When the music lowered all the voices that had been raised in excitement seconds before, lowered until only the wind whistling through the fields was audible. A thin winding road that ran alongside the field was the only sign that anything other than farmland existed in this part of the country. I stared up at the sky, hoping for a rain cloud to form over us that would give Gabriel a touch of reprieve from the unrelenting sun and heat that he so needed. But all I saw was a sea of cerulean blue.
As with every other show, I was dressed in loose black cotton pants and a thin white long-sleeved shirt, clothes that usually kept me relatively cool in the searing heat. Unfortunately with the oppressive humidity and wide open space, sweat was already trickling down the small of my back, soaking through my once clean shirt. In my estimation it must have been at least one-hundred-degrees in the sprawling wheat fields. I hadn’t expected the climate to be this sultry, since we were supposedly already well into the fall.
Gabriel, who was made even tinier by the sheer number of people that crowded around the stage, strode out. All semblance of his arthritis was lost in his confident gait. It never ceased to amaze me how at home he was in front of the crowd, that hollered his name in a frenzy as if he was a rock star.
Seeing his swagger and the aura that said he had been born to be in front of the world, made it easy to forget that he was a skinny pubescent boy. He gripped the cordless microphone in his thin fingers expertly. He had donned his wide brimmed golden straw hat, but wisps of his platinum white hair had managed to sneak beneath it and were fluttering softly in the almost non-existent breeze. In contrast to me, who turned russet brown after just a few minutes in the sunlight, Gabriel never seemed to get colored by the sun. From the outside we looked no more like brothers than a cat and dog did, but even cats and dogs could find a common ground, and grow to love each other.
I ran a hand through my sweat drenched hair, stunned at how easily Gabriel coped with the Southern heat. I pulled my gaze from him, back to the crowd that had grown rowdy again. Nervous agitation had me shifting from foot to foot like a boxer ready for a fight. The glaring truth was that the crowd was too big for the handful of local security guards that Pa had hired.
Always trying to cut corners, Pa only kept two regular security guards on staff, reasoning that he didn’t want to have to feed people when there was so much down time between shows and traveling to venues. His cost cutting method had worked so far, but with Gab’s increased popularity it was no longer sensible. I had never agreed with Pa’s rationale anyway because with a shortage of staff familiar with the set-up and the crowds, I always felt like we were playing Russian Roulette. Most times you spun and didn’t get the bullet, but there was always a chance you would, and if you did you died.
Gabriel was upbeat and lively. I marveled how he never seemed to tire of the multitude of people that stepped into his life, with their hands out for anything he could give them. It was exhausting to watch him do his work.
“You sir,” Gabriel said in his soft voice that carried deep into the sweltering air. Gabriel pointed at a middle-aged man wearing a navy ball cap, and overalls, over a dirty sweat-stained once white tank top. The man, obviously a farmer, was the color of hazelnuts from prolonged exposure to the sun. He held a boy of about five in his arms. Even from a distance the hearing aids in the boy’s ears were visible.
The man, realizing that he had been singled out, looked positively thrilled. His rapt expression said he was certain that Gabriel would be able to heal the boy’s deafness. The kid didn’t share his father’s enthusiasm and clung to his father’s neck like a burdock in hair. They mounted the rickety stairs that were positioned off to the side of the platform. I held my breath, hoping that they wouldn’t give way since the stage was another thing that was long past due for an upgrade. Moments later, the father with his son held firmly in his grasp, strode across the stage.
Gabriel, as he had done thousands of times before, reached for his would-be patient. The boy, who was still uncertain, buried his face in the crook of his father’s neck.
“Remove the hearing aids,” Gabriel said in a voice that held both kindness but also an undercurrent of power. The man nodded, plucking the hearing aids from his child’s ears. The crowd pushed in even closer until the platform gave a shrieking squeal, loud enough that they retreated back a little. My heart was already pounding in my throat. I was a hairsbreadth away from grabbing Gabriel and getting the hell out of there. Right then I didn’t care about the people that had paid money to see the faith healing boy wonder. All I cared about was protecting my little brother.
