The next chapter in this unpublished "practice" novel.
“Kieth? Kieth Lyndsey?” Chipper spoke to the rock in his hand, trying not to be heard down the hall. If his dad found him talking to a rock it could be quite awkward.
A red glow came from the center of the stone and then faded. He was not sure what he expected to happen when he spoke into it but for it to just glow a bit and go back to normal was a little disappointing. He expected a little more at least, a noise, an image, something more than just a faint glow coming and going.
Chipper put the rock back on his bed stand and walked over to the rustic wood desk and sat down in front of his laptop. As he was about to open it his cell phone began to play a tune. Someone was calling. The caller ID read “Kieth Lyndsey”.
“Hello?” Chipper answered almost as if he had no idea who it could be.
A young man spoke, “So, did you want to talk to me or did you just happen to be holding the rock while saying my name out loud?” Kieth's voice sounded a little different on the phone.
“Uh, I had another dream. It was about a lady from another world with the ability to mimic other peoples' powers. She's on Earth and looking for something she calls golden apples … “
“Chip”, Kieth interrupted. “We need to talk in person. We shouldn't talk too much on the phone about such things.”
Chipper reacted to Kieth's choice of words. “Chipper. My name is Chipper, not Chip.”
“Chipper”, said Kieth apologetically. “Got it now. Very sorry. I will remember that. In the mean time we need to get together so you can tell me about this dream of yours. If this stuff has really happened, you and I both need to get together.”
“If it really happened?” The irritation in Chipper's voice grew, now for another reason. “You think it may not have really happened? Remember the footprint ...”
“Chipper”, Kieth's replied. “I am sorry again. You are in fact seeing things in your sleep that have actually happened. Don't get me wrong. It's just the way I think, especially at this hour. Nothing is certain for me. Not even the face I see in the mirror. Sorry if you thought I was implying anything. Now we need to get together. I am staying in the second cabin down the slope from your father's. How soon can you meet me there?”
Chipper's voice calmed a bit. “In about an hour. My dad is having meetings every morning after we eat breakfast this trip.” Chipper started to mutter something but decided not risk confusing Kieth.
“I'll be there on the front porch reading while I wait” said Kieth. “Enjoy your breakfast with your dad.”
Chipper's voice was finally calm, “See you then”. He clicked his cell phone shut. There was something about all of this that made him feel tingly inside, like the first day he got his own computer, and yet it was also a little frightening. Why was he seeing these things and what was Kieth Lyndsey? What was Eddie's hunch about the death of Kieth's father leading to that was horrible he didn't want to know? He felt he needed to find these things out. The sooner he spoke with the Kieth the sooner he could start.
He hurriedly went through his morning routine and rushed down to enjoy some pancakes and bacon with his father. He enjoyed telling his father about all the things he had done that year and his father enjoyed listening, even if much of it he had already told him on the drive up from Florida. Chipper felt as though he could have gone on all day talking to his dad and perhaps he could have, but at exactly five minutes to the top of the hour his dad's laptop computer made a beeping noise followed by a synthesized female voice, “P F 211 Project daily status meeting will start in four minutes and forty six seconds.”
“Well, Chipper, hopefully this meeting only lasts an hour like they've promised me”.
Chipper looked down at the center of the kitchen table. He hoped his dad noticed his dejected pose. So little time for them to spend together and his dad's employers think themselves justified in taking some of it. As people's voices came over his dad's laptop Chipper heard his father speak up and say, “Just a moment everyone”. He looked up at Chipper and spoke to him one more time. “Chipper, this meeting will be an hour. I promise. I will see you after your morning hike.”
An hour! Chipper almost forgot he was to meet Kieth at his cabin. An hour didn't give him much time to spare if there was going to be much more than just a quick reporting of his latest dream. He wanted to be able to ask Kieth some questions. He realized he better not waste much more time sulking in front of his dad. Besides that would probably just aggravate him.
“Have a good meeting dad. Going hiking”.
His dad smiled apologetically and waved as Chipper left the cabin.
It took Chipper somewhere between five and ten minutes to reach the second cabin down the slope. It wasn't all that different than his own, rustic logs framing a modern house of good middle class size. As he left the dirt road and walked towards it he could see Kieth sitting in a folding canvas chair on the porch with what looked like a huge book, about the size of a paving stone. It sat opened in front of him on a small plastic table whose legs were straining not to collapse beneath it. On the deck railing next to Kieth sat a large long-haired orange house-cat.
