The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival (44 page)

Rich pounded his fist on the table, “Keith,
it’s our duty to confront this shit. If we don’t who will?”

Keith rubbed his face with his hands.
“Dammit, Rich! I hope you’re right. You need to keep me informed
every step of the way, now, and you really need to be careful.”

“I’ll let you know what happens. I’m going up
there now. I need that evidence.” Rich said. Keith handed over the
photos and his binder. “Keith, you did excellent work. You’ll get a
bonus. I’ll bring it over later.”

“OK. I guess I’m done for now. Give me a
call. I’ll probably be at home today.”

Four Years in the Past

Matt and Telia sat with Robbie on the patio.
He was still in a daze as they continued to unload on him.
Everything they’d worked on for years was suddenly moot.

They were waiting for the lawyer and banker
to arrive.

“I don’t want Tracy to be spoiled.” Telia
said. “She shouldn’t get the money until she’s able to handle it. I
won’t put an age on it. I leave it up to you. Make her work, get to
understand the value of it.”

Robbie said, “I just can’t believe this is
actually happening.” He tossed his cold coffee out of the cup onto
the ground, then tossed the cup at a tree. It popped into
fragments.He put his hands on his head.

“Neither can I.” Matt said.

Telia wiped a tear from her eyes, “Tracy’s
smart and strong. She’ll be OK.”

“You really want me to take care of her?”
Robbie said.

“She’s pretty independent already. She got
used to being away from home at Tweedy.” Matt tried to rationalize
it. “Besides, who knows how long we’ll be gone.”

“Bullshit, Matt. These assholes work on
projects for hundreds of years.”

“But maybe it won’t be dangerous for long.”
Telia said hopefully.

“Maybe not.” Robbie brightened a bit. “Look,
I guess we won’t know for a while, but I’m going to hope for the
best. I am not going to let her think you died.”

Matt nodded. “That’s good, but we’ll be out
of touch for who knows how long.”

A black car pulled into the driveway. Two men
got out. Both of them were wearing three piece suits. Their hair
was styled and they were both clean shaven and fit.

They were incredibly quick with the business.
A corporation had been set up in Robbie’s name. It had $10 million
dollars in assets, stock, cash, real estate, and precious metals.
He signed a few papers. The banker notarized them and they
left.

Matt said, “Hey you’re a millionaire!” The
joke fell flat with Telia and Robbie.

Robbie picked up the folder the men left with
him and went into the house.

Matt said, “I’ve got to do one more
thing.”

Matt knocked on Tracy’s door, “hey girl!” she
was laying on her bed, reading and listening to music on
headphones.

“Hey Dad!” she took the headphones off. She’d
been home for days and was loving the time away from school.

“I have something to teach you.”

Telia sat down on a chair. “How does this
work?”

Matt said to both of them, “Before there was
writing, people passed knowledge along with stories and songs. It
sounds so poetic and imprecise, right?”

Tracy nodded. Telia shrugged, “I guess.”

Matt said, “They also had techniques for
passing along perfect, precise information about complex subjects,
basically whole worlds of knowledge that could be folded up and
tucked away in memory.”

Tracy said, “That’s cool. So, why do we go to
school?”

He grinned, “That is a really good question,
right? Well, this technique is not well known. It used to be a
secret. People liked to control information, because they used it
to control people.”

“That’s not nice.” Tracy said.

“No it’s not.” Matt said. “But that’s the way
some people are.”

“OK, well, that’s cool, thanks for sharing
with me, Dad.”

He laughed, “Well don’t thank me, yet,
because I’m going to teach you The Library. Actually, I should
probably apologize because this will be so weird.”

Tracy narrowed her eyes, “Weird? What do you
mean?”

Matt said, “Unfortunately this technique is
the only one I know that actually works. We’ll basically build a
map in your mind, but it won’t make any sense, maybe for years. You
won’t even recall this session until your mind has fully digested
it.”

