The mysterious man (Part IV)

A few weeks passed with nothing unusual happening, and the mysterious man was nowhere in sight. On day Elisa received by mail a box wrapped in colorful paper and a green ribbon on top, addressed to her but with no sender’s address. Luckily for her, there was no one at home when the package arrived so she could move the box to her room unnoticed. She hurriedly opened the box and inside she found a white teddy bear dressed with a checkered green and red vest and pants, and an envelope. She opened the envelope and found inside a black and white picture of a couple with two kids; one was a baby in the arms of the lady and the other was a boy around 10 years old smiling happily while looking at the camera, standing in front of them; and a man standing beside the woman had his left hand on the boys shoulder and was smiling happily.

This box brought with it a new series of question: Who was the couple in the picture? Did they have any connection to her? And what was it that the mysterious man wanted to tell her?

After thinking throughout the night and meditating on her next step, by morning she had decided, so she went to her old house, and climbing the staircase, she entered the attic. There were lot of old objects, and cases, and after inspecting a little the content of the attic and the order of it she started looking for old picture albums and letters.

After 4 hours of searching through the dust, rags and a couple of falling boxes, she finally found, in a small casket, a picture of the couple, together with her parents, when they were younger. This was the connection she had searched for, the relation between the two couples and naturally, between her and that couple. She turned the picture, and on the back there was a date, 8 July 1985, and four initials: H&J and T&S.

She knew immediately that H&J were the initials of her parents, and T&S were the persons to whom the necklace belonged, namely Thomas and Stephanie. So now she needed to find out more about the T&S couple.

Said and done, the next day she went to the library and searched through the newspaper archives for the names, where she found several stories but only one attracted her interest. It was about an airplane crash, and several deaths which included Sir Thomas L and Madame Stephanie L as well as their girl. Miss Caroline L age 5. The article was the following:

“Yesterday, at 11 o’clock in the morning, a terrible accident ended the lives of several people including the distinguished Sir Thomas and Madame Stephanie L, along with their little girl Miss Caroline L, of only 5, as well as the copilot, Mr. Seth M. and a pregnant lady called Catherine S., coming from Italy. The plane started experiencing problems as it was approaching the landing site, when the turbine suddenly exploded sending the plane in free fall, towards the lake near the airport. Authorities are still investigating the causes of the technical problems experienced, and might be suspecting foul play.”

This was probably the Lytton family she had heard her aunt and uncle talk about. But the newspaper clearly stated that the girl, Caroline, had died along with her parents, so why was the mysterious man looking for her? Or was it just a rumor that he was searching for her? Regardless, she found it most likely that these were he people she had seen in that picture with their children. And if the girl was the only one who had died, that meant that the boy was still alive. But could she be certain that the boy in the picture was really the son of the Lytton family? There was no mentioning of the Lytton’s having a son.

More days pasted as she was turning in her head all that she had found out, and everything was leading to the Lytton family and the boy in the picture remained a mystery. She decided to conduct some investigations on the mansion of the Lytton family, so one afternoon, after asking people were the Lytton’s used to live, she noted the address and didn’t wait long to go there.

It was a mighty mansion, seated in the middle of a vast yard, which was framed by an imposing, black wrought iron fence, with flowers sculpted on it; on equal bases there were pointed spikes meant to discourage trespassing, and these were covered by vines usually called traveler’s joy, while the little white flowers blocked half the view of the garden. The mansion’s grandness was emphasized by its simplicity, illustrating neo-Georgian architecture, it was a structure at which people turned their heads, admiring its beautiful and imposing build. The garden was clean, with beds of dark-red roses, surrounded by trimmed hedges, which formed a circle, and in its center there was an old cast marble fountain with sparkling water gushing from the center of it, forming a beautiful view. Next to them, there was a road especially made for vehicles , and further away there were two marble bird baths.

