|
For the Adherent of Pop Culture |
|
Land of the Lost links: |
LONG TREK UP A SMALL
MOUNTAIN
By
|
Rick Marshall consulted his
watch. Then he glanced down at the
crudely lettered map drawn on a dinosaur hide that he held in his left
hand. "Well, son, by my
calculations, we've walked about three kilometers from High Bluff."
"That's about…the same
distance as the Mist Marsh is, the opposite way." Will formed a mental map of the area he
and his father had traversed. He
wiped his forehead on the back of his shirt sleeve. "Is it my imagination, or is it hotter over here?"
Bare sandstone gleamed red and
ochre in the late morning sunlight.
Cavernous mountains rose in jagged peaks along the range that
contained their cave, High Bluff. A
deep crevasse, plunging many miles down to a dimly glittering stream, flanked
them to the left. The heavy
coriander scent of dinosaur nip–a dark, leathery fern much enjoyed by the
local dinosaur population in the Land of the Lost–rose thick in the heating
air.
"You probably feel hot
because we've been walking with these heavy packs," Rick replied. Will and Rick had left Holly, Will's
sister, back in High Bluff along with their pakuni friend, Chaka, while Rick
and Will explored and mapped the strange land. They had been thrust into this
adventure on a warm summer's day when, rafting along the Colorado River on
one of their father's routine expeditions as a forest ranger, a tremendous
earthquake opened a time doorway to this land of ferocious beasts, hostile
beings, and unknown origin.
"Hey Dad, are you sure
Holly's going to be all right?" Will asked his father. In truth he'd been thinking about her all
morning and worrying about her quite a bit.
He liked to tease her, but hey, that's what older brothers are
for. He wondered at his father's
decision to leave Holly back at High Bluff while the men went exploring and
camped out overnight. It was an
incredibly dangerous camping trip, for they did not know what they would
find, nor did they know if the hostile beings in the land -- the dinosaurs,
the Sleestak, or some unknown -- would find them camped out in the jungle.
"Oh, your sister will be
fine," Rick said easily.
"She's growing up, Will.
She's got to learn to stand on her own. What if something ever happened to me, or to you? We have to think of these things here in
the Land of the Lost."
"Yeah, I guess you're right,
Dad," Will said. "But Holly
is…" he searched for the right word.
"A girl?" Rick
smiled. "Yes, she is, son, but
that just makes her different, not any less than you. She's grown up quite a bit since coming to
the Land of the Lost." "But she's still annoying." "I'm sure that you annoy her too. Remember how she was before we came to the
Land of the Lost?"
"Afraid of everything,"
Will said. "Heights, spiders,
snakes…" He remembered vividly
catching spiders and leaving them in selected places, like the seat of her
bicycle.
Rick must have remembered that
incident too, for he frowned at his eldest child. "I remember grounding you for certain insect related
incidents…"
Will had to laugh. "Insect related incidents?"
Rick laughed too. "Okay, son. I do understand wanting to put spiders onto your sister's bike,
or leaving a snake in her doll carriage…I remember doing things like that to
Aunt Ruthie. Uncle Jack, Uncle Tom and I used to be quite the
gang…I was the oldest, so I was supposed to know better, but I never stopped
them…Jack and Tom were unstoppable, in fact. Especially Jack. He
was always the wildest of the four of us."
"Do you miss them?"
"Miss them?" Rick
thought for a moment. "I suppose
I do. I miss Ruthie, and Jack now.
Tom, well…he's been gone, son, since the war. I think of him often. He was killed in battle, you know, in
Korea….and Jack and I were there too, though Jack was a medic, and I was in
the army corps of engineers, building airstrips and the like…but Tom, he was
right there, on the front. Luck of
the draw when they drafted us. We
could all have been killed."
"Do you think…do you think
they're looking for us?" Will asked.
They continued to trudge on, trying to walk the land and map it as
they went.
"I don't know." Rick had in fact been thinking the same
thing. He wondered what was going
through his family's minds right now.
His brother, his sister, his late wife's family…surely, someone had realized
they were gone by now. His neighbor
was taking care of the kids' horses, Comanche and Wildfire. Surely when the Marshalls did not return
as scheduled from their expedition, someone would raise the alarm. But what would they find? He thought of his Park Service
colleagues. Would they discover
their raft, smashed? Their
bodies? He remembered the time
doorway portal in Enik's cave, and the view of the Marshalls as they tumbled
over the waterfall. Enik had said
that it was possible that the other Marshalls, an alternative version of
themselves, had been killed on the rocks as they fell. A paradox, Enik had intoned in his
sonorous voice. But what if that
were the case? He shuddered to think
about it. In fact, they could be
stuck in the Land of the Lost with no one looking for them…and even if they
raised the cry that the Marshalls were missing, who would know they had
fallen through a time doorway? The
Park Service would take weeks, months to comb the thousands of acres along
the river, looking for an injured family, traces of a natural disaster. Nobody would think of a time doorway,
that's for sure.
They walked along the path for
another fifteen minutes in silence, the heat radiating off of the sandstone
rock cliffs and baking them as effectively as a kiln. Rick felt his shirt soaked with sweat
where the backpack pressed again the serviceable material. He shrugged his pack several times to
ease the weight but to no avail.
"These rocks…" Will
said, glancing up at the cliffs.
"They look like out west.
Utah or Arizona or something."
"I think they're the same
type," Rick replied.
"Sandstone, and some other materials. Soft enough so that winds and rains scour them into these
unusual shapes."
"It's like you can see shapes
in the tops," Will said.
"Like making shapes out of clouds. See, that one looks like a horse….and that one could be a king
with a crown…and that one could be a Sleestak…and that could be a
pylon."
Rick stopped suddenly. "Where do you see a Sleestak and a
pylon?"
"That's because it is a pylon!" Rick cried.
They stopped. Ahead of them was a small mountain that
rose halfway up to its neighbors. The
top was shadowed by the neighboring mountains, but shafts of sunlight lit the
tip, and a subtle golden glow glittered with hidden powers. The vague outline of a pylon could be
seen. Rock formations jutted out from
the surrounding hillside near the small mountain's crest, and Rick could now
see what Will's sharp young eyes had discerned. The rocks were carved to resemble two Sleestak, both about
double the size of an actual Sleestak, standing guard, one to the right and one
to the left of the pylon.
Rick dropped his pack to the sand
and opened it, searching for the map.
He squatted next to a rock and smoothed the map over the top. Will had already taken several steps towards
the base of the cliff. "Dad! I
think there are steps here…big steps, Sleestak or Altrusian sized steps,
going up the cliff."
Will reluctantly turned back to
his father and knelt beside him.
Using the charcoal that Rick had sharpened into a makeshift pencil,
they opened the map and marked it carefully, indicating this new pylon.
"What do we call it?"
Will asked.
Rick held the charcoal over the
map. For a moment, he felt strange,
an odd buzzing sound filling his ears.
Dreamily, he moved the charcoal over
the map. His hand traced out a
word. Then the dreamy sensation
left. He had written something over
the map.
"The Temple of
Learning?" Will looked up at his father. "Well yeah, but isn't that kind of far fetched….Dad, are
you okay?"
Rick was still feeling strangely
disconnected from reality. He shook
his head sharply, allowing the sights and sounds of the world around them to
fill his senses. He took a deep
breath, then released it. "Yes,
son, I'm fine…I…for a moment there, it was strange. It was like someone else
was guiding my hand over the map. I
didn't think of that name."
"You didn't?"
"No, son, I didn't."
"Then who did?"
"I don't know." Rick rose to his feet and rolled the map
back into a tube. He tucked it into
the side pocket of his pack.
"But I think we should investigate that pylon. But carefully, son." He looked
meaningfully at Will.
"Yeah, I know…don't touch
anything…look around before you fool around…everything could be dangerous…don't
assume anything…" Will recited the litany of his father's pet phrases by
rote.
Rick looked at him through
narrowed eyes, trying to determine if Will was being sarcastic. But Will had the most innocent look in
his bright blue eyes. Rick decided
to ignore any implied sarcasm. He
pointed towards the rocks.
"Those do look like steps, but they were carved for someone much
larger than us."
"Sleestak?"
"Perhaps. Enik's people were shorter than the
Sleestaks."