Tracy asked, “I don’t understand…”

Matt said, “That’s alright. You will someday.
Anyway, this will take a couple of days, sorry.”

There was a pep rally in the gym. The
Hilltopper marching band was impossibly loud and the antics of
Topper fired the crowd up into a frenzy. The football team was
presented. Richard and Berto were co-captains of the team, and they
were also on the homecoming court. Richard wore his knit cap and
mirrored sunglasses and had a candy cigarette hanging from his lip
in studied indifference to the proceedings. Berto wore his letter
jacket over his jersey and joined in the ceremonies. He presented
the homecoming court with a little funny, charming, but slightly
off color story about each.

He put his hand on Richard’s shoulder, “This
is my buddy Richard Golden. I ‘member in elementary school our
teacher, Miss McLeland read through the list of names, last name
first. She says, ‘Golden, Dick’ and the whole class laughs, but
even back then Richard was just too cool for school.” The audience
chuckled. Richard bowed and there were whoops and howls from the
rest of the football team, “GOLDEN DICK, GOLDEN DICK, GOLDEN DICK.”
they chanted. Berto calmed them down.

He presented the girls. They were standing in
a row, all wearing red gowns and beaming at the crowd. Berto
started with Penelope Bruce, she was a special education student
with Downs syndrome. He gave her a hug, and worked his way down the
line. There were ripples of laughter, applause, whoops and catcalls
as he told their stories. He was a natural. The crowd was hanging
on his every word.

The red gown was giving Chloe flashbacks to
the basement of the Old Stone Hall. She tried to ignore the
memories, but her pulse was racing. She was working hard to keep
composed. Berto saved her for last.

He started the story, “I don’t like to brag,
well, I
do
like to brag.” the crowd laughed, “I have a shot
at breaking the state record for the hundred this year, something I
worked for every day these past four years,” the students
applauded, “But I had the misfortune to be in a footrace with Chloe
and Richard at the Wells farm. This girl blew my doors off--I was
running my hardest--for her it was like a Sunday jog in the park!
I’m pretty sure if we put football pads on her, she’d tear up
Lincoln High like they were tissue paper!” the room whooped and
stamped the bleachers. “But she’s got it all, grace, beauty, and
intelligence, miss Chloe Marte.” The crowd applauded and
whistled.

She was relieved it was over. She wiped her
brow with her hand. The court walked out of the gym to have
pictures, yet again.

Tracy asked her, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, flashbacks, weird flashbacks. The
energy here is more positive, not as creepy, but still, this is
very weird to me. Standing up in front of everybody as what? A slab
of meat? An idol?”

Tracy agreed, “Yeah, plus I didn’t think it
would be so much work. Don’t worry. People will forget all about
this tomorrow.”

“I can’t wait to get it over with.” Chloe
said. She sipped a bottled water.

“The parade should be fun, anyway. So
cheesy!” Tracy laughed. “I can’t wait to get out of this fucking
gown. My tits are chafing.”

Chloe guffawed, “You’re all class baby! I am
literally taped to this. I hope my sweat doesn’t make it slip or
I’ll be holding it up all night.”

Tracy whispered, “I think I actually like
Richard.”

Chloe smiled slyly, “Ohhhh. That bad boy
thing getting to you?”

Tracy said, “He really just doesn’t give a
shit about this. I asked him why he said,” she imitated him, “Brah,
there’s dudes surfin’ in tahiti right now.’”

Chloe chuckled, “That was good. Hey Richard,”
she shouted, he walked over. “She can do you.” She winked at
Tracy.

“Oh god, thanks for that, you subtle chica.”
Tracy shoved her.

Chloe said, “Do it again.”

“Brah, there’s dudes surfin’ in tahiti right
now.’” Tracy said again.

“Dude!” he high fived her, “That was classic.
But man, there
are
, and we’re
here
. We’re getting
trotted around like slabs of meat and cheesecake. If I get my
picture taken again, I think I’ll go blind.”

