Gabriel joined in his laughter, brushing his hair behind his ears.
“We should move out immediately,” Jack said, springing to his feet. “I’ll get the others.”
***
“Found the tree,” Eddie called out from up ahead.
Picking their way through the underbrush, they rushed to catch up with him. He stood waiting beside a huge tree, at least three feet in diameter, which lay uprooted on the side, bridging the small creek. In the distance, they could hear the faint buzzing of thousands of bees living on Mrs. Steven’s honey farm.
“What now?” Liam asked, setting a foot on the trunk. “Shall we go across?”
Gabriel looked down at the phone in his hands. “The last two lines read, Below the great ash tree, Reach out with your arm.”
“Below,” Jordan repeated, carefully picking her way down to the water.
Walking onto the tree, Liam stopped in the middle and knelt down, his eyes scanning the surface of the creek. “Do you think it’s underwater?”
“Don’t see where else it could possibly be,” Jordan called, already wading knee-deep through the creek. Jack and Eddie joined her while Gabriel carefully stepped onto the tree. All eyes were cast down onto the glistening surface, straining to see what lay hidden.
While the kids’ faces glowed red with excitement, Cat lay down in a bed of grass, resting her head on her front paws.
“Jack, right there,” Liam suddenly called out from his vantage point. “Maybe a foot to your left.”
Everyone looked up and Jack took a step to the side, his hands reaching for something under the surface. “There’s something here!” he called, voice shaking with excitement.
Jordan and Eddie instantly came wading over, and Liam and Gabriel climbed off the tree, approaching the water.
“It’s a bottle,” Jack said, arms straining as he pulled on it. “Damn it! It’s attached by a string. Anyone got a knife?”
They all shook their heads, but only Jordan’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of a stupid question is that? Have you ever seen one of us carry a knife?”
“Let it go, Jordan,” Liam said, trying to defuse the situation. “He didn’t mean it like that.”
“Fine,” Jordan relented.
After more pulling didn’t elicit results, Jack let go of the bottle and rushed to shore. Eyes on the ground, he knelt down, his hands gliding over the forest floor.
“What are you doing?” Jordan asked.
“Making a knife,” he said, holding up two stones, each about half the size of his hand. One, Jack placed on the ground and, raising the other in his hand, brought it down on it with force. He did that about three times until he was able to chip off a satisfying piece. Then he hurried back into the water.
It took him about a minute to cut through the string that kept the bottle from floating to the surface. As it came loose, he lost hold of it, and it almost danced away on the current. However, Eddie moved quickly and grabbed it before it was out of reach.
Returning to shore, they all grouped around Jack as he pulled out the cork, opening the bottle. He pulled out a small sheet of paper.
Under a high roof I sleep
Open with no wall
In my ear the owl’s call
Not only at night do I count sheep
For far my arms reach
You have need for aid
From the ol’factory mate
Something only he can teach.
“Gosh, that sounds even more cryptic than the last one,” Eddie whined, slumping down in the grass. “And what the hell is an ol’factory mate?”
They all shrugged, turning to Gabriel who shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Wait! There’s something else in here,” Jack said, turning the bottle upside down. Inserting a small stick, he pulled out a piece of cloth with a checked pattern.
“What’s that?” Jordan asked. “Is that part of the riddle?”
“It must be.” Jack turned it in his hands. “Why else would it be in here?”
“How about we save that for tomorrow?” Liam suggested, looking from one to the other. “To be honest, I am still stunned that we actually solved the second riddle, aren’t you?”
“You betcha,” Jack said, a grin spreading over his face.
As the others joined in, laughing and cheering, Cat came trotting over, poked her nose in and then started howling along with her human friends.
