Crazy Cornelius & the Magic Pills Ch. 07

As night fell rain set in across Sydney and surrounding regions, and the media storm over the Hawkins case continued. However, despite saturated media coverage the missing six -- or seven depending on where Brendan Hawkins was -- had still not been located.

Towards 8.30 pm, Alistair's four wheel drive and Danielle's sedan pulled into the car park of a relatively quiet beach close to Cronulla in Sydney's far southern suburbs. Erica was relieved not to be spending another night in an eerie forest, as this had only gone badly on the previous two nights.

Erica looked out through the sand dunes at the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean, seeing the waves roll into the sand and then recede. Lightning was visible further out to sea, with the distant roll of thunder. The young girl hoped that no sea monsters would come out of the ocean in the night to get them, and it was clear her father had similar concerns.

"Again, we take it in turn to keep watch," said Alistair. "Gavin, you're in the car with Danielle and the fucking idiot."

"Hey, don't call me that," grumbled Cornelius.

"I call you a fucking idiot because you are a fucking idiot," growled Alistair. "You don't want me to call you a fucking idiot, don't act like a fucking idiot."

Gavin obediently got into the back of Danielle's car and as rain fell across Cronulla in torrents, the group prepared to sleep for the night while one in each car kept watch. However, in the driving rain everyone in the four wheel drive and the sedan immediately fell asleep and within seconds each were fast asleep, as though they had been delivered an anesthetic in hospital. Even loud claps of thunder were not enough to wake the six from their deep slumber.

*

Alistair Hawkins snapped awake and expected to be in his marital bed at home. He was not, and he was instead sitting in the driver's seat of his four wheel drive, parked in the car park of a beach at Cronulla. It was dawn, and drizzle was falling outside. "What the hell am I doing here?" he asked to himself.

In the seat beside him Faye was also waking up and Erica was stirring in the back, both women looking utterly confused. Like Alistair, they had that same feeling of disorientation and of missing time. Thinking the past few days might have been some weird dream Alistair checked the date on his watch to see if it was Friday morning. It wasn't, it was Tuesday morning, five days later.

"Alistair, what's going on?" the confused Faye asked. "Have we really been driving around for four days?"

"We must have been, although I don't know why," said Alistair. He, his wife and daughter got out of the car and went to Danielle's car, where she and Gavin were emerging, both also looking confused.

"So all that driving around, getting chased by monsters, ghosts, UFOs and demons, did we really do it?" Gavin asked. "It can't have been real."

"I feel so strange," said Erica. "In one way, I feel that I've lost a lot of time, but in other ways it feels like I fell asleep on Thursday night and woke up ten minutes later."

"I feel the same," said Danielle. "Did we really imagine everything we did the past few days, or did we do some of it and imagine other things?"

"Whatever we saw of demons, ghosts, monsters and aliens we must have imagined because those things don't exist," said Alistair firmly.

"So what happened to us?" Faye mused.

Alistair looked at Danielle's car where Cornelius was still sound asleep in the front passenger seat, sucking on his thumb as he did so. Alistair's face darkened, and he strode over to the car, flung open the door and dragged the sleeping Cornelius out of his seat shaking him violently.

"Wakey, wakey Cornelius," he bellowed into his son's face.

"Dad, what the fuck?" Cornelius complained. He felt the rain falling on him as his angry father shook him awake, and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings of a beach car park, the sound of gulls and magpies audible in the wet morning, the roll of the ocean waves also evident. Cornelius looked around, seeing a sign with 'Cronulla' on it.

"Dad, what the fuck are we doing at Cronulla?" Cornelius complained.

Alistair laughed bitterly. "How about you tell me, son? You tell me why we have been driving around for four fucking days doing fuck only knows what?"

Cornelius did not answer, so Alistair raised his fist to punch him.

"I don't fucking know," Cornelius complained bitterly. "This is fucking weird, how should I know what's happening and why we're here."

"Because whenever anything weird happens in our house -- and weird things happen all the time -- then you are always at the center of it!" thundered Alistair, punching Cornelius hard in the stomach to which he fell backwards.