Tracy slapped his butt football style, “Tough
it out.” She laughed.

He slipped the sunglasses down and eyed her.
“I’ll see you tonight, Wells. I gotta go ball now.”

Chloe stifled a laugh until he was a few feet
away. “He is cool. Like he studied the cool book and took some cool
classes. I’ll give him that.”

Tracy said, “Well let’s go do this parade
already. I’m tired of sitting and waiting.”

The cars lined up in front of the school.
Local businesses sponsored some floats. The girls and boys had been
separated onto two flatbed trucks. The boys sat on bales of hay
that surrounded a giant plaster hilltopper statue. The girls were
on a truck that had corn stalks and wheat sheafs. Chloe and Tracy
kept doing their fake royal wave like automatons, and would
occasionally burst out laughing. Monica Merchant took her role
seriously and kept giving them dirty looks.

The marching band fired up a drum cadence and
the truck lurched forward. All the girls stumbled a couple paces,
“Whoa!” Tracy almost fell. Chloe grabbed her. “My tittie almost
popped out!” Tracy said. Chloe laughed hysterically.

Monica said, “Would you guys shut up? You
might not take this seriously, but some of us do.”

“Fuck you, Monica.” Chloe said bluntly. “If
you take this seriously, you’re seriously deluded.”

“It’s a tradition. It’s important.” Monica
managed to say, even though she was afraid of Chloe.

“Bitch, I’ve got one thing to say to you. If
you fuck with my car again I’ll kill your ass.” Chloe snarled. Her
temper was rising.

Tracy grabbed her shoulders, “Whoa! Easy
tiger. Chill. Just do this.” Instead of waving at the crowd she
held up her middle finger and waved it at Monica.

“Geez, you guys are weird.” Monica tried to
ignore them.

The parade plodded along the route. People
who were walking down to the stadium from around town stopped a few
minutes to watch it go by. Richard was sprawled on top of the bales
of hay soaking in the rays of the autumn sun. He was almost
asleep.

The parade made its way around the square.
Chloe noticed a set of black cars were parked inside of some
traffic cones and there was a group of people gathered inside the
cones. She recognized Morgan. “Holy shit,” she gasped to Tracy,
“look.” she pointed Morgan out.

Morgan was arm in arm with Demetria. She was
wearing a clinging golden gown that was slit all the way up to her
hip. She was flanked by girls in white robes. A crowd had
congregated around them. She and Morgan walked out in the street
and her driver Mike stopped the parade by stepping in front of the
truck.

Morgan helped Demetria climb up onto the back
of the truck and Morgan hopped up after her.

“Tracy and Chloe, this is Demetria.” He
said.

Demetria wiped a tear away and hugged each of
them tight. They were a little dazed. “Sisters. Oh, you are such
bright visions. You are stunning, both of you. You do your town
proud.”

They gaped at Morgan. He said, “I’ll try to
explain later. We’ll be at the game and the dance, so I hope we can
catch up.” He helped Demetria down. They stepped away from the
parade and Mike let the truck continue.

The other girls looked at them quizzically.
Chloe just shrugged. Monica said, “Was that Steve’s cousin?”

Tracy said, “I don’t think
that
was
Steve’s cousin!”

As the parade continued, everyone in the
procession tried to get a look at Demetria. She waved and blew
kisses to them all. The kids who really got a good look at her or
caught her eye smiled dreamily.

After the parade passed, Demetria greeted the
crowd. She shook hands with men, hugged women and children and
patted dogs on the head. Then they piled into the cars and drove in
a slow procession to the field. All eyes in the crowd followed
them.

Demetria’s staff cleared a central row of the
bleachers. She stood at the end of the row and greeted all the
parents and family who’d been ousted. Their angry faces melted into
smiles and somehow they felt lucky to have been displaced. A
younger couple worked their way down the row to her. They had a
five year old boy.

“Oh he is so handsome, just like his father.”
She brushed the boys cheek. He smiled at his parents. They beamed
back.