Tales from Dargo Island: The Complete Trilogy (2 page)

I didn’t sleep
well that night, not so much because of the tornadoes but because of what Dr.
Harris—Shae—said earlier. She’d tried to tell me something important but I
couldn’t figure out what. I would ask when I got the information about the new
job from her.

In the
meantime, I dreamed about the tornado. I was caught in its funnel, though my
feet were still firmly on the ground. Even though I’d been inside a real
tornado earlier that day I didn’t remember the experience at all.

I doubt it was
anything like this, though.

Through the
dark cloud I could see a giant, terrifying face. I couldn’t make it out exactly
but I saw enough to scare the hell out of me. It was long, pale, mean. The
tornado itself was not loud like the real one, and that was how I heard the
voice beyond the funnel.

Take me there,
the face said.

“Where?” I
asked. Even though this was a dream I just had to know the answer.

Dargo, it said.

Dargo? I’d
never heard of it and wasn’t sure if it was even a real place. “I promise!” I
said. If it would get me out of this dream, I would promise anything.

The face became
more pronounced, as if it were getting closer.

“Who are you?”
I asked.

Take me to her,
it said, ignoring my question.

“Take you to
who?”

The face backed
away from the funnel and vanished. The roar of the tornado grew by the second
and then I woke up. My nose was bleeding.

*
 
*
 
*

I was in the
kitchen a few minutes later, making coffee. One thing I pride myself on is not
drinking coffee. I don’t hate the stuff; I just don’t like the taste. For some
reason, I wanted a cup now. I feared falling asleep again. It was six in the
morning. All the broken windows were boarded up, but I could see the early
morning light through the front door’s window.

Someone was
standing just outside the door.

I jumped in
shock once I realized I was looking at someone’s silhouette. I stepped over the
spilled coffee and figured out who my visitor was before I saw them fully.

“Good morning,”
Shae said after I invited her in.

“If you say
so.” My heart was still hammering in my chest.

I escorted her
to the kitchen and offered her coffee. She drank her cup while I cleaned up my
mess.

“How did you
sleep last night?” she asked.

I looked up at
her. “Not well. Why?”

“I didn’t sleep
well either.”

I nodded as I
threw away the soaked paper towel. “What did you dream about?”

She looked off
into the distance again, the way she did yesterday. She must get easily
distracted. “I dreamed about an old flame,” she finally said.

“I wish I had
that same problem.”

“Why do you say
that?” she asked as she looked at me.

I shrugged.
“I’ve never had a flame.”

She cocked an
eyebrow. “Really? Not even one girlfriend?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?
You’re a handsome young man. You should be batting girls away with a stick.”

“Thank you.” I
turned toward the sink to wash out my cup. I could tell I was turning red. “No
such luck, though.”

We stood in
silence for a moment. I couldn’t think of anything more to say and Shae merely
grinned at me.

Finally she
said, “Oh, I asked my friend about the job. Good news: they’re hiring.”

I brightened.
“Great. Should I call someone or go there or something?”

“They don’t
have access to outside lines,” she replied in a way that made me nervous. “I
can tell you how to get there. It doesn’t take long.”

“I hope not. My
truck sucks.”

“You don’t have
to worry about driving all the way there. The community is on an island.”

“Say what!” I blurted
out before I could stop myself. We were nowhere near the coast.

“I knew you
would react that way,” she laughed. “You actually take a really neat rail train
to the island.”

“Where is this
island?”

“Nearby.”

I shook my
head. I hated vague answers. “Okay. I guess I’ll trust you. Does this island
have a name?” I poured another cup of coffee.

She looked up
at the ceiling. “It’s called Dargo.”

I dropped my
cup and it shattered on the floor.

“What the hell
is going on out here?” Christy asked as she walked from her room.

“Sorry. Coffee
slipped from my hand.” I was already cleaning up before I finished my sentence.

Christy
suddenly noticed our guest. “Hey, Shae.”

“Christy. Did
little Jack enjoy the tornadoes yesterday?” She pointed to my roommate’s belly.

“He just
stopped kicking an hour ago.”

We laughed.

“How are things
with Barry?” Shae asked.

“Well, he was
worried after what happened yesterday. We talked on the phone for a while and
we’re going to meet for lunch later. I’m hopeful.”

“That’s great,”
Shae and I said together.

“I know!”
Christy shouted, noticeably happy. “I should probably start getting ready for
stupid work.” She left Shae and me alone again.

