The Place Between Part 12

Reporting once more from Temecula! Drove up and I am enjoying a lovely glass of wine while finishing up this week's post. Hope you'll curl up with your favorite sips and enjoy this week's segment on The Place Between! If you're not caught up, why not start from the beginning? (Interestingly enough, this story started en route to a winery in Temecula.)

The Place Between Part 12

President Andrea was not happy with the idea of her people running amok among men. The lateness of the hour at which Cassandra and Martin brought their laid out plan to her door did not help her opinion. However, with stern warnings and a reminder that using magic beyond their guarded tracks of land above, President Andrea conceded with the plot to let Martin go above ground. Edgar, unfortunately was not approved.

"He'll stick out," President Andrea had solemnly advised. "It'll be difficult enough to pass off one of you, let alone the pair of you. Especially, Edgar, a man who has learned everything about the world above from thirty year old books." 

Neither Martin or Cassie could argue with this point. 

"And I'm warning you," President Andrea said with a firm point of her finger at Martin, "If this principle at her school has any connection to us - be careful. We can afford no mistakes."

Martin and Cassie recognized the risks, but allowing a plot to poison the place between could prove to be equally as devastating.

With the president's assistance, Martin and Cassie continued to hammer out every detail late into the night: 

In the early morning, after her father had left for work, Cassie would borrow an outfit from her father's closet that would fit Martin and help him to blend in better. 

Martin would use magic to appear behind the old market in town where Cassie knew there were no cameras. From there he would walk to the school and meet her at the back of campus. 

The pair of them would go to the office together and Cassie would sign in Martin as a guest, claiming him to be a cousin of her's in town for a visit. 

"And any particular reason for visiting our school today, Mr..." the assistant in the office squinted at the name on Martin's ID card that he presented to her while filling out the visitor sign-in sheet. "Mr. Shire?" 

Had the situation not been so tense for her, Cassie would have demonstrated her embarrassment for choosing such a name; having no experience with people from Britain, Cassie decided "Shire" to be the easiest and the most British name she could think of.

Clearing his throat and not even attempting his "American" again (he had tried it earlier that morning and it had been a complete failure), Martin said, "As you can imagine I don't get to see my cousin very often, so I want to spend as much time with her as possible. And as a teacher in a school back in England in the process of moving to L.A. I'm curious about the educational system here." Cassie had added in the Los Angeles move detail last minute for Martin - how else could they explain the California ID he forged with magic? 

The assistant stared blankly at Martin. Her stare pretty much summed up everything that Martin would see in a day at this school. 

Though meeting someone with an English accent at the school was extraordinary, the office assistant had a backlog of matters to get to. Handing to Martin his ID and the standard square visitor sticker on which Martin was to write his name, the office assistant smiled meekly then walked away. 

Cassie and Martin made quiet sighs of relief. Martin was shocked that it was so easy to get him into this school. He wondered if it was always that easy.

Shaking her head once, Cassie answered, "It's all about confidence. Let's go," the pair of them walked through the office that was busy with activity. A group of students were hanging out in the doorway of their favorite counselor. At the end of the office the school nurse was having a light argument with a mom about her son having being too many times dismissed for having chronic headaches as excuses from PE. Teachers were buzzing in and out with tall coffee mugs clutched in their hands like precious gems. It was only seven a.m., after all. 

Martin was amazed. Pretending like this was an ordinary day was exceptionally difficult. He felt like a child being brought to a fair or some other fantastic display, when this was nothing but a regular school day. 'Aside from the fashion and the technology, they're really not that different from us at all.'

Stepping out of the office and into the cool morning, Martin gave a look to Cassie. 

"Yep, this is what real life is like for teens," Cassie smiled half heatedly. This was a great educational experience for him. However, Cassie would have much preferred his visit to her world to have been under better circumstances. 

Many of the students on campus who saw Cassie with this tall stranger began to wonder who he was and what he was doing with her. It was a small school. Most students knew each other and they certainly would know if a stranger was on campus. Realizing how quickly word would travel around campus that Cassie had brought someone new to the school would get around, Cassie whispered to Martin, "Try not to talk if you don't have to. You have a British accent, which instantly makes you a Prince Charming. And I'm sorry to say, the girls around this place will be trying to latch onto you if they find out. They're all looking for ways out of this mountain." 

Meanwhile, back in the office, as the office assistant worked on her morning duties, she spoke, "Yeah, that guy who came in with Cassandra had an Brit-tish accent. I half expected him to ask me for tea." Most of the students who were in the office overheard this and began their whispers immediately. Gossip spread faster in high schools than plague in an overcrowded neighborhood. 

Martin and Cassie quickly skipped to the library where she knew her two friends would be waiting. They would have to be stealthy in order for this to work properly. President Andrea had approved giving Cassie a ring with which she could communicate with Martin should anything go astray. The big, silver item with a large rock face was something her friends would notice. 

Taking one last glance at the watch she borrowed from her mom, (she had to leave her cell phone at home this morning) Cassie checked the time. They had five minutes before the first bell would ring. Hopping up the stairs, the pair entered the library. 

Martin's eyes doubled in size as they walked into this beautiful space. The walls were covered with books and every table had at least two students each. Most of the students were playing on their cell phones or curled up in balls trying to get a few precious extra moments of sleep, but seeing this library as their refuge warmed Martin's heart. 

Cassie led him to the front of the library and stood in line behind a boy who was checking out The Feasts and Follies of the Animal Court. Cassie had hoped that by jumping into line, her friends on the couch would not notice her, but of course, they did. Mike strolled right up to Cass and said, "Hey, why didn't you answer your phone this morning?" 

Operating under absolutely no sleep from the night before, she had to stare and process the question asked for several minutes before finally answering, "Oh, because I left it at home."

"Well, why'd you do that?" Mike sarcastically asked. He glanced over Cassie's shoulder to look at the man with her who clearly was trying to look like a hole in space. "Who's he?" Mike mouthed, hoping not to seem rude.

Glancing nervously to the now awaiting eyes of Marlie the ever welcoming librarian, Cassie quickly said,  "Step up, so I don't have to introduce him twice." With a less than gentle shove, Cassie pushed Martin forward to the counter to meet the central player in their plot. Marlie just didn't know it yet..

"Good morning," Marlie greeted, but there was no doubt that there was a question included in her words. 

"Morning," Martin and Cassie greeted simultaneously. Both realized that they were probably the worst combination of undercover folks to have ever taken on a mission. 

"Marlie, Mike," Cassie jumped in and started talking. She figured it better to get the accent elephant out on the table with this group as quickly as possible. "This is my cousin, Martin Shire. He's in town for because he is moving to LA. He also happens to be a teacher from England. We thought it would be good for him to meet with the principle to get an idea about how our school system works." 

"Wow," Marlie immediately began, "All the way from England. Seems like a bit of a long trip."

Shrugging, Martin said, "Well, you know. Thought it'd be good to see my family before I check out the neighborhood to where I will be moving." Martin was repeating verbatim the phrase that Cassie had taught him should any sort of "suspicion" question arise. "Bit of a last minute trip, but I've been glad for it."

"Ah, well, very nice, welcome to our little school," Marlie said with a warm and welcoming smile. 

Mike gave Cassie a look that said he didn't quite buy it. 

Ignoring the glare, Cassie began her request to Marlie, "Is there any way, Marlie, that you could call the office to arrange Martin's coming in to chat with the principle? He'd only need, like, five, maybe ten minutes?"

Marlie thought it odd that Cassie would ask her to arrange the meeting and the sideways expression she made said as much.

"I wouldn't know the first thing about scheduling an appointment with the principle," Cassie said defensively, but lightly. "I've never even been in his office." 

"The last principle had pictures of her cat everywhere in that ," Mike interjected. He had been in the last principle's office quite a few times. 

"Duh," Cassie retorted, "That's one of the many reasons why we started calling her 'Umbridge.' That's my legacy." Inhaling deeply and trying not to lapse in to Harry Potter quotes in front of Martin, Cassie returned to Marlie and made a begging face. "Please? He did come all the way from England after all." 

