“Melody, will you come here a moment?” said Gramps from where he was sitting in his wheelchair, next to the SUV.
Melody looked at us and shrugged. “Sure, Gramps,” she said and began walking over.
G. and I looked at each other and decided to follow.
Gramps was sitting with the sun to his back, a map spread out in his lap and a thoughtful look on his face. When we finally joined him, he looked at us, then to Melody. “This is a satellite image of Orla that I downloaded from the Internet. I want to see if you can feel the same thing I feel when you dowse it.”
“Dowse?” Mel said, uncertain.
I knew what dowsing was – it was using your extrasensory perception, or perhaps your subconscious, to give you information about something. Some dowsed by using a forked tree branch to find water or a pendulum on a string to determine if an unborn baby was male or female. I had never heard of it being used with a map before.
“Remember the other day when you traced the line on the map with your finger?”
Melody nodded.
“That’s a nontypical way to dowse a map. Some people use pendulums or what have you – but you aren’t familiar with those. So I just want you to do the same thing today that you did the other day – use your own senses to determine the energy of the area on the map.”
Melody seemed a little skeptical but knelt down by gramps and put her finger on the map. “What line am I sensing?”
“Not a line this time, but the whole area… the whole town of Orla.”
She nodded and closed her eyes. As we watched, she began lightly stroking the map with her left hand, like someone would do if they were trying to feel the static from a Van de Graaf generator in science class.
I was surprised at the change in Melody’s demeanor. She seemed much more calm this morning, almost serene, as if some sort of closure had come to her overnight. I was glad. I needed her to be okay. And apparently, if Sam’s latest dream was anything to go by, Matthew needed her to be okay, too.
Melody had scanned almost the entire map with her finger, with very little change of expression, until she got to the far northwest corner, where she paused with a frown. “This place here, there’s a sort of… pulsing sensation. Not like when I complete the circuit but similar, more staticky.”
I leaned over to see what she was pointing at. She was further north of the crossroads than I expected her to be, but still near the highway. There were a couple of small gray boxes there, and I realized they were buildings. Turning around, I scanned the horizon. There they were, beige and white in the distance. “Hello, Othello,” I said, squinting, with my hand over my eyes to shade them from the sun.
G. and Melody turned to look where I was looking, and G. gave a low whistle. “I see a sign post there,” he said. He looked down at me with meaning. “It has triangular pieces hanging off of it at the top, like the fletching on an arrow.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Really?” Not for the first time, I wished I didn’t need glasses.
“Here,” said Gramps, holding a pair of small binoculars to me. “See for yourself.”
I held the binocs up to my eyes and adjusted them. Suddenly the buildings swam into focus, one tan, one white. And in front of the tan building was indeed, a very tall sign that looked exactly like an arrow shot into the ground. “The door is red,” I said, breathless. I handed the binoculars to Melody. “The door is red.”
Gramps crowed with delight. “And this, my young friends, is just the beginning of a marvelous adventure.”
“What nonsense are you talking about, Harold?” Gram asked, walking up with a compass in one hand and camera in the other.
“We’ve found the site, Margaret.” He jutted his chin in the direction of the beige building. “How long do we have until the eclipse?”
Gram looked at her watch. “A couple of hours. Long enough to grab a bite to eat before we set up the circle.”
“Who is that?” asked Melody, still looking through the binoculars. “A car just pulled up to the building and parked in front of it.” She handed the binoculars to me. “Is that who I think it is?”
I took the binoculars again, re-adjusted them for my terrible vision, and gasped softly as I recognized not only the vehicle but the person unloading equipment from it. “It’s Esme,” I said.
“Esme?” said both Gram and Gramps together.
G. just looked at me with confusion. “What’s she doing here?”
Gram swore a salty oath that I pretended not to hear and said “Her damned politics. She’s going to ruin everything. Get in the car. We have to go stop her.”
#
“Esmeralda, just what do you think you are doing here?” Gram demanded in a very angry way.
I was caught off guard. I had known Mel’s grandparents for a very long time, but I had never seen them get this upset.
“Margaret. How sweet of you to join me.”
“What are you doing, Esme?” asked Gramps, only a little more calm.
“I’m setting up a circle. I intend to close the vortex.”
I didn’t understand why everyone was so upset – closing the vortex, isn’t that what we were doing out here? I mean, before we found out we might be able to rescue Matthew, the whole point was to close the vortex to stop the monsters from getting in. Right?
“You can’t, Esme. Matthew’s in there.”
“Matthew’s dead, Harold. There’s nothing that can bring him back.”
“That’s not true!” Sam said, suddenly animated. He stepped forward. “He’s caught in the tesseract. He can be rescued.”
“And just what do you know, little boy? You’ve had a few dreams and now you think you can see the picture clearly?” Her lips curled in a sneer.
“I know what I saw,” he said firmly. “He can be saved.”
“What’s going on?” Lily asked, scooting closer to me.
