THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

 

A NanoCorp story, directly continued from Chapter 2 of Windfall of Life

 

By Atonia Walpole

 

(Picture creations also by Atonia)

 

Chapter 1

Terry bought a couple of books in Houston before they boarded the flight for Sydney. However, when he tried to read they slipped from his hand and Dee retrieved them and stuck them back in his travel bag. He slept a lot on the plane and when he was awake he was restless and fidgeting. This was a trip he'd been wanting to take ever since NanoCorp went boom and he’d sent Cort over to Australia to his boyhood home.

The memory of the place came to him and all the rest of it. The driver and the woman, Mrs. Doddsworth, whose son he grew up with,  were people he remembered and yet he’d never been there that he could recall. These were memories that belonged to someone else…Russell Crowe. If he bought into Cort’s idea, then he had been there but not as Terrence Thorne. All the things that the actor drew from to form him into a character, to make him Terry Thorne, were real and he was about to be introduced to them.

He didn’t call on the driver, Cody. They took a taxi to the hotel overlooking Sydney Harbor. They planned to spend one night there to shower, eat, repack their suitcases and get used to standing on firm ground again before taking a commuter plane to Coffs Harbor.

Dee went out like a light after she had a shower. Terry stood at the big windows and looked at the bridge and the harbor. Boats going to and fro. He was trying to feel some connection to what he was seeing. He’d seen it before but he couldn’t discern if it was in a movie, on TV or if he’d really seen it. He guessed he’d seen it through Russell’s eyes. After all, this was home to him.

He smiled to himself and wondered if the actor was in Sydney right now. What would he think if he ran into him? And then the thought came to him that he could very well be mistaken for Crowe. Good thing they were leaving out in the morning.

Terry rented a car in Coffs Harbor and stopped by a grocery store and they loaded up.

Dee had seen a stretch of beach. “Oh, beaches!”

“Yeah, we’ll get down to the shore.” He turned off the main road heading west.

“Do you know where you’re going, Terry?”

“Strangely enough I do.” And he did. He knew the way. “Russell must have been out here.”

Dee glanced at him and then at the landscape passing out of the populated area of Coffs.

“It’s out in the bush,” Terry came up with.

“Are you remembering the place?”

“Yeah, it’s not far now.” Was he remembering? Where did his memories stop and Russell’s begin?

He turned off the road and soon the house came into view. He stopped the car for a moment. “Thorneton.”  His eyes held a light as he took in the long low white house, the porches and the trees. “I know it.”

Dee watched him, biting her lip a little. She was happy he remembered it. This is what he’d come for, to find out if he had a past before his movie. “Oh, look at that tree! What is it?”

 

 

"It’s a jacana tree."  He pulled up to the house and stopped. “Those are eucalyptus on the ends of the house.

The house sat there as if it had been waiting for him. He couldn’t explain the feeling to Dee and so he didn’t try. He opened the gate and into the front yard. It was spring here and bulbs planted long ago and forgotten had stuck their heads up to see who was here. He went quickly to the side porch, looked toward the stream and smiled.

The birds were aware of him and sounded the news from tree to tree. He ran lightly down to the stream and crossed over to his rock. The big flat rock. He turned all the way around, taking it all in. His eyes filled and he blinked away the threatened tears. He was home.

Dee walked up to the porch and around to the side. She could see parts of him through the trees. She peeped through the windows and the French doors on the side. A bedroom. She tried the door and it was locked.

He squatted down on the rock and looked into the water. How many hours had he spent there? He could remember lying on the rock on his belly as a boy and watching the little minnows waving in the stream. He sat down  and crossed his arms on his knees. His mind was on visual overload. Everywhere he looked some memory jumped out at him. Back there behind the house was the treeless hill.

“Terry…Terry? Do you think you could unlock the door? I need to use the bathroom.”

He jumped up. “Sorry, Nolia.” He ran to the porch. “I got lost in a forest of memories.”

“So, you do remember?”