"The Builders?"
"Perhaps." Rick walked towards the base of the
mountain. Again, the odd, dreamy
sensation filled him. Will watched as
his father slowed down, walking so slowly he was shuffling.
"Dad? Dad!"
Rick shook his head. He looked around. He was about halfway to the base of the
rocks. Will was still by the rock
where they had spread out the map.
"Yes, son?"
"Dad, what's the matter? You
looked like you were walking through water or something. Slow motion, like in the movies."
"That feeling came over me
again…like when I wrote on the map," Rick said slowly. "Will, there is something strange
here. Look at your arms." Rick
held out his right arm and pointed to it.
The tiny hairs on it were standing straight up. He felt prickling at the base of his neck,
and he could see Will's hair, already tightly curled from the humidity, kink
and curl even more. His own hair felt
the same.
"It's like being out in a
lightning storm," Will said.
"Electricity, or some type of
power," Rick confirmed.
"Come on. Let's store our
packs behind those boulders. Take
your knife, your canteen and some crystals.
I have my knife. Let's move
slowly."
"Okay." Will did as his
father instructed. Rick tossed his
pack over to Will. Will stashed their packs behind the boulders and came quickly
to his father's side.
"Do you hear it?" Rick
asked his son.
"Hear what..?" Will strained to listen. "I don't hear anything at all."
"I know," Rick
replied. "That's what I
mean."
They halted at the base of the
cliff by the gigantic stone stairs.
It was as if they had walked into a completely sound proof room. One minute they could hear the wind, the
rustle of dinosaur nip in the wind, the creaking of trees on the other side
of the crevasse, and the far-off bellows and hoots of dinosaurs in the valley
jungle. Then, stepping through the
sand to walk towards the base of the cliffs, the sounds were abruptly cut
off. The only sound was the sound of
the beating of their hearts as the blood coursed through their veins.
"Dad?" Will waited for
his father's instructions or explanation of the phenomena.
Rick had none. "Come on Will," he said
softly. "Let's go on up the
cliff and investigate that pylon. But
be careful. I have the feeling…"
"That someone is watching
us?" Will looked up at the stones resembling Sleestaks. He swallowed. "So do I."
Rick went first, keeping the pace
slow as they climbed the small mountain.
It was difficult climbing.
Every once in a while, they paused, listening. The eerie stillness remained. Not a breath of wind stirred on the
hillside, although they could see trees swaying and the ferns moving below
them. From up on the cliff, they had
a stunning view of the crevasse, and Rick again wondered how deep it really
was. He could see a tiny river like a
glittering blue thread running through it, deep and far below. They had tried once to raft out of the
Land on another river, finding only that the river came up once again
underneath the tunnels of their enemy, the Sleestak. There was no escape on the river.
"Dad? Are you ready to move
on?" Rick shook his head. "Yes, son, I'll be right there. Don't get too far ahead of me."
"But you said that you needed
to rest," Will replied, "and you've been leaning on that rock for
fifteen minutes."
Rick looked up. Will stood above him. It was funny how the shadows made his
shirt look emerald green…
"Dad?" It was Will's voice, this time coming from
behind him. "Dad?"
"Of course it's me,"
Will said, equally puzzled. "Why
wouldn't it be?"
"Because I just saw you, on
the rocks ahead," Rick replied.
He pointed up the trail to where he had seen the image of his
son. "But it wasn't really
you. Will had on a green shirt…"
"Dad, I've been standing down
here waiting to see if we should move forward since you stopped," Will
replied. "I saw you stop and
rest. I didn't seen anyone else."
"It must have been my
imagination," Rick replied.
"Let's go on."
He began climbing again. The rocks grew steeper. In some sections, he had to scale what had
been one step to the builders in three human sized steps, using chunks
missing from the rocks for footholds.
His palms were scraped raw from the rocks, and the knees of Will's
jeans were white with sandstone dust.
They rested about halfway up and passed the water canteen between them.
"It doesn't look like we've
gone anywhere," Will complained.
Rick looked down the
mountain. He expected to see that
they were about halfway up to the peak.
Instead, he was looking down perhaps twenty feet to the sandy valley
floor. Waves of heat shimmered up in
columns from the sand. Sweat dripped
down their faces. Even without the
packs, it was slow going, and very hot.
He sat with his back against the sandstone wall in a bit of shade
created by the mountain. A slow,
easy kind of peace suffused his limbs.
He closed his eyes.
"Dad!" Will shook his
shoulder. "Dad, wake up!"
Rick shook his head groggily. "Oh, I'm sorry, son," he
said. "I must have dozed off for
a few moments."
"Not for a few moments, but
for hours!" Will said. He
pointed at the sky. The sun had moved
far to the west and was slowly sinking.
"We must have both fallen asleep."
"There is something strange
about this mountain," Rick declared.
"Ever since we've gotten nearby, time has seemed to slow
down. I saw an image of you that wasn't real. Someone -- or something -- in the Land of the Lost does not
want us investigating this mountain."
"And that must mean only one
thing," Will said.
"What, son?"
"That we HAVE to," Will
replied with assurance. "Because
you know that if the land doesn't want us to investigate, it's probably
something important…"
Will stood and brushed the sand
and dirt off of his jeans. "Dad,
come on. We've got to get to the
top. Besides," he grinned and
held out a hand to help his father rise.
"We'll have a spectacular view from the top, and that will really
help us with this map."
Rick smiled and took Will's
hand. He hauled himself to his feet
and brushed off his serviceable twill pants.
Will was becoming a surprisingly strong adult. Well, maybe it wasn't surprising after
all. Will had had to face some pretty
tough circumstances, Rick reflected as they began climbing the rock steps
again. First, when Elizabeth died,
Will was only eight years old. He'd
had to deal with the loss of his mother pretty early on. Then having his whole life turned upside
down by being dumped through a time doorway into this hostile land and having
to grow up pretty quickly at the age of seventeen…Rick remembered his own
sheltered childhood on 4th Street in Indiana, his teenage years at
Filmore High. Aside from the usual
pranks and mischief he'd engaged in with his brothers Jack and Tom, and
sometimes even with his sister, Ruth, it had been a mundane, middle America
idyllic childhood. Until Korea, of course, but everyone his age had to deal
with that–and the generation before his had dealt with Flanders Field and the
Pacific Theater of World War II.
Nothing at all like what Will and Holly had faced, but perhaps similar
in that it transcended the normal growing-up process and forced men and women
to become stronger than who they thought they were. His two children had grown in spiritual grace and
understanding, overcoming not just this hostile environment but their own
emotional and psychological limitations to rise to new challenges. He was pretty damn proud of his kids.
He halted and grabbed the back of
Will's shirt to make him stop.
"What?" Will asked.
Rick said, "Sshh. Listen.
Do you hear that?"
The silence pressed against
them. Then they both heard it. "That was a car horn," Will
said. The car horn bleated again. Then came the wail and siren of a police
car.
"There must be a time doorway
open," Rick said tersely.
"Come on, Will. We've got
to get to the top of this mountain."
They redoubled their climbing
efforts. The higher they climbed,
the steeper and rockier the path became.
Now small pebbles and rocks were dislodged with every step, and
sometimes the boulders shifted precariously as their weight touched the
step. Rick kept his head down and
watched where he placed his feet. A
wrong step could unleash an avalanche and possibly bury the path that could
take them safely back down to the foot of the mountain.
After about fifteen minutes of
climbing at the redoubled pace, Rick had to stop and catch his breath. "Will, wait a minute
please." Will kept climbing. Rick looked up. Will was on a small rocky outcropping. He was walking straight towards the
edge. The drop down was incredibly
steep, since they were about two thirds up the small mountain.
"WILL!" Rick
shouted. He scrambled up the last
few steps to the ledge and with a swiftness which surprised even himself, he
lunged forward, caught the back of Will's shirt, and hauled his son off the
edge of the cliff.
Will fell backwards and hit the
rough stone wall of the mountain.
"Ow! Dad, why did you do
that?"
"What do you mean, why did I
do that?" Rick demanded.
"Son, you were about to walk off the edge of a cliff."
"No I wasn't," Will
said. His eyes were slightly
unfocused and his voice, dreamy.
"I saw a better path, an easier path off to the side that would
take us directly to the top.
