Chapter 15
The rain lashed the exterior windows of Warhead Dale and I was startled by a loud burst of thunder. I sheepishly leapt from my leather chair like an unsuspecting fool confronting a hairy-legged spider. I rushed to the window and looked out, and did not notice the gazes of concern morph over the children’s faces. They were understandably a bit frightened at my uncharacteristic, alarmed reaction to the lightning burst from outside. The young ones seemed very eager to hear the rest of the story. I was afraid my actions were misinterpreted.
I stared vacantly at the dark, ominous sky and endless ocean that lit up with every flash of nature’s electricity. The waves were much larger than they had been earlier, there was no doubt. “It must be a gale,” I thought. It almost seemed appropriate. Just as the storm raged on us, so did turbulent times await Michael, JT, and Kali on the other side of the Mahogany Door.
I wheeled around from my unscheduled interruption with a more menacing face, and the mood of the room turned rather solemn. I hoped my patrons did not believe I was angry by the serious expression that dressed my face, but I wanted it to be known that the real adventure was about to begin.
“JT lay flat on the ground with his eyes shut,” I continued, my back facing the glass doors. The children instantly became engaged with my continuation of the story and their faces changed from frightened to as serious as mine. I then returned and plopped back down in my black leather chair. “He could feel that he was lying face down in sand; its coarse grains stuck to his lips and sucked into his nose with each breath. Suddenly from behind him he heard a loud ‘SLAM!’ and then silence.
JT rolled onto his back. Barely cracking his eyelids, he shielded his eyes from the bright sun that beamed in a crystal, clear blue sky. He scurried to his knees and coughed and hacked, trying to expel the small rough grains of sand from his mouth. After spitting up muddied goo, he discovered Kali sitting beside him ever so nonchalantly spitting sand from her mouth and trying to brush the abrasive pebbles from her hair.
‘It sure is hot,’ JT remarked, not quite knowing what to say or how to act. The air around him was thick, still, and blazingly warm. It was confusing sitting in the middle of parched sand in the open air when only seconds before he was standing in the chilly basement of Warhead Dale. After only a few moments of trying to comprehend where he might be, a bead of sweat rolled down his cheek.
Kali continued to brush the sand from her pants and hair, indifferent to her surroundings, and JT stood up. He panned to his left and right, and all he could see was an ocean of sand. There were no houses or trees, no water to be seen, no animals scurrying about, no roads, no cars, no wind, and no ships - just flat, motionless sand. In every direction he could only see a bright blue tint of sky touch the yellow tinted ground of a seemingly endless, deserted desert, and beside him; Kali, oblivious to their plight. He then noticed something else that had not registered with him until a strange and panicked feeling washed over him.
‘Where’s Michael?!’ JT yelled, swiveling from side to side. Just as he awoke in Warhead Dale and found his cane missing; his skinny companion again, had disappeared.
‘What?’ Kali leapt to her feet slapping her pant legs to remove more sand. ‘He was right in front of us, right?’
‘Where did he go,’ asked JT. He shook his head and looked at Kali suspiciously. His speech slowed. ‘You don’t know where he is, do you?’ JT remembered that when they were in Warhead Dale she actually knew that Michael had gone to the basement, but did not tell him.
‘I swear to you, JT.’ Kali’s expression and tone turned sincere. ‘I have no idea where he is this time. And anyway, you don’t have to worry,’ she continued shaking the sand from her hair and clothes, ‘because when I see him, I’m gonna ring his little neck leaving us out here alone.’ She cocked her left leg and crossed her arms.
JT peered into Kali’s eyes, her deep blue eyes that almost appeared black against the crisp blue, hot sky behind her. He almost lost himself again, but then realized where he was and shattered the image. ‘You think he’s--?’ JT asked nodding his head. He did not want to possess the morbid thought, but he could not dislodge it. ‘I mean, did he even make it through the door?’
‘I’m sure he made it through,’ Kali responded quickly. ‘I just have no idea where he went.’
JT glanced at his arm as though he were reading a watch. It was strange because he had barely worn one on the farm. Rule number four popped into his brain like a kernel of corn.
