The Seventh Mountain (5 page)

Mark laid the present from James on the
table and examined the bike. “Wow! A freestyle… with all the
extras! Wow! Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad! This is awesome!”

Steve said, “Well, you have another present
here. Go ahead and open it so you won’t be late for school.”

James and Mark said in unison, “Today is
Saturday!”

Steve looked a little embarrassed. “Oh… I
guess I forgot.”

Mark opened the other present. It was
obvious what it was before he had half finished tearing the paper
off.

Shirley cried out softly
,
looking mildly horrified at James
. “Oh, honey! That’s yours.
You can’t give that away. That’s meant for you.”

It was the family Bible. It had belonged to
Steve’s great, great, great grandfather. He had brought it with him
when he came over from Germany. It was even written in German. His
instructions, written in English, in the front of the Bible, were
to pass it to the first born on their eighth birthday. James had
received it from Steve on his eighth birthday just as Steve had
received it on his eighth birthday.

James said, “It’s okay, Mom. It rightfully
belongs to Mark anyway.”

Shirley’s mouth dropped open and she looked
over at Steve. Steve looked at James and said, “What makes you say
that, son?”

“It’s okay, Dad. I know the truth. It’s
okay.”

“What truth are you talking about?”

James started slowly, “I had this dream. The
guy in the dream is, well… kind of special. He has long blond hair,
green eyes and when he talks you just know that everything is all
right. His name is Gerod. I think he’s the same guy from when Mark
was born. I knew when I heard the story of Mark’s birth that I was
doing the right thing.”

“
In my dream he waved his hand in front of me. Then I could see
you, Dad, holding a baby. You were talking to the baby and I heard
you say, ‘It’s going to be okay, James. It’s going to be okay. Your
momma and your poppa have been killed. You are going to stay with
me and be my son. I’ll never let anything bad happen to you. You’ll
be my son.’ I knew the baby was me.”

Steve started to speak, but James held up
his hand. He was having trouble believing that it could be true.
After all, he was Mark’s older brother and had always been as far
as he could remember.

“There’s more.”

James reached for the Bible and opened it to
the family-tree section. His hand was a little shaky. If what was
happening was true, he didn’t want to believe it.

“The guy in my dream told me to look here.
He said that my name was not recorded here, but that Mark’s was. He
told me that this Bible was supposed to be Mark’s. That it was part
of his providence.”

James paused and waited for a response that
never came, so he continued. He was hoping that someone would say
that it was all just a dream.

“He waved his hand and I
saw him helping mom in the stable, just like you and mom just said.
I didn’t understand that part of the dream until now. His friend
was helping you. You looked dead at first, but then you were all
better. Then he told me, ‘The best people are born in stables.’ I
thought that was strange until I heard the story. I really felt
weird
listening to you describe it and
all, after I had just dreamed it too.”

It seemed the longest time before anyone
spoke. Steve took a deep breath and broke the silence.

“James, your father was my best friend. We
were in the Marines together. We were in the same squad. We were in
Africa at the time. Where we were was not a nice place to be.”

Steve spoke matter-of-factly to quell the
emotion that flamed in his chest. “Your father, his name was James
too, got a message that your mother, Tiffany, had been killed in a
car crash. His chopper had just taken off to start his trip home to
be with you when a rocket-propelled grenade hit it.”

Steve frowned hard and gave a short sniff.
His eyes began to water. His hands clenched together tightly and he
took another deep breath.

“There were no survivors.” The pain of the
memory furrowed his brow. He bowed his head and paused.

James looked at Shirley. She sat across the
table from him, her eyes beaming a mother’s love at James. Those
events had scared her too; leaving a wound that could only be
healed in the dusty shadows of faded memory. James had been a
little over a year old just then, much too young to be told. Since
then, there had just not been any right time to tell him and she
supposed that there never would be. She so much wanted to hold him
and make the pain go away.

James glanced toward Mark. Mark was standing
with his eyes wide and mouth open.

Steve looked back up at James. “I had the
radioman work a telephone patch to Shirley. I told her what had
happened. She went and got you from the center that you were in.
When I got back home, we adopted you. Tiffany, your mother, was
Shirley’s best friend, too.”

“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DIDN’T TELL ME!”

“You’ve been our son ever since, never
anything less.” Steve held his arms out to James.

He looked at Steve for the longest time
before accepting his embrace.

Shirley stepped up and pried James from
Steve’s arms, clutching him, trying to protect him with her love.
Tears were still streaming down her face.

“Honey, we didn’t tell you because it hurt
so much.”

Mark stood where he was, mouth open and
breathing hard. The fact that James wasn’t his brother hit him
brutally. He felt like he was ready to fight but there was nothing
to fight. James was his older brother and nothing was going to
change that.

 
* * *
 

Later that day, Steve and Shirley sat at the
kitchen table. The boys were outside, trying out the new stunt
bike. Mark was excited about it. He had been working on a new stunt
that no one had ever done before and he wanted to show James.
James’s opinion meant a lot to him.

Steve said, “Deep inside
of me, I know what is starting to happen has to be part of some
bigger plan. James said that Bible was part of Mark’s
providence
. James
doesn’t use words like that.”

“Hon, listen to yourself. You sound as if
you are resigned to the fact that Mark is leaving home tomorrow.
You don’t even know if what this Tim said is true.” Shirley didn’t
want to believe what was happening was any more significant than
rain on a Tuesday morning. If what was happening was true, then it
was the beginning of the breakup of her family. Her whole purpose
for living was her family.

“Things are starting to happen. I wish I
knew more,” Steve said.

“It’s just a lot of coincidence and wishful
thinking, if you ask me.”

