It Is Said (Mathias Bootmaker and the Keepers of the Sandbox) (18 page)

The Fetcher waived his hand and the door to the cell pushed open. He stood in the doorway as Mouse quietly walked past him. He watched as the boy turned when he reached the center of room in order to face him. Mouse raised his hand and beckoned the Fetcher to join him.

The Fetcher raised his hand, closed his fist and the door slammed shut. A key appeared in the air and inserted itself into the lock. With a flick of his finger, the key broke off in the lock. He closed his fist again, and this time, the doorknob crumpled in place. With a flick of his wrist the bolts at the top and the bottom of the door slid home quickly and solidly.

The silly ritual complete, the Fetcher began his walk down the corridor. So much unnecessary drama, he thought, since he knew that somewhere between the slamming of the door and the sliding of the bolts, the clever little boy had vanished from his cell.

The Fetcher did the same, as the torch fires went out.
 

13.

The Sandbox

Mathias walked, jumped and swam the debris filled expanse to the rock tower. Upon reaching its base, he began to climb up towards the Academy Darke and closer to the cursed castle with the mysterious and terrible past.

The climb, while fast, was not easy. Just like the cliffs, the laborers that worked here had made outcroppings to make their way up to the top. Some were still there. Some crumbled to the touch or the step. Mathias took care but kept climbing higher and higher as quickly as he could.

He rested for only a moment at the steps to the doors of the academy. The doors would not open, of course, so Mathias sat on the steps leading to them and looked down at the world he was in, but of course did not know.

There was no need for the green glasses anymore. The energy emanating from his destination was casting dim light below. He could see Ulysses laying on the black beach. He was sleeping off the effects of his wine. There would be no such rest for Mathias.

With the doors locked Mathias had no choice but to scale the walls. This was not easy at all. He had to find footholds and spaces to grasp onto. He wedged the edges of his boots and crammed the tips of his fingers into every cramped space between the stones. He clambered over the top of the wall and dropped onto the roof of the Academy Darke and the courtyard of the castle.

Mathias looked around the large open space. Columns and archways framed several dramatic entrances to the castle portion of the compound. Those doors were closed and sealed shut with planks of wood. Where the planks crossed, the image of a shield crest was burned into the wood.

The floor of the vast space was laid out in a chessboard pattern. Polished opaque black stones filled in the dark spaces. In the white, there were clear polished stones. Those clear stones were emanating the faintest glimmer of light. Mathias was the only player on the board. Then just like that, the Fetcher appeared in front of him.

The Fetcher dispatched Mathias quickly. There were several blows to vital parts of his body, all in rapid succession. The Fetcher then grabbed him by the hip and neck. The specter lifted the intruder up and hurled him over the wall with ease, but with great force.

Mathias was flying. All was quiet as he glided through the air. He could hear his clothes rippling as he began to pick up speed. He was dropping now and dropping fast. The surface of the lagoon was coming up to meet him. He hit it hard. The next instant the water opened up and swallowed him whole.

He gasped for air and drank in salty water. Mathias struggled to swim to the surface, but a strong current took him. He was being pulled down deeper. An underwater whirlpool was forming. It sucked him in and propelled him through the water. Mathias was certain he was going to drown.

He never thought he would die in this way.

Mathias was near blackout when he broke the surface of the water. He choked as he tried to take in as much air as he could. He thrashed and swam wildly as he tried to make his was to the shore. Once he made it, he stopped and sat waist deep in the lagoon.

Wanting to see if the Fetcher was looking down at him, he looked up to the castle. It was gone. So was the rock tower. There was nothing but ocean. Everything else was gone. However, in the night sky there was a single, small faint moon.

“That’s the world you just came from,” came a voice from behind him.

Mathias turned towards the beach. There at the shore just out of reach of a fading wave stood a tall, stylishly dressed chimpanzee. He was looking at the same dimly lit moon as Mathias.

“We dance around each other. We pull away and then we turn closer in one continual genesis,” he said lovingly. “Time curves round us. Everything that has happened, is happening now. Everything we are to become will be born in an instant. Everything will be created in one perfect moment, and our creation will be the greatest mystery of all time.”

The unusual poet before him wore dark brown boots that stopped mid calf. The bottoms of his dark blue silk pants were stuffed into them. Around the top of his head, he wore a black bandana tied in a knot at the back of his neck. The tails of that knot were draped over a white silk shirt. He had one hand on his hip, and in the other he held a shovel that he had slung over his shoulder.

“My, you’re different,” Mathias said.

The chimpanzee looked down at him. His eyes were soulful.

“I am Simon James Fox,” he stated boldly. “Welcome to the Sandbox, Mathias Bootmaker. We’ve been expecting you.”

