The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival (9 page)

She was about to reply, but zoned out mid
gesture. “Tracy?” he gripped her shoulder.

“Whoa.” she said. “I
know
where we
should look.” She grabbed two mugs and poured the coffee.

He took a sip, “Oh wow, whew, that’s strong.
Do you have some cream?”

“Yup, hurry up.” she poured some cream in
hers and trotted into the library. She set the mug on the table and
went up to the second floor. She climbed up a couple of shelves and
grabbed a book and the notebook from the shelf.

She trotted down the steep stair ladder and
put the books on the table and sat down. He raised an eyebrow at
her and sat down across the table. “How…”

“I just do, I remember it. It keeps coming to
me in little fragments during the day, sometime in dreams--really
weird and vivid dreams.”

“That’s amazing, did you learn it sometime,
then just forgot?”

“I don’t think so. I think it’s like ROY G
BIV, except instead of a little thing remembering the colors, it’s
like remembering all the parts of a car and how they’re connected.”
She tapped her head, “Somehow it’s up there.”

He just nodded his head and picked up the
book and notebook. He opened the notebook first.

She pointed at the pages, “That’s notes from
researchers--that would be you,” she pointed at him, “and then
there are cross references.”

“Paper Internet. Cool.”

“I guess I’m a human search engine, now. I
didn’t hear about that one on career day.”

The book was actually an author’s galleys
from a printer that were loosely bound with string and a piece of
cardboard that had been hot glued to the edge of the papers. The
copyright date was from 1963. The title was
Touch Pieces and
Talismans.
He thumbed through, “Color pictures for once!”

She laughed. “Yeah, there is
no
light
reading material in here. Not one beach book.”

“Hmmm. I think we’re getting warmer.” She
came over and sat on the arm of the chair. He’d known Tracy since
fifth grade. They’d been buddies for years and he took her presence
for granted. He’d seen her puking, squatting in the woods to pee,
drooling in her sleep, chewing with her mouth open, and just
staring off into space. He never really noticed how beautiful she
was.

She was tall for a girl, just about 5’ 10”.
Her hair was deep red and had a buttery thickness with slight curls
at the ends. She had it pulled back in two braids. Her eyes were
large and light blue, and her eyebrows were fine and expressive.
The light of fierce intelligence and an active mind and devious
imagination animated her face. She was in shape, not from trips to
the gym, but from just running around on the farm her whole life,
but not thin, she carried a couple of extra pounds.

“What’d you find?” he felt conscious of her
butt brushing against his arm. He froze in the chair a little to
keep the contact going.

“Well, yeah, look at these.” he pointed to
the page. “See the letters there? FRNZ” he handed her the coin and
pointed. “Firenze, Florence Italy.” He read the text.

The City State of Florence issued sets of
commemorative medals and tokens in the 15th century. Good examples
were rare in those days, and exceedingly hard to find today. The
photos [A,B,C,D] are courtesy the private collection of Doctor and
Misses Milton Price III.

The tokens were given to individuals and
members of organizations that were in Florence around the time of
the fall of Constantinople in 1453 when the revival of Greek
learning and thought spread rapidly through Europe.

“Wow!” she said “1453…”

“Well, there’s a date on that one 1462.” he
pointed.

“You need to take good care of that!” she
punched his shoulder and then rested her hand on it and squeezed.
He looked up at her. Their eyes locked for a few seconds.

“What?” she laughed. She took a sip of her
coffee to break the awkward silence.

“You what?” he laughed back. She stood up and
shook her arms to dissipate some of the nervous energy.

“Want a warm up? I’ve got some food, too. We
could do lunch out on the table rock.”

“Sounds great.”

Keith Marte spent a lazy Saturday morning at
home. Some college football game was on TV and he was browsing
around auto ads online.

“Hey kiddo,” he called out to Chloe. She was
in her room. Music was playing and she was just surfing the web and
occasionally texting with friends.

“Check this out.” he emailed her a link.

“Cool!” she shouted back. She walked out into
the living room with her laptop. She had the ad for a VW Jetta. The
car was $3000.

“How much in your savings account?” he
asked.

“Around $1500.” she’d accumulated birthday
money, christmas money, and allowance money for a few years.

“Well, if you put down $500 with the bank of
daddy, I’ll front you the rest.”

“A loan… or is this a gift?” she arched her
eyebrow.

“Well, I expect to be paid back with
happiness, grandchildren, and you not throwing me in a nursing home
when I’m old.”

“Oh,” she feigned embarrassment, “Am I
showing already?” and rubbed her belly.

He laughed. “Ugh! Don’t scare me like that!
Do we need to have ‘the talk’?”

“No, no, no, that’s alright. I learned
everything I need to know from the Internet--Two Girls One
Cup--Lemon Party. Don’t worry,” she gestured at herself, “This is a
temple. I am Divine.”

“Good! Don’t give it up to the first dumb
high school boy that comes along. That is literally my only advice
on this subject...”

“Let me fill the awkward silence by saying
‘awkward, awkward, awkward.’”

“I’m a little serious, but I know you’ve got
good judgement… Probably better than me. Maybe you learned from my
bad examples.”

She nodded emphatically. She sighed and said,
“Soooo, what’s the plan?”

“Well, let’s go look at this rusty bucket,
then maybe go running at the observatory?”

“Lemme get my jock outfit on and I’ll be
ready to roll.”

The car was parked on the lawn of a house on
Wilson Mills. They pulled in and Keith honked the horn. An older
man waved from the porch then shuffled out to greet them. He wore a
white cuban shirt and white cabana pants and sandals. He moved like
a cloud drifting across the yard. “We’re interested in the car.”
Keith pointed at it.

