Adventure to Destiny: The Unity Objective Series

by Sandra Golden

  William wanted to know, “Did having the day dream scare you?”

  “No, the part about thinking that the little girl would get hurt, scared me.”

  “When you had your day dream, did you see how it finished?”

  “No, I shook it out of my head and ran.”

  “Can I show you some pictures?”

  “Why?”

  “Because they will tell you how the story would have ended.”

  “Is that a magic camera or something?”

  “No! But hasn’t anyone ever told you that ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’?”

  “I think my dad did once.”

  “I took these when I saw you were running. This is where you pushed someone out of the way to get to the little girl, do you remember doing that? What do you see?” William asked.

  “I see a safety guard.”

  “This is the picture before that one. What do you see?”

  “The safety guard, he’s reaching down towards the little girl. I guess I should have seen the rest of the story. Are you mad at me?”

  “No, you just worried me that’s all.” William then hugs Helaina close to him again, knowing how all this was affecting her.

  “Granddad, I don’t want to see anymore day dreams, I don’t like seeing the future. It’s scary.”

  “Sweetheart, the future is scary for everyone because of all the unknowns, like all the uncertainties that surround everyone and everything. But I want you to do yourself a favor.”

  “What’s that?”

  “When you have any more day dreams, as you call them, I want you to push away your fears and see it to the end. Sometimes you might think it will end one way but it is supposed to happen another. You understand that?”

  “Yes Granddad but I just wish I could go back to having regular dream stories.”

  “I know. But isn’t it cool that you can see the future, I sure wish I could,” William said, trying to make light of this incident. He hoped this was a way to make the girl comfortable with this new skill of hers.

  “Yeah! I guess it is but how come I didn’t see who was to win the race yesterday,” she giggled.

  “That Princess, I don’t know. Now let’s go get some of that barbeque because it sure smells good from here.”

  When William and Helaina arrived at the picnic area, Kellie came running up to her friend and asked with concern, “Where did you go so fast, you looked like you saw a ghost?”

  “Well in a way I did, it scared me, so I ran. But I’m fine now. Let’s go get some of the pig your dad has been cooking for two days now.”

  “It’s five pigs, if there are any left overs like there was last year, than we will be having left over pork for a few months. You know my mom, she doesn‘t like wasting anything,” Kellie joked.

  The girls walked off to get some dinner. William went in search of a nice cold beer and his beautiful wife to explain what had happened. Just in case Helaina wanted a woman to talk about what happened with her vision. Then he realized that he hadn’t seen J.R for a while. “I wonder what that boy is up to. On second thought maybe I don’t want to know,” he chuckled.

  After dinner that evening was the award ceremony, all the kids came out winners in the junior divisions of the contests they entered. Helaina won first place with her blueberry jam, and second for her apple turnover’s. J.R won first place in three go-cart races. Mark won four ribbons for his skills as an Olympian, and his brother Dylan won six ribbons, one for the fastest runner, breaking a world record in the one hundred yard dash. His run which, was recorded just in case of a photo finish, and his time recorded; however, these would not be given to those who kept such records outside the Unity Corporation.

  Kellie won first prize for her apple and blueberry pies. Now Emma was the only one of the six kids who actually won a cash prize of a hundred dollars. She entered the picture she had painted, from the sketch of the six friends, the one she had done that afternoon they found the waterfall. She also entered a painting she made of the waterfall and the trees that protected it from outside eyes. Both paintings were stunning, someone even offered to buy them, but her proud mom and dad wanted to hang them in their home.

  Everyone went home happy. Even Jennifer had gotten ribbons for her homemade bread and a gorgeous needlepoint of a seascape that took her six month to complete. When everyone was gone, those in charge of clean up took over and by morning the rides were down and packed on the barges, the temporary buildings down, and all the garbage cans picked up and emptied. Main Street was just Main Street again, everything was good.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  THINGS TO COME

  A few days later J.R and Helaina were at the Nature Park enjoying the tire swing, jumping into the chilly water and eating the pork sandwiches Kellie’s mom made them. While sitting at the picnic table J.R and Helaina was having a silent conversation as their friends enjoyed their lunch.

  “I made another drawing last night, and I think you had another day dream, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah I did. It was about a dome. How did you know?”

  “I just figured you did. That's all. Besides I drew that dome. By the way I think we should call your so called “day dreams.” something else, that name just doesn’t work.”

  “I thought the same thing, what should we call them? They tell me of something that is about to happen in the future and sometimes I just know little things that might happen on any certain day.”

  “What about “future predictors”?

  “Nah! How about just ‘visions’? Just to make things easy.”

  “Visions it is then, can I see you’re drawing?”

  “No, I left it at home but when I was drawing it, I actually saw the place where it should be built.”

  “Where the waterfall disappeared?”

  “See! You don’t have to see my drawing. You already knew. I wonder why I can’t draw remarkably stunning pictures of people, places, and animals like Emma. Yet, I can draw detailed pictures of machines. I tried to draw Peanut and just couldn‘t.”

