Tracing back the hands of time
Showers of a distant sand
The darkest caves long thought dead
Revealing foreign signs from forgotten lands
He liked that last phrase, “forgotten lands.” There was something thrilling about discovering ancient secrets from forgotten places. It was like putting together a puzzle. Someone would find a small clue that put one piece in place and then look for the next one. The idea of secrets captured Daniel’s imagination. Why did people with secrets leave clues for others to find years and years later? If their secret was so great, why didn’t they shine a light on it and shout to the world, “Hey! Look what I have over here!” It almost stood to reason that those with secrets, the ones who leave hidden clues behind, were playing a game. Only they were playing with opponents separated from them by decades, centuries, or in some cases, millennia.
He carefully loosened the drawstring on the bag and brought out the stone. It was black and smooth to the touch. He realized he needed a better look, so he walked to his desk and switched on the lamp, not taking his eyes off the stone for a second. White speckles, almost like sugar granules, covered the surface.
A crazy idea came to mind. He’d seen the old movies, in which someone rubbed a golden lantern and—poof!—a genie appeared out of thin air. He’d seen the magicians on television that waved their magic wands and—presto chango!—a bunny scampered out of their hats. He laughed and shook the stone several times.
Nothing.
He shook it harder.
Nothing.
“Presto chango,” he said, using his best Merlin impersonation, and waved the stone over his head.
Still, nothing. “Oh, well, it was worth a try.”
He didn’t recognize the type of stone. It looked like some kind of quartz but he’d never seen one like this before. “Oh, my gosh,” Daniel shouted. He had seen rocks like this before and had seen them that very day—his history project. Someone painted his rocks in exactly the same way—a thick, black surface with speckles of white.
Daniel felt dizzy. For weeks, these bizarre events had intersected in strange ways, and each time he told himself it was a coincidence. He’d tried his best to arrange it all into a neat and tidy “normal box,” where everything fit and was easily explained. After all, this was the real world and stuff like this didn’t happen in the real world. However, it was growing more difficult with each day.
Maybe, Daniel thought, it was time to do away with his normal box. First order of business: he should find out what type of stone this was. And he knew the place to look.
***
The library smelled like books. Some libraries shelve a lot of books, but they don’t have that smell. The smell was what separated the good libraries from the bad ones.
Once, his family took a trip to Portland for the weekend. Daniel and his father visited a famous bookstore in town: McGee’s Books. It took up four city blocks and housed more titles than Daniel had ever seen. And they weren’t new books like those he saw at the mall. They were old books with worn covers. First editions, original manuscripts—these type of books.
His dad had an awesome library. It wasn’t the biggest around, but it looked and smelled like a real library. His father was never good at organizing. It used to drive his mother crazy, especially when it came to issues like family finances, as Joel never balanced the checkbook. The library wasn’t much different, as there was no system of cataloguing. Hundreds of books on dozens of rows of shelves; it sometimes made finding a book more of an effort than actually reading it.
Daniel didn’t mind. He actually liked it better this way. Sometimes, if he was looking for a book that wasn’t well marked on the spine, he had to search every row until he found it—and it was almost always on the hardest-to-reach shelf. But he learned that if he had to search exhaustively for a book, it made it all the more worth it when he finally located it.
Whoa, that’s cool. Maybe that’s why people hide things and leave clues for others to find. They want the person who discovers their secret to appreciate it more.
Well, if he was going to appreciate this stone, he’d better find out what it was. He remembered seeing his father’s book on rocks and minerals on one of the high shelves near his desk, so he started there. He stood on his father’s rolling chair and wheeled to that section, pulling out books and dropping them on the floor.
He searched the rows, looking for large, hardback volumes. He pulled down several, opened them—nope, not the one!—and dropped them to the mound on the floor. He finally spotted it and, of course, it was on the hardest-to-reach shelf. He wheeled the chair to that section and reached for it, but it was beyond his grasp. He needed more height and considered what to do. Daniel looked up at the book, looked around the room, and then realized the answer was right below him.
