Chp. 4
I woke up from a restless night of sleeping to see Toby clicking through his iPhone. He noticed me looking at him and smiled.
“Don’t thank me for turning in all your crap, ” he said, “McNutty was pissed! I told him I would do half of your stairs. He said we could both do fifty.”
I rolled out of bed, still in my clothes from last night and went into my bathroom. I glanced in the mirror after relieving myself. I looked like hell.
“Thanks Tob, didn’t think to set my alarm when I got in,” I said.
“No prob,” he replied. “What happened last night anyway? Ivy called me and said I needed to get you over to her house ASAP. You guys have a fight or something?”
I shook my head and put on a clean shirt.
“Na.”
He laughed.
“Thought you guys were finally going to hook up.”
I sat down on the bed and looked at Toby. He stopped messaging someone and stared back at me.
“Last night was the weirdest night of my life I swear! Think I might have had a concussion,” I began, and told him about all of it. He listened quietly nodding as I spoke. It felt even more ridiculous and absurd as I said it aloud. When I finished, he shook his head.
“I would tell you to lay off the mushrooms growing around that bench, but I think that story goes beyond a mushroom high. No wonder Ivy wants us to get over to her place as soon as possible. Mind if we pick up Carla first?” he said.
I shook my head hardly believing my own story.” Why not, “ I growled, “might as well let more people in on the joke.”
“If this is a practical joke, you’re dealing with a master jokester my friend,” he grinned.
“Some joke,” I said standing up and feeling something jab me in the groin.
I reached into my pocket to move whatever it was that was poking me and paused. A shot of adrenaline coursed through me as my hand closed around a pipe. The reality of it staggered me for a moment. There had to be an explanation for what happened. As embarrassing as it probably was going to be I realized that being open about it with my friends was probably the quickest way to discover what had really happened.
We left my house and picked up Carla a few minutes later. She asked what was going on too; apparently Ivy had called her several times as well. They both grilled me about why I hadn’t answered my phone when I left the party, which made me feel a bit guilty, but it was too late to do anything about it. Toby gave her a recap of what I’d told him and she hit him telling him to stop joking around. He swore it was true and looked at me.
“It’s kinda true. Well, at least part of it,” I grunted, pulling the pipe out of my pocket.
Carla laughed aloud. “You guys messing with me? Not a very good joke!”
“It isn’t.” I shrugged replacing the pipe and looking out the window.
“Immortal eh? Jump out of the truck and prove it!” she barked snidely, “Make sure to aim for a telephone pole so there won’t be any doubt. Hey wait, …let me get my camera!”
“Very funny,” I grunted as we turned down Ivy’s street.
“By the way, your video has over eight thousand hits already! It’s going to go viral I bet,” she said quite pleased with herself.
“Great,” I muttered as we pulled up in front of Ivy’s house.
Walking up to Ivy’s door I felt both dread and excitement. Dread at the thought of her confirming that last night really happened, and excitement to see if she really was as beautiful as I remembered or if it was the concussion messing with my mind. It was probably all some kind of dream induced by the wicked hit I’d taken at the end of the game. Perhaps we didn’t even win the game. Maybe I’d found the pipe. I wasn’t so lucky.
Toby reached out to ring the doorbell, but the door opened first. Ivy stood there dressed in a baggy tie-dyed tee shirt, and stripped flannel pajama bottoms. Her blue streaked hair was mostly tied back and she didn’t look like she had slept at all. Our eyes met and she smiled at me; it hadn’t been a dream, she was gorgeous.
“Come in guys, Mom’s making breakfast,” she said.
We walked into the house and followed Ivy into the living room. The smell of incense never left Ivy’s house and today was no exception, except that it mixed with the smell of bacon and toast.
Ivy’s house mimicked her and her mother’s bohemian style sense. It always amazed me that someone would think all the stuff in there was suppose to be together in the same room.
