by P K Stadnyk
Happy Birthday, boy. Hope this will help you when you grow up to understand. You are the one with the big potential and possibilities! Cedric.
I didn’t have a clue what this book was about. Did he write it himself? How was it helpful for me? I only hoped it at least had the stories he sometimes told us. But all these all gifts didn’t really count for me. The most important present was that we were all together. Soon, they all went back to talking. I think the alcohol was keeping their mouths opened all the time. Everybody wanted to say something, and, mostly, it was at the same time.
“Have you heard that the Thompsons have moved out?” said Oliver’s mom.
“Really? I think they lived here all their lives. Interesting. What made them do that? Tom asked.
“What made them do that? Don’t you see?! Go outside and look around. Look at our gardens, weather, and now this plane. I bet there will be more to come, and more people will leave. I wish I could,” said Oliver's mom.
The Thompsons lived few streets from us, and we didn’t have much contact with them. Oliver’s mom always seemed to be very interested in everybody else’s life. Most of the times, she was the one to ask and talk about everybody.
“I saw the car this morning. Same as always. Black 4x4 with dark windows. I walked toward it, but it drove away,” my dad announced.
“See?! I told you all it would happen! Nobody listened to an old fool, right? They control you, you, me, all of us! They did it all to us. We’re just nothing to them, like puppets.
“Cedric, please, not now. Kids are here,” my mom asked. “I know that the Thompsons moved; so did the Greens and Fosters. They just moved, and that’s it. Who wants a coffee?” My mom closed the subject successfully just when I got interested in the story.
When all the guests went home, it was late at night. I still wasn’t going to sleep in my bedroom. Big, fluffy, warm drawer seemed safer for both of us. Bella was scared too. She was the best dog and friend in the world who never left me.
Next morning the plane was still there. Nobody fixed it like our road cracks and all weird stuff. Maybe the plane was too big, so they couldn’t take it away.
Mary came for an afternoon tea with my mom. She said everybody from other streets were moving out, leaving their houses. Mom got upset but said we would stay for as long as possible. That was the same thought of the others who came for my party yesterday. After few days, our street was the only one occupied.
CHAPTER 17 - A TRIP
Nobody seemed to come back for the plane. We were strongly advised by our parents not to go inside. Nobody went in there yet, so we felt strongly attracted to be the first ones. I couldn’t understand what was so dangerous.
My friends and I decided to go in there at night. That meant I had to sleep in my room so I wouldn’t wake up my parents. We had a good plan which couldn’t go wrong. I had mixed feelings about it. I was excited and scared at the same time. Adrenaline didn’t let me go to sleep even for a minute. Alvin was supposed to come for me at midnight. He was 10 minutes late. Maybe he was sleeping or maybe they went without me. Twenty minutes later, I heard heavy coughing coming from outside my window where my parents had a wooden planter.
It felt a bit creepy seeing somebody's shadow coming through my window in the middle of the night with that cloudy dark atmosphere outside. My window wasn’t very high, so we often used it for sneaking out at night or even as a shortcut during the daytime. I took my bag and we were ready to go. I had packed it before with a flashlight, rope, camera, laser light, pens, paper, and Cedric's book. Oliver asked me to take it.
When we got to the ground, Joe, William, and Oliver were already there waiting for us. They had bags too. They welcomed us with wide creepy smiles.
“I guess we chose the best time for such an adventure,” commented Joe. He was right. It was completely dark, and lightning flashed above us. We could barely see them this time; that only sent shiver down our backs. We could only see each other when we stood a few steps away. Any further than that and total darkness swallowed everything around. Bella was coming with us but with her tail between her legs. She didn’t like the idea of going in the plane. I didn’t feel comfortable either, but I didn’t want to look like a coward, so I started walking toward the plane first. We all turned our flashlights on and went around the plane. It looked bigger and more mysterious. Its windows looked like eyes watching us carefully coming toward it. It didn’t have any big damages you would expect to see after a crash except for a few scratches. Maybe it didn’t crash as we thought, but it definitely hadn’t been left here for a pilot’s break. We didn’t find anything unusual outside of it, so we headed towards the open door. Someone got out of this plane.
