn up, indeed the afternoon attendance register had not had her name entered as being present. After terminating the call with the school, out of the corner of Lucy's eye, she almost immediately cast her gaze on Josie's school bag dumped in the far corner of the living room, just popping out from behind the far couch...

'She would not go to school without her bag of god knows what. This really is not like her to do this at all,' pondered her mum.

So she had confirmed that her daughter was not in school today, so, next stop, maybe her schoolfriend's parents might know. It was a long shot after all because, half of the friends that knew Josie well, always covered for her when she had started bunking off school but, maybe, just maybe, she might just catch out an odd one of the parents unawares. At this stage, anything was worth attempting. But then perhaps, Josie had just gone for a walk?

'But alone and, without telling her mum, ' just like that? she thought, beginning to panic now.

Well, it only took a few minutes of time until Lucy came up blank on her quest to get anything out of the other parents she had called. Some were not answering so she left a voice message (another piece of technology she hated) and others she had made contact with just had no ideas to offer her in any rationale advice.

Deciding that another strong mug of coffee was needed, she made her way to the kitchen to do just that, at least it took her mind off the subject of the whereabouts of her daughter.

Standing within her kitchen leaning against the window sill she could see the woodland area behind the far side of her house. She smiled as the warm, strong aroma, and flavor of the coffee brought back happy memories of when her husband, Elliott, was alive still.

'What would he do in this situation?' she reflected, ruminating over the long-gone past that she knew could never return to her reality.

Unexpectedly a sudden thought arose in her mind.

'The woodland! Would she have gone there today, why, and by herself? Where did that strange women come from? That woman who called the police?' Lucy's thoughts were coming all of a sudden as is all at once every light bulb in her house had been switched on suddenly, bringing along a sense of clarity that was beginning to take shape.

Up until now, nothing had been making any sense to her. But, her daughter had been 'acting out of sorts,' for some time now. Spending much of her free time out in the woods in total isolation from others. Neighbors within the village had started to go out of their way to ignore them. Then there was the strange police visit. The doctor's meeting, and Josie's eyes, what was it with them? They had always been bright blue from birth up until recently. Now they were dark, almost menacing. If she hadn't have known any better, she might have thought that her daughter had been on illicit drugs for a while.

But no it couldn't be that could it?

Either way, she was going to look in the woodlands this afternoon...

************

Stay tuned for the next installment of 'The Concealed Culture Deep Within.'

If you missed the first three parts of this story, you can click on the links below, to catch up.

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