by Various Orca
Copyright © 2012 Orca Book Publishers
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Seven (the series) bundle [electronic resource] / Eric Walters ... [et al.].
(Seven (the series))
Contents: Between heaven and earth / Eric Walters -- Lost cause / John Wilson --
Jump cut / Ted Staunton -- Ink me / Richard Scrimger -- Close to the heel / Norah
McClintock -- Devil’s pass / Sigmund Brouwer -- Last message / Shane Peacock.
Electronic monograph.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-4598-0271-1 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-4598-0272-8 (EPUB)
I. Walters, Eric, 1957- II. Series: Seven (the series) (Online)
PS8329.1.S49 2012 jC813’.5408 C2012-905336-8
First published in the United States, 2012
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012938211
Summary: When David McLean, well-loved grandfather and avid adventurer, dies, he leaves behind an unusual will that outlines the seven tasks he has set for his seven grandsons.
Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
Design by Teresa Bubela
ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS
PO Box 5626, Stn. B
Victoria, BC Canada
V8R 6S4 ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS
PO Box 468
CUSTER, WA USA
98240-0468
www.orcabook.com
15 14 13 12 • 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Between Heaven and Earth
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Lost Cause
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Jump Cut
REEL ONE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
REEL TWO
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
REEL THREE
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
REEL FOUR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ink Me
AFTER IT WAS OVER
WHEN IT BEGAN
YOU WONT BELEEV
SHE HAD THE NEEDL
AT DINNER
IT WAS SPENCER. HEY! I SAID
THE NEWS WAS ON
THE SUN WAS BEHIND US
MOM WAS IN A GOOD MOOD
ALL AFTERNOON WE TOOK TURNS
DIFFERNT
I SENT JADEN AN OTHER TEXT
WE DROVE AROUND
I DREAMED
MY RITING HAND IS HURTING
JADEN NEW WARE TO GO
THEY CRAMMED INTO THE CAR
WE WERE ALL GOING TO THE MALL
RAINY DAYS AT THE COTTAGE
MY SIDE HURT.
BEANS WENT INTO THE MALL
GUY CLIMING OUT OF THE SUV WAS OLDER THAN US
HAFF WAY ROUND A LOOP
I WAS—I DUNNO WHAT I WAS
WE LOOK RONG SAID JADEN
YES SHE SAID
NIKKI THE COP CAME BACK
WE SAT
IN THE MOVY
I WAS DUN. I DINT WANT TO RITE ANYTHING EVER AGANE
THAT WAS A LONG TIME AGO
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Close to the Heel
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Devil’s Pass
PART ONE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
PART TWO
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY- FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
PART THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Last Message
ONE
MATTERS OF CONSEQUENCE
TWO
SECRETS
THREE
TESTS
FOUR
THE FIRST ENVELOPE
FIVE
VANESSA ENCHANTED
SIX
IN THE AIR
SEVEN
REVELATION IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
EIGHT
MY MOMENT COMES
2
NINE
THE SECOND ENVELOPE
TEN
SEARCHING THE DEEPS
ELEVEN
MESSAGE FROM THE SEA
3
TWELVE
THE THIRD ENVELOPE
THIRTEEN
CASING THE CHAUVET
FOURTEEN
THE KEY TO THE CHAUVET
FIFTEEN
INTO THE GREAT CAVE
SIXTEEN
THE MEANING OF LIFE
LAST
&
nbsp; SEVENTEEN
IN FLIGHT
EIGHTEEN
WAIT HERE
NINETEEN
A SIMPLE SECRET
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ERIC WALTERS
BETWEEN
HEAVEN AND
EARTH
ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS
Copyright © 2012 Eric Walters
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Walters, Eric, 1957-
Between heaven and earth [electronic resource] / Eric Walters.
(Seven (the series))
Electronic monograph.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-55469-942-1 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-55469-943-8 (EPUB)
I. Title. II. Series: Seven the series (Online)
PS8595.A598B47 2012 jC813'.54 C2012-902585-2
First published in the United States, 2012
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012938222
Summary: DJ climbs Mount Kilimanjaro to scatter his beloved grandfather’s ashes.
Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
Design by Teresa Bubela
Cover photography by Getty Images
ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS
PO Box 5626, Stn. B
Victoria, BC Canada
V8R 6S4 ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS
PO Box 468
Custer, WA USA
98240-0468
www.orcabook.com
15 14 13 12 • 4 3 2 1
For Nick Mednis, my kind, gentle father-in-law.
He was a wonderful father and grandfather. All the
grandchildren called him “Tampa” because the first to
come along couldn’t pronounce Grandpa. He almost
always had a smile on his face and often a simple beret on
his head as he walked. The beret I gave the grandfather
in this story was to honor my children’s Tampa. I took
it with me when my son and I climbed Kilimanjaro.
I think that would have made Tampa smile.
CONTENTS
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ONE
The room was large and lavish, with dark oak paneling. A big mahogany desk dominated the room; overstuffed leather chairs and couches encircled it. I’d never been in a lawyer’s office before. But then again, prior to a few days ago, I’d never been in a funeral home or attended a funeral either.
There were twelve of us in the room—me, my mother, my brother Steve, my mother’s three sisters and two of my uncles, and my four cousins, Adam, Webb, Spencer and Bernard, who insisted on being called Bunny. These were the eleven people in the world who meant the most to me. The only person missing was the reason we were here—my grandpa. A shudder radiated through my entire body. I hoped nobody saw it. My mother reached out and placed her hand on mine.
“It’s all right, DJ,” she said softly.
Her eyes were so red from crying. I knew how much she was going to miss him. I knew how much we were all going to miss him. I just couldn’t afford to shed tears. Somebody had to be in control. That was my job.
