Seeds of Time (22 page)

Darrell, winded, still managed to be the first to sit up. She propped herself against the wall, and some colour returned to her face. She watched Kate shake her head, like a dog just coming out of the water, and heave herself onto her knees. Brodie was still out cold, with his hair sticking straight up and his face in the sand. She reached over and handed Kate a mint, than had one herself. She felt around and plucked a flashlight from inside Brodie's pack; the thin yellow light shone on their faces.

Kate was the first to speak.

“Well, I guess we made it back,” she said faintly, spitting a few grains of sand as she spoke. She turned and looked at Brodie as he started to stir beside her on the sand. “He looks as bad as I feel,” she muttered.

Darrell grinned. “You're not exactly the picture of beauty yourself.” She pointed to Kate's jeans, which were ripped at the knees. “Nice pants.”

Kate laughed. “This travelling is a bit rough on the clothing. I'm glad to have my jeans back after that skirt. The wool was starting to make me itch.” She ran her finger along the torn line of fabric at her knee.

Brodie groaned and sat up. Darrell and Kate grinned over at him as he stretched his stiff arms and grimaced at the nausea. He looked up but couldn't quite manage to smile back.

“I guess the walking wounded have all returned, safe if not sound,” he said in a low voice. Kate handed him a peppermint.

“I think it was a bit easier coming back than it was getting there,” Kate said. “I don't hurt quite as much as I did the last time, and I definitely feel less sick to my stomach.”

Brodie nodded. “I think you're right. The candy really seems to help. Maybe after a few dozen more trips, we'll get the hang of it.”

Darrell shook her head. “You've forgotten something,” she said quietly. “This is it. Tomorrow is our last day of school. Look at your watch, Brodie.”

Darrell directed the beam of the flashlight and Brodie glanced down at his watch. August 21. It was nearly time to go home.

Kate jumped up. “I can't believe it! How did this summer go so fast? I'm not ready to go home — I mean, I thought I wanted to go home — but — I don't know what I want!” She burst into tears and sat back down on the sand.

Darrell crawled over and patted Kate gently on the leg. When Kate's sobs had subsided, Darrell directed the flashlight at the wall of the cave. The light cast a pale yellow glow onto the wall. The last of the symbols had faded from red to black, and the cave wall was a smooth, blank face of sandstone marred only by three charcoal smudges.

Brodie spoke up, his voice dull. “It
is
over, Kate. The symbols are gone. There is nothing left to take us back.” He shrugged, and looked away from Kate, whose eyes were beginning to leak again.

Darrell sat up, adjusted her prosthesis, and retied her shoe. As she stood up, Delaney loped up to her, tail waving delightedly. He licked Kate's face as she struggled to get up and padded over to where Darrell was standing. He hopped up and planted his two big paws on her shoulders in greeting, and then spun back toward the entrance to the cave. Ears forward, tail wagging, he barked joyfully and bounded out of sight once more.

“His paw looks completely better,” said Darrell. She felt relieved to see Delaney looked like he had made
a full recovery, but her relief was tempered by sadness at the thought that their travels were over.

Brodie reached over and helped Kate up, and the three of them slowly slipped out of the cave.

“I guess it doesn't matter if anyone sees us,” Darrell said with a sigh. She looked around sadly as they walked up the beach. Dawn was not far away. Lights shone out of the kitchen windows at the rear of the school. Exhausted from their travel through the centuries, they climbed slowly up the winding path into the garden. Delaney curled up in a tight ball at the base of the arbutus tree and closed his eyes.

“I guess we all need some sleep,” Brodie said, nodding at the dog as he slipped in through the back door. “Good night, you two.”

“More like good morning,” muttered Kate as she and Darrell headed for the stairs.

The next thing Darrell knew she was being violently shaken up and down.

“Hey! Leave me alone! What's happening?” she cried.

“Wake up, Darrell! I have to talk to you RIGHT NOW!”

Darrell opened her eyes blearily to find Lily Kyushu staring into her face.