They kicked the tires and took a test ride.
Chloe climbed in behind the wheel and Keith sat in back. The owner
eased himself down into the passenger seat. It was a manual
transmission and had a little pep. She goosed it a couple of times,
“OK, Chloe, take it a little easy.”

The owner laughed. “Oh that’s like my
daughter, she loved this car. She’s in grad school now, out in
Boston,” he pointed over his shoulder, then realized that direction
was north, then emphatically pointed east, “No that-a-way. She just
bought a new hybrid. This car’s a lot more fun.”

They pulled back in the yard after a quick
trip around the neighborhood. Keith talked the car down. “It sounds
a little rough. How long since the last oil change? You have
service records?” There was a ream of papers in the glove
compartment he handed them to Keith. He nodded in appreciation,
then gestured at his daughter. “Honey, you take it from here.”

“I love the car.” she smiled brightly. The
owner was charmed. She had an uncanny ability to make people happy.
“How firm are you on the price?”

“Well, I’m selling it for my daughter.
Ultimately, it’s up to her, but I think she’s a little
flexible.”

“Would you take $2000?” She asked.

He rubbed his chin. “Let me call her.” He
glided away around a flower bed and called his daughter. They
chatted for a while. He walked back and put a hand over the phone,
“would you do $2500?”

“How about $2250?” she countered.

“Yeah,” he nodded and gave a thumbs up, “She
says OK.”

Chloe hopped in the air a few times. Both the
men laughed. “First car!” she said.

Keith paid him the cash. The man handed over
the keys. They drove back to the condo, then she drove them both to
the park. She was beaming and singing every single car song she
could think of.

“Two laps?” Keith was stretching.

“Let’s take that little connector path over
there?” she made a zig-zag motion with her arm.

“Oh, yeah, that little trail, sure. Warm up
the first lap?”

‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll take it easy on you.” She
smiled.

Their footfalls crunched over the trail
rocks. They loped along easily for the first couple of miles. The
stone trail made a big loop around a field, then crossed into the
woods. There was a little footpath that was worn in the woods that
cut from one section of gravel path to the other. It wound through
trees and over small dirt piles and went over a couple of logs. She
sprinted ahead of her father through the section.

Her breathing increased and her mind was
entirely occupied by determining where her feet should land on the
irregular surface. Keith loped along behind her as she shot away
into the foliage like a rabbit. He was careful not to trip and
fall. When he got back on the main trail she was jogging lightly in
place, “C’mon slowpoke!”

They finished the first lap. He said, “off
you go tiger!” She sprinted away. He picked up the pace a little
bit, but didn’t even try to keep up. He was only about half way
around the field loop when she was already a small dot heading to
the woods. He shouted, “go, go, go!”

He cut the course short, and got back to the
parking lot just as she was wrapping up. “Cheater!” she
shouted.

“Man, you got jets, girl! Hey, let’s go check
this place out.”

They walked around the main complex of
buildings at the park. There was a small helical turbine spinning
in the breeze. It was a white blur against the blue sky. A couple
of people were setting up tables in one the buildings. A young
woman in a green park sweatshirt walked outside to meet them.

“I’m sorry, the park’s actually going to be
closed for the evening.”

“Closed?”

“Yeah, once we’re done here, we’ll put the
signs out. We didn’t get a chance to do it earlier. There’s a big
event tonight.”

“OK. It’s a lovely place here, keep up the
good work.” Keith said.

“Oh thanks! You guys have a good day!”

Thousands of years ago, glaciers carried a
big flat boulder south from a river valley in the Canadian Shield
to what became the state of Ohio. The boulder was greenish gneiss,
shot through with pink veins of marble--it looked like something a
giant would use to skip across the ocean.

When the glacier receded, the boulder slid
down onto the muddy ground along with tons of debris and dirt. Year
after year, rain and snow percolated through the soil around the
boulder smoothing the massive pile of dirt into a gently sloping
hillock. Moss and grass knitted the soil together but eventually
the top of the rock emerged into the sun. For centuries, animals
like deer and coyotes, squirrels and chipmunks would pause on the
the rock for a rest. When the Wells family built their home, the
rock became a picnic spot. Men, women, children, family pets,
friends and visitors spent countless lazy hours basking in the sun
and feeling connected to the mass of the planet.

When the sun shone on the rock all day, it
became pleasantly warm. Morgan was basking in the sun feeling the
rock press against the back of his head. “This right here is my
favorite spot in the world.” he said.

“Mine too” Tracy answered. She was looking up
at fluffy clouds watching them roll past and thinking nothing in
particular. She turned sideways on the blanket and put her head on
his stomach. She started to doze off. He was watching a falcon
circle high overhead. The bird watched him looking up.

A horn honked over and over. Tracy sat up
with a start, “That’s got to be Uncle Robbie.” she got up and ran
toward the driveway. Morgan followed. She waved at his truck and he
pulled to a stop by them. Perry started barking and she opened the
door. His tail wagged wildly and he danced in a circle around
Tracy, then plowed into Morgan’s legs. Morgan slapped Perry’s side
and gave him a good rub down.

“Hey guys!” Robbie said through the open
window.

“Hey Robbie! how was the drive?” Morgan
asked.

“Not bad. I was going hammer and tongs the
whole way. But too long to do straight through. We stopped
overnight near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Had breakfast in a great
little diner down there with such an awesome view. Let me park this
heap and get out!”

He parked the truck behind the house and
Perry went romping off into the woods. Tracy and Morgan carried his
bags into the house. He opened a beer, “you guys want one? let’s go
for a walk! my ass is flat!”

They followed him out into the yard. He put
his arms akimbo and looked up to the sky. “I’m planning to stay a
while, kiddo. I hope I don’t cramp your style too much! It’s good
to be home.”