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It was a colder night than had been forecast, and we were not expecting the rain. Just as we had finished pitching the tent, the heavens opened. Barkley ran from the car with our sleeping bags.
“I thought you said it was going to be a clear dry night,” he shouted out to me as he slammed the boot of the car.
“That's what it said, I checked it twice, dry all night. It was forecast rain, but not until 10 am.”
He came through the tent's zipper door with drops of rain permeating his jogger top and threw my sleeping bag at me. We had pitched our tent in the same place as last time; the tall tree behind us gave us a little shelter from the rain, but not a lot.
The rain formed mini streams, running down towards the bottom of the hill.
“Well, if this carries on, we won't be having a fire tonight.” Barkley opened the cool box and pulled out his first can of beer. He pulled at the ring pull, and the gas released made the slow 'pssssssssch' sound. “I love that sound,” he said as he took his first drink from the can.
“Pass me one,” I said as he nearly emptied the can in one drink.
He threw one towards me and didn't say a word.
He had been reticent from picking me up at 3 pm. Usually, he would be talkative throughout the journey to wherever we were heading.
I opened my can of beer and took a sip from it. We both sat in silence and listened to the rain as it bounced off the sides of our tent.
I felt an unusual atmosphere that I had never experience with Barkley before. I looked at him but didn't feel the usual sense of calm that he brought me. I knew something about this situation was off. The atmosphere was different, thick, and full of cloudy intention.
“Come on, spit it out,” I said. “There's something wrong, you've not said a word since you picked me up.”
He looked across at me and took another swig from his can finishing what was left.
“Slow down mate. You'll make yourself sick.”
He reached to the cool box, grabbed another can and opened it.
He looked at the open can until the froth had dissipated then looked across to me and shook his head.
“Have you and Kim had another fallout?” I said. “What over this time? You will be ok mate, you know you will, you two always make up afterwards.”
He didn't say anything.
The stiff silence filled the tent. The rain continued to beat down on us. The tent door was still open, and you could see the rain bouncing off the floor.
I checked the weather app on my phone. Positively I said, “It's just a shower, it will pass over in five minutes or so.”
“Good,” came the reply. “I can't sit in here all night; I like to sit out in the camp chair and feel the outdoors.”
Five minutes passed. The sound of the rain became quieter, and soon enough, the shower had passed.
Barkley jumped out of the tent and went straight to the car and pulled out two camp chairs. One was brand new with the tag still attached. He tore it off and looked over to me in the tent.
“Try not to flatten this one if you can help it!” his eyes twinkled, and a smile befell his face.
“I'll try not to.”
I took the chair from him and shook it vigorously, which enabled it to open into position. We both sank into our chairs and opened another can of beer.
The ground was wet, and you could see a mist rising from the sodden grass.
The sun was nearly setting, and you could hear the remnants of the rain trickling off the plants and trees. The setting sun had cast an orange glow onto the water beads that had collected on the surrounding plants, and if you moved your head, they glistened and twinkled, reminding me of iLUMiNO's colours.
I looked over at Barkley, and he was admiring the colours too, either that or he was deep in thought.
“BB,” I said. I waited until he returned from where he was in his head and made eye contact with me.
“Spill! Come on talk,” I said.
“I'm ok,” he said. “I've just had a lot to think about these last few weeks and...”
He petered off and didn't finish his sentence.
“Barkley, you are my longest, and one of my closest friends,” I said. “We always talk things out and get things off our chest. That's how we roll. Whatever it is, let's talk through it mate.”
He looked up to the sky, and I thought he was going to break down and cry. He took a big swig from his beer can. Squinting his eyebrows together, he slowly nodded as if he agreed with himself.
Looking over towards me and giving me direct eye contact, he said, “I know who iLUMiNO is.”
I felt winded without any physical contact. I thought about how I was going to reply. What came out was a stutter as I tried to gasp for a breath, “Who...” I cleared my throat. “Who?” I said more confidently, appearing not to be that interested.
I sat and waited for his answer. As I did, I could feel my face getting hotter. I was sure I was turning red. Still, I didn't want to draw any added attention to myself, so I just took another drink from my can then pulled out my phone to distract any reaction I may or may not have been sending.
“It's you, Aaron. You are iLUMiNO.”
He said it with such finesse and calmness. It was creepy, villainised by the coolness in his voice and the setting sun casting shadows across his eyes. He looked and sounded like a James Bond villain.
I spat my beer out, causing a spray all over my lap. Faking a laugh, I wiped my mouth and looked across at him. ”No, really. Who do you think he is?”
“What's upsetting most is the fact that you didn't tell me and I had to find out for myself.”
“You're serious right now? Please tell me you are joking,” I said.
“Why didn't you trust me? Why couldn't you tell me, your best mate? If it were me, you would have been the first person I would have told.”
“BB, you are proper barking up the wrong tree mate, I'm not iLUMiNO,” I nervously laughed. ”I wish I was though. Imagine being able to do what he can do!”
