Chapter 3: The Faley Affair

1

June woke up the next morning finding herself very annoyed. Of course. She thought glumly. The weather shits itself the day I want to go surfing. She looked around. Sammy was still sleeping and June suddenly realised that they both had nightmares last night. It was strange. What are the odds of two people having nightmares on the same night? June wondered. Later she would ask Sammy about it and find out a shocking truth, as she knew she would.

The morning was busy for June as always. She made breakfast for both of her parents. Her mother was going to have a dentist appointment in Bergen and her father was going on a business trip to Oslo. She brushed her teeth while they unhooked their rain slickers. There was a lot of wind today. She thought while they ate their breakfast after her folks went out.

'So tell me,' she said. Sammy looked at her in confusion.

'Tell you what?' he responded, his voice muffled by the food in his mouth.

'What happened in your nightmare last night.'

Silence.

Finally, he spoke. But this time it was quieter and had an element of fear. 'It was… weird,' said Sammy, frowning a bit. 'Very strange. I've never experienced it before.' He shuffled closer to her impulsively. 'Our town was getting levelled by a tsunami.'

A skipped beat thudded in her heart and her nerves were tightened like a knot, she had to be sure. 'What kind of flooding?' she asked. 'Was it like a huge tidal wave?'

'Yeah, something like that,' Sammy suddenly caught up. 'How did you know?'

June felt like her heart was about to jump out of her throat. 'Because-' She paused and stared straight into his eyes like when you are about to ahhh the crowd. 'Because I saw it too. I'd seen it happen.' She whispered.

More silence, longer this time. Sammy felt one of his loose tooth ache. It happens when he's genuinely worried. What is this, premonition? Are we psychics? This thing better not be real. June was nervous, but she was also curious. Perhaps this was the sixth sense no one else had. Or maybe it was an omen. Or perhaps…

'It felt like -' Sammy stared at the table thoughtfully. 'It felt like the tsunami in 1913, only way bigger. It was a terrifying sight. Junie, I had to -'

He stopped talking because a loud sound like thunder rattled their windows. They looked outside and gasped as huge black clouds of smoke rose near Kondalen East and covered the already pale sky. June's first intuition was to phone their parents. Of course, they're probably okay, but who knows? She dialled the Bergen clinic and a nurse picked up. 'Hallo, how may I help you?' The nurse asked politely, and then, ' Do you wish to book a dentist appointment?'

June ignored the question at the thought of her flawless white teeth. 'My mother was going to come to the dentist that she had an appointment with today, has she arrived yet?'

'Sorry - what's your mother's name?'

'Anne-ville Haven.' answered June and now Sammy also came over to listen.

'Let's see. H…' the nurse murmured. June could imagine her fingers flitting through a bunch of folders in alphabetical order. 'H… H. Here we are. We have her in schedule, but don't think she's arrived yet.' June groaned.

'She'll be back in a few hours though, right?' Sammy was saying.

'Don't worry,' the nurse reassured her. 'If anything, I'll tell her to call back as soon as she arrives. Sounds good?'

'Right, thank you,' replied June, and she hung up.

'Should we call Dad?' asked Sammy.

They did so, and he answered. He sounded more worried than they were. 'June! Sammy! Are you alright?' he exclaimed. 'The news just came through. The ironwork factory owned by Faley Industries exploded, god knows how many people were in there. Are you at home?' Cars were honking each other in the background.

'We're fine, Dad.' replied June. 'We're okay, really.'

'The traffic is jammed, Juno,' her dad said frustratedly, 'I won't be able to get to the office in time. No, I'm coming back for you.'

2

Ben was showering when the explosion occurred. At first, he was confused, thinking it was public road works. Then he saw the smoke and gasped. The column of smoke rose ominously from the heart of a broken building, twisting its way through the grey, dawn sky, dispersing and diffusing into the atmosphere. The sight of the Faley Industries factory and building was bent by the heat from the flames, making it look blurry. From afar the incinerating structure looked like a cigar, the one his dad smokes…

Ben was shivering, terrified of a broken sound coming from his own throat that was giggles. I am going through psychological trauma. He thought. Or in other words, I am going nuts. His dad was possibly inside the building. He was probably dead or

(please don't think that)

missing. Whatever it was, it wasn't great.

