The Book: A Novel Calling Read online

  “Nobody gets past me—Nobody.”

  “But why?”

  “Because you stop here.”

  “I don’t get it,” I reply. “A little conversation can’t hurt any—”

  “You talk too damn much.”

  “Well, maybe that’s true,” I laugh, “but we need to talk about this.”

  “Nothing to say.”

  “Hold on a minute. Think about it. If you move out of our way, we’ll be gone, and you’ll still be here—right where you started—all alone.”

  “You do what I tell you to do.”

  “Now wait a minute, my friend. I’m not that good at following orders; it’s not my strong suit, I’m not good at it.”

  “It’s not your choice,” says the brusque young biker, waving an angry fist, but as he does I notice a little flicker of doubt in his eyes, just enough to encourage me.

  “Why do you care?” I react. “What do you get out of this?” He looks a bit confused and he looks away. I decide to give him time to chew on things. After a long pause I ask, “Can you tell me why?”

  The young maverick backs up a bit.

  “Tell me, what’s in it for you?”

  “If I could, I would!” he says.

  “Ah, well, I see now.”

  “It’s a rule—Goddammit!”

  Suddenly an unexpected calm comes over me, as he says, raising his fist, “No damn tricks!”

  “I’m not here to give you a hard time,” I say.

  “Turn around. Go back. I’m not stupid.”

  “I didn’t say you were,” I laugh.

  “I can’t trust you.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t trust anybody,” the irate teenager says. He glances at Woman. “Not even you.”

  “I don’t believe that. Look again.”

  The young warrior’s eyes skip to her, and back to me again. Another spark of doubt invades his eyes and I press on.

  “You know she’s okay,” I insist.

  “Trust nobody!” he restates.

  “That must be very difficult,” Woman says.

  “It’s a rule,” he replies softly.

  “You shouldn’t treat friends this way,” she says.

  “I have to,” he replies.

  “I know, it’s your job,” I say. “Who gave you this crazy line of work?”

  A cloud of doubt enters Teenager’s face.

  “You are wasting your life on something you don’t—”

  “Hey! I’m not stupid.”

  “No offense, Kid. I didn’t mean—

  “He talks too damn much,” he cries to Woman.

  “And you take work too seriously.”

  “I was okay before you got here.”

  “I know you think that, but here we are. If it happened it was meant to be. So what are you going to do about it? You see that chair in the shadow leaning on the wall?”

  He looks past Harlequin. “Yeah…”

  “Will you get it for me? I think it is mine. Bring it over so we can talk.”

  “It’s all right,” says Woman sweetly.

  He looks at her and takes her measure. “I’ll give him three minutes,” he says. “No more.”

  “That’s okay with me, I can live with that. Let’s go.”

  Teenager stands up, angry still, and he strides into the shadow and snags the second chair. He drags it back into our soft patch of light, and he slams the chairs together back to back. He boards his seat snarling like a biker climbing a Harley-Davidson. I swing my leg over my chair and face him. Folding my arms over my imagined handlebar, I feel a cool touch of leather on my naked forearm.

  Harlequin is not far behind me, treading back and forth on the rim of circled light like somebody losing a fortune on Wall Street. He looks up anxiously rubbing his hands, but I see that his charade is merely a melodrama for a captive audience.

  “What are you afraid of?” I say to Teenager.

  “I’m not afraid.”

  “I think you are.”

  “What the hell do you know?”

  “You got thick skin for a guy with no bike.” He backs away. “Take it easy,” I say. It’s okay to be afraid; in fact, I think it’s good.”

  He surprises me with a smile.

  “You don’t need that jacket,” I say.

  “Forget about it,” he reacts.

  “It makes us unequal.”

  “That’s a load of crap.”

  “Hey, listen—”

  “Time’s up!” he shouts.

  “Wait a minute, that wasn’t three minutes.”

  “Your time is finished. We’re done. That’s it.”

  “God Almighty.”

  “I’m not stupid, you know.”

  “Who said you were?”

  “He didn’t say that,” says Woman.

  I turn to her, frustrated, “This guy is really stuck.”