Chuckling, Marlie said, "Gee, Mr. Shire, for your sake I sure hope that this is not the highlight of your trip." 

Shaking his head, Martin could not have agreed more, "Me too."

Before Marlie made the call, she asked Martin several questions about where he was from and how she wished to get over to the land of great literature. Martin scraped the bottom of his memory's barrel to recall details of the place where grew up prior to moving to the Place Between. 

In the midst of that conversation Chelsea joined Mike and Cassie to ask about this man with her.

Cassie reexplained her story about her cousin to which Chelsea sharply asked, "Well, how come you didn't tell us about him?"

"We didn't know he was coming," Cassie answered defensively. "He called my dad midday, so my dad left worked go and pick him up from San Diego. It was kinda awesome after everything that want down yesterday."  

"Any updates on that?" Mike quietly asked Cass, hoping not to stir suspicion from the adults. 

With one nod, Cassie said to her friends,"I'll tell you later." The first bell was about to ring and Cassie wanted to ensure that Marlie made the appointment for Martin. 

"I hate to rush you, Marlie, but the bell is about to ring, could you please call the principle? Not the vp, the actual principle." There was a slight ring of desperation on Cassie's voice. Everyone immediately present heard it.

Marlie sent to Cassie another sideways look. There was something  going on here, but she knew that she'd probably find out later.

~*~*~

Only a few segments remain! Don't forget to check back in to see the exciting closing chapters of The Place Between!!!!

Your humble author, 
S. Faxon

The Place Between Part 11

About a week ago I put out a request for a vintage or antique wooden ship wheel. My brother in law responded by saying if I found one, he would eat his leg. 

I found one.

Now, I do not expect him to munch on his limbs, I'm just amazed at how quickly I found this. This wheel is the first antique that I have purchased and I am quite proud of it, as I am sure you can tell.

However, as detailed readers you all may be thinking, "but that's not wooden!" Indeed. I am still looking for a wooden, unfinished wheel. Preferably one that is under 30" that was on a working vessel. If you happen to know someone who has one and is selling, let me know. 

We're coming down to the exciting conclusion! Only a couple more segments in this exciting tale of Cassie and the mystical Place Between! If you're just joining this adventure, flip back a couple of posts to The Place Between. For the rest of us, onward!

The Place Between, Part 11

Cassie's parents could tell that their eldest was experiencing more than a healthy dose of teenage "angst". Her temper was short. Her mind unfocused. Cassie's mom tried to begin a conversation with her by entering her room during the time of evening that was set aside for homework. It was a noble idea that unfortunately was not so great in execution. As was standard for any territorial beast, Cassie did everything short of screaming and foaming at the mouth to protect her sacred refuge. Her mother had pointed out the gross looking roots that Cassie had in a vase on her standing dresser as "odd." Cassie was immediately offended as this had been a gift to her from the Rooties in the Place Between. She snappily said that it was a biology experiment that was not to be touched. The excuse that finally scooted her mother on out was, "I just have a ton of homework to do before tomorrow, so can I please, you know, work on it?"

Cassie's mom was not pleased with her daughter's attitude, but she knew that her daughter truly did her best to do good in school, so she stepped out and kindly closed the door.

It was not within Cassie's typical string of behavior to bottle up news from her parents and it was difficult for her to keep her lips sealed. However, she knew that her parents had a lot on their minds. She did not want to cause them any more burdens of worry if she could avoid it.

The anchor weighted hours ticked away slowly, painfully until the last light in the house clicked out well after midnight.

As if the lamp's switch was connected to a spring in her mattress, Cassie ejected herself from bed. She slipped on her boots over her jeans. She had been waiting in bed dressed in the jeans she tore and her heavy sweatshirt. Slamming down her green beanie over the crown of her head, Cassie stood in the center of the room with the magical coin in her hand.

Holding it up, she whispered to the coin, "Take me to the Place Between."

The spinning sensation ended as quickly as it began. Her feet were planted once more in the entrance of the grand underground city.

No longer a stranger in these halls, Cassie bolted through the caverns headed to the chambers where Edgar and Martin called home. She knew well enough that they would be roused and alerted to her presence by the security measures in place, yet still she ran. She wanted to save time by rushing as fast as she could to Martin.

The hall leading to the terminus where Martin lived was alight, meaning that one of the residents was awake in the common area. The blue hued halls seemed incredibly dark compared to the midday warmth that glowed from the room she approached. As expected, there was Martin, pulling a dressing robe over his maroon colored pajamas. Cassie had never stopped to think about what people in the Place Between wore to bed, but for whatever reason, she felt a bit of commonality from this. This place truly was not so different and it only made all the more drive in her to try to protect it.

"Cassie, what's going on?" Martin's ring had been buzzing for the last five minutes, alerting him that his ward was within their space. He did not expect her to have found her way to this common area so quickly.

"We have a problem," Cassie quickly, yet quietly said. "I've gotta tell you about what happened today."

Though Martin was glad for her attempt to be discrete, any use of the "p" word was enough to cause hysteria down here. "Not out here," Martin looked around and then decided to bring her into his apartment so they could speak. "How important is this, Cassie?" Martin was trying to determine if he should call the President or if this could wait until morning. 

Cass paced the decent sized, simply decorated flat a minute before answering; "I think people above are on to the Place Between." 

Martin walked to his single padded chair and slowly sat. The idea of this seemed too immense to be real. "How do you mean?" His mind immediately flashed to the event on Friday night when things veered out of control. He kept himself from panicking to think that the eye, the recording camera had seen them as they bolted out from the ruins.  

Cassie began to explain: "We had these really creepy people come to my school today. They said they wanted us students to have internships where we would use a pesticide to clear a certain type of moth out from a historical site that was going to be restored. The ranch," Cassie pointed up, knowing that they were under the abandoned place. "That's the site. And the pesticide - my friends and I think it's this stuff called, um, sodium arsenite. It's really, truly bad stuff. It poisons the soil and it cannot be washed off produce. It kills everything and it makes the people who eat it or are around it very sick. It could be really bad if it reached you guys down here." Cassie was especially worried for the rooties who would surely die if exposed to that poison. 

Shaking his head trying to prioritize questions, Martin found this to be the most prudent; "Your friends? Have you told them about us?" 

"No," Cassie firmly denied. "I needed their help to figure out what the pesticide would be, so I told them that these creeps were probably trying to take over our apple farms by spraying out our trees with that stuff. It does also make sense, except for the fact that this is the site they want. Not our orchards." Cassie paused for just a second to take a deep breath and before Martin could get out another question, she added, "And these two people that came were really weird. My friends and I were passing notes to each other and they took my friends' notebooks and apparently they fine tooth combed every page to see if they were a part of a conspiracy. That's gotta be telling, right?"    

Martin considered a moment then said, "I don't know about telling, but it certainly is suspicious." He stroked his chin a moment with his thumb, considering more and more, before coming up with his next question, "These people - who were they? Did they give you their names or, what did they look like?" 

"Yeah, they're um, their names were Eddie and Angelica - I doubt those were their real names. One was blond, really perky - creepishly so. The other one, Eddie, he had curly brown hair, brown eyes, shorter than most guys. I'd say they were probably about the same age - mid thirties?" 

Scratching his memory and trying to analyze the situation, to think on what this all could mean, Martin hoped that he could help to iron out a few more answers before he took this to the president. "Let's see. Did these people say where they were from? How were they allowed onto your school's campus?" 

Cassie rolled her eyes. Getting on and off the campus was as easy as looking confident. They were starting to add more security to the school, but as it presently stood, it was only too easy to get on or off campus. Sighing, Cassie answered, "Well, they told us that they were from the district and that the principle had approved their coming or something like that."

"Your principle approved it?" Martin asked. This suggested that the headmaster of the school believed in the credentials of the people coming into their school. The pair of them must have presented something that made them appear trustworthy. With this notion, that the people were likely brought into the school using some sort of license to prove who they were, perhaps they really were blundering fools working for the district without any awareness of  the Place Between. And yet, something did not quite feel right about this story. The reason that the pair would think teens capable of conspiring with seemingly no foundation for this accusation was odd. Perhaps this was normal for the world above. It was easy enough to find out. "Tell me, Cassie, is it normal for adults and people of authority to be so paranoid of teenagers to think them to be connected to conspiracies?"