I looked shameful as I replied, I felt so dishonest lying to my friend. I didn't want anyone to know, not even my best friend. I’m good at keeping secrets, especially about myself, but I’ve never been questioned or interrogated before. This is the first time I have had to lie about myself to a friend, and I felt guilty.
“You can drop the act, Aaron. It's ok. I get it. I get it all now. I just wished you would have told me instead of Darcey telling me.”
“Darcey? Darcey Dyson?” I said, shocked and bewildered. How the hell would she know.
“What are you talking about Barkley. I'm not iLUMiNO, and as for Darcey Bastard Dyson, what does she know?”
“Darcey Bastard Dyson, eh! Someone seems upset,” he said.
“Well, you’re winding me up, and it's pissing me off. If I was iLUMiNO, I could think of better things to do than sit here talking crap with you all night.”
“Right then,” he said, leaning forward, crushing his empty can and throwing it to the ground. “Look me directly in the eyes and tell me, you are not iLUMiNO, I want to hear it from you, I want you to swear on your parents grave that you are not iLUMiNO.”
“Don't you dare bring my parents into this,” I stood up and turned my back to him, shocked that Barkley would say this to me. No one has ever used my parents as a tool to get information from me, not even in jest.
“Aaron, sit down, I didn't mean to mention your parents. I'm sorry. I'm just angry, I guess, that I found out from someone else.”
“Angry,” I said, turning around. “Barkley listen to me, I am not iLUMiNO, and whatever information Darcey has got is wrong.” My voice was intense and raised. I sat down, throwing myself back into the camp chair taking a long drink from my can. “How on earth did she come to this conclusion then? Go on, do tell. I think I am going to find this story rather interesting.” My voice had changed to patronising. Barkley did not seem fazed at all.
“All right then I'll tell you,” he said.
“There are some loose ends granted, but if you connect all the dots, they all point to you. I'll start with Leigh.”
“Leigh, what's she got to do with this?”
“Leigh told me she saw a man floating outside the hospital ward window at work one morning.”
“She’s told me this story too. We decided that she must have been seeing things.”
“She also told me she felt for sure it was you. The floating man didn't look like you, but she was sure as hell it was you.”
“I can't believe she told you that. She told me not to tell anyone in fear of her going mad.”
“It didn't mean anything until the day of the shooting.”
“The day of the shooting?”
“The day iLUMiNO showed up for the first time.”
I knew where this was heading, but I let him continue. I was listening with a knowledge of how and what happened, but with an expression of intrigue.
“When iLUMiNO extracted the bullet from my shoulder. I looked directly into his eyes and saw you. I had a knowing, a feeling, a connectedness, that only friends of thirty eight years would know. I saw you, Aaron, I saw you. When I got back into the coffee shop, you said the exact words that iLUMiNO said to me. I can still hear you saying it now. ‘What were you thinking’.”
“You've already told me this at Leigh's party,” I said flippantly.
“Ok right yeah, fair enough,” he said.
“Is that it? Is that your compelling evidence that makes me without question iLUMiNO?”
“Then there was the appearance at the TV Studios.”
I glanced at him wearily wondering where he was going with this.
“Go on then,” I said mockingly, “What did I supposedly do live on television that outed myself as me being iLUMiNO?”
“So iLUMiNO appeared out of thin air, from an oval shape of golds and yellow mist right in front of our eyes.”
“Ok right, yeah, you called me straight after remember, and I watched it back on the news. It's still dominating all the news now, and that was more than a week ago.”
“Well, when he...” he corrected himself. “When you came up and sat next to me live on television. I knew it was you; I knew it was you because that's what friends do when they’re needed.”
“BB, you are deluded mate. Honest to god, I have never heard so much babble come out of your mouth before. I think this iLUMiNO fellow has got under your skin...”
He cut me off, “And when it was time for you to leave, you stepped back into the golden mist...”
“Barkley for the last time I am not iLUMiNO, what do I have to do to spell it out...”
“And before the portal closed, I could see the silver picture frame of your folks on their wedding day on your sideboard. You know the one with the ornate corners.”
Barkley held his hand to his chin gently stroking it; now he really did look like a villain from a James Bond movie.
“What?” I squealed. “Come on, I've never heard anything as ridiculous! What the... I mean... Really? Come on, mate, you must have been seeing things, surely, think about it.”
“Oh, I have thought about it. I have thought about it a lot.”
“Mate, you have lost the plot.” I reached into the cool box and grabbed us both a beer and threw him a can over and said, “And what's this got to do with Darcey Dyson?”
“Oh Darcey, well she was able to get me the footage to prove I didn't see things. You see, having a journalist as your friend can come in useful.”
“Friend? She's no friend of yours, she is only out for one thing.”
“And what's that?”
“Fame, getting to the top.”
Barkley pulled the ring pull from his can, “If you’ll let me finish. So, she did a bit of digging and...”
“Digging!” I snapped. “Is that what you call it, digging around.”
“It's what she does, Aaron, she's a reporter.”
“So, after doing some digging,” he continued, “she managed to get the CCTV footage from inside the coffee shop on the day of the shooting.”
“And?” I quickly sniped back at him.