‘Time has no meaning in Bruinduer,’ he thought. It especially meant nothing without a watch and Michael was carrying the only one he remembered. He then thought that his ‘real world’ concept of time probably had no meaning in Bruinduer, of course, if that is where they were. A second could be an hour or a minute could be a day in this world. He also remembered a strange thought right before they went through the Mahogany Door that not knowing the time could render you lost. And at that moment, panning around the empty desert, he felt that he couldn’t have been anymore lost.
There were a few more tense moments in which JT and Kali stood frozen without making a single noise, contemplating what had happened to them and what had happened to Michael. Questions and possibilities bounced between their ears with no response until one of them thought they had to do something - anything.
‘So what now? JT chimed. ‘What do we do now that we are in…,’ he paused and scanned across the hot desert sand, sweat now accumulating on his brow, ‘Bruinduer?’ JT hoped desperately that his companion could remember her past. ‘What’s the next step?’
Unexpectedly, images and memories flooded Kali’s mind like a dam being broken. Embarrassed, she turned her head away from JT. Visions of Warhead Dale and her adventures in Bruinduer erupted with an uncontrolled vigor as though a switch was flipped. She could not control the onslaught. She gripped the bridge of her nose, clamped her eyes shut, and shook her head.
Seeing Kali struggle with the sudden assault of information and realizing he was placing their fate in her hands, JT wondered if somehow he could ease her burden. He shut his eyes in hopes that the amber mist might find him again. His mind swam trying to grab a hold of a fleeting thought, but he could not even grasp a minuscule notion of an idea. He silently stood behind Kali, wishing he could comfort her. He had not appreciated the fact that she was in the same predicament as he. Right before he placed his hands on her shoulders, he heard a small sniffle.
‘You OK?’ asked JT and realized it was a dumb question. It was obvious that she was not fine.
‘Leave me alone,’ Kali returned, her voice cracking in a high pitch.
JT tried not to believe what he was hearing or seeing. The tough, stoic Kali that he had first met in Linda’s diner, yelling and maligning Michael for being a cowardly weakling, was standing in Bruinduer, crying.
‘Why’re you crying?’ JT asked. He did feel bad.
‘Nothing,’ Kali said. She wiped her eyes with her hands making the tears abrasive from the sand on her fingers and palm. ‘I just didn’t know all of these memories would just come flowing back to me so fast and hard.’
‘What memories?’ asked JT. He thought he was getting good at asking questions, and it would also be nice to know more about what he was searching for.
‘Look at me, JT. Don’t you think this is a bit odd?’ Kali asked, her back still to JT. ‘I mean we’re kids again - but I still think like a twenty-three year old - back in a place I thought I’d never see again.’ Kali’s voice became arching and gargling as the tears started to flow freely down her cheeks.
JT wanted to sympathize with her, and in reality he did. He wanted to grab her close and calm her fears, but before them were more pressing matters. ‘Look, everything that has happened to me over the last few days is all very weird,’ JT tried not to denigrate her feelings, ‘but if I stopped to wonder or even understand what was going on, I’d probably go crazy. I’m just going with the flow, and it is a very hard path.’ He paused and grappled with his though
ts. ‘I mean, this all has to do with my past, so to tell you the truth, it’s exciting for me. I don’t know anything, but I want to know everything. I don’t have time to worry about this because Bruinduer is collapsing. I’m not only going to try to save this place for my granddad, but also for me. I don’t want to die.’ His thoughts strayed to Michael; ‘where could he be?’ ‘I still know very little about all of this and how it works. All I know is that I am good at this according to Michael. He and Charlie are out there somewhere and we need to find them. Remember rule number six? We all have to leave here together.’ JT was confident he had explained himself clearly and he hoped Kali would follow his lead.
Kali whipped around. Her puffy, red, tear-filled eyes stabbed right through JT. ‘Well let me tell you about your past and what happened back here if you are so gung ho.’
JT suddenly felt a slight breeze tap his face. ‘Did you feel that?’ JT interrupted Kali. He didn’t mean to be rude, just deeply curious at what was happening to him.
‘What - that seemingly ever present heat or that thick, musty smell?’ Kali answered. Her tears now subsided and her common stubbornness returned.
‘No - that breeze.’ JT couldn’t place his finger on the thoughts and intuitions that were tracking through his mind. ‘I don’t know what it is, but I think I feel as though something wants me to go that way.’ JT pointed to his right. He then remembered what Michael had told him earlier. Could it be him? Could it be Billy trying to direct him where to go?