Wildly different colored pillows in a variety of patterns, shapes and textures littered the floor surrounding an old brass Hookah pipe in the center of the room. The couch I sat down on was an extremely large beanbag covered with a brightly colored slip with a picture of Bob Marley in the center. A moon chair laced and woven with thin streamers of green and yellow silk, mixed with strands of multi-colored Mardi Gra beads, hung suspended from the ceiling by a thick, tarnished brass chain.
Carla hoped into the basket-like chair, which creaked as it swung lightly back and forth. It was the closest Carla would ever come to looking like Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The gaudy, hanging chair hung to the right of a hand painted brick fireplace. Each glossy brick had either a picture, writing, or a combination of both fired onto it in wildly different colored glazes. Some of the words were written in English, but the vast majority were written in a language I couldn’t read and hadn’t seen before. I had asked Ivy what some of them meant during past visits and had been informed they were symbols and glyphs from her mother’s Wicca studies. Ivy knew what some meant and had shared their meaning with me.
Above the fireplace on a worn wooden mantle sat several aged glass jars, an old ragged, stuffed teddy bear, and a 1940’s radio. Her father had gutted the radio’s old components, and replaced them with a Bose stereo. The music coming out of it now was some sort of peaceful, modern, new age sound that involved a lot of water noises.
Toby sat down on the floor leaning against a large, vibrantly painted Aztec sundial that was propped against the wall beneath a large, black and white poster tacked unceremoniously into the wall, of the famous Bohemian writer Franz Kafka. To Toby’s right, sat a small, circular, wooden table with a stone chessboard on top, its onyx and ivory pieces arrayed as if a game were being played.
The room contained a variety of large and small houseplants including a light green ivy vine that had spread up onto the wall and part of the ceiling from an etched glass pot in one corner of the room.
It was a bizarre mix, but somehow I always felt relaxed here. The room radiated a serenity and peace that were inexplicable.
Ivy sat down next to me on the couch and put her hand on mine. I felt my heart skip a beat.
“I was so worried about you Jake!” she said. “You should have answered your phone.”
“He forgot it again,” intoned Toby, shaking his head.
“That’s a first!” said Carla, sarcastically. She and Toby shared a look laughing.
“Its not funny!” said Ivy. “I tried to follow you and couldn’t find you. If Johnny Blakely hadn’t told me you left, I’d still be in that huge place looking for you.”
“Sorry Ivy,” I mumbled avoiding her eyes. I felt bad for leaving her, it had haunted my dreams once I’d slept. In my dreams, I had left her behind, and when I went back, I couldn’t find her. I searched everywhere and asked everyone, but no one knew where she was.
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” she said, leaning into me, kissing my cheek.
I felt my face flush in embarrassment as my eyes met Toby’s. Both he and Carla were grinning from ear to ear.
“Finally!” whispered Carla loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
I didn’t have time to be embarrassed as Ivy’s mother entered the room with four plates balanced easily on her arms. She didn’t give Ivy and me a second glance as she passed around the food.
“My days as a waitress come in handy every once in a while,” she said.
I sat up and accepted my plate.
“Thank you Mrs. Hlava,” I said.
Having distributed the plates, she sat down on the pillows near the Hookah pipe. As I said before, Ivy’s mother was amazingly beautiful. She had the same blondish brown hair as Ivy, and the same light greenish-yellow eyes ringed with burnt umber. Like her daughter, her eyes jumped out at you behind long dark lashes. Her skin was olive and lightly tanned. She wore a green, loosely hanging blouse with a deep cut neckline. As I looked at her, and she regarded me, I had to fight to not glance down at her ample cleavage.
Carla had called her ‘a Milf’s Milf’ after meeting her. Toby had agreed. I couldn’t help but agree myself; to do otherwise was to not admit you were a fully functioning, breathing male. I’d had a crush on her for several years in middle school after all. I hid it from everyone but Toby. The guys at school teased Ivy regularly about getting a date with her mother. Like the name-calling, Ivy ignored it.
