Gabriel's Revenge (The Adventures of Gabriel Celtic Book 2) (4 page)

Chapter 8

August 20, 1998

May 30, 1997

My Dearest Betty,

I have been on a plane for hours now, and still two hours before we land. I feel, I hope, that you are here with me, I pray so. A man named Julien Taylor, the leader of the dig, is to meet me at the Lima airport. He seems a nice sort, why he would allow someone like me into his dig site is beyond me.

I am so scared. Not by the work as I can muddle through anything, and not from the fact that I will be living in a strange country. I’m not sure how I can live without you my lovely wife. We had such a short time together, once I found you I was sure we would be together forever. Now what? What is in the stars for me….except existence…

Forgive me Betty, my faith is weak.

I Love You

***

I closed the journal and replaced it into my pack. I had deliberately reread the day I had arrived in this country, hoping that my time here had marked some kind of improvement in my outlook.

It hadn’t.

Even though I was going back to investigate a friend’s murder, I knew in my heart that my view of life had not changed. The only difference now was the additional blame I now felt at leaving Frank alone, probably getting him killed.

‘Get a grip Celtic’
I mentally yell .
‘Concentrate on getting back; you have a mystery that needs solving. Frank is depending on you. He needs revenge.’

Revenge?

It had come to mind before I had realized it. Is this what Frank would want; or is it just what I needed?

Maybe I could wrap my mind around it better that way. Maybe getting revenge would lessen some of my pain.

I remembered suddenly that I was not alone as I glanced up and observed a young dark-haired boy tugging at his mom’s skirt. He was pointing toward me, my tears the focus of his attention. Not overly concerned about what others might think of my emotions, I nevertheless walked over to the tall windows nearby, looking out at nothing in particular as I sought to compose myself.

“Excuse me, sir?” a female voice from behind me asked, “do you have the time?”

I turned around, not happy about the prospect of interacting with anyone at that moment. My eyes were met by a large smile, surrounded by the pretty face of a young Asian girl. She looked to be in her mid 20’s. Of Vietnamese decent, she had some Caucasian features too, and a lighter hair color than the usual black. Shorter than me by several inches, she was also lean and athletic looking.

Not having a watch, I glanced around for a clock, realizing from the time it revealed that I had been deeply in my own head for almost two hours. Pointing at the clock hanging from the ceiling, I replied “just before 8:00.”

She looked up to where I was pointing, embarrassment showing on here face. “I’m such a ditz,” she said still smiling. “I really should pay more attention to my surroundings.”

“Thank you so much! I hated to bother you; it looked like you were very deep in thought.”

I plastered my best imitation of a small smile on my face, nodding while admitting, “I guess I was.”

“Looks like we will be sharing a plane ride together; you going all the way to Cincinnati?”

I nodded my affirmative as the first call to board the jet came over the speaker system, and I glanced over at my pack.

The girl held out her hand, saying “My name is Abby; maybe we’ll see each other on the plane!”

I halfheartedly shook her hand, reluctantly telling her my name. Our conversation ended with, “Goodbye Gabriel,” as I headed over to collect my belongings, thinking.

Why would she have guessed Cincinnati?

The flight I was on was really more of a flight to the US, the Eastern half anyway.

Shrugging off the coincidence and getting in line, I waited for the attendants to open the gate. There seemed to be a holdup however as the attendants continued to look at their computer screens while talking to the young Asian girl, Abby.

Finally, one of the attendants broke away from the computer, opening the gate and collecting our tickets as we passed. We walked out the door and onto the tarmac, the oppressive heat suddenly hitting my face like a baseball bat. I followed the herd as we walked the seventy five feet to the rolling stairway leading up to the jet’s hatchway. The flight attendant pointed me to my seat in the back of the plane. I headed back and stowed my pack overhead after taking out my journal.

My seat was at the window, and I strapped myself in and concentrated on the dark landscape outside. The airport lights revealed trees and other growth within one hundred feet of the edge of the runway, and I mentally compared this to the clean-cut landscape surrounding most of the airports in the US.

The low rumble of the idling jet engines captured my attention as my eyes were drawn to the wings. I numbly stared at the blinking red light at the end of it, thinking about…nothing.

