THE SCRIPT

The Wrong Turn

Suddenly John came to me.
 
"Why buddy what's up?"
 
"no no, my head was spinning a bit."
 
John helped me sit on a chair nearby and he went to buy a water bottle from the vending machine which was next to us.
 
I felt frustrated about what's happening to me. I drank a few sips of water from the bottle John gave me.
 
" Alfred, don't think too much about any of this," John told me in a firm way.
 
"how not to think about what's happening.?" I asked.
 
"Well, now how do you feel?"
 
"a bit better. Let's go home John."
 
John went to take the car while I waited outside. I was feeling weary as I got into the car.
 
"Sleep and take a rest when we reach home," John told me as he noticed my weariness.
 
As we reached home, I followed what John said and laid on my bed. John came and gave me some tablets. After taking them, I sank into the pillow as I wanted to sleep very badly.
 
My mobile was ringing. Even though I heard it, I didn't feel like lifting my head to see who'd that be. Without getting up, I ran my hand on the bedside table to grab the phone. And suddenly a glass fell down. I turned swiftly and I noticed it was the water glass on the bedside table which John gave me to take the medicine. I heard someone walking towards my room. It was John. He came in a hurry.
 
"Hey, what happened? All OK?" he asked me.
 
John took the glass which fell off and he kept it on the table.
 
"Sorry buddy. I slept like I was dead and suddenly I heard my phone ring and as I tried to take it even without opening my eyes, that glass fell."
 
"Alfred, isn't it better if you stayed away from that mobile for a while?"
 
"Yeah, but the calls I get are important. You know that."
 
"Well, I don't know Alfred. Wait, I'll bring the mop to clean this mess." he went out, seeming worried about me.
 
I took the phone. "oh a call from the lawyer" John was just coming back as I said those words.
 
"Who?" John asked.
 
"Lawyer called."
 
"Oh, why would that be?" John asked in curiosity.
 
"No idea. Let's call back. Shall we?"
 
"OK, let's call."
 
I dialed his number and fortunately he picked up.
 
"Hello Mr. Brown."
 
"Hello, I'm sorry I missed the call."
 
"Don't worry, I called to inform you about something very important."
 
I turned on the speaker.
 
"oh, what's that?" I asked the lawyer.
 
"Well, the police have found the person in the photos."
 
The lawyer said that John looked at me surprised.
 
"Oh wow! Who's that person?" I asked impatiently.
 
"I think it's better we talk about this in person and not over the phone."
 
"Yeah, I understand. So should we come this evening?"
 
"Well, I'm a bit busy these days. Would that be OK this Friday? Around 7pm?"
 
"Well, OK."
 
"Ok, perfect. Then see you on Friday"
 
I hung up the call and turned to John.
 
"Alfred, who could that be?" John was full of curiosity. And so did I.
 
" I have no idea. Well, we'll find out on Friday."
 
Suddenly I remembered the broken door of the guest room. I called Michael and asked if he could come. He agreed to come at 4pm. I got out of the bed and went downstairs with John. We opened all the windows. A cold breeze found its way inside while making the curtains hug me. John was laughing as I struggled to get out of those curtains. After quite a struggle I came out of those and we both went to the garden.
 
As I saw the storeroom, I felt an urge to go there. As I went I saw  its lock was still fine.
 
John was removing the branches which were everywhere in the garden because of the wind. My headache was still there. It was coming on and off. I went to the patio and sat there. After some time, the bell rang. It was Michael. I opened the gate for him.
 
"Good evening Mr. Brown" he greeted me and also waved at John as he was a bit far.
 
"how're you Michael?" John also came to where we were.
 
" doing well Mr. Anderson" he gave us a bag he had while responding.
 
"what's this?" I asked.
 
"Elena told me to give this to you."
 
"oh thank you both of you. Let's see what's this" I brought it closer to my nose. It had a pleasant fragrance. I was assured that Elenia had prepared something delicious for us.
 
All three of us entered the home and we accompanied Michael to the guestroom.
 
"Michael, you've to fix this door."
 
He nodded and he left to the storeroom to get what he needed. John and I went to the kitchen. John opened the parcel which Michael brought. It was a pineapple pie. John made two slices and offered me one while he took one for himself.
 
" wow! Delicious! Hmmm" John enjoyed it.
 
It was really tasty. Store bought ones were nowhere near to Elenia's cooking..
 
We heard Michael was fixing the door. I wanted to have a shower but I was not allowed to wash my head. I quickly washed my body and came downstairs. By then Michael had already fixed the door.
 
"wow Michael you're fast!"
 
"haha yeah Michael is the man!" John admired Michael as well.
 
We closed the guest room and we drank coffee. We offered a slice of pineapple pie to Michael as well. He didn't seem so surprised to eat it probably because he gets to eat delicious food cooked by Elenia everyday unlike us.
 
After the coffee break, Michael took the leave and we closed all the windows.
 
"Hey, let's watch a movie?" John suggested.
 
"That's a good idea." We chose HANGOVER 2 and started watching it. I felt it was the perfect fit for us.
 
The time ran faster than a blink of an eye. We decided to have a lighter dinner. We put all the dishes in the dishwasher and I asked John to have a shower and take a rest. Because he's been taking care of me all these days. But He didn't complain about anything. He's a great friend anyone could have. I also went upstairs to my room.
 
Before going to have a shower, John came and gave me the medicine.
 
"Alfred, do you have a facial scrub?" John asked As he was about to leave the room.
 
"what!?" I was surprised and I asked what he asked again to confirm what I heard was correct.
 
"Do you have shaving foam with you? Mine is finished, " John said.
 