“Ivy and I have been up most of the night talking about your gift Jake,” she started.
I groaned.
“First of all, the name ‘Sir James Nisbet’ is not entirely unknown to me. He was said to be a ‘warrior of God’, a knight Templar, and a formidable one.”
“Are you saying that was real?” I stammered.
“As real as the pipe in your pocket Jake,” she smiled. “He was a holy paladin of some standing.”
“The Knights Templar protected the holy grail right?” asked Toby as I wondered how she knew I had the old man’s pipe in my pocket.
“That and more,” she continued. “They protect many powerful artifacts, just as they protect the cup. They even…”
“You mean protected… past tense don’t you?” Carla asked interrupting.
“No dear, I do not. They are still very much involved in the affairs of this world. When the order of the Knights Templar was scourged by the King of France in the thirteen hundreds, only a few hundred knights out of the several thousand Knights Templar were ever captured. History would have us believe they just vanished or dissolved into the French countryside renouncing their loyalty to the Knights Templar out of fear of the king and his bloody inquisition. Interestingly enough, around the same time as the Knights Templar were said to have been defeated, a group of villages in what is now Switzerland, overwhelmed an army attacking their valley from Prussia, even though the attacking army outnumbered the villagers nine to one.”
Mrs. Hlava smiled at each one of us, then settled her gaze on Carla. “Do you know what the templar coat of arms was?”
“In the movies they always have a red cross over a white field on their shields and draped over their armor,” Toby volunteered.
“Holy crap!” Carla said, her eyes flying wide. “The Swiss flag inverted!”
“Exactly,” Mrs. Hlava smiled benignly.
“Wait!” I said as it all began to make sense. “The Swiss guard protect the pope.”
“They never stopped serving the Catholic church… they just changed names.” Carla said aghast.
“It was a little more complicated than that, but you’re basically correct my dear.”
“What about the treasures?” Toby asked leaning forward. He was obviously, loving this.
Mrs. Hlava smiled. “Maybe Carla can fill that part in. Where would you put a treasure to keep it safe dear?”
“The Swiss banks!” Carla stammered, “In world history Mr. Rathbone said that the Knights Templar invented modern banking. He said that they secretly loaned money to countries and empires, basically financing the crusades. So, if they relocated from France to Switzerland, then they could be responsible for the Swiss banks!”
“Wow Carls,” Toby said, winking at his girlfriend.
“Right again,” Mrs Hlava said smiling. “History may record the invention of banking by the Knights Templar as being self serving, but it was only self-serving in that it provided them the means and locations to more adequately protect the objects given into their care. Protection of those objects means more to Knights Templar than life itself. Even though the captured knights and their leader were brutally tortured by the King of France, none of them gave away any secrets, and the Templar treasures were never discovered.”
“So you’re saying they still have the Holy Grail and other religious treasures?” Carla asked skeptically.
“Yes, I am.” Mrs. Hlava laughed. “Given what you’ve learned so far today, do you find that such a leap of faith?”
“I’m sorry,” Carla shrugged, still swinging lightly in the moon chair. “I’ve read the bible, more than once, and while it does talk about a cup used during the last supper, it doesn’t say anything about immortals.”Ivy’s mother laughed benignly. “Not all of history, or of God, is written in the holy book, Carla. The Holy Church of Rome holds many more books and writings than were put in the original bible. The founders of Christianity picked the texts that were verifiable and could be readily understood by its followers who at the time were mostly uneducated. The bible was put together to be a road map of sorts, not a tool to limit God.
Christians maintain that God’s son came down to show humanity a better way, and allow God’s forgiveness of our sins. It is not the complete blueprint of God’s word, as many fundamentalists would have you believe. The word of God is alive and his creations much grander than most humans are capable of seeing. I see God’s divine grace and word in nature. Serving it, I serve him who created it.”
