Musing in Montego Bay (Part II)

The red firry setting sun was gradually dipping down in to the horizon with its golden rays glittering over the wavy surface of the ocean. The sea appeared calm but the violent tides splashed over the shore with forceful invasion and retreated every time back to deep sea grabbing and sucking everything on the shore. The forward and backward movement of water followed a definite pattern of pushing and pulling back as if shaking the shores vigorously to awaken her.

Sara could feel the forceful tides touching her feet. She was literally pushed up by the tides forcing her eyes to distract from the beautiful landscape she was watching for quite some time. She was feeling much better now. May be it was the nap which relaxed her nerves and complemented the therapeutic effect of tylenol. Her headache was gone and she felt quite fresh and alert.

Sara recollected the happenings since morning and confessed to herself for this goof up. She realized that they should have taken a direct flight from Philadelphia even though it meant getting up early for the 7:45 flight. It was sheer laziness on her part which led to all the inconvenience they had to bear consequently. The journey itself had a bad start. They boarded the flight to Charlotte well in time but the take off in Philadelphia was delayed by half an hour as it kept on taxiing on the runway for a long time. Worse to follow was waiting for more than two hours to take the connecting flight from Charlotte to Montego Bay, a real nightmare.

She started getting a signal of her migraine when they were waiting at Charlotte airport but she was unable to find tylenol in her hand bag. While packing she had put the container in the check-in baggage. By the time they checked in the Rose Hall Resort, her head was throbbing and she felt like throwing up. Sara gathered all her strength to quickly carry herself to the room.

Sara’s headache started getting worse when she remembered that they had made an advance booking for city tour at 3 PM the same day. She felt sick even to move her head. Peter, her husband, was not very keen to go alone but knowing her migraine pretty well she was certain to be a liability for him at least for next 3-4 hours. She took a tylenol, put a tight band over her forehead and persuaded him to go alone. It was only after a long nap that she felt better and came out on the beach in front of the hotel.

Sara moved up on the shore with the tides gradually rising up. She could no longer see the sun except for an orange glow emitting golden halo from the horizon. She looked at her watch and started thinking about Peter. For a while she thought she should not have left him alone. She had brought him to Montego Bay for a definite purpose and leaving him alone on the very first day could adversely affect her plan. Sara realized her mistake but felt so helpless because of her migraine that not letting him go for the city tour would have been worse. She only prayed that everything went off well as per her plan. It was 7 PM already and she was thinking about Peter.

***
A vacation in Montego Bay was not Peter’s idea in the first place. If he had a choice he would prefer to continue with his research work and other scheduled engagements in Philadelphia rather than wandering around on the beaches in Montego Bay. It was on Sara’s insistence that he finally agreed for this trip. Taking a hopping flight to Montego Bay was also not his suggestion. In fact he expressed no interest in planning the trip. Sara made all the arrangements. Peter was just accompanying her. Right from the time they started their journey he was following her instructions without questioning or getting involved in anything.

Peter was surprised at himself. During the last 6 months he had been practically doing everything he didn’t wish to but Sara persuaded or cajoled him to do things against his wish. He hated to be influenced like this. On several occasions he tried to put his foot down but ultimately he felt vulnerable to agree to whatever she decided for him. This trip was a similar story. He was out in Montego Bay against his wishes and therefore he neither got worked up because of the hopping flights nor did he expect to enjoy his stay in Montego Bay. He was only trying to avoid any confrontation with Sara.

Soon after they checked in the hotel room, Peter could read from Sara’s expressions that she has the ‘teo’ hammering her head – typical signs of migraine which he was able to recognize by now. During the last one year of their married life he had seen her in agony because of severe episodes of migraine. He could imagine her condition whenever she was struck with it. When Sara persuaded him to go for the city tour he refused to leave the hotel room. He wanted to be by her side when she was sick but he also knew from his experience that for the next 4 hours she will not like to be disturbed or even talked to. Therefore he reluctantly agreed to go for the city tour.

When Peter boarded the mini bus from Rose Hall Resort he was least interested in the city tour. But after experiencing the ride, with Joe as the bus driver, his mind started working. Soon after the bus left Rose Hall Palace, Peter closed his eyes and started thinking. Something which was abstract to begin with but after a while began to appear like outlines changing to shapes and then faces, not clearly visible but some kind of human faces, appearing from nowhere and pushing him towards the sea. He started sweating profusely which his co-passenger also noticed. But unaware of his surroundings, he continued to go deeper into his thinking process , as if his feet were getting heavier and his body drowning in the deep sea, deeper and deeper. He struggled to swim but his limbs were limp, he shouted for help but his cries were not audible even to his own ears. He felt exhausted and was about to close his eyes when he saw a strong hand helping him to come out. A strong hand like a steel crane pulling him up, and a giant sized Joe bringing him out of water with a smile on his face and saying, "irie, no problem".

Peter smiled back in excitement and looked up to Joe’s face.

