The Keepers of the Rose

by DJ Dalasta

  The truck bounded up and down on the unpaved road like an amusement park rollercoaster. Rock was amazed at how his two traveling companions could sleep in such conditions. Sayla was tucked into a ball. Benji was snoring loudly. Rock decided to let them be for now. The cabin wasn’t much further and he looked forward to talking with Wallace and Anna to see what they had come up with over the past week or so. It would be good to just see that everyone was ok.

  He had driven through the night. His eyes felt heavy and he found himself constantly shifting his body to keep comfortable. The window was full open and the cool breeze of early morning was helping. But he needed sleep. It would be good to rest his body and clear his head.

  This would be the third time Rock had retreated to this remote area in the mountains. Once a few years ago he found himself here for pure relaxation, and the other was at Wallace’s request when the old man was lonely as he poured over his latest research. Rock, for some reason helped Wallace think, perhaps it was because they saw things in completely different ways. Wallace saw things as factual and concrete, whereas Rock worked better under more hypothetical circumstances.

  He made the final turn just as the sun was coming up. The light rays burst trough the branches and shot thin beams through the morning fog. The cabin came into view and it was bigger than he remembered. It looked as though some work had been done to expand the living space on the right side of the house in the last year or so. He parked the truck and took a deep breath. He laid his head on the steering wheel, threatening to fall asleep right there.

  “All right,” he told himself and pushed backwards. “Everyone up,” he said loudly. Sayla and Benji both groaned and slowly began moving.

  “That was a long drive,” she said.

  “Oh really, I‘m sorry it was so rough” Rock replied.

  They quickly gathered their things and made it to the front door. It swung open before he could even knock. Wallace looked up at him with glassy eyes. “Rock, you’re here, hurry, hurry, come on in.” He grabbed him by the arm and pulled him inside.

  “Wallace you look like you’re going on less sleep than I am.”

  “I can’t sleep,” Wallace said. “If I shut my eyes, my mind, well it just races. I have to show you what it is you’ve found. Come.”

  “I can barely even think right now, I need some rest first.”

  “Rest can wait.” Wallace said. Rock groaned

  Inside, the normally neat and well-kept cabin was a mess. Banks of computers lined up against the far wall and the hum of their electrical needs could be heard resonating throughout the house. Papers were strewn about the room in what looked to be an orderly fashion but there were too many of them to know how it was organized. And the walls were filled with punchboards, pinned with notes and scribbles. Rock knew he could exist here fine but Anna would be going crazy.

  “She actually lets you keep the place like this,” he asked.

  “Who?”

  “Anna, this has to be driving her nuts.”

  “I’m afraid Anna is not here, and I haven’t heard from her in some time.”

  “But she was here, right, she had to have been.”

  Her and her assistant left a few days ago. They went to ah, ah. They went to Denver I believe. Check up on a ring. Follow a lead. Things were slow here at that point.”

  “You haven’t heard from her?”

  “No.”

  “Well that’s not good. Have you tried calling her?”

  “Skylar has, from a public phone in the city. Nothing.”

  “I guess we can’t worry about her right now, she has a good head on her shoulders. I’m sure she’s staying out of trouble.”

  Sayla came up next to them. “Hi Wallace.”

  “Sayla doll. How are you?”

  “I’m good. Tired. Where can we sleep?”

  “There is an open bedroom down the hall, it also has a pullout in there, you and…” Wallace looked at Benji, “he can sleep in there.”

  “Thanks,” Sayla grabbed her things and started down the hall, Benji followed, lumbering in a daze like state.

  “Who is that?”

  “That is the young man who is going to help me find those missing pages.”

  “You know where they are?”

  “Yes, he does. I think. An island, in the Caribbean.”

  “We could use those pages and their content when you get them. What we have now tells the story. And we all know a story is just a story. Myth is just myth. But what we believe is on those pages is the proof and the facts to make this story true. And if this is true.” Wallace shook his head. “If what this story says is true, it changes everything. It changes everything we’ve ever known. And if it’s true we need to know immediately.”

  “From the beginning of this,” Rock sat down. “I’ve gotten the feeling time is somehow, short. Each party involved impressed that upon me. But it doesn’t make sense, what is time sensitive in this field. I’ve never seen it before. If something has been in the ground that long, how can two or three more months really make much difference?”

  “The others won’t be up for another couple hours, they just went to bed not long ago. I’ll get you some coffee and use that time to fill you in. Keep an open mind Rock. You’re going to need it.” Wallace got up and waddled off into the kitchen. He came back with two cups and a full pot. He poured carefully and Rock was already feeling his body react just from the smell. Wallace set the pot down on the coffee table and retrieved a notebook from a nearby desk. He sat back down next to Rock, put on his glasses and opened up to a page in the middle. He cleared his throat.

  “Now I know your not going to be up on all of these historical accounts or places or legends but to give you an idea I will read off this list of discoveries that have many opened ended questions in the scientific community. This, what you’ve found, could bring them all into focus. The list is as follows. Stonehenge, the first dynasties of Egypt with focus on the sphinx, and the pyramids. The I –ching, Easter island , the standing stones of stennes, canac stones, boyne valley, mystery hill or America’s Stonehenge.” Wallace took a breath to continue. “Avebury, the fuente magna, ring of brodgar, the waitapu standing stone circle, the piri reis map, antikethyra mechanism, even the bible. But those are just a sampling of the places, things, what the kicker is, is that we’ve always wondered why the entire planet seemed to grow up at the same time. Why did all ancient civilizations get a boost at the same point, they all seemed to, without communicating to one another, understand architecture, agriculture, urbanization and astronomy. Just, bam,” Wallace threw his notebook on the table. “All at once. China, Vietnam, Babylon, India, Europe, Indus Valley, the Mediterranean, Crete, the Americas. It didn’t mater where you were in the world, at this point, your civilization grew intellectually by leaps and bounds. It’s the mystery of mysteries. And because of this growth we have all our mega-structures of the ancient world starting at the same time.”

  Rock leaned back. “Yes I am familiar with the coincidence that occurred sometime around 5,000 years ago. You’ve mentioned it before. But what the hell does this have anything to do with that?”

  “This is the missing piece. This story gives us the how and the why.”

  Rock saw Wallace light up. He’d never seen the old man this excited. He was like a child. “Start from the beginning,” Rock said slowly. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Chapter 29

  Texas, August 2012