CHAPTER 2
Taking his makeshift torch, Drake
examined the great underground room. All was as he left it, unharmed and
unmarred. It was just a little cave compared to the glories of Carlsbad Caverns
just down the road, but to Drake, it was more glorious than any of the Carlsbad
rooms, because it was his and had brought him a haven from the world. What did
those men want with is underground heaven? He knew they wanted something, he
had heard them talking about it before as they walked up the path thinking no
one was near. They had even asked him about it, if he knew of any caves
in the area.
He sighed. Emilie would have
loved this, he thought, Satie would have loved it for what it meant to me. Oh,
Satie. He would never see her again.
How many times had he told
himself not to attach himself for they would surely go, but how could he not
attach himself to what he loved? Drake shuddered at the implied solution. Love
was what kept him going some days, without love, where was hope? Without faith,
where were either? He feared the day he would lose them.
No! He couldn’t! He couldn’t give
up! He couldn’t give up like the thousands others. He could keep going, he
would climb out of this forsaken pit he had been born into, he would!
It was dark by the time Drake
returned to the home. He saw the lights of a police car as he approached.
Worried, he hurriedly put Spero into his stall and ran up the back steps and
into the house. He could see the living room from the hall. On the couch sat
Ben, Cole, Lexie, and a girl he had never seen. Ben and Cole had obviously been
crying and even Lexie looked concerned. Drake looked at them awkwardly before
attempting to sneak upstairs.
“Drake Byron!” Lexie’s shrill
voice stopped him in a bossy tone, “Where have you been? Mrs. C has called the
police, here, we’d better tell her.” She had practically flown across the room,
into the hall at the foot of the stairs, and grabbed his arm.
“Let me go!” Drake jerked his arm
away, “Don’t tell me what to do!”
“You’re one to talk!” Lexie
fairly shrieked, “Worrying Mrs. C to death! You’re not very responsible, Drake
Byron.” She seemed to like the authority of using his full name.
“Neither are you,” Drake grumbled
as Mrs. Carlyle and two policemen rushed in.
“Drake! Where have you been?
Thank you, officers, here he is.” Mrs. Carlyle exclaimed.
“Alright, Ma’am,” the policeman
nodded, “Don’t go running off without telling anyone where you’re going or how
long you’ll be gone, young man. You might get hurt!”
“Yes, sir,” Drake mumbled. Mrs.
Carlyle followed them to the door. Drake turned to face Lexie, standing with
her hands on her hips blocking the door into the hall.
“Hear that young man? Don’t!” she
said, wagging a finger at him. Her bright red shirt contrasting with her black
hair and icy yet beautiful voice seemed to accelerate all emotions.
“Shut up, leprechaun! Shut up!”
Drake shoved her aside and ran up the stairs.
“I’m tellin’ you shoved and
called me names!” Lexie shouted up the stairs, “You hear me, Drake Byron?” The
reply was a slamming door.
“The witch! The serpent! The
siren!” Drake hissed to himself about Lexie. He added the last one because,
though he hated her, there was no denying the fair skinned, black haired, dark
eyed Lexie was beautiful.
“She’s as beautiful as she is
vile,” Drake wrote a few descriptive lines about a character in a book he was
writing. The character was an evil princess, modeled after Lexie and a few
other girls he had met and disliked, who wanted to prey on a poor boy’s -
himself’s - only treasure, because it was in fact a key to a great money making
plan, a plan modeled after the two men’s supposed plan.
Drake tapped his pencil to his
lips as he thought. He had just come to the part in the story when the wicked
princess kidnaps the pauper’s little sister, the only one in the world who
loves him and the only one in the world he loves, and he’s compelled to take in
some younger street urchins to help him rescue her and he’s beginning to find
he really likes taking them under his wing and being their big brother.
Drake now pondered where to take
his narrative next when he was interrupted by a tap on the door. “If it’s an
ugly leprechaun, go away!” Drake called, a name that drove Lexie mad.
“Drake Byron, haven’t I told you
not to name call?” Mrs. Carlyle’s shrill voice came in, “Now unlock this door
this instant.”
Drake jumped off his chair,
vaulted over his bed, and opened the door. “Yes, ma’am.”
“That’s better,” Mrs. Carlyle
entered the room, “Now where have you been?”
“Riding,” Drake replied.
“Where?”
“Anywhere,” Drake shrugged
sullenly.
