‘Get out, get out now!’
Rocks and pieces of the limestone tower were beginning to fall to the ground, one nearly missed his head, and he ducked just in time. ‘Oh, God. Please don’t let me get crushed to death,’ Jerome said frantically. ‘I don’t wanna die!’ Right then he felt a big strong arm grip his and pull him down the last few steps. He tried to see who it was but the dust from the falling rocks made it even more difficult to see in the darkness. He could hear a man’s heavy footsteps ahead of his, and the strength of the man’s arms took away his fear of falling.
James meanwhile ran as fast as he could, looking back but not seeing his brother. The concrete floor was covered in big rocks and the ground was still shaking. He tripped on a boulder as he headed for the narrow opening. Where was Jerome? Was he OK? Maybe Jerome had made it out already. He ran through the opening of the tower and out into the sunlit day. A huge crowd was gathered outside but a good distance from the crumbling tower.
‘Jerome!’ James ran toward him. ‘You all right? How you get out so fast?’
‘I’m fine.’ Jerome dusted himself off with his hands. ‘A tall man…’ but he didn’t finish telling the story of his rescuer.
‘Mr Brown!’ James exclaimed. ‘Look at Mr Brown!’ James pointed into the crowd where Mr Brown was standing on two legs talking wildly to the crowd. James ran over to hear Mr Brown’s story.
‘What?’ Jerome rubbed his eyes, disoriented, not believing what he saw.
James jogged back shrugging. ‘He say when the tower start shaking he go inside to warn us and a man he couldn’t see put his hands on his stumps and suddenly he get his legs back.’
Jerome thought of the big, strong arms that had almost carried him down the steps to safety. ‘But that’s crazy! How he grow his legs back instantly?’
‘Yeah,’ James said, bewildered. ‘They calling him a liar. They said he never had no car accident. They saying he always had legs; he just hide them under himself all these years.’ James stood with hands shading his eyes from the bright sun and the dust kicked up by the crumbled tower.
Jerome looked over at the crowd gathered around Mr Brown, accusing him. They looked really angry and they certainly didn’t believe him. Jerome decided that he wouldn’t tell anyone about the strong arms that had carried him down the steps. Maybe he’d imagined it anyway. But before he could think about anything else, the ground began to shake again. People began to run in all directions, screaming.
‘James! Let’s stay together.’ James had already broken off running.
Jerome followed his brother as they ran toward the market. Their volcanic island often had earthquakes so the boys knew that the market was a safe place; it was wide open with no tall structures nearby, except for the tower. Besides, they had to find Granny. She must be worried about them amid all this excitement.
As they ran away from the quivering tower they heard a loud crash and the ground moved as if it had been punched by a wrecking ball. Jerome looked back. The tower had collapsed on itself into a high, off-white heap of shattered limestone.
‘You was right,’ James panted as they neared the market, joining a large crowd who stood, mouths open, watching the tower of rubble. ‘Good thing we write down all the words.’
Jerome stopped when they reached Granny’s stall. He was so out of breath he thought his heart would stop beating at any moment. Granny’s hands were on her hips as she looked at the two of them.
‘I hope you boys didn’t go near that tower. I warn you a long time ago that thing is not safe.’
‘No. We wasn’t,’ James lied.
‘Good. I don’t know why everybody acting so shocked. That thing been ready to fall ever since I was a little girl. I don’t know what make it finally come down today. All I can say is good riddance. That old thing was so ugly.’
The boys stared at each other as Granny went on and on, oblivious to all the hysteria and excitement that rippled through the crowd around them. Didn’t she feel the earth move? Didn’t she hear about Mr Brown? Could it be that she was the only person in town who had common sense about this strange occurrence or was she part of the strangeness?
The feeling of the strong man’s arms carrying him down those steps wouldn’t leave Jerome. He couldn’t see the man’s face in the darkness of the tower but he remembered the rough material of the man’s shirt against his skin and the wide brim of his old-fashioned hat touching his face. He wondered if he’d ever see the man again.