“This is it. This is what we came for. Are you ready?” asked Joe. We looked at him, wondering if he was. Only Bella had something against it, whimpering at the back. Maybe we should have listened to her. We went in. I was in a plane once before when I was six. I remembered it differently. This one was smaller. It had only two rows with one seat facing another in each row and between them was a table. Rows were quite far from each other what ensured passengers privacy in conversations they were having. The seats were made from light brown leather and looked big and comfortable. Everything in there was nice, shiny, and expensive. There was no sign of an accident, fight, or anything that could tell us what happened.
“Hey, guys, look at this!” shouted Alvin. We ran to Alvin as he opened a cupboard with bottles of alcohol, gold glasses of every size, and boxes of chocolates. “Do you think we could try it?” Alvin asked, looking at us with his shiny excited eyes. We all knew alcohol wasn’t for us. “Only the chocolates, please?”
“I don’t think chocolates and a little break wouldn’t hurt,” I said when my legs felt a bit tired. We sat down in the nice chairs, Alvin got the chocolates and shared them among us. They were soooo good until they melted to the filling inside. EW! How strong it was! It was burning my throat and all inside of me! I looked around. My friends had a joy written on their faces. How could anybody like it? I was so thirsty! There had to be something to drink, alcohol or not. I took the first bottle I found and drank it until my throat felt better. It was so delicious and refreshing! So sweet! Should I share it with them? Oh, well…
“Wow, what is that?” I asked to check if my voice wasn’t burned yet from the chocolates.
“I can’t read the label!” said Alvin. “It’s in German! All I understood was cherry on the picture. It’s so good! I don’t know. But it’s not so bad after all; I think I like them. Here, try another one. First, one tastes bad but the next one is better.” So we ate all the boxes, and I felt funny and dizzy. My legs felt a bit gummy and soft too. We felt thirsty, were saying some stupid things, and were laughing so hard that we cried.
“Alvin, get us another bottle; try to find some more of this one. Remember, it’s blue!” I said. We already finished a third bottle and it felt like the more we drank, the thirstier we became.
“Wow, why is everything turning around? Hihihihihi... Hey, I haven’t seen this button before. Wow! Check this out! I don’t believe this!” said Alvin.
“Somehow, after falling, pushing, and pulling each other, we managed to find him. The shelves with drinks and chocolates moved to the side, and behind them, we found guns and lots and lots of money. We stood there for a good few minutes with wide open mouths. Alvin took out one of the guns. “What’s that thing at the end?”
“Are you kidding me?!” I said. “That’s a silencer! How are you choosing the upgrades on games?” I knew a lot about parts of guns. Perhaps too much, as I was playing games for older kids. That was the first time I saw a real one.
“I’m not surprised now that he always lose. Heh...” said William. “Anyway, who do you think was in this plane? Someone important probably. It’s definitely a private jet but where did they go?” It looked so posh and untouched like it was always empty. William wondered away in his thoughts, miles away. The rest of us just looked at
each other with no ideas. Then Oliver asked me if I took the book with me. I took Cedric's book out of the bag and put in on the floor with a thud. It was very heavy with hundreds of pages inside.
“Are you serious?” William asked. “Do you believe in what crazy old Cedric is telling all of us?”
“I just think we might find something in there, Joe,” Oliver replied. “He might know something.”
“He's right,” I said.
“Thanks, Max,” said Oliver.
We sat on the floor, holding torches. It was the first time we opened it further than the first page. I was right; the book was written by Cedric. Every page was covered with clippings from newspapers, some of them very old, photographs, and notes. Lots of writing. I wondered if Cedric himself made all those photos. They looked like from different times and parts of the world. Most of pages were yellow and old but some were even in worse shape, brown with text that was hardly visible.
