Sacred Ground

by Adrienne Ellis Reeves

  Gabe extended his hand. Moultrie looked surprised but grasped it. Gabe shook it warmly. “We thank you for all you’ve done, sir. Great-Grandfather knew you were a man he could trust and so do we.”

  Chapter 34

  Gabe had a restless night. Too much had transpired to allow him to sleep as soundly as he usually did.

  The holy man’s bag of amulets as the treasure he’d been hunting was a total surprise. He’d never have anticipated such a thing in a hundred years. He’d known vaguely that there were powers outside of one’s normal existence. How else did people walk on burning coals, swallow fire or perform extraordinary feats of bravery when necessary? But he’d never been this close to that phenomenon.

  He tried to imagine the life the holy man must have led. How the deep well of faith he possessed never ran dry. The way he’d learned to tap into that faith and access power not for himself but in the service of others.

  He wished he had even a small portion of that kind of faith. His mother, he knew, had been blessed with a faith that had been tested through the trials of life and it had grown stronger.

  Pop, on the other hand, had seemed to believe only in himself. Faith didn’t seem to enter the picture with Pop, yet who was Gabe to judge?

  He could only know about himself.

  He twisted and turned in the bed trying to find a comfortable spot. After a while, he threw back the covers and got out of bed to stand by the window. Rain was falling steadily and he hoped it had discouraged Lawrence or whoever the snooper was. It would certainly be ironic if the box was stolen tonight after all. It hadn’t taken the three of them long to put it back under the praise house and replace the outside boards and push leaves up against it.

  His thoughts circled around Makima’s unexpected presence at the kitchen table. He’d never told her how he had to find clues leading to a treasured destiny. He wondered what she thought as the papers from the box were read.

  He knew she’d felt the power of the amulets. Despite their confrontation and anger, the connection between them told him the power was as real to her as it was to him.

  But what about the rest of the story and the news that she was also a sixth-generation descendant of one of the slaves buried in the ground he could see from this window? Perhaps the fact that she’d been in Great-Grandfather’s presence from childhood had somehow prepared her to comprehend the essence of the story.

  All evening he’d tried to suppress his emotions concerning her while he dealt with the contents of the box.

  Now as he stood at the window he came to no conclusion, except that he couldn’t conceive working with Makima to accomplish the second part of his destiny as laid out by Great-Grandfather; returning the amulets to the Gambia.

  On the way to the center, Makima prayed this was one of the days when Lawrence would show up for volunteer work. He came almost every day. But she didn’t have to worry. She had been at her desk only a short time when there was a tap on the door and Lawrence stuck his head in. “May I come in?” At her “good morning” he opened the door and came in.

  “You’re looking better today,” he said.

  “I had a good night’s sleep and my energy is coming back,” she told him.

  “Any work for me today?” His watchful eyes scanned her desk and the table where he usually worked. Both were empty.

  “I will have some this afternoon,” she said. “Eugenia asked me at the staff meeting if you’d be coming in today. I said I didn’t know. She has a big job to do and could use some help, she said. Why don’t you talk to her about it. What I’m going to do can wait until tomorrow if necessary. Okay?” she said pleasantly.

  “Okay,” Lawrence said. “See you later.”

  Makima looked at her watch. After forty-five minutes, she strolled down the hall to the staff meeting room, coffee mug in hand. She looked surprised to see the table strewn with brightly-colored folders. Eugenia and Lawrence were on opposite sides, each with a short stack of folders.

  She stopped at the table. “That does look like a big job. You’re lucky Lawrence came in.”

  “It’s a job I’ve been putting off. Lawrence is helping me go through every folder and separate what’s necessary.”

  “More power to you. I’m going to get my tea and leave you to it.”

  Makima went into the kitchen and put the kettle on. She selected her tea. Eugenia came in. “I think I’ll have some, too.” She called out, “Want some tea, Lawrence?”

  “No, thanks,” he said.

  The kettle boiled and Makima poured the water into their cups. Eugenia lowered her voice but still spoke distinctly. “How are you and Gabe getting along?”

  “We had an argument but we’ve made up. I was over there last night and he told me the most exciting news. He thinks there’s a treasure hidden under the praise house and he’s going to try to find it. It’s all very confidential for now.”

  “You know I won’t tell,” Eugenia said. She raised her voice to its usual level. “I told Lawrence I’ll take him out to lunch for helping me with this job. It’s a real pain.”

  “See you both later,” Makima said as she left.

  Gabe came to her office before he left the center. “How’d it go?” he asked.

  “Eugenia and I think it’s a success.” She told him what she’d said to Lawrence and what she and Eugenia had allowed him to overhear. “She was going to take him to lunch for helping her, but after our little play he told her he’d take a rain check as he had an errand to do before he came back to finish the folders.”

  “That sounds promising, and thanks, Makima. If it doesn’t turn out to be Lawrence and Hakim, we’ll have a problem on our hands,” he mused, looking into space.

  Her heart beat a little fast at the “we.”

  “I wish I could be there tonight,” she said involuntarily.

  “It’s too uncertain. We don’t know if the snoopers, whoever they are, carry weapons. If it’s Lawrence and Hakim they may become desperate.”

