Sacred Ground

by Adrienne Ellis Reeves

  She didn’t know. She could only hope.

  She heard a door open and quickly stepped into the hall, hoping to catch Gabe. It was Eugenia who came over to hug her and ask about her health. “Any time you want a break just let Gabe or me know. We want you to be completely well before you do all that hard work.”

  “I’m getting stronger every day and by next week I should be up to par,” Makima said.

  It was Tuesday, which meant a bridge club, some quilters and a children’s play group used the center. The volunteer facilitators all came to see her but not Gabe. Twice she picked up the box, but her courage failed her each time.

  Then it was one o’clock and Gabe had left the building, but just to be sure she knocked on his door, then opened it. The room was empty. She scolded herself for being a coward and went back to work disheartened.

  Gabe had spent another workday holed up in his office seeing no one. Once, he’d heard Eugenia go into the hall and a moment later he heard Makima’s voice.

  Motionless at his desk, he’d listened to the muffled tones of the two women and wondered if they were coming his way. If Makima came to see him, how would he feel?

  Maybe he should go out casually and join their hallway conversation. That’s what you did in the workplace. She hadn’t looked well at church on Sunday, probably wasn’t eating enough. Was she looking any better this morning?

  The voices ceased and Eugenia’s footsteps went into her office next door. The hall was quiet. Gabe sighed and returned to his figures.

  When he left work he went immediately to the bank to retrieve the key and the scrolls from the safe-deposit box. He expected something in the box to explain the scrolls, so he might as well have them on hand. A call came in from Mr. Moultrie soon after he reached home.

  “Any more news, Gabe?”

  “I just got the key from the safe-deposit box, and as soon as Drew gets home from school, we’ll open it. Also, Calvin and I decided to put another box where we found this one, as a decoy. Sam Williams saw someone searching along the fence late at night. We think he’ll be back with wire cutters. Apparently a rumor got out about the praise house.”

  “I did warn you about danger, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, you did.”

  “I think it’s best if I come down there. I’ll leave from work and get there in the early evening. And Gabe, hold off on the decoy until I get there, please.”

  “Sure. We’ll be glad to see you again, Mr. Moultrie,” Gabe said.

  He repeated the conversation to Calvin and they both tried to figure out why the attorney wanted the delay in setting up the decoy.

  “I think he knows more than he’s told you about this whole setup,” Calvin said.

  Gabe gave a short laugh. “If he doesn’t, we’re in real trouble.”

  The box had been thoroughly cleaned and placed on the kitchen table. Drew came running down the street from the bus, up the sidewalk, jumped the steps to the porch, flew across the porch and in through the door.

  “I could hardly wait for this day to go by,” he said. “You got the key?” he asked Gabe eagerly.

  Gabe opened his hand to show him the key. He was getting ready to call Calvin, when he appeared in the doorway.

  The three of them crowded around the table as Gabe inserted the key, praying the lock would work after being underground so long. It worked smoothly and Gabe held his breath as the lid slowly began to open. It opened one-third of the way and stopped. Gabe touched it gingerly to try to open it farther but without success.

  “Feels like the lid is hinged,” he said.

  “Can’t you force it?” Drew put out his hand to take hold of the lid.

  “No, Drew,” Calvin said. “It’s a good thing Mr. Moultrie is coming.”

  “The box needs the second key to get it to open all the way,” Gabe said. “See where this tiny keyhole is? It wasn’t apparent until the box was partially opened.”

  “Can I hold it to see if there’s anything in it?” Drew asked.

  “Of course.” Gabe had been about to do the same thing, but Drew was as involved in this as he was. Drew picked up the box and held his eye to the opening. “I can’t see anything,” he complained.

  Calvin looked and then Gabe. Nothing was visible.

  “Hopefully, Mr. Moultrie will have the second key,” Calvin said.