  “Grandma says we each have talents that are ours alone, and we should appreciate them. Even though, sometimes seeing my visions can be very scary.”

  “Since you know what my drawing is and we are a team, what did your vision tell you?”

  “First I saw the arms being delivered. They were dropped from the sky. Then I saw a big flash of light.”

  “Do you think the flash of light was an explosion?” J.R asked.

  “I don’t know. But then I saw your big dome. It’s going to be very impressive.”

  “I drew something on the front, what is it?”

  “Are you testing me?”

  “Yep! So what is it?

  “You drew a waterfall with the jewels inside the water.”

  “You’re good!”

  “Don’t I know it!” Helaina laughed with her cousin.

  “Then we know that the dome has to be build right where the secret waterfall was and no place else,” J.R interpreted everything together.

  “That’s my feeling also. Later when we get home we will talk to Granddad and Grandma about this.”

  Seemingly to the others at the table J.R and Helaina were just sitting there eating their lunch and thinking hard about something. They looked way to serious. Mark and the others decided it was time to take their fish home then head to the beach.

  “Hey you two, let’s get out of here, time to check out the beach.”

  “You just want to check out the girls in bikinis,” teased J.R.

  “How true that is. Let’s go!”

  That very afternoon, Eli Carpenter and Spring Rockford were given a tour of Hope Island Progressive School by the school’s secretary. They were assigned classroom space, along with the work space that they and their students would be using for bigger projects. They were introduced to the other faculty, noting that three quarters of the staff held impressive degrees but no teaching degrees. The only certified teac
hers on the staff taught the basic subjects, English, Math, Literature, Reading, Drama, Foreign languages and Home Economics. When the tour was complete and the introductions made, the two new teachers finally met with the Dean of the school. Eli and Spring thought that it was kind of weird that high level managers at Unity Corporation hired them and not the Dean of the School.

  The Dean heard their voices outside his office, and he called out through the closed door. “Eli, Spring come in. Please. I am anxious to meet the two of you.”

  They wondered why Dean Meyers didn’t open the door for them but when they entered the room that question was answered for them. There sitting on a couch surrounded by bookshelves of books and trophies sat Dean Alexander Meyers, his leg in a cast and propped up with several pillows. Dean Alexander Meyers was not what they expected a Dean of a school to look like. In fact he was the complete opposite. Alex Meyers stood six foot five inches tall; of course standing when he wasn't wearing a cast. Alex had broad shoulders, was very muscular, very athletic, very handsome, and very young for a Dean at only thirty-one years of age. Looking around the cramped office Eli and Spring saw two surf boards leaning in a corner, weights, and other sporting equipment which was over flowing from boxes on the floor. The only place in the office that wasn’t being used was the man’s desk, where a lone lamp made its home.

  “It’s so nice to meet the both of you, grab those folding chairs and have a seat so we can chat.”

  The school’s two newest teachers did as they were told.

  “I’m sure you have questions, so let’s get at them. By the way just call me Alex.”

  Spring was the first to speak, “Alex, it’s great to be here, this island is like a paradise.”

  “Isn’t it though! Eli, I’m told that you enjoy hiking and water skiing. When I am up and around we will have to get out on that boat of mine. That is after the repairs are made, I had a little accident as you can see.”

  Eli, feeling more comfortable, finally found his voice. “I would love that, thank you. This is rather an unusual school; I’m looking forward to meeting the students.”

  “I looked at my student list; I have only three students for some of my classes, and about twenty for my beginning classes. Is this typical?” Spring asked, wanting to get this sexy man’s attention.

  “The kids here can be a little different, and we cater to those differences. You will see you have a Miss Helaina Unity in your advance animal behavior class, as well as two others. Let’s just say she has a way with animals, I will let you discover the rest.”

  “Could you tell us what our classroom budget is, so we can ...?”

  “Eli, at this school there is NO budget.”

  Spring and Eli were about to question this but before they could Alex continued. It was his way of messing with the new teachers minds.

  “Let me explain. At this school the main focus is to advance the students gifts, we do that with an unlimited budget. Whatever it takes, where ever they need to go, to reach their full potential will be provided. You prepare your lessons or projects two weeks in advance, submit them to the approval committee and when approved whatever you need, will be provided. Take your clues from your students, let them lead you and you just provide the support.”

  “Isn’t that a bit unorthodox?” asked Spring.

  “I think that is the perfect word to describe our schools here on Hope Island.” Was the only answer that Alex Meyers would give them.

  “Of course as with any school you will never discuss your students with anyone outside this school, other than their families. Is that perfectly clear?”

  “They discussed that with us before we came to Hope Island, we even had to sign a legal document to that fact,” Eli reminded him.

  “From the amount of blood they took for our health check, we could have signed all the papers with our blood,” joked Spring.

  Alex smiled knowingly and nodded. “Good, you were given copies of those documents; every now and then you should review them. Now you need to write your lesson plans and prepare for the first week, starting Monday. Just make a tentative plan you will know better when you meet your students.”

