LeOmi's Solitude (21 page)

* * *

The Tuesday of her outing with Bekka finally
came around.

She enjoyed languages with Mrs. Julia
Diefenbuacher, but it made for a long day, and she didn’t dare miss
Thorpe’s class. He was always giving pop tests and additional
assignments. He was just one of those teachers that didn’t believe
in the easy grade.

Finally school was over and Bekka was waiting
for her outside of Thorpe’s classroom. “Ready?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Let’s go outside, we need to see the sky to
remanifest.” This was only her second time remanifesting, with
Bekka. It was so quick. LeOmi had barely thought about her father’s
office in Virginia and they were there.

“Do you want me to stay, or to come back for
you?”

“Oh stay, please.”

He had been waiting for them; he opened the
door and beckoned them in.

“How are you, no other broken bones during
the rest of Tents Fest?”

“I’m fine.” He had set out some little
sugared jelly drops—she loved the orange.

“You never realize how wonderful breathing is
until…”

He went in the other room to a little fridge
and came out again with a tray and three glasses of tea.

“So tell me, what is it that you’re
after?”

LeOmi pulled out the journal that her mother
had sent her father.

“Well, I read the journal. There is only one
entry, and I noticed some…half-truths in it.”

“Half-truths?”

“Such as the name of the girl in the story,
well I think it will be self explanatory if you read it.”

He was silent as he read but his facial
expressions showed that there was nothing that made sense.

“Okay, let me explain. Elizabeth Joan
Henderson is the girl in the story, well the local library here is
called, E. J. Henderson Memorial Library.”

“Your mom didn’t volunteer at the local
library, not that I know of.”

“But we used to go there quite a lot.”

“Where it says that you love books. That’s
true.”

“The next thing is —The Fantastic. That was
the name of the little ice cream and coffee shop that we would go
to. There was a little bus station in the back and one time we
stored some stuff in one of the lockers in the rear of the
station.”

“Huh!”

“So you think that she has hidden something
in there for us to find.”

“Yes.”

“I hope I am not just imagining things, but
now that you have read it, what do you think?”

“Well I have to admit that it is a little
farfetched.”

“Keep reading.”

“Dreams. The guardian. A wonderful mountain
in the dessert that held her future secrets.”

“I think that that verifies that it is
real.”

“What about the part about her papa? Her papa
is where Elizabeth got her dark hair and hazel eyes.”

“Does that mean your grandfather?” He worked
on ships in the New Orleans shipyard.”

“I don’t know, maybe.”

“The best place to start is at the beginning,
or so they say. But the beginning was a long, long time ago, so
let’s start with now…then come back to the beginning some other
time.”

Everyone was quiet for a short time and then
LeOmi said, “I think that we have to go to the little coffee shop
beside the library, or I will wonder about this for the rest of my
life.”

“You know she could have just been writing.
You know people do write imaginary stuff. Put things together
differently and come out with something completely different, but I
must say, you may have something. I just don’t want you to get
disappointed if there is nothing there.”

Bekka said, “I can’t get there through
manifesting because I haven’t been there before—as you know, so
would you please take us there?”

He stood there deep in thought, “I don’t know
if I want to go down this road, so to speak. I have mixed emotions
about the whole thing.”

“Well, we’re all curious. Maybe we can get an
ice cream if there isn’t anything there.”

They got in to the family station wagon, the
same vehicle that LeOmi had ridden in hundreds of times. It was a
short distance, only about two miles, but the traffic was terrible.
Bekka was having a hard time with the stop and go pace. She usually
had everything planned to the minute, so this was a novelty for
her.

Finally the library was in sight, a huge Taj
Mahal type building with pillars and chandeliers hanging from the
balconies. It was beautiful and it also seemed smaller now, since
she had been in the library at The Seventh Mountain.

“Okay, go just past it and towards the corner
you will see the coffee shop.”

“The Fantastic.”

