Entrapped

08 - Deep in the Forest

The wind subsides to a breeze. Sometimes he throws up an unsuspected gust as if saying 'I am still here.' Chloe removes her sunglasses when she enters His and Her's at exactly three-o'-clock that afternoon.

Mrs Kennedy, busy with a young lady, looks up when she enters. "Chloe, you're right on time. Robert is here waiting for you."

She nods with her head in the direction of a middle-aged man on the sofa. Robert rises and without any emotion on his face stares with his right eye. His left eye is glass. He has a scar over the full length of his face that shows the terrible damage of a very old wound. The blade must have cut open his face and also claimed his eye. Then also, a deep scar under his chin runs across his throat as if someone wanted to cut his throat. This must have happened years ago.

It seems as if he has just come out of the woods where he is cutting trees. There are wood chips and sawdust in his longish, grey hair and on the collar of his shirt. He is wearing black Stihl suspenders over his shoulders that hold his robust working trousers in place and he wears muddy, waterproof boots as if he had to walk in a swamp. Expressionless he stares at her and she hesitantly greets him.

"Good day, Robert. I'm sorry if I keep you from your work; it looks as if you were sawing trees or something."

He doesn't reply and only looks fixedly at her with a rigid face and a shivers run down her spine as she remembers the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' She must force herself not to recall a few other horror flicks while he gazes at her without uttering a word.

Mrs Kennedy explains: "Robert lost his voice and he cannot speak, but he can hear you very well and also can see quite well with his one eye. He has his own cabin deeper in the woods on the plot. Only a footpath leads to his secluded place. He'll visit your part of the plot only for maintenance, cutting back branches, cutting the grass and repair broken things when necessary. There is a large bell that hangs over a deep well between the houses and whenever you need him, just pull on the rope. Robert will now take you. Just follow him in your car, Chloe."

Robert leaves the salon with a stiff right leg followed by a limping movement of his body. What a strange fellow; he churns her stomach.

She follows Robert outside and he moves painfully slow on the pavement towards an old classic, dirty, rusted, dark brown 1952 Dodge Fargo. He stops at the half ton truck and stares at her. She gestures with her hand to her Cooper lower down the road.

"I will follow you in my Cooper over there." He nods satisfied. The Dodge's door creaks eerily when he opens it.

Earlier on Chloe noticed the truck when she sought parking space. It really looks like an old dilapidated crock. She begins to wonder about this place she wants to rent. Maybe it is a strange outback place somewhere in the desolation because Robert and his truck may fit in there but definitely not in this modern civilization.

Briskly she walks up to her Cooper and quickly gets in. She looks in her mirror and it looks like a horror scene from a black and white film as the Dodge slowly creeps onto the road and Robert eventually passes her. She pulls out of her parking and follows the Dodge. They drive at a snail's pace to the west of town. She doesn't even use all her gears.

Eventually, they pass the first smallholdings and then turn off on a bad, dirt road that in places is heavily corrugated and Chloe has to swerve left and right to dodge the deep potholes. The trees and bushes become denser the further they go on both sides of the road en the path narrower.

The Dodge stops and then turns into a small opening between the high Eucalyptus trees. She follows him slowly in the shade of these towering blue gums on the one track lane which cut off the rays of the sun. The path runs deeper and deeper in the dark, lonely forest.