  “Thank you for your time Alex.”

  “No! Thank you for being a part of our little family. Now I got to go, time for some physical therapy.”

  Eli and Spring left the office with some unanswered questions. Spring wanted to know, “What do you think he meant when he said ‘our little family’?”

  “I have no idea. This is one weird school and it sounds like the inmates run the place,” joked Eli.

  “I think they do,” replied Spring seriously.

  That same evening while sitting at the little kitchen table eating their dessert of apple dumplings with vanilla ice-cream J.R showed everyone the plans for the dome building. Helaina told their grandparents about what she saw and how from now on she will just call them her visions. The kids made it clear that the only place they could build the dome would be on the site of the waterfall or where it was supposed to be anyway. That the dome would be the place where they would build the machine. William and Jennifer were impressed how the two of them worked together, giving clear instructions and reasons why they had to do things this way. Then Jennifer thought about something.

  “You know we can’t just call it ‘The Machine’ and ‘The Dome’, we really should give these plans real names.”

  “That’s a great idea. How about Dome City?” J.R suggested.

  “No! It’s not going to be a city dim wit.”

  “I have two suggestions,” Jennifer chimed into the conversation.

  “You have always been good at naming things my beautiful wife, what are your suggestions?” William inquired.

  “You are just buttering me up, so you can have more apple dumplings and ice-cream. Anyway, I suggest the Waterfall Dome and what do you think about calling it the Jewel Machine?”

  “What do you kids think? After all this is your project.”

  “Perfect!” they answered in unison.

  “Then the project is official now that you have proper names for them, The Waterfall Dome and the Jewel Machine it is. Tomorrow I will make some phone calls and get this project started for you. Now I think it's time for some more of those delicious apple dumplings.”

  “Granddad do you really mean this is our project?” Helaina wanted to know.

  “Yes I do, you two are basically in charge. Remember that you two are a team. Something is leading you to build these projects, we think that it is important that you follow your instincts.”

  “You, Dad and Uncle David will help, won’t you?”

  “Of course we will, we have to take care of the things that you can’t, like getting the Waterfall Dome built for one, but the rest is up to the two of you.”

  “Did you hear that Helaina? We are the bosses, ain’t that cool?”

  “Sure is, and it’s, ‘isn’t that cool?’, not ‘ain’t’, that’s not even a word.”

  “She’s bossing me around already.”

  “Get used to it J.R, usually the women always have the last word.”

  “Now can we have some more ice-cream and some more of those dumplings? Please!” J.R asked his Grandmother, and all three pairs of hopeful eyes looked up at her, as she gave in to their request.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  COMPLETED PROJECTS

  Three days were left before the school year began. Helaina was busy with her friends, choosing clothes to wear for the first week, going to the mall with the girls and buying school supplies. J.R didn’t worry about that stuff, knowing he had plenty of clothes and school supplies. His mom had sent him boxes of the stuff, even a brand-new computer. J.R wondered if his mom forgot that they did have plenty of stores there on Hope Island and if they ran out of something he could get it himself. What J.R wanted to do was finish up a few projects before school started.

  J.R and the boys had completely rebuilt the motor, carburetor, and rewired every part imag
inable on the old motorcycle. They put on new tires, a gas tank, gears, and breaks; finally, they had the motorcycle purring like a kitten. Today was the day William, Mason and the boys were taking it out for a test drive, then it would be loaded up onto the trailer to be taken for a professional custom paint job.

  Everyone met at the garage, Mason gave J.R a lesson on how to operate the motorcycle and a few driving tips. The plan was for Mason to drive along with J.R on his own motorcycle, with William, Mark and Dylan following along with the trailer, attached to the new black Ford F150 that William had recently purchased.

  The two motorcycles roared to life with a turn of their keys. With their gloves, and helmets securely on the two riders started down the road. Driving shoulder to shoulder they made it down to the main road, stopping at the stop sign before turning onto the four-lane road.

  Mason turned to J.R. “Let’s see what that baby can do. It’s a mile to that water tower, see if you can get her up to 50, then stop there and we will put her on the trailer.”

  Of course to a fifteen year old boy on a motorcycle this only meant one thing. And that was a race.

  “Great! Race you there!”

  J.R had taken off before Mason could stop him. Regretting his words, he had no other choice but to follow after him and hope that William didn’t fire him for what J.R perceived as a challenge. He should have known better, to phrase it like that; after all he used to be a fifteen-year-old boy at one time. J.R made it to the water tower a full 30 seconds ahead of Mason, then did as he was instructed and waited. By the time Mason got there, J.R had already gotten off the motorcycle and taken off his helmet.

  “What took you so long?”

  “We weren’t supposed to race.”

  “But you said, ‘see what that baby can do’, and that’s what I did. I swear I didn’t go over fifty.”

  “I guess I am just slower than you then, but don’t take off like that; you could get us both into trouble.”