I turned to
Shae. “You said the island is called Dargo?”

“Yes. Does that
mean something to you?”

I could tell
she already suspected the answer to that. “I had a dream about it.”

“Really?”

“You’re not
surprised. What is going on?”

“Nothing’s
going on.”

I shook my
head. “I just happened to dream about a place I hadn’t heard of.”

“You did hear
about it; I told you the name of the place yesterday.”

I wanted to
argue against that but took a moment to consider the possibility. I seriously
doubted she’d mentioned the name before today. “In the dream, a face told me to
take him to Dargo.”

“A face?” she
asked, skeptical.

I told her
about the dream, about being inside a tornado. After I finished, Shae no longer
looked skeptical; she looked frightened. “Maybe you shouldn’t go there after
all,” she said, laughing nervously. “It could be a bad omen.”

“You said you
had a bad night, too,” I reminded her, ignoring her last comment. “What did you
dream about?”

“Just that I
was being chased by a bunch of tornadoes and floods and earthquakes.”

“Oh. Yeah, that
does sound bad.” I scratched my chin, thinking. “I guess you did tell me the
name of the island before. That explains a lot. My imagination must’ve taken
over.”

“That sounds
plausible.”

I laughed. “Do
you really think I’ll get the job?”

“I sure hope
so.”

I smiled, but
then I remembered what she’d said before. “Wait, did you say I shouldn’t go
after all?”

She smiled and
waved my question away. “Forget I said that. You’ll do great.”

Around noon,
Shae drove me to a rail station in Dallas but told me she couldn’t go to Dargo
with me—she had an “appointment.” I stepped onto the rail and was repulsed by
how filthy it was. Old newspapers and fast-food bags covered the empty seats.
Would I really have to ride this thing every day for work?

I picked a
relatively clean spot and looked at a large rectangular key chain Shae had
given me on the way here. It was from the island, she said, and looked to be
made of copper. It smelled like a giant penny and was incredibly annoying to
carry around, but she said I should have it with me every time I journeyed to
the island.

There were only
two other passengers, sitting far apart. One was asleep and looked homeless;
the other was an old man dressed in a suit that looked like it was made out of
tiny shards of glass. I tried not to make eye contact.

The rail
started moving a few minutes after I sat down, heading through Dallas. I got
bored watching the city pass by and eventually closed my eyes. I opened them
some time later and gasped at what I saw out the window.

I was
surrounded by water!

I pressed my
hands and face against the window, as if that would help me see everything. I
couldn’t see directly beneath the rail, but I assumed we were still on a track.
What I couldn’t see was what held the track up. I couldn’t imagine columns
rising from the ocean to support us.

I must have
been dreaming. Right?

Despite the
fact I knew I was going to an island before I even got on the rail, I still
wasn’t prepared for this. I looked to one of the other passengers and said,
“Are we really going to an island?”

The man,
dressed in the glass suit, looked at me and smiled. “That’s what they tell me.”

“Why are you
going to Dargo?”

“I live there.
Why are you?”

“I’m getting a
job there.”

“Oh. I guess
you’ll be working for me, then. We only have one job, and that’s security for
the community.”

“Yes, sir.” I
smiled. I felt like I already had the job, for some reason. “How are we
crossing the ocean from Dallas? When did we leave the rail station?”

The man
laughed. “Well, to answer your first question, there are parts of Texas not
many people know about. As for the second question, we left the station five
minutes ago.”

“Five minutes?”

The man laughed
again. “My name is Rockne Stockwell. That sleeping fellow over there is Tack.”

He offered his
hand and I shook it. “I’m Josh Debelko.”

“Pleasure to meet
you, Josh.”

“You too, sir.”

“Please, call
me Rockne.”

“Only if you
call me Dr. Debelko.”

Rockne stared
at me for a moment.

“That was a
joke,” I said quickly. “You don’t know me well enough to know my sense of
humor.”

Rockne suddenly
burst into laughter. It was a pleasant, squeaky laugh. I liked it a lot.

“Well, Dr.
Debelko, I think you’ll like the job. It’s easy. It’s a very...eclectic
community, full of...colorful characters.”

The pauses made
me curious, but I said nothing, only nodded. “I guess I’m lucky there’s an
opening. I don’t have to meet the security company or anything?”

“You just did,
and I think you’re perfect for the job. Though lucky is a strong word.”

