Last Light Falling

by J. E. Plemons

  Gabe and I quietly walk up to the second floor where the computers are located. I secretly hand the letter to Gabe so he can look up the GPS coordinates that hopefully will answer some questions.

  I’m so nervous; I get out of my chair and pace the aisle of books. I weave my way down the religion aisle and press my head against the shelf until I see a book that catches my eye—The Book of Solomon. I take it off the shelf, but before I can open it, I gasp. The same priest, who was standing outside our house, is pacing back and forth across the aisle.

  I quickly retreat behind the other books. Just so I know I’m not imaging this, I creep my head up to take a second look. I can see him from the side, placing a book back on the shelf, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember this man from before—I saw him years ago at the Foster Care Center.

  I remember him talking to one of the administrators with an elevated voice. He seemed very concerned about something, and I remember the director of the Care Center coming over to calm him down. I don’t remember anything after that, but I know this is the same man. I gather my thoughts and walk quickly over to where Gabe is looking up the coordinates.

  “Did you find anything?” I say, panting.

  “Yes … what’s wrong with you? You look like just saw a ghost.”

  “It’s nothing, I’ll tell you later. Did you get any information?” I ask again.

  Gabe looks at me with concern. “Yes, it’s printing right now, but—”

  “No buts. Let’s go right now, come on.”

  I shove the letter in my pocket, grab Gabe by the arm, and snatch the printed directions from the printer. We carefully scurry downstairs without anyone noticing we are in a hurry. We reach the basement floor, where all the periodicals are kept, making sure to look behind us every so often to ensure that no one is following us.

  “Okay, what’s going on? Tell me now,” says Gabe intrusively.

  “I saw that priest upstairs, the same one I told you about in the car on the way over here,” I say, flustered.

  “Okay, okay, I believe you, but what makes you think he is following …” Gabe pauses and remembers what he said earlier, before we got out of the car.

  “Exactly. You knew this. It’s what you were feeling,” I concur.

  “Look, let’s just stay down here for a little while and figure out this map before we make too much out of this,” Gabe calmly says.

  We sit down at one of the unoccupied tables to decipher the coordinates. It’s so drab and dark down here, we have to turn on one of the table lamps. As we look at the directions, we notice that these coordinates are less than fifteen miles from here. The aerial view reveals an old, white building covered by trees. A gravel road connects the building to a small county road where it’s fenced off. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it appears that most of the road has been covered up.

  “So what’s the plan?” asks Gabe.

  “I think we need to lay low for a little while. I don’t want Myra or Daniel getting suspicious, especially with the trust we’ve finally established with them. I need a while to think about this. We have no way of getting there except on foot, and I’m not about to walk fifteen miles there and back, risking getting caught past curfew,” I say.

  We stay in the basement a little while longer until I feel it’s safe for us to go back upstairs. I’m still a little suspicious of the priest who I think is following us, and I won’t hesitate to do whatever is necessary to protect my brother. Maybe he is or maybe he isn’t following us, but it just seems too much of a coincidence that the same priest who was at the Care Center arguing with our foster coordinator was near our house and now at the library. Servant to deity or not, I feel a responsibility to defend my family against all walks of life. If there was anything I was taught of value from Finnegan, it was to have an innate awareness of deceptions. Evil prowls on the tempted, and what may seem impossible most certainly can be.

  With no signs of the priest wandering around the aisles, we spend most of our time in the library reading. I could spend my whole life in here and never become bored. There are so many things I want to learn about, so I just dive into the first book off the shelf that interests me. I’m reading Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions from Jonathan Bell’s The Ancient Hebrew Culture, while Gabe loses himself in a Dan Bricklin technology book.

  While I’m reading, I glimpse over and notice three girls coming toward us. Two of them recognize Gabe and snicker back and forth to each other. They are dressed in what one could only call trendy to the point of begging for attention. Anything else would fetch the fashion police or may otherwise tarnish their prestige. I think I may vomit now.

  The leader of the group appears more confident, distinguishing herself from the other two girls, flaunting her double-slutting attire, a term I picked up from Niki. Apparently, it means to expose two sexy areas, like your chest and legs at the same time. “Dear God, kill me now,” I say under my breath.

  My first impression is that they have never seen a library before, much less a book, and stopped here only to get directions to the nearest mall. As judgmental as that sounds, I quickly try to erase any negative impression I had and offer a friendly gesture of hospitality.

  “Hi, I’m Arena, and this is my brother, Gabe,” I say in a friendly manner. I spoke for Gabe’s sake, because I know he’s shy around girls, especially attractive ones. Before I’m able to welcome them to join us, I get a crooked snarl from the leader followed by eye rolls from her entourage. I take it my generosity has gone unnoticed.

  They walk past me as if I don’t exist, and stand next to Gabe by the computer consoles. “Hi, sweetie, you mind if we just slip by here and use this computer?” the leader seductively says to Gabe. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Gabe’s jawbone retract that far. His catatonic state is almost unbecoming, as his eyes are strenuously transfixed on her ridiculously exposed cleavage.

  I do believe if this girl wasn’t such an attention-seeking slut, any other girl would have slapped Gabe’s eyes from his sockets already. “Sure,” Gabe spits out.