  “There’ll be you, Calvin, Drew, Mr. Moultrie and a policeman. That’s four against two, so surely I’d be safe,” she said.

  “Perhaps, but I’m not taking a chance,” he said firmly. “I don’t even want Drew to go, but I can’t refuse him.” She was secretly pleased at his protectiveness.

  “Will you call me when you get home, please?” she asked.

  “It might be the middle of the night,” he protested.

  “I don’t care what time it is. I won’t rest until I know it’s over and you’re all safe.” She wanted to say much more about how she’d feel if anything happened to him, Gabe, but had to be content with a statement that included all of the men.

  The night sky was perfect, starless and dark. By nine o’clock Captain Powers had stationed Gabe near the entrance to the clearing. Drew was farther around the square in the back. Moultrie was on the right side of the praise house and Calvin was near the policeman, guarding the front in case the snoopers came directly from the road where Sam had seen the light. They would cut through the forest and would be easily heard if they came that way.

  Captain Arnold Powers and Moultrie had been in school together and had gone their separate ways, to law school for Moultrie and to law enforcement for Arnold. He’d been happy to represent the police on this unusual setup. Everyone wore black clothing, black socks over their sneakers, black stockings over their faces with cut-out spaces for eyes and mouths.

  “You’d be surprised how your face shows up if a light happens to hit you,” he’d explained. “The thieves will have lights, so you must be absolutely motionless. Our lights are bigger and brighter than theirs but aren’t to be used until I give the signal. When will that be?” he asked. They’d gone through all these details, but since they were rank amateurs he had to be sure they understood procedures. Even so with amateurs, there was always a risk of something going wrong. Especially when one was a fifteen-year-old kid, jumping with excitement and nerves.

  “When will I give th
e signal, Drew?” he asked.

  “Not until the box is actually being held by one of the thieves,” Drew said.

  “Excellent. Then what do you do?”

  “We all shine our lights in their eyes, which will blind them for a minute, and if they try to run, run after them.”

  Powers had said they would instinctively try to escape capture by retreating down to the road by the same way they’d come. That’s why he’d placed himself in that area with Calvin as backup.

  “Remember, they won’t know exactly where the box is, so they’ll do some exploring. You must be absolutely quiet. Don’t let them hear you breathe. Sam Williams will call as soon as he sees a light. Stay behind the trees and shrubs, so if they flash a light around they won’t see you.”

  Captain Powers had given this last rehearsal of detail as they’d made their way silently to the praise house. They’d been settled in their places and Gabe was thinking that his life was becoming more and more like a B movie when his cell phone vibrated.

  “Two men just cut the fence where I showed you,” Sam said.

  Gabe passed the message on to Captain Powers who went noiselessly to each man to alert him the thieves were on their way. The flickering of their lights was visible even before the sound of their passage which they made no effort to hide.

  “I hope you know where we’re going. I don’t like being lost in all these trees.” Gabe heard Lawrence’s voice, loud and nervous, as the footsteps came closer.

  “We’re almost there. I can feel it.” Hakim’s voice was tense and his words clipped.

  A moment later Gabe heard the rustle of branches as the man stepped into the clearing. Their lights shone on the praise house and Hakim drew in his breath. Then he said a rush of words and although Gabe didn’t understand them he knew they were an expression of triumph.

  “There’s a lock on the door,” Lawrence said. “The treasure must be inside under a floorboard.” He pulled a hammer from his pocket and hit the lock with it several times. “I can’t break it,” he complained.

  Hakim grabbed the hammer and gave the lock a mighty blow followed by an even stronger assault against the door by the force of his whole body. As the door gave way, Gabe clenched his hands at this wanton desecration to the ancient praise house. He could hear it continue as Hakim and Lawrence threw the benches around and tore up the floorboards. He gritted his teeth and stood motionless, vowing to erase every trace of this soulless destruction going on inside.

  The light came outside and Gabe heard Hakim accuse Lawrence, “You told me Makima said it was hidden under the praise house. It wasn’t there.”

  His words had a dangerous edge that made the hair on the back of Gabe’s neck stand up. He thought Lawrence must have heard it, too. “She didn’t say exactly where the treasure was hidden,” he protested, “so it must be on the outside since we didn’t find it inside.”

  Lawrence and Hakim disappeared around the side farthest away from Gabe. They’d be under the watchful eyes of Moultrie and Drew before they came around to where Gabe could see them.

  Every nerve in his body was on the alert. Was this the way soldiers felt when they were going into combat? He’d never been in a situation like this in his entire life—one filled with anticipation, excitement, dread, determination and other emotions he couldn’t even analyze.

  The lights he’d been waiting for finally came around to where he could see them. He watched Lawrence use a long stick to clean out the leaves piled against the outer wall where it met the ground. Hakim began exploring several yards away. Gabe heard him breathe.

  “Look! I see something back there!” Lawrence’s light illuminated an empty space behind the leaves and far back in it was a box. He tried to bring the box forward by getting his stick behind it.

  Hakim rushed over and knocked him away. The light in Lawrence’s hand wavered as Hakim’s lips pulled way from his mouth in a primitive snarl. “Get away from it. It’s mine!” he hissed.