Gastrointestinal stress was overtaking him as his physical reaction and his stomach churned. He felt extremely nauseous and leapt for the toilet. He closed his eyes and vomited out everything from last night. When he was finished he pressed down the flush with a shaky, sweaty hand, as the vomit dissolved into the water he was hyperventilating, his eyes blinking rapidly and his ears ringing. He allowed himself to collapse onto the floor for a few minutes. The hot shower ran still in the background, the explosion playing repeatedly in his head. He groped the doorknob with an uncontrollable hand and ran out. He put on some clothes and ran out of his front door. It was still raining, but Ben couldn't have cared much less. The traffic was unmovable on Main Street due to the road closure near the burning factory. It was nine in the morning — rush hour so crossing the road would be like squeezing through a herd of hippopotamuses. It's quick thinking time. The factory would be surrounded by police cars which would be way too busy taking care of angry mobs to care about him. He passed by a cyclist and entered the sea of cars, jumping over one another. A while later, he made it to the other side and, without a single catch of breath, went running off towards the factory.

3

The first wrong thing that happened on that fine summer morning was the thunderclouds, making their way east of Skendåsgurg pounding the small town with pouring rain. Skendåsgurg was like an intersection that separates the East and the West Kondalen districts. The two towns were only 2 kilometres apart from Skendåsgurg and they were built to support tourist attractions. Norway is in the corner of the earth in the northern hemisphere, rich in rain and snow. No pollution within 500 kilometres can reach there, in the summer though the air can get dry without any precipitation. Rain always makes its way through, though. The fjords create 2250 millimetres of rain annually, sometimes making Norway wet.

The main reason why the Faley factory exploded that morning was because the founder of the industry — Jayden Faley went to a scheduled drinking party last night instead of remembering to configure the conveyor belts to their right settings. They worked all night. Busy malfunctioning and breaching the system. One of the tiles punctured a hole in a liquid oxygen tank, leaking oxygen fluid onto the floor. At the same time, electricity shortages used the work of the morning rainwater to lead active electricity straight into the leakage. When the reaction occurred, an unfortunate man walking outside the building first heard and felt the intensity of the explosion, he was instantly knocked out cold and had his right ear drum permanently deafened by the sound. He woke up a few hours later and decided to leave and never come back. God bless.

The factory was crippled by its interior walls, and great flames licked the ceiling. Black smoke emerged from some vents and broken windows in continuous bursts. Suddenly another explosion sent a chunk of the concrete wall and its rebars crashing into the pitch of Main Street. Now you don't see this kind of thing happen every single day.

4

When Ben arrived he pretended to slow down and look astounded as an average pedestrian would. The front entrances were inaccessible due to the road closure so he went through the back. Not thinking of what he was doing, he unlocked the back gate with his father's spare master keys and stepped into the flames and wisps, trying to find someone, anyone. Even as he peered in a flying piece of debris made of steel struck the door and ricocheted off within two inches of his head. He jerked himself back, gasping as a fork of lightning tore through the doomed sky with a blinding purple flash followed by a rolling thunder.

A hand gripped his shoulder. He turned about and saw a police officer standing before him—a gun in his hand.

'Ahoy,' he said, not too friendly. 'You are not supposed to be here, kid. This place is prohibited. Get out of here, now."

"But officer…' began Ben, but not before another explosion rocked the surface. Shards of glass and debris went flying everywhere. Ben ducked. He wasn't fast enough as a piece of broken glass flew into his arm and he yelled. He ran out of the area with the cop and sat down on the sidewalk. He ignored the agony and checked around them to ensure they were safe. Then he saw the police officer looking at his injured forearm.

'Are you alright?' he asked while he rummaged in his bag for a first aid kit. Ben looked down to find an open wound bleeding steadily out of his blood, a shard of metal sticking out from his veins. A hot, numbing sensation was growing as the injury began to swell up.

'Doesn't look too bad,' he said. He took out a clamp and gently pulled at the impaled debris. Even though he was as gentle as possible, Ben still had to close his eyes to control himself from the pain. 'Done,' said the man, taking out an iodine cotton wool and securing it with bandages. 'HQ, this is Robert. I have found ourselves another victim. He's moderately injured. I am returning now. Over.'

'Officer,' interrupted Ben. 'my father might be in there.' The rain grew, showering down on them and making their eyesight blurry.'

'I don't think so, kid.' said the officer, walking Ben towards a group of people. 'We searched the interior building, but no one's there.' He paused. 'When did your father come?'

'I…don't know,' said Ben. 'he set off about one hour ago, forty minutes before it happened.

'He should have been here by now, but there is a slim chance he didn't because of the rush hour. We shall see.'

'What is his name?'

'Jayden Faley.' Ben couldn't help himself. And there's more reason to make everything right.

'Right,' said the policeman. 'We'll do our best. Right now, I suggest you come with me for further news, possibly the finding of your father.'

Possibly. thought Ben gravely. Another police officer took him into a shuttle, where no cold breezes, harsh rain and wetness could get into.

So he waited, for a long time. His wound synced with his heartbeat. Well, I'm not climbing monkey bars anytime soon. He thought randomly and laughed himself off. He looked out of the window at the battering rain. His frame curled on a chair, and his mind was lost. Memories came flooding back, swift and unstoppable.

