The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival (27 page)

David said, “Yes, we believe this really
could be a game changer.”

Jacob asked, “What was the fallout from this,
do you know? Are the kids alright?”

Robbie answered, “As far as we know, the
children are fine. Not one news mention or police report. Like it
never happened.”

Jacob said, “I guess that’s not so
surprising.” He clasped his hands together. “How to use this…”

Robbie offered, “Well, how about just going
with the audio… It’s useful information for the audience, but still
keeps it more in the realm of rumors than fact.”

Jacob nodded. “I was thinking something
similar. In fact, how’s this. Here’s my address,” he handed them a
card, “Mail me the audio on a thumb drive in a plain envelope, no
return address from the location of your choice. That’ll keep you
anonymous. I’ll refer to you as trusted sources. We can go from
there.”

Girls were permitted one bag of personal
items, and that bag was provided by Tweedy Pines. Tracy stared at
it as it sat open and empty on her bed at home. She knew that
somehow this bag, a leather trimmed canvas bag with the school’s
logo was meant to be very significant just as the pile of branded
uniform clothing was supposed to be significant. Her mom treated it
almost reverently and was very wrapped up in the ritual of
preparing Tracy for leaving home. Telia kept sniffling. Tracy was
resigned to going, but the only emotion she felt about the
experience was dulled anger.

“Mom, I think
you
want to go to Tweedy
Pines.”

Her mother smiled and wiped her eye. “I know
you don’t like this right now, but someday, I hope soon, you’ll
thank me for being such a bitch.”

The word ‘bitch’ shocked Tracy. Her mom
usually didn’t swear like the rest of the family did. She was
usually relatively reserved and proper, especially in front of her.
Tracy felt her mom was dropping her guard.

“Mom, I’m going for this year, then I’m going
to Chardon.” She said matter of factly. She started to pack
underwear and socks.

Telia sighed. “I know. I just hope you can
give it a chance. take some opportunities to explore a different
way of living, experience more of the world. The girls go on trips
all the time.”

Tracy groaned, “So do Robbie and Dad.” she
shrugged. “I am sure I could go with them.”

Telia stood up, “Maybe someday. I’m just
hoping you can see there’s more to the world than just this place.
Our family can be, well, overwhelming.”

“Mom, I’m not dumb. I get what you’re saying.
I don’t want to do it, but I’m going to try.”

Telia gave her a big hug. “That’s all I ask.
Besides, it’s not like you’re going to a different planet. It’s not
even ten miles.”

“I’m going to miss my friends, like Morgan.”
she said.

“Well, he can come over and visit when you
do. Honestly, it might not be a bad idea to give him some space.
His family has a lot going on right now.”

“I think I should be there for him. We
should.” Tracy said emphatically. Telia rubbed her daughter’s
head.

“You’re a really good person.” Telia beamed
at her. She wiped the corner of her eye. Then she became all
business. “Now finish packing. Remember toiletries!”

Tracy finished filling up the bag. There was
only enough room for clothes, a journal, and she shoved the sparrow
hawk sculpture into the center of the bag.

Her dad drove them to the Tweedy Pines
campus. The new students entered the campus on a service road then
went into a recital hall, which was a replica of a gothic church.
The recital hall was a few hundred yards from the main cluster of
school buildings. The girls turned over their bags, like they were
checking in at an airline counter, then they were to walk across
the green with their new “sisters” and leave their parents
behind.

“Well, I guess I’ll head over there.” Tracy
said to her parents.

Matt let out a long sigh and crouched down.
He hugged her and put a phone and charger in her hands. “Can you
stash that? I’m not sure how strict they’ll be.”

Telia said, “Matt, they’re not supposed
to…”

He held up his hand and smiled at Telia,
“It’s Tracy’s first lesson of the
real
world.”

Tracy stashed the phone in the waistband of
her skirt. “Can you see it?”

Matt smiled, “No. You can text us any
time.”

