The Legend of the Firewalker (7 page)

4

PARTY’S OVER

Nathan passed by LaDonda and Roy on his way out of the room.  He could tell by the perplexed looks on their faces that they were curious as to why he was in such a hurry. He was pleased that neither stopped him because he was way too embarrassed to stick around, and he didn’t want to relive what had just happened by having to explain it to them.

He kept his head down low, and his hands continued to tremble uncontrollably as he bolted towards the front door of the Devaro Mansion. He was outside now and the summer
night air was cool.
What is wrong with me?
he worried, taking a moment to look down at his hands.

His hands looked normal besides the shaking and they felt warm even against the cool air. After careful inspection, he also noticed that they were a bright red.
That must be from the fruit punch. The juice must’ve stained my hands.

“Hi, Nathan,” said a voice that was unfamiliar to him.

Immediately, he shoved his hands into his front pockets and turned around to find Jonathan Black staring at him from the front door. Nathan gave a quick smile and tried to turn away, but Jonathan proceeded towards him anyway. “Uh — hi, Jon,” he said, after clearing his throat.

“It’s such a beautiful night,” said Jonathan, while looking up towards the sky. “Oh, and look, there’s also a new moon.” He smiled and then returned his gaze back to N
athan. “And I prefer Jonathan, by the way.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that,” said Nathan, appearing slightly anxiously. He took a few steps backwards towards the cottage. “I’ll remember that,
Jonathan.
”

“I thought I would turn in early to get a good start out at the Cahokia Caves tomorrow, before meeting with Dr. Helmsley,” Jonathan announced quickly before Nathan could inch away. “Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day as well.” He paused, briefly repositioning his glasses. “Would you care to join me?”

“What?” asked Nathan surprised. He was hoping the conversation wasn’t going to last long. “Join you?”

Jonathan grinned. “Well, I was talking with your grandf
ather and —”

“Uh-huh,” uttered Nathan while nodding. He expected anything starting with “I was talking to your grandfather” to be followed by a request of some kind. “You were talking with my grandfather.”

Jonathan paused again and took a dry gulp. “I was talking with your grandfather and LaDonda —”

“LaDonda!” interrupted Nathan again. 

“Can I please finish?” asked Jonathan. He paused for a second, as if he was awaiting a response. “I’ll take your silence as a yes.”

Nathan raised his eyebrows and Jonathan smiled.

“After learning from Roy and LaDonda about your Cahokia ancestry through your mother,” Jonathan continued enthusiastically, “I thought you might want to join me tomorrow at the dig site.”

Nathan’s eyebrows were still raised and were now a
ccompanied by a frown. “Dig site?” he muttered, “Tomorrow? At the caves?”

“Yes!” exclaimed Jonathan. “It’s so exciting that after all these years they are still finding stuff!
” His eyes were as wide as saucers now. “Considering that whatever we discover is a part of your history, you could learn firsthand more about yourself and your people.”

I think I’ve learned enough about myself for one day,
Nathan thought, recalling what he had just learned from Lafonda and Amanda about the reality of his nightmares. He got a warm feeling in his chest and began to think about his mother. Besides the fact that she had married his dad, Michael Urye, he didn’t know a lot about Grace Sequoya. Everything he knew about the Cahokia tribe, he’d learned on school field trips to the Northern Cahokia Tribal Museum.

He soon realized that Jonathan was still there and decided to fake a yawn. He thought about stretching to add to the effect, but remembered how red his hands were and opted to leave them in his pockets instead. He also noticed that his hands continued to tremble slightly, but figured it was a good idea to just leave them there. “Thanks for the invite,” he said. “But I think I’ll pass. I still have to pack for camp on Friday.”

Jonathan’s bright blue eyes were still filled with excitement. “Did you know that the Cahokia tribe once occupied most of what is now Southern Illinois before they became known as two separate tribes?” he asked. “And that most scholars attribute the separation to a massive drought that caused famine in the area?”

