Chapter 30

Time continued its flow as if nothing had happened;



days, weeks, then months went by



and before anyone knew it, one year and a half had elapsed since the tragic even of Gypsy’s death. Summer had crept once again over the small town engulfing everything in choking heat.

The three inhabitants of number 12, Huntington Road were each doing something completely different.

Happily humming an unintelligible tune, the almost sixteen-year-old teenager was packing up his belongings in a medium sized suitcase.



He was once again about to leave for the annual summer camp he had attended the previous year. It was sure to be another great holiday spent with his best friends from school, maybe even meet some girls…the possibilities were endless!



Grinning widely at the prospect, Caleb casually threw the last item of clothing on the big pile in his luggage and proceeded to try and get the thing closed.

In the next room, with the door locked up, Sebastien was straining to find a solution to his problem.



He wearily took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He wasn’t sure whether the rows of promotions that had propelled him to surgeon had been a good or a bad thing. All he knew was that he had to finish several reports and think of a way to perform a surgery without loosing his patient.



No one in that house seemed to understand how important each job was for him: someone’s life depended on the hours he spent in his office!

On the other side of the corridor, lying on the king sized bed and staring at the ceiling, was a young woman, deeply immersed in her own problems.



What had gone wrong, what had happened to the man she loved? Why had everything changed so much in such a short period of time? Why had everything fallen in such a boring routine: wake up, prepare breakfast for Caleb and Sebastien, watch them both leave for either school or work, then wait another half a day until the teenager comes home; have lunch with him, then wait again, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning for the absolutely exhausted husband to come home, only to begin the routine again.



She couldn’t even remember the last time they had been intimate with each other, it must have been a couple of weeks since that evening.

She wanted her husband back, not the 24/7 working machine she now had. Locking himself up in his office even during the weekend and not coming out unless he was hungry or needed to use the toilet.



She sighed loudly, aware of the fact that no one could hear her anyway. It didn’t help that her pitiful situation was making her get stressed and cranky. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if her illness returned, the cherry on the cake!

There was a thundering knock on the door that made Shadee start with surprise. Turning her head towards the door – secretly hoping to see her estranged husband – she saw the red mane of hair that belonged to Caleb.



‘It’s almost time, Shae! The bus should be here any moment.’

‘Uh, ok.’ The young woman stood up from the bed and tried to shrug off all her depressing thoughts ‘Let’s head downstairs then. You can go ahead, I’ll go call Sebastien so we can see you off.’

Caleb opened his mouth to say something, but Shadee just walked past him, so he gave up on whatever he wanted to say.

She approached the door of her husband’s office, drew a deep breath then pushed the door handle. Nothing. The door was locked. She knocked a little louder than she had meant.



‘Sebastien! Caleb is leaving, come out of there!’

‘Yeah, yeah… I’ll be there in a minute…’ Seb’s muffled voice answered.