The Enlightened Poem is by Charles Thomas Peters Jr. and is part of Flame By The Sea
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Flame By The Sea
By Charles Thomas Peters Jr.
Copyright 1989, 1993
All Rights Reserved
CHAPTER TWO
Six hundred feet below Sounder’s bluff the sun worshipers lay listening to the ocean, listening to the breeze blowing-cooling their blistering bodies–and listening to their friends cavorting in the surf and frolicking on the beach. But they couldn’t hear the loud screams coming from the beautiful church on the bluff, for the lamentations were forty years in the past.
White sand glittered in Daniel’s jet black hair as he lay close to where he had fallen. Sixteen year old Daniel Hudson lay wasted on the seashore from the party on the beach the night before. His state was due to a bottle of liquor, the bottle Kay Benton hit him over the head with when he tried to seduce her. A simple no and slap across the face would have been enough for him to have left her alone. But Kay had taken great pleasure in breaking the bottle over Daniel’s head. She hadn’t taken his tempts of seduction seriously. She thought he was making fun of her, and she had had enough. She was tired of people taunting her.
As Daniel’s heels sank into the ocean’s sand and the tide sucked at his feet, a child’s baseball popped against Daniel’s chest and rolled between his legs. But Daniel felt nothing. He remained oblivious to all except that which flashed through his mind. Unconscious, thoughts of his grandmother raced through his dreams. Daniel could hardly believe she was missing. He could still picture her plainly in front of the fireplace and rocking in her rocking chair. She use to stare for hours at images of the red, yellow, and blue flames flickering shadows on the pale white walls of the room. Her spectacles would slip to the end of her tiny nose and her red rosy flowered bonnet would fall over her eyes just as she would start to doze off. The sounds of her swearing and damning the wire frame glasses and colorful bonnet could be no better than a memory, if Daniel’s worst fear proved true.
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As a little boy raced to retrieve his baseball, Daniel heard nothing. He felt nothing as the boy accidentally kicked sand in his face.
The boy stared at Daniel as he reached down to pick up his baseball. “Sorry mister,” the boy said, “the ball kind of got away from me. It must have hurt like hell when it hit you. That Tommy throws a mean ball. But that’s all that is mean or tough about Tommy. That chicken shit took off running like a bat out of hell after he hit you. Tell you the truth, I was kind of reluctant to come over here myself. I didn’t know how mad you were going to be. But I figured what the hell, this baseball cost me some money.”
The boy scrutinized Daniel who had not heard a word. The boy scratched his head. “Say mister, you trying to play dead, to frighten me, to get even. Honest. We didn’t mean to hit you. Honest to God, it was an accident.” The boy sat down next to Daniel. The boy asked, “You okay mister?” Nervously the boy took hold of Daniel’s wrist and said, “God, please have a pulse.” The boy sighed in relief, “Shoo!” The boy stood up and looked over at his sister. Then he looked back down at Daniel. The boy thought a moment and said, “You’re alive, but I’m afraid you might be badly hurt. I better go tell my sister about you.”
The boy ran over to his sister. “Sis, there is a man over there and I can’t wake him.”
His sister ignored him. The boy pulled at the top of her swimsuit to get her attention. When the top of her suit came off, he not only got her attention but everyone else’s as well. Wolf whistles seemed to come from everywhere as she turned a bright red.
Quickly, she grabbed the top of her swimsuit from her brother and put it back on. Then she started screaming at her poor, befuddled brother. “Timmy! Timmy! How could you? How could you, my own brother, take part in this conspiracy against me? Who put you up to this?”
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The boy pointed toward Daniel and said, “I was just trying to tell you that he. . . .”
Before Timmy could finish telling his sister about the man being unconscious, she stormed over toward Daniel without listening to what her brother was saying. As she neared Daniel and saw who it was, she screamed, “I should have known it was you. Your making a lewd pass at me during the party last night was not bad enough; you had to bribe my brother to let the entire world see how small my boobs are.”
Kay stared at Daniel as she waited for some response. She then kicked him. “Hey, don’t play dead with me. If you play dead with me, I’ll make you wish you were dead.”
“Kay!” Timmy yelled, “He had nothing to do with me pulling off your top. That was an accident. I was trying to get your attention to tell you about finding this man here. He’s out cold. I’m afraid he’s seriously hurt. Don’t you think we ought to call him a doctor or something?”
