by Lee Magnus
“I know what our deal was, human. The key does not belong in the human realm. I cannot risk any further meddling.”
“No,” Trey said firmly. “You honor our deal. Release my Grandpa.”
“Ah yes. Of course. There is but one more task you may need the key for. I am in agreement.”
Logos’s presence faded. An image appeared. It was a hand. Trey felt love and grabbed the hand as he released the capsule. He watched the capsule float then expand into Koltek then blur away in a cascade of every color of light. He then regarded his grandfather holding his hand.
“Grandpa! Is that really you?”
“Yes, Trey. It’s me,” he replied in a familiar Cajun accent.
“I know. I can feel you.”
“Indeed, you can,” Grandpa replied stoically.
Trey moved quickly away from the entity but continued to feel Grandpa’s love.
“Trey, Trey! ’m jus kiddin. T’was a bad joke,” Patrick pleaded.
Trey rushed toward Patrick and said, “Please don’t joke around like that again.” He turned the key in his hand as they hugged tightly.
Patrick released him as they stood in the middle of Trey’s bedroom. He quickly held a finger to his mouth indicating Trey to be quiet. He whispered, “I don t’ink i’s a good idea do let anyone know ’m back, specially your mother. ‘Ere’s a lot I mus’ uncover before we dell anyone, including Don. Ok?”
Trey looked down disappointingly. “So, you’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Right away?”
“I ‘ave to. Lot’s has happened and while you’ve performed spectacularly, ‘dis burden on you mus’ be lessened. I will catch up with Lyza then you meet me at Ricardo’s Pizza next Wednesday at six PM. ‘Den you can dell me all ‘bout your adventures.”
“Ok, Grandpa. Wednesday it is.”
“I understand you have a key?”
“Yes.” Trey said the word and handed the key to Patrick.
“’Das a neat bag you ‘ave ‘dere.” He looked at Trey curiously and asked, “Cierden?”
“Yeah! You know him?”
“I’ve met ‘im,” he smiled. “I tink I should hold on to Ragnastant’s key also. I don’ foresee you needing it anytime soon. I will return it when the time is near.”
“Ok, Grandpa.” He handed over the bag with the Etherios key and said with relief, “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so happy we finally get to meet in person.” His brow furrowed and fear etched his face, “But how will we ever – “
“You don’ worry about Khaitu just yet. We’ll deal with him in due time.”
Trey seemed disappointed but felt even more relieved knowing Grandpa seemed to have a feel for what to do. “Ok,” Trey replied.
‘I’ll go now. It’ll be morning in Egypt. Remember, don’ dell anyone I’m back.”
“I won’t say anything. Tell Lyza and Karim I said Hi. Boy won’t they be surprised when they see you! I feel like I should warn them.”
“It will be great seeing them again. I sure did miss them. I assume Karim still has the place just north of the South Egypt portal?”
“If you mean the little white house then yeah.”
“Ok. Trey. I’ll see you next week. I love you.”
“I love you too, Grandpa. Oh yeah. Lyza has people watching us.”
“Thanks for that. I’ll avoid them.”
Patrick quietly left Trey’s room and snuck out of the house through the back door. Trey watched him stealthily avoid Trey’s house guards which left Trey feeling significantly less secure. If an old man can get by these guys, then Commerand should have no problem. “Geesh!” he said quietly.
Relieving Trey of the keys and Grandpa sounding so sure in his words set Trey at ease. His sense of mission became less urgent as he began placing faith in Grandpa Patrick to lead them to victory. For the first time he felt he no longer had to make life changing decisions. That night he got the best sleep in weeks.
~~
Monday in the hall at school Davis approached Trey. He wore a usual scowl and walked briskly. Trey stepped back wondering what he was angry about this time.
His face remained ridged as he said, “Marcus told me what you did last week.”
Trey searched his memories for everything he told Marcus last week but couldn’t think past the battle with Commerand which clearly happened later.
