An Unexpected Adventure

by Kandi J Wyatt

  Mr. Behr nodded. “That sounds reasonable. What creature are you looking for?”

  “A special lizard.”

  “Well, there are all kinds of lizards around here. I hope I don’t have to warn you of the salamanders—I once knew a man who had one attack him. It was far more severe than you might think; he had more than a few stitches by the time it was all done.” Mr. Behr’s expression showed how serious he was.

  I glanced to Will and Chace, who both rolled their eyes. We’d heard that story so many times, but the professor didn’t seem to mind.

  “I have dealt with many different lizards. I will be very careful with this one.”

  “I’m sure you will.” Mr. Behr moved his hands in a calming manner. “Thank you so much for chatting with me.”

  Karis pulled my arm and grabbed Chace. We turned and walked over to the other side of one of the food booths, Will and Cherise tagging along. After a few moments, Mr. Behr joined us, but the music was particularly loud at the moment, so instead of trying to converse right away, we purchased some food and sat down at a free table a little farther away from the stage.

  “So, what information did you want to talk to me about, Harley?” Mr. Behr took a bite of his hamburger.

  I explained all I had seen in the professor’s car up at Cabbage Creek campground.

  “It wasn’t until I saw the emblem on the back of one of the monitors that I got worried.” I sipped my Coke. “It’s of a squat eagle with its wings spread out. I knew I’d seen it before. When I got home, I looked it up. It’s the symbol for the NSA!”

  The others sat staring at me, but Mr. Behr nodded.

  “I’m glad it scared you away. I don’t know what Raleigh is really up to, but one thing I do know is he’s not safe for you kids to be around him on your own. He’s already said repeatedly how he doesn’t like you, and if he’s NSA he could have resources to help him remove you from the equation, legally or otherwise.”

  “But, Mr. Behr,” Chace said as he licked a bit of ketchup off his fingers, “If he comes around Steria, I’m going to take him on.”

  “I know, Chace. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  We ate our meal without any further discussion, occupied by the music and commotion around us. When we were done, we all went over to the stage area, where the grassy slope was already filling up with people for the evening concert. Florida Georgia Line was scheduled to take the stage shortly, but during the interim, canned music filled the air. The song “Come On and Dance with Me” came on. Karis stood up, grabbed me and began dancing and singing to the song. I shrugged, helpless. The boys laughed at me until Cherise stood and pulled Will to his feet. His face was beet red.

  I laughed. “Will, your face looks as bright red as a hunter’s jacket.”

  “Thanks, Harley; that’s exactly what I needed to hear.”

  “I’m just glad it’s not me,” Chace said to Mr. Behr, who laughed his deep belly laugh.

  Karis grinned, winked at me, and turned to Chace.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” he protested, but she pulled him to his feet. “I don’t know how to dance.”

  “Just don’t let her step on your toes, that’s all!” I called.

  He shook his head and gave in to the inevitable.

  It was nice to forget about our worries for a while. I looked forward to the next couple of days—eight hours of scanning was a small price to pay for evenings like this.

  Chapter 17: A Relaxing Afternoon

  The day after the music festival ended, I slept in. It was so nice to relax. When I woke up, I meandered down to the dining room. All the guests had already had their breakfasts, so I wandered into the kitchen and helped myself to some cereal and milk. Halfway through my bowl, Karis joined me.

  “Any plans for today, Harley?”

  I shrugged. “Relax.”

  She grinned. “I hear you. I don’t want to do much either. What about a swim at Cabbage Creek Campground?”

  I eyed her. “That’s relaxing?”

  “Yeah, as long as we don’t meet anyone. Besides, we can swing by and see Chace if you want.”

  I nodded. “Sure. Bring the others?”

  “If they can come.”

  Suddenly, my day off sounded more like a day of activity than recuperation.

  I called Will first. He was at the crab shack working. Cherise was available, so we picked her up and headed upriver. No Ford Taurus greeted us as we passed Seashore B&B. I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. The campground parking lot was free of any suspicious looking cars as well, though I did see a pickup with a search and rescue sticker.

  The water was just right. We splashed around, swimming and playing for a couple of hours. As the sun climbed higher, Karis was the first to get out and sit on the shore. I soon joined her and began skipping rocks, and before long Cherise sat down next to me. The sound of the rippling river filled the air. A bird sang nearby. Occasionally, a cow would low somewhere in the distance. My rocks added a percussion to the rhythm of the river bank as they skidded across the water and then fell with a plop to sink to the bottom.

  “I wonder what it’s like to fly.” Cherise’s comment interrupted the flow of our surroundings.

  I glanced at her, confused as to where the idea had come from, but with Cherise, that was par for the course. She often had thoughts from left field.

  “Do you feel free and light, or is it like you’re going to fall all the time?”

  “Okay, now that would be terrible.” I shook my head. “I don’t think it’s the last one. Why would anything continue to fly if they felt like they were going to fall?”

  “I don’t know.” Cherise shrugged her shoulders. “I just wondered.”

  I thought Karis was asleep, but she surprised me, though she kept her eyes closed as she lay on her towel. “I think it’s the first one, Cherise. You don’t have any fears and everything is just free.”

