“I’m older than the dirt you’re sitting on,” Eros said.
Amber laughed, looked at Eros and then to Jonathan. She wanted to believe it could be true. Jonathan picked up an apple, sinking his teeth into it, then reached out for her to take a bite, holding it to her lips. She tentatively opened her mouth and took a bite.
“It’s juicy,” he said with a wink and laughed as she had to wipe her chin.
A shadow passed overhead as he said it. Large wings glided over the small clearing where they sat, circled around and alighted in a tree high on the hill above them.
“It appears that your messenger has arrived father.” Eros grinned.
Jonathan looked at Jacques who was grinning as well. “It’s a coincidence.”
The great horned owl sat looking down at them until a sparrow flew past it, screeching a warning as it went.
“What do you suppose would make the sparrow risk his life to protect his nest,” Eros said, “if not love?”
“Ahem.” Jacques cleared his throat. “I’m not sure we’re going to get another invitation like that one. And Agnes is having a conniption waiting for us to move on.” He moved, missing the acorn that dropped to the ground next to him and chuckled.
~*~
“I can’t do it,” Katie said, sitting back in dismay after trying time after time to reach the tape that bound her wrists. “You’d have to be a contortionist to reach it.”
“Well,” Mavis said. “Before I worked at the mortuary. . . .”
“No, don’t say it!” Katie said.
“Don’t you re-tell it,” Mavis said, horrified to confess it. “If word got out that I was a carny.”
“What’s a carny?” Gloria asked.
“It’s someone who works in the carnival.”
“Oh,” Gloria said. “And how does this help us? I’m confused.”
“I worked with Harry Hairdini, the bearded lady, and the contortionists,” Mavis said. “I was part of the act.”
“You were a contortionist?” Gloria asked.
“Well, I wasn’t the bearded lady,” Mavis retorted. “I’m sorry,” she said, absolutely mortified. “That was just awful of me to say. The strain of this is getting to me. And I really have to pee!”
“This has to be the ultimate Depends moment,” Gloria said.
“Oh, my goodness!” Mavis chuckled. “Stop it! Oh, now I reaaallly have to go!”
~*~
“Are you sure this is going to work?” René asked as he watched Harold set the metal canister in the back of the Pinto.
“It should,” Harold said. “All I have to do is connect it to the ground, and then it’s a matter of adjusting the amperage to the proper setting.” He looked up at the ceiling of the hanger then outside. “That should be high enough. The fewer eyes on this the better.”
“I am driving,” René said as he went toward the driver’s side.
“Why?” Harold asked.
“Because you go ten miles per hour, I build Porsches for a hobby, and I have a Formula Six racer.” René climbed inside. “Besides you need to operate that thing.”
Harold flipped a switch on the canister, and a blue light started to glow from inside the glass tube. On the side he pulled up an antenna. “This was the best I could do on short notice.”
He came around to sit in the passenger side of the car with a toy car remote control on his lap. He used his inhaler then straightened his bow tie. “Ready?” he asked.
“Si.” René nodded, gripping the wheel.
Harold turned on the control and the car shot up to the rafters of the building.
“Yahhhh!” René gasped while Harold gulped for air.
Down below, the maintenance man walked outside his office, looked both ways out each side of the open bay hangar, and went back inside.
“Do you think you can bring us down a little?” René asked. When they dropped ten feet, he started the engine with the push of a button. He clicked another switch which rotated two fiberglass wings from beneath the car.
Harold did a double take when both rear quarter panels opened, revealing two small jet engines on each side.
“I told you this pony was fast.” René grinned. “You might want to put your seat belt on.”
Chapter 16
“Did anyone see where the sparrow went?” Jacques asked.
“I thought you were the one who had his eye on the birdies,” Jonathan said.
Jacques sniffed the air and shook his head. “Did you notice?” he asked his wife who was walking right behind him.
“I’ve been more concerned about snakes,” Jessie said.
