All eyes turned to her and she saw hope and faith in sad expectant eyes. Each parent hoped beyond hope that there was good news coming. Each wanted dearly to be told that despite appearances, their children would be cured and soon be home in loving hands. For Doctor Jorden, it was like walking toward them in a bad dream. Each step was stuck in deep tar resisting the approach. What she had to say to the parents was every Doctor’s nightmare.
Just as she was about to begin her sad news, the explosion deep inside Copper Mountain shattered the crystal cave blowing everything into minuscule shards. It was as shattering as if dynamite had exploded in a crystal glass shop. As Walter had hoped, it was total devastation. The mysterious power that somehow gave the crystals the ability to tamper with certain brain wave frequencies blew into the mysteries of the universe where it belonged.
At the same time, as the parents turned from their children and looked at Doctor Jorden, she put on her best bad news face and started,
“I’m sorry to say that ---,”
Suddenly from behind, everybody heard Amina scream in terror. The parents snapped around to see her sitting up, eyes wide and alert to one horror in particular. She yelled,
“I’m bald! Who the hell cut all my hair off?”
True, it was bad news, a horrible discovery for a young lady who loved her long black hair but to the parents, seeing their daughter suddenly emerge from a darkness that Doctor Jorden thought there was no escape from, it was the best news of all.
Alexander and Robert were also sitting up and upon seeing a bald Amina raised exploring hands to their head. Robert seemed pleased to say,
“Hey, I’m bald too.”
After many tears of joy and perpetual hugging of cured children, Mrs. Green turned to a stunned Doctor Jorden and with tears still flowing said,
“Thank you so much for retuning our daughter to us. You are a miracle worker.”
Perplexed, leaving the families to their joy, the Doctor walked out of the room and past Emma’s desk who looked up and asked,
“What happened in there?”
“I don’t know but apparently I’m a miracle worker.”
Chapter 69
One minute before detonation, Gloria Jackson and Sam were sitting alongside Gordy’s bed watching him sucking in his last few breathes. Sam could not distract herself from his laboured gasps and subconsciously started breathing in the same strenuous manner. As a young lady this was her first experience with a death in the family. She tried to be brave, tried to reconcile death as inevitable but this was her dad and nothing brave was coming to her. Rapid blinking did nothing to stop the river of tears. Gloria was also bathed in sorrow, silent but also loud with tears and sniffles. Yes, the past had been difficult, each month her husband got worse and worse until reaching this breaking point. Her only conciliation was hoping that soon he would be rid of the terrible pain.
As greatly feared by both, with a gasp, Gordy sucked in his last breath and all was silent in the room. Gloria grabbed Sam and hugged her tight. However, one second after the explosion in the Crystal Cave, closed eyes slowly opened and a soul returned to Gordy. He looked over to see his wife hugging Sam tight and through a parched throat said,
“Can I please have one of those too?”
Both attacked and bathed him in loving hugs. Gloria didn’t know who to thank and so just kept saying,
“It’s a miracle, it’s a miracle.”
After the explosion, Walter and Isaac returned to the car and drove along Maple Street. Isaac said,
“You know, with the explosives used, it’s a bloody miracle the whole mountain didn’t blow up.”
Walter agreed and said,
“Thank goodness for little miracles.”
He then added,
“Let’s go to Gordy’s house and see if destroying the crystals helped his condition.”
Isaac wanted to add to the plan and said,
“Sure and then after you can drop me off at the library.”
Walter smiled.
Chapter 70
Two months later
Only a few people in Twin Rivers knew the truth of what really happened up in the Factory. Apparently, a small town can keep some secrets, especially the terrible ones. As far as the general population was concerned, the Department of National Satellite Weather Research people had closed shop and gone home. The Factory again stood empty to suffer the deluge of time. Strangely, though the surrounding fence was now taller and stronger. Encroaching brush and weeds again slowly invaded the Copper Mountain Road leading up to the Factory. The old Factory returned as an eyesore to the good citizens of Twin Rivers.
Doctor Fran Jorden was hired on by the hospital as a psychologist on call. With her reopened office and small business, she and the twins eventually once again became good citizens of the community. Just the same, her beat up old Honda Civic still rattled and rolled along Maple Street as a reminder of her past sin.
Sheriff Walter and Edith finally agreed on an acceptable apartment. He was smart enough not to comment on it taking long enough and she was smart enough to agree on a man cave for his trophies and fishing rods. With only one month to go before retirement, the campaign to elect a new sheriff had begun. There was no doubt that as the senior deputy, Dean Richards would eventually get the majority votes. Walter hoped that if Isaac stayed on as Deputy and if he could stay out of the library long enough that he would eventually become Sheriff of Twin Rivers.
