The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival (37 page)

He took a quick shower, then fished his most
comfortable clothes out of his dresser. He had an old
sweatshirt--he had it since he was 18. It was almost held together
by magic at this point and was impossibly soft and almost see
through thin. He put on a pair of linen pants he liked to lounge
around in and wore a pair of old mocs.

“You ready?” he asked her. She nodded and
tugged at her hair. “Sorry if I was a little brusque before. I have
just been on the road a loooong time and was looking forward to an
uneventful afternoon.”

They walked down the driveway. She moved with
an elderly person’s gait. He had to pause every few steps for her
to keep up. They cut across the lawn and through the woods onto a
trail that led behind the neighbors’ houses.

“My family used to ‘own’ all this land. They
used to farm, I think wheat and corn, back in the 20s and 30s. But
when they got out of that, someone sold the property.” He said to
her to break up the silence. She seemed to be listening. He stopped
and pointed at some of the big sandstone slabs that were visible
from the path. “Oh, and we’re standing on top of an ancient
shoreline, or maybe the bed of an ancient river from like over 300
million years ago. Left the sandstone here. Lake Erie is that way,”
he pointed North.

“I’ve never seen it.” she offered.

“The Lake?” he asked.

“Yeah. I haven’t see much. This is my first
trip from home since I was a kid.” she said.

“Ha!” he laughed. “Some trip, huh?”

She was a little hurt. He wasn’t used to
being around vulnerable people. He softened his tone, “Hey, sorry.
I know you’re having a tough time. This must be totally weird for
you. It is for me, too, frankly.”

They walked through the back yard of the
neighbors’ house. There was a play pen out back. A bunch of gold
retriever pups were wrestling with each other and playing with
squeak toys. Robbie waved to an older couple who were sitting out
on their deck. “Hey guys!”

“Robbie!” the man said, “It’s been years
since I’ve seen you. Literally years.” The man had thinning white
hair. He shook Robbie’s hand and embraced him.

“Who’s this?” he asked Amy.

“Roger, this is Amy. She’s a friend of
Matt’s. Don’t ask me for details, because I don’t know.”

“Well, hi there, Amy. Anyway, I guess you
guys are here about the puppies.” Roger’s wife joined them.

The woman said, “They all have greek names!
Pttthh.” she made a raspberry at her husband.

Roger shrugged, “I was a classics prof at
JCU. What’cha going to do with it except name puppies?”

Robbie laughed a deep belly laugh. “I missed
you guys. Come over for dinner some time this week? I’m home for a
while.”

Robbie stepped into the playpen. “Hey
fellas!” the puppies swarmed around him. “Oh Amy, you should get in
here and lay down.”

Roger said, “watch out for their poops.”

She managed a weak smile and got down on the
grass. The puppies swarmed all over her. She started giggling, then
let loose with shrieks and laughter. “Oh this one!” one of the
little guys was particularly insistent and whined at her as she sat
up.

Robbie picked the dog up. “What’s his
name?”

Roger pointed at the dog. “That one’s
Periphetes.”

“The name’s Perry, now!” Robbie said.

As they returned to the farm, Perry padded
along behind them. “Hey, Amy, I’m going to go get him some food and
toys, maybe we can swing up past the Lake?”

She nodded and smiled, but then barfed next
to the trail. Robbie said, “guess we’ll need to bring a
bucket!”

Matt climbed up into the reflector chair and
connected to the other side. It was like being instantly
transported to some unknown shoreline in a remote corner of the
earth. He held up his hand. It looked like a younger version of his
hand. He plucked a blade of the grass and squished it in his
fingers. It left a green stain and he could smell the crushed
vegetation.

A crow cawed in the distance. He reached out
his mind to the bird and looked through its eyes. The crow saw both
the worlds. When he focused, Matt saw the brown muddy ribbon of the
Cuyahoga River and the red brick buildings of the flats.

“Amazing.” he said. He walked along the
shoreline to the settlement.

