The Crystal Circle: A Paranormal Romance Novel (7 page)

“That too!” She smiled back.

“Why would you be followed, Lynn, if you haven’t done anything wrong? Tell me. Everything’s safe with me. I won’t tell anyone. Promise! What’s your secret, Lynn?”

“I’ll gladly tell you what I know, Dave. But before I do, maybe you’d tell me who you are? What brought you here? How have you built up relationships with people here?”

Dave looked at her, smiled at her curiosity and alertness, then turned serious and said, “I explained already that I’m one of the veterans around here. Naturally, a mess was building up here. People started fighting over land and water, so order and harmony became necessary.”

He sat down. Tom jumped on his lap, and he continued to speak with his eyes fixed on the wall. “I organized a meeting of the permanent settlers, and many of them came out of fear of losing their rights if they didn’t show up. We decided between us on a manifest of agreements. For example: an area someone occupies is his own, and only with their permission can someone else settle in it. And so, more and more decisions were made until, eventually, I became something like the committee leader.” He grinned sheepishly. “Everyone chips in a few shekels a month toward camp expenses and security, and I run the petty cash box and report the expenses at tenants’ meetings.”

“So you’re like the sheriff of this place and also the accountant?”

“No one here has enough time or the skills, so I deal with these issues on a voluntary basis. I also happen to have a background in Krav Maga, and I deal with a lot of boats and fishing, so I became a sort of security officer for the camp and a fishing consultant and -”

“And the kindergarten teacher, reading them stories,” said Lynn, her mouth curving upward.

“Yes, that too!” he laughed.

“The soul’s plan has many possible paths, and you seem to occupy most of them...”

Dave looked at her, frowning with silent amazement. Finally, he added, “Now it’s your turn.”

“Wait,” Lynn investigated further. “But why are you here and not back in civilization? Do you also have something to hide?” Had she crossed the invisible barrier between them again? He sighed and looked out of the window far into the sky, watching a bird - supposedly free, but, in fact, in thrall to its constant need to find food.

“I used to have a business. When I was twenty-eight, I took a very serious loan from a couple of friends and also from the bank. I wanted to start a company for installing windows and shutters. I lost everything, and I was in a lot of debt.” He lowered his head, and his hand traced circles on the table. “I lost my apartment, on account of it being mortgaged for the business. I lost my friends, who were guarantors for the business. I had no reason to stay there in Beer Sheba.

“But I’m optimistic, in spite of everything. I’ve always believed in new beginnings and the goodness in people. So I teamed up with a group of people who shared a similar experience, and they told me of the trailer park in Eilat. It suited me very well to disappear for a year or two.” He looked at her and shook his head. “Not everyone’s suited for this place. Some have families...” He swallowed. “Anyway, I couldn’t cope with the creditors and the repo agents, so I spent the last 40,000 shekels I had on this old trailer, renovated it, and came to Eilat. And here I am.” He tapped his fingers on the wooden table and smiled. “I’ve gotten used to it. What’s not to like? In winter, it’s a little difficult, but how much winter do we get here? Maybe a month per year. In August it’s a little too hot.”

“Too hot?” she said. “It’s as hot as the Sahara!”

“But the rest of the time, it’s really fun. I have a boat I bought from an old fisherman and I catch fish in the ocean. Sometimes I sell them to restaurants or tourists. Second- hand clothes are easy to come by, and the neighbors and I buy food together wholesale from all kinds of traders. I don’t judge anyone for what he used to be, and no one judges me. Live and let live.”

Lynn pushed her chair back and stood up. She paused, and then, as she looked out of the window, she murmured, “David, be careful of those who are after your soul.”

Dave turned pale and swallowed. Since his mother died, no one had ever called him ‘David’ until that very moment. He instinctively turned back and looked out of the window. Apart from the cat burrowing in his food bowl, nobody was there.

“What do you mean, Lynn? Why did you call me David?”