Chapter 10
That afternoon, they watched the tower crumble into a heap for the hundredth time on the television. The entire neighbourhood was buzzing. Granny was talking with Edwina’s mother over the fence. ‘That was an old, old tower. It had to come down. Anybody with a brain in their head’ … Granny was not ready to believe in any supernatural acts.
On the news the minister of the interior said that there had been plans to fix the tower this year but alas they were too late. Years of neglect and structural problems had left the tower susceptible to collapse. It was just fortunate that no one had been hurt, the authorities said.
The other big story was that of a mentally ill man who had succeeded in hiding from everyone, including his family, his apparently two healthy legs and had pretended to be an amputee for over twenty years. The man was now claiming that some big, strong man had grabbed him in the tower, and massaged his stumps so that his legs grew out miraculously.
The boys’ eyes were more than shocked as the TV cameras zoomed in on a recalcitrant, cursing Mr Brown being forced into an ambulance, headed toward the mental hospital. James clutched his brother’s arm as an image lingered on the screen.
‘You see that?’
‘Yes!’ Jerome gasped. ‘That’s Father Mackey in the crowd?’
The image was no longer on the screen; the news announcer had moved on to another story.
‘That was Father Mackey standing in the crowd!’ Jerome said again.
‘But he was standing,’ James said doubtfully. ‘And he look different. Younger.’
They contemplated this for a minute. ‘Remember, he say he have a brother?’ James said. ‘But he supposed to be in Australia.’
‘Maybe he visiting Dominica…’ Jerome’s mind wandered off to their last conversation with Father Mackey. ‘He supposed to know about the treasure too, the brother.’
James sighed at the idea that they had a rival treasure seeker. ‘So what we doing next? If we get there first it’s ours, right?’
Jerome picked up his notebook and read the words he had copied from the walls of the now crumbled tower.
Towers and mountains
Rivers and fountains
Strong and tall
But all will fall
Crooked roads lead
Where red men bleed
Dark men bound
On bloody ground
Death and fear
A price so dear
For what lies near
A golden snare
They read the words out loud again. ‘So, that’s how you know the tower going to fall?’
‘I was guessing.’ Jerome scratched his head. How did the parrot come to learn the clue? And what did this poem mean?
‘I scared, man,’ James said.
Jerome was afraid too but it was too late to stop now. At least all this craziness meant they were on the right track. ‘We have to keep going.’
‘Let’s go back to Father Mackey.’
‘Yeah. We need to do that before anything else.’
‘Now?’
They listened for Granny’s voice. She was still talking with Edwina’s mother. It would be hours before she got ready to go to the church and cook Father Mackey’s supper. They didn’t want to wait that long. They didn’t even think about going to the river toda
y. They just wanted more answers.
‘We could go back to the Botanical Gardens and find out what happened to that bird.’ Jerome was already getting his backpack.
‘I don’t really want to…’ James switched channels to the sports station; a cricket match was on. He was curious but he’d already had enough excitement for one day.
‘It’s better than sitting here all day, man. I’m not watching cricket with all this going on.’ Jerome picked up his notebook and pen; James reluctantly switched off the game and they hurried out of the house.
‘Where you boys going?’ Granny peered at them and Edwina’s mother smiled, just as friendly as her daughter.
‘To the river,’ James said.
‘Don’t be late for church cleaning. And stay away from that old tower.’
‘OK, Granny,’ they said in unison.
It was a surreal Saturday afternoon. They could see Ms Cider outside her shop talking animatedly with Mr Dinard. She waved them over. ‘Boys, boys! Charlie is right here!’ She pointed to the shop. ‘Good afternoon, Ms Cider,’ they said as they approached reluctantly. They had important things to do!
‘Oh, guys, come on.’ Cider said. ‘You can call me Cider when your grandma’s not around.’ Cider smiled and Mr Dinard excused himself to go work on his old car.
