I dutifully followed the man in the black coat who had rescued me from my broken-down car, accepting his gracious offer to return to his house for a drink while we waited for the sun to come up and for the mechanic in town to open.
‘Come, come,’ he said, gesturing with a crooked finger. ‘It’s but a short walk up this road. Come, now.’
‘A walk?’ I frowned, even as my feet started to move. ‘You weren’t driving?’
‘Oh, hell’s no,’ he laughed. ‘I detest driving – much prefer to move under my own power, wouldn’t you agree?’
I thought he sounded mad.
‘Of course,’ I found myself nodding. ‘Sensible, to walk more.’
‘Besides,’ he yawned, ‘I have a very old, very foreign vehicle, and I can’t find a mechanic that specialises in European cars for the life of me in this little backwater. The price one pays for solitude, one supposes.’
‘One supposes,’ I echoed. With a start, I realised we were in front of an enormous gothic mansion. How long had we been walking?
‘Come, inside please,’ the man grinned, his teeth shining even on this moonless night. ‘We wouldn’t want to be caught in the sun now, would we?’
‘Of course not,’ I shook my head vigorously.
Wait… why wouldn’t we? My head was feeling… fuzzy…
‘Sit down here, good man,’ my host said, gesturing at a chair on my left. I dutifully dropped into it, coughing as a cloud of dust entered the air. The man didn’t seem to notice.
‘Is there a local mechanic I can call?’ I called after him as he glided from the room.
‘A local mechanic?’ he repeated, sounding for all the world like he was still next to me. ‘Oh, I’m afraid not. There’s only one good local mechanic near Frankston, and I’m afraid the poor man disappeared months ago.’
‘Oh,’ I frowned. ‘Then how am I…’
‘Shhhhh,’ he said, sweeping back into the room with a smile. ‘No need for that anymore.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Just relax,’ he cooed, grin growing larger. ‘Let all of those silly little cares just slip away…’