Telesa - The Covenant Keeper (36 page)

“I know, I know. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“So am I forgiven?”

I shrugged. “I guess so.”

We said goodnight and I went up to bed, grateful to finally be able to peel off the sheathe dress. Unlike other nights, sleep came quickly.

Chapter Nine

I was ignoring all sounds of morning when the raucous car horn woke me.

“What the heck?” I stumbled to the window to see who could be defiling my Saturday sleep in. There was a huge red monster truck in the driveway. And standing beside it with one hand on the car horn was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed demon. Jason.

Behind me, Netta spoke dryly. “The Professor says he’s here to pick you up. I believe you have an appointment with a volcano?”

I groaned. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my day with a man who had witnessed my miserable attempts to be an “alluring temptress” the night before. And who had known what the joke was before I did.

“Tell him that I’m sick, please Netta. I don’t feel good at all. Thank him and tell him maybe another day.”
Or another lifetime
, I thought as I stomped back to my bed in search of sleep. Which still was denied. As Jason honked on the horn again. I hid my head under the pillows and waited for Netta to send him on his way.

Another “ahem.” Netta again. “He said he’s not going anywhere until you get down there. He said you owe him. Big time. He said, and I quote – tell her I will come up to her room and drag her artificial bimbo self out of bed, with or without stiletto heels.” Her tone sharpened, “Leila, you better go down there and talk to him yourself because I’m not climbing these stairs again to pass on any more messages.” She sniffed at me derisively before trudging away back down the stairs.

“Dammit!”

There was no escaping this one. Not while the car honking kept going, one long continuous blare as I hastily dressed. What did one wear to visit a volcano? I rifled through my wardrobe, settling on long denim jeans to protect my legs and a cotton tee. I had a harder time finding my sneakers. It had been so long since I had needed to wear closed-in shoes, they felt awkward to pull on. I washed up but didn’t bother with much else, twisting my thick hair into a ragged bunch. Downstairs, I raided the refrigerator for a water bottle and two of Netta’s muffins. She looked at me sourly as I waved goodbye. Nafanua was reading the newspaper in the living room.

“I’m going out. With Jason.”

She shrugged indifferently but there was a smirk on her face. Which had me fuming. And less willing to be amiable.

On the veranda I stood still to yell at the horn honker, “Do you mind shutting that thing off now! What the heck is wrong with you? People are trying to sleep round here!”

Jason paused mid-honk to smile. Wavy hair ruffling in the breeze, a shade unshaven and rumpled in khaki shorts and a red tee. “Why, good morning, Leila Folger! Aren’t you just bedazzling this fine morning.”

I poked my tongue at him and stomped down the stairs. “Oh just shut up. An old man like you shouldn’t be up this early. I mean, wow, at your age, I’m surprised you’re even still allowed to drive.” I pulled up in front of him, my arms folded in front of my chest, my stare accusing. “Dr Jason
Williams
, I believe?”

He had the grace to look abashed, pulling his white cap back and rifling through his hair. “Nafanua busted me ay?”

“Yes. Yes she did. And I have to say, that I’m surprised you have the nerve to still show up here on my doorstep. What do you have to say for yourself?”

He gaped. “Excuse me? Aren’t you the one who should be grovelling in supplication? You’re the one who was out to deceive me and mislead me with your alluring bimbo slinkiness! Don’t you feel bad? What if I had believed your act last night huh? What if I had fallen deeply and desperately in love with you? You would have had the blood of my lovesickness on your hands Leila Folger.”

I hid a grin. This man was interesting. Funny. Likeable. Like Maleko and someone else all rolled into one. Someone like … my dad. The realization hit me. That was it. The teasing jibes and the light banter – that was totally like me and my dad on a regular day. He was looking at me with his head tilted to one side, gauging my reaction. I grumpily pushed past him to the other side of the truck. “Oh just shut up. And stop calling me by my full name for goodness sake. It’s just Leila. You make me sound like my grandmother.”

I climbed in the passenger seat and slammed the door with so much force that the side mirror rattled. He didn’t react to the manhandling of his truck, merely got in and started up the engine. But there was a dancing grin on his face.