The plane was filling up, the pressure change in my ears telling me they had shut the hatch only moments before I felt the vibration of the engines revving up. Although the air conditioning that filled the cabin was a relief from the heat that surrounded us, I opted to close off the vent blowing on me. My body had gotten used to the oppressive heat in this country, and I did not find it comfortable to be blasted with the frigid air.

The plane lurched as it started moving down the runway and I closed my eyes, trying to relax. Taking off and landing in an airplane were not one of my favorite things to experience.

Being mentally exhausted combined with the rumble of the engines contributed to my body’s heading into a sleep state before we got very far down the taxiway. As the numbing effects of stage-one sleep were starting to engulf me, I was unceremoniously awakened by a loud voice standing next to me in the aisle way.

“Well hello again!”

Chapter 9

August 20, 1998

My newfound
“friend”,
Abby, stood at the end of the row, a big grin on her face.

“Seems we are seatmates; how weird is that?” she stated as she stowed her carryon, plopping down in the aisle seat. Strapping on her seatbelt, she then looked ahead with an expectant air.

“I love flying; don’t you? It’s so liberating, breaking the bounds of earth and all that. I would fly everywhere if I could!”

Looking over at me then, she seemed to take a moment to study me, as if looking for something in my face that wasn’t there. “You look like you spend a lot of time outside Gabriel; what is it you do?”

“What the hell?”
I thought, annoyed. “C
an’t she just leave me alone?”

“I’ve been working at an archeological dig for the last year or so,” I declared with little enthusiasm, trying to cut off conversation with the statement. It didn’t work.

“Wow! That’s so interesting,” she said with exuberance. “That sounds like something I would like to do someday; I’ll have to add it to my list.”

I nodded my head and closed my eyes in preparation of getting a little shuteye.

“Well?”

It took me a few seconds to realize that this was a question, opening my eyes and seeing her expectant look told me it was directed at me.

“Well what?” I replied, a little peeved.

“Did you find anything, any treasure or anything like that?”

“Nothing like in the movies. All we found were artifacts that are important to the native people of the area; those items are priceless to them.”

I decided that I needed to nip this situation in the bud.

“Look Abby,” I started in the nicest voice I could remember how to project, “you seem like a really nice girl, but I’ve been traveling all day; I really need to grab some sleep.”

“Oh sure, I understand.” She made the exaggerated motion of zipping her lips with her fingers, before of course adding, “You won’t hear anything more outta me.”

I smiled and nodded my head before leaning back in my seat and once again closing my eyes. Before long I felt the numbing sensation of sleep approaching, and I embraced it wholeheartedly.

***

I entered the room once again through the long hallway. The door easily swings open, and the pleasant warmth of the room once again envelops me like a loving hug.

Grabbing my usual seat and taking up the mug of coffee, I greedily sucked down a large quantity of the silky liquid. The cup was magically full again when I sat it down to look over the chess board. I was pleased to see that my opponent had apparently fallen for the previously set trap I had laid for him, and I made my next scheduled move with great satisfaction.

Taking up the cup once more, I let the coffee warm my hands as I looked around the room, totally enjoying my surroundings unlike I was able to do anywhere else.

I felt the heaviness in my eyelids and elsewhere telling me that I was again going to go farther into this dream. My eyes closed and I was once again enveloped in darkness. I looked around trying to see something, but a total blackness completely surrounded me.

I suddenly felt the embrace from behind me. The buzzing had started again, as
someone
tried to communicate with me in their unusual language. I strained my ears and my mind, trying to pick up anything that sounded like a real word. This seemed to go on for at least a half hour, my frustration building with each passing minute.

Suddenly, the buzzing stopped. I looked around in the blackness, seeing nothing for a few moments. I sensed something was about to happen. Then I saw them…the eyes.

I should have been startled, but instead I felt peace envelop me. The pair of softly glowing orbs seemed to radiate love and understanding. They appeared to be about ten feet away but clearly visible, the kindest eyes I have ever seen.

Waking up suddenly in my seat, I looked around to get my bearings. I grabbed my journal and opened it up to the correct page. Digging out a stub of a pencil from my shirt pocket, I sat there with it poised, ready to write. What had I learned in this vision I could even write down?

