by Shane Mason
‘Oh okay. I shall tell you one more thing and that is all til we meet again,’ said the man. ‘And then you have to leave.’
He let go of the dark desert and stepping part way in, half of his body disappeared. The remaining half appeared as if it balanced on one leg.
‘Everything here represents every possible thing on your plane, on earth.’
He held his arms outstretched.
‘Between the black and the white, all colours, all possible lines, all possible movements exist. Everything that ever was and is and will ever be, you can see here.’
The white featureless desert and the black light-swallowing desert sat side by side, no sign of movement, nor even a flicker of life, was visible.
‘Black and white?’ Melaleuca said.
‘Yes, just like your name,’ the man replied.
‘I hardly see any of anything,’ Lexington said disappointed.
Quixote tittered to himself. ‘I can see it - castles, lakes, roving skeletons, treasure, Black Beard the pirate.’
Lexington tut-tutted him.
The old man chuckled and reached out, placing his hand on Quixote. ‘Nearly little one, nearly. What you see is the inner hope of discovery. Your seed is planted well. We are kindred seeds, you know.’
‘Explain what you just said,’ Melaleuca said, ‘about the black and white thing.’
‘Oh really it’s quite simple. Even a child could work it out.’ With an exasperated expression he carried on. ‘Take a white piece of paper. It is blank. All light, all possible colours, all possible colour combinations are hidden within the spectrum of the white light reflecting back. Now take a black piece of paper. It's the same but it absorbs all light. Now take the white piece of paper and draw all possible lines on it, every possible combination. Eh! What do you end up with?’
Melaleuca calculated the question as quick as Quixote and both of them blurted the answer out.
‘A black piece of paper.’
‘Well done,’ the man said. ‘Now….tell me….what does that mean?’
Puzzled by the question Melaleuca looked to Lexington though she appeared frustrated.
‘I need pen and paper,’ she said.
‘It means,’ Quixote said flashing his eyes at Lexington, ‘you have a beginning and an end.’
The man laughed, delighted. ‘Good. Great. Very yes. You will do well. Now it is time to leave.’
The desert disintegrated until they floated in limbo. A great whirlpool appeared in the nothingness and one by one they got sucked in. Soon they found themselves separated and standing on completely different landscapes.
***
Awake and awash in a fading revelry, Melaleuca stared at each of her cousins watching the yellow and green light from the bracelets play across their faces and cast shadows on the wall. The awe of what she had seen in her landscape clung to her, and in the eyes of the others she saw they felt the same way. No one wanted to talk in case the feeling wore off. The silence dragged on and Melaleuca started to feel as if she had just lost a long time friend.
‘Did everyone go somewhere after the desert?’ She finally said.
They nodded.
‘I was sailing,’ Ari said and an aching need to tell them rang out in his voice. ‘And then climbing, exploring, and I came to the mountains, my mountains. They were so large and filled with grandeur that at the highest peak I could see into space and beyond.’
Melaleuca filled her eyes with sympathy – she knew what he meant.
‘After the desert I found myself commanding millions, both armies and civilizations. My mind now seems fogged but I could see into the hearts and desires of everyone, even my enemies.’ She added with a forlorn gaze, ‘But it feels so long ago.’
Lexington shook her head, swallowed and blinked back tears. ‘The desert again. It’s a clue. It has to be...though it felt real and then the next bit? That was surely a dream. I know it must have been.’ Perplexed she added in a panic. ‘Where I went, I can feel the memory of it fading!’
‘Then tell us quickly so we remember for you,’ Melaleuca said.
‘My mind opened,’ Lexington told them, ‘and threw me across an ocean that felt like it took a thousand years to cross, until I came to a great darkness and before I could wonder at it, I was thrown into the centre of what felt like a million suns.’ Lexington choked up and held back tears. ‘I started to be shown how everything worked - life, everything, and now all I can do is remember it without actually knowing any of it.’ She screwed her face up in frustration.