I…" Suddenly his eyes
snapped back into focus. He turned
and looked towards the path he had been traveling. He blanched. "Oh
no. I was walking off the cliff. I swear, Dad, it didn't look like a
cliff…I saw a path, smoother than the one we're walking on now, and it seemed
like the best way…"
Rick felt a tingle of anger, and
fear, and he let go of Will's shirt.
"It's okay, son," he said.
"There's something on this mountain that is making us hallucinate. I had that same dreamy feeling at the base
of the mountain. Then I saw you when
you weren't there. And I bet that car
horn was a hallucination, too. In
fact, just seconds before it happened, I was thinking about my
childhood…about how it was so different from yours. I was thinking about 4th Street in Indianapolis,
where I grew up. And I
remember…" Suddenly Rick snapped his fingers and his face lit up. "Yes! That was it! I was
thinking of how different my childhood was from yours. I remembered how, during my youth, there
were still wagons for the milkman and the coal man even though most people
had cars, and I remembered how strange it seemed when the horse drawn wagons
left after World War II and there were these big trucks. That was the horn that we heard. I remember the first time I heard that
horn. It was the milkman's
truck. The milkman liked to bleat it
loudly at us kids when we walked to school, to make the girls jump. We weren't used to it, you see. And the police siren…I was thinking of
your mother…" Rick's voice trailed off. He was remembering the accident that had claimed Elizabeth's
life.
"Dad, something on this
mountain is taking our thoughts, and making them into illusions," Will
said. "Like the time the
Sleestaks made us see Mother."
"And that something may also
kill us if we're not careful," Rick said. "My thoughts tends to wander while we're hiking. I think of all sorts of strange
things…"
"So do mine," Will
replied. "Like when we were
climbing these rocks. The going was
getting tougher. I kept thinking,
'Gee, I wonder when the path will level off?' And then it did, so I followed
it…"
"Whatever this pylon is at
the top of the mountain, it must be pretty special to want us to keep
away," Rick said.
"That is, if it is doing it
intentionally," Will replied.
"I mean, maybe we think it's hostile, but maybe it's just being
it, you know?"
Once again, Rick was struck by how
much his children had grown during their Land of the Lost experience. "You know son, you could be
right," Rick replied, nodding his head in agreement. "After all, we are the intruders
here. The crystals, for example, are
merely tools, yet by touching the wrong ones I got shocked and nearly
died. We could interpret that as the
crystals being hostile, or we could simply say that I was the intruder, not
using them properly…"
"We should continue,"
Will said. He pointed towards the
west, where the sun had dipped lower towards the horizon. "We've got maybe three, three and a
half hours of daylight left."
Rick agreed. "But we should
climb together," he said.
"Don't go off ahead. And
let's talk with one another so that we keep checking to make sure the other
hasn't gone off into dream land."
"Good idea, Dad," Will
said.
Carefully, they walked off of the
ledge and back to the path. Rick
looked up. The golden pylon was now
more clearly visible, and the rocks
that Will thought were fancifully carved by the wind into Sleestak shapes
were definitely statues, large stone statues more in keeping with the
appearance of an Altrusian than of a Sleestak. Rick pointed.
"What do you see?" he asked Will.
"I see the pylon. It's
closer." Will raised a hand to
his eyes to shade them even further.
"And I see two of those rock outcroppings…oh boy, they are
statues, aren't they! And they look
like Enik, so they must be of Altrusian origin, rather than Sleestak."
"Good thinking son. What do you estimate our climbing time to
be?"
"Maybe another fifteen,
twenty minutes, if we don't get sidetracked with those illusions again…"
"I think so too," Rick
replied. "Let's stay very close,
and keep talking. Let's talk about
something that we know would be ridiculous to appear in the Land of the
Lost."
"Baseball," Will said
instantly. "If I hear the crack
of a bat and the roar of the crowd at Wrigley Field, I'll know I'm
hallucinating."
So they talked baseball. Will recited all of Willie May's
stats. Rick recited the 1973 starting
lineup of the Red Sox, the Marshall family's favorite team. Will began reciting the rules of the game,
starting with scoring practices. They
kept their minds focused on the sport and continue climbing, slower and
steadier.
"We're almost to the
top," Will panted. They could
see clearly the golden shimmer of the pylon and the large status with the protruding,
orb-like eyes. Now that they were
closer, they could see that the statues had once been painted in bright,
jewel like colors, but sand and wind had sanded the colors off, leaving only
a faint, tantalizing glimpse of what was.
Will could see the tannish-green of Altrusian skin on the left statue
and the faint shimmer of ochre paint on the tunic on the right statues. The statue on the left was a bit damaged,
with the point on the skull sheared off, giving the head an almost human
appearance.
Suddenly they both heard a man
shout, "Play ball!"
Rick and Will burst out laughing
as the illusion chimed in right on cue.
They ignored it and continued to climb side by side until they reached
the top. The last few feet were difficult for the eroded steps were smooth
and slick. Will hauled himself up to
the top, then dropped to his knees and leaned over the edge, giving his
father the support he needed so he could clamor over the edge.
"Oh wow," was all Will
could murmur as the two sat, side by side, and gazed upon the scene.
A ruined courtyard encircle the
whole top of the small mountain.
Broken columns lay in shattered ruins and heaps at the far side of the
mountain. A deep, trapezoid-shaped
indentation in front of the pylon was rimmed with dark green crystals that
still sparkled with hidden depths.
Stagnant water pooled inside the trapezoid, indicating that it had
once been a beautiful reflecting pool.
The guardian statues flanked
the top of the path, once the entrance to the grove. At their feet, one either side, was a
pylon-shaped slab of obsidian, carved with symbols resembling letters. A few twisted and stunted trees grew next
to the columns. Orchids bloomed among
the fallen pillars, providing a ghostly glimpse at what once must have been a
splendid garden.
"Dad…what is it?"
Rick slowly stood, and Will rose
to his feet. He surveyed the
area. The statues, the gardens, the
reflecting pool and the broken pillars…not even an insect chirped in the stillness. He walked over to the guardian statue on
the right, bent down, and traced the letters with his fingers.
"I don't know, son…"
Rick said. "But whatever it was,
this place was obviously very special to Enik's people. And beautiful." He admired the carving and the fine
workmanship on the statues, then walked back to Will. "Shall we look at the ruins together
before we go into the pylon?"
"Sure!"
Will and his father walked in a
counterclockwise circle, starting with the right guardian statue, then
examining the broken columns and pillars and the beautiful orange, purple,
and yellow orchids that cascaded over the edges. From the far side they could look over the edge of the
mountain and down into the valley, and they spent a few minutes there,
discussing points to put on the map.
They could actually see little green specks moving in the jungle far
away. Dinosaurs. From on top of the small mountain, they
looked like ants. Will bent over to touch one of the beautiful orchids. As he pulled the flower closer to him, a
stinging pain coursed through his index finger.
"Hey!" He pulled his hand away just in time. A long thin spike like a needle protruded
from his index finger.
"Let me see that Will."
Rick bent over to look closely at the injury. "It's swelling.
How does it feel?"
"Like a bee sting." Will
held his hand steady while Rick pulled out the thorn. "Whoever heard of
an orchid with a thorn?"
"Probably a protective
mechanism against the dinosaurs," Rick replied. "Damn, I think part of it broke off
in your finger."
"It feels better." Will
flexed his hand. There was a red mark
on the tip of his finger where the thorn had entered it, and the area was a
bit swollen, but it felt better now that Rick had removed the thorn.
"Okay then?"
"Yes. Let's keep looking around."
They finished examining the
ruins. There was more of the unusual
writing and flecks of paint on the columns that hinted at beautiful
decorations and colors. Crystals were
impressed into the tops of some of the columns into an intricate, stylized
design mimicking leaves and flowers.
Rick wondered at the skill of the Altrusian artisans and their high
level of culture. How could they have
degenerated into the Sleestak? No
wonder Enik was so upset and driven to warn his people…
They had come around full circle
and now stood in front of the reflecting pond in front of the pylon. The water was dirty brown and a skim of
greenish brown algae grew on the surface.
Weeds thrust through cracks in the decorative edging. Something about the reflecting pool
attracted Rick and he peered closer into its depths. Was it his imagination or did something
flicker below the surface…? He shook
his head. No. He would not give in to
these illusions again.