“Chipper, glad to see you were able to use the rock.” Seeing Chipper, Kieth got up from his chair and walked to the steps. Chipper could not help but notice the cat walking over to a corner of the porch and looking up into the surrounding tree cover. Its huge bushy tail flipping strait up into the air drew attention to it like a blinking light.
“Oh forgive me. Chipper, meet Kaiser, Kaiser, Chipper.” The cat ruffled his long orange and white fur, turned his head to look at Kieth over his shoulder and hissed.
“What's he upset about?” Chipper asked.
“Alright Kaiser. You want to show off for Chipper don't you? I'll let you fly about while I talk to our new friend.” Apparently with Kieth's permission, two orange feathered wings sprouted from the cat's back and he took to flight. Kaiser started rising into the tree cover above. “Just be sure not to be seen by any other humans”, Kieth said. The cat paused and hovered as if to take in Kieth's instructions. “And please try not to bother the hawks too much”. With Kieth's instructions finished, the cat continued his climb into the sky, disappearing beyond the forest canopy above.
“He just likes to fly.” Kieth said. “If I let him fly all the time I might not ever see him again.” Kieth smiled. “Hey, let's sit down and talk about this last dream of yours.”
Chipper remained standing for a few moments trying to see where Kaiser had flown off to but the cat was too far up into the trees to be seen so he finally sat down in a chair opposite Kieth and started to tell him about his latest dream.
“I dreamed about a woman named Hermie who mimics powers that other people have. She was born in some place called the Invee Republic on a high plateau. She ran away with her boyfriend, some really smart guy named Winter. Then her boyfriend died or at least it seemed and she came to Earth.”
“So that's where she is now?” Kieth leaned forward looking intently at Chipper.
“I don't know when any of this happened, only that it did, so I can't be sure.”
“Chipper, in your dream, what was this woman doing on Earth. Do you know where she was, a city, a country?”
“Her new boyfriend, someone she is just using I'm pretty sure, said they were leaving on a plane from Lexington, some place called Lexington, and flying to Croatia. They are looking for something called the golden apples in a really old pyramid there.”
Kieth's eyebrows rose slightly. “A pyramid you say?”
“Yes. Why?'
“Believe it or not, my dreaming friend, I think I know the place in Croatia being spoken of. Several years ago a pyramid shaped mountain there caught my father's attention. He told me he looked into it just enough to know that his curiosity about it was probably best left unsatisfied.”
Kieth paused momentarily to see if he still had Chipper's attention.
“What did he find?”, asked Chipper, filling the silence.
Kieth leaned back into his chair for moment and looked off to his side as if to think out his response. Then he leaned forward again.
“Some times very powerful people hide very powerful things because they can't take them with them or because they wanted to keep a secret supply in a certain place. My father knew if there was something hidden in that pyramid it had been hidden there by people so powerful that they likely had been mistaken for gods, and he knew enough about who they might have been to realize that if he dug up their secret very bad things would likely happen, bad things for everyone on Earth. Leaving the hidden hidden seemed the best coarse of action.”
“So your father never knew what was hidden there?'
“No, he never did, but it seems this Hermie is going to force me to find out.”
Kieth tapped the huge book that sat on the table between them. “Now, while I was waiting for you to arrive I was doing some research on these golden apples you mentioned on the phone. This huge book you see in front of me is Strath's Encyclopedia. A fellow named Doctor Robert Mungo Strath had the opportunity to wander the universe and catalog all he could find out about human civilization beyond Earth. This is a copy he had scribed so he could give it to my father. Strath's thirst for knowledge and his attention to detail is spectacular, but what he has to say about the golden apples is unusually sketchy. They grow on trees that require no sunlight and there are many myths and legends about them on Earth. He is not exactly clear on what they are used for though. Some suggest that ingesting them will make one immortal, but others suggest that ingesting them would be fatal. The alarming thing to me is that Strath wrote that all of the golden apples on Earth were removed thousands of years ago so as to prevent us from harming ourselves with them.”
Chipper looked at the book and then at Kieth. “Hermie believes they are used to turn normal humans into magical beings called invee. It is what all of her people are. It is what she wants to do with them so she can mimic people's powers and get back at Skolahn for what he did to her boyfriend.”
Did you say 'Skolahn'?” Kieth's expression suddenly became alarmingly serious.
“Yes, Skolahn is the guy who got Winter. Why? Do you know him?”
“No Chipper I know of him and my father and I were warned that we didn't ever want to know him. Chipper, you should definitely tell me your entire dream from start to finish and try not to leave out any detail.”