Davis continued with the glare, “I’m still really mad at you. What you did was unforgivable.” His face softened. “But I just wanted to thank you for getting Lenny to take the video down.”
“Oh Dude!” Trey said thankful Marcus didn’t reveal any of his secrets. “No problem. I hated myself for doing it. I’m sorry. I meant to say that earlier.”
“It’s ok now. I deserved it. My dad told me later that I wasn’t taking responsibility for my actions. I was blaming you for everything.”
“We all do that. Heck, I just did it a few minutes ago.” They both laughed. “Does this mean you’ll get back on the team?”
“If coach will have me back.”
“Dude! There’s no chance he’ll say no. You’re too good.”
“Thanks Trey. I needed that.” He started to go then stopped and asked, “When do you find out if you made the high school team?”
“I don’t think there’s any chance I made it. I mean, I didn’t even go to practice the last two days. I think I’ll find out next week, but I’m sure I’ll be with you guys for the rest of the season at least.”
He nodded to Trey and said, “I’ll be glad to share the pitch with you again. Hopefully I’ll see you at practice this afternoon.”
“Yeah. I look forward to it,” Trey said with a warm smile. He stood watching his new friend walk away and was filled with a happiness that could only be realized by helping someone else.
At lunch, Trey was telling Marcus about the wollybroughers and how he nearly died in the mountain.
“Look, this is the ring,” he said holding up his hand. “I’ll show you some of the other stuff when we get back to your house.”
“That’s an amazing story. You really did all those things didn’t you?”
“Yeah, Marcus. It’s all real…and there’s something else,” Trey said with a sneaky smile.
“What? What else could you have possibly done?” Marcus said with an excitable look.
“I learned a new way to communicate.” He then smiled a big toothy smile.
“Yeah? What’s that?” Marcus said even more confused about what Trey was insinuating. His eyebrows scrunched together, and he held his mouth slightly open as he searched for the answer to Trey’s elusive statement. Then Marcus’ eyes bulged as it dawned upon him. “You didn’t move your mouth!” He then thought a second, “Did you? Did you move your mouth when you spoke to me?”
“Nope,” Trey projected.
Marcus couldn’t suppress the inappropriate word that followed the shocking realization that Trey was telepathic.
Silence followed. Marcus’ eyes darted left then right. They brightened then squinched as he stared into Trey’s.
“I can’t read your mind. It doesn’t work that way. I can only project into yours.”
“Oh. That sucks for you. But still cool you can speak without speaking.”
“It’s come in handy a few times.”
“It’s all so unbelievable.” He looked out over the crowded lunchroom. Then as if the magical conversation never existed, Marcus returned to middle school life and said, “You know Sarah and Kenny broke up over the weekend.”
“Really?” he replied with an extra beat of his heart. He then spied Leslie across the lunchroom talking to a friend. He smiled and said while still looking in Leslie’s direction, “Sarah’s a nice girl. She’ll find someone else quickly.”
“She asked about you Friday. Was wondering where you were.”
Trey brought his attention back to his friend. “Did you tell her I was off in another world fighting crazy creatures?” he said laughing
distantly.
“What are you guys talking about?” Leslie said sitting down next to Trey.
“Hey, Leslie,” Trey said happily. He affectionately bumped his shoulder into hers. “We’re just talking about, you know, guy stuff.”
“Guy stuff, huh?” she said tickling his lower ribs with her finger.
“Haha! Stop that!” he said laughing. “Maybe I’ll tell you about it later. Can I walk you home from school today?”
“I’d really like that, but my dad is picking me up. I’m free tomorrow,” she replied with a cute smile.
“Tomorrow it is,” Trey said happily.
“Did you ever figure out the purpose of your dream?” she asked.
Trey looked at Marcus. They both laughed. “Yeah. Yeah I did.”