Congratulating himself on his ingenuity, he retrieved his father’s book on rocks and minerals and jumped down from the chair. All it had taken was standing on four volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica and he reached it with ease.
***
“This really stinks,” Joshua said. “She was supposed to be here by now.” He studied the picture on the puzzle box and scowled. He didn’t want to work on it without her.
Ever since supper, something had been wrong. His mom and brother sat without saying a word. He’d never seen Daniel eat that fast before, as if he couldn’t wait to leave the table and hide in his room.
“He’ll probably yell at me if I go up there, but I’ll go if I want. I don’t care what he says. Why does he always pick on me?”
Joshua reached inside the box and separated the pieces. Peter Pan and the Lost Treasure of Neverland was a new puzzle and he’d looked forward to assembling it. If only his mom would hurry up.
The blank look on her face at supper troubled him. She stared into space almost the entire time and once, during the meal, Joshua asked her to pass the butter and she didn’t hear him. “Mom,” he asked again, “can you pass the butter?”
“What?” She looked confused. “Did you say something?”
“Can you pass the butter?”
“Oh.” She snapped out of it and reached for the butter. “Here you go, Joshua.”
That was it, though. The rest of the meal they spent in silence. After supper, he helped clear the table. “Mom,” he said. “Is everything okay?”
She gave him a reassuring smile. “Everything’s fine, Joshua.”
Joshua managed a weak smile of his own, but his eyes told a different story. “Mom, can we do a puzzle after this?”
“Sure, honey,” she answered. “Go set it up and I’ll be there in a few minutes.” That was over half an hour ago, and she still hadn’t come.
Joshua grew more upset. It’s like I’m either invisible to them or I’m a pest. He was tired of being ignored, of being seen as nothing more than a pesky kid. He felt no one took him seriously and it made him mad. “I’m part of this family, too.”
They weren’t the only ones who’d been through a hard time since the accident, but they acted like it. Anytime he brought up his dad, Daniel snapped at him and told him to shut up, while his mother gave him a phony smile and said everything was fine, when he knew it wasn’t. “You’re not the only ones who miss him,” he yelled. “You’re not the only ones.”
The frustration inside him spilled over the edge. Joshua turned over the box of puzzle pieces, dumping all seven hundred and fifty on the carpet. He jumped high in the air and came down on a pile of them, breaking dozens with his feet. “I have feelings, too!” He broke piece after piece, digging his heels into the pile and grinding the pieces until they snapped. “Stupid Peter Pan. I hope Captain Hook catches you.”
He grabbed as many pieces as he could and threw them across the room, then pounded the rest with his fists. “I have feelings, too, Daniel!” He tore the cardboard box into shreds and threw them against the wall. “I have feelings, too, Mom!” He ripped away the leftover piece
s and kicked them with his feet.
The room was a mess. Seven hundred and fifty ruined puzzle pieces covered the floor. Joshua picked up one that didn’t break and clutched it in his hand. “I have feelings too,” he said calmly, still breathing heavily. He dropped the unbroken piece and left the room.
***
The stone was onyx. He’d found it under the “Minerals” section and identified it as a type of quartz.
Daniel turned the stone over in his hand, concentrating on its speckles of white. The photos he’d seen in the book were all non-speckled onyx. His fascination eventually got the best of him. He knew it was silly—it was just a rock—but he didn’t care. If he was going crazy, he’d at least enjoy the ride. “Come on, do something,” he said, standing up from the chair and holding the rock above his head. Again, he did his best Merlin impersonation. “Presto chango!” Daniel twirled around in a circle. “Abracadabra!”
He was too busy spinning around, growing dizzy, or he would have seen Joshua enter the room. Joshua was too startled at seeing his brother turning in circles and yelling, or he would have watched where he was stepping. As Daniel lost his balance, Joshua tripped forward. Colliding with each other, the boys crashed on the floor, knocking over the chair and landing on the pile of strewn books.