‘OK,’ James said. ‘Where’s Charlie?’
Cider yelled her son’s name. ‘Why are you yelling? I’m right here,’ Charlie filed out of the shop, a one-litre water bottle in hand.
‘Your friends are here,’ Cider said happily. ‘I’m so glad you guys get along so well,’ she gushed. Charlie rolled his eyes and Jerome and James tried not to laugh.
‘Ms Cider, you don’t have to worry about Charlie not having friends,’ Jerome said.
‘What?’ she blushed. ‘I’m not…I’m just glad to see you guys. That’s all.’ She patted Charlie on the arm. ‘OK, I’ll leave you boys alone.’
Charlie watched her go behind the counter in the shop. ‘I need to get away from here,’ he groaned. ‘Where you guys headed?’
James and Jerome exchanged glances and telegraphed the decision to each other silently. It was agreed. James told Charlie the entire story, watching him grow more and more sceptical with each word. Charlie, eyebrows raised and sarcasm in full gear went to get his backpack. ‘As insane as all this sounds; I truly have nothing better to do.’ He shook his head. ‘Treasure,’ he snorted.
Cider waved happily as her son ran down the road to the Botanical Gardens with his friends. ‘Have fun, boys.’
Thankfully, it was a woman in the visitor’s office this Saturday afternoon. And she was friendly, too! ‘How you boys doing today?’
They gave her a friendly reply. ‘You boys hear about that tower falling down? I say we living in some evil times. I believe that lame man, the crippled man, everything he say. Is some strange things going on these days. Signs and wonders.’
‘Ma’am, can we ask you about that talking parrot?’ They agreed that Jerome would do the talking.
‘Who Adam? Poor Adam. Well, he died this week. He was sick for a long time, it seems. That’s what the vet said. Although he seemed real healthy to me. I think he just fell over and died because he miss the old caretaker. You know?’
‘Mr Adam?’The old man’s name was easy to remember.
‘Yes. He was a nice old man. Very intelligent. He knew all about the history of our country. He was always reading some old books, talking about the past.’
‘Did he ever talk about a treasure?’ James asked and Jerome nudged him sharply in the side. Did his brother not know any tact?
The young woman looked at them sideways for a few seconds and her eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t tell me you boys believe in that nonsense. Mr Adam said that was just a trick dreamed up by the colonisers to keep us natives searching in vain for something that’s not there. It’s an old legend. It’s not true.’
Jerome and James exchanged glances, disappointed.
‘Mr Adam look for it his whole life,’ she said. ‘Two days before he died he was talking about it, too.’
‘What he say?’
‘He keep saying that it was time to find it. That time was running out. But he was delirious, you know? Pneumonia, fever, all kinds of sickness. He was really old. Eighty-nine.’
‘He said time was running out?’
‘Like I said, he was real sick. I was taking care of him because he had no family left, except for Adam the bird. And you know a bird can’t take care of a person. So I was with him at the very last minute.’
‘What else he say?’ Jerome asked.
‘Nothing. He just say that time was running out because vultures was circling. Some mix-up nonsense words. I don’t remember; it was a while ago.’
‘You don’t remember anything else?’ Jerome asked trying to be patient.
‘No. If I did I would tell you, boy,’ the woman said. ‘You look like you believe is true. That there’s really some gold and diamonds buried somewhere on this island.’ She laughed. ‘Well, if I was your age I would believe it too.’
They walked away from the visitors’ office with the sound of the woman’s laughter echoing in their ears.
‘Father Mackey wouldn’t lie to us,’ James said but Jerome had his silent doubts.
‘This old man Adam was a born and bred Dominican; Father Mackey wasn’t.’ Jerome looked dejected as he read through his notebook. ‘It sounds like one of those old myths that people spend their whole lives chasing but then ends up being a cipher.’
James shook his head. ‘I don’t even understand what you just said. All I know is Father Mackey is not stupid. He know what he talking about. He wouldn’t send us on some wild goose chase.’