"I haven't done nothing!" Cornelius grumbled, the angry Alistair raising his fist again.

"Alistair, Cornelius, stop it, this isn't helping anyone," said Faye. "If we've been away four days then people will be worried about us, and we need to find out what's going on."

"I remember seeing a report about us being missing on TV yesterday when we looked into that café in Wollongong," said Erica. She looked confused again. "But then again, maybe we dreamed all that?"

There was only one way to find out, and Alistair turned on the radio in his four wheel drive where the early morning news came on. All six listened to the report about them being missing, the state of their abandoned house and of sightings of them in various towns and cities throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

"We need to get in touch with the police, to sort all this mess out," said Alistair. "There must be a police station around here somewhere."

Faye was extremely worried. "Alistair, they said that the police and forensics were going through our house. Imagine the effect that would have had on Brendan. We need to get home to make sure he is okay and hasn't freaked out completely."

"You're right, we need to get home," said Alistair. "By the sound of it, there won't be a shortage of police at our house when we get there."

As Cornelius got into the passenger seat he saw his Dad looking at him in a funny way, a look he had become used to, that his Dad suspected him of knowing more than he was letting on.

Danielle got into the driver's seat and started her car, Gavin in the back of the four wheel drive with Erica, Faye in the passenger seat, Alistair driving. During the drive up through the southern Sydney suburbs that comprised the Sutherland Shire, then through the St George region heading towards the city Alistair looked into his rear vision mirror seeing Danielle and Cornelius having animated conversations in the car behind.

What were they talking about? Alistair knew that they were up to no good, and he knew that Cornelius especially knew something more about what had been happening than he was letting on. Alistair would find out the truth, and then he would take it out on Cornelius's arse.

"I'm going to kick Justin's arse," Cornelius complained to Danielle. "Selling us those dud drugs with the weird side effects. We've been freaking him out. As soon as we get back I'm calling him to demand my money back."

His wife was unimpressed. "No Cornelius, didn't you hear the news on the radio? There's cops everywhere. You need to let this go."

"Stuff that, I'm still going to call him," said Cornelius. "Justin is fucked. And my Dad knows something is up. If he finds out what happened, he will literally kill me this time."

"Maybe it wasn't the drugs?" Danielle suggested. "They were duds. We took them on Thursday and nothing happened. Perhaps it was something else? Food poisoning maybe."

"Nah, it was those pills Justin sold me," complained Cornelius. "If he thinks he can get away with ripping me off I'll..."

"You're not doing anything Cornelius, just keep your mouth shut until we know what we're dealing with, and then you still keep your mouth shut? Nobody must ever know about it. Got it?"

Chastened at being told off by his wife, Cornelius sulked the rest of the way. The city was approaching, and with it came busy early morning traffic. The two cars drove past Hyde Park, when Danielle began to feel her steering go heavy.

"Oh shit, I've got a flat, quick hold up the sign for them to stop," she said, Cornelius waving the sign out the window.

"Dad!" said Erica, indicating the sign.

Sighing deeply and irritated at this delay, Alistair pulled the four wheel drive into a vacant spot, Danielle doing the same with her disabled vehicle.

Jumping out, Danielle immediately saw what the problem was her front left tyre, it was completely flat, likely a fast puncture.

"Got a flat," Danielle said, indicating the wheel and going to the boot to retrieve the spare, jack and other tools to change it. Cornelius did nothing, just stood there to watch his wife change the tyre.

"So you're changing the tyre yourself?" Alistair asked.

Danielle nodded and laughed. "Yeah of course. Any good Novocastrian girl knows how to change a tyre."

Alistair looked at his son. "So you're okay with this? You're happy to stand there while your wife changes the tyre on your car?"

"Nuh," grunted Cornelius, looking at the grey sky overhead.

"Do you even know how to change a tyre Cornelius?" his angry father challenged. "What a stupid question, of course you bloody don't. You got kicked out of and banned from workshop class in high school, shows how useless you are."

