by Troy Hooker
Sam put his hand out to her, but she had quickly discovered something wrong with her ruby leather purse, acting like she didn’t see his gesture. “James, you must go and find my lipstick in the car,” she commanded her husband, who immediately began digging for his car keys in his watch pocket.
“I simply don’t understand why we must be out here in these dirty woods with a boy we don’t even know,” she muttered quietly, but it was loud enough for Sam to hear.
“On the ground in front of you,” Sam said suddenly, spotting the shiny metal tube in the pine needles reflecting the light from the moon.
The furry woman’s eyes lit up upon seeing the case, motioning for her husband to pick it up for her. Then she took a step forward and hugged Sam awkwardly with her bony arms.
“Oh my! I am overcome with gratitude! You are just a little Ferdinand Magellan, aren’t you?” she chuckled like a screeching cat.
Emma shrugged as she turned away, and even in the dark Sam could tell Lillia was laughing silently.
Mr. Sterling cleared his throat and looked at the dark thundercloud that was nearly upon them.
“Ladies and gents, I believe we cannot wait any longer for—” but he was cut short by a young woman and a short thin balding man who had silently joined the party.
“Ah, Harper and Sarah. Good. We were beginning to worry.”
Sam strained to see who the woman was in the darkness. She was medium height, thin, and moved with animation as she talked. Something about her made him think of Miss Karpatch.
“Good evening, everyone—Sam—sorry I am late,” the flustered woman said, a flash of lightning illuminating her face eerily.
Miss Karpatch? What was she doing here?
Instantly Sam began second-guessing this little “club” of Emma’s. She had certainly left plenty of details out—like the fact that parents and nosy geography teachers were involved. Perhaps he was to be the subject of some ridiculous intervention of sorts. He had seen plenty of those on the plethora of reality TV shows that seemed to invade the cable airwaves.
The strangest part was that it seemed the group was prepared for an extended hike through the woods, as all had large backpacks stuffed to the point of exploding—with the exception of the four extra packs propped on the tree behind Mr. Sterling.
Where were they going? And when were they planning on telling him? Or his Grandfather Amos?
“Well then,” the Colonel boomed happily as he stuck his large hand in his blazer pocket and retrieved a pipe. “It looks like you brought the weather with you!”
Miss Karpatch cinched up her canvas pack tighter to her chest, then turned toward Mr. Sterling.
“Yes, Jack, I would really like to get there before that—” she pointed to the thundercloud now descending upon them, “gets here.”
Emma’s father looked at the sky with concern.
“Yes, yes, gang, let’s head ‘em up and move ‘em out. Say your goodbyes everyone.”
Gus hugged his parents, then picked up one of the extra packs, slinging it on his back. Both Lillia and Emma did the same.
As the rest of the group said goodbye to the Abelsworth’s, Sam pulled Emma aside.
“Where are you going?” his lips not whispering as quietly as he had hoped.
“Not just me,” she said mysteriously, the wind now beginning to softly toss her strawberry red hair as the storm approached. “You are coming too.”
He was stunned. Did they really expect him to drop everything and go on a backpacking trip in the middle of the night? In what looked to be a rather ominous storm?
What were they thinking?
“Uh, I don’t think my grandfather would allow …”
Emma leveled her gaze.
“It’s now or never, Samuel. Time to choose. They won’t wait.”
This is crazy. No one in their right mind would wander off into the forest with a bunch of people they didn’t know—with the promise of being part of a “club.” Yet, as crazy as it was, there was something different about them, about her. The strange blue light that seemed to jump from her hands was evidence enough of that.
The truth was that he was now more curious than ever. He did worry that Amos would be upset for him leaving, but he wasn’t going to miss the chance to find out what this was all about. Amos would have to deal with it, just like he had to deal with Sam when his parents dumped him off on him.
As another flash of lightning came dangerously close to the field across from the festival grounds, Sam made his decision. Amos could wait. He would follow them to find the truth, even in the middle of a lightning storm.
Just to be courteous, however, he left a message for his grandfather with Gus’s father (who had urgent business to attend to in White Pine and couldn’t go with the group) not to worry about him.
As the storm bore down on White Pine, Sam snatched the pack from the outstretched hand of Lillia and followed Gus and Emma into to the deep black of the woods. Where they were going would remain a mystery, but he would find out soon enough.
***********************
“That’s cranky Cooley,” Lillia said snidely to Sam under her breath as they walked briskly, pointing to the odd man leading the group through the trees. “He’s a bit on the ‘don’t-turn-your-back-weird’ side.”
“Lil’, cut it out,” Emma scowled quietly at her from behind Sam. “His name is Harper Cooley.”
“Oh yeah, sorry, he’s a real role model if you’re looking to become a number-one creeper,” Lillia chuckled, her voice thick with sarcasm.
“Lillia!” Emma scolded. “You promised you would try harder.”
“Look. This guy shows up from the old group. Says he’s the Chief Seer, investigating White Pine. Then he doesn’t speak to any of us for weeks? Sorry, Emma, he’s a bit too strange for me to ignore.”