Chapter 9 – Getting Wet
In the following two weeks, Gabriel occasionally rode his bike to the library. Sometimes he sat down at one of the computers, logged on and spent a short while in Candor. But whenever he did, his mind quickly wandered off. And sometimes he turned around before he even walked through the door and headed over to the Dive instead. The place drew him in magically, and in the company of his new-found friends, he spent many days from sunrise to sundown watching them enjoy the cool freshness of the water. For late June, it was almost unbearably hot, and temperatures seemed to be rising still. The third riddle remained in storage, waiting for their minds to cool off before they would put on their thinking caps.
Watching Eddie once again fall off the tree instead of actually making a jump, Gabriel turned to Liam. “Why is he doing this? I thought he had a problem with heights.”
“His problem is more that he can’t keep his balance,” Liam explained. “Not that he is afraid of heights. He just falls off.”
“Which in this case is kind of the point,” Jack said, coming by them on his way back up to the trees. “It may not look very graceful but he ends up in the water nonetheless.”
Gabriel laughed. It was hilarious watching Eddie jump, or rather fall, and he certainly seemed to enjoy it. By now, some kids had even gone over to imitating his most spectacular missteps, letting themselves drop off the trees instead of using the ropes. It was becoming a thing.
While the others dove and swam, Gabriel remained on land, keeping Cat company, who always eyed the deep water with a hint of disgust. When kids splashed near the shore, she would howl as though in pain whenever more than just a drop of water touched her.
“Aren’t you bored?” Jordan asked, a frown on her face. “You spend the entire day just sitting there. I’m bored just watching you.”
Gabriel only shrugged. He had to admit he wanted to swim, but he hadn’t been in the water in a long time, and he wasn’t sure if he could still do it. Drowning in front of everybody was the last thing he wanted.
“It’s like riding a bike,” Jordan said as though she’d read his mind. “Nothing you forget how to do. Promise.” She held out her hand to him.
After a moment of hesitation, Gabriel took it and let Jordan pull him to his feet.
He approached the lake slowly, but as his toes touched the water, all uncertainty he felt disappeared. The cool water crawled up his legs as he waded deeper into the lake, and Gabriel realized how uncomfortably hot he had been, sitting in the sun all day.
Looking back to shore, he saw Jordan follow after him, a big smile on her face. Only Cat eyed him with a betrayed look in her eyes.
“Great, isn’t it?” Jordan said, diving under.
“Yeah,” Gabriel mumbled, lifting his feet off the ground. As he sank below the surface, there was a second of panic. But it passed instantly as he realized Jordan had been right. Swimming was like riding a bike; something you didn’t forget.
From that day on, Gabriel enjoyed going to the Dive even more. It was only his fourth week in Kenton Woods, and sometimes, in quiet moments, he wondered how his life could have changed so drastically in so short a time. He barely had a thought left for Andril and his life in Candor. But sometimes he thought of what his grandfather had told him, about making your real life an adventure that no story could compete with.
And then came the rain.
***
“Are you serious?” Gabriel asked, staring at Liam, who stood just outside his front door, a raincoat casually thrown over, his hair soaked through in spite of
it. “It looks like the end of the world out there.”
Liam chuckled. “It’s just a bit of rain.”
Dark and heavy clouds hung in the sky, blocking out the sun. Rain came pouring down in buckets, small streams already running down the street in front of their houses.
“C’mon,” Liam encouraged as Gabriel hesitated, glancing at the apple trees in the front yard, which bent sideways in the harsh wind. “You don’t want to miss this.”
A few moments later, Gabriel followed the faint glow of Liam’s taillight; all that he could see in the half-dark.
In a tempo that Gabriel was sure would be the end of them, they rode their bikes down the street, across a couple of intersections that lay almost vacant and eventually turned onto a dirt road that seemed to lead into nowhere. And all the while, Gabriel felt the drumming rain on his head and shoulders.
“This is where they live?” Gabriel asked, his voice raised above the storm as he came to a stop beside Liam.
This was a wooden, two-level cottage with a wrap-around porch at the edge of the woods, only a mile from where the bonfire had been. Climbing the stairs, they heard loud laughter seeping outside through lit windows that opened to the living room.
“What’s with the bag?” Gabriel asked, pointing to the item slung over Liam’s shoulder.
