Tucking the VCR under his arm, Jack hurried out the front door toward home. He wanted to run but didn?t dare risk dropping the Connells? VCR—a VHS model.
The only good thing so far about today was that it was another of his mother?s volunteer days at the hospital. He had the house to himself until she came home. He wasn?t exactly sure when that would be so he had to hurry.
Once inside he dropped to his knees before the Betamax—already partially unhooked—and went to work.
First, he plugged in the VHS and attached the cable from its input to the Beta?s output. Then he unwrapped the new VHS tape, inserted it, and hit the record button. The Vivino tape was already in the Betamax, so all he had to do was hit PLAY.
He waited ten minutes—the scene he?d caught hadn?t lasted even five—then rewound and ejected the tape. After stuffing it in his backpack, he ran outside, hopped on his bike, and began pedaling like mad.
3
“Please be there,” Jack muttered as he rolled up the front walk. His heart sank as he saw the door closed, but he leaped off his bike, letting it fall, and ran up to the front door. He tried the knob and found it open. “Walt?” he called, stepping inside. “You still here?”
“Still here,” came a voice from the stairwell. “Come on down.”
Jack did just that and found Walt starting to drag a table across the floor. Jack
leaped to his side.
“Let me help you with that.”
“Now that the floor?s finally dry,” Walt said as they carried it to the center of the room, “time to move everything back. This one goes right here. Thanks, Jack.” “No
problem. You need help with the rest?”
“That?s okay.”
“Hey, I?m here. Why not?”
Walt grinned. “Okay. Appreciate that.”
As Jack helped drag chairs and tables to wherever Walt said they belonged, his
gaze kept drifting to the VCR cabinet. He had to find a way to get in there again.
They
were maybe three-quarters finished when a woman?s voice echoed down the stairwell.
“Walter? May I speak with you a moment?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, Mrs. Clevenger.” Walt looked at Jack and shrugged. He looked worried. “Be right there.”
“Go ahead,” Jack said, fighting a grin of triumph. “Take your time. I?ll finish up.”
As much as Jack would have loved to know what those two were talking about, he had other priorities. So as soon as Walt was out of sight, he grabbed the tape from his backpack and flew to the VCR cabinet. He opened the doors and dumped the
Now … what to do with the real tape? He?d have loved to take it home and watch it, but he couldn?t play it on his machine. So he slipped it behind the cabinet. Walt was done with moving furniture for the day, so it would be safe for the present.
But the tape he?d replaced it with … he hadn?t had time to check it, so he didn?t even know if the video transfer had been successful. For all he knew, they?d be showing a blank tape to night.
By the time Walt returned, Jack had all the chairs arranged around the tables.
Walt beamed. “You?re a real good guy, Jack, y?know that?”
“Nothing to it. Um, what did Mrs. C want?”
His smile vanished and he looked uneasy. “Not much. She just wants me to hang around somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Just … around.”
Jack could see he was uncomfortable and decided not to push. Besides, he had to get home and straighten out the VCR mess he?d left behind before his mom got home.
“Hey, what time?s the smoker start?”
“Oh, guys start wandering in around seven-thirty, but things usually don?t get rolling till about eight. Why? No way you can get in.”
“Just curious.”
Jack glanced at the little window above the TV. He knew where he?d be come eight o?clock.
But before that, he and Weezy had a date with a pyramid.
4
They rode toward the Pines, each with a short-handle spade-shovel from his garage held across their handlebars. The sun was sinking but they had better than an hour and a half of light left. Plenty of time.
Passing the lightning tree, he saw Gus Sooy?s pickup. He and Walt were leaning against the rear side panel. Walt wasn?t drinking and wasn?t getting a bottle filled, just seemed to be talking. They both waved and Jack and Weezy waved back.
Was this where Mrs. Clevenger had told Walt to hang out? Was this where he?d be
“needed”? For what?
He shook his head. He?d probably never know.
As they neared the spong they picked up speed—they wanted to be a swiftly moving target if that piney started throwing rocks again. But as they passed, Jack saw no sticks jutting toward the sky.
“That piney must have reset his traps,” Weezy said.
“And it looks like Mrs. Clevenger hasn?t got to them yet. Think we should … ?”
Weezy shook her head. “Maybe on the way back. We?ll need all the light we can get at the pyramid.”
Jack wondered again what would happen if the piney caught Mrs. C springing his traps. She was just an old lady, but that dog of hers, even with three legs, looked like he could inflict a world of hurt on anyone messing with his owner.
They reached the burned-out area and made their way past the ruined mound to the pyramid.
The clearing was eerily silent as Jack checked out the ground for fresh tracks. He found none of any sort, and even the old ones they?d seen before were gone, erased by multiple rains.
They hopped over the low stone wall and squeezed through one of the gaps between the megaliths.
The floor of the cage—if that was what the pyramid was—was no longer underwater, but the sand was still wet. Any trace that he and Weezy had stood here on Saturday was gone. Weezy walked to the four-foot stone post in the center and again traced her fingers along the six-sided indentation in its top.
“If we had the little pyramid we could fit it in here and see what happens.”
“Like what?”
“Maybe the sunlight during the equinox hits it at a certain angle and …”
“What? We go back in time?”
She smiled. “Never know.”
“Until then …” Jack looked around. “Where do we start?”
She shrugged. “Anywhere, I guess.”
He chose a random spot near the center post and began to dig straight down. Weezy did the same a half dozen feet away.
“I?ve got a suspicion about this place,” she said. “If it?s modeled on the little pyramid we found, it should have a base. With all the sand in the Barrens? soil, water percolates through pretty quickly. The standing water in here back on Saturday tells me something was slowing its absorption.”
Sure enough—four feet down Jack hit granite. The seventh side. And no doubt carved into its surface somewhere was the seventh symbol—just like on the baby pyramid.