“We are starting to lose the light,” Jacques said as they followed the path that the owl had taken. He turned on his flashlight to light the way more clearly.
“That’s a good thing though, right?” Jonathan asked. “For some reason they wanted us running around here in the dark.” He suddenly stopped as the thought occurred to him. “Turn off the flashlights.”
Jonathan held his hand out to Amber as she stepped down a steep incline. As soon as their fingers touched, he could feel a tingling sensation, and he knew by her expression she could feel it too.
“What could broken arrow mean?” Jacques asked.
“In my world?” Jonathan sighed, “nuclear weapons or the need for air support, but somehow I doubt if that is what Theodore Bancroft was referring to.” He continued to hold Amber’s hand as they walked.
“It seems I have spent too much of my time trying to figure out just that without much success,” Jacques said. “He was a great first mate, but a terrible poet.”
“Maybe he literally meant arrow,” Eros said. “I could shoot one into the sky and see where it lands. Leave it to the gods to show us the way.”
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable leaving my fate in the hands of the gods.” Jonathan looked back at him and then smiled. A layer in the sediment of rock behind them looked like an arrow that was broken in the middle where the earth’s crust had lifted up. “Besides, I think we may have found it,” he said. Smiling broadly, he pointed to the ridge behind them.
The crystals embedded in the layer glowed florescent for a moment longer before the effect was gone.
“Like magic,” Jacques said, walking back toward it. He stopped before a large boulder that was just below the broken part of the arrow and started digging around the base of it. Turning into the jaguar, he dug faster and faster.
Eros looked back at his father in surprise. “Now I see why you have the kitty babysitting me.”
A small hole opened up underneath near the corner of the large boulder with his efforts.
“Here, let me help,” Jonathan said as he pushed against the boulder and rolled it away, opening the hole up even wider.
“Did you get that, princess?” Joseph asked in a whisper as he watched through binoculars.
“I did,” Patricia said. “Now, they will have to listen to me. Let’s go,” she said.
“Not just yet,” Joseph said. “We’ve yet to collect our prize.”
~*~
“That’s amazing!” Katie said as she watched Mavis. “You have to be double jointed . . . maybe triple!” Her eyes grew wider as she watched Mavis unwrap the tape. She used her teeth on the top and her toes on the bottom of it.
“I’m out of shape, but in my day, I could amaze an audience,” Mavis said. “I think it may be why my husband married me, to tell you the truth.”
“I’d like to have been that flexible when I was young,” Gloria said.
“I still try to do a little yoga,” Mavis said.
“If we get out of this, let’s do yoga every morning as part of our new exercise regimen.”
“Okay,” Katie said. “We’ll have a princess pact.”
“Oh, I like that,” Gloria said. “I can see us out there on the back porch doing it now. . . . That’s good to do you know, focusing on a positive outcome.”
“I’m focusing on a port-a-potty,” Katie said
. “I shouldn’t have drunk all that sweet tea.”
~*~
“Watch out for those power lines,” Harold yelled.
“I’m going under them,” René said. “You can open your eyes now.”
“Why do we have to fly so low?” Harold asked.
“To be below the radar,” René replied. “You just keep your eye on the GPS and let me know when we are getting close.” He looked out the side window down at the ground. “I have to admit, this experience in driving is second to none.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Harold said, “and I didn’t think to bring the Dramamine.”
“Just unroll the window and breathe the fresh air,” René said. “You’ll be fine.”
~*~
Jessie collected Jacques’s clothing and held it, waiting for him to turn back into his human form.
“That is the only drawback, oui? Jacques said from behind the boulder where he’d gone to return to his human form. “When I was a ghost, the outfit came with me.” He came and kissed his wife on the cheek as he came back out. “Thank you for picking up my clothes, my lovely wife.”
“It’s a good thing that when you disappear they do to,” Jessie said, “or it could get real interesting.”
