Dusty and the Doppelgänger Part 3
Hunter didn’t rush round to the house, but he was there within an hour of the phone conversation. He had a tall and elegant older man with him. Dusty’s grandparents could only assume that it was his father.
Ben welcomed Hunter in with his usual warmth and extended the invitation to the gentleman, who nodded his reply and removed his hat before entering the house. As usual, they gathered in the kitchen. Dusty was called down from her room, and when she did come downstairs, still in her nightclothes, Hunter was heard to gasp in surprise. Ben and Colleen were shocked too. Dusty looked so much worse than she had before she went upstairs for a nap to combat the tiredness she was plagued by of late.
Dusty’s face brightened a little when she saw Hunter but his face remained stony and she became worried. “What is it? Has there been bad news?” she asked, but no one replied to her questions.
Dusty’s eyes were sunken into their sockets. The dark circles looked like bruises and her cheeks were beginning to hollow. Her complexion was sallow and her skin was beginning to appear waxy. She looked tired to the point of exhaustion.
Dusty had never met any of Hunter’s family. She didn’t know how Hunter fitted in to the half demon category – the topic of conversation had never arisen, but she was polite when introductions were made. Hunter’s father fixed a stony glare on Dusty, and she was puzzled by his open hostility towards her.
Before she could question anyone else, her granddad spoke. “I don’t know what Hunter told you about our phone conversation earlier, but there’s a problem...”
Hunter’s father interrupted. “Yes, there certainly is. Your granddaughter seems to be toying with my son’s affections, and it must stop.”
“Father, please don’t,” Hunter said, and his father didn’t say anything more. He sat at the table with an untouched cup of tea by his hand and he glared at Dusty.
Hunter continued when he knew that his father wasn’t going to interrupt or interfere again.
“Dusty, we can’t carry on like this. I had begun to think that we could be more than friends, and that we could even have a future together, but after yesterday and today, I think that it would be best if we didn’t see each other again.”
Dusty’s grandparents looked at each other, but were at a loss for words. Then Ben asked: “What on earth has she done to warrant this kind of treatment?”
Hunter’s father sat up straighter in his chair and he bristled at Ben’s question.
“I will tell you if you really do want to know how your granddaughter behaves. She came around to my home yesterday morning and woke the whole household. It was before dawn and we were all sleeping. She was apparently trying to find Hunter’s room but because she didn’t find him, she knocked on the front door to get the attention she was seeking. When his elder brother Garman answered the door, she seemed to forget all about Hunter and she immediately began to...” he paused as though trying to find the proper words. “She began to make friends with him.” The phrase was full of sarcasm and there was obviously a hidden meaning behind it, but Dusty was far too tired for playing games. It would have been better if he had just told her what he meant and not beaten around the bushes as he was doing.
“She was invited into my home by my eldest son, and when the whole family was awake and downstairs, instead of apologising for the disgraceful behaviour, she proceeded to antagonise and disrespect my home, my wife and my family individually and as a whole. During the course of the day, Hunter made many apologies for her behaviour. He couldn’t understand it, and was certain that there was an explanation for it. He assured us all that she was not usually so ill-mannered, rude or provocative, and that he would get to the bottom of it. He had not found the cause for her behaviour by the time she left – without saying a word to anyone that she was leaving, which is one more piece of evidence of how the girl has been allowed to run wild without guidance in our ways.”
Hunter’s father glared at Dusty and her grandparents in turn before continuing. “I found out later that not only was she rude to my wife in criticising the meal she provided for her, but she was also actively flirting with all of Hunter’s brothers, and believe me when I say this, I use the term ‘flirting’ only because of my manners and respect for Dusty’s grandparents’ sense of propriety.”
Hunter held his hand up to his father to stop him from speaking any more. He could see that Ben was becoming angry. “Please, Ben, let me finish. I can cope with Dusty’s uncharacteristic behaviour. I am not jealous, but there is one more thing that I must tell you. The reason that I am so very angry with her is because this morning at around eight o’clock, she came back to the house. She was not as noisy as the day before and I didn’t even know she had arrived. She walked into the house, went up to my parents’ room and stole something of my mother’s. It’s not guess work, I saw her coming out of my mother’s room and though I thought it odd, it wasn’t until my mother found that she was missing her favourite piece of jewellery that I felt I had to say something about what I saw.”
“What?” Dusty seemed to explode. She stood up so fast that she knocked over the chair that she had been sitting on. It clattered on the tiled kitchen floor and she continued her outburst. “I haven’t done anything!” She seemed about to say more, but then the fury took its toll on her exhausted body and she sat down on the floor where her chair had been. Then she did something that no one in the room could have foreseen, and certainly none expected from the feisty, self-confident girl; she began to sob. “I haven’t done anything,” she repeated between the deep gasps for breath. “I was ill yesterday. I haven’t been out, and you’re breaking up with me because of something that I haven’t done?” She looked up at Hunter, right in his eyes, and for a moment it would seem that his resolve was set, that he had come to break up with her and nothing would sway him from that, but something made him think again.
“You have done something Dusty, I saw you, I was there. But, your eyes...” he said and stopped talking.
“Hunter, what is it about her eyes? What have you seen?” Dusty’s grandmother took up the momentum and prompted Hunter.
“It’s not just what I’ve seen; it’s what I didn’t see yesterday and this morning.” Hunter went across to Dusty and lifted her chin so that he could stare deep into her eyes. “There! That’s what I didn’t see!” He turned to his father. “Look into her eyes, father, the spark of demon is there, but it wasn’t there yesterday or this morning. Dusty has been sleepwalking I think, and she therefore can’t be held accountable for her actions, can she?” Hunter sounded hopeful in his question. but his father didn’t seem convinced.
Ben spoke then: “Sleepwalking? It’s not possible, Hunter. You said that Dusty was at yours at eight this morning and I can tell you for an absolute certainty that she wasn’t. I tried to wake her at eight and she told me in a very weary voice that she needed more sleep. She could not have been at your house...”
Dusty interrupted the conversation then, she lifted her arm as though it was the most strenuous thing she had ever done, and she slapped her palm on the table to gain everyone’s attention. “I couldn’t have been at your house, because I don’t know where you live.” Her hand slid back off the table and landed in her lap.
With that one sentence, the room went silent. Hunter’s father looked at Hunter and then at Ben. Hunter’s mouth opened and closed in a series of silent words as he realised that what Dusty had said was absolutely true. She had never been to his home; she didn’t know where he lived. So how could she have sleepwalked there?
There was a flurry of activity as Ben and Colleen left the kitchen with the instruction to Hunter and his father to not go anywhere. They came back laden with books and scrolls and they put them on the table in front of Hunter and his father.