Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Chapter 7 of Joshua and Stewart's dilemma started on 11-24-09

Chapter 7 - Decision

The pond was filled with a strange sucking, whining noise that hurt Stewart’s ears. It drew him out of another dream, this time about the hunting rock down in the beyond. The noise was just like the noise in his dream, the same eerie sound the hunting rock made when it had caught something and was eating it. He hated that noise. He wrapped his tail around his feet and pressed himself tight against the rock shelf.

The sunlight no longer filtered in through the algae. Now the surface was a dull green nothingness and the water below it was hard to see through. The sudden splash and descent of the nasty stick made Stewart bolt to the surface and into the hanging grass along the edge of the pond. The shadow was back and it was angry. It was growling and snarling as it jabbed the stick over and over into the pond. The horrible clicking box was there, too.


“You’ve got to move whatever it is blocking the outflow pipe, John. Now. The pressure’s building. The entire system’s bound up because of this.”

“Yeah, well who the hell missed the indicators, huh?”

“What was that?”

“I said, who the hell missed the indicators!” the shadowed yelled.


Stewart blinked. He had understood the words.


“Don’t yell at me,” a woman’s voice squawked back. “That was Mason’s job. Not mine.”

“You got the email just like the rest of them, Nat. You could have done something about it.”

“Me? Me? I’m trying to keep an eye on the kid! This is Mason’s fault! He’s the one who told me to grab the child in the first place! Hell, if he hadn’t forgotten to check the fence line the boy wouldn’t be hiding in the bio lab.”


Stewart blinked and cocked his head. He understood what the voice was saying. He knew what the growls meant.


“You know what,” the shadow snarled back, “I don’t want to hear it. All day long you people sit in there and mess with the conductivity of this and the electron balance of that and when the damn system you guys built starts sucking in things it’s not supposed to I have to come out here to the this mini hellhole you idiots created and fix it!”


“Mmmm,” Stewart tried as he pressed his lips together.  “Mmmmmeeeee,” he whined softly.


The shadow jabbed the stick hard against the bottom and yanked it back and forth.

“What ever it is down there it’s stuck good. You’ll have to reverse the flow and maybe then I can shift it,” it said.

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”

“Excuse me?”

“We can’t do that, John,” a man’s voice crackled into the air. “The containment pond won’t be able to handle that type of flow and we have nowhere to send the backflow when the water level in the pond gets too high.”

“You’re joking.”

“Ah, not so much.”

The shadow backed up and leaned on its nasty stick. “Who the hell designed this system?”

“Mason.”


Stewart hissed and rolled his tongue against his front teeth. “Hhhhlllllll. Hhhhelllllllll.”


“Well you better tell Mason that his system is screwed.”

“John? This is Mason. Listen you have to unclog the outflow pipe. It’s extremely important.”

“Can’t do it.”

“Well you have to do it. Everything we’ve been working on will be affected if the system gets fouled.”

“I’m telling you that I can’t unclog it with this pole. It’s not possible.”

“Then get another pole! Get a pitchfork! Get something that will unclog it!”


The shadow threw the nasty stick on the ground and turned toward the high white wall. Stewart scurried forward and hid himself under a clump of weeds. It was harder to move on the ground. Not all of his legs seemed to work quite right. Swimming was much easier. Swimming was smooth and precise. Running was awkward and tiring. He watched the shadow disappear into the sneaky place in the white wall and then return with a new stick. This one was longer and thicker. It had two long claws on the end and the sight of it caused Stewart to press himself close to the ground.

“This is not going to work,” the shadow snapped.


Stewart watched the shadow pierce the pond’s surface with the new stick. It went through the same motions as before and got no where.


“How’s it coming?” the woman asked.

“How do you think? Are your readings any better? Has the pressure changed?”

“No.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. I told you it wasn’t going to work.”

“It has to work!”

“How? How do you want me to make it work, Mason?! Get an even bigger pole?”

“Get in the water and pull whatever it is off the grate.”

The shadow stood up and turned toward the high white wall. There was a different sort of hole up high that Stewart had never noticed before. He could see people there. A woman and two men.

“Are you out of your friggin’ mind?!?” The shadow threw its hands out to the sides, the new stick flashed in the late evening sun. “I’m not going in there! The radiation levels alone are too high, and the toxicity is off the charts! No way!”


Stewart watched as one of the men in the high up hole grabbed his head and turned in a tight circle.


“Shut the system down, Mason!” the shadow yelled. “If it’s that critical then shut it all down!”


“Ssshhhhtttttttttttt.” Stewart tried. “Ddddddwwnnnn.”


“I CAN”T SHUT IT DOWN!”

“WHY NOT?!”


One of the men in the high place looked like he was going to fall. His front legs were held in front of himself like he was trying to jump out of the high place, but he stayed right where he was. Stewart’s stomach grew taut waiting for him to fall and he couldn’t understand why he didn’t. Then he remembered. Before the pond there had been clear walls that kept him in one place. He had tried to climb them, but it hadn’t worked. He had been able to see everything around him, but he couldn’t get to any of it. Maybe that’s what kept the man from falling.


“Do you have any idea how much money this project is costing us? Do you know how much money this project will generate if it succeeds?!” There was a dull thud as the high up man hit the clear wall. “If I shut the system down it’s a complete wash. A complete wash! It can’t be done over! It can’t be restarted!” He hit the clear wall again. “CLEAR THE DAMN PIPE!”

“CLEAR IT YOURSELF!” the shadow roared and threw the new stick on the ground. It landed not five feet from where Stewart was hiding and he pressed himself as close to the ground as he could to keep from being seen.

“JOHN!”

The shadow turned away from the high clear place and walked toward the sneaky open place below.

“JOHN!” 

The high up man hit the clear wall again, the thud was louder this time, ringing and angry.


The shadow disappeared inside the white wall and the sneaky place slid shut. Stewart glanced up at the clear wall. The two men were thrashing their front legs at each other and the woman was trying to back away. He looked at her. He knew her. She was the one that had yelled the other day. She was the one who said she had taken the child. He remembered the angry, frightened screams. He knew those screams. He had heard them before. The child with the warm hands and the big eyes had made them. Those had been the hands that had put him gently in his pond.

Stewart looked at the place where the opening had been. The child was in there. He scurried towards the high white wall and ducked behind a rock that was resting against it. The sneaky place slid open again and the man who had almost fallen from the high place came out. He was wearing the shadow on his body and carrying the shadow’s head. He looked around and then put the shadow’s head over his own.

Stewart could see his face through the big, clear eye and he shuddered. The man’s eyes reminded him of the hunting rock. They were not right. The man walked to the new stick, picked it up and plunged it into the pond. He jabbed and jabbed and twisted and yanked. It made Stewart’s skin hurt to watch. Finally the man shouted and stepped into the water. He slid as his back legs lost their footing. When he stopped sliding he was into the pond to his middle and the new stick was thrust back into the water and twisted some more.

Up in the high place the woman watched and another man Stewart hadn’t seen before stepped up next to her. She gestured with her front legs and the new man shook his head. She put her front legs over her head and sat down. Stewart glanced at the man wearing the shadow and then made a decision. The man hadn’t closed the sneaky place. The woman had said the child was hiding in there somewhere. He was going to go find him. This was no place for warm, gentle hands.

Stewart took seven halting steps towards the opening, glancing between it and the man in the pond. When he got to the opening he was dazzled by the white light inside, but he blinked, half closed his eyes, and scurried inside.


~ Peace and determination

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