CHAPTER 28

  A CREVASSE OF HOPE

  That next morning was a Sunday, but because we had been working seven days a week, it really felt no different. Our lives continued to be dictated by the sunrise, the sunset, and the weather. On this particular summer day, we all focused on one thing – the site. On the drive over in the truck, Mimi, Mum, and I sat in the bed to enjoy some private time together. Mimi was feeling confident and sensing my growing frustration.

  Mimi said, “I just don’t think you have dug deep enough yet. I think we need to dig deeper. Today, we will find something. Don’t worry, Jack. Today is our day.” She put her hand on my shoulder and caressed my back.

  “I know it is,” I said. “I feel it too.” I was trying to convince both myself and her at the same time. I had not told Mimi about the experience I had the night before. I was still not quite sure what it was, but it, along with her optimism, was giving me strength for the future. And I looked at today as the first day of that future.

  Just then, as we were riding along, the truck began to swerve like it had a flat tire. Vincent hit the brakes, and the truck stopped suddenly. Mimi and my head swung back and hit hard against the back window of the truck. As we stopped, it was clear it was not a flat tire. The ground continued to shake, and the bed of the truck rocked back and forth.

  Uri shouted, “It is an earthquake!”

  And as soon as he said it, it was over. My heart was beating so fast. At that moment, the thoughts of the cave in Greece came rushing back.

  Vincent said, “Everyone okay?”

  I asked Mimi, “You, okay?” and she nodded yes.

  “We’re fine!” I shouted as I rubbed the back of my head.

  “Okay, then. On we go.” And Vincent put his foot on the gas again.

  “Interesting, isn’t it?” Mimi said.

  “How so,” I thought.

  “Don’t disturb their slumber,” she said in her deepest voice with a cheerful grin.

  When we arrived at the site, Vincent parked the truck as far up the slope as possible. The path that Uri had cut leading to the moat was compromised by the earthquake. It had been filled in with fallen dirt. We were all concerned about what we would likely find of the rest of our handiwork at the site.

  We all put on our packs and marched over the dirt to the path through the moat. For as far as we could see were some slides of dirt along the moat path. As we walked up the incline toward the plateau, the path seemed worse due to the quake.

  I was the first to reach the summit and to see the site. It all looked relatively the same except for one spot. One of the stakes that marked out the ten-foot circle in the center had fallen. I quickly began to run over to the area for a closer look. As I reached the spot, it was right where I had been digging the day and night before; The spot now had a slit in the dirt that was opened just slightly deeper, and the fallen stake had slid down into the crack.

  The slit was a mere crevasse about eight inches long. It was open just enough for someone to put their hand into, but not wide enough so that you could see into it. I reached down and put my hand in the crevasse to feel around. Mum ran up beside me and began to dig as well.

  Uri arrived next and bent down beside me and slid his hand into the crevasse too. We were all a little unsure of putting our weight inside the circle we staked. We all thought the same thing: that the section where the window might have been was now likely compromised and unsafe. Mimi and Vincent stood back as Uri, and I checked out the crack in the ground.

  As I reached deeper into the opening, the inner clay was moist and soft for about a foot, but the crevasse went deeper. I lay flat on the ground so that the full extent of my arm was at my disposal. I reached in and felt shards of hard rocks. I could not see what I was touching, so I grabbed a piece of the rock and rubbed it in my palm. The piece I had in my hand was triangular in shape. As I flipped it over and over in my palm, the clumps of clay were easily discarded with my thumb, so I could feel the rough edges of the piece. It felt like terra cotta in my hand. I pulled the piece out of the crevasse to get a look at it.

  As I pulled out the piece, I sat up on my knees to examine it. I brushed it off with my bare hands. It looked like it was a piece of pottery. It was definitely manmade. It was not made of natural materials. It was our first real discovery.

  “Jack, what is it?” Vincent asked.

  “It’s a piece of pottery. Like some fired ceramic.” I said.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  As Uri continued to feel around the crack, he said, “There appears to be a layer of broken rock and shards of pottery and other gravel.”

  “Quickly,” I said, “Mimi, Vincent, grab shovels.”

  The four of us began to dig in the circle. In no time at all, we were digging through rocks, stones, and gravel that were likely remnants from the castle that once stood on the site. As Vincent, Uri, and I dug, Mimi sifted through the gravel for any evidence of any civilization. She continued to separate the pottery from the gravel. The gravel was in various sizes. The pieces she found did not seem to fit together and were mismatched. We continued to dig until Uri’s shovel hit a hard surface, and we all heard a clunk.

  Uri jammed his shovel several times against the hard surface.

  “Jack. Vincent. Dig over here. Quickly,” he said. “Help me clear a space so we can see what we have come to.”