JT immediately walked to his right, giving no regard to his surroundings. Kali waited behind a couple of steps, shook her head, and then started after him. As she tried to keep up with him, her breath became shallow from keeping up with his pace.
JT intentionally held a few steps between him and Kali as he continued in the direction in which he felt the breath of wind was leading him to go. He knew Kali was upset at the events that had led up to that moment, but realized that he didn’t have time to stand in the middle of a burning desert listening to her lament about a past he didn’t remember. Precious time was slipping by, and since it had no meaning where he was, every second was valuable. He also wanted Kali to think about something else. He wanted her to put her thoughts and actions toward the moment at hand. He didn’t know why, but he was going to need her at her best.
After ten minutes of nonstop walking with the heat getting uncomfortable, JT stopped. He stood with his arms crossed and waited for Kali to catch up with him, trudging tiredly through the hot, dry sand.
‘This heat is terrible,’ Kali said as she halted her march beside JT. She took off her sweater.
JT scanned over the vast lifeless desert in front of them and shook his head again. ‘Had Bruinduer already collapsed and this is what’s left? Are we doomed out here forever?’ he thought. Certainly there was more to it than this. He then peered at Kali, ‘I’m sorry, what were you going to say?’
‘Say about what?’ Kali returned in a huff, trying to catch her breath.
‘When you were mad and everything - crying a while back? You said you were going to tell me about my past and what happened here,’ JT said callously, not meaning for it to come out the way it did. Kali gritted her teeth. She was embarrassed that she had cried in front of JT. She wished he wasn’t so cold about it.
‘Yeah, well, if you could remember all of that, you’d be crying too,’ Kali retorted, trying to seem tough again, but her act was not fooling JT. In fact, she was scared. ‘It happened so quickly,’ Kali began; her voice dropped and her mind focused. ‘The battle started, and before I knew it, it was over. It was the most gruesome thing I had ever seen - so much death and destruction.’ She tied her sweater around her waist.
JT started walking to his right again.
‘It seems as though we might be walking for a while by the looks of this desert,’ JT said after a few steps. ‘Heck, we might be trudging these sands forever; seems logical for you to start from the beginning. That is, if you want to?’ JT’s voice became very soothing. He hoped the initial invasion of memories Kali experienced had thinned and the feelings that accompanied them calmed enough for her to stay in the moment. ‘I’ve been wanting to hear what you have to say about all of this.’ JT walked on. His pace slowed as the sun beat down ferociously on top of them.
‘Like I told you before,’ Kali continued, ‘I don’t know why I really started hanging out with you boys. Maybe it was because I thought you were cute or maybe it was because you stood up to those guys picking on Michael. Either way, I found myself going through the Mahogany Door with you pretty regularly when we were kids.’ Kali remembered her young reflection. ‘Well, kids a long time ago.’ She then continued. ‘I even had the chance on a number of occasions to be the first one through the door to shape this place into what I wanted.’
JT blushed when Kali referred to him as cute. ‘What form did you make Bruinduer?’
‘Ha!’ Kali smiled a welcomed smile. ‘I always had this fascination with the middle ages and knights, ladies, castles, and chivalry. It was all really fun.’ Kali snickered to sigh, ‘Of course it was fun only to a certain extent.’ She thought of one particular moment when JT was in her Bruinduer and batted her eyes. She dared not say anything about it to him.
‘What?’ JT asked, his face still pink from Kali calling him cute. He was glad to see Kali in a lighter mood.
‘Nothing,’ Kali said. She stowed her feelings away and took a deep breath. She then continued. ‘Anyway, one day there was a familiar but new face in the basement at Warhead Dale. It was in the unfortunate form of Charlie Blackburn, and you and I were angry. We had promised your grandfather before he passed that you, me, and Michael would be the only ones who knew about Bruinduer and the Mahogany Door, but Michael had to go and open his big, flappy mouth.’
Kali became serious and tense as her story progressed. ‘Charlie convinced us that he wouldn’t tell anybody. He also promised he’d go by any rules we set for him, which we repeated many times. Like I said outside of Linda’s diner, he was a little weasel.
