by R G Peterson
“No, Thanatos was just here. Man he’s such a douchebag. I told him I had to catch the bus for the game even though we’re at home, just to get him outta my hair. Anyway, great basketball game Friday night. How many’d you score?”
Anthony, without a hint of pride in his voice, said, “Twenty-two.”
“Nice,” Terry said enthusiastically.
“Yeah, I forgot how much I loved it. And getting a second chance to play is awesome.”
Terry nodded thoughtfully. He began twisting Val’s ring, which he wore on his right pinky finger.
Anthony nodded at Terry’s hand, “You fixed it.”
It took a second for Terry to realize Anthony meant the ring.
“Oh, yeah. I found an old jeweler’s eyepiece and was able to see where it slips on.” He examined the ring as he continued, “There’s a tiny notch that you have to lift the piece over after you first slip it onto the rails. Once it’s over that, you push it back down and it slides on the rest of the way.”
“Are they all like that?”
Terry’s look told Anthony that it had never occurred to him to check. He pulled the ring off of his finger, retrieved the jeweler’s eyepiece from the desk drawer and examined it more closely. Sure enough, all of the symbols were held in place the same way.
He mumbled, “I wonder why they aren’t soldered on?”
Anthony sat forward in his chair to have a closer look and offered, “Maybe, like everything else we’ve come across the past few years, the symbols have to be rearranged for some reason. Maybe a clue of some kind?”
“A clue? But what for?”
Anthony shrugged and sat back. “Who knows? But we certainly have seen our share of mysteries and clues lately.”
Terry pondered Anthony’s words then began to take the first symbol off of the ring. “I wish Nick were here. I can’t remember what each of these means. I know he said they were Earth, Water, Wind, Fire and…what was the last one?
“Aether.”
“Yeah, Aether.”
“Maybe they are supposed to be put in some special order.”
“Yeah, but what?”
Anthony shrugged, “Maybe it’s the same order you received your powers. You know Water, Wind, Fire, Earth.”
“Yeah, but where does Aether go? Before or after? And if it’s a clue, it can’t be that hard to figure out. There are only five symbols. How hard can it be?”
Anthony smiled, “The factorial of five is one hundred and twenty.”
“Really? A hundred-twenty?”
“Yeah. What you do is multiply 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1. That tells you how many combinations five different numbers, or in this case symbols, makes.”
Terry nodded then looked at the ring. Suddenly his eyes shot up to Anthony.
“You wouldn’t happen to remember the order Nick said the symbols were in, would you?”
“Let me think.” Anthony closed his eyes and let his mind drift back to Nick’s room when they were examining the bracelet and the ring. With his eyes closed he said, “Earth, Wind…no. Earth, Water, Aether…ah, ah, ah…Fire, Wind.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, pretty sure.”
Terry remembered that Nick had turned the ring around so he could read the symbols right side up. There were two symbols to the left of the stone and three to the right.
“Okay, if you are right and the symbols should be in the order we got our powers, then this needs to be first,” Terry said as he pointed to the second symbol on the ring. “Then this piece.” He pointed at the fifth symbol. “Then this,” pointing at the fourth, “this,” pointing at the first, “and finally this.”
Terry carefully removed each symbol and placed it on the desk in the proper order. He slid each piece into its new spot, hesitating before moving the Aether symbol into position.
He looked at Anthony, raised one eyebrow and said, “Here goes nothing.”
As the last symbol clicked into place, they watched with heightened expectation. When nothing happened they both slumped back in their chairs, disappointed.
Anthony picked up the eyepiece and leaned in to examine the ring more closely. “Hey, what’s that on the bottom of the ring?”
Terry flipped the ring over and saw the tiny groves Anthony mentioned.
“Decoration maybe?” Terry said as he shrugged.
“I’ve got an idea. Take the Aether symbol off the ring.”
Terry did as he was asked.
“Now place the symbols in order, but with two on each side of the stone, like for balance. As in world balance. Or in the symbols balance each other. You know, like that.”
