Time Drifters

“Why don’t they just bury them?” Thomas asked, looking around in horror.

The graveyard had plenty of regular markers and carved crosses, but it was also filled with stone caskets sitting on larger slabs of rock, all of them above ground.

“Too wet,” Barkley said. “They don’t want the bones floatin’ back up and pokin’ through the ground every time there’s a flood.”

“Could be, one of the hands might grab yet ankles and pull you down,” Caelen said, dodging towards Calico and snatching at her leg. She stifled a squeal.

“Get off it,” Calico exclaimed. “Don’t do that! Pig!”

She had insisted on coming with us, determined that no boy could do better at grave robbing than her. I had my doubts about it all, but Calico’s spunk had pushed me over the edge when it came time to commit.

“Rufus said it’s this one,” Barkley whispered, pointing towards a standing building made of stone. “Lafitte is the name up top, isn’t it?”

“That’s gotta be locked,” Thomas said before we had even made it to the wrought iron gate in front of the mausoleum. Barkley gave it a tug and Caelen shimmied in behind him, adding force to the effort.

“Wait,” Caelen said. “Left-handed.” He moved to the other side, reached through the bars, flipped a latch and then easily swung the entire gate past him.

“Not even a creak,” Caelen said.

“How disappointing,” Thomas added, sarcastically. “We’ll have to leave word for the groundskeeper to install one on every crypt.

“But this one is locked,” Caelen continued, giving a second turn to the brass knob on the large wooden door.

“Operation Thomas,” Calico said pulling out a sulphur stick and deftly getting a flame going on the stone step. She sheltered it while I held the tip of our torch down to it, getting instructions from Barkley about how to hold it properly so I wouldn’t burn everyone around me.

Plans to attempt to get Sister Vellena’s keys away from her were abandoned, thankfully, once Thomas promised that he could scrounge together the necessary implements and get through any locked door. I worried that it was just boasting on his part, but my suspicions soon turned to envy when I heard the click of the latch and he proudly announced that we were in.

“In like Flynn,” exclaimed Calico.

“Ladies first,” Thomas said, seeing that Calico’s excitement was quickly met with reticence.

“I’ll wait,” Calico said, stepping back.

Caelen went to take the torch, but I pulled it back and decided I’d be brave. At first look, the enclosure seemed empty, because there was no coffin in the center. It was more like a walk-in closet with perfectly arranged shelves holding urns and boxes of alabaster and polished marble. Small windows on all three sides would have let in some light, except for the fact that it was pitch black this evening, thanks to the persistent, dense clouds.

“This is where it gets tricky,” Barkley said, stepping in behind the others. “He only said she came in here, but he couldn’t get close enough to see what she did.”

When Rufus got Isaac and Capucine to the house, he’d peeled away and hidden again, allowing Barkley to resume being the visible twin. While we were helping to serve out the soup to the children, he was back in stealth mode, following Sister Vellena as she left the house. She had been careful to look around as she entered this mausoleum and had been inside for a few minutes. As she exited, a thin book-shaped object had been tucked underneath her arm, and she protected it with a wrap of velvet as she returned to the asylum, entering through the back door that lead to the kitchen.

Francesca reported that while she had returned to the kitchen to refill a soup terrine, she saw Sister Vellena pull a key from a string around her neck and enter a large pantry door. And Calico confirmed that it was the same door where Monsignor and Capucine had taken Isaac after supper, locking him inside for the evening, while Capucine retired to a tiny room directly beside that.

The plan was to get into Isaac’s room the following evening when Sister Vellena and the others were off at the concert and search for what she may have hidden. If she was wise to what we were doing, it was likely that she wouldn’t even trust Capucine with her plans, suspecting that any of us may be in league with her.

This evening’s expedition was to search for any Post that might not have been moved yet… without getting caught, of course.

“Should we just start looking in every single one of them?” Thomas asked.

“Some of these are sealed up tight,” Barkley said, straining to pull off the top of an urn.

“Let me see it,” Caelen said.

“You’re not the only strong one,” Barkley protested. I moved the torch to give them light but it was clear that there was a metal weld that no man could break.

“Smash it on the ground?” Barkley asked, daring for the dare.

“No,” Caelen said, replacing the urn to its resting place. “The Sister wouldn’t have been so athletic to bother with that. And such a wee container for what we might expect to be hidden.”

“Look,” I said, stepping to the far end where I’d noticed a longer shadow on the ground. “There’s fresh gravel down here, as though something’s been shifted above it.”

“You sure that’s gravel and not part of someone’s burnt remains?” Barkley asked, relishing the possibility.

I swept the torch upward and came to a box that was made of white marble with flecks of green in it, reminding me of my own crystal.

“This one,” I said, handing the torch to Thomas while I tried to pull it forward. “The dust on the shelf has been scraped by someone else moving this box.

“Thank you, Scooby-Doo,” Thomas said.

“23 skiddoo?” Barkley asked, looking towards the entrance. “Who’s comin’?”

“Nobody,” Thomas said, annoyed. “Forget it.”

Caelen helped me and Calico get the very heavy box to the floor. We lifted the lid and all of us gasped.

There were large, leather-bound books and thin parchment folios. The one on top had golden letters spelling out something foreign.

“Latin and French,” Caelen muttered. “Midi Solaire… noon? Solar noon?”

“That’s what the Sister said to me this afternoon,” I said, lifting the book.

“Hold up,” Thomas said. “Should we be seeing these?”

“Well she shouldn’t,” said Calico.

“We need to know what they are, first,” Caelen said. “But he’s probably correct. We must mind we don’t delve too far, for our own safety.”

“That’s insane,” Barkley said, reaching in to grab another text, which had long words that I knew must be German. I took out the next folio, a brittle parchment cover with tattered satin strings. The careful handwriting underneath it had French words…

“Something… du Point,” I said.

“Wait!” Caelen commanded, getting all of our attention. “Stop. Just hold your horses.”

“Thank you,” said Thomas, glaring at Barkley and me.

“I’ll take all of this and go to hide it somewhere,” Caelen said.

“You don’t know your way around like we do,” Barkley protested.

“And you can’t keep yer kitty-cat curiosity where it dinna belong,” Caelen shot back.

“Can too!” Barkley said.

“I’ll do it,” Calico said.

“Prove to me, Barkley, that you can take all of these books and even carry them,” Caelen dared. Barkley immediately took up the challenge, making a neat pile of the ones we were holding, and lifting the remaining volumes from the box. The stack was higher than the width of his hands but he gingerly scooped them up and stood, defiantly smug.

“Excellent!” Caelen said.

“Now, as for picking a hiding place,” Thomas began, leaning to get a look at the book on top.

“We already know,” Barkley shot back. “Rufus and I worked it out.”

“Convenient,” Caelen said. “The boys who wish to predict the future are the very ones with the secret spot.”

“We would never defy the collective,” Barkley said, straightening up and looking injured. “My honor would be offended if that’s what you think.”

Caelen rose as well and lifted his chin, demonstrating that it was higher than the top of Barkley’s head.

“’Course my hands are full, so I’m not in a situation, at present, to demand satisfaction,” Barkley said, swallowing with difficulty.