I remember the time he didn’t do his homework in class one day. I’ll never forget it. He had just started Ms. King’s English class and the whole year he never turned in a book report. All you had to do in the class was to turn in one report and you got a “C.” At the end of the term, he asked why he had gotten an “F” on his report card. Ms. King told him that she never received a book report with his name on it and that was why he failed. He told her that he turned in a paper, and that she was mistaken.
Amazingly, he strolled over to the small bookcase where the students had placed their reports and moved it away from the wall. Miraculously, there was a book report with his name on it dated one week before the papers were originally due lying between the bookcase and the wall. Ms. King accepted it.’ Kali shook her head and huffed, ‘I couldn’t believe it! It was crazy! To make matters worse, less than an hour later he was bragging about what he had done in the lunch room. He bragged how earlier that morning he slid the book report behind the bookcase and tricked Ms. King.’
JT looked forward, around, and beyond Kali, still curious about the desert and where it might end. Before Kali could ask him if he was paying attention or not, he asked, ‘So you’re mad at him about a book report?’
‘Of course not.’ Kali paused and thought. Her temper gripped her. ‘Well - maybe... but I’m really mad at the way he treated us, especially Michael. Now, he’s still alive in this place and in control. Who knows how that happened. Doesn’t that make you mad?’ Kali was confused that JT was not as upset as she was.
‘I told you, I don’t remember anything that happened here, and I don’t remember Charlie except what you’ve told me. So no, I’m not really mad. I have other objectives to take care of,’ JT explained. He did, however, think that the way Charlie had turned his book report in was sneaky and conniving.
‘Well, you should be,’ Kali grumped. She then went on with her story. ‘When we first started going through the Ma
hogany Door - after about twenty times or so testing it out and seeing what we could do in this world, how we could control it, getting guidance from Billy, and trying to shape it - we decided that we needed structure in our adventure making.’ Kali paused and snickered again.
Her memory had flourished about Bruinduer and the times she spent with Michael and JT since they had walked through the door. JT, however, still had problems remembering, though a fleeting thought shot through his brain from time to time as the two walked and conversed.
‘What’s that giggling for?’ JT asked. His nerves also calmed, and a sensation grew inside of him as though he had gained skills for combat. He had no idea where it came from, but the presence and aura of an ancient warrior covered him.
‘I just remembered that the first time we walked through the Mahogany Door,’ Kali answered, ‘Bruinduer took the shape of the inner room in Warhead Dale. When we walked through the door we thought we hadn’t gone anywhere. We thought we were still in the room. I think we stayed there for a couple of hours trying to open the Mahogany Door in Bruinduer to get to Bruinduer.
What was even funnier was that we couldn’t leave until we fulfilled the destiny (or task) given to us, which we never really tried to accomplish, or if we did I don’t remember what it was. You were the first through the door that day, so it was you that set the task.’ She paused. ‘Sorry I don’t remember.’
JT shook his head. ‘It’s OK. I’m the last one that could complain about that.’
Kali pondered for a second forgetting what she was trying to explain. She felt so bad that JT couldn’t remember anything. She then jerked back to the moment. ‘Anyway, the door opened and we walked right back into the real inner room of Warhead Dale. It was very confusing for some time. We then decided to come up with our structure - the Bruinduer Expedition Commission, or if you will, the BEC for short.’
‘Funny how Michael never mentioned this,’ thought JT. He then thought that his skinny partner in this venture was too busy trying to finagle him to come back to Bruinduer. Of course, the BEC understandably had slipped his mind.
‘The BEC,’ Kali continued, ‘allowed us to develop and plan our story before we went through the Mahogany Door. That way, all of us knew exactly what destiny or task needed to be complete. We even gave ourselves points for doing extra things like finishing our task quickly or creating new parts of the world like villages, buildings, monuments, and valleys… things like that. Whoever got the most points during certain destinies would go through the Mahogany Door first the next time and choose and develop their own adventure. The one stipulation would be that we could only conjure those things that would do good for the world. That way, we could not willy-nilly conjure stuff up. Billy was very particular about that because the word “good” can be relative. And we obviously tested his patience many times on that.
