The Thirteenth (16 page)

“Everything OK? You sound excited.” Val asked.

Delta stood by the counter with the largest bar of Cadbury’s Val had ever seen and a newspaper in the other hand. “Look at the front page, Val.” Delta placed the paper on the counter as they all gathered around.

The headlines read:
Doctor saved in car crash becomes hero himself.
As Val read the article, it became clear that the man she and Delta had saved only a few days ago had the very next day saved a young girl from being hit by a car. Val was pleased; it was a bit like a knock-on effect.

“So what do you think?” asked Delta, obviously a lot more excited by the news than Val.

“Well, it’s great news.” Val shrugged, picking up her paper and pen and then turning to go back to looking for the book.

“Don’t you notice any connection? You have saved a doctor, a nurse, a lifeguard and a Samaritan.” Delta was waving a large piece of chocolate at her as she spoke.

“Wow, that’s true. Look at these people…they all seem to come from some sort of caring profession,” said Jason now getting involved.

“Yeah, all this is happening so you can save people who then help others, it’s like a mission,” said Delta.

“So, I’m on a mission now, am I?” Val smiled. “It’s good news, but it isn’t the answer to my problems, the book is.” Val turned to walk away as Delta grabbed her arm.

“You could be
the disappearing avenger.
“ Delta broke off a large piece of chocolate with her free hand. “Whatever you are, you saved someone who then saved a little girl, so ease up on yourself a little, Val.” Delta shoved the chocolate into her mouth and handed Val a chunk as she let her arm go. Grabbing her bookshop map, she made her way back down her aisle. Jason nodded in agreement and headed back down his aisle. Val watched them disappear then looked back at the paper. Could Delta be right, was she helping people who were then meant to carry on helping others? Well whichever it was, for a fleeting moment it made her feel good inside. Val popped the chocolate Delta had given her into her mouth.

“Ahh…” there was a scream from Delta’s aisle. Val dropped her paper and almost knocked Jason out as they both ran at speed in Delta’s direction.

“Go Delta. Go Delta.” Val came to a halt in front of her friend who was doing corny circular movements with her arms whilst holding the book.

“You found it! Cool,” said Jason.

“Give it to me now!” Val snapped.

Delta stopped in her tracks. “Manners cost nothing, Saunders,” Delta retaliated, stopping her dance and holding out the book for Val.

“Sorry Delta, but this book holds all the answers.” Val held the book in her hands. “Look at the spine? It only has eight symbols on it, the same as my tattoo.” They all looked slightly more in awe of the book now. It was identical to Val’s arm, except for the missing symbol in the centre.

“Well, open it,” Jason said seeming visibly nervous.

“Yes, this is worse than watching the finals of American Idol.” Delta’s eyes were now bulging in Val’s direction.

Val slowly caressed the cover. “I’m scared.” She looked at her friends and smiled. Slowly passing her finger over the lip, she started to lift the cover.

“Should we stand back?” asked Delta.

“Yes, maybe.” Val let the lip drop in agreement with Delta.

“Get on with it before I die of old age.” Jason waved his hands at Val in a pushing gesture. Val flipped the top and as it lay open in her hand no one could speak for a few moments, they just stared at the book, not sure what to expect.

“There is writing and pictures,” Val said stating the obvious nervously.

“Wow Val, it’s a book. What did you expect, Einstein?” Delta retorted in a nervous yet sarcastic tone.

“Well clever, the bad news is it isn’t in English.” Val started turning the pages, annoyed that it was in this strange language and forgetting the fact that only a moment earlier they had all thought that this could be a book from the pits of hell, bringing damnation to all mankind.

“Do you know what it says?” Val handed the book to Jason.

“Why didn’t you offer it to me first, I’ve known you the longest?” Delta walked away from them towards the counter. “I’m hurt. I need more chocolate.” She leaned on the counter and began to devour another half pound of Cadbury’s. Jason looked at the pages, but shook his head almost instantly.

“I don’t have a clue, but I bet Sam could help us.”

Val’s eyes seemed to double in size almost instantly. “Sam. Who’s Sam?”

Jason knew instantly he had messed up and started stuttering and making his way towards Delta.

“Jason, don’t make me lose my temper.” Val was following Jason towards the shop front.

“Please promise you won’t tell my dad what I just said. He will kill me, very slowly,” pleaded Jason.

