Children Of Fate, Page 3

  The principal turned in their direction and Tony swiped Alicia out of sight and back into the computer room.

  “I’m not right very often,” Tony sighed. “But when I am it hurts like hell.”

  Alicia crossed her arms and tapped her toes waiting an explanation.

  “It all fits. Those guys are here to review the school.”

  Alicia still waited.

  “Review the school to allocate a budget for the school. That’s why the principal was so adamant to put us on this team, so we are offsite when they did their little review.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Alicia snapped.

  “I told you it hurts.”

  Their discussion had drawn the attention of the others.

  “What’s up?” Joel asked.

  Alicia explained who was in the library and Tony’s theory of why they were put in the competition.

  “Come on guys, stop being defensive about yourselves and see it from the principal’s point of view. Me, no explanation necessary. You Joel, you look ridiculous with that moe of yours, they probably consider it a health issue. If they can’t get one kid to look respectable how can they run a school with over two hundred and fifty students? Alicia’s more of a teacher than the teachers are, she’ll upstage them and make them look bad.”

  “That’s not so bad, is it?” Alicia said, pleased.

  “No it’s not Alicia, but for them it is. And you Roy they’ll either move you to a school for gifted kids or realize you’re the one single handedly boosting up the schools score average.”

  “Yeah, well. How about Nadia?” Alicia demanded.

  Tony softened his voice, “she looks sad.” Tony paused and lowered his head, “and depressed.” Tony kicked at his shoe lace that dangled off his other shoe then slowly lifted his head back up. “And they might wonder why she hasn’t had appropriate counseling or something,” Tony trailed off

  An uncompromising silence of truth swamped them all.

  After a long time Roy chased the silence away, “They’re in a win, win situation. We win the race they get the money. We lose they get the money.”

  “So what do we do?” Alicia questioned.

  Joel stepped up, “don’t know about you guys but I don’t quit anything.”

  “I’m still in,” Alicia said without hesitation.

  Roy stood away from the computer, “Me too. With the laptop and all that.”

  Nadia nodded with a quick smile.

  The four turned to Tony. “Shit yeah! Let’s show them what us unwanted can do.”

  They all turned back to the job at hand with a new sense of purpose and determination. Even so, the answer to the clue still eluded them.

  “We got to get us a name,” Roy suddenly said excitedly. “How about Roy’s boys?”

  “If you hadn’t noticed we’re girls,” Alicia pointed out.

  “OK. Race Masters?”

  “NO!” the other four shouted.

  “The tribe of five? Kid crusaders?”

  “Roy!” Alicia yelled. “Could you stop trying to work out a name and start working on the clue.”

  There they stayed. A few guesses were thrown but none that fit or none that they were confident about. Time slid away from them. Away so fast that they all jumped in shock and disappointment when Dave announced that time was up as he stepped into the computer room.

  “Sorry guys, time to drop you all off at home.”

  Roy bowed his head, pressed his finger into the computer’s power button, sighed then let go. The screen evaporated into black and drowned out any chance of finishing the next leg first.

  The group dragged themselves in behind Dave and followed him out.

  No matter how hard they tried they came nowhere near solving the clue. But in seven hours and twenty one minutes when Roy will place his bookmark into page two hundred and fourteen of his book, Alicia flick her bedside lamp off, Nadia drop her head down over her desk in her bedroom writing a rhyme of sullen pros, Tony have his head buried in his pillow with a trickle of dribble oozing from his mouth to the thundering sounds of his snoring: Joel will travel into the bizarre and mysterious world that lies between awake and sleep. A world where great inventions are found, where unwritten books lay with pages open and ready to be copied, the place where Myths and legends are born. Joel will snatch at a golden butterfly passing by. He will look down, open his palm and see the answer to the clue written upon the butterfly’s golden laced wings. The word he started to say in his sleep but explode out of his mouth as he shot up in bed. “LIGHTHOUSE!” He’s scream sliced the still night air.

