by Jean Fischer
WHAP-WHAP-WHAP! WHAP-WHAP-WHAP!
Elizabeth ducked and put her hands over her head as a helicopter took off right over the car.
“Oh, that’s scary,” she exclaimed. “Especially in the dark.”
“You get used to it,” said Mr. Lowrey. “A helicopter rotor kicks up a lot of dust. That was Jay. He’s doing a charter run to Nashville this morning.”
Galilahi’s dad took the girls inside the ticket office, a white brick building with two orange wind cones flying from its roof.
“Hey, Billy John!” he said. “Kind of early for a soda, isn’t it?”
A teenaged boy stood behind the ticket counter with a Coke in his hand. “Breakfast!” he said with a smile. “I didn’t expect you till later, Mr. L.”
Galilahi’s dad picked up a clipboard from the counter. “I’m taking my daughter and her friends up for a ride,” he said. “Galilahi, Elizabeth, Sydney, this is Billy John Kingfisher. He works here during the summer.”
Billy John said hello and shook each of the girl’s hands. Sydney thought that he was handsome. He was tall with auburn skin, like the Lowreys’, and his face was interesting. His features were prominent and perfect, almost as if chiseled in stone.
“I’ve seen you at church,” Galilahi said.
“Resurrection Church?” Billy John asked.
“Yes. You played the drums in the contemporary worship service,” she said.
“Yup, that was me,” Billy John admitted with a smile.
Galilahi’s dad was busy writing on the clipboard. “Billy John, I want you to come up with us and shoot some video for the new web page. Grab the camera, and let’s go so the girls can see the sunrise.”
The boy gulped down the rest of his soda and disappeared into a back room. He returned with a video camera and three pair of headphones.
“All set,” he announced.
“Lock up,” Mr. Lowry reminded him as they headed out the door.
The heliport was in the field, a short walk down a steep hill from the ticket office. Two helicopters waited there, lit by tall, bright floodlights. Mr. Lowrey led the group to the bigger of the two.
“It’s a lot like riding in a car,” he said, swinging the door open. “You girls, sit in the back. Billy John will ride up front with me.”
Sydney climbed in first. She sat next to the window and noticed that there wasn’t much room for her long legs. She strapped on her seatbelt. Elizabeth got in next and then Galilahi.
Billy John handed each a set of headphones with microphones attached. “Put these on,” he said. “They cut down on the noise. We can hear each other through them and talk.”
“Cool,” said Sydney. She slipped the headphones over her cornrows and adjusted the microphone so it was nearer to her mouth.
“Testing, one, two, three,” she said. “Ready for lift-off.”
“I can hear you,” Elizabeth responded.
“Me too,” said Galilahi. “This is neat.”
Billy John joined Mr. Lowrey in the cockpit.
“Girls,” Mr. Lowrey’s voice came through the headphones, “when we take off, it’s going to feel a little like a roller coaster. Your stomachs might jump, like when you’re in an elevator. Okay?”
“Okay,” the girls answered in unison.
Galilahi’s dad started the engine. “It takes a little while to warm up,” he said.
WHAP-WHAP-WHAP!
Sydney heard the rotors begin to turn. As they spun faster, the engine sounded like a vacuum cleaner. Turning faster still, it whirred like a blender. The helicopter shivered.
“Here we go!” said Mr. Lowrey.
Sydney looked out the window as the ground fell away. Her stomach flip-flopped.
“It’s a little bumpy now,” Mr. Lowrey explained. “In a few seconds, the ride will get smoother.”
Sydney enjoyed the roller-coaster feeling that she got from the lift-off, but when it disappeared and they flew into the darkness, she was disappointed. “It’s too dark out there to see anything,” she complained.
“But just for a little while,” said Mr. Lowrey. “Right now, I’m taking us southwest over the mountains. Then, we’ll swing east. By that time, the sun should be coming up.”
They flew without talking, looking out the windows at only a few lights below. Sydney was glad when she felt the copter swing east.