“I can imagine any outfit,” Cupid said and changed from the sweatshirt and jeans he had been wearing to a toga.
“Can you teach me this trick?” Jacques asked.
“Oh, look,” Jessie interrupted, “I have a bar.”
Everyone looked and saw her hold up her phone. “I’m going to call home to let them know we’re okay.” She made the call then another and another. “That is odd. Nobody is answering their phones.”
“Maybe it’s still not going through,” Jacques said.
“No, I did get their message boxes,” Jessie said while dialing a new number. “Charlene,” she said.
“Hey, sugar,” Charlene answered. “Where is everybody? I came over to see if Amber and you wanted to go shopping for frames. “You all hiding from the UFO invasion?”
“UFO invasion?” Jessie asked.
“Reports have been coming in like crazy over the police scanner,” Charlene said. “Hank’s out at the base on Red Alert. Hope you’re nowhere out there because I think they’re going to blow it out of the sky.”
“Out where,” Jessie asked, “By the base?” She looked at Jonathan. “Are we anywhere near the base?” she asked.
“We’re not far from Fort Polk at all,” Jonathan said.
“The media and everybody else are chasing that thing,” Charlene said. “Should be quite the show.”
“Hello,” Jessie said, looking at her phone. “The bar is gone.”
“What’s this about a UFO?” Jacques asked then stared in amazement as an unidentified object flew directly overhead, shot up into the sky, then went back down as it disappeared from view.
“We’d better hurry if we’re going to do this,” Jonathan said. “This place is going to be crawling with military soon.”
~*~
“You over shot the signal, and now it’s gone,” Harold said, looking out the window.
“There are no brakes,” René said, “and it would help if you could keep her level. I am going to set her down on that dirt road.”
Harold gripped the seat.
“I thought you weren’t afraid to fly?”
“I’m not afraid of flying,” Harold said. “It’s the crashing that is the problem.”
“It will be fine,” René said. “Besides, I have added an additional safety measure.” He looked over at Harold. “I installed a parachute.”
“It’s been a privilege working with you,” Harold said.
“You worry too much, my friend,” René said. He lined up the car with the dirt road and lowered the flaps. “Lower away.”
Harold adjusted the rheostat until the car was on the ground. The speed they were going and the condition of the road made the car feel like it was about to break apart.
“Hold on, little pony,” René said as he pushed the cigarette lighter down.
“This is no time for a smoke,” Harold said as a huge silver parachute was deployed out the back where it took out trees and bushes, dragging them to a quick and sudden stop.
~*~
“Did you see that?” Gloria asked. “It looked like a Pinto just flew by.”
Mavis’s head shot up. “I mussed it,” she mumbled with tape in her mouth.
“It looked like a silver weather balloon to me. Like the kind they found in Area 51 back in the fifties,” Katie said. “I hope that means people are coming, even if they are green.”
~*~
Jonathan led the way in through the small opening. He had to crawl several feet until it opened up into a space large enough for him to stand. He turned to assist Amber through. He took her hand and helped her stand. They stepped back to allow room for Jacques, Jessie, and Eros to step inside.
Jacques used his flashlight to sweep over the area when he saw that the cave continued further back. He took a few steps forward.
“Watch out for booby traps,” Jonathan said to him.
“You don’t need to warn me about that. I wrote the book on how to hide your treasure,” Jacques said. He took another step, only to disappear down a hole.
“Jacques,” Jessie yelled as she ran toward the edge.
“Watch out,” Jonathan said as he flashed the light he carried into the hole where Jacques had fallen. He lay flat on his back, twelve feet down, on a pile of gold and bones. “I found my treasure.” He groaned and rolled over, coming face to face with a skeleton. “And I think I know what happened to your boyfriend, Agnes.”
Agnes floated forward and stood on the precipice before she descended into the hole. “It is you, my love,” she wept. “All this time I thought you had left me for another. Please forgive me.”