“Tell your dad what?” asked Delta who had been busy comfort eating.

“Sam is the name of our secret friend, but don’t tell Shane we know, OK Delta?” Val said, Delta nodded. “OK. We can take it to him later, but for now we can look at the pictures.”

Val placed the book on the counter and they started to flick through the pages. Then doorbell rang and to Val and Delta’s dismay, in walked Wendy.

“Hello girls.” Wendy waved a flimsy hand and Delta waved a piece of chocolate back. “Well, who is your new friend?” Wendy made a beeline for Jason who was trying to move behind Delta.

“She scares me, should I be scared?” Jason whispered into Delta’s ear. Delta nodded and Jason stood very still, hoping for the best.

“How can I help you Wendy? Have you read all those books you took yesterday?”

“No, but I can never have enough books.” Wendy smiled at Val, walking around her, eyeing her up and down. Then she stood still, both hands resting on the counter. Val realised that the book was lying open in front of her. She felt tense hoping Wendy wouldn’t notice it.

“Wow, look at this book!” exclaimed Wendy.

‘Well, there goes the not noticing theory,’ Val thought. “Yes it’s mine.” Val hunched her shoulders looking at the others for support.

“I didn’t know you could read Theban,” said Wendy.

“Theban?” responded Val, falling over herself to get to Wendy’s side.

“Yes, Theban, but you must already know that if this is your book?” Wendy turned, surprised to see Val in such close proximity to her.

“Yes I did know, I was just surprised you did,” Val said smiling over Wendy’s shoulder as she picked up the book. Wendy seemed embarrassed that Val was so close.

“I read a lot, sorry for interrupting your get-together.” Wendy turned. “I will go and get the book I forgot yesterday.” Wendy shuffled away and left the three of them closely huddled together around the book.

“OK. I’ll be here if you need me.” Val gave Wendy a small wave. Then she turned towards the others unable to contain her excitement. “Call your Dad, Jason. Tell him to ask Sam if he can help us out with the word
Theban
.”

Jason nodded in agreement.

“Val, can you trust Wendy?” questioned Delta.

“Well, it’s better than no leads at all.” Val closed the book, pulling it behind the counter and putting it in her bag.

It didn’t take Wendy long to locate the book she wanted and she paid and left.

“I need to get back to my dad’s as I have training with some strange girl at lunch time.” Jason smiled as he left.

Val felt that ‘thing’ she had for Jason spring into her heart, and then she covered it with a concrete blanket. Now wasn’t the time for the love thing to be confusing people, although she had to admit as he walked away that she hadn’t noticed until now how very nice he looked today. Maybe he had made an effort for her. She smiled to herself.

“Hello, you may think that what you are thinking right now, Val, is safe in your head, but I must inform you that ‘cow eyes’ combined with drool tend to inform the rest of the world that you are having wicked thoughts about a boy.” Delta patted Val’s shoulder as she walked past her holding Val’s lunch, which she then proceeded to open and devour.

“Thanks Dr Phil,” Val laughed. “Do you think we have a book about this ‘Theban’ thing here?”

“Not sure and sick of looking. Let’s have just one miracle book a day, Alien.”

Val had to agree that the whole thing had become quite exhausting. At least they had the zodiac book. Although it was great that Wendy had been able to pinpoint something about the book, Val didn’t want to explain to the others how odd she found it that Wendy had arrived when she had. Even Wendy’s choice of literature was peculiar. Val was learning to work on the side of caution. She would keep her eye on Wendy from now on and keep her suspicions to herself.

Val made her boxing date with Jason and today they slowly moved through the first four punches. Left and right jabs and head hooks. Val was actually enjoying the boxing more than she had thought she would. It wasn’t just because she got one-to-one time with Jason; it also made her feel more confident about protecting herself.

Shane was interested to see the book and whilst Val trained, Delta and Shane sat over it with puzzled expressions on their faces, pointing at a picture every so often and even laughing at one or two, which bothered Val.

When they had finished, Jason gave Val a small towel to wipe her face and a hearty pat on the back. Val wasn’t sure if this was one of those ‘I’m showing you I like you’ pats or ‘you remind me of my childhood dog’ pats.

“Come and look at this Val,” Shane called her over.