Suddenly, the helicopter dipped and shook. Elizabeth grabbed onto Sydney’s arm. “Oh no!” she gasped.
“Dad?” Galilahi blurted. “What’s wrong?”
Sydney squeezed Elizabeth’s hand for what seemed like forever until Mr. Lowrey’s voice came through the headphones.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “Just a little turbulence. That happens sometimes over the mountains.”
“I hope it goes away soon,” Elizabeth groaned. Her stomach was doing somersaults, and she worried about losing her breakfast.
“There are airsick bags in the pockets on the seatbacks,” Billy John said. “In case you need them.”
Elizabeth hoped she wouldn’t.
“Look. Over there!” Galilahi pointed out her window. “Is that a forest fire?” A gleaming, orange glow stretched along the horizon. With each minute, it crept higher, painting the sky with shades of peach, salmon, and gold. Mountains appeared out of the darkness, shrouded in a smoky-blue mist.
“Shaconage,” said Galilahi. “It’s a Cherokee word that means ‘land of the blue smoke.’”
“Oh, it’s beautiful!” Sydney gasped. “Sha-kon-o-hey.”
“That’s not a forest fire,” Mr. Lowry explained. “You’re watching sunrise in the Great Smoky Mountains. Watch the horizon now. Any second, the sun will come up.”
He turned the copter south and told the girls to look to their left.
A sliver of a brilliant white ball came into sight as the sun met the sky.
Sydney noticed something strange. “Hey,” she said. “What’s that little green thing?”
A glowing, green disc rested atop the sun. It was there for just a second or two, and then it disappeared. “Did you see it?” she asked.
“I did,” said Elizabeth.
“Me too,” Galilahi agreed.
“That was weird,” Billy John’s voice came through the headphones. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Mr. Lowrey agreed. “Maybe it was a UFO.”
“There’s no such thing,” Sydney insisted, not sure if Mr. Lowrey was serious or kidding them. “My friend Bailey and I spent a whole week thinking that we saw a UFO over the ocean near my grandparents’ house. But it turned out to be a kid experimenting with a new kind of watercraft. UFOs don’t exist.”
Before long, the morning sun shone brightly on the mountains. Mr. Lowrey flew the copter over the tops of trees and rocky cliffs. Then Sydney spotted some cabins down below.
“Could one of those be Grandma Hisgi’s?” she wondered out loud.
“I doubt it,” said Mr. Lowrey. “Most of those are rental cabins. The mountains are filled with them. Any really old cabins that belonged to the Cherokee people are probably long gone.”
“Or not,” Billy John said softly.
“What did you say?” Sydney asked.
The boy hesitated.
“Nothing,” he said. “Look down there. It’s Big Cove and Mingo Falls. We’re flying above Cherokee and Great Smoky Mountains National Park.”
“Maybe we can spot your aunt’s apartment building,” said Elizabeth. “Or the ranger station where she works.”
Sydney wished she had brought along her binoculars.
“I don’t think Grandma Hisgi’s cabin will be out in the open,” said Galilahi. “I mean, it has to be ancient. I imagine it’s hidden deep in the woods or something.”
Mr. Lowrey made the copter swoop down over the waterfall. The water spilled over the top of the jutting land and cascaded more than a hundred feet down in dozens of long, twisted braids.
“The early Cherokee people lived near rivers,” said Bil
ly John. “Their houses were made from river cane plastered with weeds, grass, and clay. Later they lived in log cabins. That’s probably what you’re looking for, an old log cabin.” He’d been listening to the girls talk about Grandma Hisgi.
“How do you know about the earlier Cherokees?” Sydney asked.
“Mostly from going to Indian Village near the reservation,” he said. “You can go there and see reproductions of their houses and stuff.”
“Put that on our list,” said Elizabeth. “We can check it out tomorrow.”
As they flew over the mountains, Sydney tried to imagine what it would be like to live there in the wilderness.
“The Cabin of the Rising Sun,” she said, thinking out loud. “Did it face east, in the direction of the sunrise? Does it have something to do with the morning? Did Grandma Hisgi grow sunflowers?”
