Rose pointed on the diagram to the place the hose connected to the barrel.
Isaiah felt time stop as he watched the building, and he watched George. This was taking forever!
Sweat was dripping into George’s eyes behind his glasses. He was still shaking.
“Octopus will help,” Rose quietly reminded him.
George smiled, and a few minutes later, gave the thumbs up signal.
Rose helped him up, and quickly the group made its way back to the gate. Still no sign of the men.
“You doing okay, Isaiah?” George asked as soon as they snapped the gate shut.
Isaiah smiled. “I’m great! Thanks! Tell us everything!”
“Well, I had trouble finding things upside down, but the drawing helped.” He pulled off the gloves. “Then I was having lots of trouble pulling off the hose, holding it, and turning the valve. Then Rose reminded me about Octopus. I called on her, and suddenly Pop! Turn! Whoosh! And it was done. Do you think it’s possible that a dream animal helped me in awake time?”
“Yes!” Magda said. “It’s like when I floated up over the fence yesterday to open the gate. Wow… it’s hard to believe this is really happening,” Magda said. “All four of us dream the same dreams. Then we meet Jeremiah who knows George’s idea, and he shows how to do it in real life.” With her best soccer footwork, Magda kicked a rock all the way back to the cottonwoods. “It’s all pretty unbelievable,” she called back to them.
Chapter 8
The North Wind
They were standing in front of a large cave. A huge thrust of wind flew out at them blowing their clothes backwards. The air was charged, almost electric. Eagle watched, wings tucked into his side.
“Did anyone else hear that?” Rose asked looking around.
“What?” Magda asked.
“When the wind blew out, I heard a loud, booming voice say, “Welcome! I am the North Wind.”
“No, I didn’t hear the voice,” Isaiah said. Neither George nor Magda had either.
“That’s strange you didn’t hear it too. Maybe it’s because I’m up so high on Giraffe,” Rose said.
“Or maybe it’s your gift of hearing,” Magda said.
“Maybe,” Rose said.
Isaiah looked at Rose. “I hear what I think might be messages in the wind all the time, but it sounds like static. I think it might be talking to me, but I’m not really sure what it’s saying.”
Rose stared back at Isaiah. “The wind talks to me too, but I hear words. I thought everyone did.”
“Nope.” Isaiah smiled. “I guess this makes you our wind interpreter.”
“Huh?” Rose tilted her head into the wind.
“Wind has been bringing you help with your asthma,” she told Isaiah. “It has been telling your airways to open up and take it in. It has been soothing them.”
Rose listened again. “The wind wants to know if we’re aware of how dependent we are on air to live.”
“Well I sure do,” Isaiah said.
“We can only hold our breath about two minutes,” George said.
“We already know we can’t live without it,” Magda said.
“The wind wants to know if we’re aware that it was the first living being we said hello to after we were born into this world? That our lives started with our very first breath,” Rose said.
“I thought my parents were first, but this makes sense,” Magda said.
Rose leaned forward, her orange hair blowing. “Strong winds blow across the land so they can clean the air and the earth,” she said. “They can clean us too.”
“How?” Magda asked, stroking the fur of her panther.
“It says it’s easy. We just stand outside and ask the air to clean us. Giraffe just said that the air is able to change the energy into love. Wow! Two voices talking inside of my head at once. My therapist would have fun with this!”
Short puffs of air popped around them.
“What’s going on?” George asked.
“The wind is laughing and so is Giraffe,” Rose said.
“It tickles,” laughed George. The others joined in.
Then Rose asked the wind, “I get pretty angry sometimes. Are you sure you’re strong enough to blow my anger away?”
A giant gust of air hit Rose, knocking her down. They all laughed.
Isaiah said, “Rose, ask it if it knows the warehouse by our school?”
“It does,” Rose said. “It also said it can understand you so you can talk directly to it.”
“Okay.” Isaiah blushed and quickly summarized what they had done so far. “We aren’t sure what to do next.”
Rose added, “They must be doing something to birds too because I fell on a dead one.” She looked at Magda and then the ground. “And then we found dead birds everywhere.”
There was a sudden stillness. They looked at each other in surprise.
Grizzly whispered to Isaiah, “Wind has gone to check out what you said.”
Just as Isaiah was about to share this information with the others, a gust of wind blew around them.
“Wind says it’s true. It saw the barrel we plugged up. It also discovered that something is being burned beside the warehouse which is polluting the air. But that is not what is killing the birds,” Rose reported.
“Can you help clean the air or help the birds somehow?” asked George.
Rose listened. “Yes, the wind will clear the air, but it says it won’t stay clean if they keep burning. As far as the birds are concerned, the wind will blow them away from the area so they aren’t harmed by whatever’s going on there,” Rose said, “but we need to find out what’s killing them.”
“Thank you so much,” the others said in unison.
“And thank you, Rose, for making the messages clear for us,” Magda said.
“We do need to figure out what’s killing the birds,” Isaiah concluded. “Tomorrow during lunch, we’ll meet, and scout things out.” He looked at George. “And then we’ll see who we need to tell.”
Chapter 9
Caught!
