Eighth Fire

by Curtis, Gene

  Mark interrupted, “How many things are taught this way at The Seventh Mountain?”

  Without missing a beat Gerod continued, “Everything at the Seven Mountains is taught this way, every minute of every day. In most instances in class the student is first given the theory and then practical exercises. Outside of class students are presented with ample opportunities to apply what they’ve learned and allowed to get into situations that give them experiential knowledge that they need in order to learn more.

  “For example; the game of tag: you may have been under the impression that it was allowed so that the student could develop and improve their skills at detecting and avoiding danger. While that is part of it, the main reason is that it is designed to teach students that trying to injure others is not something you want to do if you can avoid it. I can tell you this because both of you have already learned this lesson. Every minute of every day that you are here is designed to provide experiential learning events, even when you’re asleep. Did that answer your question?”

  Mark asked, “Even Tent Fest?”

  “Most assuredly; think about what you learned last year and what you plan to do differently this year, and for the rest of your life.”

  Mark and LeOmi both nodded.

  “Through the connection between your spirit and your mind you can perceive things. Your spirit doesn’t need physical light to see; this is something that you are getting ready to experience in your regular Communications class. Your spirit can also travel outside of your physical body which is something you’ll experience when learning Tactical Sight. Both of these things I’m going to teach you now. That’s why the incense is here.

  “Now, I want both of you to lie down and start to fall asleep. When you’re in that state when you just begin to start dreaming I want you to think about the sign I’ve placed on the other side of the balcony wall. Try to see what it says.”

  The warm afternoon and the effect of the incense allowed Mark to fall asleep quickly and when he realized he was starting to dream he remembered he was supposed to look at the sign. He sat up and was just beginning to stand when he saw that Gerod was sitting beside himself. LeOmi was sitting beside her body too. He looked behind himself and saw his body lying there. “I think I’ve broken something.”

  Both Gerods spoke in sync, “That’s a normal first reaction; nothing’s broken. See if you can read the sign.”

  Mark got up, walked to the wall and looked over. “I can see the sign, but I can’t read it. The print is too small and the angle is bad.”

  “Do whatever it takes to read the sign. Remember, this is your spirit; normal rules don’t apply, dream rules do.”

  With that Mark realized he needed to be on the other side of the wall looking at the sign and he floated up over the wall and looked at the sign, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all...It’s the Gettysburg Address.”

  “That’s right. Come back over here and sit by your body.” When he had done so Gerod continued, “That was Tactical Sight. Now, let’s try remanifesting. I want both of your spirits to walk about a hundred feet away,” he pointed to his right, “and stay there while you wake up. A good way to do that is to find something to concentrate on, something that you’re very interested in examining further.”

  When they were far enough away Gerod said, “That’s good. Now find something to examine while you wake up.”

  Mark chose a pebble to study while LeOmi was looking at the wall. As he was waking up the image of the pebble stayed in his mind like the dream was continuing. He continued concentrating on the pebble and the image resolved into something he had never experienced before; it reminded him of the afterimages he had experienced in regular Communications class.

  Gerod said, “You can still see what your spirits are concentrating on; now convince yourself that you want to see it with your physical eyes.”

  Mark wanted to do what Gerod had said but he could see the pebble perfectly well with his dream eyes. It surprised him when LeOmi’s body disappeared from where she was laying and reappeared kneeling by the wall a hundred feet away.

  “Very good, LeOmi,” Gerod smiled. “Few students ever get it that quickly.” He turned to Mark, “Let me have your thoughts.” After a moment he said, “I understand your difficulty. You’re going to have to learn to motivate yourself to want to be where your spirit is. That may prove to be a bit challenging since you already see so well with Spirit Sight. Why don’t you try picking up the rock and looking at the bottom of it.”

  Mark thought about picking it up, but his body stayed put while the stone rose a couple of feet off the ground and turned over in mid-air.

  “I thought so.” Gerod stood and motioned for them to stand. “Mark, you’re going to have to work really hard on your motivation. Well, that does it for today. Your homework: practice. LeOmi, I give you permission to remanifest off of the school grounds. I doubt that you’ll have any trouble getting back, but if you do just use Tactical Sight to find me and let me know; I’ll come get you. If you don’t mind, you can take Mark with you; it might help his motivation. You don’t have to take him unless you want to. I’m sure he understands that there are some places you might wish to visit by yourself.”

  LeOmi nodded and held her arm out for Mark to grab.

  They were standing by a split rail fence; Mark let go of LeOmi’s arm. The air was humid and smelled of a fresh rain yet the sandy ground wasn’t overly moist. Several horses were romping behind the fence having a grand time. Less than a minute passed before they all stopped and looked at the pair.

  Two horses, a black stallion and a gray mare started slowly toward them. LeOmi stepped up onto the lower fence rail and called, “Fury...it’s me!” The black stallion reared as if he was excited to see her and cantered over. The gray mare followed at a trot. When Fury reached LeOmi he pushed her off the rail with his nose, raised his head and laughed. Mark looked at LeOmi and she was laughing...LeOmi was laughing. That was incredible. Mark had seen her smile, and even grin on occasion, but never had he seen her laugh.