Telia hugged her. “I’ll be happy to hear from
you, I admit.”

Tracy waved and walked across the grass.

They watched her until she merged with other
groups of girls and they milled into one of the red brick
buildings.

The
Flying Fox
received her finishing
touch--a logo of a Fox with wings flying above a crescent moon.

Johnny loaded their equipment into the cargo
bay. They converted the bus into an RV. The
Flying Fox
was
about the length of two full sized cars. The interior space felt
snug and homey with almond colored leather, walnut wood trim, and
pistachio carpet. Dana could easily walk the length of the bus
without stooping over, but Johnny had to keep his neck bent. Two
monitors were mounted into the wall near the front of the bus, and
a fold-out desk was attached to the wall beneath them. The
Flying Fox
was their nerve center and communication
station.

Kenny stood out on the concrete driveway
waving goodbye as the bus rolled out of
Star Chariots
. They
started north on I-65 heading back to the Wells Farm.

Autumn was already kissing the leaves as they
entered Summit County and crossed into Northeast Ohio. Dana was
behind the wheel and Johnny was sketching out antenna designs on a
piece of paper. She called back to him, “I never noticed there’s an
actual difference in the trees and landscape when you hit this
point.” she pointed out the window as a sign demarcating the Great
Lakes basin rolled past.

He was lounging on a couch in the back deeply
absorbed in his work. He put the papers down and stood up. “You’re
right, I think. Seems more green. Must be from being so close to
the Lake.” He watched the road rolling underneath the nose of the
bus.

Dana looked back, “Dude, I have to warn you,
sometimes Matt’s wife and I don’t get along so well.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Whaaaaaaat? I find
that hard to believe.”

“You know how Matt can be?” Dana said.

“You mean bossy?” Johnny asked. “He’s not
that bad.”

“Right, he’s not that bad, because he’s
really all about the knowledge.”

Johnny nodded. “Yep. That’s about right.”

“She’s got that queen of the world quality,
and is
not
about the knowledge. As long as I’ve known them,
she’s just ignored this crazy shit we’re into.”

“To be fair, it’s a total accident I found
out about this stuff. Maybe Matt protects her from it. I can see
that.”

“She just doesn’t fit in with
us
. I
don’t trust her.”

They got to the farm in the early afternoon,
but the shadows were already long and the sun was just above the
trees on the Western horizon.

Matt helped them carry bags into the house.
“You guys want a drink? It will be a while until dinner’s ready.
Tee’s at the store ‘til six.”

“Sure, anything would be good. A beer?”
Johnny said.

“How about whisky? I’ve got some really good
stuff. Really smooth and smoky.” Matt said.

Dana put an arm around Matt, “Where’s your
bright shining star of a daughter?”

“She’s actually away at school. Too bad she’s
missing that bus!”

Dana furrowed her brow, “What? How away?”

Matt frowned, “It’s not far. She’s just down
the road at a boarding school--Tweedy Pines.”

“Wow… I never expected that. She wanted
that?”

Matt held up both hands, not wanting to
rehash all the summer’s arguments. “Not exactly. It’s Telia’s idea.
It might be good for Tracy… but if she doesn’t like it, next year
she can go back to Chardon High.”

Dana harrumphed and went back to the Flying
Fox to unload more bags.

Johnny and Matt went into the library. Matt
had a big corkboard that was filled with notes, articles and
photos. He said, “it’s amazing there’s a certain, logic, that
pervades all this religious ceremony; dancing, chanting, singing
that I never noticed before.”

“Matt, I gotta say, I’m still not convinced
yet, but it’s an intriguing theory.”

Matt nodded, “Frankly, I’m not either. I’ve
been at this for years now and the progress has been incredibly
slow. Could all be my imagination.” He took a long pull on his
glass of whiskey.

Johnny asked, “Do you worry that the peyote
might just be causing hallucinations?”

“My theory’s been that shamans used
hallucinogens not so much as a bridge to cross over, but as a type
of inoculation against what was there. But yeah, I do worry it’s
all just a figment of my own mind.”

