Secret of Light (5 page)

Paris shook his head. “Hey, this is my problem and I'll deal with it, okay?” He looked from Kate's face to Darrell's. “Don't say anything to the principal. I'll handle Conrad.”

Darrell shrugged. “If you say so. I don't think it's going to help, though. Conrad's just going to get worse.”

“We'll see,” said Paris. He grabbed his backpack and led the way out the door.

The following Saturday dawned clear and cool with signs in the sky of a beautiful late October day. Darrell lay in bed looking through the large, curved glass window that formed a part of the tower wall. It gently distorted the view outside, magnifying the sky into an unending plane of pale, clear blue.

The door flung back on its hinges as Lily bounded into the room. Her wet hair was knotted into an untidy tangle on top of her head and she dropped a large pile of wet clothes and towels into a heap on the floor. “I can't believe you guys are still asleep! I've already been swimming for an hour and I'm starving.”

The smell of peppermint shampoo seeped through Darrell's sleep-muddled brain. She frowned at Lily's
back and peeked over at Kate's bed. A tousled red head emerged for a moment from under the covers and then disappeared under a pillow. Lily shook her head disapprovingly and glanced at her watch. “Kate Clancy, if you didn't stay up so late playing computer games, you'd be able to enjoy this beautiful morning.”

No response.

“Did you hear me, Kate?” Lily persisted.

A gentle snore was the only reply. Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. “Nothing's changed from the summer term, I can see.”

Darrell sat up in bed and mustered a weak smile.

“Oh, well. It's her loss. I'm going down for breakfast.” Lily threw a wet sock at Darrell, her good humour restored. “Join me?”

“No thanks. I'm still a bit sleepy. I think I'll wait for Kate.”

“Whatever.” Lily scooped up her laundry and headed briskly for the hall, closing the door behind her with a shade more energy than was strictly required.

“Is she gone?” The muffled words emerged from the tumbled pile of covers on Kate's bed.

“Yeah.”

“Thank God. She is altogether too cheerful in the morning. At least you need to have coffee before you start being so loud.”

“I'm never that loud!” Darrell replied indignantly. “And the good thing about Lily and her early mornings is she is always asleep before eight o'clock at night. Leaves us free to do other things.”

Kate emerged, rubbing her eyes. “Such as?”

“Well, the sun's out. Feel like a hike?”

Kate groaned. “First Lily, then you. Who's responsible for all this energy around here?”

Darrell swung her legs over the bed and reached for her prosthesis. “The truth is, Brodie suggested that we go back to the cave for a look around today. And it's finally stopped raining.”

Kate peered blearily through the window. “I should have known the fossil geek was behind this.” She glanced shrewdly back at Darrell. “Have you been planning this for long?”

Darrell shook her head. “Between homework and worrying about who Conrad is going to pick on next, I haven't had time to think about anything else. But Brodie suggested it last night, and, well, the idea has kind of grown on me.” She paused with her hand on the dresser drawer. “I even dreamed about it last night.”

“You did?” Kate suddenly looked a great deal less sleepy.

“Yeah. It was weird. I dreamt we went into the cave and when we came out we could all fly!”

“What's weird about that? I'm always dreaming about flying. I just put out my arms and soar. It's really cool.”

“Yeah, I have those dreams, too. But last night, we were flying some kind of strange machine. It looked like a kite crossed with one of those old-fashioned biplanes.”

“Okay, I guess that is strange.”

Darrell sighed and rubbed her eyes. “I dreamt Brodie was hurt, too. I think he fell out of the plane, or something. Anyway, he had blood on his face. So I'm glad Lily woke me.”

“Oh, you're probably just excited. That gives me bad dreams, sometimes. We haven't been back to the cave since August. I wonder if there will be any new glyphs.”

Darrell shook her head doubtfully. “I've been there since you have, remember? I met Professor Tooth there when I went back for — for a final look at the end of the summer.” She stared out the window at the pale blue of the fall sky. “I was so disappointed because there wasn't anything left. Just the burnt shapes of the three glyphs from the summer. Nothing else.”