“Yes!” howled Nathan, yawning with both arms stretched out in the air. He now thought exposing his hands was worth the risk.

But Jonathan’s eyes continued to gleam. “Archeologists have found artifacts that suggest there was a migration of clans from the tribe’s southern borders to this area right around Lake Charleston!” He grinned. “Can you guess why they migrated to this area?”

Nathan huffed and began to stare at the cars lined up around the driveway. “Uh
… the water?” he mumbled.

“Yes, exactly!” cried Jonathan, while quickly fixing his glasses. “Isn’t that amazing?”

“Yes. Amazing,” sighed Nathan.

Jonathan smiled and enthusiastically nodded his head.  “And did you know
—”

“Jonathan!” blurted Nathan, and Jonathan looked so sta
rtled that Nathan lowered his voice. “Not that I wouldn’t mind continuing this most stimulating conversion, but I did promise my grandfather that I would … that I would … let the dog out.”

“Oh, you have a dog!” said Jonathan, enthusiastically. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

Nathan frowned. He didn’t quite understand why he would use the word
wonderful
. Jonathan continued to smile and repositioned his glasses again.

“What kind of dog is it?” he asked.

“Uh … uh,” he stuttered, trying to think of something.

“Yoo-hoo, Jonathan!” called an all-familiar voice. They both turned around to see LaDonda standing at the front door to the Devaro Mansion. She was waving her hand, trying to get Jonathan’s attention. “Good, you’re still here!” she shouted. “I would like for you to meet someone before you leave.”

Jonathan smiled. “Well, I guess I’d better see what she wants — or rather, see who this person is,” he said. “Then, I guess I’ll grab the car and head out.”

Nathan opened his mouth to say something, but then paused after looking at the sea of identical silver BMWs parked around the long U-shaped driveway. “Good luck with that,” he chuckled. 

Jonathan caught his gaze and then chuckled too. “Thanks,” he said halfheartedly as he headed towards the house. “I guess we’ll have most of summer to talk.”

“Where is he going?” asked LaDonda, when Jonathan got to her.

“Oh,” said Jonathan, walking back inside the house. “He said he had to let the dog out.”

“The dog?” she asked, sounding confused. “What dog? Nathan doesn’t have a dog.”

The walk back to the cottage was agonizing. Nathan’s mind was going a mile a minute. He was worried about his constantly trembling hands and his dreams about Leah. The thought of all this being real and not just a dream was frustrating. His mind just kept circling, coming to the same questions over and over, for which he had no answers.

How could this be possible?
he asked himself sitting on his bed.
How am I dreaming about her?
He sighed heavily while kicking off his shoes.
Am I psychic, or something?

Nathan felt like he had just entered into a freak show sta
rring himself as the main attraction. The voice of the show announcer played in his head,
Step right up to see the boy who can see you in his dreams and make an awesome milkshake with his trembling hands.

“I need to get off this weirdness train!” Nathan shouted, throwing himself down on his bed. “Why do I have to be so weird?” He stared hopelessly at the ceiling. “I’m already the poor brown kid who lives behind the Devaro Mansion.”

He shook his head and groaned. “After tonight, with the whole fruit punch incident, I’m sure everyone has added strange or weird or worse — loser — to my trophy case of adjectives.” He sighed again. “And to make matters worse, I can’t get the shocked look on Lafonda’s face out of my head.”

He paused, remembering how beautiful she had looked in her white dress and with her silky, curly black hair. “I’m such a loser!” he said aloud. “I ruined her dress and I def
initely ruined her birthday.” He raised his hands up to the ceiling and examined them. “This uncontrollable shaking has to stop, and so do the nightmares,” he moaned. “But what am I supposed to do?”

With his eyes, he traced over his red hands
, which seemed to tremble intermittently now. Frustrated, he sprung out of bed and headed into the small bathroom connected to his room. He began to scrub his hands with soap and water in an attempt to get some of the red out.

Nathan looked up at himself in the mirror and noticed the pattern of red dots splattered across his white shirt. “Great!” he said. “My only good white shirt!”

