Secret Of the Sighing Mountains (The Quest Trilogy)

by Iram Dana

  Diego and Sierra quickly averted their gazes. They had raced. On numerous occasions. And they had lost. Every time.

  “That was all?” snorted Sierra, feeling embarrassed and wanting to make it sound like it was no big deal. “You got the ability to run very fast? Doesn’t sound like any superpower to me.”

  “Maybe not to you young boys, but experience has taught me that speed is the most basic of needs for survival when danger comes knocking unexpectedly at your door. And courage, strength and endurance are the biggest super powers when faced with impossible odds.” said Stal.

  Sierra and Diego looked at each other, something silent passing between their gazes.

  Stal smiled knowingly and began to rise from the sofa. He had them exactly where he wanted them; they were curious and excited, whether they would admit it to him or not. Now was the time to throw his ace.

  “I hope I’ve cleared your doubts and convinced you to go. If you miss this opportunity, it will never come again. Remember, you only get one chance. By the way, your birthday gifts.”

  Stal pulled out two envelopes from his pocket and kept them on the table before the boys.

  “What’s that?” asked Diego, leaning forward and reading their names written in a neat but unfamiliar, slanting handwriting, on the cover. The paper was old. The envelope was brown and faded with time.

  “A letter for each of you, written by your mother just days after your birth.” said Stal. He avoided saying ‘before she died.’ It would lend a gloomy color to the whole gesture.

  Both Sierra and Diego gasped in open shock and gingerly picked up the letters, hardly believing their eyes and afraid the fragile thing might crumble to dust in their hands. Deciding to leave them to peruse the words written by their mother in peace and privacy, Stal stretched and straightened out the cricks in his bones and then headed out the front door.

  “I’m going out for a puff of the ol’ pipe, you boys help yourselves to the cake. Make sure you leave me some.” he called over his shoulder.

  Diego and Sierra sat in silence for a while, each immersed in his own thoughts. Diego was the first to open his letter and read it.

  My dearest son,

  I have decided to name you, my elder son, Diego. I haven’t yet told your father. He is fussing over me tremendously and I am selfishly enjoying the love and attention for now. But I intend to tell him soon.

  If all goes well, you will be eighteen when you open this letter. Even as I write these words, I hope that I will be able to tear this letter and throw it away, that I won't need it to convey all that I want to. Because I sincerely hope to get well soon. But my condition is deteriorating with every passing day and I fear that this letter will be the only opportunity I will ever have. But how can one letter bear all that a mother would tell her sons in a lifetime? A thousand letters and more would be less. But it’s just as well, because I don’t really have the strength to write that much!

  Diego, I wish I could be there to see you take your first steps, to hear you speak your first word, to watch your teeth grow, then comfort you when they fall and new, stronger ones take their place.

  I wish I could be there to comfort you every time you have a nightmare. I wish I could clean your soiled nappies, or wipe your tender, runny nose. I wish I could tend to your injuries, see you through sicknesses and bad days. I would teach you how to fight bullies and stand up for what you believe, and in case you were unable to do that, I would sock it right to the nasty boys who would dare to touch my boy. I also want to be there to worry when you go on your first date, and then to wonder if you've had your first kiss yet. Oh, how many memories and moments I wish for!

  There are so many things I probably won’t be able to do for you … with you. But I can do one thing ... I can tell you now, how much I love you. How you will never be bad in my eyes. Yes, I know that is a broad statement and you are thinking; that I wouldn't be saying that if I knew what all you'd done but, my dear son, doubt not a mother’s heart, for it knows. If you understand that there are some things that you have done wrong, then it means that you are repenting. So forgive yourself, because I always would. And because there is nothing you could do in this world to make me not love you. Absolutely nothing.

  Remember that always.

  Signing off with a million, zillion hugs and kisses,

  Your loving mother,

  Rayva.

  P.s. I want you to go on your Quest. Know that it would make me very happy if you agreed to go.

  Diego looked up from the letter after reading it for the third time because the moisture in his eyes made it impossible to make out the words anymore. This was real. His own mother’s words to him, written in her shy, not-so-neat hand. He tried to search for similarities between her small, quiet script and his own handwriting. The more he stared at the words, It seemed that practically everything about her handwriting matched his. Yes, surely they crossed their t’s and dotted their ‘I’s the same way. He had his mother’s style of writing. This made him feel very happy and helped him to get control over his roiling emotions.

  How in the world had Stal kept this a secret for so long? He would never have been able to resist and would probably have read the letters almost every day of his life.

  Diego glanced at Sierra and saw him putting down his own letter. Sierra was not so inhibited about expressing his feelings and right now, his nose was bright red and tear tracks were glistening on his cheeks. A wild curiosity to find out what was written in Sierra’s letter grabbed Diego. But he hesitated because he knew he would have to give up his own to Sierra as a trade-off.

  Sierra looked up at Diego then and wiped his eyes. His gaze fell to the open letter in his brother’s hand and he could not hide the longing and curiosity from showing in his face.

  “May I?” he ventured tentatively.