“Well, it will still be fun to go back in there. Maybe Brodie can get pictures of the glyphs to send to his friend at the university. Who knows? We might be able to figure out how it all happened.”

Darrell smiled. “I doubt it. Glyphs that glowed and pulled us back through time? No one will ever believe us, let alone explain what happened.” She grabbed her towel and strode purposefully to the door. “Anyway, I want to go see the cave today even if only to remember how amazing it was. I'm going to have a quick shower first. Meet you outside in ten minutes.”

As she headed for the shower, Darrell caught a glimpse of Kate's head as it slipped back onto the pillow. She stopped in the doorway and listened to Kate's sleepy muttering.

“Ten minutes,” Kate said, her voice still gravelly. “Good. That gives me eight more minutes of sleep.” She pulled the covers over her head and sighed with contentment. Darrell laughed out loud and ran for the shower.
Darrell and Kate stood in the small garden behind the school, waiting for Brodie. Delaney lifted his head and sniffed the breeze, tail fanning gently. Kate's hair rose like a messy red halo around her head, contrasting sharply with Darrell's neat chestnut ponytail.

“Nice job with the hairbrush this morning,” Darrell teased.

Kate grinned and stuffed her hands in her pockets. “It's all Lily's fault. Her infernal cheerfulness drives me further under the covers.”

They were both laughing as Brodie stepped out of the side door of the school.

“Sorry I'm late,” he said, clinking, “but I wanted to be prepared.”

“That's the understatement of the year,” said Darrell, exchanging a glance with Kate. “The last time you lugged so much gear I lost you for a few days, if you recall.”

Brodie had a full pack on his back, a baseball cap stuck backwards on his head, and one of his new tap hammers clutched in his hand. The pack dangled with instruments, including small picks for rocks and fossils, a compass, several varieties of flashlights, and a small hurricane lantern. A large army knife was snugged into its pouch at his belt and a headlamp was strapped around the ballcap on his head.

“You look ready for a two-week trip to the Carlsbad Caverns,” Kate said, her eyes wide with disbelief. “All this to take a few pictures?”

Brodie grinned. “Always pays to be prepared,” he said, striding off across the lawn. “Are you guys going to wait around all day? Let's get going!”

Darrell and Kate caught up quickly and Delaney led the trio down the curving path to the beach.

“Thought you might be interested in a little conversation I just had with Mrs. Follett,” Brodie said, as they made their way down the steep path.

Kate raised an eyebrow. “An interesting conversation? That'll be a first. I don't think I've ever heard an interesting word come out of that woman's mouth. ‘Where are your registration forms, Ms. Clancy?' ‘Did you remember your inoculation records, Ms. Clancy?'”

Brodie grinned. “You are a nasty piece of work this morning! Must have had an early wake-up call from Lily.”

Kate stuck out her tongue as they stepped off the path onto the beach.

“Mrs. Follett doesn't have to be interesting to do her job as school secretary,” said Darrell. “Besides, she knows everything that goes on around here. What did she say to you?” Darrell turned to hear Brodie's story.

“I popped into the office to grab a field trip form, and Mrs. Follett was talking on the phone. I heard her say: ‘She's got to be somewhere. As soon as you find her, please have her contact the school.' I didn't want her to think I was eavesdropping —”

“Even though you were,” interrupted Kate.

“— so I cleared my throat as she was hanging up the phone,” Brodie continued. “She looked so startled to see me, I asked her if everything was okay, and she said ‘Of course it is,' handed me my form, and practically pushed me out the door.”

“So what's interesting?” Kate said, using the rocks littering the beach as stepping stones.

“I bet I know,” Darrell added. “It was Conrad she was talking about, right?”

Brodie nodded. “His mother, I think. His file was wide open on the counter.”

Kate stopped her balancing act on the rocks and planted her feet in the sand. “His dad's in jail and his mother's missing. Some life that kid's got.”

“Y'know,” said Darrell, her voice heated, “some of us have awful lives but don't turn into complete jerks.”

“I never said you were a complete jerk,” said Kate, grinning. “Just a little jerk, that's all.” She took off like a rabbit, leaping over rocks as Darrell and Delaney chased her down the beach.