Cassie chuckled, thinking back to her friend who was excelled for having a joint in his backpack when it had not even been his; someone on the bus had ditched it in his backpack and because it was on him during a random search, the presence of marijuana on his person was enough to convict and evict him. Now he was a bitter kid finishing his high school degree online with nothing but too much time on his hands. But this was not the situation for which that response was proper. Cassie knew that the whole reason why she was here was to provide these insights. She could not betray that trust with a snide personal anecdote. "It depends. Teens are seen as rebellious and a lot are, but for the most part, the way that those two people treated us was beyond necessary. It was so bad that our teacher had them removed from campus and is trying to have them reported to the board. He said that the principle would take care of them, but my friends and I doubt it."

"Why is that?" Martin leaned forward in his chair. He had doubted that this late hour would allow him to pay close attention, but Cassie's story was as convicting as a strong cup of tea.

Shrugging, Cassie answered, "Well, 'cause we don't really know this principle. He's only been our principle for a couple of months. Mid semester they brought him in. Or last principle was promoted or something and Mr. Manslo came from the city apparently from a school that had been struggling and he saved, something like that. He said during his intro that he had always wanted to come back to the mountains."

"Come back?" 

"Yeah, I guess he grew up here. But it was a long time ago; neither of my parents remember him," Cassie answered.

Martin grew quiet, he was mulling everything over. He was concerned that there may be a fouler purpose here than he had expected or anticipated. The pair of them remained silent for a while. Martin wanted to play through this cautiously, but efficiently. He knew that in order to substantiate the claims being made by Cassie that a thorough investigation would have to be seen through. This was far too delicate a job for the sentinels - they were far too aggressive and obvious. It would be impossible for them to go to the town, as would be needed, to learn more about these people and their plot. There was but one bold move to be done and there would be many details to see through, but it was the best idea that he could muster at the moment. "Cassie, how difficult would it be for Edgar and me to come to your school to meet your principle?"

Cassie nearly doubled over. At first she thought it a joke, but then she realized. That Martin was serious. "Um, I can't even..." Cassie took a step back and truly considered the possibility. "I don't think hard, but we'd have to create a story as to why you guys are there and I'd need to get you guys clothes because what you two wear would not fit in at all above. You'd stick out like crazy."

Nodding, this was all easy to accept, but explaining it to President Andrea as he would need to do, was ever more intimidating. "We'll need identities. I'm sure that we will stand out and we will need legitimate papers to convince anyone if we are stopped that we are just like everyone else."

Sitting down on the plain carpeted floor, Cassie could not believe what she was about to say; "We'll need to make you guys fake IDs. Can you replicate one, if you saw it? You know, with magic?"

Shrugging, Martin couldn't see why not. "It shouldn't be terribly difficult, I imagine."

This was too incredible. To think of all the money and time kids wasted on fake IDs when for the people in the Place Between the process was likely as easy as tying their shoes. "I'm not going to lie, Martin," Cassie began. "My friends may get really suspicious if they know you two are with me. I'm going to have to tell them something. Any suggestions?"

If it wasn't after midnight and if there were not a thousand other questions running through Martin's mind, he was sure that something good would come, but for now, all he could think to say was, "Anything but the truth."

~*~*~

Wha-oooh! Will Cassie have to lie to her two best friends? Is there something more to the principle than meets the eye? Find out in next week's read, The Place Between!

But before you go, I have a very special Birthday shout-out to my dearest and bestest friend, VICTORIA!!!!! Happy birthday, comrade! May this be the start of yet another wonderful and beautiful year of life for you! I am so proud to call you my best friend and I cannot wait to see what our next spontaneous adventure will bring!

Until next week.
Your humble author,
S. Faxon

Liked this read? Why not call an S. Faxon classic your own; got a Nook, got a Kindle? Got ya covered.

STAR WARS & The Place Between

OOOOOOHHHHHHH MAAAANNNNNN! 

I cannot wait. I asked this on my facebook page and I'll ask it again; how many more days until Christmas? I know what I'll ask for: tickets.

First time here? Click this start button to make your way back to this post with a bit more experience with Cassie and her besties: START!

The Place Between: Part 10

The answer that Cassie sought did not come within the span of lunch. There were so many pesticides that contained sodium that the list seemed never ending. Class could not wait. Cassie and her friends had to disembark upon their quest, but Mike swore to Cassie that he would find the answer for her. 

The answer seemed like a thousand miles away.

Mike had sent a text to his mom to pick him up an hour after school ended, allowing the bunch of them to have more time to search. He told his mom that he and Cassie had a science project to work on, which wasn't so far off from the truth.

Throughout her Poli Sci. class, beneath the desk, Cassie kept rotating the coin in her hands that Martin had given her. She hoped that it would stop time and take her to the Place Between, but she knew from her lessons with Edgar that magic had no power over time. It helped to keep them human, Edgar had said. Edgar's lessons rang throughout her head, while the words of her teacher regarding how lobbyists made their whispers influential in Congress were lost. 

The anxious feeling in her stomach tortured her until at last the end of day bell rang at 2:15. 

Cassie and Chelsea bolted to the library to claim their favorite corner where they could continue their investigation in privacy. This was far too serious a situation for their favorite couch. This gave freshmen a great sense of victory as they took over the cozy blue hued seats.

The pair of them awaited Mike's arrival nervously. Daring hardly to speak at all, except to say, "Where is he?"

They knew their time together would be short, so every minute lost felt like a small physical injury.

The librarian Marlie greeted the students as they entered the library. In the afternoon time, it was common for the library to become full in no time. This was the one sanctuary the students could go to where there were no teachers and no drug dealers. It was the only place in town where they could hang out and be regular teens. Whether they were doing homework, gossiping, or playing cards, this library was home.

When finally Mike made it inside to their meeting spot, he plopped down on the grey carpeted floor and leaned heavily against the section on US history. "Sorry it took so long, guys," he apologized while digging through his pack. "I got stopped by Mr. Pryor," he pulled out his and Chelsea's commandeered notebooks, looking far worse for wear. 

"Oh my God," Chelsea yelled. The noise level in the library was so escalated by the students settling into their favorite spots that her outside voice blended with the rest of the cacophony.

Sighing, Mike explained, "Apparently, those jerks were serious. They put their effing grubby fingers on every page to see if we were conspiring against them."

"Paranoid much?" Cassie said. This was further proving her worry against those two creeps. 

Nodding, Mike furthered, "Yeah. Pryor said he legit had to manhandle these away from them. That's why they look so jacked up. And you are not going to believe this; he said he went to the principle to try to ban them from the school for harassing our class. The principle said she'd investigate it, but..." shrugging dramatically, Mike said what was in the back of Cassie and Chelsea's heads. "It sounds too good to be true."

"In other words," Chelsea began dramatically, "Won't be long until Mr. Pryor gets his pink slip." 

Nodding, mike said simply, "Prob."

The dreaded pink slip was the sign that a teacher was the district's budget cut. Cassie and her friends had yet to have a year in their schooling career where one of their favorite teachers was not given the horrendous news. It was as terrible as any curse or sickle for the teacher and the students. 

"This only adds to our reason to find that pesticide," Cassie prayed that her gut was correct in this, so to get the continued support from her friends. Though she couldn't tell them about the world she was trying to protect, it was a comfort to have a common enemy that they could share. "They could be some really effed up people trying to poison our trees. Can you imagine what would happen to our town if all of the apples and produce we make here became jacked up?" About midway through her Poli. Sci. class, Cassie had configured a brilliant was to get her two best friends on board. "Think about it, if there's poison on our apples, do you think tourists will be wanting to come here any more?"

"Mmmm," Mike started as he began to boot up his computer. "Make mine a poison pie."

"Geeze, Cass," Chelsea was having a slightly harder time accepting all this, but there was an edge of it that could make sense. "But what would they gain? Like what would be the point of taking out the only source of money for our town?"