  Gabe said nothing but he kept thinking of the peculiar words the attorney had always used when talking about key number two. Just last night when Gabe told him about finding the box under the praise house, Moultrie had used the phrase “the only thing left is for the second key to reveal itself.” That didn’t sound to Gabe like Moultrie was bringing it with him.

  While he prepared dinner Gabe pondered why Great-Grandfather had fashioned the treasure box with two locks, especially with the first key opening it just enough to be tantalizing. What would happen if you were the kind of person who didn’t wait for the second key and yanked the top off those hinges? He speculated that only a part of the contents would be available. If you smashed the box to pieces to get at what the second key revealed, would you be destroying whatever that was? He wouldn’t be surprised. You had to have patience to access what Great-Grandfather had in store for you.

  They were sitting at the table over apple pie and coffee when the doorbell rang.

  “He made good time,” Gabe said, referring to Moultrie. “Cut a piece of pie for him, Drew, while I go open the door.”

  He swung the door open and there stood Makima.

  They stared at each other, then Gabe remembered his manners. “Would you like to come in?”

  “Yes, thanks. I’ll just take a minute of your time,” she said.

  He opened the door and she stepped inside. She looked him in the eye and started speaking immediately before she lost her nerve. “I had something to give you all day at work but I never got the courage to take it to your office. First, Gabe, I want to apologize for my awful behavior and I pray that someday you can forgive me.” She took from a bag the carved box and held it out to him. “I need to give you this. I was going to wait until tomorrow but I had an urge to bring it over now.”

  Gabe had been looking at her, dazed at the fact that she was here and had apologized. When she first held out the box, he still looked at her. When it came into his hands and he glanced it, a shiver ran through him.

  “It looks like one I have that my great-grandfather made, only it’s much smaller,” he said.

  “Are you busy? May I tell you about it?” she asked hesitantly.

  He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what Makima had to say. It was kind of her to bring Great-Grandfather’s box even if she was using it as an excuse to see him. At least she’d offered an apology.

  Apologies were just words unless offered with true regret and remorse for the pain the other person suffered. He didn’t know if she felt that. How could he trust her again? Makima saw his uncertainty. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said and turned to leave.

  “No, stay.” He couldn’t be so discourteous. “We’re all in the kitchen, come on back.” Calvin pulled out a chair for her while Drew served her a piece of pie, and Gabe put on water for tea. Then he set the box in the middle of the table. “Does this look familiar?” he asked Calvin and Drew.

  “It’s shaped the same as the other one,” Drew said.

  “Surely there’s a key in it,” Calvin said.

  “Yes, there is.” Makima looked astonished. “How did you know?”

  “Tell us about it, please,” Gabe told her.

  Drew, Calvin and Gabe gave her their rapt attention as she began with her eighth birthday until an hour ago when the urgency to show Gabe the box came to her.

  Opening the box, she took out the carved figure and handed it across the table. “This was intended for you,” she told Gabe and put it in his hands.

  “Thank you,” he said solemnly. He made room on the table for the larger box from the praise house.

  “We found this yesterd
ay under the praise house. You can see it’s partly open. That’s because I have one key for it but I needed a second key and we didn’t know where it was coming from. You’ve just given it to me.”

  Makima felt her eyes couldn’t get any wider. This story of the two keys and something under the praise house was too fantastic to believe. Suppose she hadn’t found the key at this crucial moment. She couldn’t think that way. To her, the hand of the Almighty was apparent all the way through this chain of events.

  Gabe inserted key number two and the top slowly rose up until it reached its limits. The top part of the box held a tray. Whatever it was designed for had been removed. Although there was nothing visible in the tray, a faint emanation from it reached Gabe. Glancing up, he saw the same awareness in Makima.

  In the bottom section of the box was a packet of papers in a watertight seal.

  Gabe took the packet out. Drew looked in the box, put his hand in and felt around to be sure it was totally empty. “Where’s the stuff that was in the tray?”

  “I’d bet Mr. Moultrie has it for safekeeping. He should be here any minute now,” Gabe said.

