The Crystal Clipper (11 page)

The soothing sound of distant thunder is all that remains of the afternoon storm. Low lying clouds begin to break up, welcoming the gradual return of the sun.

“David. David - please wake up, David.” Sally cradles her brother's head in her lap and rubs his face, trying to rouse him.

Finally, David opens his eyes. “Holy cow. What happened?”

“I think you were struck by lightning, a huge bolt of lightning.” Sally is still shaken by the experience. “It struck your crystals and then you fell over. I thought you were dead.”

David raises up on one elbow and shakes his head to clear it. “How long was I out?”

“For a few minutes. I'm not sure. The storm came and went so fast it didn't seem real.” Sally helps David stand up and brushes sand from his clothes.

“If you think the storm was unreal,” David begins, “wait till I tell you about…” Then he stops, dumbstruck at this vision of his sister before him. “My God! Sally - you're standing. You're standing! How?”

Sally is as befuddled as David. “I don't know. I was in my chair next to you and when I saw you get hurt all I could think of was - Oh, David, I couldn't stand it if anything happened to you.”

David hugs her fiercely, feeling their mutual sibling devotion. “Me, too, Sal. Me, too. But you can walk now. You can walk.”

He spins her around and their joyous laughter echoes across the bay. When he sets her down, David notices the Rose Crystal pendant around Sally's neck. It's the pendant that Saliana had given him before he left the Island.

* * *

“You may all come in now.” His examination completed, the Nickerson family doctor snaps his medical bag closed as Isaac, Dorothy and David enter Sally's bedroom. David sits on the bed next to his sister and holds her hand.

“I can't explain it, Isaac,” Dr. McMillan says, still baffled. “She seems perfectly fine. Oh, just a little weak, but all her mobility seems to have returned. It might only be temporary, but it surely gives us hope for a full recovery.”

Isaac's voice trembles with gratitude, “It's a miracle. Nothing less than a miracle.”

Dr. McMillan nods in agreement. “Sometimes a shock produces results that medicine just can't explain.”

“Miracle is as good an explanation as any I can think of,” Dorothy chimes in, obviously tickled pink.

“I'll get it, Dad,” David offers when the front door bell rings.

But Dorothy motions for him to stay put, that she will answer it. In their excitement over Sally's recovery, no one notices that David actually heard the doorbell.

“You get a lot of rest, young lady,” the doctor gives Sally a firm order. “Tomorrow we'll put you through some real tests, maybe see if you can still jitterbug like you used to.”

Sally pokes fun at him playfully. “Oh, Doctor, nobody jitterbugs anymore.”

“Well, maybe it's time they did,” he says with a wink. He and Isaac leave the room discussing the next steps he will take on Sally's case.

“Sally, this has got to be the happiest day of my life,” David says. “Dad's right. It's a miracle.”

“You did it, David. You made it happen.”

“Me? How could I?”

“Your crystals, David. I know it was the magic of your crystals on the sand.”

“Some magician I am. I get hit by lightning and miss the whole thing.”

“But I didn't.” Sally lowers her voice to a whisper. “Something else happened after the lightning struck. I couldn't tell Dad. He'd think I was crazy or something. But I know you'll understand.”

“What is it, Sal? What did you see?”

“There was this face - a woman's face. She looked like a gypsy or a fortune teller or something. Only she wasn't really there. It was more like I could see right through her, like a ghost or –”

“Like a hologram?”

“Yes. That's it. And she had this crystal ball. She kept calling my name and, this was really weird - she looked just like Aunt Dorothy. Remember when she dressed up and told fortunes at the Halloween Party?” David nods. “Like that. Well, then the gypsy disappeared and the next thing I remember I was out of my wheelchair and kneeling on the sand next to you. I think you conjured her up with the crystals, and she must have had some mystical powers that made me walk again.”

David is silent, taking it all in.

“Do you think I'm crazy, David?”

David laughs and squeezes his sister's hand. “If you're crazy, Sally, then we both are. Two loony tunes.”

Sally looks closely at the side of her brother's head. “Where is your hearing aid? How can you hear without it?”

“My hearing aid?” The last he saw it, he had pulled it out just before killing the Glass Snake. “Oh, it was dirty, so I took it out,” he says, evasively. “Besides, you know what a champion 'lipper' I am.”

“Undisputed champ,” Sally praises him. “But you heard Dad, too, and the doctor. You weren't reading their lips. And you heard the doorbell. How?” Her eyes widen. “Maybe it's another miracle, David.”

“Maybe. But don't tell anyone just yet. One miracle a day is all this family can handle.”