"Remember how we learned about how Monsanto takes over small farms and then makes them their own, so that they could make more profit?" Cassie knew she would sound like a conspiracy theorist, but she recalled how passionately anti-Monsanto Chelsea became during that segment in their political science class. "Maybe they're going to try to do that with us." 

"What're you three hooligans up to?" Marlie asked as she came up to the three teens in the corner of her library. It was customary for Marlie to make a couple of rounds throughout the library to ensure that her young wards were keeping their noses clean. This was a great luxury to which she now had access with a handy volunteer to watch the desk at the front of the library.

Cassie knew that Marlie was on their side, so she was the first to quickly answer, "There were a couple of creeps in class today from the district. They wanted to do a weird science experience slash internship for us, so we just wanted to check them out first to see if these guys are legit or not."

Marlie analyzed them a second, knowing full well that there was more to this story than what Cassie was sharing, but if that was the case, odds were that Cassie would tell her eventually. "Alright well..." Marlie began to give the teens advice, but a group of freshmen playing cards stole her attention away and with that, Marlie was off to put out a fire.

For the next half hour, the teens pursued an answer with much wanting for a lead, until Mike said, "This stuff seems pretty nasty." Pointing to his screen, the teens all read:

"SODIUM ARSENITE: DISCONTINUED IN THE U.S. FOUND TO BE EXTREMELY TOXIC. USED FOR MANY YEARS AS PESTICIDE AGAINST THE GYPSY MOTH. USED MOST COMMONLY IN FRUIT PRODUCING TREES IN NEW ENGLAND REGION."

"This has got to be it!" Mike exclaimed.

The half an hour that they had spent investigating this had been equivalent to pulling teeth for these three teens, so this find felt invigorating, thrilling, and terrifying.

"Apparently this stuff can seep through the ground and leave toxic poison in the dirt and rivers for years. It clings to everything." As Mike read off the symptoms of this dastardly sounding poison that matched the description willfully given to them by those fools, Angel and Eddie, Cassie devised the next step.

"Guys," she cut off Mike midway through his description of how the pesticide could not be washed off the peels of apples once applied. "We gotta keep this to ourselves for a couple more days."

"Why?!" Chelsea immediately replied. "Cassie, these creeps are gonna get people killed if we don't say something."

"No, we will," Cassie insisted. Her priority was to let the people in the Place Between know before anyone else. "We'll keep this to ourselves for a couple of days, but in the meantime, we'll look into this pesticide more, we'll find the contacts for the mayor, and the local news places. If we try to go to the principle, you know nothing will happen. We gotta go to the big wigs to bust these guys."

Mike and Chelsea nodded. It made sense.

"We're gonna want them to fall hard, so, you know, like in all of the crime shows we've seen, we've gotta get as much evidence as possible to bring these guys down," Cassie knew that this would placate her friends for now. They wouldn't run to the police without her go ahead. This would give her the chance to tell the world that she was quickly falling in love with about the dangers that now stood to destroy their home. All that needed to be done now, was to wait until her parents went to sleep, when she could safely slip away to the Place Between.

~*~*~


Ok folks, here's the situation: this is the first blog post that I have done 100% on a desktop (that I borrowed from my mom), and I wrote it in under 90 minutes. It is not often that I have the luxury of sitting at a full size computer. But I really would like to call a desktop my own someday and I absolutely do not need anything fancy. If you would like to have guaranteed blog posts from me every Thursday, the best way for you to help me fulfill this promise would be to donate toward this cause. You can pitch in, by purchasing a work of my own to call your own! Visit Amazon's Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook to make The Feasts and Follies of the Animal Court, a book in your e-library today! OR if you have already purchased my first published work, please feel free to send a donation my way up at that PayPal button at the top of the screen. I promise that your contributions go toward supporting my writing and not towards senseless nonsense. That's what my day job is for. ;)

Take care and we'll see you next week!

Your humble author,
S. Faxon

The Place Between Part 9

This is a very interesting week for me; I was able to enjoy a beautiful Easter Sunday with my family, hanging out with my little niece (just over a month old!). But I also received the mournful news that one of the teachers from my old high school passed away last week. It's not news you ever expect to hear and when it hits, it hurts. 

The short story you've been reading over the past few weeks has been based largely on my experiences in high school (I will attest that I was never taken to a magical place and/or interacted with wizards and rooties). There were quite a few downsides to my high school experience, but the good memories, those are the ones that shine bright. Memories of the teacher that passed away are most certainly among the bright. 

My grandma passed away while I was a student in his class; I had been very close with my grandma, I still wear her ring every single day and I know that she will forever be in my heart, but these are the things you think of/ do after time has passed. Shock was what set in first. It didn't seem real. The strongest person that I knew and loved was gone. 

I was back in class the next day after my grandma passed. There are only three memories that I have from that Friday - and one of them involved this teacher, Dan. We had been given an assignment, I have no idea what, but he pulled me aside, gave me a hug and said, "Whatever you need, you know we're all here for you." That was a big deal; yes, the other two memories are of two other teachers doing the same for me; my first teacher that day (We had seven periods in a day), I was the second kid in the class and he beeliined for me to do the exact same thing for me. Only a few of my peers really knew what happened - it's not exactly an easy subject to breech. I imagine that my mom probably callled ahead to let the teachers know that I was likely to be a bit off in class. Having those teachers, strong, great mentors and role models really helped me thruogh those very difficult times. 

I am so grateful that I was able to be a student of Dan's - not only was he a good man, he was a great teacher. As you may gather from my postings, my academics in high school weren't particularly focused. I did have some AMAZING teachers in high school, but quite a few were not. Dan was an excellent teacher. He taught us about the world and he made us all feel important, smart, like we mattered. And for teens, that's a pretty powerful message that sticks.

Thank you, Dan, for all you did for me and for all that you did for all of the students who attended that high school on the hill. You will be missed, but heaven has gained a great new member. May the surf be great where you are, Dan, and may the wind be ever at your back. 

~*~*~

And now, on to part 9 of The Place Between

The experience of sitting through the rest of the speech from Eddie and Angela was comparable to torture for Cassie. She tried to reassure herself that these people really were just jerks from the district with out an independent thought rattling around their empty heads, but she knew she would feel a lot better getting this information down to the Place Between as soon as possible. Trouble was, she still had a full day of school to sit through. She couldn't imagine how much more torture she could endure.

"I can't believe they took our fricken notebooks!" Mike cursed as they left biology. Needless to say Mike and Chelsea were fuming with frustration. 

"We gotta go find Mr Pryer," Chelsea insisted. "He'll get our notebooks back by beating the  living crap out of those idiots!" 

Cassie truly sympathized with her friends, but her mind was racing. She was trying to remember the earlier part in the fall when they did a small segment on chemestry, but her notes from that part of class were back at home and chemestry was not her shining subject by any means. "WAIT!" Cassie shouted out, startling quite a few students around her as they passed through the halls to their next classes. "No, none of you, go on with your normal lives," Cassie dismissed the other students then cut off Mike. Looking him dead in the eyes, she asked, "Didn't you do a project on that biologist earlier this year?"

Mike starred and processed the request of his friend a minute before answering meekly, "Rachel Carson?" 

"Yeah! That one," Cassie pointed excitedly at Mike. Both Chelsea and Mike stared at their friend like she had lost a screw. "Did you do any research on pesticides with that?"

"Yeah, a ton," Mike said with a shrug. He was internally very excited that Cass even remembered this presentation he did several months ago, but he didn't want to look too excited. "Why?"

Thinking on that reason herself, Cassie came up with, "Once I get my thoughts together, I'll let you know. Can you hang out after school?" 

"Cassie, what's this about?" Chelsea asked, hoping to not be late to their next class. 

"Those people were more than just your standard creeps," Cassie said to her two best friends. "They're up to something that could be really bad. I don''t know what yet, and I know this sounds nuts, but I'm going to need your guys' help to prove it." 

The bell rang, alerting the students that there was but one bell remaining before their next class. Mike and Chelsea began to hasten away toward their classes on the opposite side from the hall. The concern that they held for Cassie's strange twist in behavior was unsettling, yet in their casual way, the two teens decided that whatever crusade Cassie would pursue would likely be worth while. 

