Alfonse continued, “So at the time of its construction and use, Stonehenge was a sort of public building, as far as we now, something like a stadium, maybe, or a church. People used it for centuries, but at some point, it was forgotten, and became a pile of rocks in a field.”
Morgan said, “Well, now it’s famous.”
Alfonse smiled, “now it has a story tied to it. Imagine if Great Britain sold it, maybe they’d get tens of billions of Euro.”
Morgan nodded. “I get it.” He picked up his coin. “It has a story....”
“Stonehenge has a huge story. This coin,” Alfonse grimaced and held his fingers together, “a thin story. But, imagine a sexy story, drama, and adventure, beautiful women, and gold, shiny gold.” he stared into the mid distance and pictured the tale.
Morgan said, “I can imagine it…”
Alfonse smiled, “Good! So the task would be to promote this tale… Possibly get a TV show produced. If we do that… Maybe millions?”
Morgan nodded, “OK. This sounds like a good plan.”
Robbie asked, “Alfonse, can I get you anything to drink. Coffee, tea, beer, wine?”
Alfonse replied, “Espresso?”
Robbie made three double shot Espressos and brought them back to the library.
Alfonse kissed his fingers, “Oh my! Fit for gods!”
Robbie smiled, “I learned from an Italian, years ago. I think we were in Texas…” He rubbed his chin. “Hey Alfonse, I think I’d really like to help out on this project. I have a lot of friends who are in this line of work.”
Alfonse nodded, “This is a big undertaking for sure, and wildly speculative. I think it is a good story, you think it is a good story, but unless we reach the right audience, people with money, ‘poof’. Lot of money gone.”
Robbie sipped his espresso. “Well.... the way we work really reduces the financial risk…”
“I’m intrigued. I admit, but I need to know the details, of course. And, I’d like to outline a deal in principle before we proceed to a more formal arrangement?” he looked at Morgan and Robbie. Morgan nodded. “I will act as the agent for the eventual sale of the coin, and I will act as the head of this enterprise. Consequently, I will take 75% of the net proceeds of the sale… All expenses will be paid, eventually, from that sale.”
“75%?” Morgan put his hands together in front of his face. “Well, this entire thing is only possible because of you, so…”
Robbie held up a hand, “Morgan, if I might jump in.” Morgan nodded. “Alfonse, I think you’ve got a really good plan. Let me make a suggestion, though. Let us put together a team to make this thing happen, then get to brass tacks later. I want to introduce you to the way we work. You can take those books.”
Alfonse smiled, “Take them?” Alfonse couldn’t help assign a price to the volumes. The books already covered his expenses for the trip, then some.
Robbie said, “In my opinion, not everything has to be a deal that’s settled in digits. Think about it this way, those books, all these books, this house, this land what does it mean to ‘own’ them. Those books will outlive you and me. We just use them temporarily--hopefully to do good.”
Alfonse agreed. “I think your approach is good. Anyway, there are countless details to work out. I’ll take these books to bed… my body clock thinks it is bed time. Is there a car rental agency nearby?”
Robbie held up a hand, “I’ll take care of it. I can probably have something here by morning.”
Alfonse went to bed.
Morgan looked at Robbie. “Wow.”
“Exciting stuff.” Robbie said.
Morgan’s face darkened. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to do all this… and go to school.”
Robbie said, “Well… I don’t know. It might take a while for things to really get started, so don’t panic, yet.”
Morgan complained, “The problem is I have to pay a $3700 bill to get my diploma, and I have to work every day and every weekend to do that.”
Robbie sat down, “Morgan, you’re a smart kid. Mull over that sentence you just said.” he sipped his espresso. “Say it again, slowly.”
“I have to pay a bill to get my diploma. I have to work to do that.”
“Now, imagine the bigger picture of choices… literally endless possible choices. But somehow you believe there’s only one.”
The point didn’t really sink in with Morgan, he still look troubled. Robbie sighed and stood up, he hammered a fist gently on Morgan’s head.
Chapter Twenty One
Judge Ralph met the Sheriff at the old bridge at the end of Wisner Road.
“What’s the good word Sheriff?”
“Nothing, yet. There’s been someone at home 24/7 since we planted the cameras.”
“You can’t just wait for them to leave, Chuck. The clock is ticking.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
“We make them leave.” Judge Ralph said.
Chuck said, “I thought about that… maybe a fire?”
Ralph nodded, “Could work, but what if we burn the library down?”
Chuck nodded. “Yeah, that’s a problem… What about starting rumors of a cult?”
Ralph laughed, “That could work--but would take too long. Drug raid?”
Chuck shook his head. “Nah… Too many people involved. Real chance for escalation and damaging the goods.”
Ralph’s face lit up. He pointed at Chuck. “Pull my finger.” he said.
“What?”
He let one rip. Chuck stepped away.
“Chemical spill!” Ralph beamed.
“That could work.” Chuck said.
“Benzene… Chlorine.... Something noxious.”