Steve sighed, got up and walked to the
refrigerator. “I don’t know for a fact that what Tim said is true,
but look at the evidence.” Steve poured himself a glass of tea.
“Would you like anything from the fridge?”

“No, thanks… I have looked at the evidence.
I’m still not convinced. There are other possible explanations, you
know.”

Steve came back and sat down at the table
again. “A freak storm when you were eight and a half months
pregnant.”

“Weather happens.”

“A horse gone mad, down-right possessed if
you ask me, trying to kill you. And, oh yes, it was after you, not
me. I was just in the way.”

“Panic caused by the storm.”

“Two guys, dressed like
monks straight out of the twelfth century, show up out of nowhere.
One of them acts as midwife for you and you
sleep
through the delivery. The
other guy heals me of two very badly broken legs, a shattered
collarbone, busted ribs and internal injuries. I wake up as if
nothing had happened to me.”

“It’s possible that you weren’t injured as
badly as you thought you were.”

“Okay, how did they calm that horse down? I
don’t have a clue. I was totally out of it at that point.”

“Some people have a way with animals.”

“When he told me about Mark, it was
nonchalant just like saying the rain had stopped. But I got the
feeling that they were there for Mark. We were just
incidentals.”

“Some people are strange.”

“Then… then James with his dream. Dead on,
one hundred percent accurate. There are no ifs, ands or buts about
it.”

“He probably saw the family tree section in
the Bible. Even if he didn’t notice it consciously, his
subconscious could have figured it out. That’s why he had the
dream.”

“What about Mark? He didn’t get that
information from us.”

“Maybe he heard bits and pieces, here and
there. You know, just enough for him to put it together.”

“No. It’s too much. Whatever is starting to
happen is very real and very mystical.”

“You could be right. I could be right,
too.”

“As I see it, there are only two
possibilities about this. It’s either good or evil. I, for one,
don’t believe that it’s evil. If it’s good, then we have no place
in standing against it.”

Sometimes it’s the journey. Sometimes
it’s the destination. Most often it’s both
.

School days ended and summer vacation
settled over the residents of number one Trafalgar Court. Steve was
enjoying his time stateside. He knew that it wouldn’t be much
longer before he would be called to duty in the Middle East
again.

He knew that he would have a couple more
months at home; maybe as much as a year before the call came. He
also felt that he wouldn’t have that much more time with his
younger son, Mark. What the hooded man told him was true. He
couldn’t explain why, but he knew it was true. Mark would be
leaving home.

He wanted to do something special with the
family before this happened. He thought that a vacation would be
just the thing. He decided that he would bring the subject of a
family vacation up at breakfast and let the family decide where to
go. Maybe they would like to go on a cruise. Cruises are generally
expensive, but Steve thought that it would be worth dipping into
the family savings. The hard part would be getting Shirley to
agree.

Shirley walked into the kitchen. “Morning,
hon.”

Steve was sitting at the table. He folded
the paper and laid it on the table. “What would you like for
breakfast? I’m cooking.”

“Okay.” Shirley was a little puzzled. This
was out of character for Steve. He only did this sort of thing when
something was on his mind. “How about some French toast?”

“Roger that. French toast it is.” Steve got
up and walked to the kitchen counter.

James and Mark came down the stairs still
sleepy and blurry eyed.

James said, “Good morning, Mom. Good
morning, Dad.”

Mark was his usual morning sleepy self.
“Morning.”

Shirley noticed that Mark was carrying the
old German Family Bible. “Why do you have that Bible this morning,
Mark?”

Mark sat down at the table. “Did anyone ever
look at what was written in here?”

Shirley was a little baffled. “Of course,
but it is all written in German except for inside the front cover
and some of the family tree. We never had it translated.”

“There is another part in English.” He
opened the Bible to the back leaf page and pushed the Bible across
the table to his mother. “See.”

She examined the hand written script. She
looked baffled. “Honey, that’s German.”

Mark hated contradicting his mother but he
knew that he was right. There was no other way that he could think
to tell her that she was wrong other than to just say it. “No it
isn’t. I can read it. It’s in English.”

Shirley looked at it again. She turned it
kitty-corner and tilted her head to the side. She turned it upside
down. She squinted and then frowned. She got up and showed the page
to James. “Can you read it? Is it in English?”

James looked at it. “I can’t read it. It
isn’t English as far as I can tell.”

Shirley took the book to Steve. He was still
cooking but he had been following the conversation.

Mark watched intently.

Steve examined the writing. “It looks like
German to me. I can’t make it out.”

“I can read it. Honest. Let me see it.”

Shirley handed Mark the Bible back. “What’s
it say, honey?”

Mark began to read aloud.

Hello Son,

I’m taking a very big risk leaving this note
for you, but I have to. I’m afraid that my fate doesn’t leave me
any other options. If you’re reading this, then that means that it
made it to its final destination. Thank God for that!

I wish that I could have known you. I went
to the school that you are about to go to. It’s a very wonderful
place. You will learn a great many things there. I wish that I
could go back and do it all again, especially with what I know now.
The only advice about the school that I can give you, which will
make any sense, is listen to your teachers, even the ones you don’t
like. Pay very close attention to what they say.

I have left for you a legacy. I can’t tell
you anything more about it here. If all went well, no one knows the
location except for me, and now you. Go to the mountain called
Mystery, south of Albuquerque. There is a large stone there with
the Ten Commandments carved on its face. This marks the path to the
top of the mountain. On the top of the mountain you will find an
altar and a stone with a star carved in it. Touch the points of the
star with your fingers and the altar will open. Only you can do
this.

I’m sorry that I can’t tell you anymore, but
you will discover the meaning of what you find there. Oh, I wish
ever so much that I could accompany you on this quest.