The Eye of Fire: The Third Gate (Episode 1) (3 page)

Alicia had insisted she go alone, thinking it would be only for a couple of days so she went alone. It was about ten and a half years ago, when she was 39. Her parents were getting up in years, so they needed more and more help around the farm, sometimes, they enlisted the help of neighbors, but people always seem to have something more important to do, when help was needed.

Alicia recalled how she drove down the dirt road, and across the cattle gate the last time she seen her parents. It was nearing dusk, and the light on the porch was on waiting for her.  She gave a courtesy knock, and opened the screen that made a long creak sound. She stepped inside and the lamp on the table near her dad’s favorite chair was on. He wasn’t sitting in the chair though, and she called for her mom, and looked in the kitchen. The coffee pot was full, and she opened up the cupboard and found her old favorite cup. It had a teddy bear with floating red hearts all over it. It was a gift from her best friend in school that she gave to her as a gift before graduation. Her friend was going to go live in California, so she did not know when they would see each other again. She hugged her friend, and they promised to write each other as often as possible, but she quickly found, that after high school people get busy, start families, and time is short as ever. The letters they exchanged became fewer and fewer until they stopped altogether. She knew though they would always be friends, even if they didn’t talk to each other often or at all.

The light in the kitchen flickered on and off for a second, and she thumped the light bulb. She hated those swirly incandescent bulbs. It always made her white skin look blue or gray under the light. She told her parents, they should just stick to the normal light bulbs, but her dad was always thinking of ways to save money.

She looked into the refrigerator for a snack, it had been a long trip, and she missed her mother’s cooking. Alicia hoped there was some kind of left overs in the refrigerator, maybe a casserole or something she could warm up. The refrigerator was full of bottled water, fruit, vegetables, and a bowl had some leftover turkey in it. There was some whole wheat bread on the counter, and she made herself a sandwich with cold turkey, that her dad had cut off the bone.

The taste was incredible. She had not made turkey in years. She used to help her mom prepare the turkey that her dad had slaughtered. They had turkeys, chickens, cows, and rabbits on her parent’s farm.

As she ate her sandwich and sipped her coffee, she looked at the pictures on the wall again. Her parents had made a photo she had not seen before, it was with both of them together, but it was not professional. It looked like someone had made the picture for them near the barn. It was probably made by Jeb Davis’s son. Jeb was a long time neighbor of her parents, and their boy, Adam, liked to make photos with his cell phone. He was always snapping photos with it, and sharing them. She smiled when she thought of Adam, he was such a goofy young man. He was too awkward with the girls to ever get a date when he was in school. He tried asking Alicia to the dance, but she respectfully declined.

She peered into her old bedroom before she made her way to the back door. It looked the same as it always did. It had an old fashioned white bed spread on it, with her favorite dark brown teddy bear leaning against her pillow. The shelf was full of her old books, and she still had her old laptop on the desk. Her mother had left her room just exactly the way she had left it.

The light on the back porch came on, since it was motion activated. The porch swing rocked back and forth gently in the little breeze. The screened back porch was always a nice place to sit in the summer and enjoy a cool breeze and eat a slice of farm fresh watermelon sprinkled with salt.

“Mom, Dad. I am here.” Alicia called toward the direction of the barn.

The horse was neighing in the stall. Her dad had always brought him in before it got dark. Dusty was an old horse, but her dad had no heart to shoot him. He always said. “He will pass when it is his time.” In truth, he loved that horse. He always took good care of him, and brushed his mane out every day, and gave him oats and apples for a treat.

“Dad I am here. Where are you guys?” Alicia came near the barn and seen the light was already on. She could hear the barn door on the other end swinging back and forth and slamming shut, by the wind. The wind was starting to pick up, and it sent a chill through her. She hugged her crossed arms across her tightly. The wind pulled at her long shirt as the breeze was whipping it up over her ankles.

She picked up a lantern flashlight that was placed on top of the old John Deere tractor, and turned it on. She called again, and walked toward the cow stables. She seen cow, Lucy had already calved and her baby was near her side. She was right, it was about the cow. She felt good that she would not be delivering a cow this night, but instead she could rest. She figured maybe her dad had convinced Adam to come over and help, when it was taking too long for her to arrive.

She stepped in the squishy mud near the stable, and looked down at her shoes. She seen Adams phone on the ground. She picked it up.

She felt a little shy about it, but her curiosity had gotten the best of her and she wanted to see if Adam had taken photos that day, maybe she could find out something about why the phone was on the ground and turned off. She turned the phone on, and it was not holding the charge. So, she took it into the house, and rummaged in her room for a compatible charging cable, and turned on the phone.

She went to photo folder. It showed pictures of her dad pulling out the calf. It showed another photo of her mom smiling and kneeling near the baby calf after it had been delivered. It showed another photo of her dad kneeling over the ailing cow, before the birth. And Alicia seen something strange. It was a shadow in the corner near the cow. She enlarged the picture, and again enlarged it again and again. It looked like a shadow with glaring red eyes. Shivers went up and down her spine, and she dropped the camera on the desk.

For the first time, she felt afraid. She did not know what she was afraid of, but there was a real tangible fear, of something she could not understand. She slowly walked into the living room. It was the longest walk of her life. In those few moments, time seemed to stall, and she remembered every favorite moment she shared with her parents. She thought about the baseball games, her mom preparing food with her in the kitchen, her dad teaching her how to work on the old tractor. She remembered the smell of the hay as she sat on the back of the wagon, as her dad pulled it along with the old tractor across the field.  She did not know if she would ever see her parents again, they were gone, but where were they? She picked up the old landline phone, and heard the long tone as she dialed the emergency number.