In Utah
Trey walked home alone – happy with how the day went. It was a nothing tried to kill him, Grandpa was alive, Davis was on the team again, the crazy dreams were gone kind of happy day. As he rounded the corner past Sarah’s neighborhood a man appeared in front of him – Trey thought from behind the big tree next to the road but couldn’t be sure. It was Lamar.
“Cool Dude. Your dad’s in Utah,” he said as silver flashed unnaturally in his eyes.
Till Next Week
Trey’s adventure continues…
Trey stood in astonished disbelief on a Monday afternoon – the Monday after he used Moridon’s relic to travel back in time to save his ancestors from being decimated by fire. He watched the skylien formerly known as Lamar, a thin dark-skinned man he originally met at Donald’s apartment complex the night Don Smith returned home from The Highlands, awkwardly propel itself into the sky and fly away with the information he so desired – the information that would lead him to his lost father.
“My dad’s in Utah!” He looked left then right as if he missed something in the interaction. “I have to tell mom.” He launched into a sprint then stopped. “I can’t tell mom. She doesn’t know he might be in trouble … and she’ll try to talk me out of finding him.”
He looked around again, hoping to find the answer.
“Mr. H! “He’ll know what to do. I hope he’s still at school.”
Trey entered the park he once avoided in order to steer clear of his former bully now good friend Donald. Donald was sitting on a bench talking to Carl, one of Donald’s cronies who turned out to be quite an intelligent and nice kid but hid it from Donald amid low self-esteem.
“Hey Trey!” Donald hollered as Trey came running toward the couple.
“No time to talk, buddy! I know where my dad is!” Trey said enthusiastically.
“What?” Donald exclaimed then took chase. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school, Carl!”
Trey slowed to let Donald catch up.
“You found your dad?”
“Sort of,” Trey said amid heaving breaths. “I know, well, I think he’s in Utah. I’ll tell you more when we find Mr. Hampton.”
The two boys launched through the double doors, ran past Principal Papperton who only gave a questioning expression at their rush then they skidded into the science lab. Nick was not there. The lab was empty. The boys took a minute to catch their breaths.
“How’d you find him?” Donald asked.
“It’s sort of hard to explain,” Trey said as he took a seat in a front row desk. Donald leaned against another and crossed his arms.
“You remember that guy I was talking about when I was at your apartment last week? Lamar? The guy that no one seemed to know?”
“I remember you asking about him. Why?”
“I told him about my dad when I left your apartment that day. I’m not sure why I did but it didn’t seem to go anywhere, so I left and didn’t think about it again.”
“You told him all the stuff dad told you? The stuff about the portal and that he’s protecting you?” Donald said in a way that made Trey fell like he did something wrong.
“No. I just told him he was missing. I sort of hoped, you know, with all the weird magical stuff that’s happened, that maybe he was someone that could find him.”
“And he found him, didn’t he?”
“Yes! He did! Well,” Trey looked at the floor before continuing, “he said he did.”
“But you don’t trust him, do you?”
“No. That’s the part I wanted to talk to Mr. H about.”
“What’s Mr. Hampton got to do with Lamar?”
“He met him when we brought your dad home. He’s familiar with the guy and, um – “
“What is it, Trey?”
“I uh – “
“Dude. You can tell me.”
“I’m not sure I should. You have enough on your plate with your dad and all that happened at the park last week.”
“I’m ok with all that. I’ve seen the guys following us. Look, there’s one right there,” Donald said as he pointed at the man in the red ball cap that saved them from the rogglet attack in the park last Saturday.
“Yeah. That’s Charlie.” Charlie waved nonchalantly at the boy’s acknowledgement of his presence.
“Ok. I’ll tell you but you can’t get freaked out about it.”
“Ok. I promise,” Donald replied but looked a little freaked out and edged slightly away from Trey, as if a large spider just crawled toward him.
Trey tried to prepare Donald with trusting eyes then said, “Lamar isn’t human.”
Trey was pleased that the comment didn’t seem to faze Donald. He continued, “He’s a skylien.”