Quixote giggled at the others. He still had his characteristic impish look on his face. Whatever he had seen changed him little, and he stood and grabbed one of the yellow bracelets again.
It stopped glowing.
‘Oh,’ Quixote said.
They all stood and peered into his hand - the bracelet now a cold grey circle of ordinary-looking metal. Melaleuca picked up a yellow bracelet and it became as grey as Quixote’s had, and both Lexington and Ari did likewise and their bracelets turned grey.
‘I feel sad,’ Lexington said. ‘I wanted this to take me back.’
‘Me too cousin,’ Melaleuca said twirling the bracelet on her first finger hoping it would spark up again.
It seemed unclear what the bracelets meant in the light of their instructions. It answered nothing and only posed more questions.
‘If our parents said we are to keep playing and moving forward,’ Ari said, ‘then what if these bracelets show us the future, show us where we could be if we use our imaginations to the fullest.’
‘Perhaps Lexington’s hypotheses could help us now,’ Melaleuca said taking Lexington by surprise. ‘Can they help explain the bracelets? What about the desert?’
‘These bracelets may change what I have hypothesised,’ Lexington replied despondent.
‘Then I suggest making a new thesis.’
‘I would but I cannot recall my world.’
Melaleuca tried to recall where she had been but could not. She could only recall the black and white desert.
‘Ari. Can you ─ ’
He shook his head.
‘It’s gone.’
‘Why can’t we recall them’? Lexington said frustrated. ‘I bet it’s the biggest clue to all this.’
‘The man in the desert said it was not time,’ Quixote said still with a dreamy smile on his face. ‘It was pretty cool.’
‘You said Lex,’ Ari said. ‘That you were in the heart of stars.’
‘I did, didn’t I. Yet...yet...I can’t recall it. And you said you were in the mountains, all over the world.’
‘It’s no use. It’s gone too. Mel? Armies?’
Melaleuca nodded. ‘Yes I used the word. But nothing, just the desert.’
‘Let’s try the green ones,’ Quixote said fired up. ‘They might do it.’
He plucked one of the green glowing bracelets out of the table and in an instant his arm shot upwards but this time his body convulsed as if receiving an electric shock. He slumped to his knees, yelling and screaming, writhing in pain, and then crumpled to the ground. Ari grabbed him, turning him on his back and a laughing Quixote held out the no-longer green bracelet. It now appeared a metal colour.
‘I should have known.
Melaleuca frowned. Quixote never knew when enough was enough.
‘How did you know that the green bracelet would have no effect?’ Lexington asked.
‘I didn’t.’
‘And look! It has stopped glowing.’
Lexington touched a green one and it too, stopped glowing.
Riled, Lexington tried to lash out with what little fire she could muster.
‘We cannot continue until we know more. We just don’t know what we are dealing with. Play is fine. Moving forward is one thing. But we have no idea what is going on. I am sure our mother’s did not mean to move forward blindly. That’s....that’s...that’s...’ She struggled to find the right words. ‘That’s un-sagacious and lacks perspicac
ity.’
‘What?’ Ari said.
‘Urrr. Unwise, not paying attention to detail.’
Quixote rolled and rolled and rolled his eyes at her.
‘Qui, this discovery is serious.’
‘Lexington calm down. We don’t need to be serious,’ Melaleuca said sounding serious. ‘We need to ─ ’
‘What! Mel! Out of all of us, you are the most serious. You hardly smile. You say little. All you love to do is make decisions.’
‘Right decisions.’
‘Since leaving home we don’t know that, do we?’
‘I play and imagine in my own way. We all do. We all know that. You know that.’
‘Oh yeah? What if the green bracelets had been bad or the yellow ones? We need to note things down, draw maps, start writing ideas, keep track of all the clues we get.’ Lexington pointed at her head. ‘Start using my thinking. Like...um...why did the yellow ones affect us but not the green ones?’
She pointed at Melaleuca. ‘Start working out your feelings.’