Elisa approached the fence and while looking through the vines she saw the main door open and a man came out, in an expensive suit, got inside a car, and left the house through the giant cast iron gate that closed heavily after them. When the car passed Elisa, she could distinguish through the window in the back seat a raven-black head bowed over a newspaper. She knew who that was, and she realized what that meant: him, the mystery man, was the son of the Lytton. But why did he guide her through all this information? Something wasn’t clicking together. What was she missing, what was the piece of vital information that she lacked?

She then approached the iron gate and tried to open it, but it was tightly shut. Out of nowhere, an old man, wearing a black tailcoat, enquired on the purpose of her presence there.

“I am looking for the young master of this house” replied Elisa.

“Young master?” the man said surprised, “Unfortunately the young master died a long time ago along with his family. There is only Sir Earl now.”

“Ah I see, but then who was the man in the car?” she inquired.

“I’m sorry I can’t tell you that, and it’s better if you don’t ask so many questions little miss, or people may think you’re up to no good”, the man said. “Well have a safe trip home, goodbye!” and he turned and left, entering the house.

“Hmm, are they just hiding things or is my suspicion wrong? It seems that, after all, the only way for me to get the answer is to talk to the mysterious man and ask him.” She turned on her heels and walked back home, determined to give it more thought the following day. .

The mysterious man (Part III)

Time flew. Two years had already passed since her parents died. She was now 16 years old. She had grown taller, more feminine, but her blond hair had preserved the same pure color she had had as a child, soft and shining, with the curls falling over her shoulders down to her waist. She usually wore hear hair in a pony tail at the back or the side of her head, while some rebellious curls framed her face, outlining the shape and color of her eyes.

She was a good student, friendly with everyone, and helpful; younger kids admired her, and older people respected her, for she was always kind and objective in resolving a situation. Still, she didn’t have any good friends, because unconsciously she isolated her heart and didn’t trust anyone, not even family, and when someone got too close to her she pushed them away.

She didn’t forget about the mysterious man, and sometimes she would go out at night hoping he would appear, but he didn’t, they hadn’t met once since the last time, so that it was like he didn’t even existed, and only the two handkerchiefs were proof of his existence.

One day, having just returned from school, she overheard her aunt and uncle talking in the kitchen.

“I heard the boy is working for him, he made a little fortune for himself that scoundrel; imagine what would have happened to Elisa if she had really been left with him. He would suck all the money dry from her,” her uncle said. Elisa stood there still, without making any noise, concentrating to hear every word that was spoken. “Well she doesn’t get any money till she’s 20, so I don’t think he could have done anything to get his hands on the money, imagine the impertinence, demanding to let her live with him, saying that her parents wanted that, God rest their souls, they would turn in the grave at such horrific idea. He didn’t even know the names of her parents, said it was Lytton, can you imagine that? It’s disrespectful to the Lytton too, poor Earl, having your kid with his wife and grandchild die in an airplane crash, a real tragedy. And he even approached her when she was little, her parents told me, I understand their worry…” And her aunt would have kept going on and on but their son just then came home and entered the kitchen.

Elisa went up to her room quietly so they wouldn’t hear her, opened the drawer from her nightstand and took out the white handkerchiefs, sat down the bed, and started processing what she just heard. Was the mysterious man the one her aunt and uncle were talking about? Is it possible he was confusing her with someone else? So all the time that he helped her, it should have been another person, not her? This line of thoughts made her sad but she couldn’t tell why.

“And why would they say he’s only after money, he isn’t that kind of person, I just know that,” she said as to encourage herself, it’s all a misunderstanding, “And if he really was only after the money, he wouldn’t have to bother with me, after all…like uncle said, I’ll only be able to get my money in four years time, the little something my parents left me, which isn’t really a fortune …”