Donald’s expression slightly tilted toward the fearful side, but he maintained composure and asked, ”What’s a skylien?”
“That’s the tricky part. I don’t know. But what I do know is that they take the shape of other things and that their real form is a super scary version of a skeleton with black shriveled skin awkwardly stuck to random places and a sharp claw at the tip of each bat-like wing. It was really creepy…especially at night.”
Donald’s expression became blank, like he was trying to think of an excuse to leave.
“But the worst part about it when I first saw it was that it looked and sounded just like Mr. H.”
“Um Hum. A flying black skeleton you say?” Donald asked distantly.
“Yeah.”
“That takes the shape of our science teacher,” he said as he looked out the window – possibly expecting Lamar to show up and rip his heart out with a ruthless claw.
“I think it can take any shape,” Trey said calmly while continuing to assess Donald’s state.
“Right. Because this one looked like Lamar.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know the real Lamar. I’ve only met the skylien…I think. I suppose it could have been the real Lamar at some point. I don’t know.”
“You know, Trey. All this really freaks me out,” Donald said with a tremor in his hands.
“I know, Buddy. But I need you to stay focused. We’re in this together.”
“I get that, but why are there so many monsters? Why me? What did I do to deserve this?”
“Nothing, Donald. None of us asked for this. It’s all gonna be ok. I’ll find my dad and he’ll know what to do. He and Grandpa will help me make it all right.”
“But your Grandpa is dead, isn’t he?”
“No, Buddy. Well, he’s not dead yet.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready for all this.”
“You need to stop with all the negative self-talk. You’re Donald Smith, the toughest kid in school.”
Donald looked at him with a painful grimace and replied, “I was mean. That’s not tough.”
Trey smiled and said, “Yes. You were mean but you had a good reason and you changed when that reason no longer existed. That was smart and the best thing for you…and change, especially when it involves admitting you’re wrong, is very hard to do. You’re a great friend now. So just let the past go and face these challenges with us, regardless of how scared we are and believe me, I’m plenty scared most of the time.”
�
�You? No. You’re always so confident.”
“No, Donald. Most of that confidence you see is just me trying to survive.”
“I guess we all hide our weakest parts.”
“I don’t see it as weakness anymore. When I’m scared, I know I’m alive and that I have something to live for. I find that I’m more capable to take decisive action because my own and oftentimes the lives of people I love are depending on me. It’s not hard to be confident or courageous when lives are on the line.”
“That does change your perspective, I bet.”
“It sure does…and I hope you never have to make those decisions because while it’s happening, I feel I’m wrong every time. It’s agonizing.”
“I don’t envy you at all, Trey. I’m glad it’s you and not me. I’d be sure to fail.”
“You’d be just fine,” Trey replied as he became frustrated with Donald’s consistent self-doubt. “We’ll have to work on your confidence. In the meantime, it doesn’t look like Mr. H is coming.”
“What do we do now?”
“I know of someone else that’s familiar with skyliens,” Trey smiled at his friend who returned a questioning frown. “Let’s go find Marcus. He needs to see this,” he said happily.
The boys left the main building and entered an adjacent building through the front then walked swiftly toward the sounds of various horns, strings and percussion instruments undulating the tune of the 1967 Disney hit, The Bare Necessities.
Trey peeked through the narrow window to see Marcus waiting patiently for his part. Marcus glanced up as if he felt Trey’s glare and waved at this friend in the window. He then held up five fingers indicating he’ll be out in five minutes. He then looked startled but gracefully tucked the old German violin under his chin and drew a strong bow across the strings. A melody so thin and playful lept from the instrument. Trey realized this was the first time he ever heard his best friend’s passion – and was deeply ashamed.
Trey shushed Donald’s comment so that he could take in Marcus’ talent. The joyful tune set Trey’s mind at ease and reminded him of a simpler time when he and both parents took in a movie about a young boy fighting for a cause larger than himself.