"Yeah, alright. See you at lunch, Cass," Mike said, heading off with Chelsea to Calculous, leaving Cassie on her own before her art class. 

Chelsea ran off towards the opposite side of campus where her classroom was located. As her boots pounded  the ground, she tried with all of her might to think on ways that she could be wrong. The last thing that Cassandra wanted to do was to set offf any panic alarms where there need not be any, but if there was a betrayer in the midst, she wanted them exposed. "But who could it be?" Cassie thought as she ran through the door of her art class. Her art teacher was one of those teachers who was quirky and easily distracted, so it was most common for students to get away with things in class that other teachers would ping instantly - being late was one of the top five missed offenses. "Does this have to do with those kids and that ouija board they left? Are they investigating because the camera caught those stupid teens smoking in the barn? There's no way those two morons were higher ups or legit spies - they were far too dumb and obvious." Gooing to her locker to remove her art supplies for lab, Cassie tried to devise a plot where she could bring Chelsea and Mike into her ring of knowledge without breaking any rules for not telling any body. She knew she needed help and most importantly, she knew that the space between would soon also be in desperate need.

~*~*~

The endless circles that Cassie mechanically drew in her concept notebook were little towards assuaging her mind from worry. When finally lunch did come around, Cassie was in no mood to stand in lines waiting for food. 

"Cassie, is everything alright?" Chelsea asked her long time friend, worried by the scattered looking expression on her face. 

"Yeah," Cassie answered, though neither of her friends were convinced. "I just really need your help, guys, to figure out what those two are really up to." Mike and Chelsea were not about to say no to their friend, especially after the way those creeps treated them.

The three of them went to their favorite corner of the lunch court behind the lunch cart with the impossibly long line behind it. Mike pulled out his laptop, a thin tablet like device that booted up quickly, and listened to Cassie explain:

"Those two were far beyond your average types of creeps; the sodium based pesticide that they are using, or planning to use, whatever, that's what we need to try to figure out." Cassie spoke in a whisper to her friends so that the lunch cart ladies standing closest to them would not overhear. "Mike, I know you probably put the most work in to that science project, so by chance, do you have a list or something of all pesticides and their, I don't know, ingredients?" Cassie really wasn't sure what she was looking for, but if she remembered anything from Mike's project, it was that there were some seriously nasty chemicals used in the past that harmed both animals and people. 

"All?" Mike asked, the idea was quite intimidating as the list was never ending.

 

"At least those that were used in the last one-hundred years or so?" Cassie tried to make it sound as if she knew or had any idea about what she was talking about, but she was truly in the dark. 

"Alright," I 'll see what I have. 

 While Mike looked up the files on his computer, Chelsea quietly asked Cass, "Do you think they're like, going to use something bad or try to mess up that creepy place somehow?"

Shrugging, Cassie thought hard a moment before the answer came suddenly to her without drawing too much attention to the things about that old ranch she knew. "Look, no one has ever known anything about that place - not even our parents. Why would it now be considered a 'historical landmark'?" She looked hard into CChelsea's eyes, hoping to press upon her how serious she was. "My dad is obsessed with local history, you know that. Even he doesn't know anything about that place. Who the hell are these people now from the 'district' to tell us otherwise. And, a moth? Do you honestly think that if there was a super bad moth flying around that we wouldnt have heard it from the local apple orchards? Kelly MPhinn talks about ever effing detail of her life and her folks have run one of the best orchards here in the mountains forever! Don't you think she would have told everyone if moths were posing a risk to her family's trees?" 

The last point in particular ran exceptionally true. It was nearly impossible to get Kelly to shut up. 

No matter what theory Cassie had within her, there was a point to connecting the dots with a girl who had no shame for sharing every secret imaginable. 

"Alright, Cass," Chelsea said with a nod. "Let's get these guys."

Mike snapped to tell Cass and Chelsea that he hasd something. "OK, I've got my page on the list of banned pesticides in the U.S. Anything specific you want me to look for?"

With a deep breath and a sound feeling that her two best friends had her back, Cassie strongly said, "Sodium. Find me the top ffiive pesticides that had sodium as one of their main components." 

With a nod of his long banged head, Mike was on the search.

~*~*~

Wha, oh, what devilish, dangerous plot stands against the Place Between???? Find out next week!

Your humble author,

S. Faxon  

 

The Place Between Part 8

Money, an example: 

(Photo curtesy of Wikipedia)

If everyone who's ever been to my blog invested $5 into my paypal account, I would have absolutely no chance of affording the yacht above. (Yes, that's exactly how I meant to phrase that.) 

In case you're wondering, that is the Mirabella V, the Tallest Single Masted sailing vessel in the world and she's presently moored in San Diego. I get to ooh and ahh at her regularly, though I've never quite seen her sail. I've seen her from my boat, which may pail in comparison, but, the boat I play on is cooler...So what if the boat I'm on doesn't have six suites, span 242 feet, cost 55 million dollars to build, or stretch 290 feet straight up into the heavens????? 

This is the photo I caught of the Mirabella: 

But I don't need a climbing harness to touch top of the boat I play on...so there.

Alright, enough of my my sharing random facts - on to the show! Op, there I go again, story! If you're new to the Weekly Read, WELCOME! You may want to back up a few posts to start at the begining. Click on The Place Between on February 25th, 2015 to see the start of this Tteen edition of the Weekly Read!

For the regulars, here we go!

The Place Between: Part 8

A silver six foot pole dropped to the floor, slamming upon the cold concrete ground with a harsh, resounding crack. The ringing of the pole's reverberating snap vibrated throughout the classroom where the students now clutched to their ears.

"There now," the silver haired biology and shop teacher said to his pupils. "That got ya to shut your yaps."

Cassie and her friends had foreseen the dropping of the pole a mere second before the fateful sound. This was their teacher's least preferred method for silencing the chatterbox students of his classroom, but after eighteen years of teaching, there was just no other way. Cassie and her bunch did not mind - it got the popular kids to shut up, after all. 

"Now, while your ears readjust to the beautimous ringing of the world around you," the teacher started with a satisfied smile on his face. Most of the students were grimacing still. "Let's get our stuff together here. Now, we were going to go over the test that most of you did abysmally rotten on, but the principal has seen fit to let  people from the district take over my class today."

"Why?" one of the front row people asked. The front row people really wanted to be in this advanced biology class, the second row people (where Cassie, Chelsea and Mike) sat, was the average students and the third row, that was reserved for the kids who believed they were above it all. Life would teach them differently soon enough, but for now, they were on top of the four year mountain.

Mr. Pryer shook his heads above his hands, his nine and a half fingers demonstrating his frustration. "I don't know, I guess they got a grant to restore an older part of town, so they're hoping to use your young minds to do their dirty work, something like that." Mr. Pryer was gruff, and he rarely washed his hair, but he told it straight and that was something his students always appreciated. (Even when he dropped metal pipes onto the ground.) "Hopefully these guys'll show and you all will get to leaarn about pesticides, rather than us review mitochondria."

Leaning to Chelsea and Cassie, Mike whispered, "Isn't that pretty much ninety-nine precent of most of our lives anyway?" 

Chelsea scoffed, but she was barely paying any attention. She was watching Cassie who was not paying attention at all. She had her box of pastel pencils out and was doodling away in her smaller sketch book. Sketching was how Cassie drew herself away from any stress that bothered her. The tip that she had received from the librarian and the books given to her were on the farthest back burners of Cassie's mind.

She had seen them. On her Sunday night visit to the Place Between, she had finally seen the long eyed creatures that had been watching her from the beginning. They were not scary or the least bit intimidating. They were odd, there was no doubt about that, but they were alright. Edgar told her that they were known as "Rooties" because they ate the roots of weeds. They looked a bit like potatoes to Cassie, but she would never share that with the creatures that at last welcomed her by extending to her gifts of cleaned roots. Cassie had yet to eat those, but they looked lovely in the San Diego Zoo cup she erected them within. They added a nice, earthy touch to her room.

"What are those, Cass?" Chelsea asked, pointing to the unusual image that her best friend was working on. 

