The Bridge (Para-Earth Series) (27 page)

             
“As am I,” agreed her uncle.  “Thank you, Miss Elliott.”

             
“You’re welcome, and please call me Cassandra or Cassie?  I’m not into the formal stuff really,” she explained.

             
“Nor am I, so please call me Jason.”

             
“I will,” she nodded. 

             
Just then an object fell off the wall and clattered noisily to the floor.

             
“The Atlatl again,” Jason sighed and got up.  “I really have to secure it to the wall better.”

             
“An Atlatl?” Cassie frowned as he picked up the weapon.  It had a sharp stone head atop a long wooden pole. “It looks like a spear.”

             
“It is a dart, but you don’t just throw this one by hand.  You need the other half to launch it,” Jason smiled and pulled an odd looking wooden staff off the wall.  It was long and slender, with a small cup at one end.  He proceeded to insert the end of the ‘dart’ into it and held them up.  “You see, it extends the wielder’s throwing arm allowing them to give it more force and distance.  Would you like to see it in use?  My niece is an expert.”

             
“I’d love it,” Cassie told him, while Julie hid her face in her hands in embarrassment.   But eventually she agreed. 

             
Out behind the cottage Jason set up a wooden target, while Julie prepared her weapon and took her stance.  Her face became a mask of concentration as she raised the weapon and held it as she became even more focused.

             
Cassandra found the sight breathtaking.

             
A moment later, the ‘dart’ flew through the air and hit the center of the target, smashing it in two. 

             
“Oops,” Julie murmured, and turned to her uncle and Cassie. “I think I got carried away.”

             
“Don’t worry about it, it’s nice to see you haven’t forgotten your training,” he said proudly.  “Do you remember your herbs and medicines as well?”

             
The black-haired girl nodded as she walked over to them. 

             
“Good.  Let’s go back inside and I’ll answer your questions regarding your friend Alex,” their host told them and went back into the house.

             
Julie was about to follow, when Cassandra stopped her. “Did you tell him we were here to ask about Alex?”

             
“No, I thought you did.”

             
Cassie shook her head and thought aloud, “Herbs, medicines, lore... is he a shaman?”

             
I am.

             
Both girls turned to face the doorway but no one was there.

distant thunder

              It was about 4 o’clock according to the clock on Veronica’s desk, when Roy popped his head into her office.  “I’m heading out to Jason’s place.  You want to come?”

             
“Sure I’ve got nothing else on my…” she began when a sound like an explosion cut her off.

             
“What the hell was that?” demanded Roy, looking around.

             
“Thunderclap?” suggested Ronnie, who looked out the window.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

              At the same time, Alex lay asleep on the couch at home.  In the dream he found himself standing in a strange corridor he had never seen before.  Yet it felt familiar.  As if he had been to this place before, but not this area of the building.  There were only four doors, two on each side of the hallway, and no windows.  But this was all wrong.  There were no stairways or corridors branching off from the hallway.  So how did he get here?  As he stood wondering, a rumbling like the coming of thunder reached his ears.  A moment later there was an even louder sound, like a volcano erupting, that shook the building and he woke up. 

             
Upon seeing his surroundings he relaxed and murmured, “It was just a dream.”  But the sound of that thundering crash was still echoing in his ears.

              The limousine carrying Cassandra and Julie pulled over to the side of the road. 

             
Casey turned to his passengers and asked, “Is everyone all right?”

             
“We’re okay,” replied his employer. 

             
“Did we hit something?” asked Julie.

             
“No, but there was a sound like a thunderclap, or possibly a sonic boom,” the driver replied.  “I’m going to check the vehicle out before we move on.”

             
Julie got out and joined him, leaving Cassandra in the backseat alone. 

             
Their visit with Jason had been enjoyable, but not as profitable as she’d hoped.  He hadn’t been able to tell them much about what he’d seen the night before…

             
Cassandra suddenly realized she was no longer alone.  Turning to the seat Julie had just vacated, she saw a young man wearing clothes right out of a Jane Austen novel.  “Brandon? What is it?” she asked him. 

             
He did not reply.  Instead he gave her a worried look and then vanished before her eyes.  “Oh dear,” she murmured.  Something terrible had just happened.

              After checking around the house to make sure everything was all right, Alex wandered back into the living room and over to where his laptop awaited.  Checking his e-mail’s he found a message from his Dad, back on Long Island, telling him about a recent fishing trip to Wantagh Park with his grandson.

             
“Wow, that brings back some memories,” he sighed.

             
Wantagh Park with its towering rocket, enormous playground and cement maze had been a favorite spot for him and his sister.  There had been metal mushrooms to climb on or ones with the top upside down that you could sit or lie in.  But the best thing about the ones with the upside down tops was that they could spin.  He and Sharon had spent many a dizzy afternoon on those. 