‘Why don’t you guys just go ask him then?’ Charlie said. He’d kept his promise to remain silent as they talked to the woman at the Botanical Gardens. They just could not trust Charlie to not say something that could ruin everything.
‘I know you don’t believe it,’ Jerome said.
‘He don’t have to believe. He’s not getting a share anyway,’ James said.
Charlie snickered. ‘Yeah? That really breaks my heart, James.’
‘You don’t need it anyway. Your father’s a millionaire,’ James rejoined.
‘Christ, James! Do you guys have to keep talking about my dad after I told you I’m not allowed to talk about him!’
‘You can talk about him with us. Is just your mother you can’t talk about him with. Relax yourself,’ James said. He didn’t see the problem. If he were in Charlie’s shoes he’d have called his father already to tell him he was alive and well.
They walked the rest of the way in silence. It was early afternoon and the sun shone brightly down. Treasure hunting. So they weren’t the first, Jerome thought. Mr Adam had gone down that path before and he’d died before he’d got anywhere. We’re just a couple of kids, Jerome thought. We turn fifteen in six months. If an old man who knew more about the country’s history than Father Mackey couldn’t find the treasure then how can we find it? That is, if there’s a treasure.
‘See all the chaperones going to the picnic this morning?’ Charlie asked.
‘Yeah,’ James shrugged. ‘Those girls gossip a lot. You talk to one of them and all of them know what you said.’
Charlie considered this and added. ‘That Edwina sure likes to smile. I mean, she’s really friendly.’
Jerome’s heart plummeted. All the girls liked Charlie or were at least curious about him; he was new, foreign and exotic. The idea of Edwina… ‘She’s not that friendly. I’ve seen her being really mean sometimes, even to the little girls in her troop,’ Jerome said quickly.
‘Really?’ Charlie’s eyes widened. ‘Wow. Oh well. Leandra’s also really cute. Nice eyes.’
Jerome breat
hed a silent breath of relief. ‘Yeah, Leandra’s a nice girl. She really pretty. And smart. I think she like you, too.’ Jerome could feel James’s eyes boring through his skin but he refused to meet his brother’s glance. There was no way he’d even allow Charlie to even think about Edwina.
They arrived at the presbytery a full hour before their shift was to begin. James led the way to Father Mackey’s room. Jerome lingered behind. A part of him didn’t even want to hear the explanations for the strange things that were happening. Dead bird. Crumbled tower. A land where the red man bleeds. That was an easy one but did they have the courage to keep going? Who knew what would happen next?
Father Mackey was sitting up in bed, a book on his lap when the boys entered his room. ‘I’ve been expecting you boys.’ He smiled weakly. ‘You brought a friend?’ He nodded toward Charlie, who said an embarrassed hello.
‘Did you hear about the tower?’ James asked.
Father Mackey nodded. ‘That’s a good sign. You boys are the last, the absolute last line to the treasure. If you don’t find it, chances are no one else will.’
The boys exchanged glances. Jerome spoke up. ‘We heard Mr Adam died before he found it. That’s why he taught his bird the clues.’
Father Mackey nodded. ‘He was a good man. Very knowledgeable.’ He sighed. ‘You know, I gave him that parrot as a gift.’The boys exchanged quick glances.
‘That’s why it talks with an Australian accent!’ James exclaimed.
Father Mackey shrugged. ‘That bird was one of a kind.’
‘Father Mackey,’ Jerome interjected. ‘Is your brother in Roseau? We think we saw him…’
Father Mackey’s head snapped quickly to Jerome. ‘You saw him?’
Jerome and James exchanged glances, puzzled at Father Mackey’s reaction. ‘It was a man who looked a lot like you. We think,’ Jerome said. ‘We might be wrong.’
Father Mackey leaned back and sighed. ‘Boys, this treasure is your destiny. Don’t let anyone steal it from you. No one. I’m very serious.’
‘So your brother is here?’ Jerome pressed.
Abraham's Treasure Page 6