"Ahhh shaving foam."
 
"yeah? Do you have it?"
 
"Yeah, in the bathroom. You can take it." I told him.
 
But still I couldn't stop wondering if he really asked for a facial scrub or was it a hallucination. Anyway I thought of not giving too much time to think about all that and I laid on the bed. As I was about to fall asleep, I heard my phone ring again.
 
"what a torture!" I felt angry with my phone. But as I took it to see who it was, my anger was replaced with surprise.
 
"Elisa!" I answered quickly.
 
"Alfred, Alfred, please please help! I'm in danger."
 
"Elisa, where are you?"
 
"I don't know. All I remember was a lighthouse. I don't know exactly where." she whispered over the phone.
 
I quickly got out of the bed and went to John's room.
 
"Why why is everything OK?" John came to me.
 
"It's Elisa." I put the phone on speaker.
 
"Alfred, please help. They're coming. I've to hang up. Don't call back."
 
Beeeep
 
She hung up the call. John and I looked at each other surprised as we couldn't figure out what just happened.
 
"what should we do now?" I asked John.
 
"We can't call her back because she must be in danger. I think it's better we go to the police." John suggested.
 
"Ok, I think that's better. Let's get ready."
 
We both got ready fast and as I was about to sit in the driver's seat, John said he'll drive.
 
It was a lightning night. We knew it was about to rain. John increased the speed as we had to hurry up.
 
We were able to go only a few miles and then the car stopped.
 
"damn now what!" I said.
 
"Wait, I'll check." John got out of the car to see what went wrong.
 
I was worried about Elisa. What might have happened to her? I thought she had something to do with what's been happening and now she's in danger. Was she kidnapped? Who could've done that?.
 
" Hey, it's a punctured tire." I was brought back by John's voice.
 
"oh shit! Now what do we do? Let's change into the spare wheel "
 
I said while getting out of the car. We changed it quickly and started our journey again.
 
"It also has to happen now? " John said in frustration about the punctured tire.
 
It started raining with lightning, thunder and the wind. John drove carefully.
 
A vehicle just overtook us at the speed of lightning.
 
"What the hell, are they going to get themselves killed in this rain?" John said while looking at how the vehicle overtook us.
 
"I don't know. I feel strange, John."
 
Due to heavy rain John had to drive carefully. We have to go another hour long drive. I saw a car parked on the side of the road.
 
"John, look, it's a car. Might be a breakdown. Hm?"
 
"Hmm let's see." John slowly reached our car.
 
I slowly lowered the shutter to look at the driver's seat of that car. But there was no one. And the door of the second seat was left open.
 
"Hey John, there's no one. But the other door is left open."
 
"oh, let's go now. This could bring us more problems."
 
"After all there is no one. So we must go." John said again.
 
I agreed to what he said and I closed the shutter. The rain started pouring heavily and we had to slow down even more. We couldn't even see the road properly. Suddenly John pulled the breaks.
 
" What happened? "I asked.
 
"look!" John showed me something.
 
"oh. A girl! Let's stop the car."
 
"Let's go. No need." John said.
 
"no no. We don't know what's wrong. We have to help her."
 
John stopped the car unwillingly. She came towards us while drenched in water. She didn't have an umbrella. As it was raining heavily without asking anything I signalled her to get in. She also got in without any second thought. Her face was unclear as her hair was covering it. She was wearing a jacket with a hoodie. I gave her the box of tissues we had. She took it without a word and she bent down.
 
"maybe she's wiping off the water" I thought.
 
John was not happy about what happened but I told him let's go by a wink.
 
"What's your name? Where do you want to go?" I asked the girl.
 
She lifted her hand and asked me to wait with her hand without uttering a word.
 
"ok." I said. I thought as we were going to the police station, she could get their assistance and she could talk further there.
 
"John, why haven't we still reached the police station?"
 
"It's raining and we drove slowly. I think now we are close." John said.
 
I looked around for a bit. Big trees were everywhere.
 
"John, are you sure we're on the right track?"
 
"Why do you think I forgot the road?"
 
"I think we've taken a wrong turn." I said.
 
"Let me see." John said he checked the location on the phone.
 
"oh my god." said John while stopping the car.
 
"you're right Alfred, we've taken a wrong turn."
 
"That's why. I knew it." I said.
 
As we looked at the girl, she was still drying her hair. Her face was covered and she didn't say a word all this time.
 
As John tried to turn the car to go back, a big pine tree fell and blocked the road unexpectedly.
 
"oh my god" I heard John's voice. The girl was still silent.
 
"damn, now how to go back?" I asked John.
 
We told the girl to wait in the car and we got out to try to remove the tree. Fortunately It was a small tree and I asked John to wait and I went to take the axe which was in the car. We cut off a few branches with the help of the car's light and we cleared the way for us to go. Again we got into the car and tried to drive back. The girl's behaviour brought me a feeling of curiosity and also a bit of fear. I thought she might be a mute. John looked at her in dislike.
 
"really why did we take a wrong turn?" John asked.
 
It was a puzzle for me as well. Who's this girl? Where is she going and where does she want to go? We had no idea. I looked at the back seat. I saw something red was there on the side of her forehead. As I was about to say that to John, I saw the headlight of a vehicle that came towards us.
 
"John John, careful careful." I shouted. The vehicle had hit us and our side mirror was broken. We stopped the car.
 
"Hey John, are you OK?"
 
"yeah yeah. Are you OK?"
 
"yeah."
 
And we both turned to see if the girl was fine.
 
"what the hell" both of us said at the same time.
 
The girl wasn't there anymore…