“Drake, if you come home this
late again, you won’t be allowed to go riding anymore,” Mrs. Carlyle said
severely, but Drake wasn’t listening. His attention was drawn to her eyes. Were
those tears? Was she really that worried about him?
“Yes, ma’am,” Drake mumbled
running his fingers through his hair; a nervous habit of his. After a few more
words, she left, and Drake hurriedly shut the door before Lexie could
materialize in front of him like she too often did after such chidings.
“The lady of the house never
understood why he was gone at odd hours nor could she understand that which
were nearest to his heart.” Drake described the pauper’s landlady, a nice old
woman who just didn’t understand.
“Nearest to his heart,” Drake
murmured, putting away his story note-book he drew out his other one. It was an
old leather bound notebook. The cover was worn and on the inside was Drake
Matthew Byran. He flipped it to the twelfth page. On it was what looked like a
map of some sort of building. It was Drake’s map of the cave.
The entrance he called Pearl
Gates. The Outer Sanctuary was separated from the Inner Sanctuary by a cluster
of columns, stalagmites, stalactites, and draperies Drake called The Holy
Curtain. It was equal distance from each width wall of The Sanctuary and a
couple yards from the Pearl Gates. On the right side, beginning in the Outer
Sanctuary a little path cut around, separated from the main room by a wall,
rejoining in the back area Drake called the CrossRoads Room. From the
CrossRoads Room at the rear of the Sanctuary, over twenty-five feet, three paths began. The
Pilgrimage, mentioned above, The Narrow Way, a very narrow path leading to a
large oval shaped room with a pool of water in the center, and The Wide Way,
which Drake had not yet gathered the courage to explore fully. He had gone
several minutes down. There seemed to be no ending room or anything, it just
seemed to continue on and down.
What if his cave connected with
Carlsbad Caverns? Or what if it had an exit near another entry to another cave,
eventually leading there? Drake wanted to confirm or disprove his theory very
badly, but the problem was Carlsbad was nearly forty minutes down the road. He
would need several days to find out.
Sighing, Drake hid his notebooks.
Who was this new girl? he wondered now. Had Rachel gone during the day? He
hadn’t seen her. Lexie, Ben, Cole, the girl, and himself… that was five. Yes,
Rachel must have gone, foster families could not have more than six children at
a time. This little girl looked about nine. Was she like Satie and Ash - Ashley
or more like thirteen year old Lexie? He had met several little girls even
worse than Lexie. It was harder because while he could yell, shove, and name
call Lexie clear of guilt, he couldn’t do so with a little girl. I guess it
never occurred to him that Lexie might be the way she was because of where she
came from, too, while it was an ever present thought in regard to younger
children.
Drake was careful not to stay out
too long afterwards. He missed Satie everyday. Kayla, the new girl, was okay.
She wasn’t a brat, but she preferred to hang out with Lexie and had some
annoying sass and back talk. Drake didn’t care that she did not like him
either, he didn’t like her. He mostly ignored her and since she didn’t want to
learn how to ride, which would have forced Drake to teach her because Mrs.
Carlyle had him teach all the children who wanted to learn, this was fairly
easy. He, Ben, and Cole spent their days outside or in their room, and Kayla
and Lexie had the house and yard.
***
“No, I did not want the third
edition, I explicitly asked for the first. I don’t care if you can’t find it,
you had better. I demand it by tomorrow. Do you understand me?... Good!
Good-bye!” a woman who looked much younger than she really was slammed the
phone back onto the receiver. She had been told many times that she ought to
get a wireless office phone, but she liked to have the satisfaction of slamming
down a phone after an angry interchange. It was a common enough occurrence to
cause her to put off the improvement in technology. Everything else, however,
was up-to-date if not ahead of times. “Come in,” she called in response to a buzz
at the office door. A man in a suit stepped in. “Report.”
“They won’t sell the house,” he
told her.
“What? Why not? I offered ample
money! More than Ares and Johanson could have possibly offered. Why won’t they
sell! Without that land, we can’t do this!” she complained in a high pitched
whine, “Oh well, I am sure Dr. Johanson will figure out a way to force them off
their land. When he does, we’ll step in and buy it. I can’t wait to see the
look on his face when I tell him all the favors he’s been doing for me without
his knowing. You may go.”
“Yes, ma’am."
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Hey, so it's working. :D Yay! Sorry this chapter is super short!!!
-Lynsi
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