We gave ourselves titles like, “Captain” or “Lieutenant.” After a while, and since you were so good at controlling and shaping Bruinduer, we started to call you “General.” Billy caught on to our title-giving game and decided to make his own nicknames for us. He called Michael “Rabbit”; Me - he always called “Kali girl”; and you - he called “Boy,” especially when we called you General.’ Kali paused and then returned to her wits. ‘Anyway, to make a long story short, the BEC allowed us just to get our act together before we walked through the Mahogany Door. It was a good concept I think, especially if we didn’t want to end up in a dire predicament. We actually got pretty good at it.’ Her tone turned sour. ‘That is, until the incident.’
‘Yeah, now I have another reason I get a temper around Billy,’ JT thought. ‘I don’t like being called, Boy.’
‘That one particularly nasty, rainy, cold day in July, we went down into the basement of Warhead Dale,’ Kali continued, her tone still glum, ‘and there standing outside of the inner room was Michael and Charlie, like I said. Right away we reminded Michael that Captain Luke only intended us three to know the secret of Bruinduer, but Michael begged and begged for us to let Charlie go. “It’ll be OK,” he kept saying. Why we gave in, to this day I’ll never know. Of course Charlie became, “Private” Blackburn keeping with the BEC.
Michael, since he began to control Bruinduer, always loved to hunt in the desert for treasure and lost ruins, and this day, despite the weather, would be no different. He had scored a number of points in a previous adventure and saved going through the door first for a special occasion - and this was it. No doubt in order to impress Charlie, he decided to create a difficult task.
After we said that stupid little poem of Billy’s to conjure him up, it took an unusual amount of time for the monster to appear. Needless to say, Billy didn’t take too kindly to Charlie being there. He didn’t like to be surprised. Michael put on his best face and tried to pull on Billy’s vacant sympathies. Astonishing us all, Billy was actually ecstatic about the idea. Michael revealed his plan for the adventure. Billy ignored him and started to encourage Charlie. He even gave him a few pointers about how to go through the door and other tidbits. Michael became instantly jealous of the attention Billy was giving to Charlie.’
Kali stopped and gazed into the distance at the endless, yellow, burning sand. Unexpectedly, she became distant. JT felt her presence vanish. He halted and turned in her direction. He could see turmoil wash over her face.
‘Right before he stepped through the Mahogany Door, Michael changed the task,’ Kali continued, becoming more animated. ‘This was Charlie! We never developed a destiny or changed our course without discussing it first together. We were friends for goodness sake.’ Kali was winded.
JT relished the information he was learning, but felt it was necessary for him to stay quiet and let Kali finish. Somehow he felt her anger.
‘Michael thought it would be fun to have a race with some conjured group of people to the treasure he devised. We had never done that before. We conjured up plenty of people in Bruinduer, but we always made sure they were friendly to us, and certainly made sure that none of our actions made them want to hurt us. Most people helped us.
We were even smart enough to know in the backs of our minds that according to the rules Billy always spat out, the people of Bruinduer had free will. They too could make their own choices. This time though, Michael wanted the other group we conjured to compete with us in finding a rather unique artifact.’ Kali shook her head. ‘Michael created something no one had ever seen. Michael created a Golden Diamond.’
JT still stood stoic, listening and staring out at the endless desert. He tried to picture in his mind what a golden diamond would look like.
‘We entered Bruinduer,’ Kali started again, ‘and the race was on to find the Golden Diamond. I would be lying if I said that hunting for Michael’s creation wasn’t exhilarating. We went from ruin to ruin, secret map to secret map, staying one step ahead or behind our competition, but it all changed when we arrived at the pyramid that housed that diamond.
Both groups arrived at the diamond’s chamber at exactly the same time, and at first, even with a few verbal shots volleying back and forth, it seemed all was well. It was when it was time to actually retrieve the diamond that everything went wrong. This was the moment I was convinced that Michael’s little plan to wow his new friend was about to backfire on him.’ Kali looked to the ground and fell silent.
A few moments passed.
‘Well, what happened next?’ JT asked with excitement, almost demanding Kali to continue.
Kali reluctantly started, ‘A fight broke out between us and the competing group. Charlie complained that being in Bruinduer was a joke and that he could have had more fun watching TV. Michael, in response to hearing this, decided to spice up the dwindling adventure and take the diamond for himself. The leader of the other group - don’t ask how that was accomplished - had his own plans. He also wanted to take the diamond. It was a very awkward and unproductive hour or so. We had almost arrived at a compromise and had decided to leave the diamond where it was.
