James Winter: Beginnings, Page 2

  Chapter Two: The Transformat

  The weekend was fun! Today was Sunday and already they had visited almost all of the amazing and popular sites in the city. From zoos to cinemas to parks to stadiums and, Jones, who they had met a few minutes after their arrival, picked the most boring place ever; the History Museum, James felt like slapping his cousin there and then but Michel made up for it by taking them skydiving and today, they were going for mountain hiking.

  Michel and Nemo had gone to get the apparatus they would need. In fact, they had kept too long, and James stated this to Lucy through mouthfuls of the delicious South African breakfast.

  ‘Don’t worry’ his mother assured him, ‘Patience is a virtue’

  ‘Probably a little traffic, too ‘Jones said uncertainly.

  ‘Jones, did you just make a funny?’ Leo said.

  ‘Huh? What?’ Jones frowned.

  ‘Oh, never mind’ Leo said and he, James and Seli snorted into their Breakfast, much to the disapproval of Lucy.

  Then a car honked and they recognized the sound to belong to Michel’s car. James and his friends and cousin stormed out of the house to help Michel carry the hiking equipment. They picked one each of the four packages and cried out in unison ‘Mountain bikes!’

  ‘Yeah’, panted Michel, ‘You can use it to climb that mountain over there’ he finished, pointing at a plateau that loomed its head over the trees.

  ‘Where’s Nemo?’ Lucy asked suspiciously.

  ‘Ah’ Michel lowered his head sadly. ‘Well, apparently he was drunk and I didn’t know and he hit a cop’s car’

  ‘Oh, my!’ Lucy gasped. ‘Where’s he?’ she repeated again.

  ‘Hospital, I’ll pick him up later, after I get some breakfast’

  ‘You have to do something about him, Mickey’

  ‘Yeah, but I can’t just fire him, can I?’ ‘Nemo is special and-and close to me’

  By “special” James knew what Michel meant, how many humans could operate electronic devices including computers, cars, and any other electronic doo hickeys like how Nemo did? He was sure the answer was none. But by close, he didn’t really understand.

  James, Seli, Leo and Jones finished unpacking their bikes and sat on them, thanking Michel and slowly paddling towards the mountain.

  ‘Wait!’ Lucy shouted after them, ‘You haven’t finished your Breakfast!’

  ‘Whaaat? James asked, ‘We should have a good time? Don’t worry mum’

  And smirking, the four made their way up the plateau.

  The race was not going well for James-Leo was first, Seli second, he third and Jones obviously last; he wasn’t built for exercise.

  James had to think fast. He couldn’t let Seli pass him, a girl? No way!

  His eyes scanned the path in front of him and spotted a long, flat piece of wood, shaped like a diving board propped up against a huge rock, if he could ride jet speed on and over the wood, he could overtake the first two whilst airborne, landing in front of them at the top of the mountain, first.

  He had to hurry now; they were almost on top of the mountain. James paddled with all the might his leg could muster, then he shot upwards like a bullet on the slope. He was airborne for a moment, smirking at the people beneath him until his hand accidentally pushed the brakes, and he was propelled off the bike, somersaulting in the air and going down fast. He thought he was going to land on the edge of the mountain but he found himself going over and down, over the mountain. He was still sinking in the air when his hand miraculously found the edge of a rock attached to the mountain’s side. He hung in the air for a moment, not safe, but sound.

  A loud thud rented the air, followed by screeching and a girl’s scream, and Seli came falling over the mountain, like a dropping stone. ‘Seli!’ Leo screamed.

  James looked up in time and held out his free harm to grab Seli’s own and fortunately, Seli held it quick enough. ‘Gotcha’ he said in relief, clutching Seli’s hand tightly and she was gracefully hanging below James. One slip and they were in death’s arms.

  Seli’s bike came falling over the cliff seconds after, narrowly missing both their heads.

  James felt something warm flow from his knee down his leg and looked down to see his knee, bloody and sporting a hole of a wound on the surface, it was probably jagged by a rock and James hadn’t felt it then, rescuing the Damsel in Distress and all… But he was feeling it now!

  ‘Ok’ Leo said, peering down at them cautiously, but clearly relieved that his sister and best friend weren’t scrambled goo. He stretched out an arm, couldn’t reach James, and then bit his lip in thought.

  ‘James, you could swing Selina to the top!’ Jones said.