“Sunflowers?” said Galilahi.
“Sunflowers always face the morning sun,” said Sydney. “The flowers face east.”
“They do?” Elizabeth said.
“Trust me,” Sydney answered. “I know this stuff. Mr. Lowrey, please fly low so we can see what’s down there.”
Billy John’s voice came through the headphones again. “You won’t see anything,” he said. “It’s so well hidden that a trained bloodhound couldn’t find it.”
“Find what?” asked Sydney.
“Nothing,” said Billy John. “I mean anything! Everything down there’s very well hidden.”
Sydney felt that Billy John was getting annoyed with her, but she didn’t know why.
For almost an hour, they flew over treetops, creeks, rocks, and ridges. Billy John shot video for the company’s web page. The girls tried to spot anything that looked like a really old cabin.
“Can you think of other clues?” Sydney asked Galilahi. “Anything else that your Great-Grandma Rogers said?”
Galilahi thought for a minute. “Not really. Except Great-Grandmother often says that she looks forward to meeting Grandma Hisgi in heaven, because then she’ll know the rest of the story.”
“So, if your Grandma Hisgi is in heaven, then she must have been a Christian, right?” said Elizabeth.
“I guess so,” said Galilahi. “Great-Grandmother Rogers is a Christian. She knows a lot more about God and heaven than I do.”
The helicopter shook again. It reminded Sydney of riding a bicycle on a gravel road.
“Turbulence?” asked Elizabeth. Her hands held tight to the seat.
“Turbulence,” Billy John confirmed. “Don’t worry.”
“Galilahi, how did your great-grandma know the name of the cabin?” Sydney asked. “If the story ends with Grandma Hisgi being left behind, then how does your great-grandma know the name of the cabin she lived in? There must be more details that she didn’t tell you.”
“I don’t know,” said Galilahi.
“Maybe she just forgot,” said Elizabeth. “Sometimes, old people forget things.”
“Maybe,” said Galilahi.
“Or maybe it’s all just a story,” Billy John interrupted.
“Why would you think that?” she asked him.
“I don’t know … um … I don’t know why I said it … uh … Hey, look down there. It’s a bear!”
The girls looked down through the trees.
“I don’t see anything,” said Elizabeth.
“Neither do I,” said Galilahi.
Sydney didn’t see the bear either.
“You just missed it,” Billy John told them. “It ran off into the woods. That way.” He pointed out his window.
Sydney remembered the summer when she and Alexis were in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. They thought they’d seen a bear, but it ended up being something very different, something that had helped them solve another mystery.
“Or maybe not,” Sydney said.
“Huh?” Billy John’s voice came through the headphones.
“Oh, nothing,” said Sydney. “I was just thinking out loud.”
Two can play this game, she thought to herself.
For a few minutes they flew, saying nothing. Sydney watched the ground below, wondering if Billy John had really seen a bear.
“We must be flying in circles,” she said. “I remember seeing that ridge a couple of times before.”
“Good eyes,” said Mr. Lowrey. “We are flying in circles. With each one, I’m taking us a little lower until we get back to the heliport.”
“Did you know that the circle is an important symbol to Native Americans?” said Galilahi. “Black Elk—he was a leader in the Sioux tribe—said: ‘The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were.’”
“Sort of like you coming back to your roots, to where your family came from,” said Sydney.
“That’s right!” Elizabeth agreed. “If you find the Cabin of the Rising Sun, it’ll be like you’re completing a circle. You’ll be connecting with your ancestor, the grandma who had your name.”
“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” said Galilahi, “but it would be like coming full circle, wouldn’t it? You know, I can’t help but think that I might learn more about myself if I find Grandma Hisgi. Right now, it’s like a part of me is missing.”
The helicopter swooped toward the heliport. It hovered above the ground, and then inched downward.
Suddenly the helicopter began to shake and swerve.
“What’s going on? More turbulence?” Sydney asked.
She’d been so wrapped up in talking to Galilahi that she hadn’t been paying attention to the flight.