“Here he is!” Louis said to Samantha. She
sidled up next to Matt and thumped him on the chest. He felt the
slap.

“You are
real
and substantial.” she
said. “I can smell you.” She stuck her nose in his armpit and
inhaled deeply. She swooned a little and held onto him.

“We have a proposal for you.” Louis said
matter of factly. “This machine of yours can bring life to this
place. Create an even exchange between the two worlds. We believe,”
he pointed at Samantha. She nodded and kissed Matt’s neck. It felt
like an arc of electricity down his spine, “that such an
arrangement would radically alter the balance of power…”

“For the good of all…” Samantha added. She
was looking deep into Matt’s eyes and was pressed against him like
she was using his body as a mattress.

Matt was skeptical. “Balance of power? I have
no idea what you are talking about. Who are you two anyway?”

Samantha frowned, “I’ve known your family for
a long time. Don’t you trust us?” she kissed him. He felt her full,
moist lips press against his and adrenaline surged through his
body.

“Sorry, no.” he maintained his composure.
“The history of this place and earth is, well, an unhappy one.”

“That’s just it!” Louis groaned. “Don’t you
understand? It is like a relationship driven by the depravity of
desperation.”

Samantha pressed herself against his groin.
“Instead it could be a happy union of love.”

Matt could smell her, a scent of deep and
dark spices and sweet heavy liquor. He shook his head a little to
refocus. “What do you call this place?” Matt asked.

She said, “Arcadia.” She stroked her fingers
through his hair.

“Are there other places, like this?” he
asked.

Louis sighed, “Yes, yes.” He was exasperated
that Matt wasn’t following him down the path, “Look,” he said to
Samantha, “maybe we are being too hasty. Rushing things.” She
sighed and lightly tapped Matt’s solar plexus with her knuckles
then backed away. Matt felt a cool breeze where she’d been. He
regretted that she wasn’t so close. She smiled slyly at him over
her shoulder.

Louis continued, “but let me offer this,
anyway, what
we
have,” he gestured at Samantha and himself,
“is profound knowledge. What we
want
is to replace the
existing order between the earth and this place, an order that’s
corrupt and parasitic.”

Matt nodded, “that’s what we want, too. But,
it will take some time for us to trust one another.”

Samantha frowned sweetly and tapped his nose.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and said, “But what if time’s
actually limited? We will send an emissary from your world to your
home to discuss further.” She kissed him again. He returned to
normal consciousness with her taste on his lips.

“Wow…” he said. He looked at the reflector
with new eyes. He clambered down the ladder. “Johnny, apparently
there are
other
worlds. We just happened to connect to this
one, called
Arcadia
. There’s a woman over there, Samantha
that’s like distilled sexuality.” He wiped his face with his hand.
The memory of her stuck with him. “Apparently, they’re going to
send one of their people to the farm.”

Johnny’s eyes lit up, “Oh wow, that’s really
great!” he enthused.

Matt looked at him, his skepticism showed on
his face. “How so?”

Johnny smacked Matt’s arm. “It’s a chance to
compare notes. We have no idea how other people do
this
,” he
gestured at the reflector. “I’ve been staring at data from this
thing for weeks now, and I have no idea how it actually works.
There’s no discernable electrical signal that I’ve been able to
detect.”

Matt laughed, “I guess we should head back to
the farm. Of course, Samantha didn’t say
when
this emissary
would show up.”

“No email from the other side? It’s always
like stone tablets, tea leaves, dreams: all that bullshit.” Johnny
chuckled.

Matt slapped his shoulder, “holy shit! You’re
a genius.”

“what? You want to hook up email?”

Matt shook his head, “Well, no. You just gave
me a simple strategy. In three letters: FBC.”

“Face Butt Cunt?” Johnny laughed
uproariously.

