The Daykeeper's Grimoire (15 page)

I’m wallowing facedown in a pillow when Mom knocks on my door and pops her head in. “Hi honey, how was your day?” she asks.

I don’t want to answer that question, so I ask, “How was the walk?”

She flops on my bed. “Everyone had a great time. We walked to town, had a couple of drams at a pub and walked back. I’m exhausted and I’m thirty years younger than all of them!”

“Guess you shouldn’t have tossed that Tae Bo tape …”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Anyway, dinner is not far off, so we need to get cleaned up.”

I look at my watch. “Wow, it’s later than I thought,” I say.

She groans as she lifts herself up and says, “This place makes me forget time altogether. I never seem to know what day it is. Without the bustle of the city, it’s easy to lose time.”

“I’ve noticed that too,” I say, getting up to try and do something about my puffy eyes.

Before dinner, the guests mingle in the parlor sipping drinks. I spot Alex with a tray of little quiches. He doesn’t look at me. How do I apologize for something like this? How could I have been so dumb to push away my only friend here, not to mention my potential husband?

I see Tenzo walking right toward me. I look around but don’t see my parents or Uncle Li, so I dash for the kitchen. “Can I help with anything?” I breathlessly ask Mrs. Findlay.

She waves me off. “Don’t be silly Caity; you shouldn’t even be in here right now.”

“Okay, I won’t do any work; I’ll just sit and watch.” I take a banana to Mr. Papers, who’s sitting cross-legged on the pillow in his cubby like he’s going to start a yoga class.

Alex comes in with an empty tray. “The savages have eaten them all,” he says to Mrs. Findlay. It’s as if I don’t exist; I am officially dead to him.

“Nothing quite like a long walk in the glen to get the appetite up,” replies Mrs. Findlay. “Will you ask the Laird to call them to dinner, son?”

I wait in the kitchen until I hear them taking their places. Uncle Li is saving a spot next to him and I’m happy to see Tenzo is at the far end of the table. I take a seat. While the guests are talking to one another, I whisper to Uncle Li, “Remember that line about twenty-twelve?”

“Vaguely,” he replies.

“Well, I was surfing for info on Mayan stuff and guess what. Their whole calendar thing
ends in the year
2012
!”

“That’s right! Now I remember. That was part of the thesis I was telling you about!”

“If they tracked eclipses and stuff back millions of years, why end it all in 2012?”

“I wish I could remember. This was so many years ago,” he says. “It was something about moving into another plane of consciousness or something.”

Talk is dying down and it’s getting quieter, so Uncle Li and I end our conversation.

Alex walks around the table ladling seafood bisque into everyone’s bowls. Mom picks up her spoon to eat and everyone follows.

“So Caity, what did you do with yourself today?” Dad asks.

“I kicked around with Uncle Li a bit, then I helped Justine with a summer school project.”

“What a good friend you are!” he says as he pats me on the back. “What’s the subject?”

“Well, she has to do this paper on Mayan Cosmology.” I feel super smart saying “cosmology” even though I just learned what it means today.

“Wow! Well, you’ve finally found a subject that stumps me.” He turns to Mom at the other end of the table. “Fiona, now Caity is studying the Maya!” he says loudly so that everyone at the table hears him. I just shake my head. It’s
so
obvious that my parents have only one child.

“Oh Caity, that’s wonderful!” Mom says. “Didn’t they have an advanced civilization back when the Europeans were still living in muddy little villages?”

“Quite true,” says Mr. Inada. “An amazing culture. My wife, Marcella, God rest her soul, taught Mesoamerican Studies at UT Austin.”

“Well, you must know a lot about the Maya then,” I say.

He wipes the corners of his mouth with his napkin. “Yes, quite a lot actually,” he says. “We took many a sabbatical down in Guatemala, Belize, Mexico. Fascinating culture.”

“So what’s up with the 2012 thing?” I blurt out, wishing I’d said it more elegantly.

Dad asks, “What do you mean by ‘the 2012 thing’?”

Tenzo looks at me and raises his eyebrows. “She means the end of the Mayan calendar.”

I look away fast. What a creep.

