This is the first draft of a scene where Joe, Suki, and their teachers, Mary and Russell, have just stepped off the boat at Secret Island, where there is a school for ‘exceptional’ kids. Their guide is an older man named Bert, who runs the school with the help of an assortment of physicists, healers, brainiacs, and holy people from all across the globe.
Chapter 6
The further they walked, the more Joe wondered when they would come to some actual buildings. Here and there were groups of kids fishing, setting off model rockets, looking through telescopes, swinging in the trees, walking tightropes, playing baseball or basketball… but there weren’t any buildings. Anywhere.
Another thirty feet, and Joe had to say something.
“So where are all the buildings? This place looks like the Lord of the Flies or something.”
“Buildings?” said Bert. “Oh, you mean like a mess hall, and cabins for all the campers?”
“Well yeah.” Joe said, even though he really wanted to say ‘well duh!’.
Bert continued, a Mona Lisa-type smirk on his face. “Oh, we don’t do things like that around here. Your grandparents didn’t tell you? This is kind of like a… survival camp. We just sleep on the ground under lean-tos made of branches.”
“What?!” said Suki, sounding like she’d been bit by a snake.
“Yeah, we bathe in the refreshing chill waters of the Puget Sound, and we eat roots and berries. Every once in a while, if we’re lucky, we might catch a fish. Or a chipmunk.”
“You’re not serious.” Joe waited for the punchline.
“Yeah, here… I’ll show you where everyone camps.” They stepped out into a large clearing.
“Watch your step, now,” said Bert.
They came to a stop on the top tier of what looked like a series of giant steps leading down the hill, like the pictures of terraced vegetable gardens from Cambodia Joe’s mom had shown him . Each terrace was about thirty feet wide and two-hundred feet long. They were somewhat hard to make out, because they had been heavily planted with local groundcover, including salmon berries, Joe was happy to see.
“But you’re joking, right?” he said. ” I’m not going to sleep on the ground. I’ve done that enough to last me the rest of my life.”
“Yeah,” said Suki, “me too. This is total bunk.”
Joe stepped up to the edge of the top terrace and looked down. Directly underneath him was a mess of vines crawling straight up the terrace wall, covering it. And then something completely unexpected happened: The vines below him parted, and a young girl stepped out, as though from behind a waterfall. She walked out on the terrace below them, checking to see if any berries had started to sprout yet. Bert called out to her.
“Hey Cindy!”
Cindy startled. She turned around and smiled, seeing Bert.
“Bert! You jerk! You scared me!”
“Sorry darlin’. Hey look. Fresh meat! Cindy, this is Joe and Suki. I was hoping you could show them how we sleep in the dirt and eat chipmunks.”
Cindy wrinkled up her nose.
“Sick! What are you talking about?”
Bert laughed out loud. “Just foolin’! We’ll see you in a little bit.”
Cindy looked at Bert like he was off his rocker, then she disappeared back to wherever she came from. Bert stood there for a few minutes, smiling like a jackass in the sun. Then he turned, and with a little skip, walked over to a tree and pressed a knothole in its trunk.
“Now, don’t get used to this… we like to see everyone get their exercise, but when you’re first moving in, well…” Right behind Bert, the sod started to move skyward. “…we can use the utility elevator.”
Joe and Suki were awestruck to see a large metal box rise up out of the ground next to them. They stood there for a few long seconds with their mouths hanging open.
“What, you never seen an elevator before? Come on, lets get you settled in, then we can start goofing off.”
Bert stepped into the elevator. Nobody moved for a second, until Bert motioned them forward. Joe stepped first, followed by Suki, then Mary and Russell. Bert pressed a button, the doors closed, and they descended into the earth.
The glass walls of the elevator gave them an unimpeded 360 degree view. The inside of the place was huge, and each floor opened up wider and wider. The floor and walls were designed to look like the inside of a cave, made of cement stained a rusty brown. There were heavy iron and stainless steel support beams everywhere, so much so that Joe thought even a direct hit by a missile wouldn’t do much to disturb things.
Down deeper through the floors, they passed through a psychedelic lightshow, huge batteries of oversized flatscreen computer moniters flashing different-colored bodies of text and symbols.
Bert spoke up, sensing everyone’s curiosity. He stopped the elevator.
“You all know about chaos theory, right?” most everyone nodded, pretty well unable to speak from sensory overload. “Well this is… kind of a functional art project. We’re hooked up into all the networks in the world, looking for… well… we’re not entirely sure what we’re looking for… but we’re monitoring research in all areas, all disciplines, from science to religion and everything in between, looking for patterns, and… well, it’s just… you’ve heard of the Hundredth Monkey?”
Joe shook his head.
“No? Well that’s a surprise… we’ll talk about it later , but… we’re looking for meaning where there may appear to be none. Patterns show up in all natural and man-made systems, and so… we hope that we can learn to interpret a new language of symbols that we’ve been learning, and so help people on a large scale.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” said Suki.
“You know,” said Bert, “we. Us.” He smirked like he was hiding something. “Anyhow, let’s move on.”
He started up the elevator again, and they sank to the next floor, which was all warm wood and bright colors, with textiles on the wall from Guatemala, Thailand, Japan, Africa… there were life-sized statues from many countries and religions adorning the halls. Joe could see quite a few kids running around between what looked like dormitories. For being basically a giant cave, it was well-lit, with the giant vine-covered windows and strategically placed mirrors bouncing light evenly throughout the place.
Through the next floor, they came into a huge cavernous space, an auditorium with hundreds of seats.
“Yep, this is where we do the camp plays and skits. You know, Kumbayah and ‘who stole the cookie from the cookie jar’ and all that. Sometimes we watch documentaries or we have guest speakers from everywhere, all kinds of environmentalist types, sometimes famous folks come up from Hollywood with their latest cause du jour.”
Joe and Suki turned to each other at the mention of Hollywood.
“Are you going to have Leo here?” said Suki.
“Leo… oh, yeah… Well, you never know, right? Maybe even someone more handsome than him.”
The next floor down was even bigger, and was split up into a dining hall and different arts and crafts spaces, but not just your usual boring stuff… iron working with forge and hammer, Sumi painting, woodworking, jewelry making… also science and physics labs, with what looked to Joe like pretty up-to-date equipment.
Bert stopped the elevator. “So I think I can safely say you guys aren’t going to be bored here this summer. What do you think?”
“It’s… pretty cool,” said Joe, trying it play it cool.
“Yeah,” said Suki, “it probably won’t be too bad.”
“Great. Glad to hear it. So… I’ve got to go get set up for the orientation meeting, and,” he sent the elevator back to the dorm level, “I’ll let you guys get unpacked. We’ll let you know when we’re ready.”
“There he goes with that ‘we’ stuff again,” Suki whispered to Joe.
A small group of kids appeared, and showed each of them to their rooms, Joe to the boys’ dorm, Suki to the girls’, and Mary and Russell to the teacher’s.
I want to read more!