I like to think
I’m perceptive, and I didn’t that last statement. “Did something happen to the
other guy?”

Rockne looked
away, taking in the sun through the tinted window. “He vanished,” the kind old
man said.

“Oh.”

Rockne noticed
my key chain in my hand. “Where did you get that?” he asked.

I held it up.
“My friend, Shae, gave it to me today. She’s the one who told me about this
job.”

“Shae Harris? I
know her; sweet lady. Keep that key chain on you at all times while traveling
to and from the island.”

“She told me
the same thing. Is it important or something?”

He looked over
his shoulder again, at the ocean this time. “Yes, Dr. Debelko. It’s very
important. If she felt the need to give it to you.”

“Do you have
one?” I asked.

“No. I don’t
need it. Just...newcomers.”

Despite the
ominous warning, I was excited about this journey. I was traveling over the
ocean in a rail train, in a part of Texas not many people knew about. I felt
like I was in a dream. I didn’t quite know how I felt about having to leave my
truck in a parking lot every day in order to take this rail to work, but I
would worry about that later.

“What do you do
for a living?” I asked Rockne.

“I don’t work.
I simply walk around the city in this wonderful suit.”

“Why?”

He studied me.
“Dargo is nice, but what’s nicer is getting away from that place once in a
while.”

The rail
continued on, and for the first time I realized how quiet it was. It had been
noticeably loud when we left the station, like all machinery, but now it made
no noise whatsoever.

“You can hear
the ocean, though,” Rockne said suddenly.

“Are you a mind
reader?” I asked.

Rockne
shrugged. “This rail was made with very special material. You only hear the
ocean if you want to. If not, you can drown it out. So to speak.”

I wasn’t sure
how that was possible, but I decided to try. I simply focused on Rockne. “How
long does it take to get to the island?” I asked him. I could still hear the
water around us.

“Five minutes.”

“No way.” I
looked out the window again, but saw nothing except ocean and sky. “How long
have we been traveling now?”

“Five minutes.”

“It’s been
longer than that. Hasn’t it?”

“I told you
this rail is special.” He spread his hands and grinned. “Do you still hear the
ocean?”

I listened but
heard nothing. Nothing at all.

*
 
*
 
*

Some time
later, the rail slowed down. I only noticed because the water didn’t pass as
quickly as before. I almost fainted when the ocean suddenly ended in a large
waterfall bigger than Niagara Falls. It stretched on forever on both sides of
the rail. I braced myself, expecting a long, deadly fall.

It never came.

We continued on
our way, seemingly riding on air. I suddenly heard the roar of the waterfall,
as if someone had unmuted a TV.

“You can hear
the waterfall because you’re focused on it!” Rockne shouted behind me.

I turned to him
and he laughed at what I guessed was my astonished expression. I reached a
point where I couldn’t believe any of this was real. It couldn’t be.

I focused on
Rockne again to drown out the roar of the water. The sound slowly faded. I sat
down, never taking my eyes off my travel companion. “Is this real?” I asked
simply.

“Indeed. It’s
all very real.”

The Edge of the
World, as I would later come to call it, was half a mile past us now. The water
fell into a hazy abyss. Moments later, we passed tropical plants. And then we
stopped.

“We have
arrived at Dargo,” Rockne announced.

*
 
*
 
*

I followed
Rockne off the rail onto a platform that looked like it was made of crystal. I
looked back the way we had come and could barely see the Edge from here. I
couldn’t see the track at all.

“It’ll return
when it’s needed,” Rockne said.

“Are you
reading my mind?” I asked, completely numb.

“No. You’re
just incredibly easy to read.” He pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket.
“Your nose is bleeding.”

I didn’t doubt
it; I was terrified. I took the kerchief and wiped my nose. “I can’t believe
any of this is happening,” I said, breathless. My head pounded.

“You’ll come to
believe in time. Shae must have seen something special in you if she sent you
here.”

Rockne raised a
good point: Why had Shae trusted me with this place? “I saved her from a
tornado,” I said in a dull, dreamy voice. I was still getting acclimated to
this new environment. My heart was racing, my nose gushing. I couldn’t feel my
fingers or toes either.

“I think you
should sit down, Dr. Debelko.” Rockne pointed to a bench. It looked
uncomfortable but was anything but. “This is a secret place. Not many people
know about it. You’re one of the special few, Josh. You’re a hero. You belong.”