“Day number three of no lunch,” George sang. “At this rate, I might lose some weight.” They slipped through the cottonwoods. “Hey—did everyone notice that we’re saying things in our dreams that we remember during the day? Like Isaiah telling us to meet today at lunch?”
“That’s right,” Isaiah said. “Guess it works.” He pulled back a tree branch for Magda.
“Lots of kids tease you about your weight, don’t they?” Rose asked.
George nodded.
“If I ever hear it, I’ll kick their dumb butts,” Rose said, tossing her blue hair, a match to her nail polish.
“I think they get frustrated by how long it takes me to do my work. That’s why I get special services—to stay caught up in all my classes.”
“Why does it take you so long?” Magda asked. She quickly added, “You don’t have to say if you don’t want to. It’s just that I’ve heard kids call you names before for being slow.” She looked at Rose, and then said to George, “Hey, I’m sorry I never stopped them.”
“That’s okay,” George said looking down. “I am slow. I get these ideas, and then I have to think about them and pretty soon everyone else is turning in papers, and I have barely started. My mom wanted to homeschool me, but my dad said that would hurt my chances for getting a college scholarship. He ran track in college here, and he wants me to do it too.” He paused, scratching his head. “You know, I hate to run!”
They laughed with George.
“I would like to go to college here, but it’s because their environmental studies department is top ranked. Someday, when I’m a scientist, I want to work at the biological lab.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say so many sentences in a row, George,” Rose said as they walked past the pond toward the fence.
“I’m glad you have big dreams,” Magda said. “Naturally my big dream is to run—on a world-class soccer field.”
“I dream of moving out of our Gothic Revival house that has a u-shaped floor plan, gable dormers, and a wrought iron roof cresting,” Rose said doing air quotes. She used a voice like she was mimicking one of her architect parents.
They continued looking at her.
“I guess I really want to go back to China and kick the government’s butts for the way they treat girl babies.”
“What do they do to girl babies?” Isaiah asked.
“They think only boys have any value so families give away their girls because they can’t afford to raise them since they’re not worth anything.”
“That’s wrong!” Magda said.
“No, wrong is that I lay in a crib until I was two years old and my U.S. parents adopted me. No one cared if I lived or I died.” Rose looked close to tears. “My therapist says I have a slight attachment disorder so that’s why I act like I don’t want any friends even though I really do.”
“Rose, I didn’t know,” Magda said.
“Don’t worry about it.” Rose’s voice was hard again.
At the gate, Isaiah said, “This could be very dangerous so let’s stick to the plan. We’re just gathering information. Meet you all back here in 15 minutes.”
Fifteen minutes later, George had reported back that the valve was still closed.
Isaiah had counted three cars in the parking lot in the front of the building, and there appeared to be an office in the front. There also had been a dog lying in the sun. “It saw me but didn’t move. Obviously not a guard dog,” he laughed.
Magda said that looking in the windows of the warehouse, she’d discovered nothing but boxes.
And Rose wasn’t back yet.
“All she had to do was scout out the back of the building,” Magda said, sounding worried.
“Look!” George said.
Rose was running toward the gate as fast as she could, and right behind her was a man. “Come back here, kid!” he yelled. He stopped to pull out his phone.
Isaiah felt fear rushing into his lungs. He watched to see if the man was calling someone or taking a video. The man kept cursing and trying to use his phone.
Rose tore right through the gate and past the others. The others quickly followed. Isaiah had already removed the rock propping it open, so Magda slammed it shut as soon as they were all through it. “OMG!” she said.
“I hate to run,” a running George said under his breath, “but in this case, I choose running over getting caught by that guy. He scares me.”
In the background, they heard a thunk against the gate and the man yelled, “Hey!”
Once inside the cottonwoods close to the school grounds, they stopped. The fence was out of sight. George was gasping for air, and Rose was panting. But Isaiah was breathing normally.
“I can’t quit shaking! That was really scary!” Magda said. “Hey, why aren’t you out of breath?” she asked Isaiah.
“I don’t know,” Isaiah said as surprised as she was. “At first fear filled my lungs, and then everything went calm. It’s almost as if something carried me.”
“Grizzly!” Magda said with conviction. But Isaiah was thinking that it was Wind that was helping him right now—with moving so fast, the calm that went through him, and his breathing.
“I knew you believed even if it’s weird!” Rose said as soon as she could get the words out.
“Maybe,” Magda laughed. “So what happened back there?”
“Yeah,” George said, “You know I might hate to run, but I think I just beat my all-time record! What happened?”
Rose took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her hand on her heart. “That was some scary crap,” she said looking at Magda who nodded. “Okay, so I was checking out the back of the warehouse like we agreed, and I found this big firepit. There was smoke coming out of it, so someone has been burning something there recently.”
“That must be what Wind was talking about!” George said.
Rose nodded. “Anyway, there were bags of stuff beside the pit, really old bags, and one of them was ripped open. There were these pellet things on the ground. The bag said, Aiv… something. At the bottom it said: proved to cull red-winged blackbirds. I was going to pick up some pellets to show you but saw a big CAUTION sign on the bag, so I didn’t think it was a good idea to touch them. Suddenly, I realized a man was watching me. I took off running and the rest is history. It totally scared me.”