  Diego’s jaw clenched and unclenched as he fought with his enormous curiosity and the equally intense desire to keep the words written to him by his mother, private. Curiosity won out as Diego gave up with an irritated sigh and held his letter out to Sierra. As soon as he had Sierra’s letter in his hands, Diego began to scan the words quickly.

  The letter to Sierra was almost exactly the same as his. There was only one difference; the small post script at the end. In Sierra’s letter, his mother had requested Sierra to let Stal read the letter she had written to him because, though Stal was honorable enough to have not opened the letters for eighteen years, she knew the curiosity to find out what her letters contained must be killing him.

  Diego looked up and stared into the distance as he processed this information. His mother had said the same words to both him and Sierra, but she had only made a special request to him to go on his Quest. Why?

  Diego could not quite understand her reasons for doing this, but that was the moment when he made his decision. His mother’s words were the tipping point in the scale for him. He was going to go.

  “Are you going to go?” Sierra asked, turning to Diego and handing him back his letter.

  “Is that even a question? Of course I’m going to go.” said Diego.

  Sierra did not bother hiding his surprise.

  “Really? Well, that’s new. I was sure you were not so psyched about the whole thing.”

  Diego shrugged.

  “You thought wrong. What about you? Are you going to go?”

  “You think I’m gonna let you bag all the bragging rights here? No way! You’re going, I’m going. Simple.”

  And that was precisely the reason why Rayva had only asked Diego to go. She knew that her words would have a special import to Diego if they were meant for him only. And she also knew that the views, opinions and decisions of the elder sibling have a great influence on the younger one. If Diego could be convinced to go, then Sierra going too was almost a certainty. As it turned out, she had been right.

  Diego tucked his letter safely into his back pocket and then looked at the cake.

  “Not going to pounce on this cake?
” he asked Sierra with a mocking smile.

  “Of course I am. You thought I forgot?” said Sierra, getting up to keep his mother’s letter safely inside a drawer. He sauntered back to the couch and seated himself down once more. Reaching forward he cut a generous portion, this time magnanimously serving it to Diego first.

  Diego raised his eyebrows in mild surprise but took the piece without missing a beat. He cast a quick, surreptitious glance over the cake, decided that it looked real enough, and proceeded to eat it, pretending not to notice Sierra’s anxious glances.

  As soon as Diego swallowed the first bite without choking, Sierra cut out a large slice for himself and dug into it, not bothering with a plate and eating directly from his hands.

  “Pineapple!” he exclaimed on the first bite. “My favorite!”

  In a matter of moments, the slice of cake was gone.

  Diego smiled and reached forward to cut out another huge slice. “Think you can swallow this entire piece in one go?” he challenged.

  “You kidding me?” mocked Sierra. “It’s child’s play!”

  He lifted the piece, intending to show Diego just how well he could shove it down, when Diego’s fist came smashing into the back of his hand, effectively making him crush the cake into his own face. In the moment it took Sierra to cough and spit out the cake, Diego had smashed two more fistfuls of cake onto Sierra’s chest and hair. Diego then shot out of his seat and ran for the front door.

  “Dude, you’re so dead!” growled Sierra, grabbing two handfuls of ammunition and dashing out after Diego.

  Stal was sitting on the porch outside, peacefully smoking his pipe, when the door to the house burst open. He watched in silence as a laughing Diego zoomed past him, followed on the heels by a snarling Sierra who hurled a fistful of cake at Diego’s back. He missed the first shot but nailed Diego with the second.

  Sierra jumped into the air and whooped right before crashing into Diego who had stopped, both running and laughing.

  A series of kicks, punches and grunts followed while Stal slowly rose from his chair. He looked at the writhing mass of entangled legs and torso’s, irritation written large over his features.

  “Knew I should have had that cake first.” he muttered to himself, and then turned towards the source of the grunts and groans.

  “Is this what I raised?” he yelled. “Two pansies pulling at each other’s hair like girls?”

  He turned around to make his way back into the house oblivious to the fact that behind him, the kicking and punching had stopped. Both Diego and Sierra were now grinning, scraping bits of cake off of each other’s bodies.

  Stal turned around again, intending to give one last reprimand when a glob of cake flew out of the darkness and landed smack on his face. He stood motionless for a second and then wiped the cake off his face slowly. His narrowed eyes scanned the darkness for his assaulters. He spotted their laughing backs fast receding into the night and whispered softly under his breath.

  “That’s it, no ten second head start for you boys this time.”

  And he bolted after them.

  *****

  CHAPTER 4

  Sierra stood with the receiver stuck to his ear, waiting for the call to be answered on the other end. The line clicked and a feminine voice crooned;

  “Hello… Rebecca here.”

  “Hey Rebecca, its Sierra.”

  “Sierra? Hey, hi! Aren’t you supposed to be out of town?”

  “Me? Nope. Why?”

  “Ummm…Nothing. Just confused I guess. Did you want something?”

  “That’s why I called, baby. To claim the date you promised me. It’s Friday today, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah … the Friday thing. Actually, I forgot all about it, sorry.”