Janice Cole settles comfortably on the living room sofa and accepts the cup of tea Dorothy serves her. “I hope I'm not intruding on your family, Isaac, but I was so thrilled to hear about Sally. I just had to come by.”

“It's very considerate of you, Janice,” Isaac says affably.

David enters the room whistling, but stops short when he sees Janice. She greets him amiably.

“David. I'm so happy about Sally.”

David's response is curt. “Yeah. We are, too.” He walks over to the fireplace and leans on the mantel, avoiding Janice's eyes.

Janice places her teacup on the table and walks over to him. “David, I'm sorry about what happened in Nathan's office the other day.”

Isaac's eyebrows lift with curiosity. “What happened in Nathan's office?”

“You should be apologizing to my father, not to me,” David snaps.

“Apologize to me? What for?” Isaac asks, but no one pays him any mind.

“You're right,” Janice concedes, “but I knew an apology wouldn't be enough. I had to do something to stop Nathan before it was too late.”

“Stop Nathan from what?” Isaac again tries to get a response.

“The only way to stop a man like Nathan Fischbacher is to crush him and break him into little pieces,” David says with pure venom.

“The only way to break Nathan,” Janice counters, “is to beat him at his own game, the game he calls 'strictly business.' ” She turns to Isaac and explains, “Nathan lied to you about your designs, Isaac. They're magnificent, not worthless as Nathan told you. He was planning to sell them out from under you. When he told me this, I realized David had been right, only I was too blind to see.”

Dorothy is signing Janice's conversation for David, and he plays along, signaling his understanding to his aunt, while hearing every startling word.

“I was so angry,” Janice is saying, “and so ashamed. I decided to help David approach the new owners of the company, let them know who really created those designs and ask them to keep you on when they took over.”

Isaac dismisses Janice's notion with a resigned wave of his hand. “No, Janice. I don't really care anymore. I'm up to here with it. The new owners probably aren't any less conniving and selfish than Nathan.”

Janice smiles knowingly. “Oh, I don't know, Isaac. I think when you hear who the new owners are, you might change your mind.”

“I doubt it.”

Suddenly remembering something, David interjects. “Wait a minute. I went to the Administrator's office myself to look at the sale papers. There was no record of the new owners. How could you find out?”

“Being Nathan's assistant all these years has taught me a few things about business deals, believe me, David,” Janice explains without boasting. “I overheard Nathan talking to someone over the phone, telling him not to let you find any information about the sale. I recognized the man's voice. It was Harry Judd at the City Administrator's office. I never did trust that little weasel.”

David is agitated, but not surprised that Harry Judd had lied to him.

“Yes. He knew that Nathan himself bought the company and listed one of his subsidiary corporations as the buyer,” Janice reveals.

Now Isaac springs up from his chair, a fire lit under him. “I can't believe it. I knew Nathan was unscrupulous, but to falsify the sale…”

“…and to sell it to one of his own corporations,” Dorothy adds, just as confounded as her brother. “It doesn't make any sense.”

“Yes, it's very complicated,” Janice says. “And he could very easily have gotten away with it since the buying corporation is in a blind trust. No one would ever know he bought his own company at a cut rate to monopolize the stock options, fully intent on reselling it for a higher price.”

“But now they will.” Dorothy slaps her knees and hoots gleefully. Fischbacher is finally going to get his due. “You
are
going to report him to the authorities, aren't you Janice?”

“I thought of that, but I came up with a better idea.”

David snorts cynically. “What could be better than seeing Fischbacher rot in jail?”
Except maybe to cut off his tail,
David thinks to himself, remembering the satisfying vision of the Glass Snake's demise.

“Nathan's going to jail wouldn't help your father or the other employees. But this will.” Janice retrieves some papers from her purse and gives them to Isaac to read. “These contracts are iron clad and totally legal, Isaac.”

Isaac scans the papers then looks up at Janice, stunned. “You? You're the new owner? How did you manage that?”

“I rewrote the sale agreement.” Janice's face beams with a mixture of pride and humility. “Oh, don't worry. I have plenty of stock in the company as well as my inheritance to put in a serious bid. And the stock held by you and the other employees will solidify the transaction, if you'll all be willing to sign them over in exchange for a limited partnership agreement.”

Isaac is dumbfounded, but nods enthusiastically. “Of course we will. But how in the world did you get Nathan to agree to this?”

“He called it blackmail. I called it shrewd negotiating. One shipping company in exchange for my silence.”

Impressed by Janice's courageous actions, David is contrite for his attitude toward her. “Gosh, Janice. I had you all wrong. I'm sorry for everything I said. I had no right, especially to insinuate you were marrying Fischbacher for his money.”