"What's next?" Will
asked. "Looks like we've got an
hour or so left before dusk. And we
still have to set up a camp."
"Yes, I know." Rick
looked at the pylon. The pylon key
was in place. "We should look
inside."
Will had been hoping his father
would suggest that. "Okay."
Rick walked to the pylon and stood
on tip toe, turning the key. The
familiar hum filled his head as the doorway disappeared into nothingness,
revealing the black interior of the pylon.
He stepped through and Will followed.
"Where's the matrix
table?" Will whispered.
Rick shook his head. The pylon was black as pitch. They could not see anything. He took Will by the sleeve so that they
would not be separated. He stepped
forward.
Suddenly, a greenish light
suffused the interior. A large,
crystalline globe appeared high on the wall over their heads and directly in
front of them. It glowed and swirled with green mist.
A voice called out to them. "Welcome. We have scanned your mind as you approached the temple. What do you wish to learn?"
"Will!" Rick
called. "Don't listen to
it. Don't think…!" He tried backing out of the pylon. With a growing sense of panic he realized
that the door had slid closed behind them.
Everywhere was blackness except for the glowing green globe.
"Dad!" Will cried. A circling halo of lights had appeared around
Will. The lights swirled in a double
helix pattern. Will's form began to
shimmer. "Dad! Help!"
"Will! Hang on!" Rick tried to approach the glowing globe
but he could not move. It was as if
his feet were bound to the floor.
The voice inquired again,
"What do you wish to learn?"
"Let go of my son!" Rick
cried.
"Command not
recognized," the voice stated in the same unemotional tone. "Learning Program One
commencing.…"
Will's body disappeared. * *
*
For a second or two, Will was
suspended between two worlds. He saw
his father's face illuminated by the green glow from the globe on the
wall. Overlapping this image was a
brighter image of High Bluff. For an
instant he thought he would be transported back to his father, but then he
was rushing headlong towards High Bluff as if he were inside a car traveling
ninety miles an hour. He raised his
arms in front of his face as if to shield himself from the crash.
Then just as suddenly as it had
begun he was standing in the middle of the family's cave. His younger sister Holly was sitting on
the edge of her cot sewing a dress she was making out of an animal hide. Her back was to the entrance to the cave. Will was sorely tempted to yell
"Boo" or something else to make her scream. But he remembered that he had left his
father in the Temple of Learning three kilometers away, and for all he knew,
Dad could be in trouble. He needed
Holly's help him to make sure their father was all right.
"Holly?" he called.
She still jumped and gave a little
scream. "Will Marshall! Look
what you made me do!" She held
up the index finger of her left hand.
She'd pricked it with her sewing needle when he'd called our her
name. "What are you doing back
so soon? Where's Daddy?"
"It's a long story," he
said. "I've got to take a few
more supplies and hike back to where I left Daddy. Can I borrow your pack?"
"Sure," she said. "But where is Daddy?"
"We found a new pylon,"
Will said.
"A new pylon!" Holly
leaped to her feet. "Where? I'm
coming too."
"No you're not!" Will
snapped. "This pylon is
dangerous. Daddy and I got separated
somehow. Weird things happened as we
approached it. It pulled me out and
transported me over here…I'm not sure how."
"I bet Enik would know."
"Probably, but we don't have
time to go over to the Lost City for a visit," Will said. "Look, Holly, I can't explain, but
the pylon lead us into all sorts of traps as we got closer to it…well, I
don't want you to get hurt…"
"I won't get hurt. I want to help, Will. I can!
I'm not the baby you think I am…"
Will stopped. He looked at his younger sister. He thought of his conversation with his
father on the way towards the small mountain. Holly had matured since they had come to the land. She'd worked hard to overcome her fear of
heights. She didn't scream or cry so
much at the things she used to; bugs, spiders, mice, and snakes. Heck, Will thought, once you've seen a
stinking dinosaur carcass you've seen the grossest thing there is. Maybe Holly was right. Maybe she could help. But he'd be really
angry with her if she turned into a baby again just when he needed her help.
"Okay. Grab your pack. And some crystals!" he called as she scrambled to pull her
backpack out from under her cot where she had stored it. "And a full canteen! We'll hike back to the small mountain
together. But you've got to do
exactly what I tell you to do, all right?"
"Right!"
Together, the brother and sister
team left High Bluff. * *
*
As soon as Will dematerialized,
Rick could move. He rushed forward to
the green globe and pounded it with his fists. "Where is my son?" he roared. "What have you done with him?"
"You have entered the temple
of learning. What do you wish to
learn?"
"I wish to learn how to get
my son back! Release him."
"To be released from this
temple, one must complete a cycle of learning. If you do not wish to learn, leave this place." Rick whirled around as the familiar hum of
opening pylon doors filled his ears.
The doors had materialized again.
By the sunlight that penetrated the darkness inside the pylon, he
could make out the green globe, and the crystal matrix table, not on a pillar
in the center of the pylon, but high on the wall, next to the globe.
"I'm not leaving until I get
my son back," he muttered through clenched teeth, walking to the matrix
table and studying the rapidly blinking lights. "Enough of this.
Release Will!" * *
*
Will couldn't shake the feeling
that something was off about this whole hike. He glanced down at his watch.
It had taken his father and him three hours of hiking to reach the
small mountain that morning; now he and Holly had reached it in less than an
hour. And it wasn't as hot as it had
been when he and his dad had walked there that morning. Granted, the sun had shifted in the sky,
so perhaps the light was reflecting and refracting differently off of the
rocks. But why would the distance
change?
And as for Holly…he was ready to
throttle her, right there at the base of the mountain. He had never been so angry at her. First, her shoelace broke; they had to
stop while she fixed it. Then, she
began whining that her pack was too heavy.
Will discovered that she'd put in all sorts of useless items; her
jacket, an extra bedroll, and a loaf of smilax cake that she had baked last
night. Worst of all, she'd taken her
damn makeup case with her! The
perfume alone could attract a whole herd of dinosaurs…
"Now why the heck did you
bring that?" he demanded of her. "I told you what to pack. Now
you've just loaded yourself down with useless junk."
"Well, you never know what we
might need." "We won't need your makeup case, that's for
sure!" "You never know. We could need something in it.
And we might get hungry. But
the pack is too heavy for me." "I can't carry your pack and mine. You've got to just buck up and carry what
you've brought."
"But Will, I'm tired…"
"So am I. I've hiked double what you've hiked today
but do you hear me complaining? Come
on, we've got to get back and help Dad."
"You don't even know Daddy is
in trouble. Maybe the lights only
took you away and didn't hurt Daddy.
My feet hurt."
"Maybe they took Daddy
someplace else. He could have been
transported anywhere. Maybe even into
the Lost City! He could be surrounded by Sleestak even now!"
"You don't know that. I'm
hot."
"Will you be quiet and start
walking?" His finger was aching
again. He looked down. The tip was swollen and red.
"I can't climb that
mountain!" She pointed to the small mountain. "What if we get to the top and I'm too scared to come
down?"
"You'll come down all
right!"
"You're so mean to me,
Will. Why don't you ever understand
me?"
"I am not mean to you! You are infuriating!" A surge of
anger welled up inside of him, fueled by fear and frustration, and the energy
spit forth at her in his words as hot and fiery as if it were a flame.
"Why couldn't I have had a baby brother instead of you? At least a boy would be brave and wouldn't
complain about being tired. You're
useless!" He strode forward
double time, leaving her to trot behind him to catch up.
"Will, you don't mean that,
do you?" Holly looked at him
with tears in her eyes.
He whirled around. "You bet I mean that!" he
roared. "I've had it with
you. With your screaming at every
little sound, your fear of heights and your stupid girlie things. You're useless, do you know that? I don't care what Daddy said about you
making progress here. You did a
couple of brave things over these past few months, but you're still a big
baby. A little brother wouldn't be
like this."
"Oh Will," Holly sighed.
A single tear dropped from the corner of her right eye and rolled down her
cheek. She sniffled. "Okay, then. I'll go."
A whirl of white lights swirled
and descended on Holly. A noise like
a rushing freight train clattering upon metal tracks sounded. Will watched in astonishment as the lights
encircled Holly and her form shimmered and vanished.
