Chapter 4

Two Weeks Later

Charles was moving his head left and right. He woke up. He found himself back in his bed. It was dark everywhere but his leaf-coloured green eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. He looked towards the direction of his window. He could now make out the moonlight shining through his window curtain.

He had been having those same dreams again. The first dream was the one he first had in his mom's car town two weeks ago. He was ten years old. He was leading a group of other kids. They were always chasing and bullying some poor young girl. She looked like some kind of gypsy. She was terrified of Charles and the other kids.

The second dream was about him and the kids throwing stuff outside that poor girl's house. The third dream was the worst. He and the other kids carried that poor girl. She was kicking and screaming at them but they were too strong for here. They threw her body down the river, as the water stream was moving. She was crying out to them for help but all they did was laughed at her. They would then mock her in their cruel tones.

"Drown witch. Drown witch," Charles and the other kids would mock her.

Charles never told anyone about his dreams but he thought that they must have been memories of his childhood life in Constantinople's Lot. The strange thing was that he never really remembered the things he did in this town or what kind of person he had been. As far as the dreams were concerned, he was some kind of bully and Charles asked himself if it had all been true. Charles felt guilty for even dreaming that he would behave in such a way.

This was Charles's second night in his new house. Yesterday he and his mom were busy unpacking and settling down, with the help of their grandparents of course. Today he accompanied his mom to the new shop she was going to be running. They also went to a shop and bought Charles a new bicycle so that he could travel around town. As for the house itself, Charles loved it. He had a large bedroom, which was as big as a master bedroom. His bed was big enough for three persons. It wasn't jus his bedroom. All the bedrooms in this house were large.

Charles got up from his bed. He walked over to the window and pulled the curtains. From his window he could see the cliff. He asked himself three questions: Who was that girl in his dreams? Is she still alive and still living in this town? If they ever bumped into each other, what would happen?

The next day Charles was riding around town in his bicycle. He cycled over the hills. He cycled past beaches. He cycled past shops. He even saw a small cinema but that meant nothing to him. He didn't have the Internet in his home yet but once he did, he was going to download all the latest movies for free.

His mom was running his grandma's shop and she gave him some pocket money before she left. She told him to go out and have his own tour of the town. She gave him some money so that he could go out and get something to eat. Charles saw a diner off a street. It was one-storey and had a sign outside it that said CRUSADERS. There were some bike-racks, already filled up with bikes. Charles tied his bike to a rack and then went inside the diner.

The diner had two rows of chairs and tables. Each row was towards the wall and opposite each other. At the back of the diner was the counter. Two tables to his right were already occupied. One table was occupied by two elderly ladies. The other table occupied by four youths. They looked like his age and were not familiar to him. Charles couldn't remember the people of this town at all. He walked all the way to the counter. There was a lady behind the counter. She was in her 30s; thin, had brown-green eyes, high cheekbones, auburn-coloured hair and a friendly smile.

"I haven't seen you here before. Are you new in this town?" she asked him.

The lady kept on smiling at him.

"Well yes and no!" he responded.

"What do you mean??" she was puzzled.

"Never mind. Can you just give me a cheeseburger and a coke" he said.

"Coming right up!" she responded in a frustrated tone.

She walked away, yelling to the kitchen staff and then went back to him.

"Will that be all?" she asked him in a rude tone.

Charles knew why she was irritated but right now all he could think about was his stomach.

"Yeah," he responded.

She told him how much it cost and he paid the money. Five minutes later the lady came back with his order. She handed him a tray with can of coke and a large cheeseburger. And some French fries too.

"How come I get fries??" he asked.

There were cafes and diners in cities that served menus where a customer could order a cheeseburger with a drink and fries. He didn't know if that was the case in small towns too. He didn't order it but they gave it to him.