CHAPTER TWO: ~TWO WEEKS EARLIER~ THE ELECTRICIAN’S REQUEST

The cool morning breeze made Calin shiver outside as it was gently rustling the leaves down the street of the barely eighty year old town of Lamb’s Crest.

He weighed the idea to don a long sleeved shirt against the slightly cold morning. Then again he guessed the cool breeze would surely give way to a warm day, as is custom at a seaside town on the south-west coast.

Breathing deeply, he turned his attention to his surroundings. As if on cue, the morning sounded off with its many noises.

Everything from people readying their stalls to people making their early start towards the few vehicles that do visit the small little-known town of scientists, farmers and fishermen.

There were many protests hanging in the air over who will get the finest goods from the markets in these parts and who would be luckiest to get invited to go see the strange and mysterious Ruins of Mesa Versee. There were also the sounds of people arguing over prices while they make the necessary deliveries of food and supplies the town needed from its distant neighbours or even from the bigger cities far to the north on the other side of the bridge.

Woolly clothes on the market stands hinted at autumn, only a few weeks away. The winter’s rain hadn’t started yet. The farmers with live stock were all talking about how they hoped the rain wouldn’t be late this year, and the farmers with crops were begging for the rains to stave off for another two weeks so they could reap. Even without that in mind, there was much to like about the colder months, or rather anything that could take away the sting of the brutal sun especially for the days working outside. But as with everything in Lamb’s Crest, the weather of the small coastal town was very unpredictable.

He walked towards one of the open shops, only to be shocked by a red truck with out of town plates whizzing by him. Swear words flowed from the driver’s mouth as the vehicle disappeared down the hill.

I must watch where I’m going! A small frown spread on his forehead. Outsiders! It’s hard getting used to them.

It was tempting to shout something back, but he resisted the urge and shrugged before he continued on.

At the next corner, burly townsmen with heavy camping packs strapped to their shoulders, got into a small pickup truck close to Jacobs’ farm house. Hunters, for sure.

There had been rumours that some farmers closer to the hillsides had been losing more and more live stock to the rare predators, which shouldn’t even exist in this part of the world but mysteries about the coastal island was indeed a long list.

Calin returned his gaze to the hunters and smiled, even if his heart was slightly filled with envy. Those men probably will sort out the pest in the weeks to come. They were lucky. He would have quite enjoyed the hunt.

Never able to resist, he looked back at the house with the white stone walls and the black roof that had been his home since his ‘accident’ as they had called it.

The sight of the house was always bitter sweet. It was somewhat of a home, but also he remembered when he was begging in the rain with no roof over his head and the torn clothes with a ring and a letter his only possessions.

There were no memories of a family, no memories of a past. No memories of laughter, only the ones of him waking up to a world in which he was a parentless blank slate.

He had asked many about what had happened, but the most he ever got was half stories. The people who had picked him up −after he had knocked his head severely− was not from this particular town, but from Drave’s town, another pioneer village. They had said he had fallen from a simple tree onto a rock. The rest was a mystery as the fishermen he had asked, only knew bits and pieces.

Though, what he would never forget was the night he was stumbling through the heavy rain of a tropical storm that he had begged for shelter yet was shunned away.

But through the cold and wet weather a door had opened and a little round women had swooped him up with a warm smile and gave him nice food to eat and a roof to live under and his very own bed; the first light of his new life without memories of the past.

For years after that, it was the talk of the town that a boy so completely lost his memory and what it would mean to them if it ever happened to one of them.

It was a difficult time to live, knowing they were always pondering lightly about what he was living through so painfully.

It was hard for him not just because he had no idea where his parents were, but nobody had ever come asking around for their lost boy.

At first he had thought, no hoped, they had lost him and didn’t know where to look, but he feared for the second reason behind it. The men from the town remember more keenly the other events of that time.

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The lot of them were a heavily superstitious group and it could only have been stories, but he believed them on some instances. They had said there was a loss of much live stock, not unlike what was happening now. Of course the fishermen attributed it to some sort of animal, like spotted hyena with their strong jaws or something; which wouldn’t be too farfetched if there were actually any sorts of scavengers in that part of the world. But even then the hunters were called upon alongside a search party who joined them to search for some missing people.

Calin was lucky in that regard, it was because of that search party for the two missing boys from the town, that they had found him that night, cold and broken.

It was only later that he had learned from excessive prodding for answers about the night of his accident that the two missing was found. They were two boys running away from home. They probably got the beating of their life. He chuckled as he was sure he could squarely place Jerry in that situation.

Even the culprit behind the live stock was just a thief in the end. The thief had taken the meat he wanted and slashed the carcasses to make it look like animal attacks. In all consideration it almost worked in taking the heat off of the search. Bad luck for the thief that the hunters found the cabin out in the woods with damning evidence from the crimes.