She then motioned to Ari. ‘Start exploring with a purpose. And...’
She looked at Quixote, stumped.
As if reading her mind he said, ‘I still remember what I saw after the desert.’
‘Really! What then?’
‘What I see every night in my dreams.’ Quixote roared with laughter.
Melaleuca and Ari could not help but laugh. Quixote had always insisted that each night he dreamt the dreams that had not yet been dreamed. Lexington tucked her hair behind her ears and lifted her nose in indignation.
‘I guess then you can just play like a child.’
Lexington stepped out of the room to clear her head and spied another note on the floor. Her heart sank, as she knew it would propel them forward instead of slowing them down long enough to take stock of their position.
‘There’s another note.’
Melaleuca moved for the door though Quixote raced by and grabbed the note first.
‘Return to the girls’ room for the next clue,’ he said reading it out loud.
Ari took the note off him, read it and handed it to Melaleuca. Melaleuca and Lexington’s eyes met.
‘We have to return to our room,’ Melaleuca said.
‘Fine.’
Melaleuca pointed to the bracelet room.
‘Bracelets back. Let’s go.’
‘Awww,’ Quixote said.
‘If the notes are to be believed,’ Ari said in defence of Melaleuca, ‘then danger is around. Probably Aunty Gertrude. Guess she does not want us here. If we are found with the bracelets Qui, who knows what she might do.’
‘Alright, alright.’
They each put their bracelet back and left, and the secret bracelet room now sat empty, though where there had been five yellow bracelets now sat four.
***
As Daquan underwent more treatment, Quesob was put in charge of everything. He pondered his tasks and stared out of a window overlooking the New Wakefield valley. The Forunza River snaked its way out of the upper valley, passing by the sprawling township and carried on past the paddocks, fields, forests and swamps, making its way out to sea. The sea glistened way off in the distance, a thin line of sparkling silver on the horizon.
Daquan’s Cathedral-Mansion commanded a view of the valley except for one area. Across the valley from it, shrouded in bushes and oak trees, sat the original site of settlement in the valley. Upon it sat the Throughnight Cathedral-Mansion. Quesob had long since told Daquan that it was a blind spot, a perfect place for anyone to spy on them or to attack from.
His door burst open and a nervous-looking elderly man stood there shaking. Quesob recognized him as one of the workers.
‘What is the meaning of this,’ Quesob said.
‘Excuse sir, me names Amreth and well, the master said to tell yous from now if anything changed,’ he said as though he had rehearsed those lines. ‘But sir,’ he added and then started ranting. ‘It’s happening, it’s started. It’s happening, it’s started. It’s happening, it’s started. It’s happening, it’s started.’
‘What has?’
Amreth opened his eyes so wide that he exposed the whites all the way around his pupils, and then he spoke in a voice that sounded like he had seen a ghost.
‘The black bracelet! It swallowed the light. I thought I was dying,’ he said blathering like an insane man. ‘It’s evil I tell you. EVIL!! What was he thinking putting me there?’
‘ALRIGHT ENOUGH.’
Amreth stopped talking but remained scared and shaking.
‘Show me what you are talking about.’
‘NOOO!’
‘Show me or you will spend the rest of your years at the Borstal.’
His words rocked Amreth and it was clear from the expression on his face that he now had a hard choice to make. ‘I will take you to it, but I ain’t going in!’
Amreth led him to a small passageway between two rooms on the second storey. He stood before what appeared to be a broom cupboard and opened it. They both stood there staring at the pitch-black darkness inside.
‘Well,’ Quesob said.
‘I ain’t going in. I ain’t going in. This far that’s all,’ Amreth said backing away.
‘There is nothing in there.’
Quesob peered in and could only see more darkness. Clearly Amreth had gone crazy and was seeing things.
Amreth cackled and then jeered at him, ‘Scared ain’t ja.’
‘Oh for heaven’s sake.’
