One of my unfinished novels which at present has no title, is about a college lecturer, Frederico Milan, whose wife left home three years ago and has never been seen since. Her father Paul believes Frederico has murdered her; the police have investigated the disappearance but can find nothing and no evidence that the woman has come to any harm at all. For various reasons, Paul begins to harass Frederico to find the missing woman, threatening his friends including a severely disabled man, Jerome who Frederico visits.
Searching for his wife, Frederico goes to Farholm Island where he thinks she may have joined a commune which is led by a charismatic woman called Dawnstar. A friend of his, Erin comes with him; Frederico thinks Erin and another friend, Stephen, maybe becoming close to each other.
Here is an excerpt:
Frederico tried to ring the care home but his call went unanswered, he was anxious about Jerome. He was so vulnerable, he was so weak, he’d had a cold coming, he was wheezy and sluggish and Frederico was worried.
He tried to ring Stephen but it went straight to voice mail so he left a garbled message. “Hi its Frederico, well you know that, but anyway… look I just wondered but its silly really because you’re probably not even there, but could you – well I mean only if you can, could you go and visit Jerome. I’m really worried about him, I think he has a cold coming on, if he’s not ok if you can do whatever for him, I mean obviously if you can’t but if you can, you know, any medication, or new pyjamas, well… look also could you ring Erin again, she’s desperate to hear from you… um… well… ok, oh by the way this is Frederico. Goodbye.”
He wandered on through the fog, walking up towards where the castle must be. He wondered if he could bring his students to the castle and then remembered that he was no longer a teacher and it slightly depressed him. He took his phone out again and tried the care home. Still no reply.
He texted Stephen. “Hi Stephen, if its possible could you visit Jerome, I’m away for a few days with Erin and I’m worried about him. Love F” he sent it and then realised how stupid it must sound, love – why did he put love?
He texted again ‘Hi’ and then accidentally sent it before he could think of what to say. I’m just a friend of Erin’s, she’s just here to humour me… I want to know where my wife is… I want to know who killed her… because he really thought she must be dead.
He stood at the gates to the castle. it was open to visitors but there was no-one in the little hut, just the honesty box sitting with its note of entrance fees. How trusting. he was about to drop some money in the box and wander in the fog around the ruins when he heard voices coming towards him through the fog. He couldn’t distinguish the words or even recognize who they were but there was something familiar in the timbre.
He turned to walk up the road to see who it was and it was Dawnstar, still wrapped like a woman of the Hindu Kush. She was with a tall willowy man he hadn’t seen when they went up to the Community. The man was considerably younger than dawn Star and had the tanned, rangy athleticism that Frederico associated with Australians. His curly hair just reached his shoulders and he was tanned and sinewy.
“Good day,” Frederico said brightly as if delighted to see her again.
“Greeting, friend,” said Dawnstar and Fredrico was secretly delighted when the young man echoed her with a broad Australian accent. “Jade Fish, if you want to walk on, I will catch you up,” Dawnstar said in a faintly patronising tone to her acolyte.
Jade Fish – Jade Fish! Fredrico secretly delighted in the name, how absurd, how ludicrous! But he smiled blandly and nodded in a cheerful fashion to the man who scowled at him and sauntered on. Frederico gazed after him. he was wearing Converses and harem pants and a big shaggy Afghan coat which took Frederico back to a memory of an aunt who went through a hippy phase and wore something similar. He remembered it smelt disgusting, much to the amusement of him and his cousins.
“I am pleased that we meet again,” Dawnstar said seriously and moved so she was very close to him.
Frederico wanted to take a step back, not exactly intimidated by her but uncomfortable with her standing quite so close to him. “Ditto…” he replied
Lois Elsden 