  “Hay?” quite in there I got work tomorrow,” came Joel’s dads reply out of the broken night then trail of into a mumble, “Lighthouse? I’ll show him a lighthouse. Stick him up one so I can get some sleep around here.”

  The silence slowly took control over the house again as Joel lay himself back down but not daring to fall back asleep, scared he would forget the answer come morning.

  Chapter 9

  “Joel you look like crap,” Tony said as they drove along on rout to the port lighthouse.

  Joel grunted, his head leaning against the car door window and his hand shielding his eyes from the piercing morning sun. “I was too excited. Couldn’t get back to sleep.”

  “See if you can get some sleep now,” Roy said concerned. “The lighthouse is a while away.”

  Joel curled up against the door and in no time he drifted off.

  Each of the others retreated into themselves.

  Alicia took out an mp4 player out of her bag and begun reading an E-book. Roy took out a physics book accompanied by a pad and pen and scribbled away. Tony sat transfixed on the world flashing by and Nadia fell into her own thoughts.

  The group awoke as their car pulled into the car park, a short walk away from the Lighthouse. They all immediately noticed four other Four-wheel drives already in the car park.

  “Not good,” Alicia said.

  Tony shook Joel, “Wake up. We got to move it if we want to stay in this race.”

  They turned the short walk to the lighthouse into a very short sprint. At the back of the lighthouse entrance Richard Bursik stood tall, arms folded. He greeted them with a nod as they approached, “Just made it, you’re the second last team.”

  “Second last?” Roy said, “Four cars plus ours, that means three teams have already left.”

  Richard nodded again, “You have a half hour wait. After that time one of you will go up to the top of the lighthouse, grab a coloured key then all of the team members will proceed into the old warehouse over there,” Richard pointed a finger over their shoulders.” Unlock the box with the same coloured key to receive the next clue.” Richard then glanced at his watch, “see you all in half an hour.”

  Joel yawned, “I know where I’m going to wait. “He turned and headed for the car.

  Roy strolled over to a wooden bench to continue his studies. Alicia sat opposite and read her mp4. Tony took a stroll to the edge of the docks overlooking the harbor. Old decaying buildings lined the right side and on the left new apartment buildings grew from the cleared land almost before Tony’s eyes.

  The salt was thick in the air but not in an invigorating way. The stale water tinged with industrial flow-off fouled the air. Tony watched the rainbow puddles of oil slosh over the surface.

  Nadia stepped beside Tony, “who was that man that you were talking to when we dropped you off at home yesterday?”

  Tony watched a puddle stretch into a snake then fracture into blobs. “He’s my grandfather. He stays with us a few days a week,” Tony sighed. “He use to live with us.”

  “Is he sick?” Nadia asked remembering the man’s frail appearance.

  “No, not sick…well yes, I guess so. He has Alzheimer’s.”

  “Oh, sorry.”

  The sound of the thick water slapping against the concrete dock wall seemed to get louder as they paused.

  “He virtually raised me. Mum and dad were alwa
ys working,” half a smile crept up on one side of Tony’s face. “Took me fishing, showed me how to service a car, carpentry you name it, he knew how to do everything,” the smiled quickly slid off his face. “But a few years ago he started to forget what day it was, then names and now everything. He can’t even remember ever being married. She did die a long time ago but still. It got so bad we had to put him in a home. But we get to take him home with us two days a week.”

  “Sorry,” Is all that Nadia could muster.

  Tony stepped up onto the one foot high concrete kick barrier that ran along the edge of the dock.

  “Be careful, you might fall in.”

  “Ahh, it's ok I know how to swim,” Tony said and started to walk down the length of the dock, arms out for balance. “My grandfather taught me.”

  Nadia walked with Tony, but a few feet in from the edge.

  “Is that why you act so...”Nadia paused to think of the right word.

  “Annoying?” Tony cut in.

  “No, free. Free from consequence, free from fear.”

  “Yeah I guess so. When you see that happen you relies how easily everything you know and work for can be taken away. Live everyday like it’s your first and last.”

