Chapter Five – Ezekiel

Your Father grew up as part of a wealthy family. He went to a private school and graduated with honours; he had a Ph.D. in History and was revered by many of his peers. His life was nothing out of the ordinary. He married Eva, a school friend and was employed as a professor of History with Cambridge University. I don’t know how much you know about your Father, but it was while being married to Eva and working at the University that he met your Mother. I’m not here to judge his actions and neither are you regardless of how much we disagree with them. You see your Mother wasn’t blameless in this either. She knew that he was married when they began their affair, but your Father…well your Father was enamoured with her. To him, you see, she was a breath of fresh air. Every time he spoke of her you could see the change in him; he was definitely in love with her.

I can see it in your eyes, you are wondering why he never left his wife to marry your Mother; but at the time things didn’t seem as simple as they are now. Coming from a background such as your Father’s…it’s very difficult to explain…people weren’t as understanding. If he were to divorce Eva he would have been treated like an outcast; such was the ignorance of high society then. Now people wouldn’t bat an eyelid. It’s become the norm to move from one relationship to another, people care about each other’s personal happiness but back then it was more about keeping ‘up appearances’ so to speak. Please try to understand, I am not trying to make excuses for him, just trying to provide you with some insight.

As the years wore on your Father had three children with Eva, making it increasingly difficult to leave her. Yes, Aurora…you do have two brothers and a sister…well one brother now, the first born, Vincent, died at the age of twelve in a tragic accident. Your Father was devastated and it took him a long time to stop blaming himself. But we’ll talk about that another time. Your other brother Jake is the same age as you; he is currently residing in the South of France in a city called Toulouse with his mother Eva and her second husband. Anyway, I am beginning to deviate; we’ll talk about your other family at a later stage as they do play a rather significant part in your Father’s life.

I met your Father while attending Cambridge University at the yearly theological conference. I had, and still do, have a fascination with the idea of ‘religion’, ‘belief’, ‘faith’ or whatever you like to call it. Your Father attended the conference too purely out of curiosity as he wanted to explore the history of religion himself in one of his lectures. I remember him as clear as day; he was sat in front of me so all I could see was the back of his head. He seemed deep in thought, nodding his head occasionally as the lead speakers made a point or two. I remember thinking to myself that I had never come across a man with such striking features as that of your Father’s. He had hair so black it glistened a navy blue under the lecture hall lights, and his jaw jutted out sharply, almost at a right angle. He looked like a man that liked to be taken seriously.

Two and a half hours later, the lecture had ended, the rest of the professors and students were gathering their notes, books and bags and exiting the hall; but your Father remained in his seat seemingly still deep in thought. I got up to leave immersed in thoughts of mine own too, going over important ideas discussed earlier in the lecture; I shan’t bore you with the details.

“Excuse me sir.”

I turned towards the voice to find that your Father was standing behind me, holding a piece of one of my note papers in his hand. His eyes were as deep-set as yours, almost as if he could see right through you and I realised that my initial judgement was right. He was most definitely tall and striking; he carried himself with an air of graceful authority. Your Father was a man that commanded an unspoken respect.

“You dropped this.” He said as he handed me the piece of paper, he didn’t smile; in fact your Father was always quite serious.

“Thank you Mr…uh, I’m sorry I don’t know who you are.” I stammered at him and felt somehow small and childlike for doing so.

“I’m Ezekiel Zimmerman, a professor of history here at Cambridge.”

“Lovely to meet you, I’m Dragomir Bandas,” we shook hands and stood there awkwardly for a bit before I decided to interrupt the silence, “so what is a history professor doing at a theological conference?”

“I realise it must seem a little odd,” he nodded his head in acknowledgement before placing both hands behind his back and leaning forward slightly, “I’m holding a lecture next week for my students hoping to explore the history of religious beliefs…say, I haven’t seen you here before so I know that you are not on our faculty board. May I ask what it is that you do?”

“I’m an independent researcher, I’m trying to write my own book on theology as a matter of fact and I attend these conferences every year.”

“Oh, how marvellous! Well I would most certainly be interested in reading some of your work.”

We continued standing there for the next half hour, completely engrossed and excited in our discussion. The next couple of years passed in a blur, we met more frequently from time to time and our friendship grew from there. I was soon to learn of his affair with your Mother and once he had revealed it to me, it was all he could talk about. It was not long after our friendship began that your Mother became pregnant with you, Aurora. He was most delighted at the news but he had a new dilemma. Your Mother, of course, grew weary of being treated as the ‘other woman’, and rightly so, what woman would want to settle for being second best in her lover’s life? It was not long before she began to pester your Father to leave Eva and start anew with her, but your Father felt that he could not abandon his other family, so he suffered many sleepless nights in constant battle for his feelings for your Mother and his loyalty to his family. To make matters worse, it wasn’t only your Mother that was carrying his child, but Eva too.

It was on the day that your Father had just found out about your Mother’s pregnancy that the first tragedy took place. He was driving his son, Vincent, home from school…I really don’t know the details of what happened on that day…and your Father never spoke of it to me, he was too heartbroken and in constant blame of himself…but anyway, Vincent had gone missing. I remember your Father rushing home as I sat in the garden with Eva sipping on a cup of tea. He was pale and as white as a linen bed sheet, covered in what seemed to be blood. He didn’t utter a word, simply stumbled over to us by the back patio doors, trembling from head to toe and collapsed onto his knees, looking at us pleadingly. I couldn’t attend to him immediately as Eva had fainted at the sight of him. It was half an hour later, after leaving the heavily pregnant Eva in the care of the housekeeper that I took your Father into his study, poured him a glass of bourbon and watched him swallow it whole.

