LeOmi's Solitude (19 page)

It was as if everyone sagged from the weight
of the burden, he continued, “Add that to the living expenses and
after eight years, that is one hefty amount to repay.”

He asked, “How can we make this better?”

The question and answers varied from, “Just
not pay it,” to “Why does it cost so much?”

At the end of lunch, Slone said, “I will do
everything possible to reduce your expenses in the coming eight
years.”

He sounded like he was running for office,
but he did make a lot of sense.

For tents, Slone’s group inhabited a large
area in front of the moat. His followers or whatever they called
themselves had doubled after the two week financial statements.

There was a large pile of rocks that had been
removed from the area that the tents had been put up on. The rocks
were probably to be used for fire rings, but Slone had perched
himself on top of it and Ralph and Keith had taken up position at
the bottom. It was a king of the hill type thing, like in the
principal’s office where his desk is so much higher and bigger than
any other seat in the room.

Chapter 10

Better Rewards and Better
Punishments

Slone saw Mark and Chenoa first. They were
walking towards the school entrance. He nudged Ralph with his foot
and pointed with his eyes at Mark. LeOmi was out of the sun in a
tent, just outside of the rock pile. Ralph took a running start and
bulldozed Mark from the back.

Other students approached as Mark was
recovering from the assault.

Slone said, “It would be funny to roll him in
a blanket and toss him in the moat.”

The suggestion brought two other students
that LeOmi didn’t recognize; they headed for Mark and Chenoa.

LeOmi stood and faced Slone from the bottom
of the rock pile, “You can’t do that. He’ll drown.”

Slone had come down from his perch to stand
beside LeOmi. He smiled, “Your point is?” Then he made a hurry-up
motion with his fingers to Ralph.

LeOmi landed a reverse roundhouse kick to
Slone’s face. Immediately the heal of her right hand slammed into
his nose sending blood everywhere.

“You call them off.”

He was still smiling through the blood.

Someone tackled LeOmi from behind, it was
Ricky Barns. He had knocked the air out of her and had pinned her
to the ground and he was sitting on her stomach.

“Be still and you won’t get hurt.”

“You only get one warning. Get off of me
now.”

Ricky chuckled.

LeOmi brought her legs up to make him think
she would struggle out. He moved down to pin her legs to the ground
and lost his grip on her arms. That was all she needed. She quickly
rotated onto her stomach and pushed up with her legs while Ricky
was still on her back. He immediately lost all traction and was
left to simply tumble to the ground. When free, she spun around on
top of him returning the favor of the loss of all the air in his
lungs. Then she heard a splash.

Ricky was getting up. LeOmi dealt him a
barrage of kicks and punches. He almost fell over and she grabbed
him by his tunic, she felt a little rip in the fabric. She grabbed
his belt and pulled him towards her and then she pushed his neck up
and away to make him loose his balance. Then she walked him
backwards step by step to the moat. There was nothing he could do
to stop it. He tried to grab her, but each time he did, she pushed
his neck up a bit more. With her pushing his neck up and tugging
him forward with his belt, it was all that he could do to keep his
legs upright, at least somewhat precariously.

“If you ever touch me again,” one step.

“I’m going to hurt you.” another step.

“Real bad!” he was teetering at the edge.

“Do you understand me?” LeOmi jerked him a
little to make her point.

At that moment the surface of the water
agitated and then broke. A large gray creature burst out of the
water and deposited the blanket bundle on the shore.

As Mark rolled and clawed his way out of the
blanket, LeOmi scratched a line in the sand with her sandal daring
any of Slone’s troops to cross it.

The side I should have been on from that
first day outside of the bank.

Chenoa stood on the other side of Mark as he
stood up dripping and catching deep gulps of air.

…
Stretch it out …upon the Line …of
Confusion
…

LeOmi said, “I know how you feel. He is just
trying to tick you off.” LeOmi and Mark were both so angry at Slone
and his group that you could feel it in the air.

“He succeeded.”

