Alabaster Island

Chapter 16

At Assembly the next day, everyone except for Ben and me paired off and sat together. Some pairings were awkward. Others like Ethan and Chloe's were harmonious. Ben's hateful eyes seared the back of my head the entire period. But I felt hurt when my friends left immediately after assembly. Nothing will change. Yeah, sure. 

Scraps whined and gave me a worried frown when I got home. "What's wrong, girl?" I asked, scratching her favorite spot beneath her collar. Mom glanced down from the lighthouse window. I waved, and she waved back. 

I headed to the fridge to grab a snack but found it emptied and turned off. Without fuel to run the generator at night we'd stopped using it after dark so as not to drain our solar batteries. But I didn't expect to find it shut off during the day. 

Up in the lighthouse, Mom studied the scroll, a small, satisfied smile on her face. She penciled notes on a pad of paper and was so focused she didn't look up when I entered. Mom and I were different. Nothing bothered her. My emotions flew all over the place depending which way life blew them. But no matter what happened, Mom never lost her quiet focus and good humor. 

"Fridge is empty," I said. 

"One of the solar batteries quit. Dad went to swap it. For now, I moved everything to the root cellar. It's nice and cool in there."

"No sign of the supply plane?"

"Not yet," she surveyed the expansive view from the lighthouse. "The Mayor is anxious, but it'll work out."

I sat next to her. The scroll was made of a translucent material with a mother pearl of sheen. Pliable but waterproof as if it were some type of plastic. The text was a series of pictograms within pictograms and tiny inscriptions that linked them together. 

Each graphic incorporated angles that joined and connected on a numerical level once the angles were calculated. They formed equations that once solved became images, sounds and words. It hurt my head to look at them because I'd automatically start to translate them. 

Mom worked on a section that involved how the ancient city of Lemuria was organized. In my mind's eye, I saw a crystal matrix spinning like a wheel and people transported from one place to another instantaneously. I quickly looked away. 

"What's this relationship?" Mom asked, pointing to a series of numbers and angles. 

"Movement. About connecting people from one location to another...but also...something to do with binding energies, I can't figure out the last part," I admitted. Mom nodded and took off her necklace. It was in the shape of a tiny octopus. She dangled it over the scroll. Its tiny jewel eyes reflected two points of light onto the scroll like tiny star constellations. She marked their position on her notepad.

But I hadn't come to help Mom translate. Once started it would be difficult to stop. I enjoyed spending time with her, but the translating itself was tiring. Neither of us knew when to quit once we started and she'd be up here all day.

"Fascinating," she said. "Well, that might explain how Shianne and I came to Alabaster Island."

"I thought you came on a boat?" I realized I didn't know how Mom had arrived here. 

"No, no, not a boat," she smiled. "A bicycle."  

I sighed and rolled by eyes. Sometimes I wasn't sure when to believe her.

"And you've never left?" I asked.

"Never left once."

"Well, except for Honey Moon Island," I reminded her. To have had me, she must have gone there.