The farmer slipped the hearing aids into the pocket of his overalls then used sign language to communicate with his son. Whatever he said convinced the kid that it was safe to turn around and face Gabriel. Gabriel placed his tapered fingers over the child’s ears and an audible gasp came from the crowd. I knew they all believed that they were about to see a miracle. I almost pitied them.
Gabriel tilted his face up toward the sun and when he did his skin was bathed in a healthy glow that he normally lacked. I was certain that to anyone in the fields he surely resembled a cherub that had fallen from the Heavens. At Gabriel’s touch the boy grinned wide, showcasing his gapped-tooth smile.
Gabriel spoke unintelligible words, something he usually did when he was in the midst of a healing. He opened his mouth as if he was swallowing down the sunlight that was casting its warm fingers over him. After a few minutes he brought his face in line with the boy’s gaze. With his face shadowed by his straw hat, his sallow almost sickly complexion returned.
“Speak,” Gabriel whispered.
“Hello,” the child said in the flat tone of someone who couldn’t detect the cadence of his own voice.
“Can you hear me?” Gabriel said into the microphone.
As rehearsed, the boy nodded. There was no denying that Gabriel had gifts, things that he could do that had no reasonable explanation, but over the years they had been sporadic and unpredictable. To ensure that the crowds got their moneys worth, Pa had decided to even the odds, planting a fake healing in every show. That meant that any other special occurrences that did or didn’t happen, no longer mattered. Gabriel was free to do as he pleased. It was an old trick that people had used in shows for years and mostly worked.
At first Gabriel had gone along with the ruse without issue, but lately with his new found resistance he had questioned the honesty of the act. It was just one more problem that had accompanied the unwelcome shifts in behavior that were occurring on a regular basis with him.
A sudden whoop went up from the crowd and they pushed in again. At that exact moment Gabriel glanced over at me. When he did, despite the heat, a wintry chill settled in my bones. I knew that look. It meant that something was about to happen, and from his panicked expression it wasn’t going to be good.
“Get off the stage,” he bellowed, so loudly that feedback screeched over the speakers. Gab’s voice had lost all of it’s calm. The absolute terror was almost palpable in every syllable. The man, his eyes the size of dinner plates, hitched his son on his hip and pelted toward the stairs. Frozen in place, I watched mutely as he almost lost his footing half way down, thankfully he and his son managed to get to the bottom unharmed.
“Run,” Gabriel screamed, spinning toward me.
His tone was so filled with horror that it made the blood in my veins go to sludge. Gab moved toward me with speed that didn’t seemed possible for a kid with arthritis and restrictive braces on both legs. As soon as he reached me, he shoved me with the full force of his body. It was enough to unbalance me. I stumbled back several feet, pinwheeling my arms as I did. I fell hard on the rough wooden floor. When I tried to stand up I realized that my shoe had gotten caught under a speaker, preventing me from getting back on my feet. By the time I had freed my foot, the platform that I had just been standing on started to give way. Then everything seemed to go in slow motion.
I leapt up with my arms outstretched, tr
ying to grab Gabriel. Before I was even fully erect I saw everything shift under him, his body juddered and the boards where he stood began to curl in around him. As if in response to my unspoken desperation, I heard cracks and loud pops. Another creak, much louder then before, ripped through the air.
Gabriel reached his arms out to his sides in the pose of the last crucifixion. He threw his face up to the sky overhead. I could tell from the knowing expression on his placid face that he was well aware that I was never going to make it to him. Without me to scoop him up and away he was about to be lost. It was all happening too fast for me to catch up.
“Gabriel,” I bellowed, as if saying his name might float him away from the moment that was ready to take him away from me forever. Then the boards beneath his feet gave way, and I saw his face go blank. Though I was still in motion, a feeling of hopelessness encased me. I knew with sickening clarity that there was nothing I could do to save him.