She looked directly over his shoulder, toward someplace and something that was happening inside her head. “I don’t know. It’s something intuitive. Sometimes I just find myself using phrases from the Bible. That warning, for instance, was originally meant for King David. I often think of you with the name ‘David’ rather than ‘Dave.’ You may think I’m paranoid, but I have a feeling that even the leg injury, even though it happened in your childhood, and also things that are happening now, are happening to you because someone’s after you. I don’t really understand it myself. Just listening to my feelings. They say to me, ‘David, be careful!’” She smiled to soften the strange message. “Your story’s fascinating.” Lynn added. “Sad and yet hopeful. And I promised to tell my own.”

She began her confession. “I have nothing to hide. My life is basically as simple and boring as I said -”

“Still, you’re being followed and you choose to hide here, in the farthest corner of Eilat. You have to admit, it’s suspicious. It doesn’t fit with your claim to be a woman with a ‘boring life,’ as you say, especially since such women don’t really exist. You certainly are not one...”

She looked at him. “There are lots of unresolved parts in my life. I don’t remember a lot of my childhood, only fragmented pictures of kindergarten and of overprotective parents. I don’t even remember school and university in sequence. It’s like there are lots of voids I can’t fill. But I have all kinds of daydreams, visions... “

“And they are?” Dave didn’t mock her. He seemed really interested.

“Stories about characters from the past. From the Bible, to be accurate. I connect to my imagination and picture how people looked during biblical times - the figures of kings and prophets. I feel especially connected to the kings David and Saul and the whole story with Michal, Saul’s daughter. That’s why I chose the name Michal when the desk clerk asked me for my name at the hotel. I didn’t want to be identified as Lynn. Sometimes I just feel kind of like a Michal. Like a king’s daughter.”

Dave listened, absorbed, his eyes fixed on hers. Suddenly, an image floated in her mind’s eye: a fraction of a moment when she was running down a marble staircase that curved more and more toward the bottom, but without end. Down the stairs ran a trail of blood, and she quickly ran down, her heart pounding and her eyes wide with horror. She knew the sight that was to be revealed to her eyes: the body of a man in a blue robe, lying on the floor of the building, his heart pierced by a dagger set with precious stones. He was lying in a pool of blood... but... she was running down and down, never reaching the bottom of the stairs. The image disappeared and she sighed.

“Sometimes I have nightmares or visions of blood, and it’s very scary. That’s why I thought I may once have been involved in some act of violence. Someone tried to kill me, maybe, or I tried to kill him? Maybe it’s a hint of something that might happen in the future? I don’t know.”

Dave thought that, on a regular day, he’d certainly be of the opinion that the woman in front of him wasn’t in a healthy mental state. Maybe she’d been involved in something violent, as she said. In any case, his instinct should be to stay away from her. But in Lynn’s case, he sensed a captivating sincerity. His heart quickened, and he felt the stirrings of an adventure, of adrenaline kicking in. He recognized a lot of truth in her words, even though there was more hidden than told. She was so fragile. He must be on her side.

“Either way, I don’t think we should go to the police. Even if a person attacked me for some reason, if indeed, anyone’s even looking for me, going to the police would only validate my mark in the eyes of the persecutors. I’m not even sure I’m really being followed. Maybe I’m imagining it? In any case, if I am, then the disguise should shake them off my trail. I’m very glad I chose to live in your trailer. I feel more confident.”

“Thank you for your honesty,” said Dave. “The missing sections in your memory... it’s as if someone tried to implant in you the identity of a woman named Lynn, but wasn’t very successful at it.”

“Sloppy work!” She burst out laughing. “Or maybe that’s just me – unable to concentrate, fuzzy.”

He looked at her for a moment and saw a fluttering, frightened chick inside an upright and confident woman. He opened his arms and she went into them. They embraced, and she felt protected, like two parts of the crossword fit together to make a bigger puzzle.

“It’ll be okay,” he said.

For two hours, they sorted, discarded, packed, and arranged everything in the little room, cleaning and polishing until the small two-by-two cell with a small window and

a bed seemed cute and inviting. Dave put a small rug on the floor and promised to put up a curtain the next day. She said she’d bring her small suitcase that night.