  “Think about having fun,” she says to him.

  He looks as if he’s never in his life had such a thought—he looks stunned.

  “Adventure,” I say hoping to snag some interest. I can tell that he’s wavering a little.

  “I don’t know….”

  I jump at the opportunity. “Look at her,” I repeat. “Just take a really good look."

  He looks at Woman and he laughs.

  “Take off the jacket,” I say.

  “I like it this way.”

  “I know, and you don’t need it.”

  The young man stands up and slowly pulls his arms through heavy leather sleeves. He lifts his jacket over his shoulders and starts turning it in his hands. He shoots it away like a basketball into shadows where it lands with a slump!

  “He did it!” I say happily.

  “Congratulations!” Woman cries.

  “You just went into business for yourself,” I laugh as we stand up.

  Teenager and I walk to the others at the edge of light. He grins at Boy and says, “Hey!”

  “Hey!” Boy replies with a smile.

  “I thought I was all alone,” Teenager tells him. “I didn’t know about you.”

  “Me, too,” says Boy, extending his hand.

  Teenager pushes his arm to the side and gives him a hug. He looks up and says, “I didn’t know about this guy.” The two boys laugh and he looks around. Suddenly he looks wonder-struck. “Wow!” he says, looking at Woman. “You won’t believe the thought I just had.”

  “Oh, yes, I will,” she laughs.

  “About her amazing light—right?”

  Teenager nearly trips over a big paw. He drops to his knees before a noble and stately expression. He looks up and says, “Look at him!” Almost overwhelmed with delight, the young man lays his arms around the lion’s massive neck.

  “You look good there,” I tell him.

  “Isn’t he amazing?” Teenager exclaims. He slides a hand over the lion’s ear and over his blinking eye. As he pats the big cat’s nose, the jet black leopard shoves its head under the young man’s elbow. “Beautiful!” he laughs at her ebony face.

  Teenager looks up at Harlequin, who claps in silence. “I love that guy.”

  “He is one of a kind, no doubt about it,” I say. “Now, let’s get this circus on the road.”

  I walk away into a shadow on the far side, and everybody follows. Within a few seconds we shuffle slowly again in darkness.

  I turn around for a last look at the circle of light where two empty chairs now stand. They look small. I imagine a lighthouse on a rocky northern shore as we walk along the ancient wall. For some reason I wonder how it must have been when sailors on a lost ship in a stormy night found a beacon gleaming across a dark sea.

  Following my fingertips along the stone, I feel happy about our new members, but before I can relish the idea I realize I have just spotted another tiny speck of light not far ahead of us.

  “I wonder what that is,” I whisper.

  “We shall see,” Woman says.

  I take her hand and cling to th
e image of light out in front of us. It is so scant it scarcely reveals where we’re going. Gingerly we march on, keeping our eyes on tiny spirals of light. Warmed by the possibility of something good in the offing, I realize that I am really falling for this motley bunch.

  ∞ 17 ∞

  Things go a deeper shade of dark. The only sensation I have is smooth stone under bare feet. Except for a tiny speck of light in the distance I see nothing and I reach for the wall. I let my hand give me the solid comfort of stone blocks beside me. With every hesitant step I realize that this passage descends as we walk along. We go down a bit farther with each step. I feel warmth touch my forearm.

  “We are getting close,” says Woman.

  “To what?” says Boy.

  “Wow!” Teenager cries.

  “Did you feel that?” I say.

  “This is weird,” he replies.

  “The floor is shaking,” Woman says.

  “Everything is,” says Boy.

  The ground slowly rises under our feet, and the wall groans like bones about to break. Now the floor pitches again and rolls. “Damn!” I say, “I can’t see anything.” The corridor creaks like timbers on a tall ship, and the wall cracks as the ground breaks apart under our feet.

  “Oh, my!” Woman cries.

  Between us the floor splits and drives us apart. Woman jumps to one side of the chasm and I have to let go of her hand. “Wait!” I cry out across the growing pit. I reach out to grab her hand and realize fast that I am alone on this side. They are all over there standing in the dark.

