by Curtis, Gene
“A champion?”
“It will all be revealed in time. We can depend on that.”
Bekka took LeOmi’s father by the arm and lifted him from the seat. “I know you don’t want to go but the healers are busy and they probably need this room.”
Bekka turned and waved for LeOmi to follow as she ushered her father from the room.
As they left the room, LeOmi sang, “I come to the Garden alone.”
* * *
Throughout Tents Fest week, there were lots of activities, but LeOmi spent most of her time at her tent in rest, meditation, and study. Tent time also meant that she avoided Slone and his gang.
There were others who had been injured during the Tents Fest competitions, just none as badly as she had been. The pitfalls of competition. At least Slone didn’t win.
* * *
The Tuesday of her outing with Bekka finally came around.
She enjoyed languages with Mrs. Julia Diefenbuacher, but it made for a long day, and she didn’t dare miss Thorpe’s class. He was always giving pop tests and additional assignments. He was just one of those teachers that didn’t believe in the easy grade.
Finally school was over and Bekka was waiting for her outside of Thorpe’s classroom. “Ready?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Let’s go outside, we need to see the sky to remanifest.” This was only her second time remanifesting, with Bekka. It was so quick. LeOmi had barely thought about her father’s office in Virginia and they were there.
“Do you want me to stay, or to come back for you?”
“Oh stay, please.”
He had been waiting for them; he opened the door and beckoned them in.
“How are you, no other broken bones during the rest of Tents Fest?”
“I’m fine.” He had set out some little sugared jelly drops—she loved the orange.
“You never realize how wonderful breathing is until…”
He went in the other room to a little fridge and came out again with a tray and three glasses of tea.
“So tell me, what is it that you’re after?”
LeOmi pulled out the journal that her mother had sent her father.
“Well, I read the journal. There is only one entry, and I noticed some…half-truths in it.”
“Half-truths?”
“Such as the name of the girl in the story, well I think it will be self explanatory if you read it.”
He was silent as he read but his facial expressions showed that there was nothing that made sense.
“Okay, let me explain. Elizabeth Joan Henderson is the girl in the story, well the local library here is called, E. J. Henderson Memorial Library.”
“Your mom didn’t volunteer at the local library, not that I know of.”
“But we used to go there quite a lot.”
“Where it says that you love books. That’s true.”
“The next thing is —The Fantastic. That was the name of the little ice cream and coffee shop that we would go to. There was a little bus station in the back and one time we stored some stuff in one of the lockers in the rear of the station.”
“Huh!”
“So you think that she has hidden something in there for us to find.”
“Yes.”
“I hope I am not just imagining things, but now that you have read it, what do you think?”
“Well I have to admit that it is a little farfetched.”
“Keep reading.”
“Dreams. The guardian. A wonderful mountain in the dessert that held her future secrets.”
“I think that that verifies that it is real.”
“What about the part about her papa? Her papa is where Elizabeth got her dark hair and hazel eyes.”
“Does that mean your grandfather?” He worked on ships in the New Orleans shipyard.”
“I don’t know, maybe.”
“The best place to start is at the beginning, or so they say. But the beginning was a long, long time ago, so let’s start with now…then come back to the beginning some other time.”
Everyone was quiet for a short time and then LeOmi said, “I think that we have to go to the little coffee shop beside the library, or I will wonder about this for the rest of my life.”
“You know she could have just been writing. You know people do write imaginary stuff. Put things together differently and come out with something completely different, but I must say, you may have something. I just don’t want you to get disappointed if there is nothing there.”
Bekka said, “I can’t get there through manifesting because I haven’t been there before—as you know, so would you please take us there?”
He stood there deep in thought, “I don’t know if I want to go down this road, so to speak. I have mixed emotions about the whole thing.”
“Well, we’re all curious. Maybe we can get an ice cream if there isn’t anything there.”
They got in to the family station wagon, the same vehicle that LeOmi had ridden in hundreds of times. It was a short distance, only about two miles, but the traffic was terrible. Bekka was having a hard time with the stop and go pace. She usually had everything planned to the minute, so this was a novelty for her.
Finally the library was in sight, a huge Taj Mahal type building with pillars and chandeliers hanging from the balconies. It was beautiful and it also seemed smaller now, since she had been in the library at The Seventh Mountain.
“Okay, go just past it and towards the corner you will see the coffee shop.”
“The Fantastic.”
It was the last shop in a strip mall made with a castle facade. It was a block construction and it even had small turrets.
“Now comes the tricky part. The locker number. Twelve and four are the numbers that she lists.”
Her dad said, “As long as it’s locked you know that nothing bad can get in.”
They all looked at each other and then piled out of the car.
They entered the shop and just as LeOmi remembered; it went back into the bus depot.
The lockers were to the side and they had letters instead of numbers.
“Well that was a little unexpected.” Bekka said.
