Page 9 of The Space Traveller's Lover

RUMOURS

Do you realise what it means? He took her!

Sam can barely make out his mother’s silhouette sitting by his bedside, but his blurred vision is getting clearer by the minute. As her familiar face comes into focus, he welcomes her gentle smile. He smiles back at her and briefly chuckles, his face relaxing into a contented expression.

Throughout the brief silence, he tries to memorise the startling turn of events in his puzzled mind. He recalls the fruitless arguments trying to convince everyone of his story, his calm demeanour increasingly changing into one filled with anguish.

“I’m not a liar,” Sam protests.

“I believe you, son,” Martha whispers in his ear as she squeezes him tightly and presses her wet cheeks against his. As she comforts him with her words of support, Sam calms down, and he breathes out a long resigned sigh.

But as he sees his father standing behind his mother, he stiffens his body and briskly pulls away from her to face Bill Sheppard with a pleading gaze. “What about you, Dad? Do you believe me? I know Stella does.”

“Son, your mother, your sister, and I do believe you, but—” Sheppard pauses and then hesitantly adds, “The thing is … nothing makes sense.”

“Nothing makes sense?” Martha flares up, “Well, you explain to me. How could he survive for days in that alley? Someone must have helped him, don’t you agree? And what about the orange light that Stella saw, the same colour as he describes?”

“Coincidence? We’ve been through the story several times, Martha. He mentions this man flying towards them from the alien aircraft. How did he help our Sam?—”

“Stop! I don’t want to start this argument again. The important thing is that our Sam is alive. Let’s wait until he fully recovers and his memory is clearer,” Martha retorts while tenderly stroking Sam’s forehead.

“Recovering?” Sam frowns at his mother. “I feel fine.”

“Well, the clinic’s doctor will be checking you soon,” she explains in a comforting tone.

“Any news about Erin? Have they found anything inside the cave?” he glumly asks as if already knowing the answer.

His parents’ sombre faces say it all.

“Do you realise what it means? He took her. He took her!” Sam yells in frustration, jumping out of his bed and abruptly opening the blinds in the tall bay window.

But he’s faced with a group of people leaning against the front iron gates, hectically focusing their cameras on him. Dazzled, he closes the blinds as quickly as he opened them.

“Who are they?” he asks, looking wholly perplexed while pointing at the window.

“They’re reporters from the ARA,” Bill explains. “They want to interview you.”

“We told them you’re not well. We’re trying to keep them at bay,” Martha says, walking towards her son and trying to hug him. “But they won’t go away.”

“Ah! You think the ARA will laugh at me, don’t you?” Sam avoids his mother’s arms, visibly upset.

“My dear,” she continues in a soothing tone, “you have not completely recovered. You may feel all right now, but you’ve woken up from a very long sleep.”

“Yes.” Sheppard tries to calm down his son, putting his arms around Sam’s shoulders. “It seems you are still under the influence of something—”

“How long have I been asleep?” Sam relents, dejectedly staring at his father .

“For the past fourteen hours,” Sheppard calmly says while walking his son towards the bed, followed by Martha.

“What can be making you so drowsy?” Martha ponders. “All the tests were negative … they showed no suspicious chemicals in your body. We’re all baffled.”

As they sit and embrace one another, Sam recalls the last moments with Erin, painstakingly going through his memories once again.

He tries but fails to come up with at least a shred of unrefutable evidence.

He feels utterly hopeless, realising he’s exhausted all means of trying to convince everyone that he’s telling the truth.

“I remember fearing the worst as the boat surged ever closer to the waterfall … and then, suddenly the boat seemed to stop, held up by some force.”

“But we found you in a completely different place,” Bill tries to clarify.

“I’ve always said the boat was dragged by the strong current and suddenly stopped on the very edge of the waterfall,” Sam counters.

“We found the boat stuck, Sam, tightly wedged in between the rocks—on the side alley,” Bill sternly replies, looking straight into Sam’s eyes.

“Dad, why would I invent this?” Sam keeps firm as he holds his father’s probing gaze. “This is what happened. An alien from the alien aircraft turned up from under the waterfall, took Erin, and left me on the boat. He must have moved it.”

“Sam, who is going to believe such a story? You’re in good health, with no evidence of not eating or drinking for eight days …

How can we explain what you’ve been doing all that time?

You say the alien kept you immobilised until we found you …

but how? And why? Do you want to know the latest rumours going around?

Sheppard resignedly says as if he has entirely run out of ideas.

“Do you believe those rumours?” Sam challenges his parents with a deep frown on his face.

“No, absolutely not!” Martha hurriedly replies.

“What are they saying?” Sam asks despondently, sitting upright and folding his arms on his chest.

“They’ve been saying,” Bill starts explaining in a dismissive tone, making it evident that he doesn’t believe it either, “that you prepared everything to take Erin into Diablo’s cave’s dead-end channel, and you kept her hidden against her will.

But as she kept rejecting you … you killed her and threw all the evidence …

and her body … over the waterfall. Then you waited for rescue, as you knew I would eventually go there looking for you. ”

Sam throws himself back against the bed’s headrest. “That doesn’t make any sense!” he protests.

“To them, it makes more sense than the alien story, son,” Martha sombrely adds.

“But why would I want to kill Erin?” Sam insists, sitting up straight and punching the bed with his clenched fists. “I love her.”

However implausible his story seems to be, Sam’s parents do believe him. But they’re not sure if anybody else will.

“We believe you, son. We believe you!” Martha and Bill keep telling Sam as they huddle around him.

“We must go back there, to Diablo’s cave. He’ll come back,” Sam pleads with his father.

“We are already there. The ARA is setting up closed-circuit cameras. They’ve found nothing so far,” Sheppard replies after checking his phone for any missed messages.

“He’ll come back,” Sam snaps. “He will!”

“Answer me this question, Sam. Why did you go as far as the second lake?” Bill scolds him.

“It was very strange,” Sam mumbles and then pauses while staring into the distance as if in deep thought.

“What?” Bill urges him.

“There was this power beyond my control … pushing me. I can’t fully explain it.” Sam reclines onto the pillows in a helpless gesture, realising that, yet again, he’s saying something nobody else will believe.

His dispirited demeanour soon disappears as the nurse enters the room. I must show them I have fully recovered. I must find Erin soon , he firmly tells himself.

After a clean bill of health from the clinic, the Sheppards take their son back home, deciding to avoid any contact with anyone else outside their family, at least until the day of the court hearing.