~End of Episode Four~
EPISODE FIVE--The Other Side
Flashback to Four Years Ago
Chapter One
Telia Wells gazed into the depths of the spring. The water was crystal clear, but its bottom was obscured in inky darkness. It seemed to bubble up from the heart of the earth.
“It’s so dark down there!” the Tracy said. She awkwardly bent over to look in the water. She was a willowy fourteen year old.
“Look, it’s like a portrait.” Telia pointed at their reflection. She looked over at her daughter and smiled. Tracy’s red hair blew around in a mid summer breeze. Tracy managed to force a smile.
They’d been fighting for most of the summer break. Telia insisted that Tracy attend Tweedy Pines in the fall. Tweedy was a girl’s boarding school in the Chagrin Valley. Telia had been very ambitious when she was a child, but as the chance to fulfill those dreams passed her by, she boxed them away for her future children. Tracy was an intelligent, precocious youngster, but she was impossible to motivate. Telia knew that life on the Wells Farm tended to make normal, healthy ambitions seem commonplace even silly, so she thought boarding school, and being around the right people would get Tracy on track. Matt couldn’t understand Telia’s insistence. He tried to remain neutral in the fight, and finally agreed on a compromise solution where Tracy would go to Tweedy for a year, then they’d reconsider next summer. The compromise ended the war, and they were slowly returning to normal.
The rocks around the spring felt cool compared to the sultry July air. Telia was sitting on a blanket on a tarp. Matt was lounging in a folding chair. He had dark wayfarers on and was looking up into the cloudy sky. The July sun was an intense fuzzy white ball behind the clouds.
“It’s going to rain,” Telia said, “feel that?” She stood up and held her arms out. She was an impressive looking woman. Her maiden name was Fensalir, and both her parents had Scandinavian ancestry. She was tall, nearly 6’, and had long thick blond hair that she wound in a ponytail. She had a curvy, substantial body, and a pretty face, that had an angular, slightly masculine quality. She was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt and a pair of jean shorts and sandals.
Matt held up his arm. The wind ruffled his arm hair. “I’m not sure how you do it, but you’re always right about the weat
her. Let’s get back up the hill.”
They folded up the tarp, which was damp on the bottom from the spring’s moisture, and stowed the blanket in an old ammo case and put it on a natural shelf in the rock. He folded up the chair and propped it against the stones.
“Remember when I had to carry you up there?” Matt asked Tracy.
“Nope. Not even a little bit!” Tracy said. She trotted up the hill ahead of them, but stopped every few steps to watch her parents climb.
By the time they reached the tractor path, the trees were starting to sway in an insistent breeze. The temperature dropped noticeably and the light took on a distinct blue-green tint.
“Uh oh! We better hoof it.” Telia said. They got to the edge of the yard as the first droplets fell. They jogged back the rest of the way. By the time they got inside, their skin was shiny with rain, but they beat the torrential downpour. Thunder rolled in the distance.
“Wow! Good timing.” Matt said. The rain drummed against the windows and wind whistled in the doors.
Telia walked over to the front door to get a better view of the storm moving over the house. “Oh, hey, Matt, you got a delivery--there’s a package on the front porch.” She brought the box in the house. “It got a little damp. No big deal though.”
She set the box on the kitchen table and started to get ready to go to work at their antique store, “The Red Barn”, for the afternoon. Telia managed the store while Matt spent his time on the road, and spent lots of time engaged in his research.
Matt checked the box. It had no return address. “Aha.” he said. He’d been waiting for the package for a while. He locked the box inside a desk drawer in his study.
He went into the bedroom where Telia was getting dressed. “Hey Tee, I am going to try an experiment tonight… I’ll head into Cleveland and stay there overnight. If you wanna go, we can get a hotel room and leave Tracy with Mom and Dad.” He kissed her on the neck and she looked at his reflection in the mirror.
“Experiment…” skepticism pervaded her voice. “What kind of experiment?”
“Oh, the usual hoodoo.” he waved it off. He tried to keep her informed about his research, but he was so far down the rabbit hole, now, that he gave up explaining the details.
“Sure, sounds like fun.”
Chapter Two
Telia and Matt left Tracy with his parents and drove downtown. He rented a hotel room that overlooked the baseball stadium. The game was set to start at about 7PM, and they got there a couple hours early and had dinner on W6th street. They made small talk about customers in the store, and made some vague plans about another prospecting trip down south.
“So….” she said, “what’s this experiment about?”
He put his food down. “I told you what happened at the Serpent Mound… I want to try that again.”
“Bananas Foster?” She arched her eyebrow.
“Yeah. I know that was some pretty weak tea, but I think I figured out a formula for doing it on a larger scale.”
“Maybe this time it’ll be Cherries Jubilee?” she laughed. Telia was aware of the Wells family business, but hadn’t really been initiated into its deeper secrets. She considered it to be a weird hobby of an eccentric family.
He laughed. “Maybe that’ll be the message this time. Anyway, I want you to participate.”
