Jack James and the Call of the Tanakee

by J. Joseph Wright

  “I’ve missed you, Daddy,” she whimpered. Her parents were right, she was tired. Exhausted, actually. She hadn’t yet let herself wind down after the events of two weeks ago. Not until now. Now, finally, after seeing her father for the first time in forever, she allowed herself to relax.

  “I know,” he spoke soothingly, like a warm blanket. “I’ve missed you too, sweetie.”

  “But where have you been? Why do you have to be gone for so long?”

  He cradled her like a baby into her bedroom.

  “You know I can’t talk about it, honey,” he placed her on the twin mattress. “Don’t ask, okay?”

  She turned over and faced the other direction.

  “Your work is more important than we are.”

  “You know that’s not true,” he touched her shoulder. She pulled away. “Amelia, honey, I’m sorry if you feel like I haven’t been around much lately. It’s true. I have been pretty absorbed. I promise, though, when the project I’m working on gets into full swing, I’ll have lots of time to spend with you.”

  She spun over like a lathe. “Really? You mean it?”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “Soon.”

  That’s when her hopes dropped. She’d heard that word before. Soon. It should have been tattooed on her father’s forehead. She frowned again and shook her head slowly.

  “What?” he asked.

  She turned over one last time, signaling she was done with the conversation.

  “Well if it isn’t the famous Tanakee protector,” he must have noticed Ayita. She’d been sitting silently on the bed. “I’ve been hearing great things about you, little one.”

  “And I’ve been hearing great things about you too,” Ayita answered.

  “Well, I appreciate you protecting my daughter, Ayita. Keep up the good work.”

  “I will, sir,” though her back was turned, Amelia sensed Ayita saluting her father.

  Slowly, he got up and walked to the door. “I love you, sweetheart.”

  Amelia said nothing.

  HER CHEST FELT HEAVY. Something large and dense and dark—really, really dark—was on top of her. She wanted to scream. Her paralyzed lungs wouldn’t allow even the slightest breath. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ayita, sleeping peacefully. Why didn’t she sense this? Why didn’t she wake up?

  On her shelf, Amelia had a collection of stuffed animals. Bunnies and bears and unicorns, but mostly pigs. She went through a weird pig phase when she was five. Now she wished she hadn’t. They each, quite on their own, began to twist and contort, plump phantoms dancing in a festival of nightmares. At the same time, her colored beads, which she kept along the walls and hanging from the ceiling, clicked and clacked in a sudden storm. She had all types of paper machete dragons and gargoyles and bats in various locations throughout the room, each of which took flight, circling and spinning and diving. She wanted to get out of the way as one dropped straight for her. Unable to move, she could only watch it scrape her arm with its talons. The pigs jumped to the bed, where they sat on the edges of her blanket, pinning her down in the off chance she actually regained control of her motor functions.

  Amelia saw eyes. Pale and sickly. Almost dead. Right away she sensed evil. Even before she saw it, she sensed it. She couldn’t understand why her protector wasn’t protecting her. Ayita slept soundly, not stirring an inch.

  The thing on her chest was from the same dream she’d been having all her life. Now it was back, the captain of her nightmares, and it didn’t look happy.

  “See?” it pointed at the piggies, pink and purple and blue. They used to be so cute. Now they glared at her, sharp scowls and even sharper teeth, snorting and snuffling. “I can make little stuffed toys come alive too.”

  The thing looked deep into her, trying to steal something, a part of her. She whimpered again and again. Just once, she knew she’d be able to scream. She had to scream. The thing let out a ghastly little giggle, its face smooth and lustrous in the moonlight, its head concealed by a black scarf.

  “That’s right, my child. Fight me. Fight me,” its hollow laugh made her nauseated. “Good…good!”

  She suffocated under the weight of the thing, and the natural response was to fight for her life. So she fought.

  “Yes! Yes!” it kept saying. “You’re learning…getting stronger…becoming what I always thought you’d become!”

