Mana in the Modern World non illustrated version (4 page)

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Pic here of Steph in string bikini

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Different pose - laughed at joke

***

As he is moving around, shooting from
different angles, the ground suddenly gives way, dropping him thru
a small opening. “Jack!” shouts Steph as she starts toward him. He
grabs for the sides but the hole continues to slowly crumble.
“Steph, … stay back!” Jack shouts as he sees her starting toward
him. Suddenly Jack disappears into the hole. A second or so later
she hears a solid thump, …..apparently Jack had found the
bottom.

Steph slowly moves toward the hole which is
now about three feet across. To spread her weight, tho it’s not
much at about 4’8 or 9 inches, she decides to get on hands and
knees. Then, flat on the ground, she scoots over and peers over the
edge into the hole. About 10 feet down she can faintly see Jack and
he is not moving. She thinks he may be…… ‘laying on a skeleton?’
Realizing she cannot help Jack, and then remembering that Jack has
the cell phone and keys to the jeep, she decides to trek back to
the house to call for help.

She gets a scare as she scoots back and her
string top momentarily gets hung up, cutting her left breast.
Quickly changing her high heels to her ‘woods’ sandals she heads
for the house, maybe 15 or 20 minutes away, hurrying along the
winding tire tracks. Thankful that Jack had not locked the house
she calls 911 and explains the situation. The operator tells her to
stay there and on the line till help arrives, probably 10 to 20
minutes, so she can lead them to the hole.

Having regained consciousness and after no
answer from Steph, Jack decided to explore a bit of the cave; if
his small pocket flashlight survived the fall! Thankfully, tough
little bugger that it is, it did. Hopefully Steph had left to get
help.

The flashlight beam shows there are two adult
sized skeletons to one side and one small one reclining as if
asleep against the far wall. Thinking that the cave was probably
formed by water flowing thru it as a small steam that still flows,
he decides to follow the stream. Maybe it will lead outside?
Following the stream he finds it flows to a cave-in and on through
a small opening.

There are signs that someone, probably the
child, tried to dig out with a broken dirk by the opening. The
larger rocks must have prevented clearing enough space to get out.
The child must have been too big to squeeze though the small
opening. “Damn!” Jack says aloud with the sudden realization, “Kid
must have starved to death.” Jack can see light faintly shining
thru a small gap above the water. Peeking out of the hole and
getting his head wet, Jack thinks the cave-in is about 50 feet or
so from where he fell. He is fairly sure he knows where it comes
out; a wide area between two relatively low rock cliffs.

Jack thinks, ‘Hum, it might be interesting to
photograph a model down there, maybe in here too. Especially with
the right costume; or none!’ and grins slightly. Heading back to
where he fell, he finds a small closed chest by the wall closest to
the small skeleton, probably a child. Inside the chest is what
looks like badly tarnished jewelry, some gold doubloons and a
small, about 3 inches, tarnished jeweled dagger broach. In the lap
of the small skeleton is a small black cloth pouch with five rubies
of various sizes, two small emeralds, what looks like a cloudy
quartz crystal, a beautiful double winged silver butterfly, silver
spider with gems and a pearl hairpin.

‘Hum, but why the cheap crystal? Keepsake?
Wait a second… the butterfly, spider and hairpin look new! No
tarnish or rust!’ thinks Jack in shock. Jack puts all the items
back into the pouch and then puts the pouch into one of his many
cargo pockets; just for safe keeping. Checking the smaller skeleton
he notices it looks to be wearing a pearl necklace and many of the
top fasteners on the fancy shirt are torn badly as if ripped.
“Damn!” exclaims Jack, “May have been female too!” Apparently
fallen from her crossed arms is small leather bound book. “Diary?
In French too.”

John, le cuisinier, a essayé de me toucher
père l'arrêta par la menace de l'épée, mais le père est en train de
s'affaiblir comme il dégoûte encore

nous avons de l'eau, mais pas plus de
nourriture

l'air est difficile à respirer nous gardons
le feu minuscule ou la fumée est très mauvais

Père a été délirante et maintient marmonnant
sa pierre de talisman.

