Detarru Island_The Gates of Hell

by Mickey Deymon

  DETARRU

  Island

  The Gates of Hell

  MICKEY DEYMON

  Detarru Island – The Gates of Hell

  Copyright © by Mickey Deymon, 2018

  All rights reserved.

  "To my sister Dorivee and my brother Jhovanny,

  who are both in heaven. This is for you guys"

  Chapter 1

  I’ve been going through so many unexplainable, unimaginable and bizarre events these past few months that I think I’ve completely lost it.

  When I first moved to New York City from California, I was in my new room unpacking my things. There were boxes stashed in every corner of my room and it was pretty difficult for anyone to get around much. I was about to place a pair of shoes in my closet when my father just barged in my room and sat on a chair near my bed without difficulty whatsoever.

  Erick, I think we’ve found it!” he began shouting.

  “What did you find?” I responded, not amused.

  “Satu.” he answered.

  Suddenly an energy rush went through me and I walked across the room to where my dad was sitting, with no difficulties whatsoever either, and looked straight into his eyes.

  “For real?” Where?”

  “According to Craig, he should be somewhere in the jungles of Kilimanjaro, Africa,” he finally answered.

  Something didn’t add up. Satu was a king that ruled over Detarru Island in 560 BC, an island isolated across the Atlantic Ocean. Not in Africa.

  “Wait What? What’s he doing all the way out there?”

  “I have no idea,” he answered.

  “That’s pretty weird.”

  “Indeed.” His voice suddenly saddened. I knew something was bothering him.

  “Okay, spill it,” I said.

  “What?” He turned to me not knowing what to say.

  “I know you, Dad. You should be a lot more excited than this.”

  He looked down for a moment and then spoke.

  “Well. I’ve spent a lot of money on this research and now that I’m this close to finding what I’ve been searching for so long, my budget is starting to run a little low,” he said, disappointed. “I’ve asked The Glenwood Spring University of History and The New York National Museum to invest on this last expedition but none of the sponsors and executives have agreed to help. They said it has been a waste of time and that they’re not going to spend any more money on my research.”

  My dad stood up and looked out my window. When he turned back to me, I noticed his weary eyes and shades of gray in his hair.

  He looked tired.

  So many years of hard work and dedication just to turn out to be a dead end. It must have been dreadful news to him. Ever since I was a little kid, he had taken me on all of his expeditions and I’ve been helping him with his research on Satu. I never thought I could learn so much about history from a simple artifact and to tell you the truth, I’m starting to love exploring new things every day. The thought of escaping your own reality and exploring new worlds is pretty remarkable to me and I enjoy every bit of it but it sounded like this was the end of our journey.

  “What about Craig and Nathan? Can’t they help with anything?” I said with a sense of hope.

  Dr. Nathan Jeff is one of my father’s closest protégés. When my father went on his first voyage to the Middle East together with Dr. Craig Halloway, they got lost in the Syrian Desert for about a week, with no food or water. That’s when Nathan happened to be traveling on a journey and found them lying on the sand lifelessly under the burning, blistering sun. Ever since that day, my father, Craig and Nathan were the best of comrades. If there was anyone he could trust, it was certainly those two.

  “I’ve already asked them,” he replied.

  “What did they say?” I asked impatiently.

  “Well, Nathan said he’ll get us there. I just don’t know how he’s planning to do that, without the money.”

  “What about Mom?” I added. “She can probably help us out”

  My mother Clara Ross is an executive assistant at The Global Base Industry. A financial institution where they work out ways to stop the low and middle class struggles with debt.

  Dad looked at me and started pacing back and forth as he registered that little piece of information in his brain. He then stopped and turned back to me.

  “Erick! You’re a genius! You think she’ll say yes?”

  “Who? Mom? Of course! Just leave it to me,” I said, very confident and with heroic self-determination which was later crushed into bits by the very same mother I thought I could convince when she got home from work that night.

  Later that Night

  “What? Are you out of your mind? Absolutely not, child. Whose idea was this? Was it Jack’s? Oh just wait till I see him.” She took off her shoes and slammed her purse on the couch in the living room.

  “But Mom? I really want to go.”

  “I almost lost you last time. Remember? You will not go on any of those hideous trips anymore.”

  “Mom?” I was six. And I didn’t know how to swim then.”

  “Exactly! Your father should’ve been more careful with you, than with his stupid research.”

  “Mom?”

  “I said no,” she finished with an irritated gesture that would totally intimidate even the toughest WWE wrestler.

  She sure hushed me. I was definitely not going to ask twice. I left the living room as soon as I had a chance. Deep inside I knew she was going to vent soon. Fortunately, not with me. The primary target was going to be my dad this time.

  Poor guy, I thought.