Matt laughed too, but his inner eye
remembered Samantha’s body. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “No,
Familiarity Breeds Contempt.” He held up a hand, “Picture this: we
do this on an industrial scale. People go across as regularly as
they use the Internet. We can destroy its power by killing the
mystery.”

Johnny stroked his chin. “We need to build at
least one more of these and put it somewhere else. It might be
particular to this location, or particular to you and Telia. If we
know that, then it’s pretty easy to build as many as we want.”

Telia and Dana walked into the house with
large shopping bags hanging from their arms. Dana set the bags down
and sang “taa-daaaaa” and pointed at Telia. Her hair had been
colored a shiny dark black, and it had been styled into voluminous
relaxed ringlets. She wore a charcoal black leather jerkin that was
trimmed in the blackest velvet. The top of the jerkin was open and
she wore a thin, black cashmere turtleneck. She wore a silver chain
around her neck. She wore charcoal pants and knee high leather
boots.

Matt, Johnny, Robbie, and Amy just stared at
her as if hypnotized. She exuded confidence and energy. “Hi
Robbie!” she said. He snapped out of his amazement and got up to
hug her. She held him close. “It’s so good to see you--you’ve been
out there for such a long time!”

Matt said, “Wow! I like this look.” he kissed
her.

“I’m glad you like it. I’m going to go change
back into something more comfortable--this is for the parents’
meeting at Tweedy.”

Robbie laughed, “thanks for sharing with the
peasants! And the dog, too.”

She tapped Robbie’s nose, “Oh you’re the
royalty Robbie.” She scratched Perry behind the ears.

Matt said, “speaking of royalty, Samantha is
sending an emissary from god knows where.”

Telia arched an eyebrow, “Really… You mean a
real live person?”

He nodded, “I guess so--although who knows,
maybe it will be a talking crow.”

She added, “Well, that should be interesting.
Sort of like making a telephone call through an invisible
operator.”

The next day passed at a leisurely pace.
Robbie spent hours bringing them up to date about his time on the
road, and Matt and Telia told their incredible stories of the other
side. Matt and Telia felt confined to the farm during the day as
they weren’t really sure when Samantha’s emissary would show
up.

Matt stood up, “I guess we need to start
getting ready to go to Tweedy.” he announced. Just then a raven
landed on the window ledge and rapped with its beak.

Robbie guffawed, “Are you fucking kidding
me?” He pointed, “Check his leg.”

Matt opened the window and the bird walked
onto his hand and eyed him. A message was tied around his leg with
a ribbon.

Dana snapped a picture with her phone. She
texted David the picture. OMG!!! SEND.

Matt untied the message and handed it to
Telia. The bird kept looking at him.

Dana smiled, “I think he wants a tip!” she
ran into the kitchen and got some bread and tossed it out the
window. The bird deftly hopped from Matt’s hand and winged to the
ground.

Johnny laughed, “alright, have we seen it
all, now? I mean, right?”

Telia read the note. “There Friday.
-
OWK
”

Matt said, “I guess those are initials. I
assume it means tomorrow.”

Telia shrugged, “Oh well, let’s get ready to
go to Tweedy. Hey Dana, want to help me get dressed?”

“Sure.” she hopped up from her chair, and
Telia put her arm around Dana’s shoulder. They walked up the
stairs.

The parking lot at Tweedy Pines told the
entire story of the socio-economic structure of the students that
attended the academy and the staff that helped with the Parents’
Night festivities. A handful of weathered, older Japanese cars were
tucked away in the remote corner of the lot. The rest of the cars
were curvy Bentleys, boxy Range Rovers, and sports cars, like
Porsches and a fleet of Maserati Quattroportes. A handful of
vintage collectors cars dusted the lot.

Previously, Telia felt out of place, and
slightly intimidated by the other parents at Tweedy. Matt easily
fit in with a clique of professorial types, while a subtle pecking
order she hadn’t understood sorted her into a group of second
wives. But tonight, she seemingly blazed with an internal fire that
drew the attention of people in the room.