Père et cuisinier sont morts maintenant

Père est tombé dans un état de stupeur et
cuisinier arraché une partie de mes vêtements d'avoir son chemin
avec moi

Mes cris ont réveillé père et ils se sont
battus, ils meurent tous les deux

pas le choix maintenant, je vais devoir
creuser sûrement les hommes à l'extérieur ont quitté maintenant

Creuser avec les pères poignard ouvert la
chute assez pour voir plus de lumière obtenir plus d'air mais ne
peut pas déplacer les gros rochers

ce sera ma dernière écriture que l'encre
devient trop sec même quand j'ajoute l'eau

J'étais tellement faim, mais pas plus
somnolent h mettrai pères choses loin et faire une sieste un peu
plus

si faible

Je pense que je meurs ici mais je vais enfin
voir Mère nouveau

Renée

***

“Looks like only the last few pages are
legible enough to make out. My French is rusty but maybe I can
still read it.”

***

John, the cook, knows I am girl and has been
trying to touch me

father stopped him by threat of the sword
but father is getting weaker as he sickens further

we have water but no more food

the air is hard to breath we keep the fire
tiny or the smoke is very bad

Father has been delirious and keeps
muttering about his talisman stone.

Father and cook are dead now

Father fell into a stupor and cook ripped
part of my clothing to have his way with me

My screams woke father and they fought they
both die

no choice now I will have to dig out surely
the men outside have left by now

Digging with fathers dirk opened the fall
enough to see more light get more air but cannot move the big
rocks

this will be my last write as the ink
getting too dry even when I add water

I was so very hungry but no more

am sleepy will put Fathers things away and
nap some more

so weak I think I die here but will finally
see Mother again

Renée”

Steph is still speaking with the operator
about 5 minutes later when she is surprised to hear a vehicle
outside. Hurrying to the door she sees a woman getting out of an
old and quite dirty pickup truck. The woman, a Texas Ranger by the
badge, says, “Hi, I understand you have a problem? I am Ranger Anna
Stone and I happened to be close by when I heard county dispatch
sending out rescue. Thought I would check to see if I can be of any
assistance. What’s up?”

Steph describes what happened and Ranger
Stone says, “I have a first aid kit, some rope and other equipment
in the truck so think I will head on to the hole. O; and your
breast is bleeding through your top. Need help with a bandage?”
Steph shakes her head no and Ranger Stone continues, “OK. Then when
the rescue people get here please inform that I went on ahead.

Ranger Stone easily follows the vehicle
tracks back to the hole. Tying a heavy rope to a tree some distance
from the hole she carefully approaches the hole. Finally she gets
down and crawls over to peer into the hole and sees a flashlight
beam moving about. “Mr. Albright, this is Texas Ranger Anna Stone,
are you alright? Rescue should be here shortly.”

“Just a bump on the head from this smooth
rock that was beside,” pointing the beam to a skeleton, “this
fellow’s hand. Otherwise just a bit dirty. I have the jeep keys and
the cell phone, so I figured, least ways I hoped, Steph went for
help.” Waving the flashlight beam about Jack says “There are two
more skeletons down here. The one by the far wall appears to be a
child, maybe a female as it is wearing a pearl necklace but in
pantaloons. Have to call in some forensic anthropologists. Camera
still works so I also shot a lot of pictures.”

Anna leans further over into the hole to see.
More edge starts to crumble so she quickly backs up. “Careful!”
Jack says with a laugh, “No need to come down the same way I did!
Looks like two of these bad boys killed each other. One is still
holding a sword that is sticking through the other guy’s chest. The
stuck guy was holding what looks like a small flintlock pistol,
discharged I think. Can’t tell how the child died but I think she
may have starved. When I looked around a bit I found a bad cave-in
at the entrance.”

Anna says, “Don’t move anything.” “O heavens
no!” Jack replies, quickly deciding not to mention he looked
through the chests or the small pouch now in his front pocket with
Baby. Without thinking Jack puts the smooth rock into a cargo
pocket. “Won’t be long now Mr. Albright, rescue is finally here,”
Anna says as she hears vehicles approaching.

The rescue truck, ambulance, Sheriff Crane
and two deputies finally arrive. As Steph explains the situation to
the rescue man and woman she overhears the somewhat younger deputy
saying to the other, “Man wouldn’t I love to take a bite of that!”
The Sheriff, also hearing, sharply says to him, “Can it Benson! And
don’t start with your drooling again. You have been warned often
enough about your mouth.” Deputy Benson shuts up but continues to
leer, at one point actually wiping his lips on his sleeve. Steph
sighs, wishing she had thought to change out of the string bikini
before she rushed back to the house.