“That’s just nonsense, what do you expect to find? A treasure map?” asked William.
“No, look! There!” It looked like Oliver had found something but he wasn’t saying anything. He hadn’t been very talkative since the accident with lightning and wasn’t annoying me much either. He pointed at an old photo of a city covered with a cloud, similar to one spitting the fire all over our street. Below were people looking and pointing at it.
“Well, that’s reassuring,” said Joe. “We’re not the only ones who get clouds. They are all over the world. Such a panic from a simple cloud.” Joe tried to explain it all to himself. But it seemed like he couldn’t convince himself.
“What do you think happened there? Does it say anything in the notes?”
“It’s very hard to read, but look there. Doesn’t he look familiar?” I asked. In the middle of the crowd was a man dressed in black and wearing sunglasses. He didn’t look at the cloud. He looked straight at the man who was taking the photo. And there were more of them. I counted five, dispersed among the crowd. They were hardly visible on there; just like they could blend with everything around. I felt there was something wrong about it. A shiver ran down my back. I swallowed loudly and asked, “What do you think happened to those people?”
“It’s says they died. That’s all that’s legible, so I can’t read how. It also says that it was a little village, not bigger than ours. It disappeared from the map and nobody ever heard of it again. Looks like Cedric has been through a lot and knows much more. Why would he give this to you?
“As a warning, perhaps?” said Joe. He wasn’t making any stupid suggestions. He believed it. None of us wanted to die. And from the picture and notes, it looked like that was our future.
“We can take all the money to help our families move out!” suggested Alvin.
“Hahahahaha! I never heard anything so ridiculous, said Oliver. “They’re not going to believe us! We’re kids. Another thing is, if we show them the money, they’ll ask where we found it, and then bam! We’re in trouble because we’re not supposed to be here. And they’ll probably call the police and give them the money. And, of course, they won’t believe in Cedric stories! Do you need any more proofs that your idea was...not the best?” Crazy Oliver said the longest speech since he started to talk again, and just when I was hoping he would always stay so quiet!
“Shhhh... Did you hear that?” Joe asked. We listened but couldn’t hear anything.
“Are you freaking out, Joe?” I asked. We laughed but then something cracked outside very close to the plane.
“How long have we been gone for?” wondered Oliver.
“Two hours. I hope it’s not my parents. Otherwise, I’ll be grounded for life!” panicked Alvin.
“Turn off your flashlights, take the book, and hide all of you! Now!” Oliver commanded. There wasn’t much of space to hide. I hid with Oliver and Bella at the back of the plane under one of the tables. I couldn’t find a better place to hide. I noticed something on the floor: a file, full of pictures. I put it in my bag.
The steps were getting closer. I lost the hope that whoever it was would walk pass the plane. Then the footstep stopped and there was only silence. Joe looked through the window.
“Somebody is out there. Wait, he's walking away. Try to find another door. It should be at the back.” I found it but couldn’t see it without the light. “I need to turn my flashlight on.”
“Okay, but try to keep in on the floor.” I tried to open this door with Alvin but it didn’t move. “Joe... Hey, Joe. We need your help. It’s not moving. Joe!” We didn’t get any answer. I turned my flashlight to where I heard Joe's voice coming from but it went off. I tried to shake it, but it didn’t work. I was left in the dark. “Please, please, please...” It always goes off, doesn’t it? In movies, in real life, always when you need it most. “Joe, are you there? Please say something.” I started walking with my hands in front of me. I felt someone’s hand grabbing my arm. “Joe?” The hand squeezed my arm till it hurt. I looked behind. It wasn’t Joe. It was one of those men dressed in black with sunglasses on in the middle of the night. What nonsense! He smiled at me with his perfectly white teeth, making a nasty, mean smile. He was holding me in the air at a height of his face. I tried to look around for my friends. I saw Joe fighting with another man not far from me. “You’re not going to put your noses into what’s not your businesses anymore.
