“Hmmm.” he grunted thoughtfully.
“What?” she was annoyed. He had a habit of punctuating his inner thoughts with sounds. It was a habit that drove her crazy. “Use your words, buddy.”
“Believe it or not, you picked up on my conversation with Randolph. He said, ‘Fool! Go back. I’ve given you warning!’”
“Oh come on! Bullshit.” she said. “Maybe you spoke in your sleep and I heard it.”
“Yeah and then I tried to imagine I was looking at what you wrote…”
“Pshaw.” she said. “Well what did it say?”
“‘Cherries Jubilee’?” he laughed and rubbed his face. “Oh, shit. Unfortunately, that’s when I snapped back. It’s a really delicate balancing act, remaining in that state and doing anything useful.” He pretended to be balanced on a high wire. “But I did much better this time ‘round.”
She handed him the envelope. He opened it and started laughing hysterically. “You’re right! I never would have guessed you wrote that. But she did have some big titties!”
Her eyes narrowed and she swung her leg over him and wrapped her arms around his head. “You better only look at these, mister!”
Chapter Four
Robbie and David drove the kids to a dairy farm in the country southeast of Nashville, while Johnny and Dana stayed behind at Kenny’s Star Chariots.
Johnny and Dana monitored the fallout from their Vampire raid in Nashville, and tried to map the Nashville connections to Goldstein’s flesh trade network. The raid didn’t make the news, and apparently wasn’t reported to the police. Any trail to Goldstein’s people dried up and blew away. As the days passed, they started helping out at Star Chariots. Johnny helped Kenny in the shop, and Dana put the office into order and worked the phones.
As the weeks went by in his new life, Johnny began to realize how incredibly constrained and domesticated he’d been before. He began to understand how Robbie’s network of friends and family worked. It was a surprisingly large economy and culture that paralleled the mainstream of the United States. It was a very human, non-system of barter, favors, and gifts that functioned without finance and without a discernable organization. Johnny began to realize he could employ his full set of talents, his entire intellect, and his whole moral self as one of the individuals who lived outside the walls of the Empire. Every individual out there was a free agent.
In their down time, Kenny and Johnny worked to bring the old Flxible Clipper tour bus back to life. It was slowly turning into an improbable ground-based surveillance and communication satellite.
When they finished work on the engine and transmission, they decided to take it on a test drive around the property. Kenny brought out a bottle of cheap sparkling wine.
“Yo Dana!” Johnny shouted inside the shop.
She trotted over and said, “You called, sir?”
Kenny pushed his ballcap back on his head. “She needs a name,” he gestured at the bus.
Dana put a hand on the steel body. “She’s alive. You brought her alive.”
Kenny said, “Just barely! Needs some new paint, too. Make her shine!”
“I kinda like the whole rat rod thing.” Johnny said.
Kenny grimaced, “Ohhh she needs to be all dressed up to be a proper southern girl. Right now, she barely fit for cookin’ meth!”
Dana hugged the bus. “Hey! She’s sensitive.”
Kenny chuckled, “Ooohhh sorry.” he went over and kissed the metal.
Dana said, “That’s better.” and stroked the metal.
“Hey! Hello there!” Johnny pointed up at the roof. The red and white face of a fox was looking down at them.
Dana and Kenny backed up to look. Kenny laughed, “well ain’t that the most amazing thing… she’s likin’ that warm metal. Clever! She went up the ladder…”
“Flying Fox?” Dana asked.
“That’s a good name!” Kenny laughed. Johnny nodded.
“Well, let’s leave her alone before we do a proper christening. She’ll find her way down.” Kenny said. They all went back inside and let the fox keep her comfortable perch.
Chapter Five
Robbie and David drove the kids to a farm that was about 60 miles outside Nashville. None of the kids spoke a word since their ordeal, and they remained huddled together at the back of the bus. Robbie and David were also quiet and trying to process the nightmarish scenes.
David finally said, “I think Johnny had a good point about that video.”
Robbie was glad to return his thoughts to strategy. He moved over in the seat opposite David. “You mean that it’s unbelievable?”
David nodded. “Even worse than that, if we get it out there without the context… It’s really just a snuff film.”
Robbie took off his hat and rubbed his hair vigorously. He tossed the hat on the seat. “Shit. I think you’re right. But… hear me out, say we get this out there in a mini documentary at least it reaches some audience. Maybe that causes a few cracks. A few more people see the rot.”
David drummed on the wheel a little while he thought. “Could work… On the other hand, this is such a shocking, horrible example of the rot, it might just be a trap for people’s minds… Get them stuck looking for new horrors all the time, just feeding their need for strong stimulus.”
Robbie smirked, “do you remember bigfoot…”
“What?” David was annoyed. “Apropos of nothing… What are you talking about?”