“Yes, they’re coming at me in waves.” He unlocked the door with a key he found under a rock. “Bathroom is on the left down the hall.” He stood in the wide hall and looked to his left. The room smelled of leather furniture and a closed up house. He walked to the fireplace and touched the long mantle above. Tilting his head back at the high ceiling and beams. He’d remodeled this after his parents died…hadn’t he? That’s when the renovations took place. When the house was his. The floors had been sanded and stained and now softly glowed.

There was something he couldn’t quite grasp yet. When…when had he left? He walked down the hall and turned toward his room. The carved doors opened into an adult Terry’s room. The light brown paneling, his desk, the wall of books and his bed. Maybe the answers would be in here.

Dee was exploring, too. She came back down the hall to the living room. No question who had chosen the soft leather couches. It was very Terry. Across the hall was a bedroom, the master if you judged by the size. It had its own bathroom and there were photographs sitting about. She studied them a little and then moved out of the room and down the hall. Another bedroom…did he have a sister? It was definitely a woman’s room. The door to his room was partially open and she stopped in the space. He was sitting on a window seat and looking out over the porch. The French doors were open now.

“This is you, this place…this room, especially.”

“I feel like it is. But you know, it can’t possibly be me. I know exactly where I came into the world. I know how I was conceived and developed.” He looked out towards the stream again. “I’ve never been here before, Nolia.”

“But, you remembered it, Terry.” She crossed the room and sat down beside him on the window seat. “You just said waves of memories were coming at you.”

“They aren’t mine. They’re Russell Crowe’s memories of this place.” He turned and looked at her. “I’ve come on a fool's mission.”

“Don’t you remember what Cort said?”

“I remember. He was talking about souls, Nolia. I’ve never given any thought to mine.”

“That’s not all he said. He went looking for himself, too, and he found what he was looking for.”

“There’s nothing for me to find. I know what I am.”

“Terrence Thorne…I don’t think you do know what you are or who you are. We’ve been here a half hour and you think you’ve found the answers already. You haven’t. You need to dig a little deeper.”

He turned again towards the stream. “Yeah.”

“Don’t close me out, Terry.”

“I don’t mean to, Nolia, but this is something I have to figure out for myself.”

“All right, how about bring in all the luggage and the food and you can be by yourself. I’ll try and get things sorted out.”

Dee got busy putting away the groceries and familiarizing herself with the kitchen. She noticed he’d put their luggage in the front room and she wondered about that. Why not in what was obviously his room? Aside from his quest this was supposed to be a holiday for both of them, some time spent together without any of the other brothers around and without constant fear and upheaval.

With the food put away she cleaned the kitchen counters. The house was clean but sitting for some time and everything needed a good dusting. While she was cleaning, thoughts of Rachel and Cort kept coming to mind. They’d been here in the kitchen. She missed Rachel and now Caroline. It was almost too much to bear.

Terry was back in his bedroom at the desk. He opened the drawers and found  an old photo of himself in fatigues. He couldn’t remember where it had been taken but he’d been younger. There was another man sitting beside him and they were both laughing with their caps cocked back on their heads. Australian uniforms.

He lay it on the desk and continued bringing things out. An expired passport giving the address of Thorneton.  An old notebook with sketches, some recognizable and some he had no idea of what it represented. Other things. A key ring with several keys attached.

Everything pointed to a life he’d led there. Why couldn’t he remember it? He had memories of being a child there. He knew what lay on the other side of that treeless hill behind the house. He knew he could see Cathedral Rocks from the top. He knew Mrs. Doddsworth had horses. Marthene was her name and her son Clint died in an airplane crash.

He sighed and scooped everything up and pushed it into the middle drawer.  There were a few books on the desk, nothing recent. He swiveled around in his chair and scanned the bookcases. History books, world geography, novels…poetry? He chuckled to himself.

There were rows of books he’d had as a child, a young man.

Dee brought him a cup of coffee and turned to go.

“ Thanks, luv. Don’t go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Um hm.”

“Made any discoveries?”

“I can’t explain it and I think that’s what bothers me. I am sure Russell has been here in this house. And yet,” he pushed the expired passport toward her, “so have I.”

Dee looked at the photo and the dates and then looked up at him. “Issued in l987. How old were you in l987?”

“Twenty-two.”

“Time…time stopped somewhere. I don’t understand, Terry.”

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

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