  The pair strolled on.

  Tony stopped, dropped his arms to his side and hopped down beside Nadia. He fell into her eyes, “One day we were sitting at the dinner table and he must have had a momentary return of sanity and he started to cry, he must of realized what was happening to him but completely helpless to stop it. When he saw me looking at him he smiled and said in his thick Italian accent ‘I’m getting sick because all that I know, all my love for life is in you Tony. I have emptied all of it into your mind. I may not walk with you no more but together we will live side by side. I’ll always be with you.’ I miss him,” Tony held his composure, just. “I miss him.”

  Nadia dropped her eyes away and whispered in her mind I know how it can hurt.

  **

  “Go,” Richard Bursik called.

  Joel raced up the stairs towards the top of the lighthouse. The other four waited below. It wasn’t long before Joel popped back out of the narrow entrance without even shedding a drop of sweat, in his hand a large old style blue key. Just as they started to make their way to the warehouse the last team arrived. Richard could be heard telling them that they were eliminated.

  The team entered the old warehouse through a rusted galvanized door.

  The warehouse was about fifty meters wide and a hundred meters long. The walls were exposed maroon brick, chipped and cracked and discoloured from age. Dark wooden beams crisscrossed above holding up the old rusty galvanized roof. The smell of wool still strong in the air, soaked into the bricks over time.

  All the activity seemed to be going on at the far end of the warehouse.

  The group raced over, their footsteps echoed loud and crisp through the damp air. Thick blue mats lay on the cold concrete floor and above them hanging from a short piece of string tied to a thick wooden beam were various coloured boxes.

  “That must be ten meters up,” Roy said in disbelief.

  All four teams were huddled around four plastic tubs each in the same colour of their keys. Three tubs were overturned, the students crowded around, silent and in thought.

  Team Westshade moved over to a blue tub. Inside were various objects supposedly there to help them reach the boxes dangling above their heads. There was a rope, a staff, tape, a magnet and some thin string.

  Tony, Alicia, Roy and Joel dropped to their knees beside the blue tub and began sorting and suggesting.

  Nadia pulled away, still standing. Her eyes up. She followed the wooden beam to the wall where other wooden struts protruded a few feet out of the corner walls, remnants of some shelving removed long ago. Her eyes followed lower over broken and cracked bricks in the wall. She can make it she thought. She followed the path again, cracked wall, wooden steps, beam then box. Her battered confidence built up to point of forgotten clarity.

  “Yes I can,” she urged.

  Nadia clenched her teeth, stormed over to Joel who was still crouched on the ground. She reached over his shoulder and snatched the blue key from his fingers. The four were in such a loud heated discussion none noticed. Nadia took a deep breath and her small frame glided over to the corner. In one continues movement she hopped onto the wall placing her foot into a crevice and pushed off. She jabbed her other foot into another crack in the other wall and pushed off again then twisted around and caught a wood stump protruding from the wall with her stomach. Nadia somersaulted around the stump using her stomach as the pivot point giving her momentum to fling herself up onto another stump which she landed on with both feet. She leapt up again onto another stump, shooting her arms out for balance as she landed, settled she then jumped up and grabbed the thick wooden beam the boxes hung from. Nadia pulled herself up onto the beam. The frantic discussions below melted away into the walls where the smell of wool sheltered.

  All the students below now had noticed Nadia and aimed their eyes up.

  Nadia walked along the ten centimeter wide old grey beam arms out like a tight rope walker towards the blue box; second one in. She dropped backwards and caught the beam with the back of her legs and hung upside down to the gasps from students below. Hanging upside down she unlocked the box. Inside was a small blue disk the size of a fifty cent piece. She reached in and held on tight to the disc. Nadia’s thick curly hair pointed towards the quickest way off the beam, down.

  She kicked out her legs.

