Columbia - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next morning I was up early. I looked out my window and watched as the sun rose up over the woods. My throat felt dry and stale as if I had swallowed something rough. I slip my slippers on and walk down stairs into the kitchen. I grabbed a glass and fill it up with cold water. When I finally finished I headed towards the stairs. I’m on the first step when I see a strange dark figure standing outside my front door. A rush of fear pumps through my body. Who would be calling around here at this time? I stare at the clock that says 6:17AM. I look towards the lock on my front door and notice that it is unlocked. That’s impossible my mother locked this door last night? At this stage my body became paralysed with fear and I can feel my heart pounding against my chest. I gather up every ounce of courage and take a step towards the door. I reach out my badly shaking hand to try and fix the lock. My hand is touching the rusty lock when I hear a sharp knock at the door. I start to panic. My body wouldn’t do as I wanted it to do; it was as if I had no control. I turned my head and looked up the stairs. My mother must be still asleep. I thought about running up the stairs, but I can’t my body won’t move. I have only got control of my head and arms. I turn back to the door and take a deep breath. I am going to have to open the front door and face what is on the other side. I grab a hold of the door handle and count to three. One... two... I feel my body going weak. I take one more deep breath. Three... I pull on the door handle and swing the front door open.

I stood there completely astonished to find that there was no one around. I felt a cold breeze brush past me and suddenly I had full control of my body again. Nothing makes sense; I saw a dark figure standing on the other side of the door. I saw his shadow appear on the glass? I stepped outside and looked around the cottage searching for whatever it was I saw. When I get back to the front door I come across something unique. It was just sitting on the floor as if it has always been there. I picked it up and tried to identify it. The structure of it was small and shaped like a hexagon. The real key feature that took my breath away was the colour of this fascinating object. It was the colour of red, almost as if it was burning. It suddenly hit me what this object must be. It has to be a ruby. Maybe that figure I saw standing outside the front door left it here. This left me with more questions swirling around in my head. Questions that had no answers, questions that I didn’t have answers for. “Alaska... What are you doing outside at this time?” questions my mum. I quickly place the ruby in the back pocket of my pyjamas. “I needed some fresh air. Sorry did I wake you?” I ask. “Oh no. I heard a knock at the door. It must have been you.” Said mum. She walks away slowly into the kitchen. My mother must have heard the knock at the door as well? I step inside and close the front door behind me. I walk up stairs and into my room. That weird object I found in the woods yesterday, could it be connected to the ruby I had just found? “Alaska we don’t have anything for breakfast this morning, so you’re going to have to eat an apple or something” my mum shouts up the stairs. Money has been tight lately so we struggle to put food on the table. I wish there was some way I could help bring money home. Then it hits me like a punch in the face. I could sell the ruby!! Rubies are expensive items to buy and if I were to sell, I may get a lot of money in return. There’s a jewellery shop in the village I could visit. It started to rain outside so if I was going out I needed to be prepared. I put a pair of black jeans on, along with my rain coat and a pair of walking shoes. I tied my hair back, put the weird wooden object and the ruby into my rug sac. I was ready to face the rain.

I went into the kitchen where my mother was sitting on her favourite chair facing the window. “Mum” I called. She turned her head towards me and smiled. “I’m going now I won’t be to long” I said as I turned towards the door. I hate leaving my mother even though it may be for five minutes. I always worry that she might do something stupid and injure herself. I close the front door and begin walking down the wet slippery path. When I reach the village it looks amazing. Lots of small stalls have opened early to try and make an early profit. The streets are filled with busy people running back and forth buying food and products from the stalls before they run out of stock. I walk past a few of the stalls and see plenty of fruit and vegetables for sale at low prices. Some of the foods here would cost a bomb to buy in the markets. I can recognise a few familiar faces in the sea of people, but I try to avoid as many as I can. Once I reach the jewellery shop I start to feel excited and anxious. The shop is filled with lots of glittery jewellery. They had every kind of jewellery you would expect to see from watches, bracelets to rings and necklaces. As I’m staring at all this amazing jewellery I hear a feminine voice call my name from behind me. “Oh Alaska, I never knew you bought jewellery from here?” says Kaila in a surprised voice. I turn around in shock and try to hold my nerve. “Ah yea I always shop from here. It’s one of my favourite places” I say nervously. I couldn’t stop myself from lying. I don’t shop in here; I can’t even afford to buy a loaf of bread!! “Have you come to buy something nice” I ask. “Ha I wish I can’t afford any of this stuff.” Laughs Kaila. Now I feel really stupid. I try to hide my embarrassment by not looking directly into her eyes. “My Father owns this shop, I brought him his lunch” says Kaila. I turn my head to the man at the counter. “Well I hope you find what you’re looking for Alaska” Says Kaila before she walks out of the shop. I take a deep breath as she leaves the shop.

I walk up to the counter and place the ruby on the desk. “How much for this” I ask. The man looks at the ruby using specialised lenses to inspect the jewel. “I have never seen anything like this before” He says in a surprised voice. He weighs it a few times before telling me the news I didn’t want to hear. “I can’t buy this.” He mumbles. I stand there stunned at what he has just said. “What! Why not?” I ask. I can feel the anger within me starting to rise. “This ruby is special, it is priceless” says the man whilst handing it back to me. I take the ruby of him and leave the shop. I slam the door behind me in disappointment. What can I do now? I decided to try and sell the ruby to the stalls on the streets hoping they would show interest towards it. Every stall that I went to would show interest to the ruby but then reject it. As I turned away from the last stall I tried to sell to, I bump into someone and fall to the ground. “You okay Al” asked Stephan while picking me up of the ground. I look at him in shock. This is the last person I want to speak to. “Yea I’m fine” I say. I pull myself away from his tight grip and turn to walk away from him. He grabs a hold of my arm with a tight grasp. “I now you have been avoiding me” He says in a low toned voice. I stare into his green eyes for a few moments and relies I have never seen Stephan like this before. “What’s wrong?” He asks. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what is happening in my life. I wanted to tell him about how my mum has become worse with her day dreams, the creepy figure I saw at the door and about the objects I had found. “Nothing... Nothing’s wrong.” I say whilst trying to keep myself together. We stare at each other for a few minutes before he pulls me in for a hug. I feel a tear drop fall from my eye and land on Stephan’s jacket. “I’m going away for a while, so I won’t be around.” He whispers into my ear. I don’t ask him where he is going or when he is coming back, I just squeeze tighter into him. I wipe the tears of my eyes before we finally release each other. He grabs my hand, places something in it and then gently closes it. He picks up his bag of the floor and swings it onto his shoulder. He breaks eye contact with me and slowly walks away. I want to scream his name but I resist the urge to do so. I just simply watch him walk away until I can no longer see him any more. I open my hand and see money. Stephan must have known I needed help.