  She stepped back up to Fury and hugged his nose, “Yes, I didn’t forget.” She reached into Aaron’s Grasp, pulled out several sugar cubes and held them for the horse to eat. She looked at Mark briefly and turned back to Fury. “Mark, meet Fury, Fury, Mark.”

  The gray mare arrived, stuck her head over the fence toward LeOmi, bobbed it up and down a few times and whinnied softly. LeOmi looked at her and said, “Mark, meet Henry’s Horse, Henry’s Horse, Mark.”

  Mark saw in his mind’s eye a hand holding out an apple to the mare. He reached into Aaron’s Grasp and removed a pear. “I don’t have an apple girl, how about a pear?” Mark had started keeping a couple of pears in Aaron’s Grasp since that was the favorite treat for his horse, The General.

  Henry’s Horse took the pear and crunched it wholeheartedly. Mark sensed she had never had one before and she very much liked it; maybe even better than apples. An image of him offering her another formed in his mind. He removed the last one he had and offered it to her, “That’s it girl; I don’t have any more.”

  She chomped this one too and turned sideways next to the fence. Mark didn’t need the image to understand that she wanted to show him around, but he got it just the same. He climbed the fence up onto her back.

  LeOmi mounted Fury and both horses started loping toward the stable. LeOmi was the happiest Mark had ever seen her. She said, “I used to work here before I came to The Seventh Mountain.”

  “How could you work here? You were just eleven.”

  “It’s considered farm work and Henry was my martial arts instructor at the “Y”. It was his ranch.”

  “Was?”

  “He died, bone cancer.”

  “Sorry to hear—”

  Mark was cut off by the shotgun blast. “Hands up where I can see them!” The man stepped from the shadows in the door
way to the stable. He looked to be an older man with a receding hairline and a bit of a gut. He was dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt. The shotgun was pointed into the air.

  LeOmi raised her hands and whispered to Mark, “That’s Jacque, the foreman here, and I believe that’s Henry’s gun he’s carrying. He always kept it loaded with rock salt.”

  Mark raised his hands and whispered back, “Disarm him or make him afraid of us?”

  LeOmi didn’t answer but Mark felt a feeling of comfort and gladness like he had just encountered a long lost friend.

  The man took a couple of steps more and lowered the gun, “LeOmi...is that you?”

  “It’s me, Jacque. I’m surprised you’re still here.”

  “Work is work. Who’s yer friend?”

  “Jacque, meet Mark. We go to school together.”

  Jacque walked to them and extended his hand up to Mark, “Any friend of LeOmi’s is welcome here.” He turned to LeOmi, “Whatcha doin’ here? Ain’t ya ‘sposed to be in that school?”

  “Well, this is sort of a homework assignment.”

  He winked and said, “When I was in school they called it hooky. Y’all climb on down and come on up to the house. I got some jambalaya been simmerin’ since yesterday.”

  The jambalaya smelled fabulous. Mark asked, “What’s in it?”

  “Oh, the usual stuff ‘cept sausage.” Jacque patted his chest with the thumb side of his fist and made a face like he was going to burp. “Gettin’ too old for that spicy stuff. It’s still mighty good though, ‘specially with cornbread.” He sat the platter of cold cornbread on the table.

  When they were about through with the meal LeOmi asked, “Is that wheel of life still over the mantel?”

  “Sure ‘nough. As a matter of fact, Henry left that to you in his will. Said nobody else is to have it ‘ceptin’ you. Didn’t know how to get in touch to tell ya.” Jacque pushed his bowl away and said, “Finish up and we’ll go get it.”

  There were several shelves on the wall on both sides of the fireplace, each with trophies, plaques and framed photographs. One photograph showed a spike-haired, karate uniformed LeOmi in a flying round house kick with her heal smashing a soda bottle in mid-air. Another showed her crossing the finish line first in a horse race with her arms stretched high over her head. Mark looked closer and saw all of the trophies and plaques were hers; every one denoted a first place win in martial arts or equestrian events. Mark looked at LeOmi and said, “Wow! I knew you were good, but I had no idea.”

  “I started ballet and gymnastics early and then kickboxing. When I moved here I continued martial arts classes.”

  Jacque added, “Henry said she was a natural. Tell him about the dory.”

  Mark sounded puzzled, “Dory?”

  “A spear like them ancient gladiators used, only one not for throwin’. They used it kind of like a sword but it had a spike on the back end, see...for pokin’.” Jacque demonstrated a backward thrust with an imaginary one.

  “Ms. Vanmie won’t let me use one yet.”

  “‘Tis a shame ‘cause you were good; Henry always talked ‘bout how good you were.”

  LeOmi shrugged and pointed briefly at the wheel of life. Jacque reached up, lifted it from the pegs on the wall and stood it on the floor beside her.

  “Thanks, Jacque. We need to be getting back now.”

  “Well, seems like you just got here.”

  “I just wanted to see the place again. I didn’t expect you to still be here. I’m glad you were.”