  “H-h-help,” she coughed, then coughed again. “HELP!” her voice came back to her finally. Still on her chest, the shadowy entity laughed harder, almost encouraging her outburst. The airborne paper creatures swirled about its head. The beads rippled and twirled with fervor. Her toy pigs rooted in the blankets, nipping at her legs with teeth like daggers. “HELP ME!”

  Ayita sprang to her feet just as the door flew open. Her father punched the light switch, and when he did, everything went back to normal. Her beads were perfectly still, as if someone had pulled them tight. Her paper bats and gargoyles were back on display, hanging from their respective places. The toy pigs were all on the shelf again, each in the exact spot Amelia had left it. But, most importantly, the nocturnal visitor, the creature that had been sitting on her chest, was gone. No trace left behind.

  “What?” Ayita scrambled around the bed, searching for something that wasn’t there. “What is it!”

  “Sweetie, what’s the matter?” her dad’s head was on a swivel, glancing at the window, at the closet, behind her bed, anywhere an intruder may have been hiding.

  She had command of her own body again, and took full advantage by sprinting to her dad. She landed so hard against him, she bounced. He let out an audible, “Oof!” and wrapped her in his arms.

  “Oh, Daddy!” she sobbed. “It was horrible!”

  “What was, honey?”

  “Yeah, what?” Ayita dug through the comforter in vain.

  “I don’t know,” she didn’t want to let go of her dad. “I never know what it is.”

  “A shadow person?” he pulled her away so they could see eye-to-eye.

  “Y-yes,” she sniffled.

  “A shadow person?” asked Ayita. “You mean a Nagas?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know,” Amelia was so confused. “And I don’t know how, either, but I think it was a woman.”

  “A woman?” her dad sounded incredulous. “Are you sure?”

  “No,” she really wasn’t sure, just had a hunch. “No, I’m not. But I felt it.”

  He rubbed his chin and sighed. Whenever her father did that, she knew he was deep in thought, usually not good thought. His face flushed for a brief moment, and his breathing stiffened. However, this only happened for a fraction of a second. Then he regained composure and gave Amelia a confident smile.

  “Just put it out of your head, honey,” he lowered his tone to almost a whisper, and she saw her mother, perky and perfect, even in her pajamas, with the usual two pills and glass of water.

  “Hi, sweetie,” her mother tried to smile, but Amelia saw right through it. Mom was upset the little girl took her husband away from her. That was how she’d always acted toward her daughter. For the longest time, Amelia thought she was adopted, or a stepchild, but she wasn’t. At least that’s what they told her.

  “No. I’m not taking those pills. They make me feel funny.”

  “They’re supposed to,” her mom said sarcastically. “That’s why they call them pills.”

  “That’s not exactly true,” her dad laughed. He took the capsules and the water from his wife. “Remember what the doctor said? They’re just to help you relax, ease your anxiety.”

  “But I can do that on my own,” she pointed at a poster of the Buddha, sitting in the lotus position, encircled by a corona of rainbow-colored sunrays. “With meditation.”

  “Sweetie, it looks like your meditation isn’t working,” her mom chuckled. “Just take the pills so we can all go back to bed.”

  “No!”

  “Take the pills!” her mom’s face reddened. Amelia slid away, heart pumping.

>   “What’s going on?” Ayita stood in front of Amelia.

  “It’s okay, Ayita,” her dad said. “Amelia’s mother just wants what’s best for her. So do I,” he lowered his head, comically, giving Amelia the goofy grin that always coaxed a smile from her no matter what. “There,” he said. “There’s my girl. Now, you want to stop having those terrible nightmares, don’t you?”

  She nodded.

  “Then these can help. You love me, don’t you?”

  She nodded.

  “I love you too. Now, please, take the pills. For your daddy?”

  She bit her lower lip and exhaled hard. She wanted to bite until she tasted blood. That would have been better than those pills.

  “Amelia?” he raised an eyebrow. She knew by his tone he meant business, and, at any moment, her congenial, easy-going father would turn into a bear. Not literally, but almost.

  “Okay,” she took the pills from his hand, then the glass. Popping them in her mouth, she guzzled down some water. “There.”

  “Amelia,” her mother sounded, and looked, unconvinced. “Let me see.”