Like the rain, he thought.

5

(June of 1926)

'Daddy?'

'Yes, Ben?'

'Is the rain ever gonna go away?'

'No, I think not,' smiled his father. 'Truth is, I don't know. It's the season of the year when the rain is vibrant, and it is kind of out of anyone's control,' he shrugged and lifted young Benjamin to the bedroom. 'Now let's get you to bed. Don't you want to go to Oslo tomorrow? On the brand new car?'

Young Ben beamed. 'Yeah!! Drive the new car!' he wiggled excitedly in his father's bear bug.

'Come on now, let's sleep,' his father whispered. 'Just like mum.'

'When will we wake up?' asked Ben.

Jayden smiled. 'As soon as you do, in the morning.'

'Okay, Daddy.'

'Good night, Ben.'

'Good night, Daddy.'

'Good night.' Daddy kissed him and turned off the table lamp.

(June of 1927)

Ben waddled in his pyjamas to his parent's bedroom, bare feet on the carpet, a doll in hand, to find his father sobbing and kneeling beside the bedside. His jaw dropped at what he saw.

His mother was lying on the bed, looking pretty unconscious with no colour on her face, like a skeleton in the palest snow in the deep winter. Her hands were dangling off the side.

'Dad?' said Ben in a shaky voice. 'What's happening to mum? Is she unwell?'

'Yes, Ben.' Daddy said in a quavering voice, looking hopeless and despaired. 'I am so sorry, I have failed.' Then he broke and was sobbing again, harder this time, and uncontrollable. Ben watched them helplessly, an icy chill bolted up his small frame, a hand clutching tightly onto the doll. He was too young back then, to watch someone die, to understand.

Thunder rumbled above and the rain dropped heavily from the pale grey sky like tears that finally let go from the eyelids. Ben went back to his room, traumatised. He sat down on the mattress, staring deeply at the ground he fell into a tunnel of terrible darkness that bared no light, to and fro he was thrown at the tunnel walls, a tidal bore was coming for him, was going to engulf him…

(July 1930)

My father showed an improvement today, Ben wrote. He volunteered to take me to the theme park, though during the entire thing he was silent. It didn't happen any day. Nothing like this happens every day – since Mother died he had been driven to his knees, his face emotionless and his tall frame seemed to be shrinking. His company was excelling at gaining profit, but our lives didn't get any better. By five o'clock this afternoon it was raining hard. This kind of thing happens all the time during summer. I don't think he cares either. I need to make sure to not upset him, or that would be the end of me otherwise. God knows what he'll do to me. I also need to make sure he doesn't find this either. I was starting to dislike him. His choices and actions are not the very least sane ones. They make me sick. God please help us, put us out of our miseries.

(August 1931)

Ben was doing the dishes like usual when he burst through the door with such agility that Ben might have imagined him teleporting over here. He yanked Ben by the collar and threw him – he flew out of the kitchen door and a few feet after that he began the descending process. A cloud of dust rose as he crashed to the carpet floor. A sharp pain came to his shin as he felt a layer of his skin peel off like grated cheese before his head made contact with the master bedroom door. A few seconds later unconsciousness claimed him. His last expression to the world was confusion, but deep down he felt grief and sorrow because he knew this was only a part of his father's mental illness. His father, who loved him so much until his mother died, had his love die with her. Some things are beyond fixing. thought Ben before he finally drifted away…

The clock ticked on…

6

(present time, 1934)

Ben was interrupted by the incoming shouts and sirens. He stood up. The rain seemed to slacken from the window, and the sky was clearing, but the air was still frosty to touch. He looked up and saw an officer coming in from the door.

'We have found your father. What news good or bad?' he continued without waiting for Ben to reply. 'We found him in the rubble, he has suffered sufficient injuries. He is being transported to the hospital at this moment.'

Ben stood up and walked to the door. 'Take me there, officer.' he said without further questioning.

It took them maybe 20 minutes to get there. The hospital is overcrowded with people. Ben slipped through the crowd with the police, his right arm supported by his left. His eyes scanned past the doors of the wards. Finally, they stopped at number 31. A doctor hurried to Ben's side and said: 'That is the room, he's in there right now.'

Ben felt blood plummeting in his ears. He stepped in and saw his father lying on a surgical table. There were cuts and bruises all over him. An open wound in his torso was bandaged tightly yet blood was still seeping through. Oh, gods. He thought. I knew this was going to happen. The doctor instructed him to stay put by his side while he went to get some narcotics. A nurse took his injured arm and started to work on stitching after giving Ben a sedative injection. Ben closed his eyes and went to sleep…

The gap between the mountain and a large embodiment of land was increased to more than ten metres wide. A landslide was inevitably going to happen, yet still, no one noticed a disaster coming their way…