The Rivening

Two Are Better Than One

"I need your help. There's something I have to do. I don't want to do it, but I have to." Connie spoke rapidly in stop and go sentences, taking shallow breaths. "I've come up with a plan. Though it's not much of a plan. I'd like to avoid telling you what I'm doing because it will sound crazy. And I promised not to talk about it. But I can't avoid telling you. At least a little. I don't want you getting into any trouble because of what I'm going to do. When I tell you what it is, it'll sound like I've gone majorly off the deep end. But I don't know how to get around that, even if..."

Peter interrupted her, "Stop, Connie. Slow down. You're not making sense. It sounds like you're going to rob a bank or something. Surely, it's not so bad."

Connie looked down, pressing her face into her hands, "It's worse."

"Well, that's not good. Hopefully it's not murder. Talk to me. Tell me everything. What happened at the site?"

She spoke rapidly and desperately. "I can't talk about it. What I need you to do is leave Ireland and go back to Toronto. As soon as you can. I'll book something for you. Hopefully you can leave tomorrow. We were heading back soon anyway. I'm sorry about cutting short your vacation but you can always come back sometime. Peter, I'm really, really sorry about this. But please just do this for me."

"Of course, I'll do whatever you want. I can leave, but why? You're so worked up. Something terrible has happened. What is it? You know you can trust me. What are you staying to do?"

Connie hunched forward, staring at the floor and spoke flatly, "I'm disappearing Peter. I'm going someplace where no one can find me, and I don't know if I'm coming back." She looked up at him. "I'm worried if I disappear and you're still in Ireland that you'll be blamed. If you're back in Toronto and people here, at the B & B and in town, see me going out and about for several days, before I go missing, then it will have nothing to do with you. Do you understand? You need to leave."

Peter shook his head, "No. I'm not doing that. Whatever this is you need to do, I'm going to do it with you. You're frightened. You need me. I'm not leaving."

All of the fears Connie was trying to keep in check came pouring out in hiccupping sobs. "I do need you. But there's no way you can help me, or any way I can explain to you what I have to do."

"Try me."

They went back and forth for a long time with Peter gently probing and Connie tearfully repeating that she couldn't involve him. But eventually she gave in as the enormity of what she had to do was crushing her. Once she started, she didn't hold back and told Peter everything.

He sat quietly, occasionally interjecting with brief questions to clarify Connie's sometimes jumbled recital of her encounters with her father and the other Dahrians.

"You think I'm nuts, don't you?"

He gave her a reassuring smile, "Well, I did always think there was something a little peculiar about you. Seriously, I'm perhaps not as skeptical about what you've just told me as you might think. You must remember, I spent many years when one of my chief forms of entertainment was watching the comings and goings on our little street. To a certain degree, some of what you've described makes sense. There was always something a little odd about the neighbors. And that sign language, you spoke of, I saw them use that with each other."

"So, you believe me?"

"I want you to take me to the passage."

"Why? Absolutely not. The less involvement you have, the better. I know I shouldn't have told you all this. I've betrayed my promise. But you'll never ever tell anyone, will you?

"Of course not. Don't worry about that, Connie. I want to help you."

Connie tried to pull herself together and sound a confident tone, "Okay, we'll just stick to my plan. You head back as soon as possible. Tell everyone that I decided to stay longer and spend time on Findley's site. Once you're back maybe a week, I'll go through the passage and try to find Arden. That way when it becomes obvious that I've disappeared, if it gets to that, the people here at the B & B can vouch they'd seen me long after you returned to Toronto.

"And I guess then it will be assumed that I wanted to disappear for some reason. End of story. But I don't know what to do about my house and things. Maybe you can convince whatever officials you need to, so that you and Angie could rent it out in trust for me in case I might turn up some day?..." She tapered off.

"Is that what's really worrying you? What's going to happen to your house?"

She stared at Peter and hunched up. "God no, of course not. It's the passage. What will happen to me? What will I find on the other side? And how will I ever be able to reach Arden when he'll be an ocean away? He said they don't even have cars! Will I ever even come back?"

"I can't answer any of that. But one thing Iknow is that I'm coming with you."