Arrival at the Island (5) – Evening Meal - Night

(Another change of tack)

Anastasia showed Jim to his room in the big house. The house had been built in the Scottish baronial house built towards the end of the nineteenth century. Jim had never stayed in a room like it. The room was spacious with a large four-poster bed and the window overlooked the garden at the front of the house.

Jim ate alone in the dining room. The food was simple: cold poached salmon and a salad, but plentiful and beautifully prepared. A card on the table told him to leave his tray on the table when he was finished, so he did, even though it seemed slightly impolite to do so.

After finishing eating he put on his boots and went for a walk in the garden. It was a strange experience. He was living in a country house, a minor mansion, on an island. He felt like pinching himself because of the unreality of it all.

The paths in the gardens in front of the house were raked gravel and crunched beneath his feet. He knew that the sunset was behind him and it lit up the mainland opposite making the purple of the heather darker. Around the house rhododendrons provided shelter. The earlier wind seemed to have abated and I had become calm. The sky overhead was clear. It was going to be a chilly night.

Eventually Jim decided that he wanted to sleep. He was tired from the travelling and although the strange surroundings excited him, he wanted to be at his best. On his way to his room he looked into the dining room and found that someone had cleared away the tray with the remains of his dinner. He realised with a start that he had not seen a single person since Anastasia had left him.

On the locker beside the bed was a card written with a flowing, cursive script which informed him that his breakfast would be ready at 8 o’clock next morning and wishing him a good night. He washed in the wash-basin in the room and then dressed for bed. When he turned out the lights the quietness was almost tangible. It felt like he was asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. He was aware that he dreamed of voices in the night, and he thought that he woke once in the darkness but there was no sound at all.

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 5th February 2017 – 402 words)