Authors: Brandt Legg
“Josh, say bye to Mom for me. I’ll call
soon. We
have
to go.”
“If you need a place to stay . . .” He
caught up to us. “And you really should talk to the FBI. You’re in pretty deep,
buddy.”
“Mom agreed to let it play out a little
longer.”
“Think about it. And here,” Josh handed me
a fifty.
“No Josh. I’m good. Mom gave me some cash
yesterday.”
“Just take it.”
I thanked him and stuffed the bill in my
jeans. “We gotta go.”
We flew out a side door and raced around
the building to Kyle’s car. His eyes darted back and forth as he sped out of
the lot.
“Where are we going?” Kyle asked.
“Brookings. I’ve got to find Spencer; this
is out of control! And I can’t reach him any other way, so he’s got to be at
Tea Leaf.”
“Sounds like a long shot. What about
Dustin?”
“One thing last night taught me is that Lightyear
definitely wants to take me alive. Spencer’s right. Dustin is safe as long as I
am.”
“When did you last meditate?” Kyle asked.
“Yesterday morning.”
“That’s too long.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been kind of busy trying
to stay alive.” I gave him the whole story including the Lusan. “They may all
be dead.”
“It’s the government. They can’t ever
all
be dead.”
“The ones at Tanya’s could be, and no one
might know yet. I wish I’d made Fitts tell me where Aunt Rose was.”
“How would you have done that?”
“I don’t know. I was so filled with rage I
couldn’t think straight.” I put the papers from my dad’s desk on the dash to
dry. I was glad he always wrote using Fisher Space pens because, even after
being in the river, the ink was barely blurred.
“You had those with you?” Kyle asked
pointing to the carved piece of wood and gold box in my lap.
“Yeah, in my pocket. My camera, too, but it
was lost in the river.”
“You should memorize the sheets, in case
next time you go for a swim you’re not so lucky.”
“Good idea.” I held the sheets for a minute
and it was done.
“Did you get a chance to ask Spencer about
them?”
“Yeah, he was strange. I
know
he
recognized the box, but he said he didn’t. He thought the carved piece was a
message of some sort that would reveal itself at the right time. I don’t think
he knew what it meant. The pages, though, I swear he could read the ones in
code, I mean I watched him and he was reading, but he just shook his head.”
“How about the list with his name on it?”
“I asked if he knew any of the other names
on the list or why my dad would have written it, and he got lost somewhere for
like two minutes, staring off into forever. Then said no. It was like he didn’t
want to give the pages back to me, but he finally did. Spencer’s a riddle
wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
After a few minutes of silence Kyle asked,
“What’s going on with you and Amber?”
“No comment.”
“It’s a scandal,” he said in a falsetto
voice.
“We’re just friends. But I should call her
to see if we can crash at her beach house.”
I knew Kyle was worried about missing
school. I told him I’d help him study. We stopped for some snacks and sodas. I
called Amber and Linh and caught them up. Amber wanted to join us at the beach
house, but I refused.
42
Far ahead, a mountain lion lumbered across
the road. “Did you see that?” I asked. “Pull in up there.”
“What?” I wasn’t surprised he didn’t see
it. The lion, or maybe a shapeshifter, had run into Jedediah Smith Redwoods
State Park, one of the last uninterrupted forests of old-growth coastal
redwoods left on earth.
“Something important to me. A mountain
lion.”
“Why’s that important?” He drove down one
of the narrow dirt roads that accessed a small part of the 10,000 acres of
giants. “Because we saw one the morning we first met Spencer?”
“Yeah.” I opened the car door. “Park and
catch up to me. I’ll be right back.” I jumped out and pursued the ghostly animal.
This was the first time a shapeshifter had lasted more than a few seconds.
Finding the narrow primitive path he’d taken, I was small and hushed by the
three-hundred-foot trees. The scent of pine and dark organic earth filled me.
Negotiating through lush ferns towering over me, there was another glimpse of
the lion, so I increased my speed.
A woman was on the path ahead, and it was
not clear where she came from. A flowing blue skirt with a jagged hem and bare
feet made her look out of place in the trees.
“Hello.” She appeared older than Amber but
younger than Tanya.
“Hey, you’re the one with the spilling
purse from the gas station.”
“Of course I am, Nate. Why would you be
talking to me otherwise?”
“Did you send the mountain lion?”
“What lion?” she asked, alarmed. Then she
dismissed it. “I have some things to show you.”
“I should get my friend.”
“Kyle can wait. This will only take a few
minutes.”
“Who are you?”
“Names, names, names. Why on earth is
everyone so hung up on names?”
“Where are we going?”
“Just be in this moment right now. What
happens next is of no concern, at least not until it happens.” She giggled.
The redwoods had always been special to me,
but something had changed now. I could hear them. It wasn’t like they were
speaking English; they were communicating their energy. Quietly growing,
breathing, absorbing sun and moisture, it was all around, gentle and powerful.
We weren’t really following a trail, but
she seemed to know where she was going. The earth sloped toward a small
clearing, a stand of redwoods bigger than the rest, in deep greens, reds, and
browns.
“Welcome to the Grove of Titans.” She introduced
them, “This is Lost Monarch and here is El Viejo del Norte. This beauty is
Screaming Titans, and there are Aragorn, Sacajawea, Aldebaran, Stalagmight and
that one over there is Del Norte Titan.” She looked at me smiling. “Takes your
breath, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” I whispered, and walked over to Lost
Monarch. Its magnificent trunk was nearly thirty feet wide. I learned later
Lost Monarch was the largest living tree by width
and
height. I
stretched my arms against the thick, twisting bark. In a few minutes twenty-two
centuries drifted into me. Very few people had been here in all that time,
mostly animals, and the seasons shifting in this isolated place. I saw the tree
grow from its first year, when it shot up seven feet, and the eventual climb to
where it was today. Then Lost Monarch invited me to climb.