Out of breath and good humour restored, they followed the shoreline, Darrell setting the pace with her unique hop-skip stride. Brodie struggled along beside Kate.

“For a girl with only one leg, you move pretty fast,” he said good-naturedly.

Darrell turned around and flashed him a grin. She dropped back beside her friends.

“I guess I'm kind of excited. Even though I know it's all over, walking this way still reminds me of last summer.”

“I'm
glad
it's all over,” said Kate. “I still don't understand most of what happened. We were very lucky things turned out as well as they did. Conrad might have caught you in the cave, Darrell, and his dad is a very violent man. It could have been a nightmare.” She glanced over her shoulder.

Brodie laughed. “You look as though you are expecting him to jump out from behind a rock,” he said. “I
checked. He's off on some kind of a family visit with his dad at the prison. He'll be away for the whole weekend.”

“Anyway,” Darrell added, “he's out of our hair for now. And there are no more glyphs on the cave walls. This is only a visit to get Brodie's pictures.”

They circled the last group of large, standing rocks and carefully picked their way to the mouth of the cave. A salty tang in the air came from a fresh breeze blowing off the water. There were a few difficult moments as Brodie discovered that his pack, even off his back, was too wide to fit through the narrow slit in the rock serving as the door to the cave. Darrell and Kate did a small amount of repacking and a large amount of grumbling while Delaney wagged his tail and barked his impatience. After several sweaty moments of effort, Brodie and his pack finally squeezed into the cave.

Once inside, Brodie switched on his headlamp and handed flashlights to the girls. They flicked on their lights and made a slow inventory of the cave entrance.

“Everything looks the same in here,” said Kate.

“Let's keep moving then,” suggested Brodie.

The temperature was warmer inside the cave than on the beach, but the air was dank and stale. Darrell walked along in silence, listening to the gentle echoes stirred up by their passage. The roof dropped lower as they neared the back. Brodie hunched his shoulders.

“You must have grown a bit since we were last here,” remarked Kate. “I don't remember you having to duck before...” Her words ended in a loud gasp, and she pointed at the cave wall. “Look!” she whispered. “There's a new glyph!”

Darrell and Brodie hustled over to the wall. Darrell cursed herself silently.
Why didn't I clean off the red chalk the day I met Professor Tooth in the cave?

“What do you think it is, Brodie?” Kate peered at the image in the beam of the flashlight.

Darrell stepped forward, hoping her suddenly reddened cheeks wouldn't show in the glow of her friends' flashlights. “Remember I told you I came back to the cave on the last day of summer school?” she asked. “I met Professor Tooth in here and she told me the school had been licensed and we could all come back in the fall.”

Brodie and Kate both nodded.

“Well, what I didn't tell you is why I came.” Darrell hung her head and fiddled with her flashlight for a moment, the beam zigzagging wildly along the walls. Kate reached over and took the flashlight from Darrell's hands.

“Let me guess,” she said quietly, pointing the flashlight at the new glyph. “I see a man, a girl, and a motor-bike with a flat tire.” She turned back and peered at Darrell's face in the shadows.

“You were trying to go back, right? To the time of your accident?”

Darrell nodded miserably. “I thought I might be able to change things — to have my whole leg again — to bring him back, maybe.”

“But you didn't draw the other glyphs, did you?” Brodie sounded puzzled.

Darrell shook her head. “No, of course not.” She traced a finger along the cool rock wall. “I brought
some red chalk I found in the art room. I was hoping the cave walls held whatever magic I needed to take me back. If I could find a way to harness the magic, maybe I could direct myself back in time and change my life to the way it should be.”

They stood silent, lights carefully directed away from Darrell's sketch. Brodie got out his camera and took a couple of pictures of the blackened glyphs, now little more than charred smears on the rock. “These are never going to turn out,” he complained. “There really isn't anything left to take a picture of.”

After a few moments, Darrell walked to the other wall and brushed the chalk dust off with her hands. Her sketch, already smudged, blurred into a red smear on the rock. She cleared her throat.