Kay looked at Daniel’s head. At first, because of the sand, she didn’t see the blood. Then she saw that he was bleeding. “Shit! He’s bleeding from where I cracked that bottle over his head.”
In disbelief Timmy looked at his sister. He asked, “You did this to him?”
In an angry tone Kay whispered, “He made a pass at me.”
Timmy chided his sister, “You should have been grateful that he was attracted to you. Have you looked in the mirror lately? I mean, with your freakish calico hair all greased back real ugly like, and you having a figure that’d only be dreamed about by a man having his worst nightmare, if you think you’re going to have guys knocking your door down for dates, you’re as crazy as you are ugly.”
Kay looked at Timmy. “Just because I’m ugly is no reason for me to be easy.”
Timmy looked down at Daniel and then looked at Kay. “Well, no one can accuse you of being easy.” Then he asked, “Are you going to call a doctor, or are you planning on leaving him here to die?”
Kay said, “Yeah, I’ll call a doctor to send the medics, but it is more than he deserves.”
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Kay and Timmy walked over to her beach blanket. When Kay reached beneath her brother’s shirt for her purse to get a quarter for the pay phone, she discovered her purse was gone. Kay stomped her foot. “I don’t believe this. Someone has stolen my purse.”
Timmy asked, “What time is it? Maybe mom’s home and I can run get her to call a doctor while you stay here with the stupid, lovesick fool.”
Kay gave Timmy a dirty look. “Don’t you dare. Are you forgetting. . . .” Before Kay finished what she had been about to say, she noticed a two year old child holding her purse. Shaking her fist she marched over to the child. “You little brat.”
Timmy glanced at his sister trying to catch the toddler who was doing a pretty good job dodging between and around her legs. Timmy rolled his eyes. “God.” Then Timmy looked back at Daniel. “My sister.”
One of Timmy’s friends, Billy walked up. Laughing, he pointed at Daniel. “Say, what was Tommy trying to do? Get rid of his brother’s competition?”
Timmy didn’t understand. “What? Why do you say that?”
“Tommy’s brother, Mark, has got a serious crush on Mary. But Mary still has a thing for Daniel. Tommy really landed Daniel with that baseball, didn’t he?”
Timmy looked at Billy. “Tommy hit him with the baseball, but that’s not the reason he is unconscious. Last night at the beach party, my sister hit him with a bottle.”
“Your sister hit him with a bottle?”
“Yeah. She says he made a pass at her.”
“She must have misunderstood.”
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“Probably, but what do you know about Daniel?”
“My brother thinks Daniel is pretty neat, real cool. Says he is extra smart, but doesn’t parade it. Makes people feel at ease with him, even though he is still kind of a stranger around here.”
“So your brother is his friend?”
“They’ve hung out some.”
“I hope my sister didn’t hurt him too badly.”
“He’s tough. I’m sure he’ll be okay.”
“He needs a doctor.”
“Look. I think I saw him move.”
“I wish he would wake up.”
Billy glanced at his watch. “Oh shit. I was supposed to be home by 11:30. See you.” Billy quickly took off running down the beach.
Timmy watched Billy for a second and then looked back at Daniel. Though Daniel was still unconscious, Timmy heard Daniel whispering, “I’m never going to find my grandmother. There are so few clues. Just the letters from Timothy Benton and the photograph of the tombstone.”
“Letters from Timothy Benton?”
“And the inscription on Sheriff Benton’s tombstone. The poem. Why did grandmother have a photograph of the tombstone and a copy of the inscription?”
Timmy knew the inscription. Knowing how angry he had seen his mother get at the very mention of the poem, solemnly, Timmy recited:
THE ENLIGHTENED
Written in the Halls of Bounty
Near the straits of Portabay County
Closer the garden named of Tulips in bloom
Where the hearts of two souls portend of doom
High on the mountain, mention on the bluff
Over the beach, where some play it rough
There was a flame, it was over by the sea
It was over and again, till it enlightened thee
Timmy heard Daniel. “My grandmother is not who I thought she was. My grandmother is not Emily Urbane. Emily Urbane died three years after she graduated from West Chester. So who is my grandmother? Where is my grandmother? Is it possible the Benton family knows?”
“My family?”