Slone called out to Mark, “Ralph wanted to
get back at you for what you did to him and his friends. In my
opinion, this evens the score, unless you think different.” He had
stepped back up on his rock pedestal when he said that and then,
“If you want to go one on one. I’m right here.”

“Are you challenging me to a duel?”

Slone took the mighty man stance and said, “I
guess you could say that.”

Mark couldn’t help but laugh at the attempt
at superiority.

LeOmi heard or thought she heard Mark pass an
idea to Chenoa and she just barely caught a glimpse of a wink.

Heard …or felt?

Mark replied, “Okay. I’ll fight you on top of
the hill on the Island. You swim across with me. That way I know
that it is just you and me.”

He’s baiting Slone, knowing that he will not
accept.

“Are you kidding me?” The mighty man stance
dissolved, “I saw that thing come out of the water.”

“What no backbone? I have been in there and I
am willing to go back again.” Mark was smiling now.

“Yeah, you go ahead. There is a difference in
being brave and being stupid.”

Chenoa motioned for LeOmi to lean in, “I hate
letting him get away with that.”

LeOmi said, “You’re outnumbered.”

Mark turned to her, “Listen at you…you sound
like…like…”

Chenoa rested one hand on Mark’s arm and
motioned towards Slone’s face with the other.

“Mark, take a look at Slone’s face and then
take a look at Ricky Barns, she means what she says.”

“You mean to tell me that you beat up Slone
and Ricky while they were throwing me into the moat?”

“I wouldn’t say that I beat up Slone. I just
slap kicked him and punched him in the nose. He just stood there
until Ricky tackled me.”

Taking stock of Ricky limping towards the
tent and Slone’s blood oozing down his face, Mark said, “I know I
want to be your friend.”

She was happy she hadn’t disappointed Mark
but just as quickly, the uneasy feeling came back too.

“We’ll see.” She turned her head and smiled
at Mark. She grabbed her stuff out of her tent and walked off
towards the other side of the mountain, as far away from Slone as
she could possibly get.

This is what she came for. To find out who
she could be…Leave the bad path or remain. The Plummet and the
Signet.

* * *

LeOmi wandered around looking for an
unoccupied tent. She wasn’t surprised when she heard Bekka say, “I
have saved you a tent over here, away from the stables–that horse
manure might smell good to some, but it sure doesn’t smell good to
me.”

“I have…something...”

“If you are going to tell me that you have
been fighting, you don’t have to, news travels fast here. I have
already seen Mrs. Shadowitz and it has been acknowledged that you
are guiltless of any wrong doing.”

They walked towards the edge of the tents.
Beyond was the wide open dessert.

“I just wanted you to know that I have put in
a request for you to receive David’s Crown of Courage. I think that
you deserve it after today.”

“I didn’t do anything, I tried...”

“Yes you did. You probably saved Mark’s life.
Those idiots could have thrown him back in there again.”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“The only bad thing is that now you are on
the same list as Mark in Slone’s book.”

“I don’t care, it was wrong and he knew
it.”

“Everyone knew it, but you were the one that
stood up and did something about it. Chenoa tried, but she was in
as much danger as Mark.”

“A while back you asked me if I thought you
were a bully, and I told you that sometimes you have to step back
and reevaluate. Well let me ask you, who is the bully now? I think
you can answer that question without hesitation.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay?”

LeOmi nodded as they looked out over the open
dessert.

“I thought there were dangers out there.”

“There are, but there is also safety in
numbers and other precautions as well.” She turned and motioned for
LeOmi to follow.

Bekka spoke loudly from the unlit fire ring.
There were more than a dozen tents facing the would-be fire.

“The whole reason for Tent Fest activities is
to make you think about being prepared for anything. You are
furnished with a tent,” she pointed to the tents in the circle
beyond her fire ring, “And your counselor–that’s me. I am here to
be a guide for you.”

Bekka went about the duties of lighting the
fire. LeOmi tossed her things in her tent.