  ‘Are you sure?’ the other three chorused.

  ‘No’ James interrupted. ‘Too dangerous, Seli, climb me’

  Seli obeyed without hesitation and soon, James was holding Seli around the waist and she was clasping her arms around his neck. Leo held out an arm and Seli, pushed upwards by James grabbed it and soon she was safe.

  The rock James was holding onto was getting impatient now, it slowly edged off as Leo held out an arm to help James. Leo missed, and James started to fall but Leo pulled in at the last second and managed to clasp a substantial part of James’ sinking hand, pulling him upwards and hurling him unto the dirt.

  James felt a sharp pain course through his leg as he hit the ground and started coughing dirt.

  ‘You’re bleeding’ Seli registered, scanning James’ knee with her bright sea blue eyes, as if it will automatically heal him.

  ‘Here’ Leo said, tying his handkerchief around James’ knee.

  ‘Not enough’ Leo said after a few moments as he looked at the wound, now soaking the handkerchief and James heard fabric being torn as Leo ripped the hem of his shirt, tying it around James’ leg. ‘That should do the trick’ he sighed. ‘Until we get home’

  James nodded his appreciation and got up to go to his bike. Another stone tripped him and he ate the dust again, falling on his injured knee ‘Cursed rocks!’ he cried.

  ‘It’s not a rock’ Leo said.

  ‘So’

  Leo beckoned to the others to help him carry the thing, whatever it was, out of the ground. It was a heavy case. It was brown, a rusted brown and James guessed it might have been there for a while. They blew the dust of it and Leo opened it.

  A white ball of light zoomed out of the lock in the case. It shot into the air and hovered in front of James face. James showed no fear, no emotion- advice from his instincts- and after a while, the ball of light burst with a silent thud into a green screen with the word PASSWORD written on it. Below the word was a blinking cursor where the password was supposed to be typed with a virtual keyboard that had just popped up.

  ‘Man!’ whistled Leo, ‘There must be some serious stuff inside this thing.’

  ‘Yeah, good luck with typing the password.’ Seli said grumpily but joined in guessing the password anyway as they took turns typing whatever came to mind, each time ending up with the words Access Denied popping up red on the screen.

  ‘James, we better get your leg to the house before it gets worse’ Seli said after a while in a deeply disappointed tone.

  ‘Yeah’ James admitted, disgusted with the case himself. The others went grumpily to their bikes, ready to go.

  ‘Coming James?’ Leo asked because James was still trying to figure out the password.

  ‘After one last try’ James called back and entered Winter into the password bar. It was stupid, he thought, how his last name could unlock the case; he was just trying it out of desperation.

  He pressed enter and was ready to go when he glanced back and saw Access Granted.

  ‘Guys!’ he called to the others, ‘I did it, I unlocked it’ immediately the case opened with a click and the green screen crumpled into a ball of light again. It rose in the air once more but this time, it flew higher and higher, going north in a graceful arch until they could see it no more.

  Jame
s opened the case when the others crouched beside him. It was wonderful how his last name had opened the case. No, he challenged himself; it could be a mere coincidence, maybe the password referred to the winter season.

  ‘How did you do it?’ Leo asked, impressed.

  ‘I used my last...’ but James could not speak anymore, his mouth- his whole body had gone paralyzed to allow his eyes to swallow in the glorious beauty that lay in the case. His heart seemed to have missed several beats and his brain had frozen.

  Inside the case, lay four diamond shaped necklaces. They were glittering and bouncing the sun’s rays into the eager eyes watching. They glowed a soft red, attracting the people above to take it.

  Leo recovered from the trance first and quickly put one of the necklaces on. Jones did the same and when James was about to copy, Seli shook her head warningly. ‘You dweebs are about to take something you found on a mountain we were supposed to climb?’

  The boys gave her stunned, confused looks. Seli readjusted her statement. ‘Four necklaces, four of us, not too much of a coincidence?’

  ‘James, put the thing on’ Leo said. ‘Don’t mind her, she’s paranoid’

  James shrugged and even before he put the necklace on, Seli shrugged and put one on her neck too and James knew that deep inside, Seli thought it was beautiful. He put his around his neck. The thing warmed his skin up. He guessed it must’ve been because it was stuck in a tightly sealed case underground for years, probably. Then everything became blank and black.