“The
end
of a calendar? Enlighten us, Caity,” Mom says.

I shake my head. “I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking. I just know that they were really good astronomers and they made these different calendars that end on December 21, 2012.”

Tenzo lifts a finger and says, “Only one calendar, the Long Count calendar, ends then.”

“Have you studied this much?” Uncle Li asks Tenzo, with a tinge of irritation.

In his snooty tone Tenzo replies, “I teach ancient languages, so of course I have studied the Maya. Though it’s not my primary area of expertise.”

The door from the kitchen opens and Alex rolls in the cart. There’s a salmon the size of a toddler surrounded by lemons, crispy roasted potatoes, steaming rolls, and peas with chopped mint. I’m trying to catch his eye but he avoids looking in my vicinity. It’s worse than I thought.

“Is the fact that the end date of this calendar—December 21—is winter solstice significant to the Maya?” asks Dr. Frasse.

“Absolutely,” replies Mr. Inada. “Not only is December 21, 2012, the winter solstice, it’s also when the sun rises in the middle of the dark bulge in the Milky Way.” I notice that his eyes are watery like old people’s eyes get, but something has lit them up.

Dr. Slaton nods and says, “Interesting. That part of the Milky Way is the center of the galaxy. Where everything originates.”

“What’s this now?” asks Dad, trying to keep up. It’s weird to see him uncomfortable because he doesn’t know something. “Is this alignment rare?”

Mr. Inada nods and says, “Well, I’d call once every 26,000 years or so pretty rare.”

“Actually it’s 25,920 years,” corrects Tenzo, the big know-it-all.

Mr. Dressel says, “Oh, then this must have to do with the Precession of the Equinoxes.”

“And we’re back to the Ages of Man, that we talked about last night!” Dr. Frasse says.

“Wait, what’s the 2012 thing have to do with dark and light ages?” I ask.

“All ancient cultures knew and mythologized what a profound affect Precession has on the human mind; the Maya just put dates to it all,” explains Mr. Inada.

“Precession is caused by the Earth wobbling, right?” Dad asks. “Like in addition to orbiting the sun we also make this other little wobbly orbit?”

“Wow, really technical terms, Dad,” I say.

Mr. Dressel adds, “That’s right, Angus. Our wobble moves us backwards through the zodiac, causing the sunrise to move one degree every seventy-two years.”

“But how exactly can this affect our brains?” I ask.

“One theory is that based on how close we are to the Galactic Center, we are pulled in and out of ‘dark ages’ when knowledge is lost, and ‘ages of enlightenment’ that cause evolutionary leaps,” explains Mr. Inada. “It’s just like our relationship to the sun, in summer there’s growth, in winter there’s death. Except the center of our galaxy has a bigger effect as it has the mass of more than
three
million
suns.”

“Let me put it plainly,” says Tenzo, condescendingly. “Basically we’re moving into an alignment with the Galactic Center that will profoundly change the Earth’s electromagnetic field. The Maya predicted that this would cause some sort of …
evolutionary event
.”

Mom goes for the hard facts and asks Dr. Slaton, the only one here who really studies space, if this is true.

Dr. Slaton shrugs. “Well, here’s how it may be possible. We all know that the sun’s activity influences
us
right? But what influences the sun? What triggers solar activity?” She pauses for a moment and wipes a bit of lipstick off her glass with her thumb. “The sun’s cycles are triggered by energy that comes from the Galactic Center. So how the Earth and the sun are positioned to this center source greatly affects humans. And we’re definitely noticing changes in the sun.”

“What kind of changes?” asks Dr. Frasse.

“Well, there have been more sunspots in the last sixty years than for the past 1,150
combined
. And the biggest solar flares in recent human history are predicted for—drum roll please—the year 2012.”

“Really?” Mom says desperately, as if she’s just been told there’s rat poison in her wine.

“They call this time The Quickening,” says Tenzo.

“But what’s going to happen?’ I ask. “I mean, why would the Maya track all these star and planet happenings back millions of years and then just end the whole thing in 2012 when we face the galaxy’s center? Is that like the end of the world?”

“Or is it the beginning?” Tenzo asks mysteriously.