  He began to break the watertight seal. There were several layers of it and Calvin handed him a sharp knife to cut through them. When the doorbell rang this time, Drew ran out and was back in a few moments with Mr. Moultrie.

  After the greetings and introductions, Drew said, “I told him he was just in the nick of time. He wanted to know why and I said you’d tell him, Gabe.”

  “As you can see, the box is open and we found the top tray empty. I assumed that you have its contents.” He looked at Moultrie questioningly.

  “Your assumption was correct.” Mr. Moultrie smiled warmly, his eyes gleaming through his glasses.

  “Please have your pie and coffee. We’ve waited this long, a few more minutes won’t matter.” Gabe made another pot of coffee, gave Makima fresh tea and asked about Moultrie’s trip from Charlotte.

  “Drew,” Moultrie said, pushing his empty plate away and reaching down for his briefcase. “I remember the first time I talked with you and Gabe in your apartment. You used the term buried treasure as if you were thinking of diamonds and other jewels. Those are commonplace, you can buy them all over the world. This treasure you’ve uncovered is extremely rare and almost priceless!”

  From his briefcase he brought forth a suede bag, laid it on the table and carefully drew from it seven pieces of cord, each one holding pieces of leather formed into squares.

  As the pieces lay on the table, the atmosphere in the room began to change. There was a pulse in the air accompanied by a nearly subliminal hum. Gabe glanced at Makima and Drew, who had a startled expression on his face. His eyes were wary and fixed on his brother.

  “Perhaps we could put them back in their bag,” he told Moultrie, who nodded. The room returned to normal as soon as the cords were covered.

  “We saw these on the carving of the man in the praise house,” Makima remembered.

  “That was certainly interesting,” Calvin said. “I’ve never experienced that kind of power. What are they?”

  “Jujus or amulets. They are made to protect a person from harm. Inside the small leather squares are scriptures from the Qurán. The wearer has absolute faith that they will keep him safe from a variety of dangers. It’s a little different for the holy men. They devote their lives to increasing their knowledge and their faith, to helping people. And with a pacifying attitude, seeking the favor of the superior powers under all the circumstances of life. They become men of great spiritual power, men who could prevent harm from coming to anyone if they choose to.”

  “Who did these amulets belong to?” Makima asked, her eyes on the bag as if she expected them to come out any time. Their power had been real to her.

  “His story is on the first scroll that you found, Gabe. In your papers is the translation from the Gambian dialect.”

  Gabe found the paper and began reading.

  The holy man was walking from one village to another to heal a boy who had broken his leg in several places. He had been walking a long time without food or water. In the heat of the day he came to a large tree where he laid down to rest. The poisoned dart of the bowmen pierced him. The slavers took away his amulets, tied him up and made him walk to a place where many more captured people were imprisoned. They shaved his head and put him on a great ship. In the strange country he made himself other jujus. They will be buried with him to gather the power that will be a benefit to his people in the future.

  “That particular holy man ended up here in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, Gabe. You’ve another story from Mr. Bell’s great-grandfather, Elijah, and he explains more.” Moultrie pointed to another paper.

  Gabe glanced at it, then told Makima, Drew and Calvin that this had been written by Ezekiel Bell, Sr., on behalf of his father, Elijah Bell. “Elijah is our great-great-great-grandfather,” he told Drew.

  My father, Elijah Bell, was born in the Gambia on the coast of West Africa. I heard stories from him and other elders about a place they called De Land. It was sacred ground to all the slaves from parts of West Africa and was watched over by “sperrits.” The following are my father’s words: Dose ol souls, all we people dem watch over she, dey tell us what to do. In deep trees is treasure, waiting for man time six named Bell and woman time six with two keys open it. The Gambia waits for return of treasure, the prophecy say.