“The thing to learn at Tent Fest is that a
good Magi never gets too cold, too tired or too hungry.”

“A perishable body weighs down the soul and
the earthly tent burdens the thoughtful mind.” LeOmi said as she
smiled at Bekka, “One of my dad’s sermons.”

Bekka had packages of muffins and a huge pot
that had mashed potatoes ready to be heated.

There were even a couple of Chinese Lanterns
on poles outside of her tent. “Nice touch.”

“If I am going to be at a place, at least for
a while, I like to think of it as an empty canvas. Make it as homey
as possible.”

Bekka went back to the fire and checked the
stacked wood one last time before she lit it.

The fire was stacked so that it started out
small—just right for toasting marshmallows, but as the night went
on and the temperatures dropped, the fire grew. It was a
masterpiece of perpetual tumbling of burning wood. They watched,
mystified at each succession of the path to total encompassment of
flames. Afterwards, a little repositioning of key pieces of
firewood and banking of hot coals was all it took to keep a radiant
heat all night.

The stars were out in earnest but had been
obscured by the tremendous light from the roaring fire.

There were seventeen tents around the fire
and each of Bekka’s charges lay in their tents looking up.

Bekka asked the group, “Have you got any
questions for me?”

“Sure, loads.” LeOmi recognized Abigale
Trent.

“Well?”

“Are we allowed animals?”

“In special cases, the school allows
students, teachers and staff to have animals. What kind of animal
are you thinking of?”

“None really, I just wondered what the policy
was.”

“Okay, one question answered, fire another
out, I got you going, don’t stop now.”

“What happened with my letter I sent?”

“All your letters have been delivered, I
can’t make someone reply. The recipient has to do that.”

“Okay, another answered. Anymore for
now?”

No one volunteered any more questions.

“Tents Fest is a time of celebrating. I have
chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers. If you are in the
mood, come and get it.”

Several students jumped to their feet. Bekka
pulled out the items one at a time. First the graham crackers, then
the chocolate, then she said, “Now where did I put the
marshmallows, oh here they are, here, hold this.” Bekka handed
LeOmi a huge bag, filled with marshmallows, each marshmallow the
size of a soup can.–Then she peeked around the tent flap and smiled
brightly at LeOmi and everyone started laughing. They were laughing
so hard that they heard other people laughing at their
laughing.

“Laughter is contagious, haven’t you ever
heard that?”

Then they laughed some more.

LeOmi approached Bekka while everyone was
busy toasting marshmallows, “Can I leave the school and come back
after I have taken care of something?”

“Students are not allowed to leave the school
unattended if they can’t remanifest.”

“Well then, could you take me somewhere?”

“That depends. Where would you like to
go?”

“Well, as you know, my mother sent my dad a
personal journal and he gave it to me. I have read it over and over
and I think it is a code about where she hid the book that she got
in Calcutta.”

Bekka looked at LeOmi, “Where did you get
this theory from?”

“Well, it was because of the Journal
itself.”

“The Journal says that it is a code?”

“No, but the story has some truth to it, and
I need to see for myself.”

“I suppose she felt the journal would be safe
with him, if anything happened to her.”

“Which is exactly what happened.”

“Okay.”

“I will write some letters tonight.”

“I will deliver your letters tomorrow, I
cannot tonight because I have to keep the fire going and I have to
make sure that–well, there are things I need to do.”

LeOmi wrote two letters by the light of the
fire.

Explaining what she suspected to her dad was
the hardest part, but eventually she just decided simple and to the
point was better. She wrote, ‘I think mother hid the Sumerian
Journal near home.’

* * *

The next morning, LeOmi just spent time
wandering. There was too much activity for a morning run so they
just decided to try to find a place and time later on.

The letters she had written were quick, short
and simple, straight to the point.

Bekka returned after making her
deliveries.

“Your dad asked that you stop by when you are
away from the school and out in his neck of the woods. I think that
would be nice.”

“And the other?”

“I left it, unopened, but delivered into her
hand. What is it with you two?”