  “He’s cute in a nerdy kind of way,” one of the girls says, as the other girl shares her sentiment with an agreeable nod. Gabe may have the attributes of a geek, but he’s still an attractive-looking guy, even if he is my brother. It’s only fitting for these half-witted snobs to use the library for social networking instead of its original intention.

  “Come on, Gabe, it’s getting late, we better go,” I say, trying to avoid eye contact with the girls.

  “Now, I don’t think that’s your decision. Gabe can think for himself,” chimes in the leader firmly.

  Okay, now I’m just pissed. I have the ability to crack this bitch’s neck in half if I truly wanted to, but I’m really working hard at turning the other cheek like Gabe has taught me.

  I turn to Gabe and speak in Russian. He knows I’m mad if I’m speaking in another language, and Russian isn’t exactly a dialectal tongue I use to express kind words with. “If you don’t get up now and leave with me, I’m going to put my foot up that girl’s ass and use it for a slipper,” I coarsely say.

  Gabe immediately gets up from the chair, nearly falling over, and apologizes to the girls. “I’m sorry; you’ll have to forgive us. It’s been a long day, and we really have to get back home.”

  The leader smiles at Gabe and turns to me with a scowled brow, giving me a half-cocked smile of disapproval. Oh, how I want to slap those waxed brows off her face. I pick up my book and walk over to Gabe, but I just can’t help myself as I lean closer and hover over the computer screen. “Aw, interesting,” I say with a surprised look on my face.

  “What?” the girls say with revulsion.

  “Gabe, they do have opposable thumbs, I was beginning to wonder,” I say, trying hard not to crack a smile. I gesture with my head to Gabe that it’s time to leave.

  As we walk downstairs to the lobby, I suddenly realize that we will be going to the same high school as these presumptuous imbeciles. What ha
ve I just done?

  “Well, I hope you’re happy now, because you get to endure the discomfort of those girls at school all year. I think you really gave them a great first impression,” Gabe says sarcastically.

  “Yeah, well you didn’t seem to make it any easier with your gawking. Oh, and by the way, girls don’t really appreciate you staring at their breasts while they’re talking to you, well … most girls.”

  I don’t know how guys are, but girls can be downright mean and hold grudges for life. The ability to shrewdly manipulate your peers into giving you a higher ranking in the pecking order is hazardous. When girls master this, all is lost in our schools, and the social hierarchies these girls have pervasively developed will be convincing. I check out my book, Ancient Hebrew Cultures, and we wait outside for the bus to arrive.

  When we get home, all I can think about is food. The smell of roast and potatoes coming from the kitchen is like an aromatic punch in the face. Saliva is literally dripping from my mouth. Myra is an exceptional cook, and tonight is no exception, because this is our birthday meal. Gabe and I both have the same favorite dish, and we almost always ask for this dish on our birthday. But when we walk into the kitchen to get a better view of what our stomachs are about to receive, we see a spread of food on the table fit for a royal feast—you would think we were having company over tonight.

  There’s a moist and tender roast smothered in gravy, surrounded by roasted red potatoes and carrots accompanied with slices of caramelized onions, steamed asparagus drizzled with a butter sauce and lemon curry zest, freshly baked garlic bread, poached pears with silky smooth chocolate mousse inside, and homemade apple pie with whipped cream.

  Daniel comes in the door, and I ready myself for this royal feast. I patiently wait for Niki, Myra, Daniel, and even Gabe to get their plates before I devour my first helping. Three plates later, and my appetite has surrendered. I almost feel guilty for eating so much food. I excuse myself from the table and slowly ascend upstairs to what feels like my deathbed. I haven’t eaten like that in years. If I was carb rationing, I failed miserably.

  I lie on the bed relaxing for a while, reading my new library book when Gabe walks in. “Have you given much thought about the key and the coordinates?” asks Gabe.

  “I don’t really feel like thinking about it right now.”

  “Maybe I can change that,” says Gabe confidently. “Come to my room. I need to show you something.”

  I’m reaping my gluttonous indulgence for good food while I lie on the bed unwilling to move, but I somehow manage to rouse myself from my overstuffed stupor. I curiously walk to Gabe’s room to see what he’s up to.

  “I mistakenly put in the longitude coordinates. This is where the coordinates are supposed to show,” Gabe says, pointing to the laptop screen.

  “That’s only a mile away,” I say.

  “Yeah, and it’s just two blocks from the school. You can barely make it out, but it looks like an abandoned gas station with an attached garage,” Gabe says. “We can do this, you know—after school.”

  “I’m not going to be a lab rat in a baited building. What if some sick, twisted pervert sent out these random envelopes with the same letter and key, and he is there just waiting for the first person to show up so he can torture or rape them? I’m not going anywhere near there until I have thoroughly staked out the place,” I say.

  “Well, then I’ll go alone,” says Gabe.

  “Fine, don’t come calling me when you wake up with a rag in your mouth and find your testicles hooked up to a car battery.”

  “Look, I don’t need your help, and I don’t need you to baby me every step I take,” Gabe says, his voice now elevated.