             
Beyond the playground lay the docks and the pier, where his father loved to fish.  Alex remembered the little fishing line he had used and how he hated baiting the hook.  His mother good-naturedly took care of it for him, even though she hated the bloody things herself.  But, every time he’d try to lower the line into the water, one of the seagulls would steal his bait right off the hook.  Eventually, he’d give up and would join his mother in long walks along the edge of the water.

             
The path they took led past a stretch of shore where a vast number of broken stonework lay.  These stones fascinated him and he loved climbing over them.  Some had writing while others were bare.  There were even some pieces of roman-style columns.  Where had they come from?  Could they belong to a lost settlement of Greeks or Romans who had somehow made it across the Atlantic Ocean to Long Island?  He later found out that they were the broken rejects of a company that worked in polished granite and other stones.  They had been meant for various building projects but had been damaged at some point and were recycled by being placed on the shore to help prevent erosion.

             
Before he could reply, another one e-mail appeared which made his heart sink.  It was from the Mathesons.  “Bloody hell,” he muttered under his breath.  “First my powers start kicking into high gear and now this.”

             
He sat back on the couch and closed his eyes.  Dr. Matheson, and his wife Marianne, had mentored him in the use of his talents when he was only ten years old.  His older cousin Rick, who had been a student of theirs in college, had brought him to their attention.  They quickly became his dearest friends, as well as his mentors.  And it had been the two of them, with a team of others, who pulled him and the other survivors out of Harlequin House.  Unfortunately, they had also been the ones who sent the team there in the first place.  It hadn’t been the first paranormal investigation he’d been on, but it wound up being the last.

             
After pulling him out, they had stayed by his side in the hospital until his grandparents came for him.  And they had stayed in touch, keeping careful tabs on him ever since.  But this wasn’t out of a sense of guilt, they truly cared.

             
“What should I tell them?” he wondered aloud.

              The next morning found Julie doing a hard run on the treadmill in her home.  Hercules had declined to join her on the machine. Usually he was the first one on it, meowing for her to join him.  But today, he opted to just watch, which was fine.  She wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally stepping on him while her mind was busy thinking about Cassandra.

             
She was convinced the girl was definitely a lesbian.  And she would undoubtedly need more advice and guidance, which wasn’t a problem.  She was more than glad to help the heiress.  But she was beginning to worry about one issue that was bound to come up.  Sooner or later Cassie would want to talk about getting into a relationship with someone.  “And then she’ll ask me if I’d be interested,” Julie sighed, hitting the stop button on the treadmill.

             
As the belt under her feet slowed and came to a stop, her mind was still in high gear.  Cassandra was not like any of the girls she’d ever dated in the past.  For one thing she was a petite little thing.  But she was also well endowed.  The girl had to be at least a large C or small D-cup, a size she was very partial to.   Most of her wrestling video opponents were built that way.  Plus Cassie had a lovely face and nice legs.  So physically she was attractive and quite desirable.

             
But, there were other problems.  For one thing, the girl was just coming out of the closet, and was totally inexperienced in certain areas.  Admittedly, time and a gentle teacher like herself could rectify that. 

             
But you don’t want to get too involved with anyone,
her brain pointed out.
You’re still not over what happened with Allison. 

             
“Shut up,” she muttered under her breath and headed for the bathroom.  She needed a shower. 

             
By the time she reached the tub, Hercules was already in it waiting for her. 

             
“You are the goofiest cat I’ve ever known,” she told him, as she undressed.  “You guys aren’t supposed to like water.” 

             
But Hercules was different.  From the moment she’d found him abandoned by his mother, when he was only a couple of weeks old, she realized he was different.  For one thing he was a fighter.  Since he was only a few days old, the vet she had told her there was only a slim chance he’d make it.  But she’d insisted on trying and had been given instructions on how to feed and care for him.  Now a year and a half later, he was 25 pounds of solid muscle and love, who also liked showers.

             
As the water cascaded over her sore muscles, she found herself thinking more about Cassandra.  After the chauffer was convinced the limo was okay, they’d gotten back on the road and stopped at a dry cleaner’s along the way. 

             
Cassie told her about what happened to Alex’s jacket and got out of the car to drop it off.  A moment later, she heard the girl open the trunk and let out a shriek. 

             
Immediately, both she and the chauffer had gotten out of the limo to see what had happened.  They found Cassie clutching her chest and breathing hard.  She also looked a bit pale and dazed. 

             
When asked what had happened, the heiress had told them she thought she’d seen a girl, covered in muck, curled up in the trunk wearing Alex’s jacket. 

             
“She opened her eyes and looked right at me and that’s when I jumped back and screamed,” Cassie told them.  “But when I looked again she was gone.  There was the just the jacket and that horrible smell coming from it.”