“What’s your problem?” Daniel shouted. “How many times do I have to tell you not to sneak up on me like that?”
This time, Joshua stood up to his brother. “I didn’t sneak up on you. I heard you yelling all the way down the hall. And I’m tired of you picking on me all the time. I have feelings, too, Daniel.”
Daniel looked at his brother with surprise. He saw the toppled chair, the mess of books, and the two of them lying on their butts in the middle of it all. He couldn’t help laughing.
Joshua, when he stood up to his brother, didn’t know if Daniel was going to beat him up or throw a book at his head. Instead, he was laughing. Joshua didn’t know what to do, so he joined him and soon they were both laughing.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Daniel said.
“That’s okay. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”
“Don’t worry about it. You should have seen your face right before you fell. It was too funny.” Daniel did a quick impression of Joshua, wide-eyed and panicked.
“Well, you looked pretty funny yourself, all dizzy and stumbling. What were you doing, anyway? Why were you spinning like that?”
Daniel stopped laughing—the stone. It must have fallen out of his hands when he collided with Joshua. He looked around but didn’t see it anywhere. He got on hands and knees and searched for it.
“Daniel, what are you looking for?”
Daniel didn’t reply. He burrowed through the mounds of books, searching for the stone. Not there. He looked under the fallen chair. Not there, either.
“What is it, Daniel? What are you looking for?”
“I dropped something.”
“What was it? I can help.”
Joshua was nothing if not inquisitive. Well, it couldn’t do any harm to let him help, Daniel decided. “It’s a black stone about this big,” he said, holding his fingers a few inches apart. Joshua joined him in the search, and together they scoured the room. Daniel was checking under the curtain at the window when Joshua shouted, “I think I found it!” He crawled out from under the desk, holding the stone above his head. “Is this it?”
“Awesome. Here, let me have it.”
Joshua handed the stone to Daniel. “Is it a new rock for your collection?”
“Uh, you could say that.”
Joshua didn’t hear him; something else grabbed his attention. “Whoa,” he said, pointing at the rock. “How did you do that?”
Daniel looked down but couldn’t believe his eyes. The stone had come to life. It was glowing in his hand.
It was a faint light, almost like a flashlight shining from underneath a heavy blanket. The orb of light slowly increased in size from the stone’s center, and Daniel felt his hand grow warmer as he held it.
“What is it?” Joshua leaned in for a closer look.
“I … I don’t know,” Daniel struggled to answer. The light began to fade; in a matter of seconds, it disappeared, leaving a black onyx stone with speckles of white. Daniel’s hand turned cool again.
“Wow,” Joshua said. “That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Can I hold it?”
Daniel didn’t hear him. He was too busy trying to figure out what caused the stone to light up like that. Perhaps it was the jolt from their collision. Daniel shook the stone, but nothing happened. Perhaps if I use more force. He banged it against his leg. Hmmm, what can I use? He picked up one of the larger books on the floor and struck it against the rock. To his frustration, nothing happened.
He turned to Josh. “I want to make sure—you did see that, right?”
“Heck, yeah, I saw it. That was the single most awesome thing I’ve ever seen.”
Daniel stood. “Well, then, keep this a secret between you and me.” He dashed from the library, leaving behind a pile of strewn books, a toppled chair, and a confused brother, who remained sitting with a bewildered look on his face.
***
The evening air bristled with a cool breeze, and the few sounds to be heard came from the rustling of leaves and chirping of the crickets. The lone disruption to this calm and routine night came from a blue glow emanating from inside the old mausoleum.
The rusted door creaked when it was opened. Brilliant blue light poured through the doorway. A figure stepped into the night air. He slowly looked to his right, turned to his left, and walked forward into the darkness.
Chapter 11
Sneaking Out
Daniel held the phone to his ear, waiting for Stevie to answer.