  I shrugged. It made sense. “Why don’t we ask Steria the next time we see her?”

  “Let’s go now.” Cherise jumped up and begun to gather her things.

  Karis slowly stretched and sat up. “What do you think, Harley?”

  “Sounds good.”

  Within five minutes, we were at the old barn on Chace’s place. He wasn’t there, and neither was Steria.

  “What now?” Karis looked around peeking her head out the main door.

  I paused. Steria? I called in my mind. Are you anywhere near the barn?

  I couldn’t feel her presence, but I had the sense that she was close. I sat down and wondered where she could have gone. A picture of the river as if from a drone’s camera came to my mind. The river flowed lazily by, its liquid green highlighted by sparkles from the sun. The trees rushed underneath, waving under the weight of the north wind. A tight turn and suddenly, I was looking in the other direction. Another turn and my stomach began to heave. The picture vanished and I was sitting on the floor in the barn.

  “You okay, Harley?” Cherise looked at me with her big eyes full of concern.

  “I think I am. I’m not too sure after that.”

  Karis looked like she was about to puke. “You too?”

  I nodded, but the nausea was too much. “Yes.”

  Cherise grinned. “I think we have the answer to what it’s like to fly.”

  “I was fine until the sudden turns.” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

  “Well, in that, you are truly my brother,” Karis agreed.

  A knock at the door stopped our conversation. “Hello?”

  I got to my feet. “Yes?”

  “Oh, hey,” a man said, as he rounded the corner and saw us. “I was wondering if there was anyone around. I’m looking for the owner.”

  I stared, amazed. The man was the same one that’d been with Professor Raleigh at the music festival, the one who’d said he was in search and rescue.

  “I don’t know if Chace’s dad is around right now.” Karis stepped forward. “We�
��re his friends and came to see him. How can I help you?”

  The man looked down from his six foot four height. His expression was almost sour. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t like us being here or if he thought Karis was ugly. His brown eyes took us in and then softened.

  “Well, I’m on the South Coast Search and Rescue Team. We have some training coming up and are looking for a place with hills, woods, river, and wilderness to use as our training grounds. The ranches up this way are perfect for that sort of thing.”

  It sounded reasonable. If this was the first I had met him, I’d have had a totally different reaction, but knowing he was with Professor Raleigh made me want to kick him out the door.

  Karis was more diplomatic. “Do you have a business card? I could give it to Mr. Martin when he gets in.”

  The man nodded, and gracefully reached into his back pocket. His smooth motions reminded me of an actor I’d seen on Mission Impossible. He was every bit the international spy, complete with good looks and nice manners. I looked for the tale-tale signs of a concealed weapon, but couldn’t find any. It wouldn’t have surprised me, though. He pulled out a worn leather wallet with some bills sticking out the edges. The wallet was thick with business cards, credit cards, an ID card, and other papers. He handed Karis a card with a picture of a German shepherd and some sort of seal on it.

  “You can have him contact me at that number.”

  “Okay, um...” She checked the card. “Bryan.”

  “Were you kids at the country music festival?”

  My heart sped up, but then I remembered that fifteen thousand people were at that festival.

  Karis nodded. “Yeah, we were volunteers.”

  “I thought I recognized you.” He smiled. “Well, I’d better get going. I’m staying at Cabbage Creek Campground right now. I’ll check my voice mail and email regularly to hear back from—Mr. Martin, you said?” He waited for a nod from Karis, and then he waved and turned.

  “He was cute,” Cherise said.

  “Yeah, but more importantly, he’s working with Professor Raleigh,” Karis said. “And now we have his contact information.”

  “So, what now?” Cherise asked.

  “We do some research.” Karis tapped the card against her other hand. “Let’s head home and look him up online. I could also call the search and rescue place and see if they’ve heard of him.”

  ***

  The afternoon didn’t yield much. We discovered that Bryan Taylor did indeed work with the South Coast Search and Rescue. He also was known for smoke jumping in the summer. That probably explained his presence in the area right now; the fire season was in full swing, and the warning level had risen two levels since May. We had no clue what exactly his involvement with Professor Raleigh entailed.

  ***

  Steria bumped up against me. I rubbed her hard, scaly head. The light refracted off her scales, making them sparkle like the jewel she resembled. I smiled. Then I heard the sound I’d feared. I jumped at the explosion.

  “Run, Steria!” I yelled as I turned to face the threat.

  Professor Raleigh stood with his feet planted and his device in his hand. His other held a badge.

  “Harley, you can’t fight the government for long. Surrender her before people are hurt. I just want to get her to a safe place where she can’t hurt anyone.”

  Steria hurt someone? Never!

  “I know what the government does to creatures they’ve never seen before! Ever watch E.T.? That’s not going to happen to Steria!”

  “You’re wrong, Harley. I won’t let them do anything like that to her. Remember, I’m a scientist. I want to protect life.”

  “Right.” My voice was thick with sarcasm. “And biologists don’t dissect animals, right?”

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Steria still there.

  “Run!” I told her. She just stood there, looking at me.