“It wants me to climb,” I said. “How?”
She was standing next to me when all at
once she half ran and half floated up and then disappeared into the canopy.
Even with the powers I’d accumulated, it was an awesome display.
“Where are you?” I yelled.
The trees were quiet. A few minutes later
she came down another tree. “Now you.”
“I think I’ll need a six-week flight
training course before I could attempt that.”
“It’s not flying, silly. It’s ‘Skyclimbing,’
easy in nature, hard on buildings, even for you.”
“Even for me? You say it like I’m special.”
“We both
know
you are.”
“You must know Spencer.”
“Spencer-nencer, Silly-nilly. Never heard
of him. Ask another question.”
“You’re weird.”
“Is that a question?” She laughed. “Okay,
I’ll tell you. The constraints of gravity are looser than scientists would have
you believe. So all you do is this.” She ran between trees gaining speed and
momentum and soon was skipping from the ground to the lower branches and then
from tree to tree. “It’s one of those things you just have to know you can do.”
“Are you sure you don’t know Spencer? You
teach just like him.”
“The soul is more powerful than any earthly
laws of physics. Mind over matter and all that. You use Photoshop to modify
your photos, right? By rearranging pixels you change the look of a picture--remove
a flagpole, take out red eye, enhance colors, on and on.”
“Yeah.”
“Good, now stay with me. Atoms make up
everything. Think of atoms like pixels. You can rearrange the atoms on this
canvas. Your mind is like your computer’s mouse: just point and click.” She
waved her arms to frame in the trees around us. “It’s really nothing you need
to think too hard about. Just know your hands and feet can find something more
solid than leaves and air. This won’t be difficult for you. Lost Monarch
invited you
personally
.” She seemed proud.
It turned out not to be hard at all and for
a while I was convinced it was a lovely dream. I only needed the briefest
contact with a branch, or even the pine needles, in order to take off. Later I
learned it was done using Gogen and Foush.
“How do you like Skyclimbing?” she shouted.
“Is this real?”
“Is anything?” She laughed.
“It’s like that Chinese movie where they
fly around on bamboo trees, sword-fighting.”
“Where do you think that idea came from?
All creativity comes from the soul. When you read something in books or see it
in movies, it’s all expressions of soul memories.”
Branches obscured the ground, and sky was
also impossible to find; it was another world. The redwoods were so huge that other
trees, some surprisingly large, grew right on their limbs. Dried leaves, sticks,
and plants on many of the branches made it look like the lower ground. Dirt was
several feet deep in places. Rabbits and other small animals made the upper
reaches their homes. Each time I climbed higher, a new mini-forest revealed
itself.
Unexpectedly, she was by my side again.
“It’s like a great floating forest. Where
are we going? I can’t stay up here too long, Kyle will be wondering where I
am.”
“Kyle is fine. Time’s a funny thing and of
no use to your soul. It is a human invention.”
“Like evil.”
“The only evil in the world is chocolate.”
She laughed and Skyclimbed into another tree.
Wondering if nature could help me in my
search for Rose, I sat down and got into a meditative state, disengaged my
personality by feeling pure love, surrounded myself in white light. But instead
of Rose, there I was in Dustin’s room.
“Nate, you’re here, aren’t you?” Dustin
said quietly.
“I am. You’re looking better.”
“Are you allowed to lie when you’re on the
astral?” he asked, knowing he looked bad.
“Apparently.”
He smiled. “When are you getting me out?”
“I’m working on it. Any day.”
“It can’t be sooner? I guess I’ll have to
trust you on the timing. At least my head’s clearing, but going off these meds
cold turkey is a new twist in the torture.”
Then I was in Rose’s empty house and
quickly back on Lost Monarch.
“Hello,” I yelled. “Hello.” I didn’t know
her name.
“Hello, hello, hello,” she sang, emerging
from somewhere below.
“Could you please tell me your name?”
“This whole name business is an issue for
you, isn’t it? Make one up.”
“You can’t just tell me your name?”
“A name only matters for now, and I don’t
want to carry anything that heavy around. If you need one, give me one.”
“How old are you?”
“Now you’re pulling age into it. Is that
another issue for you? Is that information necessary to pick out a name? Age,
time, names, these are silly things.”
“No. I just wondered because you seem so
wise but look so young.”
“Why, thank you. Am I blushing? I must be
blushing. You’re such a charmer. I like you. Yes, I like you very much.”
“You’re so peculiar.”
“More compliments. Sweet, sweet you are.”
“Can I call you Gibi?”
“Of course, it’s a lovely name. But I’m
curious why you picked it.”
“When I was little, I had an imaginary
friend. It freaked my mom out, but one of the cooks at our restaurant, an old
Turkish immigrant with about a hundred kids and grandchildren, told her it was
just a ‘gibi’, a pretend friend. I haven’t thought about Gibi for years, but
you remind me of her.
“I wasn’t imaginary, Nate.”
I studied her closely, “
You
were
Gibi?”
“I am.”
“Where have you been for the last ten
years?” It astonished me.
“I never left.”
“So, how come you stopped talking to me?”
“It was the other way around, Nate. But it’s
not your fault. When babies are born, they’re more a part of the spiritual
plane than the material world. As they grow up, society takes over, and around
age five all is forgotten of what took place before this lifetime. Kids begin
to think of the beauty in dreams and any connection to the powers of their
souls as make-believe.”