“My parents are spending the weekend with folks down in Atlanta,” he said as he raised his hand and knocked on the door. “So Nahla is staying at Kaitlin’s, and I’m staying here.” Without waiting for an answer, Liam opened the door and walked into the cottage.
“Oh, no!” came a harsh voice as they stepped inside. “Shoes off!”
Gabriel froze, but Liam’s face spread into an easy grin. “Sorry, Mrs. S.”
Standing in the doorway to the kitchen, Mrs. S. glared at them until they’d placed their muddy shoes neatly by the front door and then continued on on wet but clean socks. “That’s better,” she said, her face softening.
From the couch in front of the fireplace, they heard amused chuckles. Turning his head, Gabriel spied Jordan and Jack pulling on heavy outdoor shoes.
In the next moment, thundering footsteps came rushing down the stairs. “Oh good, the more the merrier.” The huge, bulky man, hair cut short in army style, was followed by two high school boys Gabriel hadn’t seen before but who looked familiar nonetheless.
“Major Sharpe,” Liam saluted, a grin still on his face.
The man returned the greeting with an easy smile. “At ease, soldier. I see you’ve brought reinforcements.” He nodded at Gabriel.
Liam gave a quick introduction, to which Major Sharpe said, “Welcome to the unit.”
The older boys who were Jack and Jordan’s brothers, Jason and Jonas, looked like slightly younger versions of their father. Both had his strong shoulders and broad back. And while Jack and Jordan had not yet reached their full height, they would eventually. Only Mrs. S., especially compared to the rest of her family, had somewhat delicate features. Plus, she was a good two heads shorter than her husband.
Feeling a little overwhelmed, Gabriel stood in the corner by the door and didn’t say a word. Only his eyes were busy, flashing back and forth between Liam and various members of the Sharpe family. With loud voices, they all seemed to be talking at once, interrupting each other only to be laughing together a moment later.
“We need two team leaders,” Jason called above the noise, pulling on a rain coat. “I nominate Jonas and myself. Any objections?” The room quieted.
Jordan opened her mouth, but her father instantly grabbed her. One hand covering her mouth, he grinned at the rest of them. “None,” he said while trying to evade her kicks.
After a coin toss deciding that Jonas got first pick, they were quickly divided into two groups. Jonas called on his father first, then Liam and then Gabriel while Jason picked Jack, Jordan and ultimately his mother who shot him an angry glare. “Don’t forget who does your laundry.”
Not sure what exactly they needed two teams for, Gabriel still stood by the door when there came another knock on it. As it opened, Eddie appeared, soaked through from head to toe, but with a big grin on his face.
“Shoes!” Mrs. S. called before he could take a step inside.
“Keep’em on,” Major Sharpe said, turning to the door. “Let’s get going.”
“What’s my team?” Eddie asked, looking from Jonas to Jason. Them being nominated as team leaders did not seem to be a rare occurrence.
Jason looked at his dad. “Now, we’re an uneven number. How do we…?”
“I guess Eddie could be on your team,” Major Sharpe said looking at Jonas. “After all, you got the girls to slow you down.” He winked at his wife.
“Just wait. We’ll bury you alive,” she said, lifting her chin. “You’re going down.” Her right hand balled into a fist, Mrs. S. punched it into her left palm.
“Bring it!” her husband called, the smile still on his face. A loud roar rose from the room. Only Jordan’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her father.
“What are we playing?” Gabriel whispered to Liam.
“Football.”
Gabriel’s eyes grew big. However, before he could say another word, he was swept outside with the others. The rain was still beating down, turning the field behind the house into a slippery mud slide. Sure-footed, Jason and Jonas rushed ahead, tossing the football back and forth as they sped across the field with Jack and Jordan on their heels, trying to intercept the ball.
Before Eddie could hurry after them, Gabriel grabbed him by the arm. Swinging back, Eddie looked at him, eyebrows raised.
“I don’t want to play,” Gabriel said. “You take my place on the team.”