  She opened her mouth wide. “Ahhh!”

  “Under the tongue,” her mother said. Amelia lifted her tongue and said even louder, “AHHH!”

  “Okay, okay,” her mother winced. “You can close your mouth, now. And try to get some sleep, please.”

  “I will, Mom,” Amelia feigned good humor. She did it for her dad too. Put on a happy act so they’d believe all was well when it wasn’t.

  “That’s my sweetheart,” he kissed her forehead after brushing away the jet-black bangs. “Night-night. And tell those bad people your daddy said go away,” he made a fist and lifted it in front of his chin. “Or else.”

  She giggled. That really did make her feel better. He always seemed to know what to say, though she wasn’t completely over what had happened, and wouldn’t be until after hours of searching inward.

  As soon as her parents left the room, she tongued the pills from the space between her lower lip and her jaw, always a perfect hiding place. She could be a spy if she wanted. She winked at Ayita and chuckled, spitting the tablets into the nightstand drawer, where a dozen more pills were sitting. The residue of past thwarted medications. Then she tiptoed and pressed her head against the door. In the hallway, she heard whispers. She knew they were talking about her.

  SIX

  “JACK! COME QUICK!”

  Jack glanced at Takota and his heart leapt into his throat.

  “What! What!” the boy and his Tanakee friend sprinted all the way from his bedroom to the garage, aka Ben’s lab. Everything looked exactly as it always looked during a routine diagnostic checkup. Inside the Quantum Foam chamber, the O/A sparkled vividly with color, surrounded by a webbing of near transparent, effervescent strands. On his dad’s holographic display, all levels looked good, all lights green.

  “What’s the matter? Something wrong with the O/A?” Jack fretted.

  His dad didn’t seem to notice his panic.

  “No, no. Here,” he pointed to a small, outdated television set. Tuned to the History Channel, it showed some grainy video of an ancient temple, cloaked in thick jungle flora and crumbling into ruin.

  “What is this, Dad?” Jack tried to catch his breath and settle his nerves. “You yell and scare me half to death, just to get me to watch Early ETs with you?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Well, no…just watch!”

  Jack shook his head and clenched away the last of the butterflies. He was no longer scared. Now he was furious. His dad almost gave him a heart attack. At ten. That would have been something.

  “Dad!”

  “Shhh!” Ben ignored the fact his son was angry enough to spit fire. Jack observed his dad for a second. The man seemed totally taken by what he was seeing.

  “Jack, watch,” Takota nudged him, then Ben pushed aside some extraneous lab equipment in order to reach the volume knob on the antiquated TV.

  Jack looked at the screen and was blown away. He’d expected to see some kind of unearthed mummy or ancient stone tablet. However, his eyes beheld a sight so extraordinary, he had no words. Suddenly the world began to spin and his dad’s workbench would have to double as a crutch. No way was he seeing this. No way.

  “These archeologists have traveled hundreds of miles into the Amazonian rainforest, searching for a place of legend, a place the people say is haunted by spirits from space…”

  As the narrator spoke, the visuals were of a scientific team brushing away sediment, slowly and deliberately, from a carving on the side of what looked like a very large and very old cave. Or temple. The camera shot wasn’t clear. The column looked manmade, and had been inscribed with a strange design. As the dirt sifted slowly away, a creature, some kind of animal, came into view, and it looked shockingly like…a Tanakee.

  “These petroglyphs are found in several places throughout what seems to be a structure of some kind. A temple? A tomb? The researchers aren’t sure…but they’re trying to find out.”

  “This is…amazing,” Jack muttered. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Just watch,” Ben said. “It gets better.”

  Jack’s breath failed him when the camera tilted beneath the pictogram of the Tanakee lookalike to show what the archeologists were uncovering next. An object, curved to fit a human palm, exactly the size and shape of the O/A!

  “It can’t be!” he gained control of his lungs—barely.

  “That’s what I thought too,” Ben explained. “But look. It’s my machine. And that animal, there’s no mistaking it. It’s a Tanakee.”

  “Looks just like me!” Takota exclaimed.