From that day onward, Elisa started to be more attentive to the people and events happening around her, and one day, when she was coming home from school, she saw a familiar figure walking on the little streets between houses and shops. Without giving much thought to what she was doing, she went after him, on the little streets, further away from the main stream of people buzzing on the street, until she lost sight of him, when he turned a corner and vanished. But in the place he disappeared, there was a little musical box and an envelope on which it was written: “For Elisa”. She took the musical box, the envelope and went home, and silently climbed the staircases and entered her room, where she excitedly opened the envelope. Inside she found a green card on which it was written: “Blood will out”. What did he mean? Putting the card away, she took the music box and opened it. It was lined with green silk inside and there was a ballerina that started dancing as soon as she opened the box. The melody the box played was familiar, she knew it, but couldn’t remember the name exactly. Inside the music box there was also a silver necklace, with a rhombic shape, and in it a green stone shaped as a tear. When turning the necklace, on the back of it, she saw the gravure of two initials: T and S. Was this for her too? It was time she started getting some answers to all these questions.

She first went to the music teacher of her class, to ask her about the song. When she found out the name of the song was “Fur Elise” she couldn’t stop a smile. Next were the initials, she thought hard how she could identify them and the best idea she had was to at least start searching for names starting with those initials, so when she got back home from school, she opened a drawer from her writing desk and got out a little black notebook, which she started carrying with her everywhere she went, and when she remembered or heard a name with those initials she would note it down on it.

So days passed and the notebook got more and more names and Elisa still had no clue how to filter through them. Near Christmas time, Elisa started to feel sick, and it got to the point where she came down with the flu and a fever on Christmas Eve. Her aunt and uncle together with their son went to the annual Christmas party, and she remained at home in bed; a neighbor was supposed to come and check on her from time to time, but she was too busy with her own family to find the time for that .

Suddenly her fever rose, and she started tossing in the bed, coughing violently until finally she calmed down and fell into a state of semi consciousness. After what seemed like a few hours to her, she felt a cold touch on her forehead, and slightly opening her eyes she saw through a thick fog, a pair of concerned green eyes looking at her. She closed her eyes again and concentrated all of her senses on the cold hand touching her forehead, the familiar feeling which relaxed her, and the joy it brought, just by being there, was almost overwhelming. After a few minutes, vacillating between consciousness and sleep, she felt a warm touch on her lips, and soon a liquid thicker than water, a little bitter, was flowing in her mouth and then easily down her neck. She could feel a wellness sensation growing in her, from her stomach to her hands and head, and then she fell into a deep sleep.

She woke up only the next day, at noon, felling better. She could eat and even rise from the bed for a little, which was a very good sign. She asked when they came back, but they said it was only in the morning, so she believed that the person who helped her in the night was none other than the mysterious man. But why did he come here? Did he have something to tell her? She started looking at her room, to see if he didn’t left anything for her, but she couldn’t find anything, then, suddenly, she got an idea , so she jumped out of bed and reached to her writing desk, where the black notebook was, and flipped through it in rush. She was right, he did leave her something, there were two names underlined: Thomas and Stephanie. So these were the names that she had been searching for. But who were these persons and what connection do they have with her or the mysterious man?

Since the little visit of the mysterious man was real and not just a dream, it was enough for her for now, knowing he had come to see her. That meant she wasn’t indifferent to him, although he had probably realized that she wasn’t the one he thought, the daughter of the Lytton. But if he had, was he still acting the same to her, as he would have done with the Lytton heiress? Was he being as gentle and attentive with her too? At that moment she started wishing she was the girl of the Lytton family or that the girl really had died in that plane crash.

The mysterious man (Part II)

Several years passed that way, and on Elisa’s 14^th birthday, while she was getting dresses for the party that was scheduled to start in about two hours, a maid came to give her a piece of news that changed her life forever. Her parents had been in a car accident, and were now in the hospital.

The days passed in frenzy and on the 3^rd day Elisa’s parents died, at an hour distance one from the other. The relatives arranged for Elisa to live with her aunt and her family after the funeral.

Her aunt’s name was Charlotte. She was a short stocky woman, who took care of the household, while her husband was chubby and bold, and owned a construction company. They had a son who, unlike his parents, was slim and pretty tall for his 12 years, and who liked to study, being an overachiever.