Cassie leaned back and tried to think of a way to make up a story about the scene of the rootie at the entrance of the tunnel that lead into the heart of the secret place.

Leaning in his head awkwardly, Mike considered the sketching for a moment then said, "It looks like a walking, radioactive piece of sh-"

"Alright, guys," Mr. Pryer chimed in. The door in the back of class had opened. The people from the district were entering the room. Mr. Pryer walked to the two people that had entered to get to know their names, hoping to preserve at least some rights and control within his classroom. 

Some of the teens turned to look at the incoming visitors, most pretended not to care. The subject these people were bringing in was not going to be on any of their upcoming tests, so there was no point to paying attention. 

Cassie and her friends were among the latter portion of those teens. They giggled and laughed among themselves as Cass explained that the brown creature in her drawing as something she had seen in a dream. 

The conversation at the back of class left Mr. Pryer huffed. He did not care for these people who were pushing their way into his classroom and taking over his lesson. 

"Alright, alright, kiddies," Mr. Pryer slapped his hands together and walked to the front of the class with the two district people. "This is Eddie and Angela, they going to tell you folks all about this district project. Give 'em your respect, and don't make me look bad. I'm going to go find coffee and sanity in the break room and be back in a few." Mr. Pryor's bluntness never failed to impress his students, even the ones who could care less. 

The district people were not impressed, but their ear to ear smiles that instantly creeped out the class hid the distaste for their host. 

"Hi guys!" Angela started brightly. Already the majority of the class was waning in enthusiasm for skipping out on mitochondria. The tall, thin blond before them clearly was overcompensating her own lack of enthusiasm with an over abundance of cheer. "Eddie and I are here to tell you all about an epic opportunity that awaits you!"

The curly haired Eddie's feigned enthusiasm was even less appealing than Angela's. "Alright guys, now  show us with a raise of hands how many of you have ever been on a farm before?"

The class of students stared blankly at their teachers for the day.

"You've got to be kidding, right?" one of the more popular boys in the class asked. His question was not to bring attention to himself, but to shed light to the fact that everyone in this room had without fail more than meagre experience on farms. 

"Of course not!" Angela dismissed the qualm with a wave of her hand. Looking around the room, she asked, "Anybody?"

No one moved and certainly none raised their hands.

"Okay, then," Eddie moved awkwardly on to the next question. He was clearly disapointed in the lack of enthusiasm and engagement from the teens. "Tell us then, how many of you are planning to go to college to make sure that your farm or ranch becomes the best darn one this golden state has seen?"

Silence and stillness once more met the pair.

After the longest, heaviest minute in the classroom passed, a student in the first row raised her hand, but mostly becuase she pitied the pair in front of them. 

The two began to ramble off a few questions to this poor fool who raised her hand. 

Mike slid his notebook to Cassie and Chelsea so that they could see the note his pencil scratched in its messy pages for them:

The girls chuckled as discretely as they could. Chelsea wrote a note at the top of her neat page and shoving it over Mike's note, wrote in black ink:

All three teens chuckled, but their moment of laughter was abruptly interrupted.

"Do you think this is funny?" Eddie who plainly did not have a sense of humor stopped everything to point out the three teens.

Mike, Chelsea and Cassie sunk a little in their seats even though indeed they did think this was laughable. 

"Huh?" Eddie walked around the front row to stand beside the table where the three sat. "Silence is not an answer." He snatched awaay the notebooks of Mike and Chelsea.

"Hey, man!" Mike shouted. 

"Those are our class notes!" Chelsea argued, pointing to the batch of pages in this weird guy's hands that she had worked so hard to keep neat and organized.

"Perhaps you should have thought of that before you disrespected us," Eddie said. He scanned every inch of the pages in front of him. All the students found this a bit more than unnecessary. Even though his eyes clearly saw the two sentences that made the teens giggle, his eyes kept scanning. "We'll just have to take these with us to inspect to make sure you're not causing any more troubles than necessary,  

"Hey!" Cassie started up, her friends were beside themselves with anger to say anything yet. "We're students here - we kinda need our notes."

"Would you like to turn yours in too?" Angela sharply asked of Chelsea. The bright smiles and fake facades were gone. 

Everyone in class doubted the sanity of their district to send in creeps like these. 

The popular boy in the back of class snorted then said, "You guys wanna like, tell us why you're here? Or you just going to harass us?"

"That's it!" Angela yelled, "You, young man, can go to the principle!" She pointed her hand at him like a deity would when disgracing an angel. 

Standing up and collecting his things, the popular boy, "That's fine with me - beats the hell out of the hell in here." 

Clapping his hands together, Eddie tried to redirect the class. He looked slightly manic when he did so. "For the rest of you, students, we are going to tell you about this opportunity: in a few days, we will be embarking upon a paid internship opportunity." All of the students wondered at what cost those precious dollars could come from working with these two. "We are a part of a historical restoration project here in town for a little area that has long been neglected. It was supposed to be a local and tourist destination, but a nasty little moth took over the area, stopping progress of restoration dead. It's taken years and years, but we finally got approval from the big guys to clear out the area of the moths using a harmless sodium product. Now, we're going to need your help!" Eddie made it sound as if they were recruiting for a fun outdoor adventure and not the genocide against a bug. Cassie wondered how many of the students in class were considering helping this creep.

"How are we supposed to help you kill the bugs?" a guy in the second row asked. 

"No, no," Angela and Eddie answered as if disgusted by the thought. Angela explained, "The sodium mixture is kind of like a really strong smelling cologne, so it just chases them off, but we need help. It is a really big area and we need about ten of you to help us. But there are some requirements. Ed?"

Nodding enthusiastically once more, Eddie continued, "That's right; we're going to need signed consent forms from you, along with verification that you are over 18."

"Why?" a boy in the front row asked. 

"Because," Angela's answer made every other soul in the room appear to be far beneath them. "We'll be working with chemicals, so we need to make sure that you are fully aware of the hazards, but you will be wearing complete protective gear and the chemicals that we will be using are completely harmless anyway. It's just a general precaution as we'll be doing some real, hands on science that will prepare you for life after high school! Now, how cool does that sound?" 

No one in the room looked a lick excited about playing with chemicals, not even the odd kid in the front row who had a recurring habbit of burning whatever items were available whenever the bunson burners were lit. 

Cassie and her friends were still fairly upset for the scene that Eddie and Angela caused for them. The trio were too busy hatching plans for getting those notes back when one of the front row kids asked, "What area of town will y'all be spraying down or whatever, anyway?"

With a great big smile on his face, Eddie shared, "Oh, you guys have probably driven by it a million times! Some of you have probably even been there!" He sent a leary eye at Chelsea and Mike - the trouble makers. The glare creeped out all that saw it.

Missing the look completely, Angela finished, "It's the old cattle ranch down the road, the one that's been abandoned for years!"

Without hesitation, Cassie immediately thought, "Oh no. Are these the people Martin and President Andrea warned me about?"

Sweeping his creeping eyes across the room, analyzing every single expression, Eddie said, "As soon as we have enough qualified volunteers, our insecticide project will begin."

Every part of Cassie sunk. She knew that there was far more to this Eddie and Angela than met the eye. The odds of them acctually being from the district seemed impossibly thin. 

~*~*~ 

Uh-oh? What's going to happen next??? Who were those creepers? What is this sodium mix they're going to use? And will Chelsea or Mike get their notes back? You know how to find out!

See you next week!

Your humble author,

S. Faxon 

The Place Between Part 7

A long time friend and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend dinner at a lovely young family's home this week. Now that may sound awesome enough of itself, but the dinner was multi-cultural: our lady hosts that we met for the first time, was Russian and her husband was Turkish. (I know that sentence was off gramatically, but bear with me, the caffeine in my coffee has not yet kicked in.) Their little one is a Turkish/Russian American who will likely grow to be trilingual at least. It was a WONDERFUL dinner and we met another couple who were from Tajikistan (I think I could be wrong on that and if so, let me know and I will correct that!). We laughed, had great conversations and an enormous meal. Of course, no one can leave a Turkish household without drinking coffee or tea and we had the marvelous luck to get both. It was great sipping vishna (Turkish word for cherry juice) and eating Russian salad. I feel very blessed to have access to so many different cultures and flavors of life. You, no matter where you are reading this, whether you are on the train tracks in NYC waiting for the Q train to show up, or if you are in El Cajon trying to beat the heat of today, you have access to the global communities that surround you. You just have to find them and make friends. Trust me, it's not hard to have a global experience, or to share your experiences over a cup of tea.

