It was seven-thirty when the two children left Grandpa’s cottage. It was still frosty outside, and pitch black. Grandpa insisted on walking them back home because according to him it was too dangerous to go wandering about out there. Especially on that lonely, exposed costal footpath that ran along the shoreline. The children weren’t quite sure whether he really believed the night was simply no place for kids, or if he was just trying to add a little embellishment to his story. They were a few miles away from Tobban's Bay at any rate.
Grandpa's powerful flashlight danced across the concrete footpath to show the way. He muttered to himself like an incoherent pastor reciting text out of an old book and shuffled along slowly on his old bowed legs. His eyes kept darting toward the sea even though it was impossible to see the water.
His apprehension seemed genuine. It was as if the darkness really did make him fearful and nervous; as if there really was something out there lurking in the shadowy nothingness.
The three of them were heading for a holiday home. Marinka's parents had hired it for the week. It was a quaint wooden cottage down by the beach with three little rooms, and a rickety wee terrace with only enough room to stand on. You couldn’t actually see the water from the terrace because there were sand dunes in front of the house, but if you lay awake in bed at night you could hear the waves breaking very easily.
This family stay was actually more of a social visit for Grandpa than a proper vacation. These were the mid-winter school holidays so the weather wasn’t that great. The sea was too cold to swim in at this time of year and the climate was too miserable for it to be much of a vacation. It was either too foggy and damp, like tonight, or a biting breeze prevailed that chilled the throat raw.
Teun was not actually a member of Marinka’s family. He was her friend from school. The two of them had been friends for a long time and were as thick as thieves. Marinka was actually a bit of a tomboy, who would rather go exploring a woodlot or try her hand at fishing than go wandering through a shopping mall or worry about brands of lipstick. That suited Teun because he felt pretty much the same way about those things.
Teun's parents had been only too happy to let him go on this vacation. They knew Marinka's parents quite well. They didn't usually have a mid-winter holiday anyway so it was no interruption to their plans.
This was the first time that the two friends had done anything like this together… the first time that one of them had slept over at the other's place. And so far it was going great guns. Teun was particularly enjoying the board and card games that they played in the evenings, which were accompanied by hot chocolate drinks and cake and cookies. The two of them joked and laughed just like they did at school in lunchtimes.
But he didn’t like the location of the holiday home that much. He wasn't so fond of the windswept coastland with its bitter cold air, nor the mist that could get so thick it would form droplets on your clothing. And it was a bit boring out... the only place to go to was a small village a few hundred meters down the road. It wasn't exactly a whole lot of fun to hang around in that village because there were only a handful of shops and it was full of old people.
Finally the three of them reached the cottage. Grandpa shuffled up to the back door and the security light came on. He knocked on the door to announce his arrival but didn’t wait for anyone to come. He opened the door and ushered the kids through into the kitchen.
'Remember what I said,' he muttered. His vulture eyes flicked from one child to the other. ‘Remember our agreement.’
Teun was a little nervous and nodded back without saying anything.
Marinka let out a little chuckle. 'Sure Grandpa,' she said.
Grandpa looked at her and let out a sceptical grunt.
At that moment Marinka’s father walked into the kitchen. ‘Ah, you found them!’ he said with a big grin.
Grandpa looked up at him and muttered a barely comprehensible response. Then he bid everyone a good night and headed on his way, closing the front door after him. His big bright torchlight flickered across the pavement once more and his bent frame shrank into the distance.
Marinka’s father smiled at Teun. ‘Hope the old boy didn’t scare you too much.’
Teun shook his head.
‘Well, you’re a brave chap then. He scares me sometimes.’
The kids had to laugh at that. Marinka’s father loved to joke around.
Things quickly settled into their normal pattern for the evening after that. The family was quite routine about mealtimes. Two nights had already come and gone so Teun was getting quite used it.