  He flattened himself on the ground. Gabe watched as he grunted like an animal, twisting and turning until his hands reached the box. He began to back away and finally stood with the box clutched to his chest.

  Suddenly the clearing was flooded with light. “This is the police. You’re under arrest.” Captain Powers began to close in on the two men. Lawrence immediately dropped his flashlight and put up his hands as Moultrie and Calvin approached him from each side.

  Hakim took a step toward the policeman, his eyes startled and the box tight against his body.

  “Give me the box and put up your hands,” Captain Powers commanded.

  With a movement almost too quick to see, Hakim feinted around Powers and fled in the opposite direction past where Gabe was posted at the clearing, entering the path through the woods to the house.

  The sound of his pounding feet had barely disappeared when Gabe and Powers were on his trail.

  “Does he know where he’s going?” Powers asked, running easily and flashing his powerful light from time to time.

  “Not to my knowledge.” Gabe knew Hakim had never been in the house, but Lawrence had. He didn’t think that was important at this point. Hakim seemed to have his head in another world where only the holy man’s amulets with their immense power were real to him.

  Powers flashed his light but the running figure it had shown once in a while had disappeared.

  “I can’t see him,” he said. “Did he cut back into the woods to go down to the road?”

  “I don’t think so,” Gabe said. In the distance he could see they were approaching the end of the trees. He led Powers to where the woods stopped and Great-Grandfather’s bench stood.

  Powers glanced around. “We lost him,” he said disgustedly.

  “Shine your light across the field,” Gabe said.

  There was Hakim on his back lying in the middle of the field. He’d broken open the box and it rested facedown on his chest. His staring eyes were fixed in awe and terror at something only he had been able to see.

  It had sucked away his life spirit.

  Powers knelt and felt his pulse, bewilderment on his face. “I’ve never seen a body like this before. Did he have a sudden heart attack?”

  “I don’t think so,” Gabe said, his eyes on Hakim’s distorted features. “How does he look to you?”

  “As if he’s deathly afraid of something.”

  “It was that fear that killed him. Hakim tried to steal something sacred.”

  When he saw Powers open his mouth to ask another question, Gabe turned away.

  “Ask your friend Moultrie. He can explain it all to you.”

  Chapter 35

  Makima stood at her bedroom window gazing out at the night sky. The moon was just a fingernail sliver and thin clouds left over from the weather front that had brought yesterday’s rain scudded across the sky.

  Earlier she’d run her tub full of hot water and sprinkled a few drops of fragrant bath oil into it. She’d lit the scented candles that sat on the corners of the tub, put on soft music and climbed into the welcoming water.

  Not for her the usual shower tonight. She’d needed the bath to soothe her nerves, to quiet her emotions and to keep her from succumbing to fear for what the night might bring.

  Now clad in a robin’s-egg-blue gown with matching robe, she pictured the praise house and tried to imagine what was taking place there.

  She should have insisted on going with Gabe and the others.

  The papers Gabe had read from Mr. Zeke had named her as having a role to play in disposing of the treasure, which it had taken her key to unlock. So why couldn’t she be a part of catching the thieves who wanted to upset the plan?

  Even as she formed the thought she could see the flaw in it. The box the thieves were after had been emptied, so she wouldn’t have been protecting the true treasure.

  She just wanted to be there. But her presence would have been an additional burden on Gabe, who was already concerned that all their plans would work and that D
rew would come to no harm.

  She leaned her forehead against the cool window in frustration. Was she never going to learn? She was reacting to her own emotional needs again. That was exactly what had caused the rift with Gabe.

  All her life she’d seen herself as spiritually strong, as a person steadfast in faith who could stand anything. This was confirmed after June’s tragic death. Nothing could be worse than that because death was so final.

  She’d taken that pain and turned it into a positive action by planning the health clinic for Grayson.

  Why had her faith failed her so suddenly and strongly when Gabe, trying to be helpful, discovered the contractors had stolen the clinic money?

  She understood that the immodest pride of which she’d been unaware caused her to feel a high degree of embarrassment for personal failure. Was that the only thing that made her lash out at Gabe? If Alana or even Calvin had brought the same news she wouldn’t have acted that way. What was it that made the difference?

  Comprehension flooded her being and took her breath away.

  She loved Gabe!

  That was the difference and she wondered why the realization had been so long in coming. Maybe it was the simple fact that she’d never been in love before and was unprepared for the many ways it affected a person.

  She wouldn’t have minded Alana or Calvin seeing her huge disappointment or resulting panic at the loss of the money. But she couldn’t stand to appear that way in front of the man she loved.

  Because she loved him she wanted his love, his admiration, his respect—not his pity. Her mother had asked if she cared about Gabe. She’d said she did. What she felt was so much more than caring.

  Despite the problem between them, she felt joyous and exhilarated. Happiness ran through her veins and she couldn’t wait to see him again and to hear his voice. She wanted to feel his arms around her, hear him say tender loving words. She wanted to tell him how much she loved him, how sorry she was for her ugly behavior and how she just now understood the reason for it. Distorted? Yes. His fault? Absolutely not.