“Oh, I’m just trying to make sure you remember that I’m a full-blown genuine
bona fide
mantle geochemist … DOCTOR Jason Williams. In case you mistake me again for a lowly pitiful assistant who’s only good at wiping the volcanic dust off people’s boots.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes heavenward. I could see this was going to be a very long day.

* * * *

It
was
a long day. But it was anything but boring. Jason took me first to a grassy airfield at Fagalii. Where there was a helicopter waiting. My very first chopper ride was a stomach-heaving event. Thankfully, the magnificent view of the island distracted me enough from the antics of the pilot, who seemed to think he was a gunner pilot in World War II. We flew low over Apia, splayed out like a collection of child’s toys, then over the blue ocean cloth towards the big island, Savaii. Jason had to shout over the chopping blades as he pointed downwards.

“We’re based back in Apia but we spend most of our time onsite. We’ve got a camp up ahead on Mt Matavanu, the site of Samoa’s last volcanic eruption. See there!”

One could clearly see the spread of black that stretched for miles down to the ocean. It was awe inspiring. It wasn’t difficult to imagine the surging, rolling flood of red lava consuming the land as it spilled over the top of Matavanu. I shivered, remembering my quick Google of local eruptions. What a terrifying experience it must have been for the villagers, fleeing before the wave of fire that would not stop. The volcano itself was misleadingly dull looking. I tensed as the chopper descended to a flat space beside a collection of brown canvas tents that billowed in the upwind. As the blades whirred to a halt, Jason helped me out. He mock bowed. “Your highness, welcome to Matavanu, this lowly assistant grovels before you. Our tent is yours.”

I studiously ignored him, far too enthralled to react to his teasing. We were a short distance from the peak. It loomed before us, a craggy black chute like a vast chimney. I knelt and touched the black earth. It was solid lava rock, broken here and there by tufts of green as grass struggled to find space in the blackness. My breath was a hushed indrawn breath. I felt her. I heard her. She was real. A rush of sweet heat burned through me like none I had yet felt. It was like sinking into a pool of hot chocolate and then being slowly drizzled with black cherry sauce. Warm, sinuous, fragrant with delicious sweet promise. I closed my eyes in contentment and wanted to melt with happiness. There was no denying it. Somewhere deep beneath my feet on this decades-sleeping giant, someone or something was happy to find me. To feel me. To know that I was here. Call her Pele. Matavanu, whatever – something or someone lived. She called to me. Through layers of rock and sediment. Through subterranean water and metal, from where rivers of red fire slept. I could have knelt there all day.

But from a faraway distance I heard the puzzled worry in Jason’s voice. “Leila, hey? Are you okay? Leila?”

I shook myself out of my trance, pulling myself unwillingly away from the heat that was calling to me. Opening my eyes, I had to shade them against the sun. Jason was kneeling beside me, a hand on my shoulders where he had been shaking me. He looked anxious. I rushed to calm him with a smile.

“Hey, yeah I’m fine. Sorry about that. Was just a bit dizzy from the flight up here. And cos I didn’t get enough sleep last night. Was supposed to sleep in this morning you know, until a know-it-all Professor interrupted my beauty sleep.”

His face creased into a relieved smile. We both stood. “Whew, you had me worried there for a moment. First time I bring a guest up here to the site and she gets all spacey on me.”

I waved a hand at him. “Oh, it must be the ditzy bimbo in me. You should be able to relate to that.”

We were back to the casual banter. It was light, fun, and so easy. I looked around. “Where is everybody? Where's the rest of the team?”

“They’re further up taking readings. Soil, temperature, water – all that stuff. We do it every day so we can track what’s going on. Trying to figure out the patterns so we can decide what Matavanu’s plans are. You know she’s been dormant for almost a hundred years so she shouldn’t really be doing anything at all, but – as your mother probably told you – there is something fishy going on with Matavanu.”

I was intrigued. Just as Nafanua had been. I strove to keep my tone light and casual. “Oh? Like what?”