“It could have been Avitrol. It would have gone through your skin. It is really poisonous! It’s on the EPA’s list,” George informed them. He pulled off his glasses to wipe them. “I am so glad you didn’t touch it, Rose. Farmers use it to kill birds because they eat their grain in the fields and in their livestock feeders.”
“Well this would have been old farmers because those bags looked ancient,” Rose said. “Let’s not forget the man who saw me though.”
Isaiah said, “We have no idea what that’ll mean. That man pulled out his phone and may have gotten some video of our backs.”
Rose grabbed Isaiah’s arm. “Was I far enough ahead that he didn’t get a photo of me? Everyone will know whose blue hair this is.”
“I don’t think he had time to get anything,” Isaiah said, but inside he wasn’t so sure.
“I’d better change colors tonight,” she said.
“Guess we’ll have to sleep on what to do next,” Magda said. She twisted her hair into a ponytail, a gesture she seemed to use when she was worried. “Waiting for the dream,” she sang, her voice quivering. “Just trying to break the mood.”
Isaiah felt a sense of fear crackling through him. “Wind. Jeremiah. Griz. Eagle. All of you! We need your help to stay safe. I hope you’re here protecting us.” A breeze lifted his bangs and gently put them back down.
Chapter 10
Fire
Eagle guided them inside a crystal cavern where a campfire was burning in the center. The fire reminded Isaiah of the first dream when they had all been sitting around a campfire, but that had been in a forest. The cave was large enough to hold the kids and their animals comfortably. There were rock benches along the walls and rocks to sit on closer to the fire. The floor was smooth white granite that was shiny enough to reflect the dancing flames which were strong and high.
Magda surprised them by saying, “Welcome to the Cave of Healing.”
“How do you know it’s called the Cave of Healing?” Rose asked.
“I’m not sure,” Magda said. “I just had a feeling that was the name. Look at all the different colors of crystals embedded in the walls.” The fire’s light made the colors dance like tiny rainbow spirals all around them. Isaiah was transfixed by these moving circles, holding up his hands and arms for them to dance over.
Magda moved closer to the fire, lying down beside it. Panther stretched out beside her. “The floor kind of vibrates. There’s a hum maybe, and it’s moving through my whole body.” Yellow and red flames leapt higher and color spiraled across her.
Isaiah lay down in the arms of Grizzly. “I feel the hum, Magda. And my lungs feel very, very hot like the sun is shining in them. It feels really good.” He imagined breathing in the tiny, dancing lights, letting their happy joy fill his lungs too. His breathing sounded like music to him. Music that began to hum along with the vibrating floor. He felt so good.
“That’s the way I feel when I play soccer. When I am having a good game, a fire grows inside of me stronger and brighter and I feel energized, like I could play all day and never get tired,” Magda said.
“I bet the fire could burn up my anger,” Rose said. “Of course, that would be one big fire!” She laughed.
“It’s kind of like what the wind taught us,” Isaiah said. “When we feel sadness, anger, or fear, we can imagine giving the energy to the wind or the fire to be burned up.”
“Like to a candle flame or the sun,” Rose said.
“Scientifically speaking,” George said from across the cavern where Octopus was sheltered from the heat, “fire is very necess
ary for the earth. Some seeds need the heat of the fire to germinate.”
There was a silence as Fire brought more heat to the cave.
Finally, Rose asked, “I wonder what those men are burning behind the warehouse?”
The fire’s flames rose higher and higher, flickering against the crystals, touching them.
Magda began coughing. “It’s some type of poison. I just feel it.”
“I know Eagle guided us here for a reason,” said George. “I wonder how Fire can help?”
“Maybe it can help by refusing to burn,” Magda said getting up.
“Maybe it can burn back on itself so it doesn’t spread,” George said. “That’s what the firefighters do to stop forest fires.”
“So Fire can help us by not burning whatever’s in that firepit,” Isaiah said.
“I get a hit in my belly that the Fire understands us, and it will help.” Magda and Panther left the cave.
The others thanked the fire and followed her. Isaiah was the last one out, not wanting the way he felt to stop. As he turned to say goodbye to the fire, Eagle flew down, retrieved an ember from the fire, and tucked it into Isaiah’s chest. It didn’t burn at all, but he noticed that the good feeling continued long after he had returned to his bed.
Chapter 11
What is next?
Isaiah opened the lunch gathering beside the pond, “I don’t see any smoke so Fire must be helping.”
“And there aren’t any birds flying around here,” George added.
“So we heard the men say they had to dump six barrels a day, and they’re going to plow the pond under next week. Today’s Friday! They’re going to catch on pretty soon that the barrel isn’t draining,” Isaiah said.
“Next week it may not be safe for us to meet here at the pond because they might be plowing it under,” Rose said. “And we can’t go back inside the fence to check because they’re probably watching for us after yesterday. Sorry, guys.”
“It’s not your fault, Rose,” Isaiah said.
“That’s a first,” she said, laughing.
The Hidden Worlds Page 4