“That’s Wicca then?” Toby asked. Ivy had tried to explain it to me, but I never really understood.
“Hmm, well, it’s true Wicca. The Wiccan has unfortunately become a cult that has been twisted and perverted with satanic ritual. They worship a three horned God, or a God and Goddess these days depending on which sect ones follows. A true Wicca is a servant of creation, and therefore the creator. They serve good, not evil.”
“Wow, never knew that Mrs. Hlava,” said Toby.
“Not many do,” she smiled. “Getting back to the matter at hand.”
“The old knight?” Carla offered.
“Yes, Sir James,” Ivy’s mom sighed, continuing. “Only a few of the Ten Immortals are actually known by name, and have a history that is traceable. Until last night, Sir James was one of them. I called a friend of mine who keeps a record about such things. He said he believes Sir James was originally an apprentice to druids in what is now England, though that is just a theory of his. What he knows for sure about Sir James starts in Greece in five hundred BC. Apparently, he was a colleague to Pythagoras of Samos.”
“Pythagoras?” Carla interrupted. “The Pythagoras? The Pythagorean theorem?”
Mrs. Hlava smiled at Carla and nodded. “One in the same.”
“Holy moly!” Carla whistled.
“After that he traces Sir Nisbet’s whereabouts back to England and ‘The Battle of Mound Badon’ in five-hundred-twelve AD where he served as a knight and priest confessor to King Arthur Pendragon.”
“He was a knight of the round table?” Toby asked.
“I don’t know about a round table, but my friend says that is where Sir James was knighted. After that he was a member of the first Crusade that captured Jerusalem in 1099. A hundred years after that Sir Nisbet and Godfrey De Saint-Omer along with Hugues de Payens of France started the Knights Templar.”
The Knights Templar still being around I could believe, but immortals…
“No way!” I choked, swallowing a bit of bacon down the wrong tube. Ivy patted my back, attempting to calm me down. I didn’t believe it. Why would this amazing guy who had apparently done so much for the world and played such a large part in human history give his life up for me. What the hell for?
Mrs. Hlava looked at me and I could see the compassion in her eyes. “I’m afraid it’s all true Jake. He had probably been alive for several thousand years or more. He was not the oldest of the ten either.”
“Wow!” Carla said. “You’re serious?”
“There is a great evil r
ising children and all of creation protests its coming. It is an abomination against the creator and all who would serve him. If allowed to gain a foothold, it will consume everything.”
I shook my head.
“Lets say just for a moment, that I believe you. Why me?” I protested, “I’m not special. I go to church and believe in God, but that doesn’t make me a saint or anything! Not like this knight guy we’re talking about. Why would somebody who supposedly had done so much, give up his life for me?”
“Mom knew about you before we moved here Jake, remember?” Ivy interjected.
“This going to be a bit hard to hear Jake,” said Mrs. Hlava, “but your coming has been foretold in several prophecies, just as it has been foretold that the other nine immortals shall fail if they attempt to take your place. In the end, the battle with the Demon and its minion will hinge upon you.”
“A Demon? Are you kidding me?” I stammered, unable to believe my ears. This was absolutely nuts!
“I wish I were Jake,” Mrs. Hlava said sighing.
I looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. People didn’t just vanish, but, pipe or no pipe, this was insane.
“No offense, Mrs. Hlava, but I’m having a difficult time believing any of this, to be honest with you. None of this makes any sense, but… let’s just say I believe you, what can I do about any of it?” I asked.
“We!” said Toby. “Your not going off on an adventure without me. Someone has to watch your back, remind you of people’s name etc.”
I looked at Toby incredulously.
“You don’t believe any of this, Tob. Come on, get real!” I said searching his face for some sign that he was joking.
“I’m not going to let Toby go stumbling off on some dangerous mission or whatever, without me,” Carla chimed in.
