The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival (38 page)

“Dad!” Tracy trotted across the hall to Matt.
She did a double take on Telia. “Mom?! Wow. What’d you do to your
hair?”

Telia grabbed Tracy and hugged her hard and
kissed her all over her face. “I missed you, Tracy!”

“Well, you should have thought about that
before you sent me here! I’m thinking about getting a tear tattoo
and making some Pruno in my dorm room.”

Telia laughed at her joke. “Oh Honey, you
were totally right!”

Tracy regarded her with suspicion. “”Um,
about what?”

“It was foolish to send you here against your
wishes. I was wrong.” She shrugged. “Please forgive me.”

“Well, yeah…” Tracy said. Telia hugged her
again.

Telia gestured at the room. “There’s nothing
here that you can’t get at home. Really, I hadn’t appreciated how
special our family is.”

Tracy looked at her. “Mom, you look totally
different. This outfit is bad
ass
!”

“Mom’s still got it, eh?” Telia smiled
slyly.

“Yeah, people are
looking
at you.”
Tracy said out of the side of her mouth.

“Good!” Telia pinched her cheek like she was
a baby. “Hey, let’s go talk to Bethany’s mom.”

Heather Madher was holding court by the bar.
She had a martini in one hand and had the other hand on her hip.
She was wearing a classic black cocktail dress, and had a sixties
style hairdo with a white headband. She looked a little like Dianna
Rigg’s character Emma Peel from
The Avengers
. She was an
actress that had been in a string of successful TV shows in the
90s, and then got married to Charles Harris Madher IV, who was the
son of wealthy Cleveland shipping family.

Her face lit up as Telia and Tracy entered
her circle. “Tee, I
love
that ‘do!”

“Yours too. Very
mod
.”

Heather made a shooting gesture at her, then
blew her fingertip like smoke was coming out. “Exactly. I’m working
on a character.”

“Where’s Charlie?” Telia asked.

Heather waved a hand dismissively. “He’s in
Florida doing something with coral reefs. Playing scientist.”

A band started playing. Heather whispered
into Telia’s ear, “Bethany’s gonna sing next.”

Telia recognized the opening strains of
La
Vie en Rose
. Bethany Madher took the small stage at one end of
the hall. The lights fell and a spotlight shone on her. When she
started singing, the entire room became attentive. Her voice seemed
impossibly mature and each lyric was dripping with genuine emotion.
When she belted out the refrain, goosebumps rose on Telia’s arm.
Heather was rapt.

When the song finished the room exploded in
applause. Bethany bowed deeply and kissed her hands and saluted the
audience.

“Oh my god!” Telia said to Heather. “That was
an incredible performance.” She dabbed a tear away from her
eye.

Heather was sniffling. “She’s been working on
it for weeks--that one song. She stayed with her voice coach in a
Paris apartment for a month. How’s
that
for a French class?
What an amazing experience!”

“Heather, I had a completely amazing
experience of my own just a few days ago. I thought you might be
into it.”

Heather’s interest was piqued. “You do seem
completely
different. I can barely keep my eyes off you,
girl. I was gonna ask what you did.”

Telia smiled and stroked Heather’s arm. ‘If
you’ve got a few minutes this weekend, I’ll show you.”

“I’m intrigued, I’ll admit. OK. Text me the
deets later. I’m going to go mingle.”

Tracy asked, “What life changing experience?
I’m so far out of the loop!”

“You are! Why don’t you come home for the
weekend? Robbie’s home and he has a new puppy.”

“What about class tomorrow?” Tracy said.

“Meh, it can wait ‘til Monday” Telia said.
“This is going to sound so lame, but I never really realized, deep
down realized how important our family is.”

Tracy smiled deliriously. “A puppy! What’s
its name?”

“The dog’s named Perry.” Telia looked around
and sighed. “This place does have amazing opportunities, but so
does home.”

“I half expect this
OWK
to arrive in
the form of a crow that transforms into a man.” Robbie said.

The entire gang was waiting in the library.
Amy and Tracy were on the floor playing with Perry. The rest of
them were sitting around the table. It was a somewhat overcast day,
and they’d turned on every light in the room to compensate for the
dimness. The bulbs in the room were a pleasant, warm color, and the
sun lamp on the second floor wall was shining a cheery yellow.

“We could be waiting all day,” Matt said. “I
guess there’s not room on a crow message to put a date or
time.”

Dana said, “you have to admit, though, you
can’t really beat a crow message for drama.”

Matt chuckled. “No doubt. Is it too early for
drinks?”

Robbie said, “Well, no, but we might all be
too drunk to listen to this guy. I’ll stick to coffee for now. I’ll
go fire up a fresh pot.”

Amy said, “I’ll go make it, I watched you
last time.” She got off the floor and went into the kitchen.

A taxi rolled down the driveway.

“That’s no crow.” Johnny said.

Matt and Telia went outside and waited for
the man to get out of the car. He had thin white hair that whipped
around in the autumn breeze. He wore a tweed three piece suit and
put a hat on against the chill. He pulled a small suitcase from the
back seat of the car.

Matt and Telia greeted him. Matt said,
“Hello, I’m Matt Wells and this is Telia. This is our family’s
farm. Can I help you with anything?”

The man paid the driver with a wad of cash he
had in his breast pocket. Then he patted his pockets. “Passport,
keys, wallet. Good.” he smiled. He had kind, light blue eyes, and
expressive bushy white eyebrows. He looked in the taxi to make sure
he hadn’t forgotten anything then closed the door and the driver
left. “Hello, I’m Owen Wells Kearnby. I think we’re distant cousins
on my mother’s side anyway.” he had an English accent, and spoke
from his chest and throat.

“Where did you travel from?” Telia asked.