“Why not? It’s awesome.”
Gabriel shrugged, keeping his eyes distant. “Not my game.”
“All right,” Eddie said and, catching up with Major Sharpe, exchanged a few words with him before diving into the scuffle for the ball. Jack and Jordan’s dad turned around and came walking back up the slope to where Gabriel stood.
Eyes on his muddy shoes, Gabriel braced himself. When he had told his dad a while back that he didn’t like playing sports, his father had been disappointed.
“You sure you don’t want to play?” Major Sharpe asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s a fun game.”
Looking up, Gabriel shook his head and waited.
“Don’t sweat it,” Major Sharpe said. “How about referee? That’s where the real power is.” He grinned at him. “You get to call all the shots.”
“But I don’t really know the rules.”
Major Sharpe just shrugged. “To tell you the truth, I’m not all that sure they do.” He pointed at his kids and their friends fighting in a very disorderly fashion for the egg-shaped ball. “Just call them out if they’re playing too rough. Sometimes they get a little carried away.” His eyes rested on Jordan as he said that.
Gabriel nodded. “I’ll try.”
As they reached the others, Mrs. S. called everyone to order, and both teams took their positions on the field. Most of them were already covered in mud with bits of grass clinging to them. They looked like they had just crawled out of the earth.
Gabriel blew the whistle Major Sharpe had given him, and an instant after the ball was kicked off, the two teams collided, pushing each other through the mud. Some slipped and hit the ground while others kept to their feet. Liam went long and tried to catch the ball but he tripped as his foot caught in a mud puddle, and it sailed past his head.
The team on the west side of the field had the advantage of attacking downwind. Feeling its push in their backs, they gained ground and with it the upper hand. After Jack scored a touchdown, he danced in the mud as the pouring rain ran down his cheeks, washing away some of the dirt. He grinned from ear to ear.
While Major Sharpe didn’t only stand taller than his wife but also had at least fifty pounds on her, she moved as light-footed as a dancer, even on the slippery ground. Whenever he tried to block
her, she skidded past him, sometimes letting herself drop to the ground and sliding onward in the mud. Once he tripped over her, and they ended up in the mud together, laughing.
Only Jordan had a permanent scowl on her face, eyes determined and focused on the ball. Twice, Gabriel had to call her out for being too aggressive. She kicked Jonas’ legs out from under him, giving him a slight limp for the rest of the day. Then she took the ball from her father by elbowing him in the ribs. Unhurt, he just shook his head at her.
In the end, no one won, because no one was keeping score. Jordan’s eyes, however, narrowed whenever they fell on her father. After the last time she’d caught the ball, she was convinced he’d let her reach the end zone although he could have stopped her. “I don’t need a pity win,” she snapped.
“No one won, Sis,” Jonas said, trying to put an arm around her, but she pushed him away.
“That’s not the point,” she glowered, storming off.
They didn’t see her again for the rest of the day.
Chapter 10 – A Light in the Dark
“Do you want us to come with you?” Liam asked, peering out the front window. “It’s kind of foggy, and you don’t know your way around yet.”
Gabriel swallowed. “I’ll be fine.” He felt he needed to do this alone.
“Okay, but call if you get lost,” Major Sharpe said, handing him his rain coat.
Gabriel nodded.
After a quick goodbye, he left the cottage, walked down the few steps from the front porch to his bike and turned to the dirt road leading home. Gabriel didn’t feel bad about not playing football any more, but at twelve years old, he should be able to find his way back to his grandparents’ house. Fog or no.
Setting one foot in front of the other, Gabriel found that the continuous rain had softened the ground to such a degree that riding his bike was out of the question. Instead, he followed the dirt road on foot, pushing his bike through the mud. Every now and then, he brought his hand up to his face, shielding his eyes in order to see through the sheets of rain falling to the earth. The only thing he saw in the distance were tiny lights hovering in the air. They looked like stars. Only these lights did not come from above. He wondered what they were.