  “…….. Are you canceling out on me?” Sierra’s voice held all the disbelief he felt. To think he had waited all week for this night, for nothing.

  “I’m really sorry, Sierra. But I totally forgot. And now I already have another date for tonight.”

  “But you promised!”

  “I know….okay, look. I’ll make it up to you. Next Friday. My treat. How about that?”

  “Next Friday? It’s …I’m… I can’t… Look, just forget the whole thing. I’ll call you back sometime, ok?”

  “Sierra... I …”

  “Bye.”

  He could hear her sigh on the other end.

  “Goodbye. Sorry about tonight”

  Sierra banged the receiver in its handle. This sucked. He felt stupid for having turned down Julie now. He took out his little blue diary and tried a few more numbers but was turned down each time. This Friday was the last chance he would get to go on a normal date. Next Friday was the twenty-fifth of November and they would all have to leave that day for the Sighing Mountains. Sierra couldn’t believe Rebecca would turn him down, especially after he had made her promise to keep Friday free.

  He stood there, staring glumly at the receiver. These past months had just rolled by like one big carpet being unfurled. And now here he was, dateless on the last carefree Friday of his young life.

  He was caught up in such musings when the doorbell rang. He shuffled over to the door slowly, taking his time. The doorbell rang again.

  “Hey, what’s the hurry? I’m coming.” He called as he reached the door and swung it open.

  “Sorry, guess I’m nervous.”

  Sierra froze at the door and swallowed convulsively, just taking in the sight that greeted him; Golden hair framing a pale, oval face with a delicate, freckled nose and lips glossed pink, the body all dressed up in a pale blue off-shoulder dress that ended above the knees. Snow White- thought Sierra. Snow White has come to my doorstep.

  “Uh, hey…. I’m Alice. You must be Sierra…” Snow White’s lips were moving. She was waiting for him to say something, but his tongue had chosen that moment to go on vacation.

  “Umm… Hello?” she waved a hand in front of his face. “Is Diego home? He asked me to meet him here.”

  Sierra’s mind snapped back into focus. Snow white was asking for Diego? Why?

  He managed to drag his tongue out of its vacation.

  “Ahem….what was your name again?” he asked.

  “Alice.” she beamed.

  “And…ah...who did you say you were looking for?” Sierra put a finger in his ear and shook it vigorously, incase he had heard wrong the first time.

  “I’m here for Diego.” She replied.

  Darn! Here he was, without a date on a Friday night, and Diego’s date came walking up the front door to greet him. No doubt he was in his room even now, slapping on hair gel and spraying kilos of perfume all over himself, Sierra thought bitterly.

  “Come on in, Shop’s open. It must be freezing outside...” he said, ushering Alice in even as he wondered how he could convince her to go out with him tonight, instead of with Diego.

  “What would you like to have?” he asked, leading her into the kitchen and pulling out a chair for her. She shook her head, settling into the chair. Sierra began to fill a glass with water, then stopped and glanced over his shoulder, looking meaningfully at her.

  “If you like what you see, it’s available tonight.”

  She flushed hotly and rubbed her cold palms together in an attempt to dispel some of her self-consciousness.

  “Blasphemy! You’re cold!” exclaimed Sierra. “Pretty thing like you all frozen, when I’m in here to keep you warm? Not a chance!” he said, grinning wickedly at her.

  She looked down and smiled, settling her skirt around her nervously as she sat on a chair in the warm kitchen. She looks flustered. Good, thought Sierra. Then he turned on the charm in full.

  “Here, give me your hands,” he said, walking over to her and dragging a chair to sit close to her. Clasping her hands between his palms he began to rub warmth into them, ignoring her feeble protests.

  He shifted his chair and leaned closer, “First time on a date with Diego?” he asked, staring in her eyes.


  “Yes” she breathed, eyes held captive by his.

  Sierra mentally assessed his charm-o-meter : Answering in monosyllables? Check. Slightly breathless? Check. This was going well.

  “Diego left home an hour ago. I don’t know why he does this to nice girls like you.”

  He gazed sympathetically at her.

  “Diego left? An hour ago?” she repeated, her face falling. She quickly looked away as a slight film of moisture coated her eyes.

  Uh oh, tears? Not good.

  “But you don’t have anything to worry about, sweetheart.” he said hastily. “Sierra at your service. It just so happens that I’m free and I would love to take you out tonight.” He smiled

  She looked down, hesitating. “I don’t know… are you sure Diego’s left? He didn’t mention me?” she asked doubtfully.

  Sierra swooped in for the kill.

  “Positive. Or I would have known you were coming, wouldn’t I? And you saw me out there a minute ago. Was that a guy expecting somebody?”

  “I guess not.” She replied dejectedly. She craned her neck to see behind Sierra’s shoulders, but Sierra stood up, blocking her view completely.

  “Then what are we waiting for?” he enthused. “Let’s be up and out already.” He said, getting to his feet and helping her up.

  “Going somewhere?” an ominously soft voice spoke from the doorway of the kitchen.