Sarah Laker

26 - The One

That Friday evening, Sarah and Duncan arrived at the farm around eight pm. The sky was dark and overcast by the time Duncan's Mercedes pulled up outside Sarah's home. The older couple from the bookshop had kept them busy with idle chatter and passing memories, easing Sarah back to normality.

Parking his car behind the well-worn carcass of Luke's jeep, which already sat in the driveway, Duncan turned in his seat to face Sarah.

"I could always back out the drive and take us back to Norwich if you'd prefer?"

Sarah smoothed back her wayward hair and smiled gratefully, staring out of the windscreen at her family home.

"It's okay, Duncs, really. I think it's best if we just get on with it. Luke knows what happened at the cemetery all those years ago, but he must trust you by now. And me."

Duncan and Sarah climbed out of the low vehicle and hesitated at the door while Sarah ground her key into the lock. Both of the guys were in possession of a key for the back door, but only Sarah held one for the front. Finally scraping the lock into action, Sarah flung the door back with impatience.

The kitchen light guided them in. Duncan closed the door gently behind him and whispered to Sarah.

"Should I lock it?"

Sarah shook her head, kicked off her boots and threw her jacket across the bannisters.
"No." She matched his whisper, "leave it open just in case."

As she walked to the kitchen, she asked herself, what had made her say that - just in case?

Shrugging off this strange feeling, Sarah almost bolted through into the kitchen, hoping to find Luke there standing strong with open arms for her to run into.

She stepped into a vacant room. Two empty cans of beer and a takeaway pizza box lay strewn along the otherwise pristine kitchen counter tops.

A tiny fizz of a red ember caught Sarah's eye from the garden beyond the window. Luke sat in one of the garden chairs, smoking. Sarah let out a breath of relief and slapped Duncan's arm. Nothing had happened to Luke, but that underlying sensation of something building, a pressure of foreboding, wouldn't let her go. She lept through the utility room door and outside to greet her lover.

The hasty approach of his girlfriend shocked Luke into action. He jumped from his seat and threw the cigarette on the patio, grinding it out with the heel of his cowboy boot.
"Jesus, Sarah!" He exclaimed as he passed a hand over his beard. "Where the hell have you been?"

Duncan stepped out of the back door. In what sounded like an almost apologetic voice he called out to Luke, stopping Sarah in her tracks. She hesitated in front of Luke, unsure of how to express her hellos with Duncan watching.

"I know, okay, I know all about you and Loopy Laker, alright. So don't go thinking that you can keep me out of this, Buddy. I know exactly what's been going on. So why don't you give me a break, give her a kiss and fetch me a beer for fuck's sake!"

Sarah wondered if Luke had told Duncan anyway, even though she'd asked him not to. He put on quite a show of his 'new found knowledge'.

Luke and Sarah held each other at arms length and grinned happily. Sarah really wanted to believe that Duncan had made his peace with the situation, but she wasn't quite sure yet.

Luke broke away and passed Duncan with a friendly smack on the arm as he went back into the building, to do as his friend had asked.

Sarah turned to give Duncan her best, winning grin, but a harrowing screech from a barn owl overhead startled her instead.