Johnny drained his glass, then put a sketch
of his device on the corkboard.

“That it?” Matt asked.

Johnny pointed at it, “this is the first one.
This is a reflector, not an antenna. We’re not plugging it into
your brain. See how I used different shading on each segment?”

Matt nodded, “Yeah I was wondering about
that.”

“It’s actually encoding the three dimensional
position of the sub-units of the reflector. It will take a while to
fabricate, but it’s made of cheap materials. Just copper and some
inexpensive electronics.”

“How do we aim it?” Matt asked.

“It will be gimbal mounted, with a chair in
the center at the focus of the reflector. It’ll be about 20 feet in
diameter. You’ll need a ladder to get in.”

Matt sat down, “Damn! 20 feet. That’s not
exactly portable!”

“I guess we need to build it somewhere near
people.”

Matt walked over to a corner of the
corkboard. “I hoped we’d just drive it around in a box truck, but
we’ll have to put it in a warehouse. Right here…”

It took about a month to build the reflector.
They built it in a warehouse near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River.
From the perspective of the chair at the center of the gimbal, the
the reflector looked like the Occitan Cross, but from the side, it
looked like a giant mesh ball that was suspended in a large wooden
frame. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead and cast a wirework
shadow on the floor. Sunlight filtered in from dirty frosted glass
windows and cast rectangular boxes of yellowish light on the slate
gray concrete floor.

Matt took a hit of the peyote tea, and
offered it to Johnny, too. He sniffed it and frowned. “Nah, I’ll
pass this time.”

Matt said, “for the first time out, let’s aim
it at the sun.”

Johnny said, “Seems appropriate somehow.” He
typed in the coordinates and the controller swung the gimbal
mounted reflector around.

Matt climbed up a wooden ladder and took his
seat. He barely closed his eyes for a moment when the now familiar
feeling of his consciousness opening up struck him, this time with
clarity and power. He mumbled, “holy shiii…….”

A feeling of stately power washed through him
with the force of a tidal wave, but Johnny broke the connection by
moving the reflector and Matt came to.

Matt asked, “Whoa! What happened?!”

“Dude, that did not look healthy. Think
‘Scanners’
. That reminds me, we probably should hook up some
heart rate monitoring at least. I didn’t think this could be
physically dangerous. Frankly, I didn’t expect anything to
happen.”

“Yeah, that was intense. I still feel it.
Wow… Alright, see that book I left on the table?”

“Aha. Yeah,
Pi To 1 Million Digits
. I
hear they’re making a sequel.” Johnny held it up and laughed.

Matt groaned, “Very funny. Pick a random spot
and highlight 7 digits.”

Johnny flipped the pages open and highlighted
a segment. “Alright. Do you want me to memorize the digits?”

Matt shrugged, “Yeah, maybe, why not?
Couldn’t hurt.” Johnny gave him a thumbs up after a few seconds.
“Try aiming me at the city.” Matt said.

“OK. I’ll aim it at the terminal tower.” The
gimbal spun around.

Matt said, “We should sell tickets to this
thing. Fun ride!” He settled down again and in a few moments, the
connection was made, except this time instead of gray amorphous
shapes the black faded to a twilight landscape beach.

Matt focused his mind on the book and the
digits of Pi. He saw the numbers clearly “
525-637-5679
“ and
saw a fuzzy ghost of Johnny shimmering in mid air. He memorized the
numbers, thinking of them as a phone number, then he turned his
attention the landscape.

The twilight illuminated a pebble covered
shoreline. The sky was featureless and gray as if it were a cloudy
November evening. He moved away from the beach, climbing up a
gentle slope to a grassy plane. He felt the presence of the sun. It
was the same sensation he experienced a few minutes before, but
much less intense. He also felt the earth, which produced a
distinctly different sensation. The sun was like a surging beacon
of majestic power, while the earth exuded solemn solidity.