I had forgotten about my seatmate, looking up to find her intently watching what I was doing. I threw a little smile her way before leaning back and concentrating on the notes I had already made. I thought some more about the meaning of my current visions, but failed to make sense out of them.

I closed the journal and laid it on my lap. I leaned my head back to try to relax. Glancing over, I saw that Abby was busy reading a paperback; so I quickly closed my eyes and tried to get some more sleep. Before long I was again in sleep mode; this time it appeared to be a deep and dreamless sleep. I didn’t wake up again until I felt a tap on my shoulder, an anxious voice saying “Gabe, Gabe, wake up!”

Chapter 10

August 21, 1998

Bolting upright in my seat with a start, I exclaimed “What? What’s the matter?”

Looking around, I saw that Abby seemed to be enjoying my confusion a little too much.

“It’s just dinner time,” she said with a smile. “The attendant was here awhile ago asking about your preference. I hope you don’t mind, but since you were sleeping so well, I told her to fix you the beef dish; you don’t look like a fish guy to me.”

I leaned back into my seat, trying to calm my heart from the start. My seatmate was still looking expectantly at me, and I finally realized that I should assure her that the selection was fine, which I did. Her smile reappeared, but she seemed almost too happy that she had made the right choice.

What was it about my newfound young friend? She was a total stranger who seemed delighted to bother me when least wanted. Normally that would bug the hell out of me, especially today, but her meanderings into my personal life and space had so far been more of a slight annoyance.  She was definitely getting off easy.

Soon the attendant was rolling the cart up the aisle with our selections. She handed over the unidentifiable beef dish to me and a fish meal to Abby. Before leaving our row, the attendant questioned Abby quietly.

“Everything work out ok with your seat change?”

Abby looked at me, somewhat embarrassed before finally whispering back, “Yes, everything is fine.”

As the attendant moved down the aisle, my seatmate exclaimed, “Wow this food looks good. I was starving!” She attacked the food with her utensils like it would get away if she left it alone.

The attendant’s overheard revelation had left me a little mystified to say the least. Why would she change seats to sit by me? The delayed line at the boarding gate now came back to mind, as she held up the whole line while she apparently looked into changing seats.

“You mind explaining that last comment from the attendant?” I asked, unsure if I wanted to know the reason or not.

A look of embarrassment crossed her face momentarily, followed by a quick look of determination as she set her utensils down while leaning back in her seat. She looked at me full on and started in on her tale.

“Look, I’m sorry to weird you out like that. It’s really not what you may think. I only talked to two of the other passengers before we boarded, one was this weird guy that looked at me like I was his next victim. When he found out my seat number, he showed me his ticket, revealing we would be sitting together. I was not looking forward to that at all, and then I met you.”

“You were nice, quiet, and non-threatening. Plus, it really looked to me like you could use a friend. After they called to board the plane, I made the decision to try to change seats. They really didn’t want to do it, until I pointed out Mr. Weird to them. They were like,
totally
agreeable to the change then. It took awhile for all the paperwork to go through; that’s why I was so late getting on the plane.”

Picking up her fork, she picked at a piece of fish, sitting quietly, waiting for my next move I guessed.

“Non-threatening huh,” I said with a slight smile forming on my face. “I don’t know if I like that or not.”

Her smile was quick to return as she exclaimed, “Oh thanks for not being mad at me Gabe; I just knew you’d understand if you knew the whole story.”

We set about to eat our meals, the beef tasting very good after a long spell of having little of it. I was unable to finish my portion, not used to having big ‘American’ meals as of late. Abby it seemed was more than willing to finish mine off as she grabbed my plate and attacked the beef with gusto.

I marveled at her eating abilities, especially considering her small size. How she packed it all in that little body was beyond me.

While she consumed my meal, I looked out the window at the night sky, the puffy clouds below us rolling by slowly. My thoughts went immediately to Betty, her love of travel and flying, always wanting the window seat so she could gaze at the sky and the ground as it meandered by the window in slow motion.

My heart was in my throat as I thought of our happy times together.
“I miss you,”
I mouth silently, closing my eyes and remembering…everything. If only I’d turned around…