“I have news!” she said, excitement in every word. “It started last night and I tried to find you and Kate, but you were nowhere to be found.” She paused for breath. “Where were you, anyway?
I
wasn't going to tell on you but Andrea was worried and she told Professor Tooth, and with all the excitement and police cars and everything I thought she would freak out but she was really calm and anyway if you don't hurry up, you're going to miss it!” For emphasis, she jumped up and down a few more times on Darrell's bed.

Kate sat up, her red hair pointing straight at the ceiling, both front and back. She looked furious.

“Lily, would you SHUT UP? Darrell and I didn't get to bed until very late, early this morning really, and we need to sleep. So just GO AWAY, at least for a few more hours.” She lay back down and pulled the pillow over her head.

Darrell looked sleepily at Lily. “Normally, I would agree wholeheartedly with Kate, but did you say
police
?”

Lily looked smug. “Yes I did, and it is all because of me that they're here.”

Darrell sat up blearily and groped for her prosthesis. “Okay,” she said. “You'd better tell me the whole story.”

Lily giggled. “Throw on a coat, you guys. I'll tell you everything I know on the way down.”

Darrell hauled Kate out of bed, and the two girls grabbed their coats to cover their pyjamas. They followed
Lily down to the back garden, all thoughts of sleep forgotten. Many of the students were standing in the garden, staring down at the action unfolding on the beach. Lily waved at a police officer standing near the arbutus tree, and the officer walked up to Darrell.

“Are you Darrell Connor? I'm Special Constable Rene Arseneault. Please follow me.”

Darrell raised her eyebrows at Lily and Kate as they trailed behind the police officer. The sky was clear but there was an ominous line of clouds scudding across the horizon. The air smelled of salt borne on the wind. They made their way down the winding path from the school to the beach. Though the constable was silent, Lily chattered the whole way down.

“Remember when I told you that Conrad Kennedy had been buzzing by me in his boat? Well, it turns out that he wasn't just poaching crabs but he was smuggling, too!”

“Oh, yeah,” said Darrell. “Smuggling.”

“You don't look very surprised.”

“Ah — that's just because — ah — I'm sleepy.” Darrell tried to think more clearly. “Smuggling,” she said again. “I can't believe it!”

Kate spoke up. “Oh, so those white plastic boxes
were
his, then.”

Lily looked with a confused expression between Kate and Darrell. “How much do you guys know about this, anyway?”

Darrell shot Kate a warning glance. “Nothing, Lily, really nothing at all. It's just that you mentioned the boxes when you were bouncing on my bed to wake me up. Kate must have heard you say it then.”

Kate agreed hurriedly. “That's it, exactly Lily. I just heard you before.”

Lily looked puzzled. “I'm sure I didn't say anything like that. How ...” she interrupted herself with a shout. “Look! There's Conrad Kennedy on the beach.”

Still following the police officer, Darrell, Kate, and Lily made it down to the small cove near the rock face and the entrance to the cave. Constable Arseneault turned to Darrell.

“I believe you made a report earlier this summer with regard to illegal crabbing activities on this beach?”

Darrell nodded. “That's right. Only, I didn't actually make the report. It was my teacher, Mr. Gill. He promised to look into it for me.”

A roar filled the air. “Let me go! You've got the wrong guy, all right? Watch what you're doing!”

Darrell looked up to see Conrad Kennedy being escorted off a small boat pulled up on shore. The police were having some difficulty getting him to walk up the beach. From the loud banging and crashing noises on
the boat, there was clearly a struggle taking place in the small cabin of the craft as well.

Police officers finally managed to place handcuffs on Conrad and they walked him along the shore away from the boat, which now was rocking from side to side on the beach. Conrad caught sight of Darrell.

“Hey, Gimpy! I'm going to set the record straight with these guys. You're the one they want, not me. All I've done is catch a few crabs. You're the one who's always snooping around down here.” He turned to the officer escorting him. “The boxes you found don't belong to us, sir. That girl is always down here snooping around. They must be hers.”

There was a resounding crash from the ship and suddenly a man leapt through a window of the small cabin, shattering the glass. He rolled on the sand and to his feet in one smooth motion. He pelted up the shoreline at top speed, heading right for the spot where Darrell stood with Lily and Kate.

“Get down!” shouted Constable Arseneault to the girls.