“Hello.”
“What are you doing right now?”
“Not much. Playing video games, about to go to bed.”
“Can I come over for a few minutes? I want to show you something I found.”
“Right now? Your mom will let you?”
“Are you kidding? I’m grounded longer than a plane with a broken wing. I have to sneak out. It’s okay, though. My mom’s getting into the bathtub. She always stays in there at least an hour with her candles and smelly sticks burning. I’ll be there and back before she knows any different.”
“What if she catches you?”
Daniel considered the question before answering. “She’ll skin me alive, that’s what. But this is really important, Stevie. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Daniel hung up the phone. Two times in one day. I’m pressing my luck here.
Daniel had told no one about the strange events happening to him. He wasn’t the type of person who shared things like that, but he had to tell someone and Stevie was just the guy. He put the stone inside the velvet bag, grabbed his backpack, and headed for the doorway, where he ran smack into Joshua.
Joshua looked scared. The quivering lip, the hangdog eyes—it was the same expression Daniel had seen time and time again over the years. It was the same look as when Joshua took his first swimming lesson and the instructor made him jump into the deep end of the pool; the same look as when he went on his first roller coaster ride at Sit & Scream and cried the entire time; and the same expression he got every time his parents left them at home with a babysitter.
“Daniel, I need to talk to you.”
“Not now, Josh. We’ll talk when I get back.”
Joshua was almost crying. “Please, Daniel. I really need to talk.”
Daniel walked ahead, but not before turning back to his brother. “We’ll talk about it later. And don’t say anything to Mom or I’ll crush you like a soda can.”
***
He snuck down the hallway to his mother’s bedroom and, as quietly as possible, turned the doorknob. He gently pushed the door open, less than an inch, and put his ear to the crack. Water running—this was a good sign. She hadn’t finished filling the tub yet. She’d be in there awhil
e.
The bathroom door was open a few inches and he saw her moving around. She wore her wooly pink robe and had wrapped a big white towel around her head. Daniel closed the door and moved slowly toward the stairs.
How many times had he crept down these stairs over the years? When he was younger, as part of a game they played, he’d run up and down the steps blindfolded, which made him learn to count the stairs. There were twelve in all. “Four, five …,” he whispered, closing his eyes for old time’s sake. Watch the creaky spot on six. On seven, he opened his eyes and froze. His mother stood in the hallway at the foot of the stairs, still wearing her bathrobe.
Daniel ducked behind the railing, certain she had seen him. How was he going to explain being fully dressed and carrying his backpack? He’d probably never get to watch TV again. Slowly, he peeked over the banister and saw his mother pacing the entryway, tears running down her face.
Emi put her hands over her face and sat on the country bench in the hallway. “Where are they?” she said. “Please don’t let anything happen to them. Please bring them back safely.”
How could his mom be downstairs when he saw her upstairs? “Bring them back safely.” What does that mean? Daniel panicked. He was afraid and couldn’t explain why. He returned his attention to his mother, but she was no longer there.
The hallway was empty. Daniel descended the stairway, his eyes darting in every direction. Scared, confused, but determined, he opened the front door and walked into the evening darkness, knowing he was very much alone.
***
Had Daniel stopped to listen to his brother, he would have seen Joshua was not scared, nor was he sulking. He would have seen Joshua’s skin had turned clammy and ghostly white, surrounded by a glow. Had Daniel cared enough to hear what his brother said, he would have seen Joshua’s eyes roll back in his head and his hands shaking violently. Had he remained there to calm his brother, rather than threatening to crush him like a soda can, he would have witnessed his brother’s eyes return to normal. He would have heard Joshua speak a single word. “Mom.”
Chapter 12
Emi
“And then it came to life in my hand, I swear. It started glowing and got all warm!” He handed Stevie the rock. “I know it sounds crazy. But Joshua was there, too. He can vouch for the whole thing.”