We’d claim that both groups found it, say the task was fulfilled, and return to Warhead Dale.’ Kali eyed JT, and he could tell her emotions were rising to the surface. ‘Charlie stole the stone from under everybody’s nose.’ She tried to hold back her tears.
‘I don’t know how he did it, but by the time we got out of the pyramid, Charlie started bragging about how he fooled everyone, just like he bragged about tricking Ms. King. Like an idiot, in front of everybody, he tossed it in the air.’
Members of the other group who were marching in front of us just happened to peer back and notice that Charlie had the Golden Diamond. One of the competitors pushed Charlie to the ground, and a shoving and spitting match began. The tension grew and grew, so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Everyone was on edge. Charlie told Michael to conjure up a security detail for them. Michael created the security force, but I’m not so sure he did it for security or just because he was scared. It was rushed and confused. We were all scared.
There were a few men to protect us at first, and then in a matter of moments, those few men turned into ten, twenty, and then a whole army filled with men and women. I’m not sure how the other group formed an army. I think maybe some of the security force Michael conjured up took the other group’s side. With that happening, Michael conjured even more troops, escalating the conflict beyond control. Before we knew it, we were two armies of thousands facing each other in the vast sands of the desert, a lot like this one.’ Kali’s eyes never broke with tears, but she desperately tried to keep her emotions in check. ‘We tried to get help from Billy.’ Her voice cracked. ‘Our task had to have been over, but - the fighting started and before I could - dang that little weasel –’
‘Wait,’ JT interrupted. He felt another breeze that immediately caused him to turn to his left. ‘What the -?’ JT erupted, placing his hand to his wet brow to scope into the distance.
‘What is it?’ asked Kali.
‘There,’ JT announced. ‘Coming in the distance.’
JT pointed to the horizon. Coming toward them was a cloud of dust bouncing and gliding across the desert floor. Waves of heat rose from the cloud and the ball of dirt grew larger and larger and moved faster and faster. Fear seized JT. His knees locked and his chest pounded.
Kali turned and caught the sight of the cloud of dust and grabbed JT’s hand. Terror engulfed her.
The rolling, tumbling, bouncing ball of dust was silent at first, but as it came closer to Kali and JT, a distant rumble rose into a roaring crescendo of sound like a train tearing down its tracks. A half a mile away, white ribbons of cloth and huge white flags popped from the top of the accelerating dust cloud flowing and thrashing in the wind.
A quarter of a mile away, Kali and JT saw the thundering legs of a group of horses and the churning wheels of chariots. Riders with determined faces came into focus a few hundred yards later. JT glanced at Kali, then at the band of men, horses, and chariots charging toward them. He quickly peered behind his shoulder. The vast emptiness of sand that had surrounded him and Kali was now his only refuge.
‘RUN!’ he yelled. Clutching her hand, he pulled and they took off running.
They ran as hard as they could. Their breaths became shallow as they heard the pounding of galloping legs and ripping wheels immediately behind them, ready to overtake them. The sound was deafening as the dust cloud of rushing horses, charging chariots, rugged men, and snapping white ribbons and white flags engulfed Kali and JT.
Two huge, muscular, dark arms reached down and scooped up the newly terrified teens and threw them into the bottom of a chariot with a hard ‘thud.’ Without so much as a pause, the group of men and horses continued their charge through the empty desert.
JT panned upward and saw a tall, bulky man with tanned skin, a black frizzy beard, and a white head wrap, its long tail snapping in the breeze. His eyes were a burning green. He stood braced against the wall of his chariot with the toes of his brown boots cutting into its golden body. He gripped the reins of the two galloping brown horses powering his vehicle, the veins in his arms bursting through his skin. With enormous strength, the man slapped the horses vigorously against their backs with his thick, black leather reins. He then yelped, and amazingly, the horses accelerated faster. JT’s neck jerked back with the increase in speed.
The man turned and gazed calmly at JT with his bright, green eyes and smiled. His teeth were bright white in contrast to his black beard, his tanned skin, and the dust that covered his face. He laughed out loud as he gripped the reins of the roaring chariot. He turned, and without looking, threw JT and Kali each a canteen of cold water, then with a hearty voice exclaimed, ‘Welcome to Godwin!’”