Keeper: Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Jamie awoke bleary eyed and groggy. After he crawled into be sleep had rolled him under so completely that he didn’t think he moved the entire night. He stretched muscles that were a bit stiff. Next to his bed was his sketch pad and he picked it up.



“Longrin of the Fedalas line messenger of Queen Genivia,” he muttered, looking at the drawing. He flipped through the pages of sketches and studied the drawing of the scarred man from his dreams. He wondered how far dreams were to be trusted in this place. He thought of his last dream of Albe and how he was not certain he was really gone until he awoke.



“I understand learning on the job Albe, but you could have at least left a lit of what to expect in my first six months.” Jamie groused to himself as he dressed. On his nightstand his phone began to ring. Recognizing the Bandito’s song he had chosen for his brother, Jamie sort of snarled at the phone and left it to ring. Outside the rain had stopped but the sky was a sheet of gray that promised more would be on the way soon.



I wonder what is in the woods,” Jamie thought as he washed his face and got dressed. The phone stopped ringing. Jamie left it where it was and picked up his sketch pad before heading downstairs. Del seemed relieved to see him enter the kitchen.



“Had a bit of a lie in this morning?” Del said. He sliced a few pieces from the freshly baked loaf on the counter and placed them on a plate. He put the plate in front of Jamie and returned a moment later with a jar of strawberry jam which he set next to the butter dish. Jamie looked at the wall clock. It was only a hair past 7 o’clock.



“I suppose after yesterday morning most days start late,” he commented, spreading butter on his still oven warm bread. He noticed an envelope next to the butter dish.



“I expect so,” Del conceded.



“What’s this?”



“Confirmation,” Del said, turning slightly. “Your invitation to tea was accepted.” Both men glanced at the cabinet under the kitchen sink.



“Burr Iverson,” Jamie said. In the excitement of the night he had almost forgotten. Del nodded.



“Would you like some eggs to go with that bread?” Del was already reaching for the frying pan.



“No, thank you,” Jamie said. This will be plenty.” He didn’t add that this was more breakfast than Jamie usually ate as the brownie was frowning at him already. “Do you by any chance know anything about fairies?” He asked. Del snorted and swung the frying pan a few times like a tennis racket before hanging it up.



“Annoying little things,” Del said. “Tend to think they are better than the lot of us.”



“But are they trustworthy?”Jamie asked. Del started.



“They’d not lie to you. I wouldn’t be saying that. Least ways not straight out. But they are temperamental and inclined to think highly of their own worth.” Del paused. “Why?”



“One of them paid me a visit last night.” Del stared for a moment and Jamie could tell he was thinking hard.



“Odd,” he said sinking into the chair next to Jamie.



“Why? Don’t they visit the Keeper?”



“Oh yes they’d visit. Probably quite often and with many problems that they’d be after you to fix. But Like I said they have a very high self worth. Any one visiting would want to be seen coming in the front door and treated like a proper guest. I think it’s their size that does it. They are so small it is easy to think them cute and harmless and not pay them the respect they want.”



“So knocking on my window in the middle of the night would not be typical?”



“No,” Del said with a short laugh. It would not be typical.”

“Any reason why they would do it then?” Del thought about Jamie’s question and then shrugged.



“Why does anyone sneak in a back door in the middle of the night?”



“Because they don’t want to be seen?” Jamie answered thinking of one how he would sneak over to the house of one of his high school girlfriends.



“Or because they didn’t think they were high class enough to come in the front.” Del replied. Jamie thought of Robin’s father’s opinion of him.



“Always a possibility,” he admitted. “But somehow I don’t think that was the case.” Jamie related his experience with Longrin of the Fedalas line who came with a message from Queen Genivia. Del let out a low whistle.



“That lot wouldn’t think they shouldn’t come in the front door,” Del confirmed.



“Which means they probably didn’t want to be seen,” Jamie said.



“By who would be the question.” Del tilted his chin towards the sketchpad Jamie had brought down. “Is that her?”



“Yes,” Jamie said sliding the sketch pad towards Del. He added jam to his bread and began to eat while his companion studied the image.



“She has the look of the Fedalas,” Del said. “I knew her grandfather.”



“So how do you feel about a walk in the woods?” Jamie asked, polishing off his first slice and picking up his second.



“Risky, given recent events,” Del said. “However you aren’t going to find out much locked in the house.” He thought a moment more. “And well Queen Genivia might take it amiss if she risked a messenger to send you information but you didn’t bother looking into it. Do you know where the human cemetery is?”



“There is a map in the dining room,” Jamie said. I’m hoping it is marked there.” Jamie finished his bread and took his plate to the sink. Del shooed him away when he reached for the faucet to rinse it off.



“You go take a look at the map.” He was told. Jamie left Del to the plate and went into what had once been a formal dining room. Maps and papers dominated most of the table’s surface and random street maps and atlases were lined up against the wall. He was fairly certain Albe had a copy of every USGS Quadrangle map the government made. Jamie smiled as he looked remembering the games he and Albe would play. Jamie could almost see himself and Albe bent over one of the maps.



