Chapter 5: 'A nightmarish hangover'.

Yúcahu!

When Richardsit uphe discovers several men and women almost at his feet in a reverent attitude.

'Richard, what's going on, where are we?'

It is Camille who speaks, still looking disoriented, though apparently more recovered than might be expected.

She is followed by Professor Norwich. At that moment he does look like the professor Richard met at Cambridge.

Richard turns to her. She looks slightly different.

'I don't know, Camille. This whole strange situation reminds me of...

At that moment, one of the men, pointing at Camille, calls her by another name:

'Atabey!'

And again he hides his face in a deep bow.

The professor steps forward and explains to Richard and Camille.

'This is very strange. But I think you and he points to Richard have been mistaken for Yúcahu, their deity, and your wife forAtabey, the most important female deity.

Richard looks at him quizzically. Norwich is not telling him anything he doesn't already know from his books. In fact that was what he was going to explain to Camille.

Camille, can you remember what happened to us, are the children be alright, and where is the professor's wife?

Camille looks at him in confusion. Again. Until she seems to take in what her husband is telling her.

'Sure, the kids. Don't you remember you asked me to tell Dwayne to take them to the nursery?'

Richard remembers. He feared danger, but not this. The professor interrupts his ramblings.

'My wife, of course. The truth is, I don't know what's happened to her. I don't know where she is.'

Poole looks at the professor confused by his response. He doesn't seem overly concerned about his wife. And that's not normal. Perhaps he was wrong to believe that Norwich was back to the Norwich he knew at Cambridge?

'Professor, I think you are still a little disoriented. You remember your wife's name is Jade, don't you?'

Geoffrey nods to Richard to reassure him that he is perfectly fine.

Richard was trying to see if Norwich doesn't still have some after-effects of whatever happened to them.

As he turns around to try to talk to the strangers, clearly indigenous strangers, Richard begins to feel his head ache alarmingly and he almost finds it hard to breathe. The Professor and Camille look at him with concern, but seem to be fine.

Richard overcomes these worrying symptoms and decides to find out what has happened. He suspects it is the only thing that can keep his sanity.

And he begins to be afraid.

Afraid of being swept up in the complete chaos. What if it turns out he's gone mad? If it weren't for Camille, who has now come to his side to show him, once again, that he is not alone, he would begin to believe that the drug had indeed affected his brain and he had lost his mind.

As Richard sees that the indigenous people, which he can't explain at all, since they no longer exist in Saint Marie, let alone live in the way they did centuries ago, are still in this strange positiondeep bow to Camille and him, he decides to try to talk to them again.

But they still don't get up from the ground, now they don't even look up. At that moment Richard looks at Camille. She has always taken care of difficult witnesses. Surely she can get these strange fellows to talk.

Camille seems to have read his mind, she steps forward, kneels down next to the man closest to her and says kindly and softly:

'We need help, do you know where we are and how we can get out of here? Who are you? We are not going to hurt you.

The stranger raises his head in fear and curiosity. And he speaks to them in a language that neither Camille nor her husband understand.

Fortunately Richard remembers that the professor did study the language, or rather the scant remnants of it, and looks almost desperately at Norwich.

Geoffrey steps forward and tries to speak to the natives. He doesn't seem to understand much. And his pronunciation must be dreadful, but in the end he turns to the Poole couple and says:

'Basically the three of us have fallen out of the sky after what we would call thunder or something. By the way, you are the creators from which they came, the plants, etc. I am considered to be another creation of yours. A sort of servant of yours.

Richard storms off, causing the Indians to stand up and back away, turning to hide their faces in the dirt.

But what madness is this? We still don't know where we are. I need to know if we can get out of here... Camille...'

Richard looks at her because he knows she must be very worried about her children and her mother.

'Honey,' Camille clutches his arm, 'the kids can't stay in the nursery forever. I don't even know how long we've been unconscious here.'

Richard tries to calm down. He realizes that losing his temper never fixes anything. It's good for him at the station, to let off steam. But he suspects that here it will close more doors than anything else.

When he looks at her to reassure her, his head hurts again and he discovers that, for a second, she has disappeared. Then he sees all blank. Only for a second.

When he turns around to see if Norwich is still there, for a tenth of a second he suffers the same hallucination again.

He falls to his knees and holds his head in his hands. This time the pain is slow to go away. Camille crouches down beside him and hugs him in a worried embrace.

The professor also approaches him to reassure him and help him as much as possible.

When Richard notices that the pain is fading, he asks Norwich:

'Have the natives said anything else, Professor?'

Geoffrey ponders the answer, he is far from fluent in the language he has worked so hard to study and understand, but in the end he answers:

'They seem to need help, Inspector. The fact that we have come in such a magical or extraordinary way gives them hope that we are here to help. They talk of strange disappearances.'

Richard looks at him in astonishment. He has seen how for a second, his wife and the professor also disappeared!

He concentrates and tries to take the whole unusual situation as a case. The most complicated one. And then he realizes something. Something as surprising as the beginning of this dark and strange nightmare.

And Richard Poole smiles. Now more than ever he knows he is not alone. Although the other side of the coin is disturbingly serious, especially for him.

But whoever is helping him, it needs to hurry. He suspects he is fighting something that threatens to take away his reason, even his life.

He turns to Camille, he senses that she is looking at him with great anxiety and concern and he asks her, louder than usual, almost shouting. He wants to make sure that his wife hears him. That she is by his side.

He can barely see anything now, only feel.

Camille, talk to me about us, about how we met, about our arguments, about our life together, speak to me about the children. They and you are my anchor right now. Tell me that you love me, that you've always loved me, that you'll always love me. Tell me, please, everything you remember, everything...'

Camille smiles anxiously and speaks. She keeps talking while holding and hugging him.

And although Richard can no longer see her, he can feel her. He can feel again the Camille he knows so well.

All the memories and experiences shared with his wife come back to life. And Richard feels that voice in his brain like a balm, like further proof of Inspector Richard Poole's most amazing case.

And the bright white light comes back.