“It's all right, David. I know how devoted you are to your father and to Sally. I would have felt the same under the circumstances.” She moves closer to David and takes his hand in a gesture of friendship. “Actually, I should thank you for forcing me to open my eyes. I could never have married a man whose whole life is a lie. I guess my life has been one for a long time.”

David glances down at Janice's hand holding his, and the startling blue stone that sparkles on her finger. “Your ring. It's different. It's blue.”

“Yes. It was my mother's ring,” she says, brightening. “I thought I had lost it years ago, but it suddenly turned up. Isn't that strange?”

David grins at the irony. “Just another in a series of strange things happening.”

“Well, I don't know about any of you,” Isaac breaks in after a poignant silence, “but these past few days have been overwhelming. I don't know if I could stand any more surprises.”

“Oh, there is just one more thing, Isaac. If you're not busy for dinner, I'd like to talk some business with you.” Janice takes Isaac by the arm and gently nudges him toward the door. “There just happens to be a vice presidency that's open…”

It's a brisk, sunny morning as Dorothy and David walk along the wharf where David had first encountered the gypsy hologram and the Moon Singer. It hardly seems possible that such an outlandish experience could have occurred in this quiet place.

“I haven't seen such vibrancy in your father's eyes since before your mother died, rest her soul.”

“He's pretty happy all right,” David says. “He's finally getting recognition for his talents.”

“And a little recognition from Janice Cole isn't hurting things either, if you know what I mean,” Dorothy adds with a wink.

David is delighted, for more reasons than his aunt really knows. He never realized before that, deep down, he harbored feelings of resentment toward his father because of the accident. But since returning home from his voyage on the Moon Singer David has a deeper understanding and appreciation for Isaac's own inner torment. David feels renewed, re-energized, like his crystals after being cleansed in the ocean. Somehow, so many things that had previously been clouded by fear and doubt were now amazingly clear. Yet, oddly, he also has a mountain of new questions that need to be answered.

Where had he actually gone? And how did he get there? If he had been transported to the Island by accident, could he ever return? Would he ever sail the Moon Singer again? Was his journey a kind of time travel? A past life experience? Everyone he had encountered on the Island looked so much like the people he knew at home in Port Avalon, or gave him the same feeling of familiarity.

If the past, present and future are all one, as Ishtar told him, and if there truly is an eternal connection between souls as Dorinda had said, then on some level Dad, Sally, Aunt Dorothy, Janice - they've all had the same experience.
Why do I remember and they don't? Why did I relive it now? And where was Mom? Will I see her again in some strange other world?

There was one thing he knew for certain: his adventure hadn't been a dream. Oh, it was as fantastic as any dream he had ever had, but it wasn't surreal or disjointed. Everything flowed and made sense in its context. And its texture was different. It didn't have that fuzzy, two-dimensional quality that dreams have. It had depth and a rich substance, as real as it felt now walking on the pier with his Aunt Dorothy, breathing in the clean, invigorating sea air. The sea. He finally realized why his family, for centuries, had loved it so, why they still do.

“So, where are you off to next, Aunt Dorothy? Some new exotic place?”

“Heaven's, no. I've traveled far and wide enough in my lifetime. I'm going to stay put for awhile, visit with my favorite nephew.” She slips her arm around his affectionately. “And I plan to do some sailing and a lot of fishing. That's why I bought this.” Dorothy motions to a sleek white sloop docked at the end of the wharf. “Isn't she a beauty?”

David quickens his step toward the boat. “Holy cow! She sure is. What do you call her?”

Dorothy catches up to him. “Well, I haven't christened her yet. You know, she kind of reminds me of your little Singer crystal. Think there's a name for her? The Singer?”

David ponders a minute, then casts out an idea. “What do you think of Moon Singer?”

“Moon Singer? Hmm. That's catchy. Where did you come up with a name like that?”

“Aunt Dorothy - there's something I've been wanting to tell you about that crystal you gave me.”

Perhaps it's the reflection of the sun on the water creating a mirage-like vision – or perhaps Dorothy and David actually are, by some mystical phenomenon, dissolving into a shimmering hologram as they step aboard their real-life Moon Singer.

* * *

“It seems I have made an impact with this new incarnation. At least with this one boy.”

Other:
“You have made an impact, yes. But your work – and his - has just begun. There is much more to do, more souls to encounter, more issues to resolve before your purpose, and his, is fulfilled.”

“I have just scratched the surface, it seems.”

Other:
“The mystery is infinitely deep and the desire for answers will open a Pandora's Box of trouble as well as a treasure chest of good fortune.”

“Journey on, then?”

Other:
“Yes. journey on…and on…”

End of Adventure One

to be continued in Adventure Two:
THE WAR CHAMBER