It was the last shop in a strip mall made
with a castle facade. It was a block construction and it even had
small turrets.

“Now comes the tricky part. The locker
number. Twelve and four are the numbers that she lists.”

Her dad said, “As long as it’s locked you
know that nothing bad can get in.”

They all looked at each other and then piled
out of the car.

They entered the shop and just as LeOmi
remembered; it went back into the bus depot.

The lockers were to the side and they had
letters instead of numbers.

“Well that was a little unexpected.” Bekka
said.

LeOmi thought a moment, “Astronomy to
zoology. AZ combination 1-2-4”

They each went different ways and Bekka
called out, “Here it is.”

LeOmi and her father followed Bekka’s
voice.

Her dad motioned to the locker, “Go
ahead.”

LeOmi turned the dial 1-2-4. The door opened.
Within there was a parcel and a stack of papers. There was also, a
stack of money. On top of everything were two driver’s licenses; a
Virginia and a Louisiana each with her mother’s picture.

Bekka pulled a satchel bag out of Aarons
Grasp and they emptied the locker into the sack. They were all
stunned and there was nothing to do but retrieve it all and go back
to her father’s little office and go through everything.

No one said a word as they traveled the
couple of miles back. Each in their own thoughts.

They empty out of the car and went into the
office. LeOmi opened the satchel and dumped it onto the coffee
table.

LeOmi asked, “Would you count the money
Bekka?”

“Surely.”

“Dad, do you want book or papers?”

“Letters, I suppose.”

“That leaves the book for me.”

Bekka said, “Seems only right.”

LeOmi smiled and picked up the book. She
recognized it as hand book to the Sumerian Journal from her
research at the New Orleans Library.

The Journals’ handbook had a metal insert
with an indented eight point star design on the front and a latched
hinge for each side of the spine. The book’s binding appeared to be
leather, with metal banded to the hinges and lock. The metal bands
had etchings and designs that continued to the inlaid metal making
it one with the cover of the book. There was nothing else
remarkable about it, except that it was locked.

“It’s locked. A star shaped key.”

Bekka said, “As long as it’s locked nothing
bad can come out.”

They all paused at that remark.

Bekka said, “I have heard about locks like
that, without the key to release the metal bandings, you would
destroy the book by prying the metal away from the fragile
paper.”

LeOmi’s father said, “It is hard to believe
that they would sell a locked book for so much money.”

Bekka said, “But on a happier note, there is
about a million dollars here.”

LeOmi and her dad just sat there looking at
Bekka.

Then her dad said, “That can’t be. Where
did…where would she get that kind of money?”

“Maybe she got a job somewhere, investments
that you didn’t know about, inheritance, a loan.” Bekka made the
apologetic face.

They were all thinking that it could have
been stolen but none of them wanted to say it.

“Dad, what about the papers?”

“Oh, they are various things, the receipt
from that Sumerian Journal for one thing, made out to your mother.
Here it is. Here are her travel documents, her plane ticket
receipts and all of her flight information to India and her return
flight. Her hotel receipts and even a slip for the cleaners in New
Orleans. Here is her driver’s license–the old one from Virginia and
the new one for New Orleans. It is almost as if she wanted to leave
all of her identity, everything of hers that was of any worth in
that small locker.”

“Not everything. Not her ruby encrusted
knife.” LeOmi said that and then regretted it.

“I am sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. It
is just that there is nothing here that will point to whoever
killed her.” LeOmi had stood up as she started saying this and her
father stood, rubbed her shoulder for a half a second and said, “I
think that you will figure that out if anyone can. Look what you
figured out from the pages of that book. It was like it was just
waiting for you.”

“Oh I agree.” Bekka said.

“Maybe there is something else in these pages
that will tell you how to open the lock on the book.”

“Maybe there is something else in the story,
which will give you more clues.” Bekka stood.

“Yes there may be.”

“Well we had best go,” Bekka said.

“Here Dad, you take this money.”

“Me? I don’t want it. I don’t think that it
was me that she wanted to have it.”