  “But how, Dad? How is this possible? I mean, the O/A’s an original invention. You invented it, didn’t you?”

  “Well, yeah. I did. The thing is, though, it may not be as original as we both think.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that evil shapeshifter fellow, what’s his name?”

  “Davos?”

  “Yes, Davos. He said something that really made me think about the true origin of the O/A.”

  “What did he say?”

  “I don’t recall exactly. Something about the O/A being the most powerful one yet. That sure makes it sound like there are others, doesn’t it?”

  “It does,” answered Jack. “This is weird. This is really, really weird. Dad, what do you think this means?”

  Ben ran his fingers through his thinning, unkempt hair. “I’m not sure. But I know one thing. We need to find out, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah,” Jack agreed.

  “Uncanny!” Amelia’s voice made Jack, his father, and Takota all jump in surprise. After a quick recovery from having the daylights scared out of him, Jack was happy to see his friend.

  “Amelia!” he said merrily.

  “Ayita!” erupted Takota when the tiny, silver and black Tanakee protector showed her face. Ayita only smiled as Takota hugged her tightly. The mood couldn’t have been more cheerful. But as soon as Amelia and Ayita walked into the garage, Jack saw something, or someone behind them, and his joy evaporated. He couldn’t help it. There was only one person in the world he’d ever met that filled him with such unease, and that person was standing in the holiest of holies, the birthplace of the O/A.

  “Jack, you remember Argus, don’t you?”

  Argus extended his hand, wearing a warm, somewhat disarming smile. His dark brown eyes glistened in the glow of Ben’s machinery. His smooth complexion and deep brown hair almost sparkled.

  “Jack,” Ben said. “Don’t be rude. Shake hands with the boy.”

  Jack snarled a little as they greeted each other, then he jolted away his hand. Touching Argus made his skin crawl.

  “Hey,” Amelia, thankfully, turned the attention from Jack’s discomfort to the television. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Argus leaned to get a look at the TV.

  “Are you guys watching Early ETs? I love that sh
ow!”

  Despite Jack’s fervent wish his father wouldn’t say anything, Ben did. And quite enthusiastically too.

  “Yes, Yes,” he let his arms fly. “We’ve come across this program, and it looks like we might have made a discovery. Or, I should say, those scientists made the discovery, but we’re putting together a correlation. You see? That pictograph looks much like the O/A, doesn’t it?”

  “The O/A?” Argus squinted, then gazed into the transparent housing where the machine bathed in Quantum Foam. “Yes, I suppose it does,” he tilted his head at Ben. “What do you think that means, Mr. James?”

  “Not sure,” he tapped his chin. “Not sure. It might mean nothing at all. Then again, it might mean everything.”

  “How so?” Argus pressed. Jack didn’t like it.

  “Well,” Ben answered. “If there’ve been other machines like this in the past, and if there’ve been Tanakee associated with those past machines, then there must be some kind of connection to us, here in the present. It might give me a piece of the puzzle as to why exactly this technology was sent to me. Why me?”

  “A connection?” Argus’s questioning was getting to be borderline obsessive. “A connection to what?”

  “Listen,” Jack butted in. “We’re getting close to performing some diagnostics, and it’s pretty dangerous stuff, so maybe you guys should leave.”

  Amelia huffed. “Fine, Jack. If you don’t want us here, then fine. Come on, Argus,” she seized his hand and dragged him out the door.

  “I guess that’s goodbye, Takota,” Ayita shrugged and followed Amelia.

  “Where are your manners, Son?” Ben frowned.

  “Dad, you don’t understand. That Argus Cole. He’s…he’s…”

  “Uh-oh,” Ben raised his brow and whispered. “Does Jack have a little competition for fair Amelia’s heart?”

  Jack chuckled nervously. “Of course not,” he watched out the door as the two strolled down the driveway. Argus said something and it made Amelia go from pouting to a full, beaming smile. Amused, they both turned left at the sidewalk, heading toward Tangled Trail Estates.

  “You sure about that?” Ben asked. “You’d better do something to smooth it over, and quick.”