On the day of the funeral rain was pouring down, and the ski remained closed even through the night. After the funeral, Elisa was to move to her aunts house, so after all the people were gone, she went up to her parents room and took her time looking at everything very attentively so as to imprint the memory of the room in her brain, each detail having a memory attached to it. In the end she fell asleep on her parents bed. When the clock stroked 2 Elisa opened her eyes slowly, rose from the bed, descended the stairs, went out the door without even putting on her shoes, and started walking down the street. She fell down but got back up and kept walking till she arrived at a cemetery, the one where her parents were buried. When approaching their grave, she saw a shadow crouched at their tomb. Uncertain at first she approached the stranger by the grave. When he saw her he rose and walked away. She passed her parents grave and tried to cry out for him, but her mouth just wouldn’t open. All of a sudden, he turned around and looked at her, then approached her slowly. When she saw him coming towards her, her feet gave out and she fell on her bottom. Unable to say anything she just stayed down and kept looking at him as waiting for him to wake her up from the nightmare. When he reached her, he kneeled down in front of her, took a white handkerchief with green lacing and bandaged her right palm which was injured from her falling down on the street on the way here.

“You should get that disinfected” he said in a low voice while looking at the hand. She still didn’t said anything, just looked at the bandaged hand and nodded.

“Are you ok?”he asked, still avoiding to look into her eyes. Elisa didn’t say anything, just grabbed his hand and squeezed it, and slowly tears began to fall, one after the other, until she started sobbing violently. She wanted to talk, to tell him all that had happened to her, but she just couldn’t stop crying.

“It’s ok now, cry as much as you want, it will ease your pain” and he hugged her and stroke her hair gently until she fell asleep in his embrace. When he noticed that she had fallen asleep, he took her in his arms and carried her in the direction of her house.

“What am I going to do with you now?” he asked while looking at her, while some tears were still dropping heavily on her cheeks.

“Mama? Papa? Where are you?” she mumbled.

Hearing her, a tear started making its way from his eye on to the cheek and dropped from his chin.

“Poor child, what a sad destiny she has, always having to say goodbye to her most loved ones. Will I only bring her suffering? Should I really awaken her memories or let them sleep undisturbed?”

While walking down the street, the sun started showing it’s rays, and finally they were at her house.

“Elisa, come on, wake up”

“Mother? Let me sleep a little more…”

“Elisa, it’s time to move, come on, be a good girl and wake up”

Elisa suddenly opened her eyes and looked around, but before she could awaken entirely she felt her eyes heavy and a strong headache quickly set in. She quickly closed her eyes so the sun couldn’t hurt them, then opened them slowly and looked around her felling at a loss. She was in her room, in her bed, but she remembered falling asleep in her parents room, how had she ended up back in her room? When she decided to listen to her aunt and get up, she felt something falling from her hand. It was the white handkerchief, which she had received from that man when she was only 10, but why was it in her hand? Then she began remembering what had happened the night before, but it was all hazy and her headache didn’t subside at all so she postponed it till later.

She got out of the bed, washed her face, got dressed in her black dress and started packing up her clothes one by one, all the while remembering how she had bought each of them with her mother and how her dad had always praised her, and told her how beautiful she was. After about an hour her luggage was ready and her uncle was loading it in the truck of the car. She took her time and looked one last time at her room, and she noticed something red under the pillow. It was the white handkerchief stained with blood. Then she remembered the cemetery, and the man, whom she called the mysterious man, and her crying in his arms and falling asleep. The memories of the previous night made her blush slightly, and then she even smiled for a brief moment at the thought that maybe destiny was bringing her and the mysterious man together when she needed him the most. She had really felt much better after she had cried her hearth out, and she was glad it was him who saw her and not some stranger or someone from her family. Then she realized she didn’t remember how she got home, or in her bed. She only remembered a light touch on her forehead and some words that didn’t make any sense to her: “let memories sleep undisturbed”. Were those words addressed to her or was there someone else around who talked to the mysterious man and she just heard them? Vainly she tried to remember more, it didn’t work, so she took the blood stained handkerchief, shoved it in her pocket and went downstairs when her aunt started calling her.