  If this was an opera play, this singer was just clearing her throat. Imagine what it would be like to hear her sing with such high-pitched vocals that would definitely make your ears bleed. Well, I didn’t have to wait long for that answer. When I finally got to the end of the hallway and was heading up the stairs, I heard loud footsteps behind me. If I were an innocent bystander, I would’ve thought it was Big Foot, but this beast was definitely my mother, and she was heading straight to my father’s sanctuary, his home office.

  I ran to my room as quickly as possible, closed the door behind me and locked myself inside. I definitely didn’t want to hear World War III in my house, but just in case things got out of hand, I leaned against the door just enough to hear what was going on out there.

  Yea I know. I’m nosy.

  Surprisingly, nothing happened. I started counting one through ten but there was still a deathless silence. This was something that threw me off completely, and I mean mentally. Growing up with my parents, I got to learn the rules when it had something to do with their deadly fights. Usually, my mom would make an exaggerated scene over anything, then ignore my father. If my father did it to her, she’d blow up like a loose cannon. Once the fight was over, they’d make up and forget about the whole thing but this time was different. For the first time in 16 years, I was wrong about this whole system.

  Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little.

  I opened the door just a little bit to peek outside and didn’t see anything but a dark hallway. The only light I saw was coming from my room and my father’s home office. His door was wide open and I was a little bit curious as to what was happening. I headed out to the hallway and walked towards the office and then I saw them.

  For crying out loud. They were making out!!!

  “What the?” I exclaimed confused.

  I must have startled them. They both scattered across the room away from each other. Sort of like
not wanting me to see the romantic scene.

  Too late for that, I thought.

  To my right, I noticed there was a rectangular-shaped gift and it looked like it had just been unwrapped. Mom turned around and faced me. She then took a few steps closer to me and I saw she had on an amazing silver necklace, which had a diamond-shaped crystal in the middle. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and it sure looked great on her.

  “I guess you’re bling-blinging now... that’s what’s up,” I said.

  She kept throwing my father these flirtatious looks and I noted he was doing the same too. I felt like I was interrupting something.

  If you know what I mean.

  “It’s beautiful isn’t?” she asked. I nodded in agreement. “Your father remembered.”

  I turned to him to figure out what she talking about.

  “Our 16th anniversary, Erick,” he finally answered and winked at me.

  That’s all I needed.

  I immediately got the message. I knew something was up and this was way too unusual to believe it was just an act of kindness. Dad went fishing and the fish just ate the bait. In this case, the diamond necklace was the bait and my mom just sunk her teeth into it.

  “Wow, Dad! What a magnificent gift! Look at the diamond cut. Such perfection. Not to mention, it makes her look younger. Fine lady like her should be rocking them rocks,” I said complimenting her.

  “Oh, Jack, I feel terrible.” She kept on, “I thought as usual you’d forget about our anniversary, so I never really bothered getting anything for you this year. I was selfish. Is there anything I could do to make it up to you?”

  BINGO!

  “Oh tell me, honey. Anything you want,” she begged.

  “Anything?” he asked with this wicked tone on his voice.

  “Yes, anything.”

  He gave me a quick glance, as if letting me know he was victorious. Then said:

  “Well, dear. I need your help.”

  Mom sat on a chair. “What’s going on?”

  “He faced the window that was located behind his desk. That’s where he had been studying Detarru Island for years. The desk was filled with documents, maps scripts, and old books from the 14th century. On the right corner of the desk, almost on the edge, there was a picture frame of my grandparents and me, when I was a baby. My grandfather passed away two years ago from a car accident. Ever since then, my grandmother hadn’t been doing very well emotionally and neither has my mother. Mom asked her to move in with us for a while, but she refused to leave Cali. I missed her, but especially granddad.

  He used to take me out camping all the time in the summer, and I used to love fishing on his little boat.

  My eyes got a little teary as memories came to my head.

  “Clara? I don’t want you to feel obligated to do this, but I would really appreciate it, with all my heart, if you could loan me some money from GBI?”

  Mom stood up, a little bothered, and now looking down at him, replied, “Heaven sake, Jack! Is this about that…that…Satanini guy again?” she said, upset.

  “The name is Satu, “I corrected.

  She turned and faced me as she folded her arms across her chest. I probably should’ve kept my mouth shut.

  Note to self: Erick, keep your mouth shut when mom is upset.

  Dad stood up and hugged her from behind. “You do not have to do anything you do not wish to do,” he finally said in this calm and passive way that would change your mind in a heartbeat, and to my surprise, it worked!

  “Oh, alright then. How much money is it that you need?”

  “About $100,000,” he answered.

  What?

  That’s a lot to ask for in such short notice. If my dad had a good chance of getting something out of this sugar mama, he totally blew it.

  “Have you lost your mind?” she finally said.

  “You know my crew has to get paid. Not to mention the expedition costs, and the excava—”

  “Fine! But I’m coming too.”

  I looked at my dad, confused. She never went on any of our adventures, either because she was working or because she was simply not interested.

  “Then, we’ll have a great time together.” My father smiled.

  Oh brother.