  In slow motion, I saw the professor raise his device to firing level. Then I realized why she hadn’t run. A sticky web clung to her feet. I tried to run to her to help her, but the explosion sounded again. The next moment, the clinging substance was attacking my eyes.

  “No!” I tried to scream, but nothing came out.

  Another pop, and the film filled my nose and then my mouth. I tried to gasp for air, but none came. My hands began to flail, tearing at the sticky mess covering my face. My brain screamed at me to breathe.

  ***

  Blankets crawled around my face. I sat bolt upright in bed, wheezing. With slow movements, I reached for the inhaler. It wasn’t where I normally put it. I groped in the dark until my hand landed on it. A small puff of air escaped my lungs, and then the life-giving aid of albuterol filled them. I sat panting, my heart racing as I fought my way out of the last clinging panic of the dream. It was the nightmare again.

  I lay back down, but my mind raced. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep any time soon.

  Chapter 18: A Worrisome Problem

  “Harley,” Karis called the next morning. “Get up.”

  I groaned and covered my head with the blankets. She knocked again, more insistently this time.

  “Go away!”

  I heard the door open. “Come on, Harley. Get up.”

  I sighed and pushed the covers away from my face. “Why?”

  “Because we’re going to find out what Professor Raleigh is up to once and for all.”

  That got my attention. I nodded. As soon as she shut my door, I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and stretched. I threw on a T-shirt and pulled up some shorts. The day already promised to be warm—I’d slept with my window open, and it was pleasant in my room.

  Once I made it downstairs, Karis handed me a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee. At my astonishment, she replied, “You look like you could use something to help wake you up.”

  I nodded my thanks since my mouth was full of puffed wheat. I took the food to the table where Mom expected us to eat. Once there, Karis started to share her ideas.

  “Professor Raleigh has to be somewhere online. If we can find him, we’ll have a better idea of what he’s doing. I also thought I’d go chat with Mary at Seashore B&B and see what she knows about him.”

  I wondered if I’d heard correctly. It was standard practice to not divulge guest information to others, and Mary was a stickler for rules.

  “How’d you plan on doing that?”

  Karis smiled enigmatically. “I have my ways. Besides, I have the phone number of the professor’s acquaintance. I’m sure he would need Bryan’s contact info. So, I’ll go to Mary and explain I have information that one of her guests needs.”

  I shook my head, not following my sister’s logic, and focused on eating. Karis was apparently fine with that.

  “I want you to do the internet research while I go talk with Mary. Can you handle that?”

  I nodded. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to find out since Mr. Behr already tried and didn’t discover anything.”

  “I know.” Karis ruffled my short hair. “But I think you’ll find something. Maybe search his name and fantasy creatures or dragons. Who knows?”

  I shrugged. “Doesn’t hurt to try.”

  I put my dishes in the dishwasher and headed to the computer upstairs. My folks didn’t believe in letting kids have their electronics in their own room, so our family had a computer that sat in the hallway between all the rooms. The guests could use it if they needed, but it was mainly for the family.

  I sat down and typed in Professor Winston P. Raleigh fantasy creatures biologist and waited for Google to respond. The first link was an educational journal written by a Professor Winston; the second was a newspaper article about Bigfoot. I shrugged and opened them both in new tabs. I couldn’t understand much of the first article, but when I scrolled to the bottom there was a picture of Professor Raleigh looking back at me. The biography indicated that the professor was an adjunct professor of biology at the University of Iowa. I frowned—that didn’t
make sense. Then I glanced at the date. The article had been written five years ago.

  The Bigfoot piece was easier to understand, being written with all the hype of a tabloid paper. A Bigfoot sighting in northern California was the object of discussion. Several people claimed to have seen Bigfoot somewhere in northern California, and the text was flanked by a grainy photograph showing a big, hairy creature that was somewhere between an ape and a human. One of the people interviewed was a Professor Patterson who said the creature should be given sanctuary in a home away from humans where it could be safe and live in peace. I re-read those words. They sounded very similar to the professor’s words in my dream. I shuddered. As I scrolled further, there was a picture of Professor Patterson, looking decidedly familiar. I shook my head; how many different names did Professor Raleigh go by?

  I went back to my Google search and typed in Professor Winston Patterson Raleigh NSA. The first hit took me to a newspaper article. The professor was at the bottom of the page, listed as special agent on assignment in the US. I sat back in my chair and stared at the picture of the professor. What type of special assignment? I wondered. No amount of searching gave me any more information. I hoped Karis had better luck than me.

  ***

  Karis returned without much new information. She’d learned that the professor had registered with the name Winston P. Raleigh. He’d given an address from California and said he worked for UC Berkley. Karis was impressed with what I’d found, but it didn’t tell us really much more than we already knew.

  “What now?” I asked.

  Karis fiddled with the business card. “Should I call Bryan?”

  I shrugged. “What good would it do us? It could get you in trouble.”

  “I guess you’re right.” She pocketed his contact information, frowning. “I just think we should do something.”

  I nodded. “But what?”

  Neither of us knew. With a sigh, I headed to my bike. I could ride around town looking for the professor, although I doubted it would help us any. But still, it was better than nothing, right?