Chapter 37: Phantasms of the Mind

Just as Jared, Gloria and Max were climbing into the car to head home from town Jared’s step-daughter in another part of the town was climbing into her own car to head home from school. Vanessa Benson had done all she could at Pahrump Elementary school with her sixth grade class in preparation for tonight’s celebration. She had thus left them in the hands of her assistant teacher so she could go home and get physically and mentally prepared herself for the evening. She wanted to read over her speech a few more times and also spend an hour or two with her mother and step-father who were also heading home just now from their trip into town. They had had a lovely light lunch in a very nice cafe and were looking forward to a quiet afternoon before the big event of the evening in Pahrump’s massive new sports arena.

As Jared began manoeuvring his car though the streets of Pahrump again he was momentarily reminded of that disturbing image still in the back of his mind from earlier that morning. He saw several cars about that were similar to the one he had seen then but none with a driver that matched the size and general shape of the man he had seen in his rear view mirror. Not being able to resolve this disparity Jared just decided to put it all out of his mind as he drove the three of them back to the house.

Vanessa Benson was also heading back to the house now and she was about to have a very similar experience to her step-father’s. Not that she knew anything about that of course but none the less she did see a car that was very similar to the one she had seen yesterday parked just down the street from where she lived. And the image of that car passing by her car right now also left a very disturbing impression on her mind too - very disturbing indeed.

Vanessa was still only less than five hundred yards from the school carpark when she saw that car again with the same looking man with the same black t-shirt in the driver’s seat. This time, however, the whole picture was ten times more disturbing than it had been yesterday for the shear fact of the driver reminding her of someone.

As the car sped by her car Vanessa managed to get a quick glance at the face of the male occupant and it made her heart jump right out of her mouth. That face was unshaven and heavily lined with a very dark thundery look to it. The man looked just so angry and nasty and very old but that wasn’t what had disturbed Vanessa so much. What had disturbed her so much was the way the man had reminded her of her supposedly still incarcerated father - Blake Benson!

Vanessa sucked in a huge nervous gulp of air and said to herself, “Nar! That’s impossible. He won’t be out for at least three years yet. And what would he be doing around here anyway? He wouldn’t be interested in Lifestyle Nudism and that I am just so totally sure of. That man would have rather run a mile than get involved in something so personal and open in nature. Nar! It couldn’t be him. Impossible! Just impossible.”

Vanessa carried on her way and put the idea right out of her head. She had more important things to worry about right now than phantasms of her own mind. All the same she still could not quite shrug off totally that nasty little feeling sitting right at the pit of her stomach but she gave it no more heed all the same. She carried on her way home not knowing that her powers of observation were much keener than she was giving them credit for. She also did not realize that she had just been given a very happenstance warning that if heeded may have saved her a whole lot of trouble later that evening. But she did not heed that warning and so things continued to unfold in a way that she would have run a mile from had she been given the chance.