“How?” she was surprised he asked her.
“Stay with me while I’m doing it. Also, I want you to write a sentence on this paper--anything, something I can’t just guess at. Put it in this envelope, and don’t show me.” He handed her a piece of hotel stationery.
“You’re going to do a magic trick?” She was smiling devilishly and started thinking of crazy things to write.
“I’m going to go take a leak… Don’t write it until I’m out of sight so I can’t cheat.”
“Alright.” she said in a sing-songy voice. She waited for him to go into the bathroom, then wrote “Our waitress has nice big titties.” She sealed up the envelope.
He returned a few minutes later. “You did it? Something I couldn’t guess accidentally.”
“Oh, never in a million years.” She laughed.
Chapter Three
Matt meditated in the hotel room and cleared his mind. He was very relaxed. He pulled a flask out of his bag.
“You’re going to have a drink?” she asked. “I’ll have one, too.”
“I’m not sure you want this.” He sniffed it and frowned.
“What is it?”
“Peyote tea… that’s what came in the mail. Well the extract anyway.”
“You’re gonna trip balls?” she asked. She was incredulous. He never did drugs and neither did she.
“No… well, I don’t know. I’m just doing a low dose. Anyway, the idea is not to hallucinate, this is really protection.”
“From evil spirits….” she chuckled.
“Tee, if you’ve seen what I’ve seen... Well, I’m glad you haven’t.” He sniffed it again. “OK. Down the hatch!” he swallowed. “Ugh. That’s gross.” he made grimacing faces.
“How long does it take?” she said.
“I can feel it already… OK. I’m going to meditate again, sorry for being so boring, but if you can hang around, I’d appreciate it.. I have no clue what this stuff will do to me.”
“OK. But if you run naked down the hall, I’ll probably just take a picture.”
He lounged back on the bed and started to reach out with his mind. She curled up next to him and watched him breathing, and in a few minutes she actually dozed off.
He had the same expanding, deepening feeling he felt at the Serpent Mound, but he managed to remain relaxed and focused inward. The stadium full of people were a sea of minds that together provided a doorway to the other side. The inky black of the back of his eyelids give way to shapes, indistinct gray billowing shapes.
“Hello?” he sensed a voice.
“Uh, hello?” he thought. “Who is this? I’m Matthew Wells.”
“I’m Paschal Beverly Randolph.”
“Wait, what?” Matt thought. He sensed mirth.
“I assume you made it over based on my work. When one of you crosses over it’s like a beacon. In this case, it’s like a pinhole camera into the physical world.”
“Can you see me?” Matt thought.
“My perception of you is indistinct. I perceive a purple fuzzy form. Are you taking my elixir?”
“Peyote actually.” Matt thought.
Matt felt a sense of mirth. “You will only remember this like a dream.”
Matt thought, “Where are we?”
Matt perceived a feeling of loss and sadness, “It’s no place. It’s no where. What year is it?”
Matt thought, “2010. It’s summer, July 2nd. It rained this morning. I’m in Cleveland.”
He felt Randolph’s sadness mix with anger and loss. “What I’d give to feel the rain on my skin again and smell the breeze! With no heartbeat, no legs to swing, no days and nights, and no music, time is indistinct.”
“Do you sense anything when I’m not here?”
“Yes… This place is consciousness, not only of people, but of animals, plants, the Earth itself, the planets, and that deep sonorous hum you feel, that’s the Sun.”
“What can you tell me of the other entities that are here?” Matt thought.
He felt a sense of fear and foreboding. “Do not speak of them lest they come for you! There are some like me who crossed over and retain some sense of humanity, however most are twisted malignant things, and there are ancient ones, much older than mankind, powerful ones who manipulate men, nations. They are very dangerous. They’re toxic to a mind like yours.”
Matt thought, “I come here to learn, to protect humanity from them.”
He perceived anger, “Fool! Go back. I’ve given you warning.”
He felt Randolph depart. Matt searched for Telia, but it was futile, like trying to find an outlet to plug in a lamp in a dark room. Gauzy shifting shapes flowe
d past like tiki torch smoke. He stopped wandering and tried to focus his imagination on their time at the restaurant earlier in the day. He perceived the heavy stationery paper but the effort to concentrate pulled him back into normal consciousness and he lost the connection. He opened his eyes.
“Shoot.” he muttered.
Telia stirred. “Hmm… Wha?”
“It’s only 9:30?” he said. “Very weird. It’s exactly like a lucid dream. Absolutely no sense of time.”
“What happened?” She sat up.
“Well, I think it worked. Yeah, I think it did. I met Paschal Randolph, well, I think. I couldn’t really see anything, just billowy shapes. He said I looked purple. Unfortunately I don’t remember much. Really it’s exactly like a dream.”
She perked up. “I had a dream, too. We were at the restaurant. You went into the bathroom, and I heard you talking. Someone said, ‘Fool! Go back’. Then you came back and looked at the envelope.”
The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival Page 18