Chipper did as Kieth asked, watching Kieth's face as he told him the entire dream from Hermie's schoolmaster to Jeff Proctor getting a flight to Croatia. Kieth was a good listener, looking back and forth from time to time between Chipper and the book between them, which he closed shortly into Chipper's recollection. He only interrupted Chipper twice, once to ask if he knew the schoolmaster's name and again if he knew the name of the adept that helped them leave their home world, but Chipper's dream told him neither. Kieth's reaction to the parts about Skolahn were especially interesting to Chipper. The first time he mentioned him Kieth smiled at Chipper nervously and said, “there's that name again”. There were no apparent reactions after that. When Chipper was done Kieth stood up.
“Good and bad in that”, he said. “Skolahn wont be coming for any visits. That's good. It's also good that your dream told you so much about the invee. That saves me from explaining it all. The bad is that if this Hermie is not stopped she could bring the heavens down on us, and while I say that figuratively, its description would not be far from the truth. Oh, and by heavens I don't mean the realm of angels. I mean large heavy objects that should stay up there crashing down on our heads.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I have to beat her to the apples, but I also – I am told – must help you deal with these dreams of yours.”
“Hard to do at the same time?”, asked Chipper.
“Actually no. Just don't be surprised if I don't rush off right now and also don't be surprised if you see me rush off some time later. Right now, however...”
“What can you do about my dreams other than stop people like Hermie? I mean do you need to do anything about them? They seem like they could be helpful to you.” Chipper found the dreams uncomfortable but he wasn't sure his discomfort was as important as saving the world.
“Chipper, your dreams are only part of your problem. The reason you are having the dreams is the problem.”
Chipper really didn't like the phrase “your problem”. If he was going to sit and listen to someone tell him what was “wrong with him” he figured he may as well wait for his next session with Dr. Gibson. His dislike of Kieth's choice of words must have shown on his face.
“Chipper please don't take that wrong”, pleaded Kieth. “Please let me finish what I am saying before getting upset. What I mean to say is that you have talents that are causing you to have these dreams and those talents are being frustrated. That is what I meant by you having a problem.”
“I have talents? You mean like what Hermie mimics, like what the invees have?”
“Well there's a difference, a very important one” explained Kieth. “The invee as you know are normal humans that have become magical beings. Certain aspects of their personality will some times express itself as one or a small group of seemingly supernatural abilities. You Chipper are an adept. You are not a normal human. Your mind is attuned to a field of energy and particles that permeates the universe in such a way that you can manipulate it to do your bidding. This attunement would normally allow you to become – let's use a word we both understand – a wizard.”
“I'm like a warlock?”, asked Chipper.
“Or in places outside North America they would dispense with the gender specific term and just say 'witch', but that isn't really accurate either.” Kieth seemed to be enjoying the listing of synonyms.
“You mean I can cast spells?” Chipper was beginning to strongly doubt what Kieth was saying, even if he could give his cat wings.
“No you can't cast spells. That's what I meant when I said your talents are being frustrated. You recall that suppression field in your dream? It not only weakens invee who come here, it pretty much completely squelches adepts. That's why you read so much about wizards and such in ancient history and especially in legend – which is often just even more ancient history – and you don't see any wandering about today. Once the suppression field was put up what we know as true magic was effectively banned from Earth. You Chipper, are a special adept. Most adepts just live their lives never knowing and never having a reason to suspect. Their talent eventually dies of neglect. In your case however, your frustrated talent in a desperate effort to find an outlet managed to some how ride the thoughts of magical beings, using the magic within them as the power source to do so.”
Chipper began to ponder the air. This was a bit to take in. “So could I use the magic within these magical beings to do something other than just read their thoughts?”
“No. The magic within a magical being answers only to that being. That's why you end up seeing things through their mind's eye, so to speak. It's the only thing their magic will let you do because it doesn't put you in control.”
“Okay”, Chipper drew the word out. “So what is to be done about that?” What was it about Chipper's dreams that demanded the attention of someone who could be off saving the world? Chipper's mind was nowhere near ready to let that go.
“Two things need to be done about that.” Kieth stood up and walked over to the porch railing. Looking out he continued what he was saying. “First off your dreams are likely to get you in trouble. You are likely to end up knowing things that very dangerous individuals don't want you to know. If they find out you will be in great danger. Because of that you need to tell me all that you experience in these dreams. That way I can help you avoid being discovered and if it comes to it, I can protect you.” Kieth turned his back to the railing and looked at Chipper.