Sipping my own cup of coffee now and ready to present to you this week's edition of The Place Between. If you are new to the Weekly Read and would like to catch up with this story, click here and the begining awaits you:  http://thereadingescape.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-place-between.html

For the rest of you, on with the show! Oh, oops, I mean, story...

The Place Between Part 7

"I no longer believe the coyote is the worst of our problems," with a slow point of his long, bent finger, Edgar pointed out the door through which they came. 

Martin glanced at the camera in the corner of the barn, checking to ensure that the recorder had not yet come to life. Figuring that it was safe enough, Martin made a daring move and walked to where Edgar stood so to see the target of his pointing. It took but a second for Martin to see the imposing threat: four humans striding confidently emerged from the darkness as shadows, heading directly toward the barn.

"Quickly!" Martin did not waste a breath. He grabbed Cassie and together with Edgar they bolted from the barn. The trail down which they had earlier walked was the trail they swiftly took. Their movements were keenly planned, but in their haste, they could not prevent the sounds they made cutting through the tall grass.

"What was that?!" One of the shadows asked, startled by the noise. The four shadows stood still. 

Cassie glanced back, terrified to think that these strangers might start shooting in their direction. A thousand scenes of civillians being shot accidently in zombie shows raced through her mind.

Like common cat burglars on the brink of being caught, Cassie and Martin dropped to the ground. They hid behind a rusted grain thrasher that left much to be wanted as a protective bulwark. 

The shadows that approached stopped abruptly. They too seemed startled by the unnexpected potential others.

Martin whispered something to Cassie, but she was far too occupied by the distraction of fear to have completely comprehended his message.

The people of shadows were speaking to one another. Between the remnants of the rusted muffler and tire, Cassie peered at them. Heart racing, out of breath, shaking from terror and cold, Cassie came to realize that she was lost and alone.

Were these the people determined to undo the enchanted ones? Why was it really such a heinous crime in these days and times to have powers? Would their cause become the next human rights campaign? Would they even be given that chance or had Cassie in the week of her knowing this great and extraordinary of secrets have already blown everything?

"Look!"one of the shadows whispered loudly. His extended arm pointed toward the plain where the small pack of coyotes were running off, startled themselves by the foibles of the two legged ones. 

The shadows regained their stances of confidence and proceeded into the barn where they disappeared. Cassie thought on the cameras. 'Are they on now? Have those guys triggered it? Oh where is Martin and Edgar?' 

No sooner had she said it, a hand slapped over her mouth, nearly stopping her heart.

Edgar quietly shushed the startled teen, assuring her with a soft smile. He pointed over the top of the thrasher. Extending her legs, Cassie half kneeled, half leaned on the thrasher to see over the top. At first she had no idea what she was looking for until she saw Martin and a handful of the sentinels, running carefully toward the barn. "What are they doing?" She mouthed to Edgar. 

Leaning close to her ear, Edgar softly answered, "Checking who is in the barn. If it is the fiends sent to smite us, our people will signal the retreat. If it is someone else...we will find a way to scoot them along."

Cassie locked her eyes on to the barn and within a few seconds a large puff of smoke billowed out. Cassie felt all of her hope for humanity die a little.

"Are they smoking them out?" Edgar asked rhetorically, losing faith in his own people for half a second.

"No," Cassie answered lethargically, "They're just a bunch of potheads."

The unmistakable skunky scent floated over to Cassie and Edgar. Edgar made a face. "Ewe," his droning voice sounded. "Are they imbibing that awful stench?"

Cassie thought Edgar's disgusted ignorance to be endearing. "Kinda," she answered. She really wasn't sure if her first cultural lesson to a citizen of the Place Between should be about the dumb ways youth wasted their money to hide from reality. 

She was not given the chance. 

"Let's go," Martin demanded, sweeping in behind Cassie and Edgar. Clutching onto Cassie's shoulder, Martin tore the girl away on to their hidden trail, ripping off a small piece of her jeans as a victim of the rusted thrasher.

The three of them raced back to the mourning tree's side. Maintaining his grip on Cassie, Martin again raised his wand and the whirling winds began to suck them up. Just before the images of the world surrounding her were blended together in a spinning mass, Cassie saw the group of stoners go running out from the barn, leaving a trail of thick smoke and dust behind. 

Arriving back in the safe keep of the sentinels, Cassie gave her head one minute to recover before shouting out, "What just happened?!"

Martin was already busy giving orders and demands to the sentinels, ranging from retrieving the above ground team as quickly as possible to briefing the president on what just occurred.

"There will be no need for that," the stone voice of the president firmly sounded, bringing the entire room full of working bees to immobile a statues. "I am already fairly aware of the situation."

"Madame President," Martin rushed to the regal woman's side. "There were a group of teens that came by to use the barn for 'recreational' activities."

Not wanting to raise any sort of panic, the president kept her questions to herself for the time being. She looked around the room, she could clearly see that many of her sentinels were missing. She knew that they were up top, clearing any more of the mess that may have been left behind.

"Martin, Edgar, Cassandra," the President's cool in such a strained situation threw chills throughout Cassandra's spine. She was impressed and intimidated all the same. Meeting a president was an enormous situation for a small town, mountain kid. "It seems appropriate that we review the events of tonight that have come to pass. Come with me, please."

~*~*~

Cassandra's eyes had never been wider. The tunnels glowing with a soft blue light opened into a grand and open underground pavilion. There was no way of knowing from sight the extent of the city between earth and damnation, but there was one thing that was for sure: it was beautiful. A true, real city, right here beneath her feet for all of her life. The purple mountain clearly had more to it than anyone could ever believe.

As the team of three followed President Andrea, the awe that filled Cassie about the place around her flowed occasionally to the president herself. Cassie wondered if she would be geeking out less if she were meeting the President of the United States. 'Are you their Minister for Magic?' Cassie wondered, comparing her limited familiarity of witchcraft once more with Harry Potter.  

The president led the men and young lady to her office for a close door meeting.

As soon as the door shut, President Andrea sat at her desk and said, "Martin, this is far worse than what we feared or anticipated."

Martin was taken aback by the president's grim frankness. "I don't understand, "Martin started. "They were just a couple of kids. They were scared white by the start we gave them. We didn't harm them - we just made it look like a pack of coyotes were coming in after them. They are not likely to return."

The president sat motionless a long while. Her lack of action only increased the uncomfortable feeling in the room. Eventually, the president shifted then said, "At first glance that may have been true, but," she waved her hand and drew up a smoke screen with the image of what the teens left behind. 

"A ouija board?" Cassie stared at the wall of smoke that she assumed to have some sort of projector generating the source of the image. It did not dawn on her that the image was produced by magic. The image of the game did not seem like a big deal at all, but Cassie decided that now was not the best time to ask short questions. 

"It's just a child's game," Martin tried to assuage the fears of the president, but he knew as well as her the risks. "Surely it is no longer believed to be a tool of dark sorcery."

All three adults looked to Cassie. This was why she was here. These critical insights into the world beyond  their own.

Cassie had seen enough paranormal shows to know that ouija boards could open doors into dangerous voids. A memory from last semester at school came to mind. Her and her friends in band were messing around with a ouija board in the backroom of band class where the larger instruments were kept. Using their cell phones for light, it was very dark within the long closet. The giggles that always started with such a game and the accusations of "stop moving it" were running rampant, but they began to wind down once the planchette started to move on its own. It had almost finished spelling "vigilence" when from above them a scurrying noise rang out. All of them went bolting out from the room screaming, and laughing, merrily interrupting guitar class. But that was it, the "door" had been left open and nothing bad had happened to them. The scurrying in the attic was nothing more than a mouse. It really was just a game. Cassie's first instinct was to shrug off the paranoia, to give a simple answer, but Cassie knew that a quick easy response was not the correct answer. "For kids it is a game. Even I've messed around with them, but I do know that people do still use ouija to try to talk or communicate with ghosts, spirits. I'm sure that there are a lot of people out there that see ouija boards as something to fear." 