She sat in her dads chair for more than an hour answering questions by two officers. They made a report, and looked around the house. They came back, told her maybe she should drive back to the city, perhaps it wasn’t safe to stay there. Alicia felt tired, but quickly agreed. She had already phoned her husband, and he was already worried sick about her. He begged her to return as quickly as possible, and they would sort through it together.

“Honey, where are you?” Sam kissed Alicia on the forehead.

“What, what?” said Alicia.

“You were a million miles away honey. Are you ok?” Sam seemed concerned, “I can stop if you like.”

“Yes baby, I am sorry. I was just thinking of my parents.” Alicia had tears in her eyes already.

“It’s ok honey. “ He kissed her and brushed the tears away from her eyes, “I knew when we came here, and it would open up a lot of old wounds. What matters is, you don’t have to go through it alone. I am here.”

“Thank you baby, I knew I could always count on your understanding.” Alicia said to him.

“Let’s go take a shower before the sun comes up,” Sami said, “And I will wash your hair, would you like that?”

“Yes, I love when you do that.” Alicia kissed Sam full on the lips and then they gathered their clothes from their bags.

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Sam squeezed the shampoo into his hand. It smelled like fresh ginger, coconut and Awapuhi. Alicia breathed it in deep, it awakened her senses, and reminded of her of walking on the beach on a warm sunny day. He rubbed it into her hair, and used his finger tips to massage Alicia’s scalp. He knew how to melt away her cares. She had a little girl smile on her face, as he rubbed and scrubbed into her hair. He did it as long as possible, until she finally announced, “My turn,” she washed his hair, and scrubbed his back with a loofah. She knew he loved having his back scrubbed. He always worked so hard, and his back always hurt. So she took a long time scrubbing his back.

“We probably need to hurry before sun up honey. It’s nearly time for prayer.” Sam reminded her.

“I know honey.” Alicia said.

After they finished the shower, and made the Morning Prayer, Alicia made some eggs she had seen in the little refrigerator, and toasted two slices of bread for each of them.

“Do you want juice with your breakfast too?” Alicia asked Sam.
 

“Yes, what kind do we have?” Sam asked.

“It looks like orange juice from the looks of it. It is in a glass bottle here in the fridge.

Alicia brought the eggs, toast, juice, and two cups of coffee on a small tray over to the round table. “This place is nice, don’t you think? I wonder what the rest of this place looks like. Would you mind if I walk around a bit today, while you are working?”

“Just be careful honey, don’t go outside the building without me ok. I don’t know what Yates was talking about yesterday, so we should be extra careful, until we understand what he was meaning.”

“Don’t worry honey, I am a big girl, I won’t leave the building though.” Alicia promised.

“That’s my girl.” He smiled at her, and kissed her on the lips.

“Did you ever think, we would get to sleep in a real bed, after sleeping out of the car like that? How did you sleep really?” Alicia asked Sam.

“To be honest with you, I think that is the best sleep I ever had in my life. I didn’t wake up hurting at all, and I felt completely rested when I woke up.” Sam stretched a little. “How about you? How did you sleep baby?”

“Like you honey, It was the best sleep ever. I don’t know if it is just because I don’t have the deep crevice of the back seat with the seat belt fastener jammed into my side or what.” She laughed a fruity laugh.

“I love when you laugh honey, your blue eyes shine when you are happy. I always want to be the man that makes you happy.” Sam said to her.

“Ah you are the sweet man always.” Alicia beamed, “It’s almost time for you to get ready for Yates to come. Let me go make myself more presentable also.” Alicia went to her bag and took out a bright red scarf. She swept her hair up in a nice tight low bun and wrapped the scarf on her head.

“That looks nice,” Sam said to her, “I remember when I bought that for you. I thought you would never wear it, because you thought the red was too flashy, but I always love when you wear it. I always said it was your color, don’t you know that? It brings out the red in your hair.”

“I just grabbed it when we were packing our bags to stay in the car. I knew we could not take everything with us, when we were evicted. I never expected us to be homeless, but work is difficult to come by.”

“I am happy you brought it then. Did you happen to bring your journal too. I always loved to look at your little drawings you made.”

“Yes I brought it too, fortunately, it is small and does not take up space.” Alicia said, “Maybe I will write about this place, since we are here now.”

There was a knock on the door in that moment.

Sam opened up the door, and Yates was standing there with a pail of paint in one hand, and two large brushes in the other hand.

“Peace be upon you,” Yates said to him.

“And unto you peace.” Sam said.

“Do you want to join us for coffee before we start work?” Sam asked Yates.

“Yes, that sounds good. Thank you for your invitation.”

Sam invited Yates to sit at the table, and Alicia proceeded to clear the table, of all the dishes.

“What do you think of this place?” Yates asked them both.

“It is comfortable, I am grateful to you for your offer of letting us come here to live.” Sam said to Yates.

“Did you find everything that you needed?” Yates turned to Alicia especially, when he asked that question.

“Yes, everything is so nice. It is better than we both expected. Thank you so much.” Alicia’s appreciation was heartfelt. They had been staying in the car for more than a couple of weeks, and it was wearing on her health, with the winter setting in.

“Can I ask you a few things?” Sam was trying to focus on what he wanted to know first. It seemed like this place was shrouded in mystery from the beginning.

“Yes, I was expecting that you would. You may ask.” Yates said.