Steph gets in the car with the Sheriff
thinking, ‘No way am I riding that, that, e yuck…, deputy!’ and
leads the convoy to the hole.

Jack had brought both the small chests,
journal, diary and some loose pages he found back to the house. Now
he, Sheriff Crane and Ranger Stone were discussing what to do about
the skeletons and items found. It was quickly decided it was best
to leave the skeletons in place until a anthropologist and
archeologist team can come down from the Smithsonian which, after
several calls by Jack, will probably in less than a month. What to
do with the chests and contents turns out to be bigger kettle of
worms. Deputy Benson, steadily eyeing the larger chest setting
slightly open on the coffee table with the small one, is of the
loud opinion that they should be kept at the Sheriff station.

***

Pic here of treasure chests and gold

***

Jack, seeing the gleam in Benson’s eyes,
says, “I have a very good safe, so I prefer the chests and journals
remain in my possession.” Holding up a hand to forestall Benson,
Jack continues, “I have taken detailed photographs of the chests
and contents, both the Sheriff and Ranger Stone have a copy on a
flash drive. That will ensure everything is accounted for when the
anthropologist and archeologist team arrive. Besides he, or she,”
nodding to Ranger Stone, “may need them close at hand. To speed
things up I offered, and had accepted, the use of my home for some
of team coming down. If necessary others can stay, at my expense,
at a nearby motel. I thought that would ensure a faster response
and it certainly did. Plus my basement will provide an excellent
‘lab’ for their preprimary work.” Ranger Stone says, “That sounds
like a very good solution.” The Sheriff, over Benson’s objections,
agrees.

The house is again nice and quiet after
everyone leaves. Jack, sniffing at his underarm says “Yap,
definitely time to scrape off some dirt n sweat. Today has been a
really full day.” He heads off to do his scraping and shower before
a Jacuzzi soak, first making another glass of ice tea to keep
himself company. Humming a tune Jack says to himself, “That Ranger
seems sharp, intelligent and is definitely interesting. Wonder if
there is a chance I can get her number?”

Removing his holster and gun from his back
center, he then proceeds to strip for his scraping and shower when
he hears a different sound when his pants hit the floor. An
unfamiliar ‘clunk’ rather than the sound of ‘chink’ that Baby and
his keys normally make upon hitting the floor. As Jack reaches into
his slightly bulging cargo pocket he jerks his hand back with a
loud “Ouch! Damn, that smarted.” Looking at the finger he is
surprised to see no blood, not even a mark. “Sure still burns tho.”
Jack mutters.

Peeking into the pocket, expecting a scorpion
or spider, he sees a smooth stone. “Now where did you come from?
Umm, you look like the stone I hit my head on.” Carefully removing
the rock, in case it has a jagged edge, he looks it over. There is
a large crudely done symbol of some sort at one end. Running his
fingers over the symbol Jack notices the pain in that finger
immediately stops.

***

Pic here of stone and crude symbol

***

“O yeah, great; now I have another mystery!”
Searching for whatever hurt him he turns the stone over and notices
a very tiny and rather precise, but different symbol located on the
exact opposite side from the large one. Touching that tiny symbol
area Jack drops the rock onto the bed shouting, “Shit fire and save
the matches! That hurts even worse.” A close look at his finger
again shows that there is no blood or a mark. “Felt like a fairly
strong electrical shock, still burns too,” Jack says.

***

Picture here of stones other side with very
tiny symbol

***

Analytical mind now firing on all cylinders,
‘I wonder….’ thinks Jack as he turns the rock back over and touches
the still burning finger to the large symbol. The finger
immediately stops hurting. “Umm, definitely a mystery here.” Jack
is intrigued enough to forgo the scrapping for a bit while he
checks for the symbols on internet. He starts by researching
Japanese and Chinese characters and symbols. No joy; way too many
to find via hit n miss. Besides a simple difference in a stroke
length may produce a different meaning. “Maybe if I put pictures of
them on my blog I will luck out?” he says. ‘O boy,’ he thinks
‘weird enough around here now. Gotta quit talking to myself!’