Contemplating the answer for a moment, at long while the president nodded and said, "What started as a harmless game for spiritualists has now become a threat to us. Many of our kind and yours have been condemned throughout the ages for trying to communicate between worlds. Our people have avoided those boards for a century. No light may be drawn from those ghastly letters for us." The president waved her hand, dismissing the smoke screen.

For Cassie, she watched the smoke dissipate with but one word on her mind: "vigilance."

Edgar took a step forward and asked the president, "Is it too late for us to remove the board?"

The president answered, "The eyes awoke the moment those young fools stepped on to the land above our heads. Their activities, the laying out of the board, and the abandonment of the board are all being reviewed right now by the authorities. I think it's safe to say for us to believe that the authorities will assume the board was left for us." Though the sentinels had responded diligently to dismissing the young intruders, had they merely let the teens be, the game would have been played, it would have been taken back and not abandoned in a fit of fear. "We will see what comes," the president warned. "And they will come. Their paranoia rivals ours, which is why your role here is so important, Cassandra." 

Cassie was caught entirely off guard by this statement, mostly that a president would know her name. "Me? Why?"

Standing from her desk the president walked over to Cassie, placed her hands motherly on the teen's shoulders and said, "because you can help keep us from becoming them."

~*~*~

Will Cassie be vigilant and help prevent a possible genocide? Will the people of the Place Between be discovered? Find out next week on The Weekly Read!

Your humble author,

S. Faxon

The Place Between Part 6

Traveling has always been a delightful time for me to write. My current trip to Texas had proven just that. So, from Transmountain, here comes this edition of The Weekly Read!

But first, a look at the mountain.

The Place Between Part 6
he quiet of the ranch was unlike any silence Cassie had ever known. It was crushing and yet it pressed her forward. As excited as she had been for this evening to start, she could no longer wait to be tucked back in the safety of her bed. 

The tall grass that they slowly crept through hissed as cool, winter breezes passed through the mountain's grasp. The idea that anything could have been prosperous here made Cassie doubt anything that she had ever negatively judged before. They stayed together tightly, but neither men explained to Cassie exactly how they knew the trail on which they walked from any other bit of dirt they walked upon. The place was so overgrown, there appeared to be no obvious indication of a path marked. Yet somehow the men knew. They led Cassie to the tall standing remnants of the barn where the cows were once brought to be milked. 

"Here is where we shall begin," Edgar looked around his surroundings and deemed this the safest place possible. There was no standing wall within the stannding legs supporting the rusted tin roof. Standing within such a rickety looking structure was the least comforting aspect of the entire trip thus far. "Their eyes cannot see us here." Edgar pointed to a round faced, shiny object that Cassie did her best to discern in such dim light. A close, analytical gaze brought Cassie to be quite startled. She had assumed it to be a remaining tool from the cattle ranching days, but it was a camera. 

"What do you mean they won't see us? Why are they watching us? This barn?" Cassie asked. "Is that the government?" 

Martin held up his hands to get her to calm down. "They won't see us because the president's guard has more concealing spells on us now than we possibly ever had while this was our home. Their camera will not catch us. They are watching us because they do not want us to reoccupy this place. They know that we are still near by, but they have no idea of where we are living, so they posted cameras throughout this place. We believe they are motion activated, but so long as we stay within the concealing walls of our fellows below, they will not detect our movements. They are here - 1, to keep you kids out of here, and 2, to be ready for us if ever we dared to return. And no, it is not your government...exactly. We are not sure who they are precisely, but they do not answer directly to your president."

"It may be better, Cassandra," Edgar began, thinking that this was information overload without the background's completion, "If you sit. Please sit, please." 

Cassandra looked around. The only option was on the weeds and the dirt around her, which was just fine. Crossing her ankles Cassie dropped her rump to the ground and prepared for anything that was to come. 

Edgar too dropped to the floor and tucked his legs beneath him. Cassie was delightfully surprised by this odd sensei. She noticed that Martin did not sit. He was nervous, ever watching for something to go awry.

Without any need for a signal to start, Edgar began, "Hundreds of years ago, the perspective towards people like us, witches and wizards, was terrible. Burning, burning, burning. There were so many fires, but most of the poor souls that went up in flame were not enchanted. They were regular people without an ounce of magic to their hearts. Our people started to wonder, to hope if the world that we knew to be much larger than it seemed, would provide for us a safe haven. We put all of our hopes and dreams on the great and glorious west! 

"It was one of ours who planted the seed of exploration in the hearts of men like Magellan, Balboa, Cabrillo, Vizcaino, and quite a few of ours went with them. It was on the same missions that carried a small padre through these mountains that our people found this valley. Of course, the valley was not void of souls. The natives, the Kumeyaays occupied this place and they were leary of Europeans. A fear for which they had every right. It took many, many sleepless nights for our ancestors to establish trust with the mountain tribes, but it came like the sun rising after a long, starless night. We were all outcasts, we all had a similar enemy and a similar desire."

"What was that?" Cassie asked, captivated by the story being told. 

Martin smiled and in a whisper said, "To live."

Nodding, Edgar continued, "And live we did. It was not easy at first, new climate, new people, new home, but we were able to adapt and to build a great, strong, and secret friendship with the tribe in our mountain. It was beautiful."

Realizing that the shadows of the story were coming, Cassie could not keep her questions back, "How did they find out about you? Was it so weird to have multiple families working a ranch? That sounds totally normal." 

Hanging down his head, Edgar replied, "A spy. A man. One of ours thought he'd prefer a life away from this purple mountain's side. We knew, we all knew about the madness infecting the world against communism. Someone would have had to have been deaf, blind and dumb to not notice the world going to hell, but somehow still, we thought ourselvess immune." 

"We were betrayed," Martin sharply continued. The pains of the betrayal rang clearly. "He told the government of our abilities. Our greatest strengths suddenly once more became our greatest weakness."

Shaking her head, Cassie asked, "Hold on. Didn't the government people think it was crazy? That a whole community of witches and wizards were chilling in the mountains?"

"Yes," Edgar answered. "But he must have proved it to them through demonstration of his own powers."

While this made sense, Cassie had more questions. "With all of your powers, couldn't you guys have defended yourselves?"

The question did appear to have a simple enough answer, but centuries of a balancing act were not saved by whirlwinds of action. "Yes, we could have," Martin explained. "But war with mortals was not a venture in which we are willing to partake. Our numbers were small as they are today. It has been difficult to maintain our numbers being so remote, but we manage. Anyway, the people came slowly, trying to infiltrate us, to get out any information that they could, but fortunately, our people were immediately aware that something was odd. While fighting may be our last resort, defense is our speciality. We knew quite easily that these people were not enchanted like us, so we did not trust them. But one day, they grew frustrated and came with guns and police vans to haul us away for being 'communists'."

"What happened? Was there a battle after all?" Cassie anxiously asked.

Matin motioned to Edgar to explain. "Our friends the natives of the mountain saw the police coming, so they ran ahead and warned us."

An unsettling noise abruptly disrupted the conversation. 

"What was that?!" Cassie quickly asked, popping up from the ground. 

"Stay exactly where you are," Martin demanded. 

Edgar too stood. All were on high alert, listening intently for any more signs of movements. 

Again, the sound repeated. Something was making its way through the shrubs and tall grass. 

"Might be a coyote," Edgar said to Martin. "Or a raccoon."

'Or a dumb pack of high schoolers,' Cassie thought. 

"Either way," Martin spoke so quietly that the sounda of the distant crickets nearly drowned him out. "Do not make a move. We are only clear on this side of the barn."

"If it's human," Cassie whispered, "Will they see us?"

Edgar and Martin looked to each other.

In his horror movie narrator voice, Edgar answered, "That depends on who they are."

~*~*~

Wha-oh! Who or what's a coming???

Tune in next week! 

Your humble author,

S. Faxon