When their son was in high school, Alistair and Faye knew that Cornelius was never going to be a star HSC student and go to university, so insisted that he take manual arts classes -- woodwork, metalwork and workshop -- with the view to getting him an apprenticeship and a trade.

Unfortunately all Cornelius did in these classes like most classes was act the goat, and playing silly buggers with an oxy-acetylene welder in a workshop classes led to him getting busted by a chain of teachers, banned from the class, suspended from school for a week and a beating with Alistair's belt when his angry Dad found out about it.

"I can't stand here and watch you change the tyre while your useless oaf of a husband does nothing, I'll do it, it's less embarrassing," growled Alistair.

"Okay then, thanks Alistair," said Danielle, allowing her father-in-law to take over.

"Would you like a hand Mr. Hawkins?" Gavin asked.

"Humpf," said Alistair in response, before concentrating on removing a wheel nut.

Gavin wished his girlfriend's father had given him an affirmative or negative response rather than just 'humpf' which wasn't very helpful. However the young man knew that if he did assist Alistair then he would be criticized for doing something wrong, if he did nothing, then Alistiar would be cross for not helping. So Gavin just stood back and got on with it.

Possibly all of this had hurt Cornelius's pride, and he said in his sulky tone he said, "I'm going to the toilet."

"Make sure you sit down to piss, any guy who can't change a tyre when his wife can is the type of guy who should sit down when they piss," Alistair growled at his departing son.

A very handy sort of person, Alistair had the tyre changed only slightly less efficiently than a pit crew, but now was covered in dirt and crap. Grabbing a rag he wiped off some of it as he put away the jack, tools and flat tyre, but would need to wash off the worst of it.

Alistair saw the nearest toilet block was only short way away, but when he looked across the lawns he saw his son in the far distance walking between some trees.

"What the fuck, is that idiot so damn stupid he can't see the toilets there?" Alistair grumbled.

"Who knows what goes through his mind?" the despairing Faye asked.

Alistair still convinced Cornelius was up to something fishy made out he was headed for the near toilets, but instead he took another path and under the cover of trees and bushes and unseen by the rest of the family, set off in pursuit of his slacker son.

Way across on the other side of Hyde Park, Cornelius found what he was looking for -- a public phone booth. Taking some coins out of his pocket, he dialed the number and heard it ringing.

"Hello?" came up the drugged up voice of Imogen, Justin's junkie cousin.

"I want to speak to Justin, Imogen," said Cornelius. "It's Cornelius."

"Justin, Justin, Justin," Imogen screeched. "Cornelius is on the phone he wants to talk to you."

All was quiet apart from Cornelius hearing some whispers, before Imogen got back on the phone. "Sorry Cornelius, Justin said he can't come to the phone, he and Mitch have gone out."

Stressed out, Cornelius missed the stupidity of the dim-witted Imogen's reply. "Well where have they gone and when will they be back?"

"I'll just ask," said Imogen. Cornelius heard her yell out, "Mitch, Cornelius wants to know where you and Justin have gone, and when you're back. What do you and Justin want me to tell him?"

Cornelius fumed as Justin came onto the phone. "If you had a brain you'd be dangerous Imogen," Justin admonished his cousin.

"I like blue heaven ice-cream with white chocolate topping," Imogen said in response.

"Oh hey Cornelius, what's up?" Justin asked. "You know you and your family have been headline news. Where did you vanish to?"

"Never mind that, it's all your fault those pills you sold me on Thursday," stormed Cornelius. "I put them in everyone's food as a joke, and we were all going batshit crazy hallucinating for four days, and Dad's absolutely lost his shit. If my Dad finds out what really happened I'm dead. Plus I want a refund on that gear, it's fucking dangerous."

"Sorry mate, it's a no refund policy," said Justin. "But tell you what, when all this dies down and the cops aren't sniffing around, I'll give you a big discount on some pot or magic mushrooms? How about that?"

"I guess, but that marijuana and magic mushrooms had better not be fucked like those crap pills," complained Cornelius as he hung up the phone.