  “Baby you! Seriously, that’s what you think? I’m here to protect you,” I shout back.

  “Protect me from what … curiosity?” he says.

  “It’s curiosity that will get you into trouble if you’re careless,” I retort.

  “You can’t stop me,” he says defiantly.

  I want to desperately throw this key out the window and never have any mention of this letter again. The thought of burning it occurred to me, but in the heat of the moment, I throw the key on the floor out of frustration. I toss the half-folded letter at Gabe’s head, but it misses and slowly floats down to the side of his fish tank. All I can do is stand there in silence, mesmerized by the fish, until I notice a purplish glow emitting from the back of the letter.

  I slowly walk over to the tank to take a closer look at the letter and observe a startling discovery. There is writing on the letter, glowing from the black light on Gabe’s fish tank. As if this was the discovery of the year, Gabe swiftly removes the black light from the tank and brings it closer to the letter. As I unfold the paper, we expose a hidden message.

  Gabe reads the message aloud, “I need your help. Use the key to unlock the basement. Father Joseph will guide you both for further instructions. Love you both … Finnegan.”

  CHAPTER 4

  The anxiety I’ve just recently developed is assisting my stomach in depositing my dinner. Before I lose my meal, I sit and calm myself, swallowing every few seconds to keep the food down. Gabe is rendered speechless, and we both just sit in silence for a few moments. We haven’t spoken to or heard from Finnegan since he was last deployed six years ago. I just assumed he was dead when we were living with our Aunt Angela, because he never once wrote to her, yet the government never gave us any indication that he was dead either. It all seemed too strange at the time, but the death of my parents overcame any delusions I had of his whereabouts.

  This changes everything now. Whatever I considered doing with that key earlier has been completely withdrawn. I slowly pick it up off the floor and feel a sense of hope. I’m suddenly embarrassed that I ridiculed Gabe’s ambitious effort to find the coordinates of the place. But he’s right, and I know now what we must do.

  We spend the next hour devising a plan on how we are going to get to the abandoned building without anyone knowing. We both agree that skipping class on the first day is not an option, so we are forced to persuade Myra and Daniel that we will be coming home late because of an after-school program that Gabe and I are interested in. To keep them less suspicious, we will wait until the end of the week to let them know. I’ve never had to lie to Myra and Daniel, nor have I ever wanted to deceive them, but this is something I know they wouldn’t understand.

  Because the country has been on high alert recently, there will be an unusual amount of federal officers surrounding the school. Less than two weeks ago, a few anti-government groups formed a small militia and tried to take out a federal facility near the Capitol. The revolt failed miserably and all were shot to death except the leader, who was brutally beaten and sentenced to a public hanging that was nationally televised. We’ll have to have a very keen eye if we are to sneak into the building. Trespassing is punishable by jail time. It’s ridiculous what our country has turned into, and since there is no longer state government or state rights, the federal government’s regulations have depleted our basic freedoms and ideals.

  Not only does the government regulate the amount of fuel we consume, but they also influence our eating habits by rewarding credit points to those who purchase food from federally aided food companies.

  Because of the arrogance of our leaders, oil supplies from other nations have been completely shut off, the United Nations has been abandoned, and Israel is no longer our ally. Israel, the one nation that our country could not afford to lose its support, is now independently struggling with war against the Muslim nations.

  Since the fall of the Dome on the Rock, the surrounding regions have stopped waging war against Israel out of Holy terror. Four years ago, two misguided missiles fired from border adversaries, slamming into the Dome on the Rock, and leaving it in complete ruins, as along with the peace keeping between the Jews and Muslims. Many felt that God was punishing them for all the small wars that were waged.

  Before the destruction of the
Dome, many religious groups during the faith movement almost came to an agreement to relocate the Dome to Mecca, but such actions would inevitably lead to violence, and the Israelis were too ambivalent about the Movement. Since then, no one has seen the site of the destruction, but there have been rumors that a new structure was being built, yet no one has seen it.

  Because our government has turned its back on Israel, it has in essence turned its back against God. Unfortunately, the people seem to accept the nation’s social philosophies regardless of its lack of moral principles. The leader of our nation is still voted into office by the people, which may be the only democracy left in this country. Although I believe political influence and federal manipulation of votes is spreading like cancer, I will still try to reserve judgment.

  I’m so anxious to understand what all this means that I just can’t sleep. All I can do is impatiently wait, knowing that one key could possibly shed some light on my future. I just lie in my bed and gaze at the ceiling, trying to remember what it was like before our parents died. I can almost feel my mom’s hand stroke my hair. I close my eyes and place my hand on my cheek as I try to summon one of the many memories of my mom wrapping her arms around me.

  I continue to embrace the reminiscences as long as I can until my heart becomes numb. I turn over and grab an old family photo from my bedside and stare deep into the memories it holds. I squeeze my pillow tight until my knuckles turn white, and it’s all I can do to keep from crying, but it’s no use. My heart still aches, and because I can hear Gabe through the thin walls crying just the same, I surrender to my pain. I turn my head over so the pillow can soak up any tears that trail down my cheek as I fall asleep.

  CHAPTER 5