  “Watch out!” I hear Teenager cry, and a huge timber plummets into the gap, almost smacking Harlequin’s slender legs. “Damn!” Teenager shouts as a jagged rock ascends under his armpit lifting him off his feet.

  Harlequin scrambles to stay on his feet, and Teenager seizes his forearm. Like shadows they clamber across a pile of broken stone and shattered fragments of wood. Overhead I hear a thick beam break loose with a nearly painful sound. A piece of the beam drops into the hole.

  I wrap my arm around a boulder, and I cry, “Over here!” Woman steps up to the edge in silhouette. I stretch as far I can and I shout, “Do it now—don’t wait!”

  She steps back as I repeat, “Go!”

  She runs for the bluff and leaps across the great crevasse and crashes into my chest. As we tumble backwards, I shout, “You did it!”

  She wriggles out of my embrace and jumps to the edge of the dark precipice. She cries out to Boy: “Jump—Jump! Jump!”

  On the other side his body shows a doubt; he hesitation just enough to show he might not take the plunge. Woman cries out again, “Now, do it now!”

  Boy takes a step backward.

  “Do it, Kid!” I quickly add.

  “This is it!” Woman cries. “Go for it!”

  Boy heaves himself across as a fragment of splintered wood drops into the hollow; he leaps away from the broken edge and comes falling into Woman’s waiting arms. I grab them both and pull; we tumble backwards into a round of pure glee.

  “You did it,” Woman cries. “You did it!

  “That was great, you crazy kid!” I shout. I glimpse Harlequin’s silhouette on the edge of the chasm. Teenager’s darker shadow is a step behind him.

  “Where the hell is everybody?” he shouts.

  “Come on, don’t wait—do it now” I cry, “Let’s go!” The two shadows clasp hands. They leap from a scraggy pile of debris and jump out over the dark crevice. Harlequin flies with arms and legs thrashing above the gaping hole and I watch him land on his feet; he does a quick dance to remain upright. Now I look around for Teenager and see nothing. He’s not here. I spring to the edge thinking he didn’t make it. I look into the dark precipice and I see a dim patch of flesh wrapped around a jagged edge of extended rock. “Oh, my God!” I say, dropping down to my knees and spreading them apart. “Hang on, Kid!” I reach down. “Here! Take my hand!” His free arm waves around the rock as he stretches trying to reach my fingers. “C’mon, Kid!” I blurt. “You can do this! Take my hand. That’s it! Here we go!”

  I have his wrist in my hand and he clings to mine. He reaches for my bicep and takes hold just above my elbow. As I pull him up I feel Woman’s forearm around my neck. “Come on up,” I squeak. Teenager scrambles over the lip of the earthquake, and I poke my arm under his armpit and pull back hard. He tumbles onto my chest.

  “I thought you were lost,” I cry.

  “Me too,” he cries out.

  “Welcome back!” Woman shouts.

  “Here he is,” I say happily.

  “I knew you would make it!” Boy says.

  “I’m glad you did,” Teenager laughs.

  I see Harlequin’s body shaking from fear, or laughter. I don’t know which. But no matter now. We all made it to this side.

  Woman hugs Harlequin and Teenager, and Boy wraps his arms around them all.

  “I thought I was a goner!” Teenager blurts.

  “Oh, oh!” I exclaim.

  “Now what?” Woman says.

  “Did you hear that?”

  “It was pretty scary,” Boy says.

  “I mean now, right now—listen!”

  Everybody goes silent. A big chunk of timber strikes a wall on its way down, but somewhere ahead of us, there is a growing beastly sound. We look at each other. We can’t go back.

  I wouldn’t if we could, but I feel quite stuck in what could be called a complex situation.

  Another strange sound occurs up ahead.

  To give myself comfort I say, “It’s all right. Hey! We made it! Let’s focus on that.”

  Without a particle of humor in his voice, Teenager replies, “Yeah … right.”