“Ezekiel…I’m afraid to ask…but tell me my friend, what happened.”

I had never seen your Father so shaken, he was always in control of his emotions but not this time, he promptly burst into tears and covered his face with his bloodied hands. It took him some time before he could compose himself again and was able to speak, and what he said had chilled me to the bone.

“I was driving us back home, the roads were icy but my car has always been able to withstand such conditions…it came out of no where…some kind of animal…only I swear I could see right through it Dragos! I could see right through it!”

He was gripping my shoulders in terror, his eyes wild with fright as he begged me to believe him; and strangely enough I did. I had known your Father well enough to confidently say that he was a sane, logical and rational man. Normally nothing could break his calm demeanour, but this time he was hysterical. Something awful must have happened for I have never seen him in such a state before.

“Calm yourself Ezekiel…I need you to tell me everything from the beginning, you aren’t making any sense. What was it that you saw?”

He let go of my shoulders and sat back in his arm chair, sighing heavily before continuing, “I don’t know what it was. I swerved to miss it but it was as if it had slammed into my car…the next thing I recall is waking up to find myself bloodied, Vincent had gone missing…and the car had been heavily damaged from where it had been slammed into the tree. It took my boy! I’m pretty sure of it.”

I sat on the foot stool in front of him unsure of how to react. My heart was racing and my mind awash with confusion. I wasn’t sure what to make of all that’s been said, yet I still pressed on.

“First thing’s first, Ezekiel, we need to inform the authorities…we must find Vincent and then I’m sure they’ll go looking for whatever it is that attacked you.”

He nodded wearily at me and at that point I couldn’t help but notice all the years of strain etched on his hardened face. The lies, deceit and uncertainty have taken their toll on him, which led me to question him for a moment. Perhaps he had finally snapped, lost his hold on sanity completely. I looked up to find he had composed himself once more and was staring at me intently.

“You’ve known me a long time Dragos, long enough to know that I am not crazy. I know what I’d seen and at the risk of sounding mentally unstable…I don’t even think it was of this world.”

It was more of a statement than a question, but it was enough to rid me of any doubting thoughts I had towards him. Whatever it was that he had seen I was certain it had taken Vincent. Although I wasn’t present myself during the accident, I had a sinking feeling that this was the beginning of a much larger and more complex plot. I was afraid of what was to come and I was convinced that your Father felt the same.

The next few months felt like an eternity. The police were working every day trying to come up with some form of answer as to Vincent’s whereabouts, but to no avail. It was as if he had completely disappeared off of the face of the planet. Your Father’s mental condition deteriorated too, he never once stopped blaming himself for what happened. I spent my time trying to gain some logical insight into what could have occurred, because your Father did not want to discuss the matter any more; I would venture out myself to investigate but always came back empty handed. Not a single trace. The only evidence that remained was that of the badly damaged tree that still stood at the scene of accident. There was not a trace of any animal-like creature that had purportedly been involved, or even a trail of clues as to where Vincent may have gone to. It wasn’t long before people began to suspect foul play; and I am ashamed to say that I too began to doubt your Father. Call it a temporary lapse in judgement on my part for he was soon to unwittingly prove to me the truth behind his words.

It was early on a Sunday morning; I had arrived early on this particular day because I had planned to lure your Father out of the house. I wanted to take him to see a doctor...a psychiatrist to be exact. Eva and I were growing worried as he hadn’t left his room since the disappearance. Surprisingly he didn’t argue with me when I explained to him where we going. He simply huddled under his blanket, looking grey and haggard as he sat in the passenger seat. It was cold and the roads were icy. Your Father was resting his head against the car window, gazing quietly at the passing scenery. I tried not to take my eyes of the road, but I couldn’t help myself from casting a few sweeping glances in his direction to make sure that he was alright. It wasn’t long before were passing the scene of the accident, I felt him tense up, his breathing becoming more ragged. I turned to look at him becoming alarmed.

“Ezekiel…are you ok?”

His eyes widened in fear as he stared at the road ahead. His lower lip began to tremble and then he lunged for me grabbing hold of the steering wheel.

“STOP DRAGOS!”

I didn’t have time to think. I pressed my foot on the breaks hard and felt my body being propelled forward sharply, my nose missing the steering wheel by millimetres. I closed my eyes for a second trying to compose myself before turning to face him only to discover that he had already unfastened his seat belt.

“Ezekiel! What in God’s name are you doing?!”

“You know that I don’t ask much of you, but I need you to trust me on this.”

He looked at me pleadingly for a few moments, I must admit they seemed like hours but eventually I nodded and unbuckled my seat belt too. He smiled sadly at me before turning to open his passenger door and stepping out into the cold spring breeze. I followed him.

“I saw it cut across the road…it ran off somewhere in that direction…we have to follow it Dragos, it could lead us to Vincent.”

“Are you sure?”

“If you don’t believe me then go home, but rest assured that I’m not coming with you until I have my son back.”