"Hey! I didn't mean it! Bring her back! Holly…"
The lights continued
swirling. In their midst a new form
appeared. The lights scattered.
There stood a little boy about the
age of twelve. He had the Marshall's
curly hair, though his hair was sandy blonde instead of brown, and the same
bright blue eyes. He wore a light
blue T-shirt, jeans and sneakers. He
smiled at Will.
"Hi Will," he said. "Let's go. We've got to help Daddy."
"Who are you?"
"Thomas," the little boy
said, his face puckering into a frown.
"Will, what's wrong? Why don't you remember me?"
"Thomas?"
"Your little brother, Tom,
remember? Like, duh, Will, what's
wrong with you?"
"I don't have a little
brother named Thomas. I have a sister
named Holly. What happened to
her? Bring her back!"
Tom smiled. He hefted his pack onto his shoulder and
walked forward until he was just a foot away from Will. Will looked down into the boy's blue
eyes. Unquestionably, he was a
Marshall.
But there was something else about
his eyes. Something odd. For an instant, it was like a ghostly
image on the television screen when the reception isn't coming in
strongly. A white outline and vague
form of another set of eyes stared back at him from Thomas's blue eyes. Large, circular orbs, multifaceted like
gems…Altrusian eyes.
Was he still inside the Temple
Pylon? Will shook his head. He felt dizzy. No. He had transported
out of the pylon in a mechanism similar to what they had found inside the
Moongiver Pylon. He had found Holly,
walked with her, she'd gotten all whiny on him, and then…
Thomas. She had turned into Thomas when he had wished for a little
brother instead of a sister. "Let's go and save Daddy," Thomas said
quietly. * *
* Where
are the skylons when you need them? Rick thought. He touched crystals gingerly, one by one. Nothing happened. The pylon door remained open, so he grew
more confident.
"What do you wish to
learn?" the voice from the green globe inquired every time he touched a
green crystal.
"Where is my son?"
"He is in the learning
chamber."
"Release him!"
"He will be released when he
completes his learning cycle," the voice replied with infuriating
detachment. "Choose your
learning program."
"Go to hell," Rick
muttered.
"Unrecognized command,"
the voice replied. "Unable to
comply. What do you wish to
learn?"
He touched blue crystals
next. A blue and red combination made
the pylon shudder. The green globe
suddenly threw off a fierce, hot light.
A different voice, recognizably Altrusian, stated, "You have
entered the diagnostic module."
Ah ha, Rick thought. This sounds promising. He touched blue and red in groups of
two. The voice repeated its
message. He paused, thinking
carefully. If I were an Altrusian
using this, he thought to himself, I would be logical. I would be careful. I would…he looked at his own five fingers,
slender and mobile, and thought of Enik's cumbersome three digits. I would have three fingers, Rick thought
suddenly. Multiples of three. Maybe that's it!
He touched red, red and blue. Nothing.
Blue, red, blue. Nothing. Then blue, blue, red.
The inside of the pylon lit up like
he had pulled the cord on a 100 watt light bulb.
He was staring at a large crystal
sphere mounted on a metal pole protruding from the pylon wall. The walls were black and shiny, like
obsidian. The matrix table was
different from the ones he had seen in the Lost City. Instead of being in a stone tray it was in
a black metal tray. He could now
clearly see the crystals. They were
cut and faceted with care, like a jeweler's diamonds in a tray. He carefully took his fingers off the
crystals. The light stayed on.
"Okay," he
breathed. "I'm onto you,
pylon. Now give me my son back." * *
*
"I don't have a
brother," Will said stubbornly.
They had hiked on for another
quarter of an hour. Thomas kept pace,
scrambling over rocks and taking two strides to every one of Will's.
"Will, what's wrong with
you?" Thomas pleaded. "This
new pylon's affected your brain. Of course you have a brother. You want one, don't you?"
"Just shut up."
How had he caused this mess? He'd often thought over the years of how a
little brother would have been so much more fun than Holly. No toy tea sets cluttering up the
basement, no stupid dolls mixed in with his Hot Wheels in the playroom, someone to ride bikes with and go down to
the pond and catch frogs…
Thomas turned and smiled at him.
No! It was as if Thomas could read his mind. It was creeping him out.
They had reached the base of the
small mountain. Will grabbed Thomas
by the shoulder and shook him as the boy started to run ahead and scramble up
the mountain.
"Look, I don't know who you
are or how you got here," he said.
"But let's get something straight. We're here to find Dad.
There's something about this mountain that makes you see illusions,
that makes what you think become real…so don't go running on ahead. We've got to concentrate on finding Dad
and making sure he's all right."
"Yeah, sure. Let's go."
Was Thomas being sarcastic? Will looked down at the boy but Thomas'
face was angelic and serene.
"Sure Will. You go first."
Will started to climb. He followed the hand holds and foot holds
that he and his father had focused on.
He kept his mind firmly fixed to one thought: saving his father. What if the pylon had taken his father to
someplace bad, worse than the Land of the Lost? You couldn't predict a pylon.
Look what it had done to Holly…
Holly. He swallowed. Where was
she? What had become of her? Was she really gone, or was this just
another trick of the pylon? He
couldn't be sure. When he'd touched
Thomas' shoulder, he had sure felt real enough. But for a moment he had seen something beyond those blue
eyes…something alien. This whole
thing wasn't what it seemed, he felt sure, but he didn't know what was
happening, so he continued climbing the mountain, determined to stick to the
course of action he had undertaken. He just hoped that Holly was okay. And he hoped that when he found his dad,
Rick would have a better idea of how to find Holly, because Will didn't have
a clue.
He had been so busy climbing and
thinking that he didn't notice Thomas.
The boy scrambled up the side of the path onto the higher, more jagged
rocks, and was now ahead of him. "Hey Thomas, what did I tell you?"
Will called out.
Thomas turned around and stuck his
tongue out at Will. "I can climb
better than you can, Will Marshall!"
"Thomas, get back here…"
"You think you're so great
just 'cause your bigger than me. But
I can do anything you can do!" Thomas
danced out on a flat boulder. The
drop from the side of the mountain was perilously steep. "Chicken! Chicken! Bet you won't come out on this boulder after me…"
"Thomas, this isn't a
game. Get back on the path or so help
me…"
"You're a chicken, you know
that? It would be faster if we climbed on these rocks."
"Thomas, this mountain is
dangerous! Look out!"
Suddenly, Thomas lost his
footing. His feet shot forward and he
landed on his back on the rocks, then began to slide down the flat
boulder. With split second timing,
Will leaped forward and grabbed the boy by the back of his T-shirt. He heard the seams rip as the material
pulled taunt and the boy's weight was suspended by a thin piece of
cotton. Then he grasped Thomas by the
arms and pulled him sideways over the
rocks and back onto the path.
Thomas started laughing. "That was fun!"
Will wanted to haul off and punch
his laughing face. "You
idiot!" he swore. "You
could have gotten yourself killed, and me with you, if the rest of the rocks
gave way when you fell. What were you
thinking?"
"Oh come on, Will,"
Thomas said. He stood and brushed off
his jeans. "Let's have some
fun. Daddy will be all right. You're such a chicken, you know that? I wasn't scared. Were you?"
"You bet I was. What if you'd fallen? You could have been killed!"
"All you do is nag,"
Thomas complained. "You and
Daddy both. 'Thomas, stay on the
path' 'Thomas, don't eat that plant' 'Thomas, stop teasing the
tryceratops'." Thomas whirled on
the path. "You're no fun at
all."
"We're lots of fun,"
Will snapped, "when it's safe to have fun. You can't be running into danger with every turn."
Thomas' eyes sparkled. "Would you rather I be
Holly?" He opened his mouth and
Holly's voice issued forth.
"Will, I'm scared. I
can't go on. It's too hard."
"Who are you?" Will
asked. "What have you done with
my sister?"
Thomas merely laughed and
scrambled up the path. Will had no
choice but to follow.
Suddenly, the ground started
shaking. "Thomas!" Will
cried. He leaped the last two feet
towards his younger brother as the earth began rolling. Rocks crashed down around them. He grabbed Thomas by the waist and pulled
him behind a large boulder on the side of the path, shielding the boy's head
from the bouncing rocks. The earthquake
lasted for several minutes.