The spirit of a young man appeared above them. His glowing white arms reached out for her as he smiled. Agnes moved toward him and the white light behind him. Before their eyes she transformed into a young woman as she went toward the light.
“Imagine that,” Jacques said, “she didn’t even say goodbye.” A clump of dirt fell on top of his head. “Yeah, I will miss you too.”
Jacques turned his attention back to the trunk and sat for a moment, glorying in the moment. He was reunited with his gold. It wasn’t quite as full as he remembered it being. In fact, it was about half gone, but the golden apple they were after sat on top of the hoard. “Ripe for the picking,” he said as he reached for it. “Augh!” he screamed as a large black snake slithered by.
“What?” Jonathan asked.
“Snakes!” Jacques yelled. Jumping up, he tried to scale the wall.
Eros threw the rope that he carried down the hole and held it as Jacques grabbed hold of the end and began to climb. He struggled to hold it as Jacques climbed up. Jonathan went for the rope, bumping faces with Amber, and their lips accidentally touched.
Poof!
Cupid disappeared over the edge with the rope and Jacques who dangled dangerously close to the snakes below.
“Really?” Jacques said. “Now you kiss the girl?”
Jonathan pulled him back up with the rope while Eros, in his cherub form, held on to his shirt and pulled up with his little wings flapping.
Jonathan couldn’t help but smile at the determination on his face as he held on.
Jacques climbed up over the edge to safety. “What the blazes were you thinking?” He looked at Jonathan.
“It was an accident,” Jonathan said, “but you saved the day, little man.” He high fived the little cherub just before he turned into Eros.
“The only problem,” Eros said as he stood looking over the pit, “is that I didn’t see the golden apple.”
“Is this it?” Jacques asked as he held it up in his hand grinning from ear to ear.
“Let’s go home,” Jonathan said, looking down at Amber whose golden gaze was treasure enough for him.
> “That sounds good.” She smiled as he dipped his head and kissed her again.
Poof!
Jacques caught the apple and the cherub.
~*~
Joseph waited until they had all emerged from the cave before he walked into the clearing. “You have something that I want.”
“And what might that be?” Jonathan asked.
“Aphrodite,” he said.
“Why do you need her?” Patricia asked.
“She is a primordial being, more ancient than Zeus,” Joe explained.
“Who are you?” Amber asked. “Why are you doing this?”
“You really don’t recognize me?” Joseph asked. “We have met before, most recently at the lab in Brooklyn where I took your blood and used it to restore my youth.”
“You’re the doctor?” Amber asked incredulously.
“I am much more than that, my dear. You don’t recognize me? It is I, Ambrosio.”
“I thought you were cursed by Apollo, that your skin would burn in the light of day,” Eros said.
“Ah, but it was he who burned in the light of day.” Joseph smiled. “Isn’t it?”
“You’re responsible for his accident?” Eros asked. “This makes so much sense now that you take revenge over the curse he put on you.”
“I’m terribly lost here,” Jacques said. “Who is Ambrosio?”
“He’s one of Artimis’s minions,” Eros said. “Did she put you up to this? Is it the golden apple she wants?”
“I did not come for the apple, but the silver tipped arrow you took,” Joseph said.
Jonathan looked at Eros. “I thought you said it was your arrow?”
“I may have borrowed it,” Eros said.
“Aphrodite, you will come with me,” Joseph commanded. “It is your blood mixed with the others that has healed me enough that I may walk again in the sunlight.”
“She’s staying right here,” Jonathan said, stepping in front of her.
Joseph produced a black remote control with a blinking red light. “Do you recognize this?” he asked Jonathan.
Jonathan slowly nodded.
“I thought you might,” Joe said. “I have taken your mothers and aunt and placed them in grave danger.”
“What are you talking about?” Patricia asked her accomplice. “I don’t understand! What is that?”
Cupid's Treasure - Mystery of the Golden Arrow Page 18