  The Next Day

  Dad decided to have a meeting with Nathan and Craig in his office. They were talking about Satu and his whereabouts. While they discussed their flight plans, Mom was at GBI trying to negotiate a deal with the CEO to borrow the $100,000. So far, everyone was busy. As for me. I decided to walk around my new neighborhood and get some fresh air for a start. Making new friends this year was a priority. Besides, summer vacation was almost over in about a month and school was just around the corner.

  Like literally!

  I headed down Sunnyside Street, all the way to the next block up ahead, into an intersection and there it was.

  Creston High School! The biggest high school I had ever seen. I walked to the school and as I crossed the street, I noticed a field. I couldn’t tell if it was a soccer field or football from where I was standing. My hopes were on football, so I decided to find out. I walked around the school to see there was another brick building. It totally reminded me of the New York’s Public Library. I figured it was a smaller version of the library in this school. I don’t want to sound like a nerd but I kinda liked the idea of having a nice peaceful library I could study in and do homework. As I stood there, I heard voices. It was coming from the field. I kept walking and saw two guys batting some baseballs and another three catching them. I guess it was not a football field after all.

  BUMMER.

  I peered from behind the big fence and watched them play. Well, they were not really playing, but rather seemed like warming up. One of them was taller than the other and he was wearing a gray uniform, with black lettering and a black number 10. The other guy was wearing the same uniform but he was number 80. The tall guy, number 10, finally noticed me. He walked towards me and stood there, staring at me for a few seconds.

  I felt a bit uncomfortable.

  Number 80 seemed serious and had a game face on. To me, the guy looked ticked off. I couldn’t really tell if he was pissed off at his team, or at the fact that I was just standing there like a nut sack. I didn’t know what else to do, so I took a few steps backwards and backed away from the fence.

  As I walked away, number 10 said, “Hey, you want to join us?”

  I turned my head and gave him a sideways look.

  “We want to start a game but we need more players. Do you play?” he asked.

  I shrugged and said, “Sure.”

  He gestured to his team to regroup, then looked at me and pointed the way into the field. When everyone regrouped near number 10, I was introduced to the rest of the team.

  Number 10 was Jimmy, African American, skinny tall guy with black hair and light brown eyes.

  Number 3: Bruce, Caucasian, blonde, green eyes, dreadlocks, and a couple of inches taller than me.

  Number 17: Luis, Latino, also taller than me. Brown hair and brown eyes. I overheard him speak Spanish and it sounded like a Dominican accent. Reason why I even know that is because I had a good friend in Cali who was also Dominican.

  Number 80: Larry, Caucasian. He was average but a bit muscular too. He had brown hair and blue eyes and was a serious kind of guy. He sure looked pissed.

  Number 22: Patrick, Asian American. When I first saw Patrick, he totally reminded me of Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants. No Kidding! Only things missing were the triangular legs and arms. Okay, let me stop. He was a little overweight. Light skin, black hair and hazel almond eyes.

  These guys seemed to be different ages. I couldn’t really tell and I wasn’t going to ask either.

  Jimmy assigned me first base. I’ve always been good on first an
d second base. It was absolutely perfect!

  Patrick was pitching and Larry had to take right field. I saw that Larry gave Jimmy a quick stern look. I think he wanted to pitch first. I was about to just let him have first base instead but he smiled at me, nodded, and ran off to right field. He was pretty much going to cover the whole outfield till it was his turn to pitch.

  POOR GUY.

  Jimmy was going to be first batter, Luis had second base, and Bruce had third. So far I liked these guys. They really worked as a team. I was given an extra baseball glove and the game was on.

  Chapter 2

  Few Hours Later

  Man. What a game!

  I hadn’t really played baseball for a while. My arms and legs were sore but I sure needed the exercise though. It was a good thing I got out of the house today or I would’ve never met these guys. They were cooler than I thought.

  During the game, I got to know them a little more. I actually gave them all nick names to remember them a lot better.

  Jimmy was always in charge. He seemed pretty authoritative but he was mostly friendly. I really liked his personality so I called him “The Boss.”

  Bruce, on the other hand, was hilarious. That guy would make a joke out of anything but sometimes you’d laugh just cause of how stupid the joke was. I named this one “The Comedian.”

  Luis was “The Cocky Dude.” Besides being cocky, that guy was always making sure his hair looked nice and neat. Mess with the guy’s hair and you’d get a beat down and some Spanish verbal abuse.

  Patrick was a frightened kind of guy. He wasn’t really the talkative type either. I couldn’t really tell you much about him. He was just “Mr. Shy.”

  Then came Larry. Oh. Man. This guy was “Grumpy.” Everything bothered him. I am convinced he was a bully back in junior high. He seemed like the type who would pick a fight with anybody for anything. Every time he’d strike out, he would usually swing the bat at Patrick or throw the ball at Bruce just because. He missed of course, but that was still considered pretty dangerous. Thank God he didn’t give me a hard time.