Dad, Will thought, I hope you're
okay. I hope you're all right in the
pylon.
"Don't be scared, Will,"
Thomas said, as if reading his mind. "Dad's all right. It'll stop soon." * *
*
Damn! Rick swore under his breath.
A combination of nine crystals, which he felt for sure would have opened
the time portal that had taken Will, had instead caused a hard and quick
earthquake, a tremor that had shaken the rubble outside and caused a
landslide down the small mountain. He
took his hand away from the matrix table.
Another combination? He was
tired, thirsty, and desperately worried about Will. Where had he gone? What was happening to his son?
He rubbed his eyes. Once again, he touched stones. Red, blue, red, green, green, green,
yellow, blue, red…
The green globe glowed
steadily. A sound like the metal
wheels of a rapidly approaching freight train filled the pylon. A ring of lights descended from the
ceiling in the exact place where Will had been standing. Ah-ha!
He had found it! Hoping
against hope that it would take him to Will, Rick stepped into the lights and
vanished.
The pylon door slid shut. * *
*
They had lived through a few
tremors and aftershocks in the Land of the Lost. Holly always whined and complained she felt queasy
afterwards. She hated roller coasters
and carnival rides for the same reason.
Will had always teased her about her weak stomach. Now he knelt on the ground as the
aftershocks stopped, leaned over the boulder and heaved.
Thomas said, "Jeez, you are
such a baby. Even I don't do
that." It was the exact same thing Will had said to Holly upon more than
one occasion.
Will rocked back on his heels,
feeling dizzy. He took a deep
breath. He pulled out his canteen and
washed out his mouth, then took a sip of the warm water. "Shut up, Thomas," he said,
wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
As he did so, he noticed that his finger was even more swollen, and an
angry red rash had appeared on his arm. He could see the tip of the remaining
part of the thorn in his finger. If
he could just pull it out…but he had nothing to use to pull it out. He would just have to live with the
pain. He only hoped it wasn't
poisonous, but he figured that if it was, he'd be dead by now. Maybe it was just making him sick.
"I'm going on ahead."
"No you're not." This kid was even more annoying than
Holly. Holly he could deal
with. It was easier to coax and
cajole her into doing things she thought were impossible for herself than it
was to get this kid to stop charging ahead.
Thomas had already started climbing
again. The rock scree shifted
precariously under foot. Tiny pebbles
bounced down on the path. Will rose
to his feet, grabbing onto the boulders for support. He winced as his hand closed around the
rock and the pain shot up his arm.
"You know what, Thomas?"
"What?"
"I wish Holly were here. At least she cared about me. If she saw me get sick, you better
believe she would have turned back, trying to play nurse. She wouldn't have made fun of me."
Thomas stopped and regarded Will
with eyes that suddenly seemed way too old for his twelve-year old face. "Hmn. Interesting. You always
teased her when she tried to play nurse."
"Well, it was annoying
sometimes. But I really don't feel
too good now. I'm tired and my legs
hurt from all of this climbing. And
I'm worried sick about Daddy, especially after that earthquake. What if something happened to the pylon
and he's trapped inside?"
"Oh, come on. Stop being such
a worry wart."
"And that's another thing
about Holly," Will said as they started to climb again. His legs shook with fatigue; he realized
he was hungry and thirsty. He stopped
and drank more water. The water helped. He felt better. But his stomach was still queasy. "She would have been just as worried, even more worried
maybe, about Daddy."
"So?"
"So? You're just running around like this is
some sort of…big playground. This is
life or death. This is survival. This is something scary and unknown. Daddy could be hurt. Holly is missing and you're here in her
place. I'm worried sick about her,
about Daddy. And you're off rushing
around, making fun of me, giving me lip whenever I ask you to do
something. Holly might be scared of
things, but she sticks with me when there's trouble."
"Interesting." Thomas' voice gave Will chills. It was a decidedly un-childlike voice. It
was as cold and emotionless as…as an Altrusian voice. "But I thought these qualities of
Holly were the qualities that you did not like: her caring, her
nurturing, her caution."
"I don't…I mean, they're
annoying, yes, but I don't hate them…I guess I don't…I don't know!"
Thomas kept on hiking. "Tell me when you know for
sure," he called over his shoulder. * *
*
For a moment, Rick saw two worlds
before his confused eyes. He saw the
interior of the pylon. He also saw
the outline of a cavern, and some strange pillars arranged on a horse-shoe
shaped dais. With a shock of
recognition, he noticed Altrusian skulls arranged one on top of each pillar
on the dais. It was just like the
Library of Skulls back in the Lost City.
Was he in the Lost City? No,
he couldn't be, because that cavern had been guarded by the Sleestak and had
multiple entries. This cavern had no
doors, no windows, and an unusual shaped ceiling. Rick felt drawn to the cavern.
As he felt drawn to the cavern, it rushed towards him as if he were in
a car traveling ninety miles an hour towards the room. He raised his arms in front of his face
out of reaction, but dropped them when he realized he had finished his
journey. He stood in front of the
half circle of skulls and addressed them as he had done in the Lost City when
confronting a similar library.
"Where is my son?" he
asked them. "Who are you, and
where am I?"
"Look around before you fool
around," the skull nearest to him intoned in what was an eerie copy of
his own voice. Startled, Rick looked
at the walls behind the skulls, to each side. He turned around to look at the far wall.
"Will!" he cried in
horror. * *
*
Will was feeling sicker and
sicker. Thomas kept charging ahead
and every so often, turning around and making fun of him. He sang television
commercials, silly rhyming songs,
threw rocks at Will, and teased him relentlessly. Will couldn't keep
up with him. He tried scolding Thomas, he tried cajoling him, and finally, he
just asked him twice more to stop.
But Thomas ignored him and continued on. The path seemed to grow longer and longer.
He longed to see his sister. Holly, for all of her annoying traits,
would never have acted this way around him.
He stopped on the path.
"Jeez," Will thought,
"I wish Holly were here. She'd
turn back to help me. She would
care. She would…"
A noise like a freight train
clattering on metal tracks filled the path as a ring of white lights
descended on Thomas. * *
*
Behind him, stretched out on the
floor of the cavern, was Will. He
looked at first glance to be asleep, but his eyes were open and staring
sightlessly at the ceiling. Rick rushed to his son's side and knelt next to
him. He felt for a pulse. Will was alive but his consciousness was
elsewhere.
Rick
followed Will's gaze up towards the ceiling.
With a shock, he realized where the light was coming from in this
sealed chamber with no doors and no windows. Above them, a trapezoid shaped opening in the ceiling let in
murky dull green brown light. They
were in a cavern underneath the reflecting pond, looking up and out. The
pylon had transported them into this cave.
There was no way to leave except when and how the pylon chose to
release them.
"Will! Son, speak to me!" Rick gently tapped Will on the cheeks, but
Will did not reply.
"He cannot speak," the
first skull intoned. "He is
finishing his learning experience.
This is the temple of learning."
Rick rose to his feet and whirled
around to face the skulls.
"What is this place?" he
demanded.
The third skull from the left
said, "This is the temple of learning."
The fifth skull added, "Those
who wish to learn come here to do so. They embark on the meditative walk up
the mountainside."
"Their thoughts are made
manifest." The eighth skull's
eye sockets flared crimson.
"Their deepest needs are
exposed," the fourth skull said.
"They learn what they need to
learn for growth."
Rick looked from one to the
other. From his previous experience
in the Lost City's Library of Skulls, he knew the power inherent in this room
among the combined intelligence of the Altrusian ancestor skulls. He glanced back with concern at his son.
"Are you sure he is not
harmed?"
"He will be returned
unharmed," the fifth skull replied.
"His is not Altrusian. His brain wave patterns are not entirely
compatible with the pylon's scanning mechanism. But he will not suffer permanent damage."
"What is he learning?"
Rick asked.
The skulls did not reply. Will, stretched out on the floor, began
to stir. * *
*
Holly would help me, Will
thought. The noise grew louder and he
saw the white circle of lights descend upon the path ahead. Oh thank God, he thought. That annoying Thomas will be gone. He heard with relief his sister's voice
calling from ahead on the path,
"Will! Will, are you all
right?"
"Holly?"