Terry sat upright in his chair, clearly excited. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He rearranged the symbols and flipped the ring over and slid the Aether symbol onto the bottom.
Nothing happened.
Once again the two of them looked deflated.
Terry turned the ring right side up and a beam of light shot out of the top of the ring. Hovering a couple inches above it was a hologram.
“Nick, Nick, what is it?” Grace asked becoming concerned when she realized Nick was staring at Maddy’s arm.
“Look,” he shouted, as he pointed at the bracelet.
“We can’t read it,” the three of them said in exasperation.
“Yeah, yeah, I keep forgetting.”
“So tell us, what does it say?”
He glanced at Grace, then said, “Well I can’t really tell because the bracelet sags so much and splits apart, but down by her left hand it says, ‘One.’ ” Nick tried to rotate Maddy’s hands as he titled his head on an angle and continued to read, “Wi.” He began to shake his head. “The rest gets jumbled up again. AJ, get a measuring tape, please.”
AJ ran upstairs, returning seconds later with a cloth measuring tape.
“Now measure the circumference where Maddy’s holding the bracelet with her fingers.” AJ looked at him with a blank expression. “Wrap it around her fingers and tell me what size it is.”
AJ wound the tape measure around her first two fingers and announced, “It says it’s about three inches.”
“Does your dad have all those wooden dowels in his garage?”
“Yeah.”
“Would he have any that size?”
“Three inches. Sure, probably. Let me go ask him.”
As AJ went searching for his dad, Nick took the bracelet and tried to hold it so it would make the word ‘one’ and then the next word, but it proved impossible to keep the alignment without something solid to brace it.
As he loped down the stairs, AJ said, “This is the best my dad can do. He says it’s really close.”
He handed the dowel to Nick. He placed one end of the bracelet on the far left side and asked Grace to hold it in place. He wrapped the leather strap around the dowel lining up the words ‘one’ and the start of the next ‘wi’ and had Maddy hold the other end.
Nick scanned the row of symbols and read, “One, will.” He had the girls rotate the stick a quarter turn, then said, “master.” They rotated the dowel again another quarter turn, “others.” One more turn, “mind.”
“One will master others mind?” AJ asked.
“Yeah. It says, ‘One will master…’ ” Nick looked up to see everyone shaking their heads.
Grace said, “I think AJ’s question was rhetorical.”
“Oh. Sorry. I just got caught up in it.”
“What do yeh think it means?”
“I’m not sure, but it sounds like we have another riddle to solve.”
“What the…?” Anthony gasped.
Twenty seconds later the hologram vanished.
“Hey. Where’d it go?” Terry shouted.
“What do you think that was?”
“It looked like a small globe, but I thought I saw little tiny satellites circling it. But they weren’t really satellites.”
“They looked like more Voynich symbols to me. And the way they moved aro
und the globe in a line, it looked like it might be some kind of sentence. Do you think it’s some sort of clue?”
Terry turned his attention to Anthony and said, “Nick’s the only one who can read this stuff. We’ll have him take a look and see tonight, after the game.”
Terry removed the symbols and placed them back on the ring in their original order.
He stared at the ring for a very long time before saying, “Until tonight then.”
Chapter 18
“Wow, where’d that come from?”
With three hours to go before the game Nick and Grace left AJ’s and went home. Nick walked Grace to her door, gave her a quick kiss goodbye and said he’d see her after the hockey game. He went back to his house to grab his hockey gear and make a pregame sandwich. GG and Grandpa Henry were out doing their Sunday grocery shopping and told Nick they would see him at the arena.
It was only four houses, but by the time Nick had reached his front steps, the thought of the upcoming contest had his stomach in such knots that he was debating whether he should eat or not. As his hand grabbed the doorknob he was overcome with a vision. It was the first one he had received since before his birthday.
He saw Ron Baker, an Earth Element, and Aaron Anderson, a Water Element, lurking in his front room, hiding on either side of its entryway. Meanwhile, Tim Bourbon, another Water Element, and Jeremy Thompson, a Fire Element, were hiding in the Ericson’s kitchen waiting to ambush Nick in case he decided to enter through the backdoor.