Having said that, the ape walked away from the water's edge, and to his encampment by the sea. It boasted a fire and an assortment of books, colorful costumes, and musical instruments. He stopped just outside a small, colorful, pointed tent. Simon stabbed the shovel into the sand, pulled a large cello from the small tent and sat on a modest bench fashioned out of sand.

He pointed at Mathias with his bow and then pointed to the spot across from him by the fire. He put the bow to the strings and his fingers on the neck of the instrument. Simon closed his eyes and began playing a joyous, but melancholy little tune while he waited for his guest to join him.

Mathias was annoyed and the overly loud splish splashy sounds he made as he got out of the water were proof of that. If an adult could have a tantrum, then this is what it would look like. He tripped over his own feet as they first hit dry sand. Simon played on.

Mathias pushed himself up and kicked through the sand as he made his way to the fire. Some sprayed into the fire and crackled and popped. It hit Simon. It hit his cello. The chimp played on.

Mathias sat on the sand by the fire as the maestro had conducted him to do. The sand in this place was not black. It was a golden yellow. Beyond the firelight, beyond the tent, there was nothing but golden yellow sand extending into infinite darkness.

“What is this place?” he asked of his host.

Simon was lost in his music.

The chimpanzee had stuck the shovel in the sand next to a rather large hole that was being dug. On the other side of it was a metal pail. The hole, Mathias thought, looked very much like a grave in the making.

“How and why am I here?” he asked in a stronger tone.

The chimp closed his eyes tighter and continued on with his performance. Looking around at the variety of items spread around the campsite, Mathias suspected that Simon was a journeyman, actor, and artist.

“Who are you?”

“We,” Simon said with emphasis, and without missing a beat, “are the Ocean of Stars Nation, and the protectors of the Lady in Starlight.”

“That’s a mouthful,” was his snide reply.

“You’re a bit snarky,” Simon said as he stopped playing. “I’ll have to remember that the next time I tell your story.”

“You know my story?”

“Who doesn’t know your story?” he said matter of factly.

“Well, I don’t for one!” Mathias shouted.

Simon sighed, stood up and put the cello in the tent. He pulled out a small rug that he rolled up, and placed by the hole and the shovel.

“Life is not a puzzle to be solved, Mathias Bootmaker, but rather a mystery to be lived.”

“Platitudes? Really?’ Mathias pushed. “You may know my story, but you don’t understand anything of my troubles.”
 

“You know that if you put your hand in the fire it will burn,” the chimp said as he sat back down, “yes?”

“Yes,” he responded reluctantly.

“You remember what stars look like?”

“Yes,” Mathias answered as he looked up at yet another starless sky. “Yes, I do.”

“But you can only remember bits and pieces about yourself?”

Mathias chose not to answer the obvious.

“And so you search for answers. You have faith that you will find them. You and I are on the same journey. We’re just walking different paths. Yours is neither more or less than mine. They’re just different.”

Simon smiled at his guest as he warmed his hands by the fire.

“I know much more than you think,” he said in earnest, “and there’s nothing wrong with different.”

The chimpanzee had a point, but Mathias was in no mood to be toyed with.

“Where is the rest of your nation?” he challenged.

Simon closed his eyes and let out a series of hollers. He started in low tones and jumped to highs and then ended with a well toned scream. His cries carried passed them, and over the dunes of golden sand. His song was echoing everywhere.

Grunts and hollers and screams came back in return as great fires began to blaze on each of four dunes in the distance.

“Five tribes make our nation one,” Simon explained with pride. “We have a tribe of Scientists because we always search for understanding, a tribe of Thinkers, because we seek a fluid and balanced mind, one for Historians because knowledge of our past makes us wiser, and one for the Protectors, because we must serve.”

“There are five tribes, but I only see four fires,” Mathias questioned.

Simon points to the fire in front of him.

“I am emptiness. The fifth point in the star.”

“You are a tribe of one?”

“I was chosen by my kith and kin. I am a river of openness to them. All their thoughts and wishes, all their hopes and dreams reside inside me. I am their vessel.”

“That is the role, but what is the purpose of their vessel?”

“I’m here to remind them to keep things in balance. To honor our nation. To always remember that we all come from the stars and that one day we will all return to them.”

“But there are no stars, Simon.”

“But there will be, Mathias.”

“How do you know that there will be?”

“We, as a nation, are the caretakers of the sand and the ocean from which you emerged.”

Simon pointed to the fire, then swept his hand to the black water and the sparks followed. They flew out over the water and began to reflect on its surface. The sand at the shoreline began to shimmer. It stopped as the embers fell into the sea and were extinguished.

“We are also the protectors of the Lady in Starlight. When she comes, she will bring the stars with her. The reflected energy from those stars will feed the lagoon, which in turn will empower the sand.”

“Who is she?”

“We don’t know.”

“If she’s not here now, then where is she?”

“Wherever she needs to be, I would imagine.”