“Hold on!” Billy John shouted.
“Oh dear God, please help us!” Elizabeth cried out.
Sydney looked up and gasped.
A flock of birds zoomed straight toward the helicopter windows!
A Curious Letter
Sydney felt the helicopter abruptly swoop. She clutched her seat and closed her eyes tightly. She didn’t know much about helicopters, but she did know that helicopters and birds didn’t mix! A bird strike could tear off a rotor blade.
That could make a helicopter crash. And people died in helicopter crashes!
The helicopter abruptly swung sideways. Sydney felt her stomach flip.
Then the helicopter righted itself. It bumped a few more times.
Thump!
The helicopter skids gently landed on the helipad.
“It’s okay, Sydney, you can open your eyes now,” Galilahi said, gently touching her new friend’s hand.
“The Lord protected us,” Elizabeth added.
Sydney breathed a prayer of thanks.
Everyone sat silently for a few moments, as if in shock. Then Billy John broke the silence.
“Where did those birds come from?” he exclaimed.
Mr. Lowrey slowly let out a big breath as he took off his headphones.
“Well, I’ve never had that happen before!” he said. “Looked like a bunch of pigeons. We must have disturbed a whole gathering of them.”
“Maybe they were having a party,” Sydney said with a snicker, ready to laugh now that the scary moment was over.
“Might have been a worship service,” Elizabeth said. “Especially if there’s a bird sanctuary nearby.” She giggled.
“Yeah, or maybe a pigeon family reunion,” Galilahi added with a laugh.
The girls laughed helplessly for a few minutes. Billy John just shook his head, and Mr. Lowrey grinned as he got ready to climb out of the helicopter.
As the girls jumped out of the plane, Sydney’s head still spun for a moment. Part of her felt like kissing the ground. Then she looked at the concrete that was already heating up for the day.
Nah, I’m thankful, but I don’t think I’ll do that! she thought.
The girls stretched. Then they dashed up the hill toward the office.
Mr. Lowrey treated the girls to Cokes.
“Back
to the mystery—do you have any ideas about where to begin?” asked Elizabeth as she snapped open the top of her can.
“Just one,” said Galilahi. “I have an old family Bible. Great-Grandmother gave it to me just before we left. She said the names of some of my ancestors are written inside. I haven’t taken it out of its box yet. It’s so old and fragile that I’m afraid it might fall apart.”
“Then let’s start there,” said Sydney. “That old Bible might hold some clues.”
“There’s just one problem,” Galilahi said. “The Bible is written in Cherokee, and I don’t read Cherokee. So I don’t think I’ll be much help.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sydney answered. “We Camp Club Girls can do just about anything.”
Billy John laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Sydney asked him.
“Nothing,” Billy John replied.
Something about the boy made Sydney uneasy. He talked in circles, and he avoided answering questions. All at once, Sydney felt that finding the Cabin of the Rising Sun was very important. She didn’t know why, but she’d learned to trust her instincts.
“Galilahi,” she said. “Let’s go to your house and look at that Bible.”
Mrs. Lowrey picked up the girls from the heliport and swung them by Aunt Dee’s place to get Sydney’s laptop.
When the girls arrived at the Lowrey home, Elizabeth and Sydney sat at the kitchen table with the computer while Galilahi went to get the Bible.
In moments, Galilahi came from her bedroom holding a flat, white box. She put it on the kitchen table near the computer.
“I can’t wait for you to meet the girls,” Sydney said. “Last night we sent them an email about you and Grandma Hisgi.”
Elizabeth attached the AC adaptor to the side of the computer and plugged the cord into a nearby outlet.
“We have our own web page with a chat room where we can talk privately,” she revealed.
“Among other things,” Sydney added. “You’ll be amazed at all the ways we have to communicate with each other. Kate is mostly responsible. She’s invented gadgets that even Inspector Gadget doesn’t know about.”
Galilahi laughed. “Well, after we’ve looked at the Bible, maybe we can go to your chat room and tell them about it.”