Nick could foresee every moment of what was about to happen. As he stepped into the front room, Ron would stomp on the floor creating a mini-earthquake, knocking Nick off his feet. Aaron would throw a bucket of water at him and freeze it, causing him to suffocate. The boys would call the others in from the kitchen and Terry’s old posse would stand over him and watch him die.
Nick removed his gloves, stepped into the front room and flicked his right hand in Aaron’s direction. Caught unaware, the bucket of water flew out of his grasp and tumbled to the floor. Before it landed, Nick guided half the water into the air, sweeping his hand over his head in an arc, the water followed. He pointed at Ron and the water rained down on him as he began to lift his foot off the ground. Nick stepped to his left, touched the water as it cascaded over Ron, and froze it, encasing him in mid-stomp in a full-body cast of ice.
Stupefied by Nick’s renewed Elemental power, Aaron stared helplessly as Ron toppled toward Nick, falling face first to the floor. Nick moved back out of the way before swinging his attention to Aaron. When Aaron saw Ron lying at his feet, unable to breathe, he forgot about Nick and hastily bent down to thaw his buddy. Nick reacted instinctively and raised his knee, catching Aaron flush in the face. Nick heard the cartilage in Aaron’s nose crack. His head snapped back and he summersaulted rearward over Grandpa Henry’s recliner, landing headfirst on the hardwood floor. He lay there moaning, dazed and confused, one hand covering his bloody nose, the other cradling the back of his head.
Struggling to breathe, Ron panicked and began to wiggle and writhe. He looked like a frozen Mexican jumping bean as he tried to extract himself from his icy straightjacket. Nick stared at him for a few more seconds, debating whether to leave him to meet the same fate they planned for him or to thaw the ice. He reached down and drew a circle around Ron’s face, melting the ice. Ron could see and breathe, but little else. He lay on the floor staring up at Nick, his eyes wide and fearful knowing that Nick could step on him like a bug and there was absolutely nothing he could do.
When Jeremy and Tim heard the commotion in the front, they rushed down the hallway to investigate. Nick saw in his mind that Jeremy would lead the rescue attempt and where he would enter the room. He waited until the right moment and swept an arm outward, sending the rest of the spilled water directly into Jeremy’s path and froze it. Jeremy’s foot hit the newly formed ice, slid out from underneath him and into the air. He was able to balance momentarily on his trail foot, skidding across the floor, but just when it looked like he might get himself under control, he came off the ice. His foot hit the carpet and he pitched headfirst into the fireplace mantle. Nick cringed when he heard the sickening crack. Jeremy dropped straight down like a Raggedy Andy doll. As he fell, the side of his head bounced off of the brick shelf at the base of the fireplace adding further injury to injury.
Tim Bourbon, the son of Police Chief, Evelyn Bourbon, stopped his momentum inches before he hit the ice. As he pulled up, he scanned the room and saw his three friends lying helpless, scattered around the floor. His eyes ran to Nick and showed the same surprise Aaron had. They had been led to believe that Nick would be powerless to stop them. But there were his three friends, incapacitated. He turned and sprinted for the rear door. Nick motioned for what little water remained in the bucket to fly toward Tim, but, with so little water left, the most Nick could do was pelt him with a few ice pellets. Tim shrieked like a four year old girl, threw open the backdoor, sprinted into the backyard, hopped over the fence and disappeared.
“Wow, where’d that come from?” Nick mumbled to himself.
He turned back to the others. He unfroze Ron, but not before he touched one of his hands and made sure it had a bit of frostbite as a future reminder. Ron sprang to his feet holding his injured hand. He was about to turn and run scared, like Tim, but Nick stopped him by grabbing ahold of the front of Ron’s soaking-wet shirt.
“Uh-uh. You’re not going anywhere. Who put you up to this? Thanatos?”
Ron looked down at Nick’s hand and began to shiver as if Nick had frozen him to the core once more. He whipped his head side to side.
“I can’t tell you. He said if you ever found out, he’d come after us…and our parents.”