  “Don’t ‘spect I’ll be here much longer. Them relatives of his’n are tryin’ to sell the place. Once they found out it was worth two million they couldn’t wait to put the for sale sign out. Don’t seem right; they wouldn’t have a lick to do with him afore he died. Now they’re tryin’ to squeeze every cent they can outta the place.”

  “I’ll be back, Jacque. You can count on it.”

  In that instant Mark set his mind that if LeOmi really wanted the ranch that he’d buy it for her, but if she didn’t he’d let it go. He said to Jacque, “All eventualities converge on destiny’s path.”

  Jacque nodded and offered his hand to Mark. “Que Sera, Sera; whatever will be, will be. In the heat of the day it’s easy ta forget that. Thanks for remindin’ me.”

  Mark shook his hand. “If LeOmi says it’s okay to come with her, I’ll be back too.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  First Kiss

  The first Saturday after Tent Fest was when they all started meeting on Saturday nights. The group was too many to fit into their normal booth at the Oasis which was large enough to crowd six in, but not seven. Meeting for lunch was no longer practical either since the class schedules required different lunch times for most of them. Dinner during the weekdays would often conflict with extracurricular activities so Mark decided that he would just have dinner on Saturday nights at seven p.m., sit at a large table and anyone that wished could join him. James, Jamal, Chenoa, Nick, Cap’n Ben and LeOmi decided to make it a habit to be there when they could and were there for the first dinner.

  After they had all ordered, Mark asked James, “How’s motocross?”

  It had been hard to let James figure things out for himself during Tent Fest and James was a little miffed at Mark for not giving him advice. After all, brothers help each other out when they can. That’s a universal law of family. Shana had said that it would be difficult but James would be helped more by letting the life lesson take its course.

  “It’s not as exciting as Flags, but it’s cool. It’s more about figuring out how to cross almost impossible terrain than it is about strategy and tactics.” It was obvious that James didn’t really want to talk about it. Mark wondered if his older brother was a little jealous and didn’t like being in the position of the less experienced sibling or if something else was troubling him.

  Chenoa was excited. “Flight school is totally cool! My instructor says I’m a natural born pilot. She expects me to solo in the biplane in two or three weeks and then I can go on to rotorcraft—helicopters! And if I can solo in that before summer I can take summer classes for jets...jets! I’ll be a jet pilot before I can get my driver’s license!”

  Cap’n Ben grinned and nodded, “Let me know when you’re going to solo and I’ll be there; I want to watch.”

  LeOmi said, “I think we’d all like to watch.”

  Everyone else nodded in agreement. Jamal added, “I’ll make a picnic lunch for everyone, just give me a day or so advance notice.”

  Mark countered, “Jamal you don’t have to go to the trouble. We can arrange for food to be there.”

  “It’s an ongoing homework assignment. I have to prepare a meal for a group of four or more people at least once a month. Besides, I enjoy doing it.”

  Nick asked, “Isn’t there a supper club the gourmet cook students run for just that reason?”

  Jamal nodded, “The Upper Room, but juniors and above are the chefs, you need to get reservations way in advance and it’s expensive as all get-out.”

  Mark said, “Seems like there’s a need for a sophomore’s dining club.”

  LeOmi asked, “Where would it go? There’s no space in the mall.”

  Cap’n Ben offered, “There’s always Magi City.”

  The food arrived and when it was situated in front of everyone Jamal said, “Students aren’t allowed beyond the wall unaccompanied until they can remanifest.”

  Shana said, “That’s true for the area between school grounds and Magi City, but you can always use the subway. What’s this conversation about anyway?”

  Mark answered, “We were just tossing the idea around about starting a supper club run by sophomores; they’re not allowed to cook in The Upper Room and there’s no space in the mall to start one.”

  “You’re right about the mall and the waiting list for mall space is quite long. Whose idea was this?”

  Nick said, “It wasn’t a fully conceived idea per se; it was an exploration of how Jamal c
ould more easily complete his ongoing homework assignment to cook a meal for a group of people once a month.”

  Shana looked at Jamal. “I think starting another supper club is going a bit beyond what your teacher intends.”

  Nick said, “It’s just speculation, but I think the idea might have merit. I’d guess there are about fifty sophomore students taking gourmet cooking classes. Having a central location where they can complete their homework without having to recruit volunteers every month would make their lives a little easier.”

  “Spoken like a true Magi engineer. Making life better or easier for others is what it’s all about.” Shana turned back to Jamal. “How do you feel about it?”

  “Having a place to go and just cook would be a lot less of a hassle than how it’s done now.”

  “Even if it meant doing it once a week?”

  “I like to cook and it would mean more hands-on experience.”

  Just as Shana was saying she’d talk to the teachers about it a girl that Mark hadn’t noticed before walked up beside him, bent, put her arms around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. His reaction was instant; he was on his feet backing away from her and reaching for his riotous. Chenoa already had hers in hand.

  “Whoa, honey!” The new girl looked at Chenoa, raised her hands and said, “It was just a kiss.” Her accent was high pitched and New Jersey-ish. It was the same girl that had kissed Slone in the bookstore.