“The second thing is that your talent as an adept is apparently not going to just go away, unlike most other adepts on Earth. If you are just left on your own with this, your talent may find yet other outlets. There is no telling what potential chaos that could bring with it. The Lady tells me she is mulling over how best to deal with you being an adept in such unusual circumstances.”
Kieth's explanation made sense to Chipper but now his mind turned strongly after another question. “How is it that you can cast spells? Are you an invee?”
“No”, Kieth answered tersely.
“Then if you are an adept, how is it that you can do the things you do on Earth.”
“That question can only be answered partially, Chipper. While I would like to think of myself as an adept like you, there are reasons that I am likely to never be sure of that. Even that much of an answer to your question – what I just said – is much more than I should tell anyone else, but what you already know demanded that much of me. You see Chipper I am the guardian of a secret, a secret that only the Lady and a couple of her closest allies knows, a secret that must not be revealed. For reasons I must not even begin to explain. You will have to be satisfied in me saying that being the guardian of that secret makes the things you see me do possible.”
Kieth's words seemed to spiral about in Chipper's mind. He was not sure in the least if what was just said satisfied his question but he found himself losing his train of thought. So he sat silently, looking out at the trees, wondering if he might get a glimpse of a flying cat. He heard many wings fluttering and lots of chirping in one direction and then another, but he could not see Kaiser. He wasn't so interested in where the cat was so much as his mind was now grasping for something to focus on. What was happening? Was this just another dream? The son of a dead president sat before him with a gigantic book written by a man with a funny name who has traveled all over the universe. A cat has taken wing and is even now terrorizing birds up high in the trees, and he is being told he is an adept and some things called golden apples – that he just dreamed about – are real and likely very dangerous. His dreams and his reality seemed to be merging. If that was so, how could he know if he was even awake right now and not just having another dream, he wondered.
While Chipper was looking for the cat in the sky Kieth walked over and opened the cabin's screened door. “You know I thought being a teen-aged guardian to this secret was going to come with a bit of a reprieve from work until I grew up, but then you came along and made things .. interesting.” The hinges squeaked as he opened the screen door. “I think you could use a soda. I know I can.”
Chipper could hear Kieth's foot steps clod across the wooden floor and the slight mechanical sound of the refrigerator as he opened it. As the door closed Kieth spoke from inside the cabin, “I must apologize. I only have one kind”. Kieth came back out to the porch and handed Chipper a cola can. “Drink it. You probably need it about now, the caffeine I mean.” Chipper realized he did feel a bit light-headed. He popped open the can and took a sip.
“Caffeine is not something someone should take in too much of but it has its times”. Kieth sat back down in his chair.
After another sip Chipper began to feel more normal. “But, how did you know I needed that?”
“A lot of thinking in the morning, especially about things like this, it can do it to you”.
Kieth paused and leaned forward, looking Chipper right in the eyes. “Chipper, I know we have just met and all and this may seem a bit overwhelming, and it should be, so listen carefully to what I am about to say.” Kieth's eyes seemed to study Chipper's face as he spoke.
“I know you probably already figured this out but you must not tell anyone about this, my abilities, yours, the Lady, the golden apples, my flying cat, nothing. If you do people will think you're crazy or – even worse – someone powerful will find out you know more than they want you to. Do you understand?”
“Yes sir”, answered Chipper in a subdued tone.
“Sir?”, Kieth leaned back and laughed a little, “look at me. Guardian of the secret or not, I am still just a kid like you. We are Chipper and Kieth, not Chip and sir. Deal?” With a slight grin on his face, Kieth extended his hand and the two boys shook.
“Now, I need to do some planning about the golden apples and you will be wanting to get back to your dad.” Kieth got up from his chair and headed to the cabin door. On his way another question forced its way out of Chipper's mouth.
“Kieth, are you sure we are on the right side?” Chipper surprised himself with the boldness of his question, and worried that it might have been too confrontational. It was out now though, so all he could do was wait and see how Kieth would take it..
Kieth stopped at the door and turned to face him with a neutral expression. “We are protecting Earth. While that sort of thing doesn't always make one a good guy, in this case it does”. Kieth opened the door and was about to step through it when he looked back over his shoulder. “Oh, and I am very glad you asked that. It means you care about the right things.” He then paused for another moment, smiled, and said, “Feel free to stop by whenever. We don't have to be all about business all the time. If you want a friend along on one of your hikes for example, I like hiking too.”
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