Dreaming, Daniel remembered standing by the raven iron portal of the cemetery in Portabay and watching two girls placing flowers on the grave he had been about to investigate. One of the girls was Kay Benton. The grave was the grave of her great-uncle, Sheriff Benton. Timothy Benton was her grandfather. Daniel thought he should try to get close to Kay and find out what he could about her great-uncle and how the grave might relate to his grandmother’s disappearance. But it was the other girl he really wanted to get to know. Her name was Mary Crow and Daniel thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He thought that if he didn’t get to meet her, he’d die right there and then.
Although Daniel knew it was Kay he should have made a special effort to get to know, he couldn’t resist Mary. In no time, Daniel Hudson and Mary Crow became an item. Mary’s friends started making fun of Daniel and calling him Crow-legs because there was no place Mary went that Daniel didn’t chase after her. But Daniel soon realized the time he was spending with Mary was getting in the way of his search for his grandmother. He also realized that because Kay intensely disliked Mary–probably because she was jealous of her–it made it difficult for him to get close enough to the Benton family to find out if they knew anything about his grandmother’s disappearance. Still, when he looked at Mary, he simply couldn’t force himself to break up with her. That is until he received a threatening note demanding he either break up with Mary, or her life would be placed in grave danger. After he received the note he felt he had no recourse except to tell Mary good-bye, and then try his best to stay away from her. As he tried to avoid Mary, he tried harder to get to know Kay. But she was not an easy person to get to know.
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Timmy stared at Daniel who began to wake. It was a little after noon when Daniel woke with the hot sun burning down on him and something in his eyes. His bright blue eyes saw red, like a brilliant flame, as he lay looking across the narrow inlet toward the church high on the bluff up above him. The church looked celestial against the aqua sky and blazing sun.
Daniel struggled to stand up. His head ached. He felt something cool running down the side of his face. He ran his hand over the area above his right temple and forehead. He looked at his hand and saw blood. “I’m bleeding?”
Daniel staggered and stumbled in the sand. Disconcerted, he made his way into the woods through a thicket of underbrush. Just beyond the clump of bushes and first few trees he passed, he sat down on a stump. Through some overgrowth he stared back toward the beach. There, he saw Kay fighting with the two year old. As he watched her taking her purse away from the child and pushing the kid to the ground, he remembered how she had hit him over the head with a liquor bottle.
Daniel watched Kay walk away from the two year old, leaving the toddler laying on the ground kicking and screaming. Daniel wondered, “What kind of person is she? What kind of people are the Bentons?”
Kay looked around where Daniel had been laying and saw that he was gone. “That son of a bitch! Damn! He was playing a cruel joke on me after all. I bet that blood was actually ketchup.”
Then Kay looked around for her brother to ask him if he was in on the joke. But Timmy was no where to be found. Kay thought, “Oh hell, if he wasn’t in on the joke I bet he’s run home to get mother to call a doctor.” Kay shook her head. “Damn. I wasn’t supposed to take Timmy to the beach today. I bet Timmy forgot. Mother left strict orders that I was to take him to the library. Oh shit. And when Timmy tells mother what I did to Daniel on the beach last night at the party, oh brother. She’s never going to believe that he made a pass at me and that’s the reason I hit him over the head. Damn. I’m going to be grounded for life.”
Kay thought, “I better find some place to hide in case Timmy comes back to the beach with mother. I’ll go hide. That’s what I’ll do. If I’m no where around, then she’ll just think Timmy was pulling one of his numbers on her. Later, I’ll tell her that I was out back of the house hanging laundry on the clothesline when Timmy sneaked off. I’ll tell her that I’ve been looking everywhere for him. Shit! But how will I explain this swimsuit if I can’t find a way to change clothes in time? Damn! And she’s bound to hear on the grapevine how Timmy accidentally pulled off the top of my swimsuit. Shoot, I might as well face it. I have no choice except to tell her the truth and hope she understands.”
Kay walked back over to her beach blanket and plopped herself down, while Daniel stood up from the stump and walked along a path farther into the woods. He didn’t notice that Timmy had followed him into the woods and continued trailing him to make sure he was all right. Timmy started to let Daniel know he was tagging after him out of concern, but since Timmy was Kay’s brother he wasn’t sure how Daniel would react. So Timmy secretly followed Daniel in silence.
