Window in the Earth Trilogy

by Fish, Matthew

  “Right,” Bones said as he took the rope from James. “Is this necessary? I’d hate to wrinkle my uniform.”

  “I’d have to insist,” James said as he held the other end, handing a length of it over to Christopher.

  “Besides, if anything weird happens in there,” Christopher said, “just tug on it and we’ll pull you out.”

  “Can’t argue with safety,” Bones added with a chuckle as he tied a tight knot around his waist. “Well, here goes.”

  “Good luck!” James encouraged.

  “Be careful…,” Christopher said.

  Bones carefully placed his left foot into the open window of the room. A pained expression showed up on his face for a moment, but quickly passed. “Damn…that is cold.”

  “Remember, give a tug if you need us,” James said, nodding.

  “Oh!” Christopher exclaimed, remembering something from before. “When you’re able to, give us a thumbs-up so we know you’re okay. You can’t talk to us any other way.”

  “Right,” Bones said, wincing from the cold. He slowly inched his leg in more and more, until finally he could take no more of it. “To hell with it,” he said, and leapt through the window completely.

  Christopher and James watched as Bones disappeared momentarily, a loud tearing noise following his entry as he ripped through the portal and into a new reality. They watched as Bones’ head slowly rose up to the window, the vision of his face very distorted and shaky.

  “Well…,” Christopher whispered as he gripped his end of the rope tightly. “He’s in.”

  “I wonder what he’ll find.”

  The two watched in silence as Bones stepped forward, or rather, floated forward, as it looked so awkward and out of sequence that it was hard to tell exactly what he was doing. Then, Bones quickly appeared back at the window, almost as though he had forgotten something. A quick frame of Bones appeared giving Christopher and James the thumbs up signal that Christopher had asked for.

  “Good; he’s okay,” Christopher whispered.

  Bones made his way all about the room, sometimes disappearing for seconds, other times turning into a ball of light. He sat at the bed for several frames, and then appeared before the door with a sudden flash.

  “About the door…,” Christopher whispered over to James. “Did you try it?”

  “Yeah…,” James said, his eyes glued to the window. “It didn’t turn. I tried to pull it but it didn’t even feel as though it would budge.”

  “Oh…I didn’t try it. I wonder what’s behind it.”

  “I’d love to know. Oh…I think he’s found something.”

  Christopher and James watched as Bones carefully inspected something on the floor, although Christopher could not make out anything at all. Perhaps it was too small to be seen from the window. Frame by frame, Bones got closer and closer to whatever it was that he was interested in.

  “It’s going to get dark,” James whispered. “Don’t freak out.”

  “I won’t.” Christopher gripped his end of rope as tight as he possibly could, ready for anything that could happen.

  As Bones’ fingers touched the ground, the room went completely black. A huge explosion of thunder and wind shot from the window as it slammed down firmly upon the rope.

  “We knew this would happen…,” James reassured, looking over to a panicking Christopher.

  “We’ve got to get the window open…,” Christopher said in a troubled voice. “Right?”

  “Give it some time; we didn’t even have to pull you out. It shot you out all by itself,” James answered reassuringly. “We were going to give you two more minutes, but you beat the clock by a minute and a half.”

  “I was only in for that short a time?” Christopher asked, remembering back to his special memory, how it seemed to take place over hours of his life.

  “That’s right,” James said. “You remember I was only in for a few minutes. Bones should be out any moment now.”

  As the last word had left James’ lips the window suddenly flew back open, expelling a huge, cold gust of air that flung Bones out backward and onto his back against the cold hard floor of the cave.

  Christopher and James rushed over to Bones’ side. They knew that it was going to be difficult for him, especially the first few moments.

  Bones slowly moved, curling himself up into a ball upon the floor. A tear could be seen running from his closed eyes. He was clutching something in his hand, and trembling in confusion and from coldness.

  “Are you okay?” Christopher asked.

  “Give him a moment,” James said as he placed a hand on Bones’ shoulder. “He’s still confused.”

  Bones, still trembling, gradually rose to a sitting position. He gave both Christopher and James bewildered looks, as though he did not recognize them. “Catharine…,” he whispered, tears streaming from his eyes.

  “Did you see her?” Christopher asked. “What happened?”

  “Cat…,” Bones said as he stared down at his hands, “…they’re wrinkled….”

  “Bones?” James asked, concerned.

  “Are you okay?” Christopher asked, placing a hand on Bones’ other shoulder. It had not taken James this long to recover.

  “Damn these hands…,” Bones said between sobs as he stared down at his hands. “These old wrinkled hands, this old painful body. What is it any good for? What am I any good for, anymore?”

  “You’re okay…,” Christopher said, placing his arms around Bones, “…and you’re good for us, don’t you know that?”