The mystery though, was that some person was found dead two days later with severe bite marks. Sometimes he wondered if most stories coming from these fishing towns’ ever had any truth to them. That is fishermen for you.

Thinking about it again, made Calin keenly wish there was more information of what had happened that night when he was found, yet that was a fool’s wish. He lumbered on.

***

Arriving a little time later at the small shop where he was to help that day, Calin smiled. The wooden frames hugged the windswept glass windows, with some spots cleaned, but the rest left in a hurry. It spoke volumes to him of what was inside. The electrician’s shop was run by a man and a woman who truly were a dreamy lot, but he cared greatly about them. Calin was sure they were the best in fixing anything if it had wires of any sort.

There were clearly things falling and clattering to the ground somewhere in the shop, and the sound of the two owners muttering at each other at their apparent clumsiness, drifted through the shop. Calin could not help but feel happy as he entered.

Inside, he found as usual the cluttered chaos that could only be understood by the two owners. Order in the chaos they always told him.

A greeting sounded from the back room, clearly the voice of the middle aged man named Eric Barnes, but Calin’s attention was quickly drawn to the woman with a long wire draped around her neck under her rich auburn hair.

She stood up with gusto and let out a held breath.

“Calin my good boy! It’s great to see you working at our shop today.” She hurried over and continued, “Well no use standing around doing nothing, you see those two boxes over there? Grab one and be sure to be careful you hear. There are lights and a lot of wires in there. I have a special treat for you today.”

The boxes were presented quickly enough, and he lifted one of the heavy boxes to test it before glancing back at the woman already busy with a TV on the small table. He approached her tentatively, never quite sure when she would swing around or something. After a second, he asked her, “Where do you want me to take it Misses Darly?”

She just waved him off with one hand, but said, “Oh sorry dear, I promised a treat. Did you hear? The Getsamés finally found a way into the inner chambers of the ruins yesterday.”

“No way?!” With a gasp of amazement Calin’s attention was immediately fixed. The Ruins of Mesa Versee were one of the main reasons why the town of Lamb’s Crest developed into the busy town it was today.

Two hundred years ago in the early eighteen hundreds, something happened to the south west coast of Africa.

Twenty kilometres off of the coast, close to three hundred kilometres of land presumably lifted out of the sea out of nowhere.

But there were forests of living trees covering the entire expanse, with not a single thing to show that there had ever been salt water close to the place. Calin had only read a couple of the old articles about the uproar the whole affair had caused back then.

Of course, this drew scientists from all over the world to seek answers to the utterly strange phenomenon, even though the means to study such a bizarre occurrence didn’t exist back then. Still to this day, it gave up far too little answers.

Yet, it caused enough of a buzz that the mainland opted to build a bridge to the new stretch of land.

But it was the ruins of Mesa Versee that were found a mere thirty three years ago, that really and truly stumped the scientists. It was built into the bedrock and cliffs at the sea, the ruins of a city cut cleanly in half with no evidence found of any remnants of it in the sea.

For decades the place had been a great mystery to the scientists, who, by this time were permanent residents with families and everything.

There were two other things that made the ruins stand out as extraordinary. Nobody knew by what ancient civilization it was built. There was no evidence of any human remains in the old ruins. And the written language on the walls didn’t match any of the ancient cultures already discovered.

The second was certainly that it was built from a combination of materials that was as strong as or even stronger than modern concrete.

To hear that they finally found a way into the heavily protected inner sanctum was truly exciting news; enough to be headlines on the international news channels.

Then something bugged Calin, the woman had said a treat for him, but mentioned the ruins. With a frown he asked, “But um, Misses Darly, why did you tell me about the ruins?”

The woman stopped what she was doing and said, “Firstly, because I know like any other young one, you find the ruins fascinating and two because I’m sending you into the ruins to deliver and help set up the lights for Mr. Getsamé and the other scientists.”

Calin gasped in shock and dizziness settled over him for a fleeting moment. He had never had the privilege of even coming close to the ruins, never mind going into them. A smile beamed out of him. Jerry would never believe him!

He looked at the second box on the ground and an idea sparked in his mind as he asked, “Um, Misses Darly can I um get Jerry to help me with the second box? It is quite a walk to the ruins.”

The woman was busy grumbling over a misplaced tool as she absentmindedly said, “Sure sure.”

A grin popped onto his mouth as he almost let out an audible sigh of relief, but he suppressed it quickly as the woman shooed him away. “You should hurry there now.”

Nodding his head, he took off with a brisk pace down the road to go find Jerry, before the boy reached the Launders.