Before Jason could answer, there was an excited shout from further up the mountain. We both looked up at the same time. It was the three men from the previous night. Scrambling and half slipping down the loose dirt slope. With them were another two. Both about Jason’s age, both with brown lanky hair and the same surfer physiques. One wore glasses. Catching sight of Jason, the group increased their speed and I braced myself, doubtful they could make it down without slipping and smashing into us. All five of them looked very excited about something. I glanced worriedly at Jason – maybe my coming here was breaking a science camp rule or something and they were rushing down here to yell at us? But Jason looked as puzzled as I felt.

“What’s going on?”

The young guy with glasses was the first to reach us and the first to catch his breath. He pushed his glasses further up on his nose before launching into an explanation, words tumbling over each other like bubbles in a soda fountain.

“Jason, you have got to check out these figures! It’s crazy, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The grey-haired tired-looking man interrupted, his hands fluttering and gesturing wildly. No longer did he look worn and wasted. Now he was jittery and jumpy. “The data Jason, the data. It’s incredible. We should all be burning up in a lava river right now according to the data – nothing makes sense!”

Jason held up both his hands for calm. “What are you talking about? Slow it down, slow it down. Marcus” he motioned to the paunchy man, “Marcus, what the heck is going on? What’s got Blaine all excited?”

Privately, I thought he had made a poor choice for spokesperson. Marcus looked like he was battling a heart attack he was so out of breath from his frantic run down the mountain behind the others. But Jason waited for him to suck enough oxygen from the humid air.

“Jason, it’s true. We were finishing up the usual tests, about to pack it up and come back down when out of nowhere, all the machines just spiked. The readings were so high, they set off the alarms, near gave us all a stroke I can tell you!”

Jason lost all the boyish teasing and his whole stance changed. His brow furrowed, his eyes darkened and his shoulders tensed. In that moment, he looked like the lead scientist of a geothermal expedition. “Well what are we doing standing around here? We need to evacuate immediately, and get a warning out to the Disaster Management office, you’re saying Matavanu is going to blow?”

All of the men chimed in, “No, no, that’s just it, Jason. The machines spiked but then they all went back to normal, well, they’re still above normal, but at least not at danger levels.”

Jason shook his head. “So it was a mistake then? There must be something wrong with the equipment?”

The guy with glasses rebuffed that idea. “No, I checked everything. It’s all working fine. And there’s no way every single machine could have malfunctioned at the exact same moment, you know they’re not all linked.”

As one, everyone moved to the main tent that contained a motley collection of chemistry gear, canvas folding chairs, a couple of camp beds, accumulated piles of dirty clothes and beer cans. I wrinkled my nose – apparently even scientists were messy. The men seemed to have forgotten I was even there, which suited me just fine. I found a chair to perch on and continued listening. Apparently, a few minutes before, all their equipment had registered heat and seismic energy levels so high that they could only have been possible had we been in the middle of a full-blown eruption. Only there wasn’t one. And just as quickly as they had spiked, the gear had stilled back to normal. Well, not quite normal. All the readings were now several notches up from what they had been, but still nowhere near eruption levels. I was thankful the men were too involved to notice me, because all of a sudden it hit me. I realized what had made their machines go crazy. The timing was right. It all made sense. They were monitoring geothermal activity in Matavanu. And I had just set foot on Matavanu for the first time. I had spoken to her and she had answered. Even the memory of that spine-tingling meeting had my temperature rising several notches and brought a smile to my face. The earth goddess had chosen me. I don’t know why or how. I still wasn’t sure that I wanted it to. But I could no longer deny it – the earth goddess had chosen me. And deep within me, I was answering.

My visit to the volcano came to a rushed end that day. Jason still wasn’t convinced that Matavanu was trustworthy and, as he shortly informed me, there was no way he wanted an extra person to be responsible for if the volcano did decide to blow. He sent the team back up to the peak to monitor their machinery for the duration of the night, until they could be sure that the spike was not the forerunner of something far more dangerous. He hurried me back on to the helicopter and was rather distracted for the remainder of the trip back home. When the truck pulled up at the house, he turned to me with serious eyes.

“Leila, I would appreciate it if you didn’t mention this morning to anyone. At least not yet. We aren’t sure what’s going on up there and I would hate to panic anyone unnecessarily. Please?”