“I live in Wales.” He looked around. “I flew
out of Heathrow. Spent the night at the airport hotel.
Dreadful!”

They walked inside and he introduced himself
to everyone, including Perry. Matt showed him to a room so he could
take a nap before they chatted. They put out a spread of meat and
cheese and bread and cracked open some beer.

Owen found his way into the library. “Oh my!
This is an amazing room. My family has a similar collection, but
the books fit inside an old cedar chest.”

Telia asked, “Owen, how did you find us?”

He smiled, “we have a mutual friend, of
course. Samantha told me to come here a few days ago. It is always
so intriguing to meet others who share this experience.”

Matt said, “Owen, we’re all wondering how you
cross over?”

Owen smiled. “When I was seventeen, I had a
crush on the most beautiful girl in my town and I pined after her.
My mother told me I could have her if I asked for the help of
Samantha.”

Telia raised an eyebrow, “Oh really? How did
that work.”

Owen continued, “Mum gave me a fairly
ordinary piece of polished copper. I looked into it and reached out
with my mind and thought about my girl. Her name was Jean.” He
sighed at her memory. “So I did, and to my complete amazement, I
saw Samantha looking back. At first it was just a dim glimpse, like
a face in a cloud. But with practice, it became clearer and
clearer.”

Telia and Matt looked at each other with
recognition.

Owen said, “Samantha helped me court Jean.
But really, the point of the exercise, of course, was for me to
make contact. My family’s been doing it for generations.”

Matt said, “Really. Does it go all the way
back to John Dee?”

Owen nodded, “Yes, yes, yes. Our
involvement--your family and mine--does anyway,” he gestured around
to the room, “They were members of that circle.”

Robbie said, “Our great-great etcetera
grandfather came to America to escape the fallout.”

“I guess Wales was far enough for us!” Owen
laughed.

Robbie scratched his beard, “I wonder how
they were related at the time?”

Owen closed his eyes, “Let me ask.” He opened
them again, “She says my ancestor was your ancestor’s younger
brother. Samantha lost contact with your branch of the family until
you two reached across.” he gestured at Matt and Telia.

Telia was startled, “So you just close your
eyes and talk to her?”

Owen smacked his hands on his thighs, “Oh I
wish it were that simple. I explored the other worlds for years
using that copper plate, but over time, I found I could cross over
just by closing my eyes. Unfortunately, I also found Samantha can
also talk to me at any time, which, as you might imagine can be
fairly inconvenient.” He sighed.

Matt said, “Samantha called you an
emissary
. I took that to mean there are others, an
organization?”

He rolled his eyes. “Emissary? She’s always
so grandiose.” He stood up and paced the room. “I’ll attempt to put
your experience in context. Have you ever watched squirrels, I mean
really watched them?”

There were blank looks all around the room.
Tracy had barely been paying attention, but finally spoke up,
“Yes!”

Owen smiled, “Me too. Imagine the squirrels
in your neighborhood are all members of different families. Imagine
each family has a human trainer. Only a handful of the families can
even take the advice offered by the human, and then fewer really
are
aligned
with the advice given. For example, one human
teaches organization, how to keep track of nuts and plan for
winter. Another one teaches how important knowledge is, another
teaches how to dance and sing, another one, how to fight, and so
on. Individually, the training is not
supremely
useful. The
organized squirrel family gets robbed by the violent one, or
barring that, their life is exceedingly dull and gray without
songs, just lists and lists.”

Robbie nodded, “I think I see where you’re
going with this, we have some of the history here, well, the human
history anyway.” He pointed to one of the rows of shelves.

“Oh good.” Owen said, “I can give a more
succinct explanation. Samantha and Louis are very, very old.
They’re actually one being, at least I think so. Together, they’re
basically
knowledge
. Our family is obviously aligned with
them.”

They all nodded. Robbie said, “that makes
sense… So what really happened in England?”

Owen continued, “Well, the story goes back
further. As I was hinting, the shortcomings of one
type
can
be mitigated through alliances. However, the alliances are
necessarily very fragile. Imagine the knowledge seekers combining
with the fighters.” He bumped his fists together. “Oil and water.
They both can only see each other as a means to an end. That’s the
broad brushstrokes view...” He held up a finger to indicate he was
in the middle of a new thought and took a sip of beer.

His eyes hardened as if he were staring off
into some impossibly remote distance. He spat the words, “The more
detailed picture is a
list making bureaucrat
tapped into a
deep primal power and started to feed the gods and mankind to this
thing
.” He sneered. “The alliance that sparked the
Renaissance blew apart. Samantha had been central to the defeat of
the Roman coalition, but was ousted.”

Telia looked to Matt. His eyebrows were
knitted together in concentration. He said, “I know what she
wants…”

Owen smiled slyly. “Of course you do.”

Telia was in the dark, “What does she
want?”

Owen sat down again and gestured to Matt.

Matt looked at Johnny, “She told me already.
Johnny and I created a thing that can tip the balance of
power.”

Owen nodded, “Precisely, and she wants you
back. All of you.”

Robbie leaned forward on his elbow and tapped
his fist on the table as if forging his thought. “I am intrigued by
what Matt’s been doing, no doubt,
but
,” he drew out the
word. “I believe my family didn’t lose touch with this entity
Samantha by accident, rather they abandoned the whole game as a
dead end.”

Owen sniffed and frowned slightly, “Possibly,
however, I quibble with your characterization of this struggle.
There’s no abandoning it--it’s part of life.”

Robbie nodded, “I concede that point, perhaps
a better phrase would be that my family went down a different road
in pursuit of the same goals.”

Telia asked, “What does it mean to ‘come
back’?”

Owen smiled warmly at her. He gestured at her
and Matt, “For you two, it is literally a coronation.”