  Following my fingers on the wall, I lead the way through new darkness until I spy another soft spiral of light on a bend up ahead. Before I can think about it, my hand reaches an indentation in the wall and I look to my right. I can just barely make out a dark shadow deep in the alcove. I go down three steps to get closer. I see now, set deep, in the far end of the space, a gigantic door made of wrinkled old wood. It is still so dark I can’t see it without drawing near. I look up. This door is so big it’s hard to believe.

  I step up closer.

  A sudden grunt on the other side catches my attention. Now another ugly sound seeps through the cracks.

  “What was that?” Woman whispers.

  I don’t answer because I have no idea. I can’t imagine the maker of sounds like this, what they are, or what they might mean. Behind the door a bizarre complaint rages, deep and ominous.

  The sound grows more menacing. I simply shudder standing by the door. I don’t know what to do. A single word comes to mind: Skedaddle!

  “What the hell was that?” Teenager loudly whispers.

  “I don’t think you want to know,” I react.

  Woman joins us and we merely gaze at the portal as if doing nothing might be a good plan.

  Woman steps up to the door and lays her ear on her cupped hand. Brave girl, I think.

  “Oh, my!” she says, “Oh, my, my!”

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “Look at the size of that latch,” Boy says.

  I look up and say, “Thank God it’s locked. This thing looks like a door—”

  “—to a dungeon,” Woman cries.

  The word sounds so spooky I have to say, “Wait a minute. Don’t jump to conclusions. Let’s not be hasty.” I add the obvious. “We don’t have to hang around this place, why stay here?”

  “Do you want to go?” Woman asks.

  “No—Damn it.”

  “So what do we do?” Teenager says.

  I feel the lion’s big head on my thigh. On the other side, the black leopard rubs against my leg. I’m glad they are with us but it’s too close. Now a drastic explosion of sound blasts the enormous door. “Whatever made that happen ain’t good,” I say as another heavy blow assails the wooden door. It is followed by a clearly savage grunt.

  “I never heard that befo
re,” Woman says.

  “Not even in a zoo,” says Teenager.

  The smell of old wood mixes with an aroma of ancient stone. “This place reminds me of old times,” I say.

  “What old times?” Woman laughs.

  “You know, like Old Tymes.”

  “No, what do you mean?”

  “I don’t know, like in—”

  A sudden big bang smacks the door, which trembles from the eye-watering impact. Now something strikes metal somewhere beyond the door, and we hear other things crashing. They crush and fall apart as our attention is seized by the brute force now banging the door.

  White splinters crack open next to Woman’s head; she stands awestruck, watching strips of wood sheer away. Boy grabs Woman and pulls her to his side. Harlequin and Teenager press close to them, and I edge to the door and cock my head like a burglar with a sack of silver. Unknown things continually thrash and crash inside, and I try to maintain my cool the only way I know.

  “Wow!” we align an awestruck whisper.

  ∞ 18 ∞

  From the huge bronze latch a heavy brass ring hangs at the end of a big crossbar. I grab the ring and pull the metal bolt. Lifting my foot to the wall, I use my leg as a lever as I arch my back and pull hard as I can. I feel it give only a little. I now pull the ring with all my might, and I watch the crossbar slowly scrape sidewise under the wide bronze hasps. I shoulder the door hard.

  It gives only about two inches.

  “That’s it,” I say. “I can’t get more.”

  “Can you see inside?” Woman says.

  “Well, I wanted to, but now—”

  “Tell us what you see!” she importunes with a squeeze on my shoulder.

  “You won’t believe it,” I say, my nose stuck in the slot. “I mean—Wow!”

  Woman yanks my suspenders and lets them snap on my bare skin.

  “Hey!”

  “Tell us what you see!” she cries.

  “It’s hard to describe.”

  “Try!”

  “I see—Owp!—my God!”

  “What?”

  “This is not easy—I mean—look at that face! He’s big and mean, and really ugly. He could be a Neanderthal, but he’s bigger. A lot bigger. Twice as big, and he has one eyebrow crossing his face on a ridge of thick bone. Wait, that’s not exactly right. There is something different about him. He’s not what I just said; there is more to this guy. You are not going to believe this.”