Conrad started yelling too. “Dad! DAD! Don't leave me here, Dad! C'mon, Dad, wait for me!” He jumped to his feet but was quickly subdued by two large police officers.

Conrad's father, ignoring the calls of his son, easily leapt over a log and continued to flee up the beach.
He made a move to run past the girls, when Kate stepped forward.

“Going somewhere?” she said, and touched his sleeve.

The next moment, he was on the ground with both Darrell and Kate sitting on his legs.
Constable Arseneault pulled his arms behind his back and snapped on the cuffs she carried. She turned to Kate.

“That was a very dangerous thing to do.” Her hat had blown off in the chase and a wisp of hair blew into her eyes. “But thank you all the same,” she smiled. Two other officers hustled Mr. Kennedy over to where Conrad was sitting on the beach. Before anyone knew what was happening, Mr. Kennedy started to kick Conrad in the head and torso. He was swearing and spitting like a snake.

“This is all your fault, you miserable idiot! This is what I get for trusting a baby like you to do a man's job!” He managed to land another kick before the police officers got him down to the ground. They clipped his legs in irons, and the drama was over.

Kate looked at Constable Arseneault. “What is in those boxes? Illegal drugs? Laundered money? What?”

“It
seems
to be computer parts and software.”

“Really?” Kate brightened up. “What kind of parts? IBMs, Hewlett Packards, IMacs?”

Constable Arseneault smiled grimly. “I think I heard them say Atari.”

Kate began to laugh. “And the software?”

“Reader Rabbit, I think.”

Kate doubled over laughing, clutching her coat to cover her pyjamas.

Lily frowned. “What's so funny, Kate?”

Kate sat down on the sand, laughing hysterically. “Conrad was smuggling outdated game sets and,” more peals of laughter, “educational software!”

Constable Arseneault raised her hand. “It may not be as funny as you think,” she said quietly. “Those game packages were empty of games, but stuffed with heroin. And not only that, there is some evidence of human smuggling as well. Your classmate and his father have a lot to answer for.”

Darrell spoke up. “He's not our classmate, officer. He just lives nearby.”

Constable Arseneault nodded and jotted a few words in her notebook.

Lily frowned again. “Conrad must have been watching the beach when he was buzzing me while I was swimming!”

“Probably so. Thank you all for your help.” Constable Arseneault nodded politely and walked across the beach to join the other police officers.

Darrell shook her head. “No wonder Conrad is
such a bully,” she said. “With a father like that, anyone would have a problem.”

“Yeah,” Lily agreed. “The policeman I spoke to said his father would probably go to jail and Conrad will get sent to a special school. He will have to go and live with his mom anyway, and she lives in Ontario.”

“Well,” said Kate, still grinning, “I guess that's the last we'll see of him. It's too bad, in a way. I really enjoyed practicing tae kwon do with him.” She chuckled. “His dad was pretty good at it, too.”

They looked back to the shore, where three police officers each escorted Conrad and his father up to the squad cars parked in the driveway of the school. Conrad's father was still spitting and swearing as they carried him up, but Conrad, who had been allowed to walk, turned and looked back at Darrell. His face was livid. He didn't say a word, but bared his teeth and turned away.

After breakfast, Darrell, Kate, and Brodie walked down the hall, looking worn and tired. Mr. Gill stepped out of the office and caught sight of them.

“Ah, just the people I have been looking for,” he said warmly. “Darrell, Brodie, Kate, could you come into my office for a moment, please?” Brodie and Darrell exchanged startled glances as they followed Kate
into Mr. Gill's office. Kate glanced back at them in alarm. Had they been seen on their return this morning? Brodie shrugged one shoulder at the question in Darrell's eyes. What did it matter now, even if they had been seen? Summer school was over. This afternoon they would pack the last of their things and tomorrow was the day to go home.

Mr. Gill turned smoothly to Darrell. “I want to thank you for completing your self-portrait, Darrell.” His eyes twinkled. “I do believe you have successfully emulated the style of a somewhat well-known aritist ... Leonardo da Vinci, if I am not mistaken?”

Darrell coloured a little and ducked her head to hide her smile.