“Both,” says Mr. Inada. “The Maya say it’s the end of the Fourth World and the beginning of the Fifth World.”

“The beginning of what?” Mom asks.

“Even before the fifteenth century, Mayan Elders knew—through the prophecy of their calendars—that they would be invaded in 1519. That started 468 years of what they called the Nine Periods of Darkness.” All eyes are on Mr. Inada as he continues. “Because the Maya predicted it, they were prepared. Daykeepers hid in remote mountain caves to save the prophetic calendar systems. The ancestors of these people are still hidden today, counting down the days.”

“And we are now in the final
Baktun
,” says Tenzo. “The final cycle. A tenuous time.”

Directing my question to Mr. Inada so that Tenzo will stop butting in, I ask, “Do you really believe that the world will change in 2012?”

“I’m just a chemist; I’m no scholar. But my wife spent her life studying the Maya, and she believed with every fiber of her being that 2012 would be one of the most important years in human history. Such a shame she won’t be around to see it.” We all see that Mr. Inada is getting emotional. People start scooting peas around on their plates and fidgeting with their wine glasses.

Dad eases the tension by raising his glass and saying, “To Marcella Inada!” and everyone clinks glasses. Mr. Inada smiles and dabs at his eye with a tissue. Then Dad announces that they’ll be boarding a coach for a special treat—a whisky tasting—and the room erupts with applause. Dad rubs his hands together and adds, “There are five distilleries just a short ferry ride away and we’ll visit them all tomorrow. Be prepared to be away all day.”

While everyone else gets up to leave the dining room, Uncle Li and I stay seated. Mom comes up behind my chair and puts her hands on my shoulders. “Caity, you’re welcome to come along tomorrow. See the countryside. And Uncle Li, I hope you’ll join us.”

“Blech,” I say. What is it with old people and whisky?

Dr Li shakes his head. “Thanks Fiona, but since I don’t drink I’d be better off here.”

“Uncle Li and I are working on something. Don’t worry about us,” I say.

Mom smiles and then grabs my hand. “Let’s go, honey. I’ll tuck you in.”

“I’m taller than you, you know,” I say, smiling at her as she walks me upstairs.

When she’s gone, I bolt my door and hop into bed with my sketchbook. I have to write some of this stuff down before I forget it.

I turn to a sketch I’d done of Alex. If we’re all just vibrations, maybe I can send some apology vibrations out to him.

I stare into his eyes and say,
I’m sorry, Alex. I’m so, so sorry
.

I hear the tour van pull up in the morning to take the guests on the whiskey tour. Leaning out my bedroom window, I say goodbye to my parents. Uncle Li is down there too; he motions that he’ll come up.

While I’m waiting, I check my mail and see that there are three connection attempts from Justine flashing on my screen:

Justinem: KT-u there? Haven’t heard a peep!

Justinem: Ok, maybe u r roaming around the castle or swimming in your moat or something

Justinem: Just wanted to fill u in on the latest w/David von Lovesme

My interest is piqued. I write fast.

Caitym: Justine, u still there?

Almost immediately a new message pops up:

Justinem: Hey KT! Yes, still here!

Caitym: What r u doing up?

Justinem: can’t sleep. what r u up 2?

Caitym: oh, just ruining my future with mr. perfect.

Justinem: ?

Caitym: can’t even go into it or i’ll spiral down. what’s the news with David von Lovesyou?

Justinem: OK, I know I’m a big hypocrite cuz I said he was a complete idiot in chemistry, but all of a sudden he’s way in2 me

Caitym: Like throwing grapes at u in the cafeteria kind of in 2 u or asking u out kind of in 2 u?

Justinem: went to a movie last night … although he did throw a few pieces of popcorn at me

Caitym: u GOT 2 tell him that the throwing food thing isn’t really considered flirting

Justinem: I’ll get right on that, since we’re going shopping 2GETHER in exactly 10hrs and 38 minutes!

Caitym: so weird that he likes 2 shop

I try to picture Alex shopping at high-end stores like the dweebs at the Academy of Cruelties. Thinking about the whole commercialism of my San Francisco life kind of creeps me out. I’ll admit I was a shopper, but I wasn’t even one of the bad ones. Some kids went shopping every single day after school.

