Chapter 4

The reserve of food on hand in the cottage was not enough for the next trip that he intended to take. It was evident that he was going to have to go to Pinehill to get the supplies that he was going to need for his next exploration trip to Nika's world. It was the closest town to his cottage even though it was a good twenty mile drive to get there.

The question that came into his mind then was what was he going to do with Nika while he drove there. Should he bring her with him or should he leave her in the house to wait?

After giving the matter a lot of thought, he opted for the option of letting her stay in the cottage while he went shopping. The sight of the small town with all the people would be too frightening for her. She would see too many things that she couldn't understand there and most of them she would consider as magic. Besides, there was the ride in the car that he had to consider. How could he predict her reaction while she rode with him?

That evening he made up a list of all the things they were going to need for their next trip to her world. On the list he included a sleeping bag for her, ropes, boots, field glasses and of course a good compass and ammunition. But when he looked into his bank account he discovered that he didn't have enough money left to buy all of those items. After a while he remembered the diamonds he had picked up on his way back. Yes, he was going to have to sell a few of them in Pinehill and he knew exactly where he could sell them.

The next morning, as soon as it was light outside, he explained to Nika that he had to go somewhere and that she was to remain in the house and wait for his late afternoon return. It took much patience on his part and almost half an hour to make her understand that he wanted her to wait for him inside the house. But by the end of that time, he felt relatively sure that she knew exactly what was expected of her.

Before leaving, he opened a can of soup for her and also one can of meatballs that she had seemed to enjoy so much. He then explained to her once again that she was not to leave the house under any circumstances while he was away. He next gave her a kiss on her forehead before leaving. This demonstration of affection from him seemed to please her a great deal.

Once in Pinehill, he went to the "Gold Boutique" which was the largest jewellery store in town, and asked to talk to the owner. He already knew him and had already done business with the man the previous year. Being an old miser, his eyes went very wide when Vincent took out two of the smallest diamonds that he had taken from Nika's world. Of course, the old man wanted to know where they came from. Vincent just said that they had been in his family for over two generations and his grandfather had brought them from Africa a long time ago.

Since the diamonds were uncut and of course not registered, their value was greatly reduced. They settled on a price of five thousand dollars cash for both stones. Victor knew of course, that they were worth five times more than this amount, but under the circumstance, it was the best price he could get for them. What was important to him was that he was getting cash for them, and no more questions would be asked as to where the stones came from. Of course if he was to go to a big city he knew perfectly well that he could get a lot more money for the stones, but he needed the money now and he had no intention of driving for a couple of hours to get to the nearest city.

After leaving with the five thousand dollars in his pocket, he went to the gun store. He bought five hundred rounds of ammunition for his 303 rifle as well as two identical handguns with leather holsters and plenty of ammunition for them. He also got four good nine-inch blade knives and two pairs of boots - one pair for himself and a pair for Nika.

After that he went to buy food. He bought a good supply of dehydrated food, soup, macaroni, dry meat sticks and even the traditional beans. To those supplies, he added many canned goods and coffee, as well as half a dozen bags of the biscuits that Nika loved so much. He then visited a few other stores in town to purchase the clothing and other items that they were going to need for the long trip ahead of them.

By the time that he bought everything on his list, it was late afternoon and he hurried back to his cottage. Upon arriving there, he immediately hurried inside the house. He found Nika sitting in his chair and shaking like a leaf in the wind. The instant that she saw him, she ran toward him and threw her arms around his neck.

Using the few English words that she knew, and with the aid of her hands, she tried to explain to him as best she could, why she was afraid.

"Big beast. Nika see beast."

"Where? Show me?"

She took him by the hand and guided him to the window where she pointed outside with her finger. He looked out through the window - that had fascinated her so much the first day she had looked through the plate glass - trying to discover what had scared her so much. At first he couldn't tell what she was pointing at since he couldn't see anything unusual there.

"Look, see." She was pointing at his car. He had parked it in front of the cottage instead of parking it in the garage where it had been previously.

"That is not a beast, it is my car."

When he had gone to Pinehill earlier, he had been careful so that she wouldn't see him leaving in his car. He had insisted that she remain seated for a while so that he would have time to get out of the garage without her seeing the car. She had done exactly that and thus had not seen him leave. But after an hour or so she did get up and she began to walk around the house. Later when she saw his car approaching on the dirt road leading to the cottage, she probably figured that it was some sort of animal. After all, anything on her world that could move on its own had to be alive.

He tried to explain to her that the car was not dangerous and to prove this to her, he went outside while she stood in the doorway. He touched the car and then he opened the back door and took a box of foodstuff out of it. Even then, she was not quite convinced, and he decided that it would be better for her if he did not force the matter anymore.

Once everything he had bought in Pinehill had been carried inside the house, he cooked a good supper of pork sausages and potatoes. With that he cut many slices of freshly cooked bread. All were part of the groceries that he had just bought in Pinehill. They both ate wholeheartedly. Vincent knew that it was their last big meal before leaving since they would be departing early the following morning.

Once the dishes were done, they got busy loading the two knapsacks, his own, and the one he had bought for Nika. He added food to each bag. Then in each bag he placed half of the ammo and half of the matches as well as a few other indispensable items. If one of them should happen to lose his or her knapsack, they would still have a little of everything in the other one. In his own bag, he added the medical kit and field glasses.

While in Pinehill he had also bought a bow and a couple dozen metal tipped arrows. He knew that Nika was familiar with archery since she had tried to make a bow after their last encounter with the Arons. Only the fact that she had no animal sinew on hand for the string had forced her to abandon the project.