“Well what do I do with it? Do I give it to
Sergeant Polaris?”

“Hum. Well, why don’t you at least tell him
about it? I don’t think that anyone has reported it stolen so I
think that it is okay to keep it. It is just that I don’t want it
and I think that she would have wanted you to have it.”

“You could put it in The Good Steward Bank.
Then it can least earn you interest while you decide what to do
with it.”

“That seems like a wonderful place for you to
put it, just until you decide what to do with it.”

Bekka broke in, “In the mean time, we have
got to get back and I’m sure that your dad has work that he has to
do.”

“Yes.”

He gave her a light hug. “My precious
girl.”

She hugged him back, until it hurt, and then
she gave him a big smile. “Thanks for the drive, and the tea.”

They stepped out the door. Bekka turned, gave
a smile and a wave and then they were gone.

Jacob Jones went back inside and closed the
door. He put his head in his hands and thanked God for His goodness
and grace.

When they returned to the school they went
straight to The Good Steward Bank and deposited one million, seven
hundred and forty-two thousand, and nine hundred and twenty-seven
dollars.

It was like she was walking in a dream. When
was she going to wake her up?

* * *

Saturday morning she reported back to work.
The morning tour was full. Mrs. Kirby approached her, “I heard
about your injury at the competition. I have had many injuries. As
always make sure that you drink plenty of water, and do not
hesitate to call for assistance if you need it.”

The tour went fine, but on the way to the
wall opening she noticed that there were two large eggs in a ground
nest just off the path. The eggs were too large for the nest that
had been knocked a little lopsided.

The eggs were too big for any of the birds in
the preserve, flamingos and other water birds. If they remained
where they were, they were sure to be crushed by...something. She
picked them up, put them in to her book bag and went straight to
The Seventh Mountain Library. She had been there several times
before and the amount of information within its walls was
amazing.

There was a book on wild birds that
documented pictures of eggs.

“Perfect.”

LeOmi thought they were possibly ostrich or
emu, because they were so huge.

The Ostrich,
Struthio camelus
, is a
large flightless bird native to Africa. It is the largest living
species of bird and lays the largest egg of any living bird.

A female ostrich can determine her own eggs
amongst others in a communal nest.

“That’s it, a communal nest.” She hadn’t seen
or heard of any ostriches in the Game Preserve but a female wishing
to protect her eggs may have traveled a long distance to hide her
eggs in another bird’s nest, even though the nest didn’t have any
other eggs.

The diet of the Ostrich mainly consists of
plant matter, though it also eats insects. It lives in nomadic
groups which contain between five and fifty birds.

LeOmi kept the eggs warm with heated pouches
and her own body heat.

Back at the dormitory, she unloaded her trunk
and positioned her lamp over the nest she had made from a few of
her sweaters.

She was still in time for Flags Practice; she
was looking forward to spending some time with Fireball.

* * *

She had the eggs for only a few of days
before she started hearing signs of movement. They were beginning
to hatch. She sat in her room in the corner beside her bed and
watched the miracles break free of the confinement of their
shells.

At first, there were little pecked lines
around most of one side of each of the eggs. LeOmi could see parts
of one of the little peep’s head and legs. She watched it do one
last push with his head and back and the rest of his shell broke.
The chick ended up in a squatting position totally free of his
shell.

When the other finally got the shell popped
open enough to release itself, it sort-of popped the top and it was
still connected so that it formed a sort of hinge. The hinge
flopped back once and that scared it so much that it jumped out of
the shell and nest and into LeOmi’s lap. It was as if the little
chick were looking for a warm place to hide, scooting up under her
arm.

They were just fluffy balls after they got
warm enough and then, they were hungry. LeOmi had researched what
they needed to eat and they needed water, protein and
roughage—grass and crickets, in this case, dog food that LeOmi had
purchased from a shop in the shopping area. She soaked it in water
to make it soft and easy to swallow.