“He is the Chief Seer! Daddy knows him!” Emma protested.
“Yeah, well I know the Metim but you don’t see me trusting them,” Lillia huffed under her breath.
“Whatever,” Emma threw her hands up, exasperated.
What in the world were they talking about? Sam shook his head. Seer? Metim?
He looked at the man they called Cooley. He looked slightly familiar. Had he seen him before? Was he the man that stormed out of Chivler’s just before Sam arrived?
They owed him some answers, and he wasn’t going another step until he got some.
“Uh, I’m a little unclear as to where we are going. I mean, we had fun tonight, but walking into the middle of nowhere in a storm and then this blue-light-Avengers-thing and strange names you keep saying are weirding me out.”
Allowing Lillia to go on ahead of her, Emma dropped back beside him and pulled a small copper lantern out of her backpack, which immediately bathed the path in front of them in the same blue glow that had sprung from her hands earlier.
“Look, I’m not supposed to say anything yet. All I can tell you is that we aren’t who you think we are,” she drew close to him and whispered.
“Are you witches … or … part of a cult?” He couldn’t find the words.
“No, certainly not a cult. More like … protectors,” she looked strangely at him.
Sam looked at the pines bristling above him in the wind of the impending storm. For some reason, the strangeness he had felt since moving to White Pine began to make more sense. Protectors, people that watched out for the town. Maybe the reason he had felt as though everyone was watching him was because they were.
“Are you not human?” he asked, the words feeling strange leaving his mouth.
She smiled and took his hand for a brief moment, sending chills up his spine, making the wind whipping through the pines even more cold. But he wasn’t going to complain.
“Something like that,” she said smiling, hurrying them along the thin path to catch the
others who were already lost in the darkness ahead.
As they slipped back in line with the others, Emma let go of his hand and concentrated on holding the lantern in front of her, as the others in the group had already retrieved theirs from their packs. Sam asked no more questions, only followed the blue light of the lanterns in front of him silently. There would be plenty of time for questions later, he hoped, when they were out of the storm and the wind had quieted down to allow conversation.
As suddenly as it started, the wind instantly stopped. An odd quiet persisted, with only an occasional low growl of thunder in the distance. The only indication the storm was still there was the silent flashes of light above them that grew dangerously close together.
The storm was not yet over, but was instead gearing up for the main event. From the concerned looks on the blue-lit faces of the others ahead, they thought the same. Wherever they were going, they would need to find shelter soon.
Sam then spotted a scraggly tree to the side of the path looking much like the one he saw before nearly falling over the cliff into the gorge. A closer observation made him realize they were indeed on the same path he had taken only a week prior.
Moments later, with the thick wall of brush in front of them, Mr. Sterling led the caravan quickly to a sharp right that followed the length of the thicket. Almost immediately the path descended into the ground—an optical illusion that wasn’t visible to anyone unless they were right on top of it. Even in broad daylight, Sam didn’t see it, and he had been only feet away.
The path continued downward into the earth until there were sandstone rock walls that seemed to merge together the deeper they went. What little moonlight was peeking through the darkening clouds above them was now lost completely. The only light they had was the rapid strobe of the lightning all around them and the eerie blue lanterns to guide their way.
Then the path took a sharp right turn and continued to descend. On a quick thought, Sam closed the gap between him and Emma so he didn’t accidentally walk off another unknown ledge or into a rock in the path.
Finally the way leveled out and a small opening lay ahead of them. Directly in front of them was a large weeping pine that hung over the water.
It took him a moment, but then he recognized it as the same tree he saw only the Saturday before, nestled in the side of the cliff. Well I guess that answers how you get to it.
The opening led them to a large ledge that was cradled into the wall of the canyon, about the size of the living room of the cabin. It looked completely shielded from almost every view, except for the very spot where the gorge nearly claimed his life. No doubt there were few that knew of this spot.
He stared at the strange tree, seeing the large ball-like clumps of needles that dotted the loose-hanging branches.
“It’s a wollemia nobilia … or more commonly known as the Wollemi Pine,” Gus said above the wind in the glow of the blue lantern. “It’s one of the oldest and most rare trees in existence, dating back to the time of the Antediluvian Period.”
“I haven’t seen any like it around here.” Sam walked to the tree, feeling the bead-like bumps on the trunk.
“It is native to Australia, but there are sightings on occasion from other places around the world. It’s one of the reasons I believe the dinosaurs were eliminated from the earth. They were the biggest carriers of plant seeds … and disease.”
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Sam spotted the symbol on the rock near the tree that he had seen the week before, the same symbol of the wing he had seen from his dream. Before he could reach out and touch it, however, the storm finally unleashed its fury on the visitors of the gorge.