Quesob sighed and then stepped into the room.
An eerie weirdness descended on him and he searched in the darkness but could see nothing. Where did the feeling come from? He turned to address Amreth and saw that no light entered the room. Light stopped square at the door, like something in the room stopped it going any further.
‘What is supposed to be in here?’
‘I ain’t alloweds to tell. The master said so.’
‘The master is no longer fit to be in charge. Now tell me what is in this room or so help me I will not hesitate to take you to Golgotha.’
Amreth bowed his head in shame and spoke.
‘It’s just an old bracelet, lest it was afore...afore...’ He stopped and would not say anymore.
Bracelet? What bracelet? Impossible. They had been looking for the bracelets for many years now. It was all that had driven Daquan on. It did not make sense.
‘How long have you known about this room?’
‘Long time. About ten years I should think. Can I goes now?’
‘Wait. What exactly is the problem here? What did you see?’
‘The bracelet started to glow black and sucked all the light out of the room. It’s evil I tell you. I ran in case it sucked out my soul.’
‘I can’t see the bracelet you old fool.’
‘In the middle of the room there is a stand. It’s on that.’
Quesob pulled out a packet of matches and struck one. The match flared up but illuminated nothing around him. Like Amreth had said - something in the room sucked up the light. He felt in front of him and his hand brushed the pedestal. He groped around and felt a small cold smooth object. As he rolled it over in his hand he could feel it was in the definite shape of bracelet.
All at once his mind crowded with questions and like Amreth he became nervous, not from fear but from the unknown. What on earth was this bracelet doing here? All these years Daquan had been looking for the bracelets and he had never told him about this one. Perhaps it had been a mere decoy or some experiment gone wrong? But that did not make sense. So far there had been no one to set up a decoy for, and as for experiments surely he would have heard something.
He grasped it and thrust it into his trouser pocket and light from outside the room flooded back in an instance. Quesob removed the bracelet slowly from his pocket and once again darkness gobbled the light up. He jabbed it into his pocket and then slowly pulled it out a little at a time, trying to get a good look at it. But again it s
apped the light from the room.
Chapter 13 - The Last Clue
Standing in the girls’ bedroom, Melaleuca read out another note that they had found on the floor.
‘Go to the attic. All you ever needed is there.’
Quixote leapt up and charged for the door, crying out, ‘Let’s go!’
‘Ari,’ Melaleuca said, nodding her head toward Quixote.
Ari sprang up and blocked Quixote’s way, grabbing him by the scuff of his toga and lifting him off the ground.
‘Put me down Ari. I’ll give you a good kicking.’
‘Quixote. Settle. We are going to clear ourselves before we go to the attic,’ Melaleuca said.
Keen at last to discover what they were here for, they ran through all the events since their last clearing though the note overshadowed it. Toward the end of it Lexington made a little noise of annoyance and turned her back on them. Melaleuca dreaded to ask though Lexington spun around and spoke.
‘The point of a clearing is to come up with new ideas and suggestions on how things could have been done better...so…’
‘We can’t go back and do things we have already done,’ Quixote said. ‘It’s...,’ he giggled, ‘it’s impossible.’
Surprised at his use of the word “impossible,” Ari and Melaleuca stared at him and then at Lexington, who glowered at him.
‘We can play different possibilities,’ Quixote continued, ‘but this is real. How would we go back and do it differently? We can’t.’ He aimed his words at Lexington and waited for her incendiary response.
‘First sensible thing Quixote’s said for ages,’ Lexington said down her nose. ‘As I was about to say, we cannot go back and redo things like we did at home, so this appears pointless.’
Melaleuca started to defend their instructions when Lexington held her hand up to silence her, though she carried on.
‘...so it appears logically there is another reason why Antavahni bade us to continue doing so.’ Her whole face lit up. ‘Even with my photographic memory so much has happened in such a short time that it is too much. So I think it makes sense that the clearings are now helping us see the connections that at first are not obvious.’