I stared at her blankly, wondering what the heck I could tell her that would make sense without making the rest of us seem like we were crazy.
Melody shrugged. “We thought my brother was dead, but it turns out that he’s trapped in some other… dimension? Whatever. Anyways, now we are trying to get him out and to stop monsters from coming out with him, and Esme showed up and we don’t know why. We had to bring you along because you showed up in Sam’s dream.”
“And mine,” G. said.
I gaped at Melody and then up at G. who just shrugged like, what else are we supposed to say? And I thought that if this didn’t chase Lily off of Sam, then nothing would.
Lily rocked back on her heels. She looked from one of us to the next, to the next, and then studied Sam’s back from behind. “Okay,” she said.
“Okay?” I asked, practically squeaking in my disbelief.
She shrugged. “I’ve seen some weird shit. This isn’t any weirder than that.”
I just didn’t have anything to add to that.
75. SAM
“He can be rescued,” I repeated firmly, though what I really wanted to do was strangle the broad. I’d only met her a couple of times whenever Tara had dragged me and Melody into her shop, and she’d seemed all right then, if a bit spacey. She ignored me completely now.
“You’re doing a fine job of minding my shop,” she said to Tara, her brow arched and her lips twisted in a smirk. “Consider yourself fired whenever we get back to town and this is all over with.”
Tara’s eyes widened, and her face went white, but she just nodded.
For some reason, Esme picking on Tara like that just made me angry. Sure Tara was kind of annoying after a while, but she was my friend, and what else were we supposed to do? According to Melody’s grandfather, we were the only full quarrel in the area, and we were called to deal with this threat. We had to come. Esme should have understood that.
But Esme was ignoring everyone, focused on opening the trunk to her car and unloading small white plastic canvas sacks. She picked one up, tossed it over her shoulder, and began walkin
g around to the back of the building.
“What is that?” I asked no one in particular.
“Sacks of lime to draw the circle – to contain the energy,” said Gram with a frown. “That’s not nearly so dangerous as what she plans to do after the circle is drawn.” She shared a look with her husband and then motioned for me and G. to take the other sacks out of her trunk and put them in the trunk of their car instead.
We got the last item thrown into the back of the car and the trunk locked as she rounded the corner on the way back. I watched G. shove the keys deep into his pocket and how he rocked back on his heels, knees slightly bent, and I realized suddenly that there might be an altercation between him and the older woman.
“This is ridiculous,” I said. “You can’t just barge in here and have your way. We were here first.”
Esme didn’t look at me. Instead she was glancing between the empty trunk of her car and the keys in the pocket of G.’s pants, and I was struck with the idea that her staring at G.’s crotch might be funny if only there wasn’t some solar eclipse trans-dimensional gateway of doom already on our doorstep.
Esme looked at Gram. “It doesn’t matter. I have enough to draw the circle – just barely. And it doesn’t take much sulfur to do the job, so this little packet I have in my pocket will just have to be enough.” She patted the left chest-pocket on her blouse where there was a distinct bulge.
I looked at G. and he looked at me – both of us unwilling to assault a woman to grope her chest and retrieve a baggie of sulfur.
And then Lily walked right up, stood squarely in front of Esme and reached out to grab the packet from Esme’s bulging pocket. Affronted, Esme grabbed Lily’s wrist with one hand and slapped her like a child with the other.
Lily’s head snapped to the side with the blow, and her left hand came up to hold her cheek. And as Esme watched her rub the red imprint of her hand with a grim sort of satisfaction, Lily threw a crazy-fast right hook that the older woman didn’t even see coming.
“Bitch,” said Lily, now holding her cheek and shaking her fist loosely. “We told you, we were here first.”
Esme had crumpled to the ground, and while everyone else was blinking in surprise at what had just happened, I darted in to remove the packet from her shirt while she was still reeling from the punch. I palmed it and passed it to G., who buried it in his other pocket.
“Now what do we do?” asked Melody, looking down at Esme with a frown. “I mean, with her?”
Melody’s grandmother looked around. “For now, we just watch her to make sure that she doesn’t get in the way.” She looked down at Esme and shook her head. “After what happened with Harold, you should have known better than to come here. I might have said I forgave you for what happened – but you know and I know and Harold knows that it was your fault all along. There is no way I am going to let you do that to these kids, and most definitely not to the only grandchild I have left.”
Esme was sitting back on her butt in the dirt, holding the side of her face gingerly. “But they’re winning, don’t you see? If we don’t stop them, if we don’t kill the node, then we don’t have any hope!”
Gram sliced her hand through the air decisively. “That’s enough of your nonsense, Esme! Not another word or I will… I don’t know what, but I swear you won’t like it.”
Esme sent a beseeching look at Melody’s Grandfather, but he just shook his head.
“You went too far last time, Esme,” he said. “You’re going to have to sit this one out.” He wheeled his chair around and pushed off in the direction of the back of the building with the arrow in front of it. “Come on Melody. You and I have some things to talk about before this really gets cooking. And I could use some help with my chair.”