“No Jamie it isn’t enough to say the secret treasure would be hidden in the center of the city because it would be safest. You have to understand the people who built the city and what they would have thought about the artifact and what they were protecting it from.” Jamie smiled at the memory of Albe’s voice. The map he sought wasn’t on the table but pinned to the wall. It hung next to the large scale family tree. Glancing at it he saw names that were starting to become familiar. He smiled and turned towards the map. After a bit of scanning, Jamie found the cemetery. It was in a part of the forest Albe never really took him to. Jamie wondered if it was just the sadness that was kept there or if there was another reason Albe avoided it. Jamie placed his finger on the cemetery and traced a line due east. His finger encountered several squares and he wondered if they were old outbuildings.



“Only one way to find out,” Jamie said. He looked around the room and spotted what he needed almost immediately. In one of the corners slumped what Jamie always referred to as Albe’s adventure satchel. Jamie walked over and picked it up. It was nearly identical to the satchel Albe had left for him at the bank. This one however had the patches and stains that Jamie found familiar. He had been with Albe both when the bag had snagged on a rocky outcrop and torn and when Albe had patched it with a scrap from a worn out pair of jeans. Jamie set the bag gently onto of the map covered table, hoping not to cause a cascade of papers. He flipped the top of the bag open. Inside he found a compass, a water bottle, still half full, A notepad, a coil of rope, a flashlight, a set of colored pencils, a digital camera and one last item. This caused Jamie to let out a laugh of triumph when he pulled it out. Folded up was a waterproof version of the map on the wall. Albe referred to it as his field version. Jamie unfolded it and compared the locations. He could find the cemetery just as easily on the field version as he could on the wall mounted one.



“Excellent,” Jamie said. He folded the map back up and tucked it into the satchel. He slung the satchel over his shoulder and went to the kitchen. “There are rubber boots in the closet,” He told Del opening the storage closet off of the kitchen. There were several sizes of boots in there from the child sized ones Jamie had worn when he first started coming out here to the adult sized ones Albe always kept on hand for him. As a child Jamie had always been flattered that his boots, no matter what the size had always looked just like Albe’s. They were gray with black soles and a black band at the top. There were no choo-choo trains or sailboats. Now as he watched Del choose a pair that would fit his feet, Jamie realized they were designed so that no one would be insulted. He smiled to himself as he pulled on his pair. Del gave him an odd look as he straightened.



“What?” Jamie asked, adjusting the satchel.



“Nothing, it’s just that, well. You look like a Keeper.” Unsure what to say, Jamie didn’t say anything, which seemed to satisfy Del.



“The first of the visitors should be arriving around 9ish so we have some time,” Jamie said as they started off in the direction of the cemetery. Del nodded but didn’t say anything. He was busy scanning the woods and trying to look in every direction at once. To his gear he had added a stout walking stick that looked more like a weapon than a tool for getting over soggy ground. Jamie took a deep breath. He was beginning to feel an itch between his shoulder blades as though someone was watching him buit he tried to put it out of his mind.



The day was gray and the ground soggy from the night’s storms. Jamie could see patches of ice hiding in the shadows and in places his boots crunched over grass that had become brittle. They moved fast, Del’s caution and paranoia spurring them forward. Jamie’s eyes darted around the woods, picking up details. Here he saw an abandoned bird’s nest , stuck in a tree’s crook awaiting spring and a return of the next generation of hatchlings. There he saw a hole dug under the roots of an ancient oak to serve as a den against the coming winter. A few squirrels moved through the branches. They were fat and slow, the race to secure the last season’s harvest now moved in slow motion.



They crossed into the cemetery. It was planted around with boxwoods, neatly trimmed. The rows were neat and now weeds intruded. Jamie saw a rosebush and what looked to be a pot of rosemary. There were other pots and urns filled with plants that had faded to empty sticks for the coming winter but Jamie was not familiar enough with plants to identify them.



“It is well kept,” Del said, his voice hushed among the stones.



“Albe must have come here often,” Jamie responded. His tone equally soft. He walked past names he knew from the journals and from the family tree. Alexander, who drew the images in the field guide was buried next to his wife and their five daughters and two sons. Albe’s Grandfather had a tombstone carved to look like a tree stump. Jamie moved slowly among the dead. In the last row he found Eleanor and the baby who had died with her. The baby was named James. There were flowers placed on each of their graves, slightly withered by the weather. There was an empty space at the end of the row and Jamie decided that body or not, he would put a stone for Albe there. Jamie looked up from the graves to see Del standing at the edge.



“East,” he reminded himself and left the dead to sleep. Jamie and Del walked away from the cemetery and towards the east. They were moving slower now as they had no clue what they were looking for.



“Have you ever been out this way?” Del asked.



“No,” Albe never took me to this side of the property. He pause for a second, thinking. “But it looks familiar.”



“Familiar?”



“Yes,” Jamie looked around. He glanced back towards the cemetery, knowing he had never been there. He looked back towards the house and could see its vague outline through the trees. Jamie blinked hard. It was the same angle he had looked back towards the fire when the explosion occurred in his dreams. He transposed the image of the blasted ruin over the existing landscape.



“Yes,” Jamie said a little more confidently. He didn’t explain further but continued walking. He was now following the same path the five cloaked men had taken when they left to meet with the sixth. Jamie and Del were still moving due east. Jamie’s heart began to beat faster as they entered the same clearing. On the edge of the clearing, left as though it were simply old laundry was a pile of cloth. Jamie walked towards it and picked it up. He shook it out and found himself holding the same cloak the men had been wearing in his dreams.