By the time I had said his name a second time, he had disappeared from my view, lost in the black hole that had once been a stage. Rotting wood and debris filled in the gapping crevasse where Gabriel had stood, pretending to heal a boy just moments before. All I could think was that it couldn’t be happening because how could everything in my life have shifted into chaos in a fraction of a second?
But it had.
Just like that, all that I had held dear had been snatched away, now all I could do was pick up the pieces, if there were any left to gather.
10. RANSOM
“Gabriel,” I hollered over and over, until my throat went hoarse.
I was still in shock that just minutes before, Gabriel had been doing what he had done since he had been seven-years-old, yet now he was buried beneath mounds of rubble. I eased down into the hole that had opened up at the side of the stage, scared that I might inadvertently hurt him if the boards and debris shifted when I landed.
That was if he was still alive.
As soon as the unbidden thought entered my mind I chased it away. I couldn’t entertain those kinds of notions because if I did, it would mean that I was giving up on the idea that Gabriel had survived the collapse. Even as I moved the wreckage away all I could think was why couldn’t it have been Pa standing there on the stage, or even me. We should have been the ones buried beneath the rotting boards and rusty nails, dying, not Gabriel, never Gabriel.
“God takes the good ones back to Heaven sooner.”
Her voice came as clear as if she had been standing next to me. I shook my head, clearing everything away. I needed absolute focus, I needed to find Gabriel. Nothing else mattered. My heart was thudding in my ears and my breathing was ragged. My throat was raw from shouting as I pulled at the boards that concealed Gabriel. But when every piece of wood only revealed the same below, all hope that he had somehow managed to survive began to fade. He was ninety pounds soaking wet and with his arthritis that made his bones brittle, there was no way that his body could have withstood the sheer force and weight of the debris. The stage released another ear-splitting squawk. I wondered if it would completely cave in soon, burying us. In my mind it seemed better that we would die together, rather than have to go on without him.
Not knowing how much time I had left, I moved as fast as my body would go. My knuckles were bloody, splinters dug beneath my fingernails, but I kept digging. As I tossed the fractured wood aside I heard other voices. None of what they were saying registered in my mind, as if they were speaking a foreign language. The microphone, buried with Gabriel, crackled with static. It was a constant reminder that he was trapped and I couldn’t get to him fast enough. Tears welled in my eyes, I blinked them away.
“I need you Gab. You can’t die on me. I won’t let you,” I pleaded.
As if in answer to my vow, the next board I tugged away, revealed a tiny pale hand. Every instinct in me wanted to tear away the rest of the rubble right then, but the logical part of me knew that I had to be careful. The remains of the structure that surrounded us was teetering on the edge. If I was too hasty there was no telling if I might accidentally remove the only beam supporting the remains of the structure. If I did that, then it might cause an avalanche of debris to rebury him.
Carefully, I removed a few more boards. With every piece of wood that I cleared, more of Gabriel became visible. Part of his arm, the fabric of his white shirt, now stained with blood, then his white blond hair. When his face appeared it was nothing like I had predicted. In my mind I had imagined his blank eyes, staring through me in a death gaze, definitely not the grin that was painted on his face. Despite having too many cuts and bruises marring his marble white skin to count, he seemed to be in good spirits.
“I knew you’d come,” he said in a voice so low I could barely hear his words. “I saw it right after the collapse.”
A few of my tears dripped on his blood smeared face. I hastily wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. Gabriel was the one hurt and he was dry-eyed while I was acting like a wimp. His strength never failed to amaze me. I guessed his years of coping with chronic pain from his arthritis, allowed him to smile in the face of what he had just been through.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, knowing it was the stupidest question I could have asked. Of course he was hurt how could he not be, but just how badly, I had no idea.
“I’m going to be fine,” he said.