  “Sorry…,” Bones whispered, as though things were slowly coming back to him. “I’m just tired of feeling old. I’m tired of being old, too.”

  “Well,” James said, “at least you get to watch adult movies.”

  Bones chuckled as he cried, and then looked back down at the backs of his hands. “I had forgotten, you know? They’re my own hands and I had forgotten how they looked.”

  “Did you get to see her?” James asked.

  “Yeah…,” Bones said, finally letting a smile out. “I did see her.”

  “What happened?” Christopher asked, happy to see a smile return to Bones’ face. He didn’t want Bones to be sad; he was important. After all he had done for he and his brother, Christopher believed that he deserved only happiness.

  “It was the dance. It…it was wonderful,” Bones said with a faraway look in his eyes. “Seeing her again, for the first time. It felt just like the first time too, and so much better than I had ever imagined it. Even the best dreams I had of that moment, they could never come close to that experience….”

  “I’m glad that she was there…,” Christopher whispered. Hearing Bones talk about Catharine made him miss Kylie.

  “She was so beautiful that night,” Bones said, his eyes twinkling. “We danced and danced, we talked and we joked. All of my old friends were there, and everyone was so incredibly happy…. Then, at the end of the night we shared one last dance, to Dean Martin’s ‘Memories Are Made of This’…. As it ended we kissed, and for the first time, too. It was just amazing, so beautiful and wonderful. It was every good word in the dictionary that means something is amazing, and every good feeling that one can experience in life wrapped up into one nice little moment.”

  “Is that where it ended?” James asked in amazement at all that Bones had gotten to experience.

  “It actually ended right before I went to sleep that night,” Bones said, nodding his head happily. “I was lying in bed, thinking about all the possibilities. Thinking about Cat and how we could start a whole new life together, about how she would be a new chapter in my life.”

  “Then you were pulled right out of bed, right?” Christopher asked, remembering the strange experience of exiting his memory.

  “Yeah,” Bones said, “One hell of a ride, too.”

  “I bet we could charge money for that ride,” James said, “We could charge money for all of this!”

  “No…,” Bones quietly replied, shaki
ng his head. “This is something special, something small in the world that should remain small.”

  “Other people should know…,” Christopher said, a little confused as to why Bones did not wish to share this.

  “Well…,” Bones began as he presented a folded-up envelope that he had gripped in his hand. “I think this place is invitation only.”

  “What is it?” Christopher asked, staring down at the envelope.

  Bones slowly unfolded the thick paper, exposing the writing on the front of the envelope. “To: Kylie” was written in fancy cursive writing. “It looks like it has chosen its next visitor…,” he said.

  “What’s inside of it? Should we open it?” Christopher asked, eager to learn more about the strange things going on down there, in the Earth.

  “I think we should let her do that,” Bones said as he folded the envelope back up into its original shape. “It’s her part of the story now.”

  “She didn’t want to go…,” James said, “I hoped she’d change her mind.”

  “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, at the lake,” Christopher whispered. He was a bit worried about Kylie going in. What if she had some kind of bad memory involving her father? The room wouldn’t do that to her, though, would it? The thought of it left Christopher very uneasy. After all, the cave had done some scary things. Had it meant to scare them, though, or was it just doing things that it had to do? There were still way too many questions left to answer.

  “I’m ready to go back home…,” Bones said as he slowly got to his feet, dusting the dirt off of the sides of his uniform. He untied the rope from his waist and handed it to James.

  “Okay,” James said as he packed up the rope.

  “Do you think the room has anything to do with Alena?” Christopher asked as he sat on the ground, staring into the open window.

  “I don’t know…,” James quietly replied, looking down at Christopher and then over into the window in the earth.

  “If that’s where she disappeared to, I can see why she never came back,” Bones said as he also turned to the window. “I don’t know what kind of forces are at work down here, or who is responsible for them. Then again, maybe I don’t want to know.”

  “I want to know,” Christopher whispered, “I just want to understand it.”

  “If it wants us to know…,” James said, “…I’m sure it will let us, when the time is right.”

  “Right,” Christopher said, rising to his feet. “When the time is right, then.”

  “Let’s head back.” James turned on his large lantern and made his way back to the winding tunnel. “Besides, I’m hungry again.”

  Christopher chuckled for a moment and followed behind James, pausing for a moment to look back at Bones, who was still standing near where the window used to be.

  “Thank you…,” Bones whispered as he kneeled down onto his knees, his eyes firmly shut. “I don’t presume to know who you are, or why you have done this for me. All I know is what I’ve felt…all I know is what I’ve experienced. And for what I’ve felt and experienced, I thank you for that. With every part of everything that I am…I thank you for my life…and thank you for my memories.”