LeOmi thought a moment, “Astronomy to zoology. AZ combination 1-2-4”
They each went different ways and Bekka called out, “Here it is.”
LeOmi and her father followed Bekka’s voice.
Her dad motioned to the locker, “Go ahead.”
LeOmi turned the dial 1-2-4. The door opened. Within there was a parcel and a stack of papers. There was also, a stack of money. On top of everything were two driver’s licenses; a Virginia and a Louisiana each with her mother’s picture.
Bekka pulled a satchel bag out of Aarons Grasp and they emptied the locker into the sack. They were all stunned and there was nothing to do but retrieve it all and go back to her father’s little office and go through everything.
No one said a word as they traveled the couple of miles back. Each in their own thoughts.
They empty out of the car and went into the office. LeOmi opened the satchel and dumped it onto the coffee table.
LeOmi asked, “Would you count the money Bekka?”
“Surely.”
“Dad, do you want book or papers?”
“Letters, I suppose.”
“That leaves the book for me.”
Bekka said, “Seems only right.”
LeOmi smiled and picked up the book. She recognized it as hand book to the Sumerian Journal from her research at the New Orleans Library.
The Journals’ handbook had a metal insert with an indented eight point star design on the front and a latched hinge for each side of the spine. The book’s binding appeared to be leather, with metal banded to the hinges and lock. The metal bands had etchings and designs that continued to the inlaid metal making it one with the cover of the book. There was nothing else remarkable about it, except that it was locked.
“It’s locked. A star shaped key.”<
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Bekka said, “As long as it’s locked nothing bad can come out.”
They all paused at that remark.
Bekka said, “I have heard about locks like that, without the key to release the metal bandings, you would destroy the book by prying the metal away from the fragile paper.”
LeOmi’s father said, “It is hard to believe that they would sell a locked book for so much money.”
Bekka said, “But on a happier note, there is about a million dollars here.”
LeOmi and her dad just sat there looking at Bekka.
Then her dad said, “That can’t be. Where did…where would she get that kind of money?”
“Maybe she got a job somewhere, investments that you didn’t know about, inheritance, a loan.” Bekka made the apologetic face.
They were all thinking that it could have been stolen but none of them wanted to say it.
“Dad, what about the papers?”
“Oh, they are various things, the receipt from that Sumerian Journal for one thing, made out to your mother. Here it is. Here are her travel documents, her plane ticket receipts and all of her flight information to India and her return flight. Her hotel receipts and even a slip for the cleaners in New Orleans. Here is her driver’s license–the old one from Virginia and the new one for New Orleans. It is almost as if she wanted to leave all of her identity, everything of hers that was of any worth in that small locker.”
“Not everything. Not her ruby encrusted knife.” LeOmi said that and then regretted it.
“I am sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. It is just that there is nothing here that will point to whoever killed her.” LeOmi had stood up as she started saying this and her father stood, rubbed her shoulder for a half a second and said, “I think that you will figure that out if anyone can. Look what you figured out from the pages of that book. It was like it was just waiting for you.”
“Oh I agree.” Bekka said.
“Maybe there is something else in these pages that will tell you how to open the lock on the book.”
“Maybe there is something else in the story, which will give you more clues.” Bekka stood.
“Yes there may be.”
“Well we had best go,” Bekka said.
“Here Dad, you take this money.”
“Me? I don’t want it. I don’t think that it was me that she wanted to have it.”
“Well what do I do with it? Do I give it to Sergeant Polaris?”
“Hum. Well, why don’t you at least tell him about it? I don’t think that anyone has reported it stolen so I think that it is okay to keep it. It is just that I don’t want it and I think that she would have wanted you to have it.”
“You could put it in The Good Steward Bank. Then it can least earn you interest while you decide what to do with it.”
“That seems like a wonderful place for you to put it, just until you decide what to do with it.”
Bekka broke in, “In the mean time, we have got to get back and I’m sure that your dad has work that he has to do.”
“Yes.”
He gave her a light hug. “My precious girl.”
She hugged him back, until it hurt, and then she gave him a big smile. “Thanks for the drive, and the tea.”
They stepped out the door. Bekka turned, gave a smile and a wave and then they were gone.
Jacob Jones went back inside and closed the door. He put his head in his hands and thanked God for His goodness and grace.
When they returned to the school they went straight to The Good Steward Bank and deposited one million, seven hundred and forty-two thousand, and nine hundred and twenty-seven dollars.
It was like she was walking in a dream. When was she going to wake her up?
* * *
Saturday morning she reported back to work. The morning tour was full. Mrs. Kirby approached her, “I heard about your injury at the competition. I have had many injuries. As always make sure that you drink plenty of water, and do not hesitate to call for assistance if you need it.”
The tour went fine, but on the way to the wall opening she noticed that there were two large eggs in a ground nest just off the path. The eggs were too large for the nest that had been knocked a little lopsided.