The characteristic twinkle that always sparkled in his eyes was there. I wanted to believe his words more than I had ever wanted anything else in life.
“They’ll get us out soon,” Gabriel said then coughed. He shot me a smile that was all too familiar, one that said he knew exactly what he was talking about. A bubble of blood formed on his lips. Seeing it made my already tense body lock a little tighter.
“I know,” I said.
I tugged off my shirt then lifted his head, so I could tuck it beneath him.
“Ransom. Are you down there?” I instinctively clenched at the sound of Pa’s voice, made gruff by years of chain smoking.
“I’m here,” I yelled back.
I stared up through the hole that I had come through. As far as I could see there was no way I could ever get back up through it, especially not with Gabriel injured. Shards of panic pierced my guts. I was helpless, and had no idea how I was going to fix everything.
Before I could put much more thought into our predicament, I heard the buzzing sound of a power saw revving up. I was surprised that someone just happened to have a chain saw when we were in the middle of nowhere. All I could think was country bumpkins were smarter than I had given them credit for being.
“Is Gabriel alive?” Pa said.
I hated how blunt his question had been, as though he was asking what the weather was going to be like for the next day. I ground my teeth together, trying to maintain my cool. It was baffling how even in the midst of total devastation, Pa still managed to get under my skin.
“Ransom, answer me,” he thundered, long before I had a chance to reply. This time there was tension with a touch of panic in his tone. I knew where the anxiety came from. Gab was Pa’s cash cow, one, gauging by the frantic tone of his voice, he was scared of losing. There was no doubting that if Gabriel had been an ordinary boy, not the boy wonder healing medium, Pa wouldn’t have given two shits about what happened to him.
“I don’t know how badly he’s hurt, but he’s alive,” I shouted into the dust filled air. I had no idea where Pa was, but one thing was certain, wherever he was, he was safe.
“They’re going to cut through to get you guys out. You need to watch for them,” he responded.
I wondered if there was an ambulance already waiting for Gabriel or if it was on its way. I cursed the back woods location that we were in. I had no idea how far away the hospital was. I hoped it wasn’t a bandaid station like so many of the tiny hospitals in small towns. I wasn’t a doctor, but I knew that Gabriel’s injuries were much worse than could be fixed in a clinic.
“Okay,” I yelled back.
The s
ound of the saw grew closer now, seeming to be just a few feet away from us. Though I was happy that we would have help soon, I was terrified that cutting through the remaining platform might actually cause the rest of it to collapse. Trying to calm my negative visions of everything going to hell, I glanced down at Gabriel. He was still, but his expression was bizarrely peaceful, as if we weren’t in a dire situation.
As if in response to my thoughts, the structure yawned and shifted, leaving no doubt that we didn’t have much time left. Moments later, parts of the stage rained down around us. I threw my body across Gabriel. Miraculously the area where we were was spared, but only a fool would believe that our luck wouldn’t run out soon.
The buzzing whir of the power saw grew louder until it seemed to blot out all other sounds. A thin strip of light a several feet to our right, cracked the gloom of our prison. I locked on the tip of the saw, pushing in and out rhythmically as it cut through the thick boards. Sawdust sprayed in the air around the opening, that was gradually forming. After a few more pieces of wood fell away, our rescuer’s arms became visible, the muscles and tendons tight from wielding the power saw. Soon his face came into view.
Bits of wood and sawdust, gathered in his thick black beard, making him look a bit like a dark Santa Claus. His eyes were squinted, deepening the wrinkles at the corners, as even more dust kicked back in his face. I locked on his camouflage ball cap that bore the logo of what must have been a local Sport and Game store called Jacks. Seconds later there was a hole big enough for us to slip through. Instead of crawling inside, the man who was to be our salvation stepped back. Another man who looked to be in his early fifties with a clean-shaven face and dark eyes, leaned in. He shone a flashlight around the space until it came to rest on us.
Ransom (Holding Ransom # 1) Page 11