“You remember what got you started doing research in the library?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah… Sasquatch. I loved ‘In Search Of’ when I was a kid. It was a report for school! I started poking around in the farmhouse library because I was too lazy to go to the Chardon library, really. Seems like a lifetime ago.”
“So you went from sasquatch to all this craziness in what, three months?” Robbie laughed.
David quickly meshed his fingers together and steered with his knees. “The mysteries are all connected…”
“So, yeah, some people will get stuck in the maze forever, but a few will find the breadcrumbs that lead out.”
David finally agreed, he held up one hand. “Alright, alright. You heard about podcasting?”
Robbie nodded, “Sure.”
David continued, “Yeah, so how about we get the story out through that channel. Bypasses the regular media, right to the people. Boom.”
Robbie slapped the top of the seat. “Hell yeah. Good plan. You know anyone?”
David shrugged, “Maybe. I say we go meet with the guy.”
Robbie nodded, “Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Where’s he at?”
“San Diego.”
Robbie grimaced, “Well, OK, but I think we need to switch rides.”
David patted the school bus wheel. “Yeah, she’s a beauty, but not exactly practical for a two person road trip.”
Chapter Six
A few plain white buildings were at the end of a long gravel driveway that terminated in a parking lot. The buildings were surrounded by hillside pasture fields. Cows noted the bus’s arrival as they chewed cud. Some miniature donkeys walked up to the fence by the driveway to see what was going on. Goats, dogs and chickens wandered around through the yards.
David honked the horn as they slowly rolled down the driveway. The kids stood up in back and looked out the windows.
David and Robbie got off the bus, but the kids just stared out the windows.
Robbie said, “I don’t think they trust anything. Can’t even imagine how they see the world.”
A woman and a young girl came out of a barn. Both of them waved. The girl trotted over to the bus. “Come see the donkeys!” she called out and ran over to the fence. She had a bag of carrots. Robbie and David followed her over to the fence and helped feed the donkeys. She scratched their stubbly bony heads while they crunched the big orange carrots.
“If you hold out your hand, they’ll check it out with their lips!” she laughed at the weird sensation. “Sometimes they
nibble.” her voice bubbled with affection and joy.
Rose caught up with them. She was a full figured forty something woman. She was wearing a light green T-shirt and jeans, and had a flannel shirt tied around her waist. Her hair was sweaty and pulled back behind a bandana. She’d clearly been working.
“Hey boys. I haven’t seen you guys in ages…”
Robbie shook her hand. He casually walked away from the donkeys and she and David followed. “Hi Rose. We picked up three kids, very, very traumatized. I have no idea how long they’ve been in Goldstein’s ring. They haven’t said a word since we picked ‘em up. I’m not sure they speak English.”
“Poor babies…” she sighed. “Are they a group? Brothers sisters?”
David shrugged, and Robbie answered, “We don’t know anything about their background. Let’s just say we happened upon them during a dispute with their captors.”
Rose made a pushing motion with her hands, “Oh lord, don’t tell me any more!”
David asked, “Do you have any room for them?”
“Oh we can always make room.” Rose smiled.
Robbie put a hand on her shoulder, “if we can get any leads about Goldstein, that’d be great, but I don’t think they’ll want to talk about it any time soon, maybe not ever…”
She nodded. “Understood. I never ask about their past. If they offer anything up, I’ll let you know.”
“Hey, by the way, can you use that school bus?” Robbie pointed at it. “It’s all yours.”
“Of course, sure!” She said. “Might chop it and make a big flatbed.”
“Yeah, call Kenny. I’m sure he’d be able to help you out with that.” Robbie said. “Could we get a lift into town? We’ll pick up a new ride and be on our way.”
“Where you going?”
“San Diego.” David said.
“Oh gawd, that’s a haul. I haven’t driven out to California since I was in my twenties. Why not fly?!”
David shrugged. “How many laps of the country have we done, Robbie?” David asked.
“Shoot. I hate to count. A lot! We always drive. Usually do a lot of business on the way.” Robbie said.
“Suit yourselves. Yeah, we can get you into town no problem.”
Chapter Seven
Telia and Tracy were already in bed, and the entire farmhouse was dark and quiet, except for the library, where Tiffany style desk lamps illuminated the tabletop in a warm yellowish glow. Matt was contemplating several large format prints of churches, ancient temples, and megalithic monuments. He thought about his own drive to reach over to the other side and contemplated it as a general human instinct, no different than the desire for sex, food, or prestige. He thought about the invisible ecosystem that intertwined with the visible one; and guessed the variety of relationships that pervaded the visible world had their analog in the invisible one: predator and prey, parasite and host, symbiosis, cooperation, pets, friendships must exist there, too.
His work now focused on building a better connection between the realms. He now understood that the connection to the other side was made by melding one’s own conscious mind with the larger field of consciousness. Apparently, the brain had an innate ability to do that, but generally the signal was so weak that the flow of information back and forth was just a trickle.
