A weekend away

The rugs and cushions were surprisingly soft. They had both fallen asleep after their picnic lunch by the romantic ruins of Kilmalkedar and Joe was the first to awaken. He woke slowly, with a strange mix of contentment and unease. The source of those feelings slumbered on beside him, breathing gently through a slightly open mouth.  

Joe frowned, then smiled, as he remembered the dream Katie had told him about as she had driven them to this place. It was a dream she had had as a  child, but one which she had never forgotten, one she said sustained her whenever she felt down. Young Katie had dreamed of a  man who had lain beside her, his body curled around hers. She had felt utterly safe and totally protected in the arms of this man, and had known that the man loved her unreservedly.  Katie had then, without once taking her eyes off the curving road, told Joe that with him, for the first time ever in real life, she was feeling the same sense of certainty. Joe was the man of her dreams! 

Bloody ell! Joe felt the shock again, like a kick in the guts.He had only known Katie for a short time, and it was a bit overwhelming, but Katie was beautiful, and it kind of  pleased him that he made her feel so safe and secure.

Katie was starting to stir. Joe waited patiently for her to return to him and looked around at his surroundings.  They were lying by what was left of an ancient Romanesque church which, even in its ruined state, stood calm and assured on Ireland’s Dingle peninsular. It was a special place, Katie had informed him earlier, an early religious site standing on an ancient pilgrim route to Mount Brandon. Symbols of the past dotted the landscape around him, sturdy stone pillars and crosses, and a tall weather-beaten sundial that had guided the pilgrims on their way.

Joe and Katie were on a pilgrimage of sorts today too. She was taking him to stay on land that she said had been in her family for generations. Katie had spent holidays there as a child and she had wanted to show Joe how wonderful it all was. They had left their phones in the hotel back in Ballyferriter, agreeing that it would be good to escape from the rest of the world with its incessant bleeping. Katie had said that there would be no mobile coverage where they were going anyway.

She was fully awake now and seemed eager that they be on their way. They headed back to the car, Katie carrying the rugs and cushions and Joe carrying the picnic basket. They threw all the paraphernalia  onto the back seat and a few minutes later were  on the road.  Katie drove confidently and Joe was able to take in the rugged Atlantic coastline with its  numerous rocky headlands jutting out into the vast ocean.Then, apparently in the middle of nowhere, Katie was pressing on the brakes and turning into a narrow gravel track, leading away from the ocean. A further half mile down the track, she pulled up at a rather derelict looking shack.

‘We’re here’ Katie said,

Joe was a bit dubious.

‘Where?’

‘We used to camp here when we were children’ she explained

‘The stars are amazing at night’.

They approached the shack and Katie frowned.

‘Oh shit, it’s a lot worse than I remember’ she said.

The shack had a roof, and a solid looking door, but the windows were completely gone, and the Atlantic wind was already howling through them with a noise that would keep them awake even if the cold didn’t kill them. It might be romantic and cosy at first but, even with each other and the cushions and the rugs, it wasn’t going to be a particularly comfortable night

Katie looked crestfallen and Joe felt  badly for her, she had been so looking forward to camping out here, but a tent would probably have been warmer.

Then Katie’s face brightened.

‘I did wonder if the place might be in need of repair’ she said.

‘I’ve got some stuff in the boot’.

They returned to the car, Katie opened the boot to reveal a range of wooden planks, and a tool kit.

‘Christ, you’re a proper Girl Friday aren’t you?’ Joe laughed.

‘Girl Guide actually’ she replied, ‘but if we’re quick we can fix it before it gets dark’

‘Damn!’ Joe thought to himself, he’d been rather hoping for an early return to the hotel not an afternoon's graft, but then he remembered Katie’s dream and his role as her protector. And so, without so much as a sigh, he heaved the planks onto his shoulder.

In the end, it wasn’t so bad. Joe spent a happy, industrious couple of hours securing the windows of the shack, standing pleasurably close to Katie. She held the planks of wood in place whilst he hammered home the nails. Joe was keen to impress Katie, so he did a proper job, the place was a fortress, those planks weren’t going anywhere!

When they had finished, Joe stood on the wooden threshold strip looking into the newly secure shack. The evening sunlight flooded through the open doorway. He felt good. He felt Katie’s presence behind him, and he enjoyed the sensation.

Then he felt a push in his back. A very gentle push, a playful push. But it was enough to overbalance him and send him stumbling inside.

He laughed, expecting Katie to follow him.

But she didn’t.

Instead, the door slammed shut.

Joe heard the heavy turn of a key in a lock..

It was dark in there with the door shut.  Joe began to feel a little uncertain about the turn of events  but wasn’t unduly worried, it was just a game, exciting really. He laughed again. Katie would be back in a moment.

Joe heard the slam of a car door; she must be fetching the rugs and cushions.

He waited.

It was the sound of the engine starting that shook him.

It was the sound of the car driving away down the gravel track that made him angry.

Then there was silence. A long, very cold, very dark silence.

Katie wasn’t coming back.

Then Joe remembered. It hadn’t really bothered him at the time, but - the newspapers back at the hotel!

The headlines about the missing men!

The young faces, very much like his own, smiling out of the ‘missing’ posters!

The men had never been found.

Only then did Joe start to panic.