The Stone of Blood (23 page)

“We’ll see.” Mama answered.

Mama didn’t seem to suspect me of nothin’. So I reckoned that she didn’t realize I had been someplace else at all! I was glad she didn’t question me about it, cause I always prided myself on tellin’ the truth.

If Mama had questioned me …all that I had as an excuse to support my adventures was my way of deciphering words in such a way as to be able to do whatever I needed to do. I mean, I wasn’t lyin’; at least not from a certain point of view! But since technicalities really only worked if you had a lawyer with you at the time, and since parents usually overruled as many technicalities as kids could possibly present ..
.
I really didn’t want to have to venture down that road if I didn’t have to.

I thought about that bell tower then as we were drivin’ past it on the way back to our house and about how it would feel to be up there all of the time by myself, lookin’ out over the whole town and all. I wondered what the words were too, the words that were written on the side of it; the ones that I had ‘
rubbed
’ on the paper that was now safely folded up inside of my pocket.

I rolled down my side window and let the air blow into the car against my face to cool me off.

And I listened to the church bell as it began to ring.

Fourteen

Of Blood or Name

S
ummer was endin’ in less than a week. And I don’t know as if I ever said it out loud before or enough, but ‘
I really hated school!
’ There were always a bunch of teachers there tellin’ you what to do! And there were always a bunch of kids there too! Kids who you really didn’t care enough about to see em’ over the summertime but you still had to put up with em’ again for a whole nother’ year in a place ya really didn’t wanna ‘
be
’ at in the first place! I really hated school. Except for lunchtime and recess I guess, but if I’d had my druthers, I’d
druther
have not been at school!

I didn’t have a way of translatin’ the words that I had gotten from off of the bell that day with the limited amount of recourses that I had available to me at my house, so I figured that I had to find a way to get myself back to town somehow and do some further investigatin’. The best idea that I could come up with was to spend the night at Colby’s house, and then me and him could walk from there up to the Library or wherever. It
was
the last week of summer and all, so I figured it wouldn’t be that hard for me to get to stay over there, since he’d already stayed at my house. His house was right down from McDonald’s, so we could stop there if we needed to get a drink or a coke or somethin’. Well again …maybe not …since we didn’t have no money or nothin’.

Colby’s room was absolutely amazing! He could put up any kind of poster or whatever he wanted to on his walls …and his mom didn’t even say nothin’ to him about em’ at all! There was one great big poster that he had of a skeleton lookin’ monster named Eddie, from a Rock band by the name of Iron Maiden that I don’t know
how
he could even sleep in there by himself with that thing lookin’ at him like it did! It was creepy! Weird music too! But everybody’s different, I reckon.

Anyways, I did get to spend the night! And the next mornin’, me and Colby headed right out for town …right after his mom and dad had gone to work that is. That gave us pretty much the whole day to get to wherever we needed to get to, and then get back again to his house before anybody ever knew that we were gone!

Of course we had to make a quick stop down there by the creek first, so that Colby could show me somethin’. I didn’t know exactly what it was, cause he wouldn’t tell me! But I was assured that it wouldn’t take us too much time. And then we could go on to the Library afterwards just like we’d planned.

“It’s just down here a little bit further.” Colby said. “I found it the other day when I was out exploring!”

We walked along side of the creek bed, upon its banks, stumblin’ and steppin’ over big rocks and downed tree limbs, and grass and dirt. The way was overgrown with weeds and brush as we pushed our way through. And we walked by way of the woods the rest of the way, down to the place where Colby lead.

“It’s right up here Toby!” Colby said excitedly. “I found it chained up to the rocks over there around the bend a ways further down, with nobody around it and with no name on it or nothin’!”

The water was deeper at this part of the stream. I couldn’t swim and neither did I want to!

The creek bed had made the whole area surroundin’ it a wet and muddy mess. So I wasn’t goin’ any closer to it than I had to. But I did like the sound of the cool runnin’ waters as they splashed against its rocks and then rolled along lazily beside me. It brought with it the fresh smells of life that permeated all around its watery edge.

“There it is!” Colby exclaimed and then he stood there with his arms folded, just waitin’ for my reaction.

“There it is! So …what do you think?” he exclaimed again.

I could tell that Colby was heartily excited by the way he was jumpin’ around and stuff. It was like he had just discovered a lost Christmas present that had pushed itself all the way around to the back of the tree! “
But Hey!
” I thought. “
This wasn’t friggin’ Christmas! This was July!
”

“What are you talkin’ about Colby?” I replied. “All I can see is a boat.”

