A Crossing of Paths

Chapter Eight

Melissa began her morning rather perturbed, for the marks on her body, now faded away, were the first real indication that something wasn't quite right during the night. Her energy had steadily declined since her arrival, and now she feared she'd been sleepwalking, although she had no history of it she was aware of. And the marks...what on earth could have caused those? She knew she could easily head for a breakdown if she didn't find some answers soon. She'd come here to escape her demons, only to have discovered new ones.
Once dressed, she ventured into the pantry, pulled back the moving shelf, and examine the secret door again. There were answers behind it, she just knew it. And that meant her mysterious neighbor, Sur, had them to, for he had claimed to have built the place, thus he had to know what lay behind it, probably even had the key. So she shoved the shelves back, left the pantry, and fixed a quick breakfast. Then, she got on the phone and tried to get ahold of Kay, the real estate agent who had found her the house, to press her concerning the house plans. She was going to ask her if a page might have been misplaced, but she was directed to voicemail, so she left a message and hung up in frustration. Well, fine, she'd just have to go straight to the source. She had a good enough excuse to pay another visit to her neighbor, might as well go for it.
This time she made no effort to dress "appropriately". She pulled on her tightest pair of low riders, put on a halter, sans a bra, let her long tresses fall as they may, and headed out the door. Maybe a little eye candy would make him a little more open with her, she reasoned. It was almost eleven AM as she walked at a brisk pace down the road towards his cabin.
As she made her way down the road, Melissa could make out a car parked in front of the cabin. "Oh, great", she thought to herself, "He's got visitors......talk about bad timing....crap!" She kept going, tho, and as she got closer, a woman came out of the cabin and headed to the car. Her luck got better, she thought, but there was something familiar about both the car and the visitor. Just as the woman had gotten into the car and started it up, Melissa suddenly realized who she was. It was Kay, the agent she had been trying to contact! Melissa broke into a trot, yelling for Kay to stop, but the distance and the soundproofing of the car defeated her efforts, and the auto was soon accelerating down the road and out of sight. Melissa slowed down, breathing heavily, and kept walking till she was at the foot of the cabin's porch. As usual, there were no signs of life from within the cabin, so she approached the door and announced her presence with the iron door knocker. It took her several rounds of insistent rapping with the knocker before the door swung inward and Sur, with his somewhat neutral expression behind that beard of his, presented himself.
"Back so soon, I see. I guess you came for that basket you left here yesterday, let me go get it for you." He turned, not asking her to come in, but she took it upon herself to slip in through the door behind him. As he strolled across to the kitchen, she stole in and glanced around, taking in the ambience, trying to decipher the code they spoke of this man, this stranger who was having some kind of mysterious impact on her. She turned, and he was standing there, holding the basket in his hand, a look of slight irritation betrayed on his face. Before he could urge her back out the door, she stood toe to toe with him and asked him point blank, "You built the place, Sur, tell me about the basement. Where's the key, I wasn't given one."
It was as if it was the question he was expecting and didn't want to answer. He thrust the basket into her hands and brusquely told her, "There is no basement, dear, the door simply leads into a root cellar, and no, I don't have the key. It should have been left hanging on the key-hook in the kitchen." Melissa wasn't buying his story, not with everything she'd been going through, not one bit. "Sur, please be honest with me, I think I've been having walking nightmares or something which I can't remember, and I just know it has something to do with that basement, whether you want to admit it's there or not. I'll get into the damn thing if I have to rent a back-hoe and dig it out!"
Sur, a look of resignation on his face, motioned for her to sit down and returned to the kitchen, muttering something about pains in the ass and determined women. He rummaged around in a drawer, then returned, handing her the key to the door. Then he sat down in his favorite chair, folded his hands into each other, and stared at her. Melissa stared back, waiting for his explanation. Finally the man spoke, slowly, deliberately, an edge of pleading to his voice. "Melissa, dear, there's nothing good to be found in that basement. I left things down there that, taken out of context, would not paint me in a very favorable light. I would ask that you take my word for it that it would serve both our interests if it remained locked away. I can't say anymore about it, and I'm asking you to just let it go, till such time you've known me long enough that I can explain why. If you go against my wishes, I will have no choice other than to ask you never to come here again. Either we have a deal or you can leave now."
Melissa listened to him and fought with her inclinations. She needed answers, but to get them, at least immediately, would cost her the friendship of the only person she knew within any distance, and she didn't want to invite the ire of a neighbor. So, she called it a draw, and rose from the couch, key in hand, as he continued to stare at her. Just as she reached the door, she turned and asked, "Sir, I thought I saw Kay, my real estate agent, leaving here before I arrived. I hope you aren't planning to sell the cabin as well." She was intrigued to see a flash of puzzlement cross his face before he replied, answering to her second, but not first, statement. "No, dear, I like it here just fine." Apparently Sur was as surprised as she was that Kay had been there, but Melissa just let the matter drop and headed out the door, closing it behind her.
She rolled the key around in her hand as she walked back down the road to her house. "Well, Sur, " she thought to herself, "there's more than one way to skin a cat!" The sun was well past it's zenith as she got home, and she pondered the arrival of night time with some trepidation. Had she any inkling of what the coming of darkness held for her, she might have packed a suitcase and headed back East.