I watched them walk off and then turned to look at Lily, who was basically glaring from me to G. and back again.
“Will someone please tell me why I had to assault an old woman for some little mojo bag in her pocket?”
“I’m not old,” said Esme from her spot on the ground. “I’m only forty-four.”
“Whatever,” said Lily, rolling her eyes.
“Sorry you, ah, felt you needed to jump in like that,” said G., coming over to stand near us.
“Yeah, well, it was obvious that you and Boy Wonder weren’t going to do anything. I get it. You’re strong young men and she’s an old, frail woman with a package in her breast pocket.”
I had to admit that she’d sussed the pertinent details quickly enough. I opened my mouth to comment, but not before Margaret had walked up.
“I can’t say that I approve of your methods, but I do appreciate you stepping into a precarious situation.”
Lily looked at Gram, and her face softened just a fraction, though she was clearly still irritated with G. and me. “No problem. Can you tell me why it was necessary?”
“How much have they”—she gestured to us—“told you?”
“Not much, just something about your grandson being trapped in a vortex and you came to get him out.”
Margaret inhaled sharply. “Not entirely accurate, but close enough for government work.” She spread her arms out indicating the space around them and around the building. “There are ley lines – electro-magnetic lines of energy – running under the ground here. Two lines in fact: one going in a northwest to southeast direction, and another going in a southwest to northeast direction. At the point that these lines cross is a node, and often near a node, the barrier between dimensions is thinner. When this happens, a vortex forms.
“Over there, behind that building, is the center of a vortex. This vortex in particular is a thinning of the barrier between our dimension and one of a lower frequency. It is darker there, slower, and sound is muffled. In comparison, this place is like heaven. And the creatures from there want to escape. When they sniff out a tear on their side, they push and poke at it until it’s large enough for them to stream right through.”
Lily’s eyes widened a little at this. “Are they coming through now?”
“No, the sunlight is too intense for them. If they are already coming through, they are doing it at night. Except that today…” she said, trailing off and staring briefly up at the sky.
“Today is a full solar eclipse,” I finished. “An unnatural darkening of the day.” I was beginning to sound like Tara, repeating verbatim whatever sound bite I was told.
“But won’t they burn up as soon as the eclipse is over?” G. asked.
I was wondering the same thing.
“No, not if they can get through in the beginning. They are fastest and strongest at night, but the eclipse gives them a sort of additional boost because it is more than just night, it’s a weakening of the sun’s influence over our plane. They will zip through to corners of the earth unknown. And it is our job”—she paused and looked levelly at G. and me—“Your job, to stop them.”
Lily and I walked over to where Margaret had set out the sandwich items and got in line behind G. and Tara. We were all hungry, and she’d told us to fend for ourselves. The wind had started gusting, and I was both nervously excited and dismayed to see storm clouds on the horizon. The sky overhead was still blue and the sun high, but the clouds… they were ominous and reminded me a lot of my dream. My stomach clenched a little bit, and I fought down the urge to stammer.
“Hey G.,” I said and jutted my chin in the direction of the clouds.
He looked at the incoming storm and then back to me. “Probably should put the top up on the convertible.”
“Yeah.” I walked over to the car, him following me. We pulled the ragtop out, stretched it over the car, and fastened it into place. Then we each opened a door and sat inside to roll up the windows manually.
“So what’s the big deal with Esme’s bag of sulfur?” G. asked, pausing for a moment, his hand on the car door. “I mean, if it works, why the big confrontation? Couldn’t we just use it after we rescue Melody’s brother?”
“I’ve got no idea, bro,
but Melody’s grandparents seemed really angry, and I’ve known them a long time, like years, and I have never seen them get angry like that. So whatever the reason, I’ve gotta believe it’s a good one.”
76. MELODY
Gramps told me to ground myself, so I dug a shallow hole, filled it with black tourmaline chunks, and planted my feet on top. He wanted me to do it this way because he said it would accomplish two things at one time – I would be grounded, and the black tourmaline would get discharged straight into the earth, making it an even more effective conductor of negative frequencies, which he said would be all around us. From the static buzz already in the air, I didn’t have any problem imagining it.
“Nervous?” he said, wheeling his chair up next to me, where I sat on the ground, my feet nestled in the pile of sand and black tourmaline chunks.
“Yes,” I confessed without hesitation. “I don’t know what to expect, I have only been doing this whole energy-sensing crap for a couple of months, and I feel utterly and totally unprepared for the task. I mean – what will I even see? Will it be hordes of the black tentacle things? Will it be even worse than that?”
“Each vortex is different. This one feels very ripe to me. The static in the air, the sharp, raw ambient noise, the metallic taste of the air. This vortex hasn’t ruptured yet, but given the event of an eclipse – yes, it could be very bad. But the creatures aren’t what you should worry about most.”
“No? Because to be frank, Gramps, they freak the ever-living crap out of me.”
A Quarrel Called: Stewards Of The Plane Book 1 Page 25