Ruth’s house was eventually returned to what she would only concede as a satisfactory return to how it was before the destruction. When it was all done, Walter finally took a chance and came to the house for his promised cup of tea. Ruth stood on the porch and watched him swing open the gate and approach. In her usual manner she said,
“About time you came. I thought I’d have to pour fluorescent yellow paint all over the house just so you could find me.”
At the table while sipping tea, the conversation eventually drifted to how the town and the people involved with the Factory had recovered. As Ruth so eloquently stated,
“Poor Gordy looked as pale as mushrooms in a bucket of turds. Better now though. I saw him and Gloria working in the garden the other day. She comes over for tea a few times a week too. They also come to church again.”
Because their time at the table was jovial and Ruth was in a rare smiling mood, Walter made the mistake of relaxing and lowering his guard. After all these years Walter had refrained from reminding Ruth what they had done under the bridge over fifty years ago. For some strange reason he thought this might be a good time to embarrass and regale her with what the two inquisitive teenagers did under that bridge. It was a funny story or he thought. Mister Crow was across the street and saw Walter madly running out of the house toward his police car. Somehow and for some reason Mister Crow didn’t see that as odd at all.
Gary was the lucky one. He was the only boy allowed to join the ‘treehouse of the secret sisterhood’. Previous, it was a secret organization of two, Sam Jackson and Amina Green. After an oath of secrecy and fearful understanding of dire consequences should he tell anyone, he was given the honor of being allowed to ring the bell and come up to the treehouse without being introduced to a baseball bat.
By now, school had started. As in most days after school and weekends, all three were in the tree house passing another lazy day. Also by now, Amina had a semblance of long black hair, although as she thought, was not long enough yet. One day, she and Sam were at the table talking about whom they would like to marry. It was vowed that one would not take a husband without the others approval of him. Gary was on the mattress tinkering with his new obsession and hoping his name would not come up.
He had promised Grandma and the Sheriff that he would never tinker with electronics again. What held his interest now was scattered all over the tree house floor. Small gears, levers, switches and the butchered insides of at least three big clocks were somehow joined to make something that eventually pleased him. Like th
e electronic components, this hodgepodge of whatever it was had no meaning and no function, at least that he knew of.
Chapter 71
Three months later
It was a warm sunny Sunday afternoon. On lazy days like this, many of the active people of Twin Rivers took to biking along the banks of the Great Swanson River. The yearly salmon run up the river had begun and banks were cluttered with long rows of hopeful fishermen. The wooded trails weaving through the side of Copper Mountain were alive with hikers. And for the first time in memory, deer were seen in the woods and birds were in the trees singing to each other. In all, it was a good day to be out enjoying nature.
A young couple in love, Dorothy and Edward had planned a day of hiking on Copper Mountain and enjoying a picnic. To get to their favorite spot they had to follow the Factory fence. Dorothy hated the sight of the decrepit Factory. To her, it looked haunted and a perfect place for ghosts. It wouldn’t take long for her imagination to confirm that suspicion.
Following the fence, looking now and then at the Factory, Dorothy commented,
“It’s haunted you know.”
Edward didn’t think so.
“No its not. It’s just an empty building ready to fall down. The strange sounds sometimes coming from it is just the wind whistling through all the broken windows.”
In an effort to defend her accusation of it being haunted, she insisted,
“No, hikers have come back telling stories of hearing voices in there.”
Because Edward had other things on his mind aside from ghosts, he paid little attention to her fears.
They finally reached their favorite bluff overlooking the town far below. They spread the blanket on the moss and enjoyed the warm sun. While on their backs and looking at the passing clouds, Dorothy was startled and suddenly sat up frantically looking around. Edward asked,
“What’s the matter is somebody coming?”
“Did you hear that?”
“No. What did you hear?”
“Shut up and listen.”
Edward had to admit that he too thought he heard a soft muffled voice but could not make it out. He thought it odd because to hear anything that soft, whoever was talking had to be right beside them but they were alone on the bluff.
She pointed to the solid granite stone and said,
“It’s coming from the rock.”
Both lowered an ear to the stone and listened. They heard,
“Hello? Can you hear me? I’m lost in the tunnels. Can you help me? I can pay you. I have a duffle bag full of money. Hello?”
The End
Be sure to read thrilling sci-fi books by Allan E Petersen
The House of the Nazarene series
And the Humans Wrote
Also other murder mystery and adventure books
Quagmire’s Gate
The Ratsenburg Curse
Graves of the Past
Hercules Down
High Tide Treasure
The Factory
The Factory Page 35