A Night's Mystery

       ‘Wish I’d gone to his place today,’ Benny regretted again, his head on a pillow. He had always thought it lucky for James to have had a brother like Jonah. ‘It must be very brave of Jonah to manage a shop all by himself in Oystershire,’ he wondered, ‘he must have behaved really responsibly for Mr Augustus to have placed his faith on him. It must have taken a lot of courage.’
       
       The three, James, Jonah and Benny had had fun getting together at times from when they were very small, and Jonah had always been the most entertaining of them all – always coming up with some new kind of brilliant idea with which to keep time occupied with enjoyment. Benny remembered the time that Jonah crafted them wooden arrows, and they went on a hunting trip to hunt giants, visualizing with their imagination that all the trees in their garden were some. They had made quite a mess of Mr Augustus’ garden that day, and Mrs Augustus had not been very pleased. He remembered how Jonah had built him and James a tree-house, which to its misfortune was devastated during a storm. He also remembered the first time Jonah had come from Oystershire, Jonah had brought both James and he presents, of which his one was a skilfully crafted boat, a wooden dinghy, along with the oars. He remembered how he played with it down in a stream that ran past Greenvalley. The boat had not toppled much to his surprise unlike most of the others with which he had possessed before. He even remembered the day that they went for a stroll into the woods, a little far from James’ house, and had discovered the Berrochard (short for berry orchard), a small clearing where wild bushes and trees of different berries had clustered and grown together. They had enjoyed picking them; the wild strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and the cherries; especially the blueberries for they painted their tongues blue, and from that day on, they had decided to keep it as their secret garden.

       He felt his eyes closing with weight as sleep crept in and little by little started to numb his senses. There were a few faint creaks and groans from Mr and Mrs Thomas walking about their wooden floor downstairs getting themselves ready for bed, which went quite unnoticed. The last of the candle flame flickered painfully and went out in a trail of wax vapor, and Benny too drifted to sleep, unaware of his open window.

       As the hours passed on, silence descended heavily upon this part of Greenvalley. The meadows and the thick woods that surrounded were engulfed by a strong but pleasant sense of tranquility. The rabbits and foxes had retired to their burrows; even the crickets and grasshoppers had ceased their creaking. All seemed motionless, except for the clouds in the sky that moved silently and tardily, intermittently shading the silvery light of the crescent moon, and caused the shadows of the tall trees in the fields to appear and disappear restlessly.

       A silent breeze blew. There was a gentle rustle of leaves. The draft crept in through the open window, blowing away the few sheets of paper that were on his study table, which sat facing the window.

       The draft encircled the room. It forcefully stung at his legs and arms that were left uncovered and the cold nibbled at his toes and fingers. Very soon, another breeze followed the first one, creeping in through the same window carrying the cold night air, and stole away whatever warmth was retained from the previous one. A moment later another one breezed, succeeded by another and another. Benny tossed and turned as he shivered in his sleep. The room was well below freezing.

       In his deep sleep, he felt someone or something pull his sleep away from him. And he too held on to it, fingers gripped around it like an object, cleaving on with all the strength he had. He twisted and turned unwilling to let go. Whoever it was, he could not see the person that pulled at his sleep, but he pulled real hard, and it needed all of Benny’s might to resist him. Just then, a gust stronger and colder than its milder predecessors blew in. Consequently, the struggle in his dream turned out more violent than before. He wriggled and squirmed harder, trying to pull Sleep, which now appeared to him in the form of a pillow, towards himself. Suddenly, there was hard blow on him, and he fell back onto the floor and the enemy ran away with the Sleep. Benny awoke abruptly.

       He was staring up at the ceiling above him. It was still dark. He tried to grasp all that happened after all that tumult in his dream, his brain still half asleep. The ceiling seemed to have shifted by a little to the right than from what he remembered when he had slept. There was something towering over him to his right too. Curiously, he felt it. A broad smile swept across his face.

‘Huh,’ he chuckled, ‘I’ve fallen out of bed!’

       He gathered himself up. His room was colder than usual. He realized his mistake when he looked at the window which was open.

       Walking to it, he closed it - the cause that had cost him his sleep. He looked through its glass panel. The view was still too dark to clearly see. It was a little misty outside. He felt the air very thick. ‘It must be past midnight,’ he said to himself. The moon was nowhere to be seen.

       As he turned away, faint white glow down on the floor caught his eye. It was a fallen sheet of paper. He bent down to pick it up, and saw the many others dispersed everywhere. ‘Huh?’ he muttered annoyed.

He picked them up one by one, groping in the dark, taking care not to stumble on anything or hit himself on something. He placed the sheets on the table, and kept a heavy book over it. Strangely, something urged him to get one more glimpse of the woods through the window. He simply looked. He froze.

       Something was alight there on the woods quite far away, beyond the meadows and a little way into the forest. The mist obscured the view and he could not see the source or its nature, but it was bright enough to reach him. Through the mist, it was a blurred, yellow patch of light, and it seemed to be growing. His mind raced through a number of possibilities. Was it a forest fire? No, it couldn’t be, Greenvalley forest was never dry enough to burst into flames, especially at night. Was it a wanderer’s lantern or a torch perhaps? No, it was too bright for that. Was it a bonfire? Couldn’t be; who’d go into the forest in the middle of the night to light a bonfire? Even the prince’s coronation ceremony was still days away, and if anyone did light a bonfire, it would’ve certainly not been here. Was it an army? Couldn’t be; why would any king, dynasty or empire pick this remote place in Greenvalley? The Castle and Capital were miles away from the town of Greenvalley and besides, how foolish! There weren’t any other kingdoms than the Kingdom itself.

       As he watched, it turned from yellow into a pure white, and it grew in intensity. It penetrated through the thick fog and into his room, even lighting it up. It gave out a scorching glare, and Benny covered his eyes. Oddly enough, it wasn’t warm, like he’d have expected for sunlight to be.

      ‘Should I call Pa? Yes a good idea!’ Benny decided, and leaping over his bed, he reached for the door. But just as he turned the knob, the light died down sooner than it had come, and the room ventured back into its initial darkness. Coming back, Benny looked once more through the window. He strained his eyes to at least catch a glimpse of it somewhere, but it was nowhere to be seen, not a trace. It seemed as if nothing had happened at all.

       He was puzzled. What could it be? Maybe he should report it immediately! He felt he should.

       Benny climbed down the creaking stairs, groping once more hoping that he would not miss a step on the spiral stairway.