  Christopher continued on, pretending as though he had not heard what Bones had said, although feeling deeply moved by the statement. Bones didn’t seem like the type to be so emotional, but he had thought about this before. Christopher knew now that Bones was a lot like him and James: just another person on this earth, happy to be alive and happy with what they have. Sure there was some tragedy there, but everyone has some sort of tragedy in their life. It was what they make out of it that defines who they really are. To Christopher, this was Bones’ defining moment, a small glimpse at the true character inside the person that called himself Bones, originally known as Mathias Janes.

  “Thank you…,” Christopher whispered off into the darkness.

  Chapter 11: A Day in the Sun

  Feet in the water and hearts in the clouds as sunlight gleamed in our eyes. We felt as birds, or at least as free, as our memories soared on giant white wings.

  As Christopher awoke to the familiar surroundings of his bedroom, there was a slight early morning chill in the air as red sunlight filtered in through the bedroom window. Arms outstretched, Christopher slowly got to his feet. For the first time since he had arrived at Pine Hallow he felt as if he had finally gotten enough sleep the night before. For that, he was very thankful.

  The previous night, after the three had returned from Bones’ venture into the window in the earth, nothing of real importance or strangeness had actually occurred. For that, Christopher was also very thankful. It was nice to have a quiet evening for once and talk about things that weren’t sad or strange. There were some threads of discussion regarding different memories and moments, things that they might want to relive someday. They also spent a few moments on things that they would never hope to relieve, embarrassing moments, or boring ones involving tests at school or doctor’s appointments. At one point Bones had noted that if the cave really was evil, it would just make us relive all of the long boring days of school over and over, without any weekend in sight. They had all gotten a good laugh at that.

  Pulling a bulging suitcases full of clothes out from underneath the bed, Christopher carefully selected what he should wear on his trip to the lake today. Any other day Christopher might have just thrown on any old thing that he could find, or anything that was packed on top and easy to access. However, today he would be seeing Kylie again, and that called for a special caliber of clothing.

  Finally, after settling on a nice pair of striped shorts, and his shirt that comically read: “I’m not here today, leave a message” (well, Christopher found it comical anyway), he made his way down to the living room with an excited spring in his step. As expected, since he always seemed to be the last one to wake up, Bones and James were already dressed and ready. Both sat on the couch watching the black-and-white television set.

  “Morning,” Christopher whispered, not wanting to interrupt their television-watching as he made his way into the kitchen, intent on locating himself some cereal.

  “Hey!” Bones happily greeted, holding a hand up in the air.

  “Morning…,” James said, sounding a touch tired from the night before.

  “Weather says it’s going to be a nice day today,” Bones quickly added.

  “Sounds good,” Christopher replied from the kitchen. He poured himself a bowl of some form of raisin bran flakes. Not really much of a favorite of his, but it was his only choice since someone had already finished all the other brands.

  “It just says we can’t expect much more nice weather…,” James said. “They say Saint Louis is flooding.”

  “They’re saying this year could be the worst flood season ever for the central U.S…,” Bones said.

  “I hope it doesn’t flood around here…,” Christopher replied as he walked back into the living room to join Bones and James on the living room couch. “At least I hope the cave doesn’t flood. The water was already up a lot higher than before from the storm that passed through.”

  “Yeah…,” James agreed. “I hope the rain holds off until we can figure out what is going on down there.”

  Christopher and James helped Bones pack up the fishing gear and supplies that they would be bringing with them, and, in a way, Christopher was very pleased that they were gearing up for a different kind of trip today than the other adventures they had gone on. After all the weird stuff going on, a nice normal trip to the lake would seem like a luxury vacation.

  The three crammed into the old white truck, which, just as before, took quite a while to get started and even seemed to cry out in anguish. As they jolted and bounced down the road that morning, Christopher was ever more thankful that the lake was only a few miles away. He wondered how Bones was able to take this rusted piece of junk all the way out to Springfield. It must have been one painfully jarring experience on his body.

  “Have yo
u ever thought of getting a new truck?” James asked, trying not to sound offensive.

  “And get rid of this beauty?” Bones replied sarcastically. “Nah, I could never get rid of this truck, not after all we’ve been through.”

  Now at the lake, and no less sooner than the brothers could have hoped for, the three carefully unloaded the gear from the truck, making their way to a clear grassy area on the lakeside that seemed like a perfect picnicking/fishing spot.

  Christopher took a deep breath of the damp, crisp morning air; the day was really shaping up to be an incredible one. He scanned the area all around him, eyes full of the spectacular view of the lake. It seemed as though they could not have chosen a more perfect day to be there. The sky was a light-powered blue as little contrails of clouds spread through the air like tendrils of white charcoal lines. The lake before them glimmered and rippled in the warm sunlight and spread out as far as the eye could see, disappearing off into the horizon and seeming to melt right into a large rolling hill of pine trees and oak.