“So he’s local?”
Ron looked toward Jeremy who was unconscious.
“Tell me his name,” Nick insisted.
Ron shook his head even more violently after sweeping his gaze toward Aaron holding his bloody nose and the back of his head.
“Tell me his name, Ron,” Nick said more forcefully. He took hold of another handful of Ron’s shirt, his hands and wrists touching as he lifted him an inch off the ground.
He heard Ron say, “Thomas Wade.”
“Thomas Wade? Terry’s limo driver?” Nick asked to make sure he heard him correctly.
Ron’s eyes went wide, unadulterated fear played across his face again. When Nick placed him on the floor, Ron backed away and stumbled over an end table, landing hard on his tailbone.
“Thomas Wade. So that’s how Thanatos’ been following our every move.”
Ron scanned the room looking for a way out, but before he could move, Nick stepped toward him. He motioned for him to stand up and pointed at Aaron and Jeremy lying on the floor.
“Get those two pieces of crap out of my grandparent’s house. And if I see any of you jerks near here or any of my friends again, you’ll be sorry.”
Ron scrambled over to Aaron and tried to shake him into action. “Come on, come on, get up. We gotta get outta here. Come on.”
Nick stepped over to help get Aaron to his feet. Nick’s touch brought him out of his stupor.
Aaron, his face a bloody mess, backed up out of Nick’s reach and begged, “Don’t hurt me. He made us do it. He said…”
“Yeah, I heard. I’ll take care of Thomas Wade. Now get your asses out of here. And as I told your loser buddy,” Nick flicked his head in Ron’s direction, “you need to be more worried ‘bout what I’ll do to you than either Thanatos or Wade. ‘Cause if I ever see any of you dorks near my family or friends all of you’ll wish you’d never been born.”
Aaron and Ron exchanged frightened looks, hurried over to Jeremy, who was having trouble getting his eyes to focus. They grabbed him by his arms and dragged him out of the house as fast as they could. With his arms folded and a smug smile playing on his face, a very satisfied Nick Jensen watched them scurry away.
He heard Jeremy say, “Man, I thought he was gonna kill us,” while a
t the same time Ron said, “He’s got his powers back? What the hell?”
Chapter 19
“Six, uinals, four, moons, complete, gain, loss, reveal”
As they sat in Luigi’s celebrating their post-game win, Nick debated whether he should tell the others about the attack on him at his house. He had cleaned up what mess had been made so his grandparents wouldn’t be concerned. He knew he would share with them what happened, but it could wait until the next day.
He recounted that afternoon’s event to AJ while they drove to the game.
AJ interrupted him so often, Nick eventually said, “Buddy, let me tell you the story. Afterward you can ask all the questions you want.”
But when he finished, all AJ could say was, “Wow, so you’re back.”
Nick nodded, “Well at least part way. The Water part.”
“So, Grace was right. You were supplementing it.”
“Huh?”
“You were supplementing it, so it wouldn’t be true. So you wouldn’t be The One.”
It dawned on Nick what AJ was trying to say.
“Yeah, I guess I was suppressing it, or supplementing it. Either way, Grace nailed it.” Nick went silent for a beat or two before adding, “I’ve got to be the luckiest guy in the world.”
“Yeah, getting one of your powers back like that. Man, what I’d give to be able to do just one of those things you guys can do.”
Nick turned and stared at AJ. “No, not that. I meant Grace.”
“Yeah, that too,” AJ added as if that had been a part of why he thought Nick to be so lucky.
As they were finishing up the last of the pizza and soda, Terry said, “Anthony and I found out something ‘bout the ring.” He held up his hands as if to make sure everyone knew what he was talking about. “But I don’t wanna talk ‘bout it here. Let’s go back to AJ’s? I don’t like saying anything in public…or in my dad’s mansion.”
When they arrived at AJ’s, the seven of them sat in their usual places. They settled in and waited for Terry to tell them what he and Anthony had discovered. Terry removed the ring from his finger and Anthony handed him the jeweler’s eyepiece.