Justinem: I know—I swear the boys in r class like to shop more than the girls

Caitym: get a hobby David

Justinem: well we know it won’t be chemistry

Caitym: HA!

Justinem: he IS pretty smart in english though, so maybe he’s a left-brainer. or is that a right-brainer?

Caitym: Good try … grasping for straws?

Justinem: I know. do u think I’m pathetic? just going out with him because he’s beautiful?

Caitym: and popular

Justinem: and smells good

Caitym: No, I prefer 2 think u r dating him in an ironic way …

Justinem: Right, like wearing my mom’s puffy-sleeved blouses from the 80s?

Caitym: xactly!

Justinem: ok, so I’m ironic. I feel better—think I may be able to sleep now. beauty rest for tomorrow …

Caitym: as if u need it!

Justinem: XOXOXO infinity …

Caitym: save the kisses for your new boyfriend

After I sign out, I remember the square spiral I have left to decode. I dig it out of the bottom drawer and scan it. As I’m getting Dad’s decoding program rolling Uncle Li knocks on the door. I unbolt it and find him holding hands with Mr. Papers.

We go straight down to the tower so I can draw the rest of the cogs, and make our way over to the center of the two interlocking rings. Mr. Papers can’t resist playing in the magnetic field; I watch as he takes a flying leap off a boulder into the ring, falls almost to the floor, and then begins rising.

Just as we are about to step on the lowering platform, we hear a door slam followed by the grinding slam of a bolt locking. Chills run up and down my body and I find it hard to breathe. “What was that?” I whisper.

He looks at me. I look side to side. Then he heads back to the door. I hold on to his sleeve. “Uncle Li? What’s going on?”

He places a finger on his mouth. “Shhhhh,” he says, almost silently. A snake’s hiss.

We walk quickly over to the door. There’s a strange box sitting at the top of the staircase. Uncle Li jumps the stairs two by two to get to the door but when he turns the knob, nothing happens. Even when he pushes it with his shoulder it doesn’t budge. “Locked,” he says.

No one knows where we are, there are no other doors out, and the place is soundproof. When my protein bar runs out we’ll simply wither up and die here. I feel my throat tightening up, I don’t want to cry but I don’t think I can stop it. My lip starts quivering and then the tears come.

Uncle Li comes down the stairs and puts an arm around my shoulders that are now fully shaking. I can’t stop crying.

“Oh, Caity, we’ll work it out,” he says in his calm steady voice. “Here, let’s have a look in the box.” By this time Mr. Papers is freaked out seeing me cry, so he wraps his arms completely around my neck. It’s constricting but oddly comforting.

We sit on the last step and examine the wooden box that is about the size a pair of boots would come in.

“You want me to open it?” Uncle Li asks.

I wipe the tears from my eyes. “Well, I’m not! What if it’s a snake or something?”

“Hmm, hadn’t really thought of that …” Uncle Li stands back a few feet and gracefully extends his leg, then quickly kicks it open with his foot. All those years of Qigong have paid off.

Nothing pops out of the box. Uncle Li moves closer with his lantern and peers inside. “It’s a note,” he says as he bends over to pick it up. “Oh, and look here. There are books under it.” He picks them up and comes back over to the stairs to sit by me. Then he removes his reading glasses from his chest pocket, puts them on his tiny nose, and reads aloud, “
Read. Translate. Write English translation in blank book. At this time tomorrow, knock three times on door and go to far wall. Remain facing wall until you hear door close again.”

“Translate what?” I ask, still sniffling. “Do you think Tenzo did this?”

“Has to be Tenzo,” he says, shaking his head in disgust.

Uncle Li opens the top book. It’s really old and covered in leather, but hand bound with needle and string. The writing is small, and since it’s pretty dark I can’t really read it.

“Hmm,” Uncle Li says. “This is old Sanskrit. Ancient text.”

“Sanskrit? Like from India?” I ask.

He nods, then sits for a few minutes, paging through the text and not saying much.

“So,” I say, unable to handle the suspense any longer. “Can you read any of it?”