The eggs were too big for any of the birds in the preserve, flamingos and other water birds. If they remained where they were, they were sure to be crushed by...something. She picked them up, put them in to her book bag and went straight to The Seventh Mountain Library. She had been there several times before and the amount of information within its walls was amazing.
There was a book on wild birds that documented pictures of eggs.
“Perfect.”
LeOmi thought they were possibly ostrich or emu, because they were so huge.
The Ostrich, Struthio camelus, is a large flightless bird native to Africa. It is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest egg of any living bird.
A female ostrich can determine her own eggs amongst others in a communal nest.
“That’s it, a communal nest.” She hadn’t seen or heard of any ostriches in the Game Preserve but a female wishing to protect her eggs may have traveled a long distance to hide her eggs in another bird’s nest, even though the nest didn’t have any other eggs.
The diet of the Ostrich mainly consists of plant matter, though it also eats insects. It lives in nomadic groups which contain between five and fifty birds.
LeOmi kept the eggs warm with heated pouches and her own body heat.
Back at the dormitory, she unloaded her trunk and positioned her lamp over the nest she had made from a few of her sweaters.
She was still in time for Flags Practice; she was looking forward to spending some time with Fireball.
* * *
She had the eggs for only a few of days before she started hearing signs of movement. They were beginning to hatch. She sat in her room in the corner beside her bed and watched the miracles break free of the confinement of their shells.
At first, there were little pecked lines around most of one side of each of the eggs. LeOmi could see parts of one of the little peep’s head and legs. She watched it do one last push with his head and back and the rest of his shell broke. The chick ended up in a squatting position totally free of his shell.
When the other finally got the shell popped open enough to release itself, it sort-of popped the top and it was still connected so that it formed a sort of hinge. The hinge flopped back once and that scared it so much that it jumped out of the shell and nest and into LeOmi’s lap. It was as if the little chick were looking for a warm place to hide, scooting up under her arm.
They were just fluffy balls after they got warm enough and then, they were hungry. LeOmi had researched what they needed to eat and they needed water, protein and roughage—grass and crickets, in this case, dog food that LeOmi had purchased from a shop in the shopping area. She soaked it in water to make it soft and easy to swallow.
Hungry chicks were noisy. Other students heard the birds and the cat was out of the bag. There was not much that LeOmi could do except invite them to join in her joy.
The really bad thing was the smell, multiplied by the constant light on them for heat–and how many times could the trunk be washed before it started to rust or deteriorate.
Although all the other girls from her hall and some from other sections kept checking on the well being of the chicks, it wasn’t right to keep them cooped up in a trunk with a piece of chicken wire on top.
So, she decided she would take them back to the Game Preserve. The dorm rooms were no place to raise smelly baby ostriches. She would keep an eye on them and if it wasn’t working, she would figure out something else.
She would deposit them back in their nest on her way to the rain forest.
The next morning was clear and fine. LeOmi had laid the chicks in the nest and stood to leave.
It was too late. LeOmi heard a guttural growl and she turned very slowly.
There
was a very large Ostrich down the path; it looked just like its picture.
She looked back and forth from LeOmi to the chicks, and again from LeOmi to the chicks.
LeOmi tried to remember everything that she had read.
Ostriches usually weigh from 140–290 pounds, males up to 340 pounds. Females and young males are grayish-brown and white.
The mother ostrich probably weighs at least fifty pounds more than I do.
The strong legs of the Ostrich are un-feathered and the bird has just two toes on each foot, with the nail on the larger, inner toe resembling a hoof.
It could rip me to pieces, or trample me.
Ability to run at maximum speeds of about forty-five miles per hour, the top land speed of any bird.
I can’t out run it.
The wings reach a span of about six foot seven inches and are used in mating displays and to shade chicks.
The wings were flapping in a terrifying way.
I guess she is scared too. Scared for her babies and she needs to look as big and as impressive as possible.
The Ostrich’s sternum is flat, lacking the keel to which wing muscles attach in flying birds.
No good trying to fight my way out.
When threatened, the Ostrich will either hide itself by lying flat against the ground, or will run away. If cornered, it can attack with a kick from its powerful legs.
Well, it was not hiding.
Can easily cause death through slamming their heads into opponents.
Her head was definitely down and she was definitely about to charge.
She started charging, about twenty feet and then she stopped. Flapping those huge wings and scaring the little ones. Another twenty feet and she would be here.
LeOmi heard a voice, “What would an ostrich, raven, eagle, hawk, falcon, screech owl do if confronting a scorpion’s attack?”
It was such a bizarre question, but it was coming from the clump of bushes about two yards away.
“I don’t know.”
“Get out of its way.” Was the response. “Dive!”
She did, right into the bushes. Now the mother ostrich had full view of the little chicks, which was what she wanted anyway.
The charging ostrich screeched and ran head down towards the bushes and then stopped. She stood at the clump of bushes and looked, and then the peeps pulled her attention back to her chicks.