“What?” Val pulled up a chair behind Shane’s, throwing her sweaty towel in Delta’s direction.

“You are so dead.” Delta flicked it away.

Val flashed her gloves at Delta and laughed as Jason passed her a water bottle.

“OK kids, let’s concentrate.” Shane looked at them all with stern, grown-up eyes. “Look at this picture Val. Does anyone seem familiar?”

He showed Val an intricate hand drawing of a group of six adults all standing together and looking happy, as if they were rejoicing at something. As Val’s eyes scanned the faces, she took a sharp inward breath.

“Val?” Shane looked at her.

“That’s her, the woman from my dreams, but why is she in this book?” Val looked visibly shaken.

“Well, maybe your dreams are more like memories,” suggested Shane. “You dream about people you know, so maybe you knew her. I have a friend who is a psychic and she believes that we don’t live once, we come back again and again.” Val looked at Shane.

“So what you are saying is that I know this woman from a past life, one in which I was possibly into some sort of voodoo or magic stuff?” Val asked, clearly not impressed by the idea.

“Well, yes. Let’s not forget, you have the ability to walk through fire, and control air and water with your hands,” said Shane.

Val sighed. She knew he was right but she wasn’t at all sure if she wanted him to be.

“So when will we know anymore about this Theban thing Wendy mentioned?” asked Val.

“Well, my friend is out today working, but as soon as he gets back I’ll speak to him,” said Shane still scanning the pages. Jason shot Val a look to remind her of the promise she made not to mention his little slip up. Val gave him a nod and he seemed more relaxed.

“Is that your friend Sam, the one Jason was talking about?” asked Delta.

“Delta!” Val moved swiftly over to Delta and pinched her arm.

“Ow! Why did you do that? So Shane’s friend is called Sam.” Delta just couldn’t stop herself now. “Sam, Sam, Sam.” Delta jumped up and started to run around the table.

“I’m so sorry, Jason.” Val shrugged.

“It’s OK. I should have told you his name. I don’t know why I didn’t,” said Shane.

“I’m sorry, Dad, it just slipped out.” Jason hung his head.

“Don’t worry son, worse could happen.” Shane smiled as Delta came around for her fourth lap of the table still singing Sam’s name.

“I’m sure at some point you will meet Sam, but he lives in London and doesn’t surface often due to work commitments,” said Shane.

“Well at least he has a name now. So how will you show him the book?” asked Val.

“Well, real people in the modern world, Val have something we like to call a scanner,” replied Shane with a cheeky grin.

“So, another funny man, that’s all I need. I have to go back to work, so I’ll see you guys later.”

“Don’t leave me here. Please take me with you. They might make me fight.” Delta jumped to her feet running in a Delta fashion towards Val.

“Bye girls,” Shane called and Jason waved a hand.

Val opened the bookshop and the first thing that greeted her was the large wooden crate that Mr Gallymore had had delivered the day before. That was a job she needed to do ASAP, before Mr Gallymore turned up.

Delta attempted to help open the box, but it was Val’s brute force that won through in the end. As they lifted the lid, a puff of musty smell came oozing out.

“Oh heavens! Do you think there is something dead in there?” Delta peeped over the top.

“Not unless Mr Gallymore is collecting the classics in the form of dead writers, no.” Val let out a giggle taking the top off to reveal a mixture of large, small, old and out of print books. Delta appeared with a pair of large yellow rubber gloves on her hands.

“If they have germs on them as old as they smell and they have managed to survive, then they could possibly have what you Brits call the plague.” She picked one out of the crate and carried it down an aisle.

“We will be here all night if you do it one at a time.” Val started to pack the book trolley with the new, old books as Delta trotted back for another.

As the day came to a close, Val pulled the last of the books from the trolley and placed them on their designated shelves. All the time she was thinking about the book. It could hold all the answers, but without the key to what it said, she might as well not have found it. Delta had made a sorry attempt at helping, but Val was just glad of the company.

“Time to go,” Delta called from the counter, jangling Val’s keys.

“OK, be there in two,” Val called back. As she looked at the worn book in her hand, she thought about how words, written and spoken, created everything we see, how your life could be shaken by one message or one word, good or bad. Then she placed the book on the shelf and slapped herself lightly on the face. “What’s wrong with you?” Making her way back to the counter she grabbed her bag.