When Peter opened his eyes Joe had stopped the bus in front of Rose Hall Resort lobby and was saying, "Acknowledgment of Joe’s services will be highly appreciated. Say yamaan, irie, no problem !"

Peter was quite impressed with Joe. He had no doubt in his mind that Joe was too smart for words. Joe’s facial expressions and style of talking impressed him the most. Peter had never gambled in his life and was too careful to take any chances particularly with money. But Joe appeared to be the man who could help him. He didn’t give it another thought and offered him a hundred dollar bill.

**
There were no guests in the lobby when Peter entered Rose Hall Resort. He looked around and sat down on a corner chair to cool his nerves and compose himself before facing Sara.

Peter closed his eyes, took a deep breath and rested his back on the chair. His chain of thoughts, which got interrupted when the bus stopped outside the hotel lobby, began to shadow his mind again. He started to think about himself as if discovering his own self. Life had suddenly changed for him during the last 6 months. Everything seemed to go haywire for him. He started losing interest in his research project which was so dear to him. He didn’t want to abort the unique concept of ‘genetic repair’ from his mind which he was nurturing for several years. His lab results where equally promising but whenever he entered the lab he could not concentrate. When he tried to sit on the computer for literature review he felt sleepy. If he tried to overcome his laziness with coffee his heart started beating fast. It was not an exaggeration when he complained to himself that he was unable to perform any productive task in the lab. He lost his appetite. He no more craved for donuts or cookies. Everything was going the wrong way and when he traced the events which followed, he could clearly relate to his protracted insomnia.

Peter did not exactly remember when it started. Like a hidden alarm clock in his head, something rang loudly in his head exactly at 3 in the morning and then he was unable to go back to sleep again. He started long evening walks and aggressively worked out in the gym. Every night he was dead tired before going to bed but again at 3 his eyes opened without a blink. He counted sheep endlessly, his tongue fumbled, his counting got mixed up but his eyes remained wide open. He quietly used some light sedatives without Sara’s knowledge. But nothing worked. He was dead asleep soon after taking the pill only to get up later after 3-4 hours. His lack of sleep was bothering him a lot. He felt reassured when he learnt from the Internet that even 3-4 hours deep sleep is good enough but he failed to understand why he felt so tired and sleepy the whole day. And as the time passed even those few hours of sleep started becoming a nightmare for him.

It was since last one month that things started getting worse for Peter. Soon after falling asleep he felt a sensation of drowning in water, as if somebody has pushed him towards the sea. Somebody appeared from nowhere and dragged him into the deep sea. He did not recognize the face. He was not even sure if it was a man or a woman. But the same figure appeared before his eyes every night and tried to drown him in water. He screamed with fear only to find himself on the bed drenched in sweat and Sara trying to comfort him. Why the same dream? He tried to find a logical reason. It was true that he had a bad experience with swimming when he was a child. But why these dreams when he had already overgrown his childhood fantasies. He was a 30 year old man happily married to a beautiful and caring woman and was well settled professionally.
Why these dreadful dreams? Why?

Peter did not hesitate to consult his Psychiatrist who counseled him and suggested him some medicines. But the problem continued and he could not get the answers to his queries. May be these dreams were just a premonition or a gut feeling? But who was this person who was trying to kill him in his dreams every night ? Peter got a thought block at this point and could not go beyond.

While everybody in the bus was amused with the story of "The White Witch," Peter’s racing imagination rushed past his thought block. He could clearly reconstruct the image in his mind and was certain that the unknown figure in his dreams was not a man but a woman. On close recollection the figure started getting a clearer shape and the picture his mind recognized was shocking. It certainly was her, Sara !"

When the passengers in the bus were looking at the small roads with crowded locals in the downtown market area, Peter was feeling choked to death when he started believing that the person who tries to kill him in his dreams was his own dear wife Sara, whom he loved more than anything else in the world ? Gradually his fear of the unknown started becoming a reality? He was almost certain that it is Sara who wants to kill him in his dreams. And that may be a premonition. But why? He was unable to figure that out.

Peter tried to put the bizarre happenings during last six months in to some logical order. He was surprised at the kind of persuasion and pressure she was putting on him to make him swim. Without asking him she even contracted a person to get their swimming pool renovated. And then her too much insistence on taking this trip to Montego Bay. Peter felt a chill going down his spine. Now he knew for certain what was happening to him for all these months. But what he was not sure about was the motive. Why is she doing it ?

It took him no time to decide what he needed to do to save himself from Sara. He wanted to play safe just in case his suspicion was wrong. He could clearly see why Sara decided to book their accommodation in Rose Hall Resort. The beautiful resort was on the beach itself. He made up his mind that he would never go to the beach with her. He could not be forced to obey her and he would use his discretion, he promised to himself. But he also wanted to know why Sara is behaving like this. He wanted somebody to help him and in this unknown country he could think of nobody who could be better than Joe.

(to be continued)