Meals were always at six o’clock, followed by desert, and everyone had to help with the cleaning up. Marinka's Dad prepared the meal this time, which, as per the previous nights, was a fairly simple offering because the kitchen was too small to be creative. Beans and mince. Everyone had to wait for the last person to be seated at the table before they began eating, and everyone had to wait for the last person to finish before they stood up. Afterwards Teun and Marinka's mum did the dishes (Marinka had helped out with the clothes washing earlier in the day so she was off the hook). Then they all went off to do their own thing.
Later that night Teun and Marinka were playing cards. They were sitting in their bedroom, just the two of them. At a certain point Teun was getting a little bored of Marinka's winning streak and the topic of Grandpa slipped into the conversation.
'He's an interesting man, your Grandpa,' said Teun. 'Pretty good at storytelling.'
Marinka smiled. 'What did I tell you?'
Teun scrunched up his nose. 'And um… what about that story he told today? That wasn't just a story was it? Or was it?'
Marinka was busy studying her cards and didn't even look up. 'Of course it was. What do you think?'
Teun’s response was a little uncertain. 'Well, he seemed quite serious about it. I have to admit I was a little bit... well... you know…'
Now Marinka looked over her cards. 'Afraid?' she asked with a wry smile.
Teun made a reluctant movement with his shoulders as if to say that he didn't like that label but maybe it was so.
Marinka chuckled. 'You get used to Grandpa. Trust me. I know his tall stories are very convincing. He can tell you the biggest load of nonsense with such a straight face you feel almost obliged to believe it.'
'So you think it was all nonsense? That stuff about ship sinking and all that? Boy, he certainly convinced me.'
'He loves doing that. That’s his thing. He loves winding kids up.' Marinka placed a queen of diamonds down on the pile between them.
She looked up at Teun and suddenly her face became very serious. 'Did you know that Grandpa was once abducted by aliens? True story. A UFO came across the sand dunes one night and hovered right over top of him. Then it sucked him up with its light beam. Incredible. Grandpa spent two weeks on their planet and saw the most amazing things. Luckily he happened to have his camera on him and took heaps of photos. He was actually going to send them in to National Geographic and become rich.'
Teun looked stunned. 'Are you serious? He was abducted by aliens and had the photographic evidence to prove it? No way!'
'Yes way!’ said Marinka. Then her face dropped. ‘But, yeah, unfortunately when he got back he was seized by government people and his camera was confiscated. Never saw the pictures again.'
Teun let out a sigh of disapproval. 'Really? Oh, that stinks.'
Marinka rolled her eyes. 'Jeez Teun! Grandpa was never abducted by aliens. It was another one of his fables. Another one of his daft yarns.'
'Well how do you know for sure?'
Marinka shook her head and let out a haughty snort. 'When you get to know Grandpa you kind of figure him out. He’s an old lighthouse keeper. Mum says he never travelled more the ten kilometres away from his lighthouse so you’d think he must have led a bit of a boring life. Yet he claims to have been on the most extraordinary adventures. You kind of realise after a while that it doesn’t ad
d up. If you believe everything he says then you’d have to believe he was once a pirate... once saw fairies dancing about in the woodlots late at night... once healed a unicorn that had been accidentally shot by a hunting party by applying a special herbal ointment he made up himself... once saved a king from drowning in a mud pool... once led an expedition to the south pole during the worst blizzard in a hundred years... once discovered an ancient burial tomb in Egypt...'
Teun curled up his lip. 'Oh, yeah. You told me about some of those.'
'Yeah,' said Marinka. 'And there's plenty more where that came from. Grandpa loves telling stories. But that's the neat thing about Grandpa if you ask me. It's always fun to go over to his place to listen to the next crazy story he's been weaving in his head. He’s like… so out there.'
'So the story with the lighthouse people... just another wind up?'
'Of course it was!'
'And the whole thing with putting our hands together? Swearing we won't go near the place?'
'Oh, that's just Grandpa putting the icing on the cake! He likes to go that step further. He knows that his story is out there and we're probably not