“Well, it turns out you didn't hide behind the upturned tables with the rest of the customers during the shooting at all. You went into the toilets.”
“I don't see what you are getting at here; if I was in the toilets or behind the tables, so what! Does it matter? All I know is I wanted to get out of the way.”
“Then there is an unusually bright flash of light that comes out of the toilet door. Just a few seconds after you had entered them.”
“A camera glare, a glitch, it could be anything.”
“It just so happens that when iLUMiNO flies off from the shooting scene, seconds later, there is another flash coming from the toilets, and then out walks Aaron, and you crouch behind the table as if you have been there all along.”
“You are off your head mate, really, come on, think about it. I mean, think about it. Everything you’re saying is circumstantial, coincidental.”
“What about the photo frame of your mum and dad? I saw it, Aaron, with my own eyes.”
“I watched the TV show back. You told me to when you called me up remember? So, I watched the entire episode on catch up, as you asked. Now do you remember before your interview, there was a section on photography, wasn't there? And the presenter had a display of fifteen photo frames of varying sizes. It could have been one of those that you saw through the fog. Think about it Barkley, think about how this looks from my point of view.”
Barkley slumped back in his chair, undefeated. ”Well, Darcey is in the middle of obtaining the footage from every camera that was in that studio. Six studio cameras and eight security cameras; she is sure to find something. I don't understand why you just can't tell me, after all the evidence, and you still deny it to your best mate.” He stood up, took a long drink from his can, threw it onto the ground and headed off into the woods.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I'm going for a walk. I need to clear my head,” he said.
I decided to leave him be and let him cool down for a while. I knew it wouldn't be too long before he came back.
I decided to call Leigh.
Unlocking my phone, I selected favourites and clicked on Leigh's name.
She answered after the third ring, “What's up?”
“What do you mean, ‘What's up?’” I replied laughing, “Your best pal decides to call you, and the first thing you ask is ‘what's up’? How rude,” I continued to laugh.
“Pal,” she said. “You barely ever ring, it's always a text, so I'm privileged, thank you. So, I'll ask again,” she continued, “what's up?”
“No, nothing really. I'm on one of our getaway camping trips with Barkley, currently sat in a folding camp chair on the top of Tinketropy Quarry.”
“What are you doing up there? You'll get yourself killed.”
“We've been coming here months. It's ok, we got a lovely spot, it's relatively peaceful.”
“So come on, what's up? You keep diverting my question. Where's Barkley? say ‘hey’ from me.”
I didn't say anything; I just let the silence fill the phone.
“Aaron, are you there?”
“He's gone for a walk,” I replied. “He's gone to let off some steam.”
“Has this got anything to do with the fact that he thinks you’re that iLUMiNO geezer?”
“How did you kn...”
She cut me off before I could finish my sentence.
“At the party, he asked me about anything strange happening lately. Especially if it involved you.”
“Me?”
“I know, right? Anyway, the only thing I could think of was that time when I saw that man floating out of the window at work.”
“You told me to draw a line under that and never to repeat it, in case someone thought you were going mad.”
“Well yeah”, she paused “but that was before this iLUMiNO character turned up and saved the day flying all around Redgrand.”
“And why did you tell him about your vision and that it was connected to me?”
“Well, he asked me, didn't he. He said if anything strange had happened with you. So I just told him about the floating man thing. I told him that he didn't look like you, to be fair, I can't remember what he looked like now, to be honest. But, although he didn't look like you, I had a feeling, like a knowing that it was you. Weird, very weird still to this day. It was like a dream inside a dream. Aaron, I'll never get over it.”
“He has got it into his head that I am iLUMiNO and we've just had a right fall out over it. He’ll calm down though.”
“Oooh, lovers tiff hey,” her raucous laugh billowed from my phone.
Our conversation moved to other things. She was well settled in now at the apartment. She was excited to tell me about applying for promotion to Junior Ward Sister.
“Great,” I said. Realising the time, I quickly rounded off the conversation. I had realised that I had drunk three cans of beer, and nearly an hour had passed. We arranged to meet up next week for a coffee.
“Listen, I'm going to go now. I'll try to ring Barkley. He's been gone for nearly an hour. I think he will have calmed down by now.”
“No problem sugar tits,” she said, “I’ll see you next week,” and hung up.
My phone's home screen illuminated my face. I scrolled back to my favourites button and selected BB and pressed the call button. Almost immediately, his phone lit up, and I could hear his ringtone. The superman theme tune rang out, and his camping chair lit up. He had left his phone on the chair.
“Barkley,” I moaned as I hung up. I stood up and took a look around, wondering if he was lingering nearby. There was no sign of him.
I remembered that he also had a burner phone. Quickly I went into my phone’s contacts and scrolled to 'BB Temp'. Again I clicked the call button, and then I heard the old fashioned ringer coming from the tent.
“Thank God,” I thought. “He's in the tent!” I pulled the nylon screen back, and the tent was empty. His burner phone was ringing from inside his jacket. Hanging up, I took the burner phone and his other phone from the camp chair, put them in my coat, and set off in the direction he left me.