One of the birds abruptly disappeared, leaving the other alone in flight. The lone bird landed next to Isabel and Kyle, but made no threatening moves toward them. It appeared to be injured, cradling its wing.
The sounds of screeches echoed away and were replaced by the sound of crying. It was the same sound she had heard coming from behind the door to the sheriff's office when she had been there earlier. This time, Isabel could tell that it was definitely a man's sobs and, if she wasn't mistaken, she recognized the choked voice of the man between his deep intakes of breath.
Again, she looked at the wounded bird. Was it doing the crying?
Without having to consult her book on dream imagery, Isabel finally had enough pieces of the puzzle to begin to understand what all this was about. Unfortunately, as she
watched the bird, she hadn't noticed that little Kyle had disappeared.
Running back to the hole, she saw something peeking up through the dirt. She fell to the ground, pushing the dirt out of the way to find Alex's face staring back at her. He was buried beneath the desert. His dead eyes were locked on her.
Isabel recoiled in shock.
It took her a minute to recover.
The pieces are beginning to tie together, she realized, but what am I supposed to do now?
180
Upon hearing the screeching tires of Max's car as it pulled up to the house, Michael ran out of Isabel's room. Running through the house, he had the front door open and he was |
at the ready to greet his friend and leader.
Pushing past the second in command, Max burst into his home and made a beeline for his sister's room without so much as a «hello.» Liz followed, trying to ease Jason's concerns without actually telling him why Max was in such an agitated state, which was difficult to do since they had just traveled north on 285 at double the maximum speed allowed by law.
«Who's the kid?» Michael asked in his typical gruff and unwelcoming manner.
«Who's the dork?» the kid shot back.
Michael smiled. «I like him," he said, and went to take his preordained place by Max's side without waiting for a formal introduction.
Not knowing what they would find in Isabel's room, Liz told Jason to stay in the living room and distracted him
with the TV and the Evanses' video collection. Remembering that he wasn't the little boy she used to know, Liz avoided suggesting the Disney classics in place of something he'd rather be seeing. Eventually, she just let him pick a film himself since she knew there was nothing in the collection that was too mature for his viewing. She warned him to stay where he was no matter what he heard, explaining that Isabel could be contagious and she didn't want him getting sick too. It was a little white lie, but partially true since honestly she didn't want him exposed to whatever could be happening in the other room. Once he agreed, Liz went to join her friends.
In Isabel's room, Max went straight to his sister's side, hardly bothering to notice his friends or the changes in the room's design. Taking Isabel's hand, he did the same check for fever, pulse, and breath rate as everyone else who had entered the room had immediately done. Like the others, he found nothing out of the ordinary-except that his sister still appeared to be in a coma.
With his hand still on her forehead, he closed his eyes and tried to make contact with her. He hoped that his healing power alone would be enough to save her, but he got no response. It was almost as if her mind was not in there to answer him back.
He reluctantly took his hand away, silently blaming himself for everything from having gone away for the weekend to being the reason they were stranded on Earth. Self-recrimination was always his first thought when anything happened to his family or friends.
«Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.»
It was that line from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2 that
often came to Max's mind in situations like these. He had never actually read the play, but he was familiar enough with the quote that he had heard one day in English class. Ever since he had found out that he was literally the king of his home planet he had truly come to understand its meaning.
And now I want to bring a child up in this mess, he thought, once again doubting his own abilities even though his apparent weekend success story was in the living room watching television.
«What happened to you?» Maria broke through his thoughts, referring to the dirty state of his still unchanged clothes.
«Long story," he replied.
Turning to Michael, Max's expression asked what to do next.
«Everyone take a point along the circle," Michael said, accepting the mantle of command. He passed out a stone to each of his friends as they filed into place, holding one for Liz until she came into the room. «Remember, all of our thoughts need to be with Isabel to bring her back.»
Kyle was the only one of the group unfamiliar with the ritual, since he had not taken part in it when Michael had been ill. That was back when Kyle was still considered one of the «bad guys," when, in truth, he had only been an innocent bystander. «What is it exactly that we're doing?» he asked, examining the stone that was placed in his hand.
«Restoring the balance," Michael abruptly replied.
«Oh.» Kyle was still totally unclear. «Okay.»
«Cliff's Notes version," Maria built on her boyfriend's non-answer. «Michael thinks there's something wrong
with the energy in Isabel's body. The stones carry the same energy. We concentrate on Isabel. We're taken to some higher plane of existence where we get her and bring her back.»
«Higher plane of existence?» He worried if where they were going was sanctioned by Buddha.
«Just concentrate on Isabel and you'll get back fine," she replied. «I hope.»
Kyle tried to ignore her last comment as Liz came into the room, immediately realized what was happening, and took her place on the empty spot along the medicine wheel.
Michael handed Liz the last remaining healing stone and picked up the bowl. River Dog had claimed that water was a substance the aliens and humans had in common and was used to bond them in the ritual. Taking a sip, he then handed the bowl to Max on his left. Max also took a drink from the bowl and passed it to Kyle, who went along with the ritual by passing it to Liz. The bowl finally ended with Maria, who placed it on the nightstand beside her, leaving a few sips of water in the bowl, figuring they might need it for Isabel when they revived her.
Now came the hardest part. River Dog had taught them all a chant to accompany the ritual. Although the phrase had been responsible for saving his life and thus the sound of it was permanently emblazoned into his mind, Michael was not familiar enough with the Native American language to know the exact words or their meaning. Sounding the words out carefully, he began the chant, hoping the pronunciation came close enough to the correct phrase. «Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH…»
He indicated to the others that they should join in, hoping it was their joined concentration behind the words that had mattered more than the words themselves, which he knew he was butchering by even attempting to recite them without a proper translator available.
«Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH…»
«Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH
«Taa-KAH-shalah BEY-ta-wa ah-]AH…»
They continued the chant, each reaching out to Isabel separately and together as one. With eyes closed, they tried to find their friend, restore the balance, and bring her back. Intensity crept into their voices as they continued to search for their lost member, without any response. But instead of images of Isabel, each of them only saw the darkness behind their sealed eyes.