Lynn rushed off to the schnitzel stand, and Dave started to sing while he set up his fishing nets. He hummed songs he hadn’t sung since he used to sing in his room in Beer Sheba, when his mother would close the doors and windows so the neighbors wouldn’t hear.

At eight in the evening, it was already completely dark. A tourist was taking pictures of the beach from the promenade near the hotels. Lynn quickly passed by him with her small suitcase, but he looked at her and began to photograph her. She felt angry and stopped immediately.

“What do you think you are doing?” she challenged him. He didn’t answer, just snickered and walked away. She didn’t recognize him. He was a different person from the man with the black hair that she’d noticed on previous days.

Later, she unpacked her few clothes in the trailer, and for the first time since she left her apartment in Tel Aviv, she felt calm. In the tiny room, among Dave’s cushions, she felt safe and secure. Maybe even... a little happy.

06/23/2013 – Eighth day of disappearance

Lynn rose for her eighth day since leaving Tel Aviv. She was no longer a stranger to this place. She enjoyed waking up in the tiny room with a window that revealed the blue color of the sea.

She quickly put on a bathing suit and went down to the beach. The sun hadn’t yet risen fully, but a few people were on the beach, mostly children who’d come to take a dip and dabble their feet before the last days of school. She jumped into the cool, pleasant water and swam until the coral reef disappeared beneath her feet, a sign that it was time to go back. When she came out of the water, shivering, she wrapped herself in a big towel Dave had given her and rushed to take a shower. Her hair was still dripping while Dave fixed her breakfast, this time on the plastic table outside the trailer. He kept looking at her, fascinated by the beautiful creature who’d landed on his doorstep a few days earlier. He looked her over, appreciating her body, and Lynn slapped him on the arm. He remembered the agreement he’d signed and needed no further reminder.

While she helped him fold the nets and organize the house, he asked, “Lynn, you’re still wearing the glasses and wrapping your head in scarves. I know you’re scared. How about we ask Nathan to accompany you to work and get him to escort you back when you’re done?” Nathan was a large stocky seventeen-year-old. He didn’t go to school because he wasn’t interested in it and instead would perform various tasks that Dave would ask of him for money.

“Who’ll pay him?”

“I will!” Dave chivalrously volunteered.

“God forbid. If I could, I’d pay him, but I’ll be out of money before long. It’s a luxury. But... you know what?” She thought for a moment. “We’ll try it for a couple of days and then we’ll see.”

Nathan accompanied Lynn to her workplace, just a twenty-minute walk. Their conversation flowed, and Lynn realized that Nathan ditched high school because he had no need for it. Within a few short minutes, his words disclosed the intelligence, maturity, and mental stability with which he was blessed. Even his parents, he said, quickly understood that, and they trusted him to build a beautiful life without the institutional path. When they arrived at the schnitzel stand, they still hadn’t noticed the two men who’d followed them at a distance the whole way. Lynn went into the kitchen, and Nathan went his own way.

When she returned in the evening, Dave was waiting for her with a proposal. “Look, Lynn, I think that what you cook - the cutlets, and all the delicacies... I think you could profit from it yourself.”

Lynn listened intently.

“I suggest we open a small restaurant here. Fast and direct food for the residents of the camp. Some people who live here don’t have the time to prepare lunch for themselves. And there are children who’d come, and there are also the tourists who pass through. Nothing big. You make a few dozen cutlets, cutlets, and fritters, and I’ll make the salads in the morning before I go out to sea… we’ll set up a few outdoor tables here, borrow chairs from the neighbors, and...
Voila!
Lynn’s Restaurant!”

Lynn thought for a moment, took a deep breath, and exhaled it slowly. “The truth is... I do feel much safer here. If you want us to be partners, I wouldn’t mind. We’ll invest together and earn together.”

“Excellent,” said Dave, handing her his phone. She looked at him in surprise and shook her head quizzically, as if asking- ‘what is it you want’?