  Vincent and I wasted no time in shifting our attention to where Uri was. We quickly shoveled the compacted gravel away from the area. Uri was on his hands and knees, looking down at the surface. When we cleared an area of only one foot across, he pulled out his hand broom and brushed the loose dirt away from the hard surface.

  “It is not stone,” he quickly concluded. He continued to work his broom over the dirt on the surface. Then he bowed down and with his mouth, he blew the tiniest dust away from the uneven surface. Then he put his flat palm against the surface and brushed it with his hand.

  “The surface is smooth and cool. It is not rock or stone,” he said. “Yet, it is uneven, too.” He looked up at me, and with sweat dripping down the strains of his hair he smiled and said, “Jack it is a surface like rough poured glass.”

  I quickly jumped down and was side by side with my Greek friend. I reached my hand out to feel the surface of the glass. The texture was smooth and cool but also uneven. It felt very natural. I grabbed my small pickaxe and struck the surface hard enough to judge its density but not enough to break it. It was solid. I hit it again, and small shards of the surface splintered off. The color was deep amber. The four of us quickly cleared away the rubble and dirt covering the glass surface so that we might get a better understanding of what we had found. The glass was rich, and it was thick. We could not see deep into its thick color. After all, this entire window was not made to look through but to show light through down to the throne room.

  My heart was beating so fast. Everyone continued to work at a quickened pace. Finally, one of my theories was looking to be true. There was a sense of excitement about what we might find beneath this great glass floor. I hoped for only one thing – the proof of the existence of giants. I was lucky to have three other partners here in this search who all wanted the same thing. There was no one looking for fame or fortune on this day. I knew Mimi was hoping more for herself that if my journey ended here, we would be able to move on to the next phase in our lives together. I knew better than to think she did not also want this just for me. She knew more than anyone, including Vincent, how much this meant to me. How much of my existence was relying on this.

  We worked the entire day clearing the space around the glass window to the throne room. We ended up clearing a circular window that was eight feet in diameter. The colors of the glass were rich in red and amber, which together, I theorized, would produce a rose-like color on the sleeping princess and queen. We could still not discern just how deep the glass was. In it, we could see stones that were likely thrown in as the hot liquid glass was being poured. The stones were likely thrown in as filler to strengthen the floor.

  It was nearly dark when we had the site cleared. I didn’t want to leave the site for fear that if I left when I returned, it would be gone as if it were a mirage. I decided to camp out and sleep at the castle mount. The night was nice enough, so everyone else agreed to do the same thing. Mimi drove back to the farmhouse and picked up some blankets, sleeping bags, and food for the night.

  It was a joyous night for us. Uri started a campfire, and we drank freely of the wine. Some of it was wine Vincent had been saving for just a night. It tasted good and felt good. The night sky was the darkest blue, and the fiery ambers from the campfire danced as they floated toward the heavens. We sat around the fire, drinking and eating. Uri, in a cheerful mood, sang romantic Greek songs as Mimi and I danced together. Vincent, also in a cheerful mood, got up and danced in a flamboyant style as a ruse with Mum running around his feet. It was a celebration at a medieval burial site. We ate, drank, and danced into the late hours of the night. Our tired bodies strengthened by the wine, food, and euphoria of the find, found it hard to retire.

  When we finally turned in for the night, I lay there out in the open looking up at the stars in the sky. I thought these were the same stars that King Gayant in his day, would have looked up to see from this same site. They were the same stars he would have looked up to see in his quest to find a way to save his daughter from her own death. I imagined a giant man with his hands folded together, looking up to the heavens with tears in his eyes, asking for relief in his heart for the illness his daughter suffered. Then he would look up for relief in his heart from the great loss he would feel when she and then his own wife would be called to death.

  It really helped me put in perspective how my feelings in the past several months about my losses were nothing compared to the loss of a loved one. I thought about Cadmus and his dying words to me. How he would have wanted to be here when we found the truth that he and I both longed for. I wanted to believe so much because it would mean so much to so many. I was grateful that I had not experienced such a loss in my own life at the time. I was also humbled by my feelings of self-pity I had once harbored. Had the events of the past not happened, I would not be here now in this place.”

  As Grandpa Jack talked about the losses he had experienced at that moment in his life, I knew what Darby was thinking. She wondered how Grandpa Jack felt now that he, like King Gayant, had lost his own child. I prayed she wouldn’t say anything in typical Darby style. I imagine her saying, “Isn’t that interesting considering your own son and daughter-in-law died?”

  I was lucky. She stayed quiet.

  I wondered at that moment in the story how Grandpa was actually feeling. Clearly, he knew now his son was dead – our parents. I began to see the cracks in the armor my grandfather wore. I realized my father's death must have mattered to him. A man who thought so deeply about how King Gayant would have felt about his own child’s death could not think so little of his own loss. It was something I hoped Darby would have started to realize as well.