“I’m not staying behind either,” said Ivy leaning against me again. “Besides Jake, you’re going to need my help before it’s over.”
I looked down at Ivy and sighed in frustration. Had all my friends gone nuts?
Mrs. Hlava looked around the room and smiled warmly.
“All is as it was written then,” she said winking at her daughter proudly.
“Like it or not Jake,” Mrs. Hlava continued, looking me in the eye, “you must decide if you are going to ignore what you have become, what you have seen with your own eyes, or accept it and move forward.”
Everyone looked at me and I felt that stifling oppression that signals a panic attack descending on me. I did my best to breath through it and felt the lump in my pocket, shaking my head. What choice did I have? I couldn’t ignore what was happening. I had to find out what was going on. Pretending nothing had happened wasn’t really an option.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe anyone’s destiny is written in stone, or in a prophecy, Mrs. Hlava,” I said looking away from her intense gaze. “Like I said, I’m not sure I believe any of this… but I can’t deny that something weird happened last night. I need to find out more about what it was and why it happened.”
Ivy squeezed my arm and Mrs. Hlava smiled warmly.
“Destiny doesn’t require belief or faith. It just is. It is far more important that you have the desire to see this through, than that you believe or accept your destiny,” Ivy’s mother said as if she knew something I didn’t.
I hated when people did that.
“As for your role, the prophecies allude to a stone that the ‘Light Wielder’ will use to defeat the Demon. You are the ‘Light Wielder’, Jake, and I think the prophecies refer to a powerful stone called ‘The Cardinal Ruby’.”
“Defeat the Demon?” I swallowed. “I’m supposed to fight the Demon now?”
“I’m going to start calling you Buffy,” Toby quipped.
“So we have to find this ‘Cardinal Ruby’ then. Where do we look? Carla asked.
“At the Kline Estate,” Mrs. Hlava said.
We ate for a while in silence as Mrs. Hlava set about putting together a daypack for Ivy.
This was all way too crazy. It was as if my reality had been suspended and had been replaced with another one entirely. Demons and ancient, legendary knights bequeathing Immortality? It was the realm of fantasy, not reality. And now we were going to go break into a twenty-thousand-square-foot mansion, find and then steal a stone of power we’d never seen before? I dreaded the thought of going back to that place. It was all just a little too much. On top of it all, I was supposed to slay a demon and its minion whatever that was? Good luck!
I shook my head again, as I finished my plate and voiced my concerns to my friends while Mrs. Hlava was out of earshot.
“Am I the only one who thinks this is absolutely ludicrous? Are you guys on crack? Where is the reason behind any of what is suppose to be going on? Why would I be chosen to do this; because I can throw a football in a tight spiral? Why should I, we, believe any of it?”
“You saw him vanish,” Ivy said twirling a finger in my hair. “You have his pipe in your pocket. Like you said before, we can’t leave it at that. We need to find out what is happening. Like it or not this has fallen on you Jake, on us. Mother says it is our destiny to do great things. Each of us.”
“You know I don’t believe in destiny, or fate,” I said softly, as the weight of this adventure started to settle on my shoulders.
“We’re gonna need a plan if we’re gonna steal this thing,” Toby said.
“Why steal it? Let’s just go ask Brianna if she has it,” said Carla. “Can’t hurt.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Toby sighed dramatically.
“I hate to tell you this boyfriend, but you’re not the right body type to play James Bond,” Carla laughed.
“If they can cast a blonde dude as James, then why not someone 6’8” with guns like these?” Toby said flexing his arms.
“Oh brother,” Carla moaned, rolling her eyes. “You wouldn’t even fit in an Aston Martin.”
I had to agree with Carla.
Mrs. Hlava gave us all hugs and little leather pouches with draw strings as we left. She kissed her daughter and put an intricate crystal necklace over her head.
“Take care of them Sweetpea,” she said.
“I will momma,” Ivy said returning her mother’s embrace.