“That’s it!” He replied. “That’s what I found! It was chained up to an old rock so I just went and got me a hammer and I chiseled it off! And I became the ‘
Captain of my own destiny’
!”

Colby always had a unique way of lookin’ at things. What other people might have seen as the takin’ of someone’s personal property by unlawful force, Colby saw as freein’
said
property from its captors!

“Colby, that’s called stealin’.” I said. “You can go to jail for stuff like that!”

“It’s not stealing unless it belongs to somebody, Toby!” Colby said as though he was kinda startin’ to get mad at me. “Besides, there weren’t nobody’s name on it and there aint been nobody out here lookin’ for it neither! So as far as I know it was
abandoned
.” he continued. “So that makes it mine!”

Colby was my best friend. But it didn’t mean that we agreed on a whole lot of stuff! Like that time we were down there fishin’ by the creek and he wanted to fish from one of those rocks over there on the other side of that waterfall! Now I’d have to admit that it
was
pretty ‘
danged’
awesome standin’ over there with all those waters just fallin’ down all around us and splashin’ us! And feelin’ the mist as it rose up into the air and come right back down on us again! Standin’ there beneath that waterfall was fine! But I told Colby, I said, “
I couldn’t swim
” and all, and he knew that!

So I told him too that, “
if I slipped off of one of those slippery wet rocks while I was gettin’ over there and ‘drownded’, then he was gonna have to come in and get me cause I couldn’t swim!”

Well …of course he didn’t agree to that cause he said that he wouldn’t be able stop laughin’ long enough to come in and get me! So when I did slip and fall into that creek, beneath about three feet of those roarin’ creek waters just like I told him I would …well it was all he could do to keep from laughin’ himself to death!

I mean my face hit that water and everything and I liked to drowned!

Well, when I caught my bearings again and stood up, I was madder than a hornets’ nest! But he did keep his word! He just kept on laughin’ at me!

So I wasn’t gonna fight him over the wrongs or rights about whether or not this was or was not his boat! This weren’t any life or death situation like that other one was! He never did hardly ever listen to me anyways …so I just dropped the whole subject and made a point of lettin’ him know that we needed to be headed to town if we were to be gettin’ up there and back in time …so that no one would know we’d been gone!

I could tell that he was aggravated at me though, cause I wasn’t as excited as he was about havin’ that there boat. But I didn’t care! Me and Colby didn’t always see life the same way. To me it was a clear cut case of stealin’. And I wasn’t havin’ no part of it!

We left the woods shortly thereafter, and we walked along the concrete streets and roadways towards town. We talked alot about the things that I’d discovered in Mama’s encyclopedias and I told him about my journey to the bell
tower
of
St. Joseph
’s Church.

But Colby didn’t believe me.

“You didn’t really climb up into that bell tower!” Colby said. “You’re just foolin’. I’ll bet you never even left the Library.”

“I did too!” I replied. “And I don’t care if you believe me or not Colby! I know what I did and I got proof of it too!”

I reached into my left front pants pocket and I pulled out the piece of paper that I had made the ‘
rubbing
’ on from the Cathedral Bell and I showed it to him.

“See!” I said. “I got this from the bell when I was up there!” And then I handed it to him.

Colby took the paper from out of my hand so fast that it almost ripped right in two! It about half way made me mad cause if he tore that up after I had worked so ‘
danged
’ hard to get it then somebody was gonna get whooped for it! And I was in just such a mood that I wouldn’t have minded dishin’ out a
whoopin’
on him neither!

“What’s all these words mean?” Colby asked as he walked slower …then turned back towards me and walked backwards down the road, not watchin’ where he was goin’.

“I believe it’s in French.” I replied. “I don’t know if it means anything or if it can even help us find out anything related to the ‘
werewolf
’ cave, but it’s proof that this whole town benefitted from its alliance with
France
and the friendship between Father Flaget and their King. And since there were also French writings upon the walls of the cavern, the evidence suggests that there is a connection between the ‘
werewolves
’ and France itself!”

“You’re so full of bull crap!” Colby said and then he looked at me serious. “So you really did climb up into that bell tower?” He asked as I shook my head ‘
yes
’ in reply. “Well then …I’m impressed, Toby!” he said in near disbelief! “I’m really impressed!”