“I’ll get the lay of the book first. I want to know what I’m looking at.”

“Is there anything I can do?” I ask, wanting some kind of distraction.

“Perhaps you should sketch the interior of the tower so we’ll have it for future reference,” he says. I know he’s making busy work for me, but I’m grateful to have something to do. I sketch while he reads, but I find it hard to concentrate. Who could?

“Eventually they’ll come looking, right?” I ask.

“Excuse me?” Uncle Li replies, not looking up from the book.

“For us! You know, they’ll come looking, right?”

“But who would look down here? We are the only ones who know about it!” Then I think of Barend Schlacter. Had he found this place? I think it’s time to come clean.

“Um, Uncle Li?” I say with a wince. “There’s one thing I haven’t mentioned yet.”

He looks at me sideways and says, “What?”

“Okay, first let me say that I wasn’t trying to keep secrets from you or anything. I just thought that you might think this was all too dangerous for me and then tell my parents.”

“What?” he asks firmly.

“Well, this guy came here a few days ago. His name was Barend Schlacter and he was pretending to be from the Scottish Tourist Board to approve us opening the Inn.”

“Pretending? When was this?”

“The night before you got here. Mom and Dad were both out, so I was upstairs alone.”

“He came to your room?”

I nod. “He said that I need to leave secrets alone and that if he finds out that my parents know anything he will …” I can’t say the rest out loud.

“What? He will
what
?”

I look down. “He will make me an orphan,” I say quietly.

“You really should have told me, Caity,” he says, shaking his head. “You really should have told me.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I thought you’d tell my parents or the police or—”

An air bubble in the fountain makes a loud gurgling sound and we both jump.

“Did he say who he really was, who he worked for?” Uncle Li asks.

“Well, that’s the other thing … remember the spiral that mentioned the
Fraternitas
? I think that’s who he works for. He had the letters FRO tattooed on his wrist.”

A flash goes off in my head. “Wait a minute!” I say as I get up and run over to the fountain. I push my whole arm through the pipe that carries water outside.

Uncle Li comes over. “Ah! Are you thinking of sending a note through the pipe?”

Mr. Papers jumps up onto the fountain to see what we’re looking at. “No,” I say as I point to the little monkey. “I’m thinking about sending
him
through the pipe.”

“Do you think he would go?”

“He can definitely fit,” I say, sizing him up next to the pipe.

With both of us staring at Mr. Papers, he gets that something is up. His little eyes go from me to Uncle Li and back again without moving his head. He takes a step back, so I kneel down until I am eye level. “Okay pal, you need to get help. Mrs. Findlay—go find Mrs. Findlay.”

He nods his head up and down and runs to the door. I follow him and show him that the door is locked. “No door,” I say, carrying him back down the steps and putting him on the edge of the fountain. I make that gesture like your hands are fins, and say, “Swim? In water?”

Mr. Papers cups his hand and draws some water to his mouth.

“No,
swim
,” I say, plunging my whole arm into the pipe. He looks at me with his head cocked and then glances over at the water again like I’m crazy. He points to the water, then to his chest and looks at me to see if that’s really what I mean. “Yes! Good!” I say. “Swim!”

He puts a foot in and then draws it out quickly and shakes it with disgust, like a cat that has just stepped in a mud puddle.

“Can monkeys swim?” I ask.

“Sure. But whether he wants to or not is another story,” he says, skeptical eyebrow raised.

I remember that he’ll need the rabbit-ears key to get back in here, so I take it from around my neck and put it around his. I have to wrap the string twice for it to be secure enough. Then I put my hands together and plead, “Please, Mr. Papers, please. We need your help.”

He seems to understand my desperation and gets a little closer to the water.

“Swim?” I ask one more time and he nods.

The pipe is more than big enough for a small monkey, and since there’s a current I figure he will get pushed out even if he doesn’t use his arms. Still, though, I feel terrible seeing the last of his tail, now wet and a fraction of its normal size, go down the pipe. We notice the water slowly backing up behind him and I hold my breath until it flushes through.

“That was good thinking, Caity,” Uncle Li says as he puts a hand on my shoulder.