He suspected many religious rituals and ceremonial spots were meant to amplify this signal. Having a congregation sing, or listen to music would have the effect of synchronizing their brains and might produce a coherent signal that could be orders of magnitude stronger than the incoherent mishmash of private thoughts. He considered that mass entertainment spectacles broadcast through television might have a similar effect on an industrial scale. Likewise, astronomical events, like a solar eclipse, might affect a vast population of people, animals, and even the planet itself for a short duration, anyway.
As he chewed on the problem, he struck up an email correspondence with Johnny, who had a much deeper practical understanding of signal processing than he did. They tried to devise a method and apparatus to amplify the signal. Johnny immediately steered the discussion to fractal antennas and arrays. Matt had been laboring through the articles and papers Johnny kept forwarding in emails. His eyes flitted over the latest as he zipped the scroll wheel on his mouse.
“Holy shit!” he muttered. He called Johnny. The phone rang and rang, then went to voicemail. He hung up the call.
Johnny rang him back, “What’s up Matt?”
“Hey, sorry if it’s too late. I just saw something really intriguing in the latest article you sent--the one about the Minkowski Island. This might be nothing, but… well, look.” he forwarded an image to Johnny.
“Hey, wow. That’s definitely interesting… definitely.” Johnny stared at the Occitan Cross.
“That’s the Occitan Cross, an insignia used by the Cathars.”
“Seems likely it’s just a coincidence--only so many cross shapes and aspect ratios.” Johnny was skeptical.
“True… That said, why don’t we go forward with that as our starting point?” Matt was staring at the two shapes.
“Alright, we’re going to wrap up some work down here at Kenny’s, then we’ll hit the road. Probably two or three days.”
Chapter Eight
Robbie and David rolled onto Carlsbad Boulevard after a few days on the road.
“I never get over that Pacific Ocean view!” David said.
“Oh man, no kidding, what a life out here.” Robbie held his hand out the window.
“There’s something about seeing that sunset over the ocean that freaks me out a little. Makes me feel so tired, too.” David yawned.
“Oh man, I guess it’s my turn to drive, you were going all day. At least I napped.”
“Yeah, sounds good, while we’re at it, let’s stop at the beach before we go meet this guy. I have a bad case of road brain.”
Robbie agreed. They parked and kicked their shoes off and walked out in the sand. David stretched and tried to shake off the feeling of non-stop driving. After a while, they plopped down to watch the sun sink toward the horizon.
Robbie said, “I listened to a whole shitload of this guy’s podcasts on the way out here… I’m not sure about him.”
David nodded. “Yeah, the whole shape shifting lizard thing is pretty crazy. But c’mon. It’s not that far off the mark, right?”
“Literary propaganda performance art?” Robbie laughed.
“He’s also ties in the child abuse story. That’s what made me think he’d be a good outlet for this information.”
“Will this video add anything to his repertoire?” Robbie wondered out loud.
“One way to find out, right?” David shrugged.
“I wish Dana were here… she’d get a good read on him. For all we know, he’s one of the bad guys.” Robbie got up and brushed the sand off.
David put his hand over his eyes and watched the sun go behind clouds on the horizon. As they walked back to the car, the whole coast took on a reddish tint and the periodic rustle of light surf breaking on the beach gave way to the sound of cars on the Boulevard.
Chapter Nine
They met Jacob Eisenhauer at a seafood restaurant a little way down the road. The building was barn red and the outside was decorated with nets, and traps, and other nautical knick-knacks. David recognized him at the bar and the two went over to greet him. Jacob was a short stocky man, with hobbit body proportions, and had big hands and big blue eyes, and his head was framed by curly salt and pepper hair.
They made small talk over drinks, then sat down to dinner at an isolated table.
“You have a tape for me? David here played excerpts. Really gripping stuff.” He chewed while talking. In spite of the enthusiasm in his voice, his eyes and face gave no sign of excitement or interest.
Robbie folded his hands, “Jacob, one of our main concerns is that this information...without the complete context is really only salacious. We’re not sure what the audience will get
from it.”
“You mean other than the truth?”
Robbie continued, “I guess I see this tape more as a fragment of the truth rather than ‘the truth’.”
“Surely, it’s an impossible task to unfurl the supposed whole truth, isn’t it? I see my job as a way to get bits of it to my 1.5 million person audience.”
“Wow, really 1.5 million…” Robbie stroked his beard.
David put his arm on the table and leaned closer, “Another concern we have is that this information could endanger you--and of course, us.”
Jacob wiped his mouth. His eyes were still not giving anything away. “Look,” he said emphatically, “Over the years, I’ve presented the wildest information about the most dangerous and powerful people in the world and here I am.”
Robbie nodded, “Fair enough…” he put a copy of the video on the table.
“It’s a video!?” Jacob’s eyes actually lit up for the first time.
“Yeah, I’ve got a camera out in the car if you want to watch it now.”
The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival Page 19