BLUE BIRD ( PART FOUR )

"Later that day I arrived back at the yacht, but
Lawrence hadn't returned. I told Jack about him,
all I got was: "Oh well boys will be boys."
So why was I so worried? I decided to turn my
attention to the food, after all Lawrence is 34
and quite capable of looking after himself.

The food was amazing as usual, we stayed up chatting, but it was now 10.00 pm, I was concerned
as to where Lawrence was, so I explained that I was
going back to 'BLUZERS,' to see if he was still
there.

When I got there, I walked up to the barman, I
asked him if he had seen Lawrence, luckily he was
the same barman that was working earlier on that
day, he remembered us.
"Oh yes! I remember you both, the other guy left
with that bunch of girls he was with."
"Do you know where they went?" I asked.
"Sorry I can't help you there, never seen the girls
before, though I think they might be on holiday,
they were quite drunk. They left about three hours
ago," he informed me."

Kate stopped Raymond. "Look I need another coffee,
would you like one?"
"Yeah! that would be good, I'm parched with all
this talking."
"I should think you would be," she said. She made
the coffee, then said, "well I'm starting to get
worried now, but go on, so what did you do next?"

"Well there wasn't much I could do, so I went back
to the yacht and explained again to Jack and Celia.
Jack was convinced I worried to much, that Lawrence
was a male, doing what males do, so I said my
goodnight's and retired to bed, but do you know
Kate, I had this awful nightmare that keeps
reoccuring, I dream of this dark figure that keeps
chasing me, it's like I can't get away from him."
"Did you actually say a dark figure chases you?"
Kate interrupted.
"Yeah! why?"
Kate went pale.
"What's wrong Kate?"
"You're not going to believe this, but I have the
same nightmare, the same thing happens to me, this
is really spooky and strange, almost like a warning. Anyway carry on with the story."

"Well the next morning, Lawrence finally arrived
back looking very dishevelled, he smelt awful, he
had thrown up and was all over his clothes. I had
to appologise to Celia and Jack, I couldn't believe
he would do this to me, I got him undressed, then
into bed, he was snoring before his head hit the
pillow. I left him and told Celia and Jack I was
going off to do some more exploring again, they
told me they would be off for the day and that they
would see me later.

I was gone most of the day, but I knew Jack wanted
to get back to the main land before nightfall, so
I got back about 4 pm. Jack was sitting up on deck
waiting for me."
"Ray my friend, I'm glad your back, I'm afraid I
have bad news."
"Oh no! what's happened?" I replied.
"Well we have to leave and Lawrence has gone, he
left a note on his bed saying:- Gone with girls,
don't worry about me, I'll see you later, making
my own way back to the mainland. Your friend
Lawrence. Sorry again Ray, but we have to leave now."

"I just couldn't believe Lawrence would do this,
it was so out of character. I knew we had to leave
so I jumped down on deck and we set off. It felt so
different going back, all those relaxing feelings
had gone, to be replaced by agitation.

It took us about an hour to get back to the mainland. I helped Celia and Jack with all the unloading of the stuff, I got a lift back to their
house. They asked me if I wanted to stay and eat, but to be honest I just wanted to be alone, so I
thanked them and walked back to the hotel.

I grabbed a couple of sandwiches and a coke from the hotel machine, then went straight up to my room, after eating I lay down and fell asleep almost instantly, I was so drained.

I had that nightmare again, I woke about 6 am in
a sweat, it shook me up a bit. I didn't have to be
in work till 10 am, so I set the alarm for 8.30
and went back to sleep.

Luckily I had a couple of hours kip without any bad
dreams, when the alarm went off, I actually felt
alot better, so I jumped in the shower and got
ready for the day ahead.

The first thing I had to do, was explain to the
head waiter that Lawrence wasn't in his room and I
didn't know where he was, which wasn't a lie, he
seemed annoyed but thanked me for letting him know.

Lawrence never arrived back that day. When he didn't come back the day after, I decided I would
go to the police. The officer took down his details, I gave him a photo of Lawrence, then I
gave my details, they said they would be in touch.

I waited three days nothing, so I decided to contact the police again, they said they didn't
have any leads to go on, they couldn't find anyone
who knew the girls, though the officer said that
she fitted the description of alot of girls around
the Island.

The weeks went by, Lawrence had now lost his job
and was replaced by a young spanish girl. Suddenly
it wasn't fun anymore, I stopped going to Celia's
and Jack's bar, I spent most of my evenings in my
room either listening to music and looking at the
four walls, or watching my boring TV. That was it
I had enough. I decided I would fly back to England. I managed to save for the plane flight back home, anything was better than this."

To be continued .........