It was great. We did not have to wait a minute once we reached the pick-up section of the airport, as there were a handful of taxis to choose from already lined up waiting for a fare. In fact, there were drivers sitting in their vehicles, and taxi drivers leaning against them, just waiting patiently to pick someone up.

I held up my hand as we walked up to one of the taxi drivers and the driver came right over and said, “Hi there, where are you two headed? Let me help you with your luggage.”

I set down my luggage, shook his hand, and replied, “We are headed to a town called Dripping Springs, and you can help her with her bags.”

The cab driver grabbed Elizabeth’s luggage, I grabbed mine, and we followed him over to his cab. Elizabeth got in the back seat while the cab driver and I loaded the luggage into the trunk. After we got into the car, the cab driver asked, “Where are you two headed today?”

I looked back at Elizabeth with a concerned look on my face and said, “I thought I already told you where we were headed before we got into the vehicle?”

The man looked at me with a weird look on his face without saying a word when Elizabeth said, “We are headed to the small town of Dripping Springs.”

The cab driver grinned and said, “That is what I had thought, but I wanted to make sure before I blurted out the name again, as it is an unusual name for a town. Now that we have got that awkward moment out of the way, Dripping Springs it is.”

The cab driver took off, weaved in and of the slow moving traffic through the terminal and finally we made it to the main highway. I was glad that I was not driving through all this mess, good grief the traffic was heavily congested until we made it clear of the airport. From then on the traffic thinned even more as we made our way out into the rural parts. On the way to our new destination, Elizabeth was quieter than she had been in the last thirty minutes of the airplane ride that is until the landing. I wonder if it had to do with the numerous glasses of red wine that we drank on the plane. Maybe the effects of the wine were wearing off. Therefore, to find out what was bothering her I asked, “What is the matter Elizabeth, are old memories coming back to you?”

“No, not really, this is just the first time that I have been back to England since my parent’s deaths, and now their thoughts are running through my head.”

“Memories are a good thing, as long as they are good memories, and from what you have told me about your parents, they should be. Although, I am sorry that you have to come back under such grueling circumstances. You know the things that we had both witnessed back at the Blackwood Manor.”

Elizabeth changed the subject and said, “I have been also thinking about my aunt Cassandra, and what you had said about all the weird things that might have happened to her while she was supposedly stranded on the island for sixteen years, you know, the shrunken heads, voodoo, natives, and human sacrifices.”

Right then the taxi driver turned and looked at me with a confused look on his face and said, “What are you two talking about? What is this about shrunken heads, voodoo, and human sacrifices?”

I replied, “It was just a movie that we are helping to produce on an island that is all.”

The taxi driver grinned and said, “Ok, if you say so.”

Then Elizabeth finished what she had started to say when our most lively conversation had been interrupted by the taxi driver and said, “I simply cannot believe that my Aunt Cassandra would ever do anything to bring harm to anyone, especially to myself, or my mother.”

“Elizabeth, just because I mentioned all those things does not mean that they had actually occurred, it does not mean that I am one-hundred percent right about the accusations. I am sure that she is really a sweet and lovely old lady.”

Nonetheless, I still could not wait to speak with her. Just at that moment the cab driver said “This is it folks, the small rural town of Dripping Springs,” and giggled.

Elizabeth replied, “You can drop us off in front of the restaurant up ahead on the right called Gnaw Bone, it is the town’s only restaurant.”

“No problem” said the cab driver.

Then I asked, “Elizabeth, why can’t the cab driver take us directly to the house?”

She turned and gave me an awkward look and said, “There is only way to get the house, and that is a dirt road many times worse than the one you drove down getting to the Blackwood Manor. In this rainy place we will need a four-wheel drive vehicle to get us there.”

I asked, “And where do you plan on getting this four-wheel drive vehicle?”

Elizabeth replied with a smirk on her face, “You just leave that up to me, I have it covered.”

We pulled up in front of the restaurant, got out of the cab, and grabbed our luggage while a light mist of rain started falling. We gave our fell wells to the taxi driver and then I followed Elizabeth inside the restaurant to get out of the mist that was falling. I sat down at the only available table in the corner of the restaurant while Elizabeth went to find someone that she knew. I waited, and in no time, I saw her walking towards me with an old man following right behind her.

As soon as she approached me at the table she said, “Bartemius, I would like you to meet Mason Williams, Mason, I would like you to meet Bartemius.”

I stood up and reached out to shack his hand, as I replied, “Glad to meet you Bartemius.”

As we shook each other’s hands,he chuckled and said, “I am pleased to meet you as well Mason Williams, and I am very pleased that young Elizabeth here is finally finding out that there are more important things in life than old dilapidated houses to hold her interests.”

Elizabeth’s facial expression said it all, without her saying a word. It seemed as if his last remark had just infuriated her as she said with a stern voice, “Alright Bartemius, I think it is time to get going, shall we!”

Bartemius responded by pointing towards the back of the restaurant with a big smile across his face and said, “My jeep is parked out back, let’s get to it then.”

Elizabeth and I grabbed our belongings and headed towards the back of the restaurant, through the door and out into the alley located behind the old restaurant where Bartemius’s four-wheel drive jeep was parked. Bartemius opened up the doors to the small trailer that was hooked up to the jeep and I made quick work out of throwing our luggage inside. Bartemius closed the doors and latched them up while I climbed into the passenger side seat of the jeep. Shortly after closing the door I heard Elizabeth laugh and say, “Damn, you sure did get drenched Mason.”

I looked at her in the rear view mirror and said, “It did not seem as if I was in the down poor long enough to get drenched.” However, I soon realized it once I turned to look at Elizabeth in the back seat of the Jeep.

A minute later Bartemius climbed in, closed the door, and said, “We are off.” Bartemius was talkative from the moment he closed the door to the jeep and started the engine. Right from the get go I would say. As we made our way to the Manor, the three of us seemed as if we were getting along just fine.