He turned to go back, but from behind some bushes stepped out a tall bearded man wearing a very stern expression upon his countenance. "Hello Cornelius."

Cornelius looked at his father's unblinking eyes that bore into his soul. "Oh hi, Dad, I was just calling Social Security, I remembered I had an appointment this afternoon and I didn't want them to cut off my dole payments for missing it..."

"Just cut out the bullshit Cornelius, I heard the whole fucking conversation with your drug dealer. I know what you did and now you're going to pay."

Alistair appeared remarkably calm and composed. Cornelius laughed nervously. "Maybe you misheard things?"

"No, I didn't," Alistair said. "So guess what's going to happen Cornelius? I'm going to give you a five second head start before I catch you, skin you alive and hang you out to dry."

The crazy look in his father's face told Cornelius that flight was a better option than fight, and he sprinted across the Hyde Park lawns, Alistair in close pursuit bellowing at him.

Lots of people were out and about in Hyde Park and they stopped and looked in amazement at a lanky young man being chased by an angry older man. As a boy Cornelius when it trouble with his father would call his Dad Alistair just to get him angrier, and he reverted to this type of behavior now, yelling 'Alistair, Alistair, Alistair!' as his father continued to chase him through the parkland.

It was Cornelius's voice yelling 'Alistair' repeatedly that alerted the others that something was wrong, and Faye, Gavin, Danielle and Erica watched as Cornelius appeared from behind some oak trees, running at top speed with Alistair chasing him, Alistair's face bright red and contorted with rage.

Faye could only feel that only too familiar feeling of despair going through her body. "What has Cornelius done to annoy your father this time?" she asked Erica.

In addition to the four family members, many other witnesses observed the bizarre chase. Alistair did not notice them. In hot pursuit of his son, he could feel the signs of heart attack and stroke that his cardiologist had warned him of, but he was so enraged he ignored these. Just like he ignored the feeling of his skin being hot. Very, very hot almost like he had touched a hot plate on the stove. The only thing he wanted to do was capture and punish Cornelius for what he had done.

It was Cornelius who first noticed something was wrong. Glancing back to see how close his father was, he noticed blue flames flickering around Alistair's head, more blue flames on his arms. Soon all the other people watching the chase could see the strange blue flames dancing around Alistair, but the man himself did not seem to notice them.

"Alistair!" Faye screamed, but her husband would never hear his wife's last words to him.

The heart attack surged through Alistair's cardiovascular system and the stroke that tore through his brain made everything go blank. Alistair, still roaring with rage, fell forward onto the lawn the blue flames getting bigger and surrounding his entire form, before there was a tremendous explosion like a gas bottle exploding.

All the wide-eyed witnesses could do was watch in shock as Alistair exploded from deep inside his body, a furnace of blue flames consuming him in his entirety. The heat was intense, Bunsen burner level intense as Alistair vanished in the blue flames, completely consumed in the fire.

Then as intensely as they had burned, the blue flames cooled down, turning to orange then vanishing all together. Faye stood rigid in shock as Cornelius surveyed what remained of his father. Two young Irish girls called the fire brigade on their mobile phone, and a young Middle Eastern man had grabbed a fire extinguisher from his car and sprinted across.

But it was all too late for him and everyone else, including the stunned Hawkins family to do anything. Despite the intensity of the blaze that had consumed and destroyed Alistair Hawkins his clothes and shoes lay intact on the grass where he fell, the clothing and the grass barely singed despite the inferno just seconds earlier.

Within Alistair's clothes all that remained was ashes, much like the ashes of a person cremated, the ashes in a vague human shape. Other than that all that remained to be seen of Alistair Hawkins by the horrified onlookers as the wailing of the sirens of the approaching fire brigade, ambulance and police filled the air was his lower right leg, burned off completely below the knee and still encased in the boot he was wearing.

Erica, herself in shock at seeing her father literally explode in front of her, put her arm around her mother as Faye stood rigid looking at what remained of her husband, and not wanting to face the reality that had entered her mind. She was now a widow.

END OF CHAPTER 7 -- THE END -- ALMOST - BUT NOT QUITE.....