His death had been hard on everybody, but maybe the hardest on my mother. I’d heard my Aunt Vicky talking about how we must be “reliving” my father’s death. I thought that was a funny choice of words—how could a death be relived?—but I understood what she meant. That didn’t mean I agreed with her, just that I understood. My father had been gone for so long, since I was really little, that I hadn’t even been part of all of that. No funeral home, no visitation, no cemetery, no burial memories. I couldn’t relive what I hadn’t lived.
With my mother’s whispered reassurance over, the room became completely silent again. It was almost as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Then again, since nobody seemed to be breathing, it wasn’t like we needed air. We all just sat there, in silence, waiting for the lawyer to arrive. I didn’t know what was in the will, and I didn’t care what Grandpa was leaving me, because he’d already left so many memories. But it was a term of his will that we all needed to be there, so we had no choice. It would have been disrespectful for us not to come.
Of course that hadn’t stopped my brother from trying to get out of it. Typical. If it wasn’t his idea, he didn’t want any part of it. Mom had finally convinced him. If she hadn’t, I would have convinced him in a whole different way. Steve could be such a jerk sometimes. It was hard to believe that twins could be so different, but we rarely saw things the same way.
The silence seemed so wrong. Here we were, waiting to hear the will of a man who didn’t believe in silence. He was always talking, telling stories, making jokes or singing songs. More than once, when he thought he was alone, I’d caught him humming or talking to himself. I’d even overheard him having both ends of a conversation and laughing at his own jokes. My mother always joked that he’d talk to a stone and get the stone to reply. That was just how he was. Wherever he went, he talked to complete strangers and they always talked back. He once said that strangers were just people he hadn’t become friends with yet. He was so relentlessly friendly, so happy, so full of life. He was so full of life.
I hated seeing him in that coffin. The minister talked about how “lifelike” he looked lying there. That was garbage. That was the first time I’d ever seen him when he wasn’t moving about. He was emotions in motion. He would jokingly say that he was what hyperactive kids grew up to be. He was what I would like to grow up to be, but that wasn’t possible. For one thing, I don’t have his way with people. He made everybody feel so comfortable. Total strangers felt like friends, friends felt like family, and family…well, he just made us feel like we were the most important people around. All of us. When people talked about tolerance for others, he bristled. He didn’t believe in tolerance, he believed in acceptance.
Of course, I knew that everybody who was born died eventually, but I guess I didn’t believe he would ever die. He told me he was going to live forever or die trying. He died trying. He was getting ready to put in a whole new garden. It was going to be more work than many men half his age could handle. He was looking forward to going to the cottage and having all of us up to visit. He kept saying he was going to water-ski this year. I knew he wasn’t; he just said that to get his daughters all worried. Ninety-two-year-old men shouldn’t be water-skiing.
A few nights ago he went to bed and woke up dead. I almost chuckled. He would have liked that—the rhyme of bed and dead, a little limerick in the making. One minute he was so full of life and the next—nothing. Everybody told us it was a wonderful way to go. No suffering. So for him, I was happy. But it just made it harder for the rest of us. We hadn’t had time to adjust, to get used to the idea that he was gone. I still half expected him to walk into the room and—
The door opened and everybody turned as a man in a suit walked in.
“Good afternoo
n,” he said as he settled in behind the desk.
There was a mumble of responses from across the room.
“Thank you for coming,” he said. “My name is John Devine, and I’ve been David’s lawyer for twenty years. This is a very sad day, and I must admit that this was a day I didn’t expect to be part of. I’m much younger than David, but even so, I expected him to outlive me.”
That comment generated smiles and nods.
“He was a man of so much passion. It was a true joy to have known him.”
That was my grandpa. He was a joy.
“The terms of the will are both straightforward and, shall we say, most interesting.” Mr. Devine paused and smiled. “And with a most interesting twist.”
Interesting was such an interesting word. It could mean almost anything.
“Let’s begin with the more conventional parts,” he said. “All of David’s assets—his home, investments and cottage—are to be divided equally among his daughters.”
That was fair, and he was always fair.
“All of these assets, with the exception of the cottage, are to be liquidated and dispersed to the four heirs. The cottage’s ownership will be transferred to list his daughters as co-owners. It says, and I quote, ‘This was a place of so many great memories shared with my family that I wish it to be used in perpetuity by my grandchildren and their children and their children.’” He paused. “Is that all clear?”
There was a murmuring of agreement and nodding of heads. I was happy. Some of my best memories were from the cottage. Weekends and summers spent with all of my cousins and our parents and Grandpa.
“Excellent,” Mr. Devine said. “Now I need to set out the next part—the interesting part—of the will. A sum of money—a rather substantial sum—has been put aside to fund an undertaking…or I should say, seven undertakings.” He paused. “This is without a doubt one of the most unusual clauses that I have ever been asked to put in a will.”
He looked slowly from person to person, deliberately pausing at each one. Everybody was staring directly at him, leaning forward in their seats. He certainly had everybody’s complete, undivided attention—even Steve’s.
Just read the thing, I thought.
“I know you are all anxious to hear about these undertakings. However, I cannot share them with all of you at this moment.”
There was an eruption of confused protest.
“Please, please!” he said, cutting the protest short. “You will all be fully informed, but not all of you will be informed at the same time. Some people will have to leave the room prior to the undertakings being read.”
I knew where this was going; he was going to ask the grandkids to leave. That wasn’t fair. I understood the younger ones being asked to leave, but why me? I was almost eighteen—well, in a few months—and it wasn’t like I wasn’t mature enough to handle anything. And it wasn’t as if my father was here to support my mother—that was my role. I should be allowed to stay even if the other five grandsons had to leave.