Oh, how glad he was to see her
blonde pigtails and her plaid shirt come into view on the path above
him. "Hey, what the heck are you
doing down there?" she asked.
She looked over the edge of the cliff and shuddered. She moved back. "We're really high up."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You disappeared."
She was puzzled. "No I
didn't. What's wrong?"
She must not remember disappearing,
Will thought. He swallowed. His
stomach heaved again.
"Holly, I need your
help," Will said. "I'm not
feeling too good. Can you help me up the path?"
"Yeah, sure," she
said. Gingerly, she climbed back down
over the rocks. "What
happened?" She walked over to his side. He reached out and grasped her by the
shoulder just to make sure she was real.
"Did
you see a little boy on the path ahead?"
"Little boy? Was there someone else here? I didn't see
anyone."
"Never mind." She felt solid and real.
"Will, you're really
pale."
He showed her the bit of thorn
still stuck in his finger. "I
got sick after the earthquake and my stomach hasn't settled down yet. I got pricked by a plant that I touched
when I was with Daddy. He got out the
bigger part of the thorn, but there's some left."
"Oh," Holly
replied. "That's easy
enough. I've got tweezers in my makeup case." Together, they sat down on a rock. The sun beat warm against their
backs. She removed her backpack and
took out the little plastic dime store makeup case. Unzipping the case, she found the tweezers and balanced Will's
hand on her knee, holding his finger steady. With a bit of pressure on the hot and sore finger, she used
the tips of the tweezers to extract the thorn. "Ouch!" Will cried. But the bit of thorn was gone. He felt so much better. His finger was throbbing, but the hot pain
was gone. "Thanks Holly. I'll never make fun of your stupid makeup
case again." Holly opened the center compartment of her
backpack and offered him the hard smilax cake and her canteen. "Sometimes I feel better if I eat
something. Maybe you're just hungry
and thirsty."
"Thanks." He gratefully accepted her canteen, since
his was almost empty. He drank deeply.
He handed back the canteen when he was finished, and she offered the
smilax cake again. He regarded it
with some trepidation. "Holly,
thanks, but I don't think…"
He watched her. Again, he had the sensation of looking at
an image, while another ghostly image appeared behind her. Her eyes were funny. They were like looking at two blue stones,
while behind them glowed larger orbs…
She offered the smilax cake and
watched him unblinkingly. "It
really does help."
She was offering him some comfort
and nurturing. He thought of Thomas,
scrambling ahead on the path, making fun of him. I wouldn't have acted like that, Will thought. Then another voice whispered in his mind,
Oh yeah? When you were twelve? You
would have stopped? No, you would have taken advantage of the situation just as
much as Thomas had. He realized with
embarrassment that he would have done the same thing that Thomas had done if
he'd had an older brother. He would
have stopped to tease his brother, he would have leaped on ahead, showing
off. He would have been just as much
of a brat, taking advantage of the situation when their power was
reversed. He hadn't thought of how
much power he had, as the older brother, over his younger sibling. He was bigger, and stronger, and more
experienced. He needed to learn patience,
and acceptance.
He regarded his sister. Holly, for all her annoying qualities, was
all right. She was just, well, a
girl. They didn't like a lot of the
same things that boys did. Sometimes
they liked the same things, but not always.
She might not like to hike up a strenuous mountain or go catch frogs
in a pond, although he knew some girls from school who would do that. Holly might not be physically brave, but
he knew no one else who had her fighting spirit or her big heart. She might not like to walk across the
crevasse on a windy day, but she did do things like stop and make sure he was
all right, and try to cook dinner from the weird fruits and vegetables in the
Land of the Lost, and sew buttons on his shirt, and comfort him when he was
sick…
He looked at his sister, and he
realized he wouldn't trade her for anything in the world.
However, he would definitely have
traded that smilax cake for a loaf of plain old white bread from the grocery
store. Yeah, he would have liked
that.
Suddenly, the smilax cake
shimmered. Holly was holding a bag
of Wonder Bread in her hands.
Impossible.
She smiled at Will. "Here, Will," she said. "I hope you feel better."
A noise like a rushing freight
train clattering on metal tracks filled his head. Will looked up at the sky and saw a ring of white lights
descend on him.
It's an illusion, he thought with
relief. It wasn't real. And I don't
have to eat that smilax cake… * *
*
Will opened his eyes. He was staring up at a weird ceiling that
looked translucent. Murky greenish
brown light suffused a granite cavern.
"Son, are you all
right?"
"Dad!" Will turned and saw his father. He sat up abruptly. He looked wildly around the cavern. "Where are we? How did we get
here?"
"Are you all right?"
Rick asked with concern
"Yeah, I think so."
"What happened to you?"
"When the funny lights came
down, and the noise like in the Moongiver Pylon started, I found myself back
in High Bluff," Will said. He
stood up, as did his father. He
brushed some sand off his jeans.
"I thought I had been transported back there, like what happened
in the other pylon, when we went to different worlds." Rick nodded. He would have drawn the same conclusion. "I found Holly in the cave, and we
gathered some supplies. We started back here. I was worried about you.
I thought something had happened to you in the pylon."
"What made you think
that?"
"I don't know. Everything happened so fast and was so
weird that I really thought something had happened to you. Maybe that was part of the illusion, to
create a sense of urgency." Will
rubbed the back of his head. He was
sore from lying on the stone floor of the cavern.
"Well, what happened
next?" Rick asked.
Will hesitated.
"Will?"
"I…Dad, I didn't mean
to. I swear I didn't," Will
pleaded.
Rick braced himself. "Okay, what did you do?"
"I…well, Holly, or the
imaginary Holly that the pylon created, she was getting on my nerves. You know how she gets when we hike. Her shoelace broke, she whined, she took
stupid stuff in her pack…"
"So you yelled at her?"
Rick asked.
"And more."
"What did you do?" When Will didn’t answer, Rick asked again,
"Will? What did you do?"
"I wished that she was a
boy."
"Yeah, well, a baby brother
was worse than Holly, but in a different way. Snotty.
Know-it-all. Ran ahead of
me. No help at all. We got stuck in an earthquake…"
Now it was Rick's turn to look
ashamed. "That was me," he
said sheepishly. "I'm
sorry. You must have felt it down
here in the cavern while you were in that trance, and incorporated it into
your dream world. I was trying to
get the transportation mechanism to work so I could find you. I accidentally created the
earthquake."
"Can I ground you for
that?" Will asked.
"I don't think so. Next?"
"After the earthquake, I
didn't feel good," Will said.
"That bit of thorn that was still stuck in my finger started
hurting, and I think I was having some kind of allergic reaction to it. I got sick and I felt all funny. But the
boy wasn't very helpful. He didn't
do…well, he didn't stop to help me.
He just kept running on ahead."
"Normal," Rick affirmed.
"Really? Was I like that at
twelve?"
"For the most part. Always running on ahead. Didn't much care
about what was happening to others.
I'd tell you to do something, you'd do the opposite. If I told you to
stay away from the fire, you'd put your hand in it just to prove me
wrong."
"Oh God, how did you survive
it?"
"You just do, son. What happened next?"
"Well, I realized how stupid
I was to wish that Holly was a boy and…I started thinking about her good
qualities. She reappeared. I realized that she's not so bad. She's just different, and I guess that's a
good thing."
"Yes. That's why God made us make and female
son. We balance each other out. We complement each other."
Will thought about that for a
moment, then nodded. "I guess
you're right. And boy, I was really glad she was there when she had tweezers
in that dumb makeup case of hers. She
pulled out the thorn, I felt better, and the next thing I know, I woke up
here.."
Rick turned to address the
skulls. "Did he learn what he
set out to learn?"
"He has," the skulls
intoned. "You have learned what
you have set out to learn. Do you wish to learn more?"
"Very well. Learning program
terminating. Enter." The skulls
voice rang out in command. The white
circle of lights appeared, and the rushing noise filled the cavern.
"Should we, Dad?" Will asked. “We could ask the skulls more
questions, like how do we use the time doorways…”
“Enter!” The eighth skull
demanded.
"I don't see as we have much
choice, Will," Rick said with a shrug.
He put his hand on Will's shoulder.
"I think they're finished with us." He pointed towards the
skulls. "Now that we know how
this place works, we can guard against any more unnecessary illusion. We can try to come back with Holly in a
few days and figure out how that time doorway works. If it can transport us down into this
cavern, perhaps it can transport us home.