***********************
As if mother nature had lost her patience, the storm suddenly immersed them in a sea of raging wind and rain. Thunder and lightning held nothing back, booming deep within the walls of the gorge, the blinding flashes striking the forest angrily above them. They were safer where they were, but this was also not a storm to be reckoned with. Dead branches from the more dry pines fell around them, almost immediately followed by large grape-sized balls of ice falling from the sky. Even though it was somewhat protected, the tiny ledge was still prey to the dangerous barrage.
“Let’s move, everybody!” Mr. Sterling called out from the back of the ledge, near a small overhang on the rock.
No one protested or lingered at his words. Emma, Gus, and Lillia made their way to the back of the ledge where the others were, and Sam followed quickly behind them in the blizzard-like rain and hail. He wasn’t quite sure where they were going to take refuge in such a small space, but he followed anyway.
As they reached the back of the ledge and the overhang, the others disappeared suddenly into the rock wall, as if inside the stone itself. First Mrs. Sterling, then Miss Karpatch and Cooley, then Lillia, Gus, and Emma.
As the wind whipped the Wollemi tree violently behind him, he stepped up to the wall under the tiny overhang. He reached his hand out to grasp the cold rock in front of him, but as his hand moved forward, it only felt darkness.
He inched his body forward, one cautious step at a time, until he was sure his next would be into solid rock. But as he moved, he was only met with more cool air.
Stepping back once again, he was able to see the illusion so blatantly hidden in front of him. Like the path that descended down to the ledge, this too was invisible to someone who wasn’t privy to the disguise.
Suddenly a hand reached out of the darkness and grabbed him, pulling him into the coolness of the opening. Emma drew his face only inches from hers to look at him in the dim light of the ledge.
“Look at you. You’re already soaked! I thought you might be smarter than to stand out in the middle of a storm!” she fussed, her hair showing rapid signs of frizzing from the humidity in the air.
Sam mouthed the word “sorry” casually, but his voice was silenced by the sight of the massive structure standing before him in the middle of the cavern.
***********************
This can’t be real, he thought. Dreams aren’t real like this.
The two-story arch-shaped structure was the same as in his dream, with the exception of the color. It was white—almost iridescent in color, reflecting colorful expressions of light that bounced from the inner walls of the cavern, which too were made of the same iridescent stone.
It was an incredible sight, and he felt instantly drawn to it, unable to take his eyes off of it. He held his hands out to it, feeling the soft light radiate around and through him. It was warm, not like warming your hands over a fire, but a deep warmth, almost like embracing warmth itself. The closer he came, the more the feeling intensified. It was a sudden feeling of peace—almost as if he was always meant for this moment, meant for the arch. It filled an emptiness inside that he could not ignore.
Suddenly Gus was at his side.
“Look familiar?”
Sam nodded slowly. It was the same structure, as magnificent and captivating as the one from his dream, and yet drastically different. The one burned into his mind from the sleepless nights was black as the night sky, and certainly didn’t retain the same euphoric warmth this one did. It was cold and lifeless, inspiring instant fear upon first glance.
But the shapes of the two arches were identical. And this one was real.
What was truly strange, however, was that the brilliant structure gave him a sense of familiarity, of longing for somewhere—or someone—that he knew before. It was a strange but settling feeling, as if he was right where he needed to be at that moment.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
They watched the soft glow of the arch dance around the cavern. As each vibrant beam bounced off the walls around them, there seemed to be a moving, living quality to it, almost as if the light was breathing.
“Yes … it is,” he said finally, unable to find the words that woul
d truly describe its allure.
Mr. Sterling made his way over to them.
“It doesn’t matter how many times I see the arch, I am always awed by its elegance,” he said, putting a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I’m sure you have plenty of questions, and we will answer all of them, I promise you. But right now we need to get moving. Can you be patient?”
Sam nodded compliantly, and Mr. Sterling smacked him lightly on the back and turned to address the rest of the group.
“Excellent. Now if I could ask the adults to take positions at the arch.”
Miss Karpatch, Mrs. Sterling, Cooley, and Mr. Sterling began to assemble at the feet of the brilliant structure. The four youths watched as they reached out in unison, each taking hold of the iridescent leg in from of them.
Immediately, a silvery blue stream of light begin to snake down the arch, moving slowly and with personality, as if aware of its purpose.
Sam’s mind raced. There was no ability to account for what he saw before him. It was all so confusing, and it felt like a dream—but very much unlike the one that woke him nearly every night.
The streams of light reached the cavern floor and spread across the center of the arch, unifying into a flowing river until it covered the floor beneath them.
Slowly the entire arch began to throb as though it was breathing rhythmically. A roaring breeze moved suddenly throughout the cave, nearly knocking Sam to the dusty floor, but not before Emma grabbed his hand to keep him on his feet.
When he tried to shield his eyes from the increasing light radiating before him, her hand held fast, and she pulled him close to her, leaning over until her lips were millimeters from his ear.
“Don’t be afraid, Sam. I am right next to you.”
Mr. Sterling, Cooley, and Miss Karpatch motioned for the others to approach the arch. Even above the roaring wind in the cave, a quiet, still presence hung over the scene. The arch pulsed so intensely now that it looked as though it would explode.