“Wrong!” I shouted as I smacked his face with all the strength I had and then started kicking so hard that he let me go. I went to help Joe, but he already kicked his opponent between the legs.
“Quick before they get up! Alvin! Oliver! William! Fight as hard as you can!” We noticed Alvin couldn’t get out, so Joe and I started kicking the man holding him like we never kicked before. I couldn’t see William or Oliver anywhere. Suddenly, I got caught again and the guy was enraged, his glasses were broken. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. Bella was biting his leg, but he didn’t care. He just stared at my face, breathing heavily. I thought that was the end.
“Let him go!” yelled William. He was holding the gun we had found before.
“What are you going to do? Shoot?” Asked the man. “You don’t even know how to use it! Hahahahaha.” His laugh soon turned into cough. It was worse than scratching a plate with a fork. “I bet your dad doesn’t know you’re out, does he?”
“Yes, that’s right. Let them go! All of you!” William looked very confident with what he was doing. I couldn’t recognize him. He was only this aggressive during games online. The man holding me put his hand in his pocket, got a syringe out filled with some pink liquid, and gave it to the one holding Alvin. He smiled getting the syringe closer to Alvin’s neck.
“Say goodbye to your friends.”
“Stop! Or I swear I’ll shoot!
He didn’t stop and pushed the liquid in Alvin's neck. Alvin gave up the fight, hanging in the man’s arms like a lifeless doll. My turn was coming. Suddenly, I heard a bullet flying next to my head and my captor let me go. William dropped the gun with shock on his face.
“Quick! Outside. Help me take him,” I told William. We picked up Alvin by his hands and legs and ran like never before. When we got to my house, Joe and Oliver came out of the bushes. Oliver looked untouched and Joe looked like he’d been in a heavy fight with his left sleeve pulled off his shirt.
“How did you...”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”- a scream full of anger was coming from the plane.
“Quick, quietly inside.” I said.
We went very quiet to my room and put Alvin on my bed.
“What do you think they did to him?”
“I don’t know, but I hope he’ll wake up by the morning. Otherwise, I’ll have a lot of explaining to do.
“Will they come after us inside?”
“I don’t think so. They could have done it a lot of times before.”
“Yea, but they weren’t as angry as they are now. Did you hear their scream?”
“We all did. So how did you get out?” I asked
Oliver, as I didn’t see him anywhere during our fight.
“I... I was hiding behind the door and when they came inside, I went outside unnoticed...”
“So you left us...”
“I’m sorry, I panicked... I was trying to think of something to help you...” He really looked sorry, and the last time he helped me, he ended up lying unconscious in my living room. I didn’t want that again.
“Are you okay, Joe?”
“Yeah, few scratches, that’s all. You threw a nice punch at his face...hehehe. I could see the shock on his face through his glasses. Why do they wear them at night anyway?
“It was nothing. Alvin didn’t give up the fight. He was really wild. They couldn’t win with him even when two of them tried to hold him still. That’s why he got the injection... Bella come here.” She didn’t leave me for a minute. She fought for me so hard that she deserved the biggest bone on earth. ‘And you, William, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t far from Oliver’s hideout and waited for the right moment to save your assess.” he said with bravado, but we knew that wasn’t how he felt. His hands and legs were shaking and he probably still didn’t believe what happened. “Do you think I killed them?’
“Definitely not all of them. And I don’t think you killed him. He wouldn’t be screaming if he was dead, right? You probably just caused him a lot of pain and pissed him off, that’s all.
“Yeah, and probably he’ll be looking for you all the time now,” joked Joe, but William went pale. “Hey, I was only joking.”
“Maybe you were, but they won’t give up on us. They were in there for a reason. What if we saw something they didn’t want us to see? Maybe that’s why they took all those people when we were hiding in the shelter? Maybe they saw something too?
“We didn’t see anything apart from a very luxurious plane. There was nothing to hide. Otherwise, we would have found it, right? We looked everywhere.”