It might be just part of the illusion machine, or it could be a real
time doorway, but we can’t try it out unless Holly is with us. C'mon, let’s go."
Together, they walked into the
white swirl of lights. Darkness
enveloped them. Then it was as if a
rushing wind pushed them from below.
They blinked once, and the Marshalls were standing outside of the
pylon, next to the murky reflecting pool.
The sun had almost set and shadows rushed from the ruins. The eerie
stillness was unbroken.
"I wonder what really
happened to this place?" Will asked.
The destruction seemed even more desolate now that the sun had passed
behind the mountain range and the ruined gardens lay in shadows.
Rick walked to the edge of the
cliff and peered down into the valley.
Golden red sunset light flooded the valley, touching the jungle with
spots of fire. Rick mused on what
they had learned of the Land so far.
Earthquakes were common, he knew.
Perhaps tremors had ruined the beautiful garden. Or perhaps the cataclysm that had affected
Enik's people accounted for this place as well as the Lost City's
degradation. "We'll never
know. But I think we should leave
now, before the pylon latches onto more of our thoughts and starts fooling us
with those illusions." "Dad, let’s come back here in a few
days. We can talk to the skulls
without worrying about the Sleestak like in the Lost City. We can ask them how to go home –“
Suddenly, a violent tremor shook
the ground. A loud crack came from
directly under the pylon.
"The whole mountain is giving
way!" Rick cried. The earth shook harder and the cliff they
were standing on began to sway. "Quick, Will, get down the path." "But the pylon! We'll lose another chance to
learn how to get out of here!" "No time to argue. Do it!"
Scrambling over the rolling and
buckling earth, Will and Rick made their way to the path. The guardian statues trembled and
shook. Will slipped and fell down a
few steps, but picked himself up and helped Rick down the last few past the
guardians. The earth stopped trembling
for a few minutes then began rolling again.
They were almost to the foot of the small mountain when the major
tremor hit. Rocks bounced down the
path and the entire mountain shook.
Rick and Will took cover behind a large boulder and Rick leaned protectively
over Will to shield him from the falling rocks. Finally, when it was over, they crept out of their hiding
spot.
The top of the mountain was
gone. The pylon was gone. It was a jagged mountain peak, a smaller
mountain than before, cracked and broken.
Not even a scrap of gold pylon-metal glittered anywhere in sight. It was as if the mountaintop imploded.
"Oh no," Will
sighed. "Another pylon,
gone!"
Rick shook his head. "There's nothing left for us
here. We've only got another hour to
make camp before the sun sets completely.
I don't know about you, but I'm hungry and tired."
"Me too. I could even eat one of Holly's smilax
cakes."
"That's pushing it."
"Okay, maybe not smilax
cakes. But maybe one of those
mushroom casserole things she makes with potatoes and onions."
"I'm afraid you'll have to
settle for fruits, nuts and a hot potato, but maybe we can ask her to make us
a casserole when we get back."
Hiking away from the mountain was
easier than hiking towards it and no further illusions troubled them. Will and Rick retrieved their gear from
behind the boulders and began hiking back towards High Bluff. They walked for about half a mile, then
found a sheltered spot near the cliffs and made camp. A tiny spring flowed from a crack in the
rocks and they both drank greedily, refilling their canteens. Will left his father for a few minutes to
search for firewood, and when he returned with a few very old pieces of wood
and some dry dinosaur nip for kindling, Rick had already set up their sleeping
bags and their cooking gear.
"How's your finger?"
Rick asked Will.
"Fine." Will held it up
for his father's inspection. "Do
you think Holly is going to believe this story when we tell her?"
Rick shook his head. "I wonder what's happened around High Bluff today. It
couldn't have been as exciting as this day was for us. She's going to be awfully jealous that
she wasn't here." Will started the fire. As Rick boiled water for the makeshift brew he prepared from
indigenous herbs that created a sort of pseudo-coffee, Will pushed two
potatoes into the fire to roast for their evening meal. They ate their meager
rations of fruit and nuts carried in Rick's pack from High Bluff while the
potatoes baked and spoke of the
glorious architecture they had seen on the mountain, the glistening orchids,
the weird illusions, and their wonderment at how the pylon had created the
illusions. Will kept thinking of how
bad he'd felt when Holly had turned into Thomas, and of how glad he was when
she was returned to him. For the
first time that day, he was looking forward to seeing her again when they
returned to High Bluff. He couldn't
wait to tell her of his adventures and hear about hers. When the potatoes were good and hot, Rick pulled
them out of the fire and they each took one.
"Needs butter," Will said as he speared it with his camping
fork.
"And a good steak to go with
it," Rick muttered.
"Dad," Will asked around
a mouthful of potato, "If Holly had been a boy, what would she have been
named?”
Rick paused, so startled that he
just held his fork halfway away from the potato as he stared at his son. “What?”
“I mean, did you and Mom have an
alternate name picked out if she had been a boy?"
"Well, sure," Rick
thought carefully for a minute.
"If Holly had been a boy, she would have been called Thomas. William was our first choice, after my
father, but you had that name. We
picked Thomas to honor your uncle who had died."
"Dad, did you ever tell me
this before?"
"No, you never asked."
"Did anyone else know that
you chose that name? I mean, besides you and Mom."
Rick shrugged. "I don't think so," he replied.
He continued eating his potato.
"Maybe your mother told Grandma.
I'm not sure."
"Then how did the pylon know
that if I had a younger brother, he would have been called Thomas? That was what he told me his name was:
Thomas. If it was only picking things
from my mind to put into my learning experience, and I didn't know that you
had chosen that name…" Will let
his words trail off. "And how
come my finger is better? I was
laying there on the floor of the cavern, but in my imagination–my learning
experience–Holly pulled out the thorn.
And when I woke up, it's gone." "Mind over matter." "Maybe." Will continued eating. Finally, he spoke up and said, "Could Thomas have been
real? Could the pylon have pulled
Thomas from an alternate universe?
Another dimension, maybe, where you and Mom had a boy as your second
child, and not a girl?"
Rick thought carefully before
answering, "You know something, Will?
I don't think we're ever going to learn the truth. The pylon is gone, and for all we know, so
are the skulls. We could go to the
Lost City, brave being killed by Sleestak or fed to the god of the pit just
to find out, but I'd rather not. So
let's pretend that somewhere, somehow, in your subconscious, you heard me and
your mother talking about baby names when you were a kid, and you remembered
it somewhere deep in your mind where you can't access the information, but
the pylon could."
"Is the pylon really
gone? Or was that last earthquake
just an illusion? Didn't you say
something about an earthquake just seconds before the ground shook?"
Rick turned and looked into the
night sky towards the small mountain.
He hadn't thought of that. He turned back to listen more carefully to
what Will was saying.
Will pressed on. "What if in
another dimension you and Mom had a baby boy instead of a girl, a boy named
Thomas… then there could be a dimension where Mother never died…or we never
came to the Land of the Lost…maybe we could find out in some other way…"
“This was a learning
experience," Rick replied, "carefully choreographed by the pylon.
It picked up on your thoughts and emotions about Holly as we walked up the
mountain and created a scenario where you could learn to appreciate her for
her good qualities. I would never
trade you or Holly for anything in the world. I love you both, dearly for all the unique qualities, both good
and bad, that you posses. I think
it's safe just to look at this experience at face value. It may be as you've said, Will, or it
might not be." They were silent
for a moment, each lost in his own thoughts.
Rick looked up and out at the darkening sky and the brightening
stars. Will thought he saw a glimmer
of moisture in his father's eye. But
it could just have been the dancing light from the fire. "Maybe," Rick continued, his voice a bit
hoarse, "it’s not so important to know the truth of this one. Maybe, what’s really important is to know
the truth in our hearts.” Author's
Note: The
action of this story takes place in the episode, "Baby-sitter,"
following Rick and Will's story line instead of Holly's. To find out what really happened to Holly
that day, see the episode "Baby-sitter." Copyright
Notice: The
Land of the Lost and all of its characters are copyright by Kroftt
Productions. The story was written
in good faith and for fun and no money was made off of its creation. This story is copyright 2000 by Jeanne Grunert.
|