  As she fell she brought her legs back under her with perfect timing, she hit the soft mat feet together, back straight. Her feet sunk into the mat and with a little hop Nadia regained her balance. She adjusted her shirt and with a quick puff blew her hair away from her eyes. Nadia looked up and around the room which almost seemed brighter as all eyes wide and beaming white shone down at her with mouths gasped open. Time froze around her, nobody moved, nobody spoke. The spell broke when a key once protectively held tight against a student’s chest slipped out of his fingers and tumbled to the ground. The gentle sound of metal pinging against concrete shattered the silence and awoke everyone. The hollow warehouse filled with cheers and whistles.

  “WOOOOHHH! You were like Jackie Chan,” Joel cheered.

  Roy wiped his glasses on his shirt hem just to make sure they weren’t deceiving him.

  Alicia stood arms crossed hiding her astonishment.

  Nadia fought the urge to drop her head and blush. She looked straight at Tony and found comfort and strength in his stare. Nadia held her head high as she returned to her friends.

  Tony put a hand on her shoulder leant in and said, “you were incredible.”

  Nadia held her smile, opened her palm out on her outstretched arm and showed the group the blue disk. Alicia snatched the disk up and studied it closely.

  The disk was in a slight teardrop shape, a little thicker and bigger than a Fifty cent coin. Alicia tested the weight, “it looks plastic but is heavy for something so small.” She flipped it over and over and studied it closer, “I think there’s some little pictures on this side? They’re too hard to see because they’re so small. Roy give me your glasses,” Alicia snapped.

  Roy began to protest but to no avail Alicia snatched Roy’s glasses off his face and held them over the disk and squinted. The disk in her palm shrunk away. Alicia’s soft straight blond hair snapped back as she lifted her head, “you could have told me, Roy.”

  “I tried too,” Roy plucked his glasses back out of her fingers and pushed them back on, “I’m far sighted.”

  Alicia snuffed in defence.

  All the while Tony studied the object from afar. The shape and colour of the disk triggered a treasured memory in his mind. Tony stepped away from the group and approached a nearby team.

  The team of also three boys and two girls were working at their puzzle. The team wore a light blue and grey uniform; a shield displayed proud on each top, two vines on
either side crawled up and entwined above the black and white checkered shield, a Latin inscription underneath with the school name, Saint Philips. The team was in argument of who was going to try and emulate Nadia’s feat in retrieving the contents of the box, there were no takers.

  Tony approached a blond haired boy standing back from his team mates twirling a white bottle around in his hands. “Hey buddy, could I borrow your water bottle for a sec?” Tony asked.

  The boy spun around, “what?” he grunted. “Sorry I’m not going to let you drink from my water bottle,” the boy pulled away in disgust.

  “I don’t want to drink from it, just want a cap full.”

  The rest of the students from Saint Philips stood and turned to see what was going on.

  “No get lost!” the blond boy snapped with an insurgence of confidence inspired by the backing of his team.

  “C’mon, let me borrow some and I’ll let you know how to figure out the next part of the clue when you finally do open the box way up there.”

  The other two boys on the team stepped up and stood on either side of the blond, arms crossed and looking just like the two vines on their school emblem. Tony started to lose his patience and a thought ran through his head, a thought of entwining the two boy’s neckties together, turning the center boy black and blond and really making a real life emblem of their schools shield. Tony clenched his fists and his muscles tightened. He rose to his full height and looked down at the boy, “either way I’m getting your bottle. Hand it over and you can watch how I’m going to read the clue on the disk.” The three boys backed down. Tony clenched his teeth and moved closer, “Or I take it and all you will see will be the concrete floor.”

  The boy’s shaking hand slowly stretched out and he handed the bottle over to Tony.

  “Thank you…BUDDY!” Tony sneered and took the bottle. He returned to his team and ordered Alicia to put the disk on the ground. He then poured a few drops of water into his cupped hand, pointed his hand down and let the water rundown his fingers and onto the disk. The drops joined together on the disk to form a big bubble of water. Tony tightened the lid on the bottle and threw it back to the boy.

  “Now, Alicia take a look,” Tony said.

  Alicia held her hair back and leant down, “I can see it. Roy, pen and paper.”