Slowly, he dried his hands, which he noticed were now bright red from all the scrubbing, and then took off his jacket and white shirt. Nathan eyed his favorite IUCF T-shirt, which was resting on the back of his desk chair, but decided not to put it on because he normally slept without one, anyway.

“Ugh!” he moaned, suddenly scratching the palms of his hands. “I thought I was done with all the scratching!” A
bruptly, he tried to scratch the palm of his hand with his teeth. “Okay, I give up!” he yelled. “This must be a rash, or something!”

He rolled his eyes. “I hate to admit it,” he sighed, “but I’m all out of ideas. Where’s the ointment Roy gave me?” There was a sudden knock on his bedroom door, and Nathan launched himself to lay flat on his bed. “You can come in Roy!”

“It’s me — Lafonda.”

Nathan quickly s
at straight up in his bed.
Lafonda?
he thought.
She never comes over
. He began to fidget with his hands. “This must be serious,” he muttered. “She must be really upset about my ruining her dress, not to mention her birthday party.”

“Can I come in?” she asked. “I understand if you’re busy. I can come back later.”

Nathan opened the door to his bedroom to see Lafonda standing there with a slight smile. She looked different than the last time he’d seen her: traumatized and soaked with red fruit juice. She had changed clothes and had a calm, almost relieved, look on her face. Without the makeup and fancy clothing, she looked more like the Lafonda that he was used to. Her hair was still curly, but it was Lafonda all the same.

“You can come in,” he stuttered.

She smiled and stepped into the room. Nathan noticed her deep brown eyes pause for a second as she did a quick scan of his chest. “Sorry,” he said, quickly throwing on his favorite IUCF T-shirt.

She took a seat on the edge of his bed. Nathan decided it was best to keep his distance, so he moved back the two ph
otos of his mom and dad and hopped on his desk.

Lafonda took a dry gulp and then gently tossed her hair over her shoulders. “I thought I would stop in to apologize,” she said. She paused and then suddenly laughed. “I also wanted to see if you needed any help walking your dog.”

“Oh, about that …” stuttered Nathan, becoming flush in the face. “I didn’t mean to lie to Jonathan. I just needed to get away.”

“No need to explain to me,” she grinned. She paused. “But you might want to explain it to Jonathan. I think the cat’s out of the bag on that one.”

Nathan diverted his eyes and then cleared his throat. “Uh, so why are you apologizing?” he asked. “If anything, I’m the one who should be apologizing. I ruined your dress and your birthday party.”

“Oh, Nathan, you can be so dramatic sometimes,” she r
eplied with a grin. “You ruined my expensive dress, yes, but you didn’t ruin my birthday party. And just to ease your brain, I won’t be scarred for life.”

He laughed. “Now, I didn’t go so far as to think I scarred you for life!” he said with a sly grin. “I do give you some credit, though. You are more resilient than most girls.”

She smiled in response, but the smile quickly faded. “I shouldn’t have put you in that position tonight,” she said with a more serious tone to her voice.

“What position?” he asked.

“I shouldn’t have put you in between Jim and me,” she said. She paused again, taking a moment to catch her breath. “And for that, I am truly sorry.”

“Oh, that!” he grinned heartily. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Well, all the same, I am sorry,” said Lafonda.

Nathan smiled reassuringly. “It’s no big deal,” he said. “Considering that I ruined your dress, I think we’re even.”

Lafonda chuckled and so did he, but suddenly his eyes became wide. “Wait. I hope Jim isn’t upset with me?” he said. “I hope he doesn’t think I was trying to steal his girlfriend?”

She grinned while shaking her head. “No, Nathan,” she mocked, “he doesn’t think that.”

“Is he upset that I spilled juice all over him?” he asked eagerly. “I’ll make sure to apologize next time I see him.”

Lafonda quickly rolled her eyes. “You’ve already apol
ogized, Nathan,” she sighed. She took a deep breath and then released it slowly. “Really, it isn’t necessary.”