I looked up from my book, anxious and on guard. I failed to discern anything to cause alarm. Confused, I turned to Theo.
“Oops.” He grinned. “That. What is it?” He tapped the notebook.
“I’m not sure,” I lied. “At first, I assumed it to be a chronicle of Nana’s school, and it might be. But, it’s hard to read. It’s about a war and the aftermath, at the dawn of what we call history, about 3000 B.C. At least that’s the date my mother wrote down with a question mark.”
I lapsed into silence. I did not tell Theo what I now knew to be the truth. Maybe I hoped to discover I was mistaken. Yet, I had witnessed these events unfold, with Nana, in my dreams. I feared for my mental state like never before.
Insanity would be welcome. Rational and scientific, it was quantifiable. How could I convey to others, much less accept myself, the other possibility which now swirled around my troubled mind?
I told Theo to let me read and I would tell him a story he would not believe.
“Man, I miss George.”
It took less than an hour to finish the book. “Nana wasn’t crazy,” I said and gazed at Theo.
“Ooo Kay.”
“What do you remember about her?”
“Well, good food. She always treated me okay. Until she started to call me evil.”
Theo had met Nana several times. The last few encounters were unpleasant. Not just for him either, Nana called a lot of people evil.
“What would you say if I told you she wasn’t calling you evil, but warning you?”
“I’d say you’re off your rocker.”
“Yeah, just the kind of thing that could get a person locked up in the old world. Wouldn’t you say?”
Theo didn’t reply.
“Listen to this.” I flipped through the book. “And to the muster of the army of King Lục Dương Vương it assembled as follows. Three spearmen per archer, accompanied by a champion of the sword held in reserve and attending to the needs of the archer. To the count of one hundred squads he formed to a company, seven companies to an army there were. Seven armies followed him into battle this day.”
I gazed at Theo. “Sound familiar?”
“Uhhhh.”
“Dad’s vaunted fighting formation. Come on, you see it.”
“Yeah, all right. I get that. Your mom wrote this and he decided to try it. It worked. Big deal.”
“Damn it. Don’t you get it? It’s the Xích Quýs fight against the Sống chết.”
“What’s the Xích Quý?”
“I don’t have a clue,” I replied.
Theo chuckled nervously. “Sống chết, that’s what your mom calls the moaners.”
“Yeah. She does.” I waited for Theo to connect the dots.
“Think about this,” I continued. “Why were we so prepared? Mom bought two thousand pounds of rice, weeks before California fell. Hell, months before any of this really made the news. Back when it was just some exotic unknown disease, Mom knew enough to prepare. You saw our basement; it was nuts. Be honest. We all thought she’d turned into a hoarder.”
“Are you honestly asking me to believe? Shit,” Theo whispered. “Fat lot of good it did Nana.”
I had more to tell him if I dared. An idea had blossomed in my mind ever since we left the house. Yet what would Theo, what would anyone, think of me if I told them what I suspected? No, not suspected, what I knew to be the truth. I mustered my courage and decided I had to tell someone, and that someone might as well be Theo.
Theo kept his eyes ahead. I stared at him while I thought about what to say. Before I could speak, Dad’s voice came over the radio. Theo and I jumped.
“Vector tango, take the next right and head for the red barn.”
“Roger that, Papa bear.” He tossed the radio back into the cup holder, turned to me and in complete seriousness said, “The question is, how did your nana know?”
Later. I would tell him later. I lacked proof. Besides, I needed to talk to Mom first, find out what she knew.
“I don’t know.” I sighed. “But she figured it out. Maybe from her school. The monks were in the news a couple years back. So they were obviously still around.” I fell silent and tried to remember why they had been in the news.
Theo pulled off the tracks and onto a rock road. He followed the tree line toward the barn. Snow fell from an evergreen tree. Water dripped from branches. We pulled up to the barn and waited for the other vehicles to park.
My thoughts turned to my mother. Institutionalizing your own mom had to be tough enough. However, to find out she had been sane all along? That’s brutal.
Susan and Klara walked past. They split apart at the barn door and took up guard positions at opposite sides of the building. Dangerous. I needed to bring this up with Dad, I decided. Again.
Dad lined up Mom and Chris to go into the barn with us. I took my position behind the three and inserted a fresh clip into my rifle. Dad beckoned to Anthony. I remained silent while Dad explained his function was to cover me while I protected the three pokers in front.
“If there’s any offing to be done, we’ll take care of it. You just watch her back,” Dad explained.
Theo and I exchanged knowing looks. He hobbled past to open the barn door. At Dad’s signal, Theo and Jane pushed the large door aside. It ground noisily on the metal tracks.
It took less than twenty minutes to check the barn and we were relieved to find the building empty. Dad opened the loft door and told those below to park the trucks.