  Gabe laid down the paper and drank some coffee. The room was silent. Gabe glanced over the rim of his cup at Makima and Calvin. They were in deep thought. Moultrie was composed and relaxed. Drew was a combination of interested and impatient. When he caught Gabe’s glance, he asked, “Where was Elijah? Wasn’t he living here?”

  “No,” Mr. Moultrie answered the question. “According to Mr. Bell, the early family members lived somewhere else in South Carolina.”

  Drew was even more puzzled. “How’d they know about this place?”

  “There was a prophecy about it in their tribe in the Gambia,” Moultrie explained. He could see his young friend struggling with that idea.

  Gabe’s thoughts were immersed in all he’d read. This had all begun in the Gambia, that small country between Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. All he remembered was that it had heavy forests and was in the West Atlantic coastal region of Africa. He had lots of questions about it now. Great-Grandfather’s library would provide the answers.

  The last paper in the packet was a note from Great-Grandfather to him.

  To my great-grandson: Dear Gabriel…

  Gabe read that far and had to stop. This was his first communication from the great-grandfather he’d grown to admire and respect although he’d never seen him or his picture. He swallowed hard and resumed reading.

  The other scroll you have shows the slave cemetery. I put my bench there so I can feel close to my African kinsmen and meditate on their fate. The second key for the opening of the treasure will come from Makima Gray, who is also a sixth-generation Gambian descendant.

  The amulets have accumulated extraordinary power and value from being with the spirit of the holy man and his enslaved countrymen for six generations. You will feel the evidence of this when they are uncovered. Now you have completed the first part of your destiny. The second part will be the return of the treasure to the Gambia where it can be put to use for the education and betterment of its people. You will accomplish this with the help of Drew, Makima Gray and Jasper Moultrie.

  Ezekiel Bell Jr.

  Where before there had been only the sound of Gabe’s voice, suddenly it seemed everyone was talking at once.

  “I’m a sixth-generation descendant of someone from the Gambia?” Makima looked at Moultrie. “How’d Mr. Zeke figure that out?”

  “Your mother is Olivia Lines Gray. If you go back five generations on her side, you’ll see a slave from this area.”

  “That’s a cemetery we’ve been walking on all this time?” Drew said.

  “It’s no wonder I always felt s
o close to Great-Grandfather, sitting on that bench. Sometimes I almost felt I heard his voice,” he mused.

  “You probably did,” Calvin said.

  “I’ve no idea about the second part of this destiny, returning the treasure to the Gambia. I hope you have some thoughts on it,” Gabe told Moultrie.

  Everyone looked at the attorney. What were they supposed to do next?

  He looked at his watch. “This has taken longer than I thought it would. What we have to do now is get this box back to the praise house.”

  “Why?” Makima was bewildered. When the snooper and the decoy were explained to her, she looked across the table at Gabe. “This makes me think of Lawrence.”

  “What about him?” Everything in Gabe was alerted.

  “I don’t trust him. He’s always trying to find out about you. Just the other day he asked about the fence, why it was so high and had the wire on top of it. That people said your trees are haunted and had I ever heard that. I told him people make a lot of nonsense up out of ignorance. His eyes are always watchful. Have you noticed that?”

  Gabe and Calvin exchanged glances. They both nodded.

  “I don’t think they’ll come tonight. The rain had begun when I arrived and it’s supposed to get heavier. I suggest that we use what Makima said to lure him to the praise house tomorrow night.”

  How to make that happen took up the next half hour, at the end of which everyone was satisfied with the plan they’d devised.

  At the door, Makima and Moultrie were saying their goodbyes when Gabe said, “One more question, Mr. Moultrie. Why weren’t the amulets in the tray?”

  “Mr. Bell took them out shortly before he died. He was uneasy about them because he couldn’t be sure how soon his heir would get here after he died. He gave them to me for safekeeping. I was reluctant to take them as I wasn’t the assigned guardian, as he was. But in the end I assented and promised to keep them until the entire will is carried out.” He shifted the briefcase in his hand.