It's A Matter of Trust
Disclaimer: I do not own anything mentioned in this story except for the character of Alexandra H.
Chapter Five: Where's the mailbox?
She woke up with a start the next morning. Thunder was booming from what seemed to be just outside her window and she blinked a couple of times to adjust her eyes. The red numbers of her alarm clock glared 7:40 in her general direction and she groaned. Another bolt of lightening touched down and sent a crack through the house, causing her to feel a lot more awake. She threw the covers back on her bed and sat up, her palms on her pillows as she surveyed her room. Should she get changed already? Considering the fact that they were up late last night and that it was a Saturday, she agreed with her mind in assuming that no one would be up this early. She climbed off of her bed and re-tied the draw strings on her green, pink and white plaid pyjama shorts. She slid her white robe over herself and then carefully opened her door, as if to not make any noise to wake the rest of them.
She glided down the mahogany staircase silently, her bare feet making hardly any noise as they connected with the old wooden panels. She heard the pelting of rain against the windows as it hit the glass in sheets of water. It was quite the scene outside. As she walked towards the kitchen, she looked behind her at the windows around the front door. The trees were blowing around in the vicious wind and the mailbox at the end of Ben and Abigail's driveway had already blown over and was now no where in sight. Just as she reached the kitchen, she returned her eyesight to infront of her and nearly jumped at what she saw.
"Oh! Good lord" she said, as she stopped suddenly, startled at the sight of Riley sitting silently at the kitchen island, munching on some cereal. Her feet nearly came out from under her from her sudden halt and she had to grab onto the wall to prevent her from wiping out.
Riley looked up from the newspaper he was reading and let out a chuckle at her clumsiness. He seemed to give her the once over and subconsciously she looked at her reflection in the microwave window. Her long, wavy brown hair was still in it the messy bun she had put it in last night, but was looking severely ragged. Pulling the hair tie out, she walked into the kitchen and over to the cabinets.
"I didn't think anyone would be up" she noted as she pulled a bowl and spoon out of the cabinets. She looked over at Riley and found that he was watching her, his amazing blue eyes now behind a pair of adorable square, black framed glasses.
"I'm terrified of lightening. I was hit by lightening when I was a child" he added in seriously, looking at her. She turned around abruptly, dropping the spoon onto the hard granite counter top.
"Really?" she asked, genuinely curious to hear about it.
"No" he replied, smirking at her, before returning his attention back to the newspaper. She gave him a curious look before laughing quietly; pulling the box of cheerio's from the pantry. She poured some into her bowl and then opened up the fridge, pulling out some strawberries, raspberries and black berries. She sprinkled some over her cereal and cut up a few strawberries, putting them on the cheerio's as well. She poured some milk over all of it and then went over to Riley, sitting opposite of him at the island in the middle of the kitchen.
"I should probably tell you about all the research we've been doing" she said as an after though after a couple of minutes of a comfortable silence. Riley nodded his head, his attention not flickering from the newspaper he was holding infront of him. Annoyingly, she gave him an angry look and then swatted it down. But instead of finding out that he had been reading an interesting article on the world's current freshwater situation or something of actual importance, she saw that he had actually been reading the comics, which he had covered up by putting the front page around them.
"Oh, nice" she commented as she surveyed the section of brightly coloured cartoons. He gave her a protesting look before hastily collecting the paper back together. He shuffled them together and then folded them, throwing them onto the kitchen table along with the rest of the paper.
"Well I can't be a genius all the time. Besides…Family Circus is my favourite" he noted before getting off his stool and going over to fridge. She laughed at him and then continued to eat quietly, munching contently on the cereal mixed with the jubilee of berries.
"If you guys are doing all this research, you must have found a clue or something" Riley noted rather intelligently as he went back to his seat at the kitchen island. She nodded a couple times before replying.
"I found it when I was cataloging a bunch of the scrolls you guys found a couple of weeks ago. I work for the Museum of Ancient History in Washington and it had been slipped into the pages of the Guttenberg bible you found that was among the treasure. I think it might have been the first bible ever printed" she added.
"Fascinating, it really is. But how did you find it? People have been combing over that stuff for months now" he added, dismissing her comment about how historically significant the bible potentially may have been. She sighed a little impatiently, noticing how eager he was getting.
"I was the first one to actually look at it page by page. People just crack the cover open, read a couple of lines of Genesis and then close it. I examined it more closely and found a slip of parchment tucked in between the pages of 164 and 165. I took the paper out and then noticed that a verse on page 164 had been underlined. Deuteronomy, Chapter 8 Verse 17" she recalled.
Riley was literally on the edge of his seat. He was looking at her with an intense gaze as she regaled her account of finding the clue. Even she was getting a little excited as she looked back on it. It was all very mysterious.
"What did it say?" he asked her.
She took a breath and then pursed her lips, trying to remember exactly what the passage said.
"Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day." She recited finally, hesitating on a few words but managing to get it right in the end.
Riley stared at her for a couple of seconds after she finished before breaking out into a very confused looking expression. He scratched the back of his head and ran a hand through his short brown hair. He looked towards the hallway for a second before looking back at her.
"That's the clue?" he asked, still looking confused. She frowned in reply.
"No, that's the bible passage" she said rather defeatedly. Suddenly, the lights flickered on and off and then shut off completely. They heard the beep of the alarm go, signaling that it was kicking into reserve power and they were now cut off of all electricity. The storm outside raged harder and a bright bolt of lightening caught both their eyes as it touched down about 800 meters from Ben's back door. The loud clap of thunder followed almost instantaneously and they were both a little scared now.
"Want to go into the d—"
"Sounds great" Riley said, cutting her off before even hearing where she wanted to go, both of their eyes still on the back window watching as nature battled itself outside.
Quickly they both got off the stools and put their dishes in the sink, walking rather quickly out of the kitchen and down the hallway. She lead them to Ben's private den in the interior of the house, where had they not just seen lightening strike, they would not have been able to tell there was a storm going on. She went over to the large conference table set up in the middle of the great room which had handsome mahogany bookshelves on every wall. She gathered up a few sheets of paper and then flopped down on one of the chairs.
"So what did the piece of paper say, the one in the bible?" Riley said as he sat down as well, not missing a beat. She paused for a second before ruffling through the paper strewn about the table. She finally found a plastic paper slip and pulled it out of the mess. Riley could see a small sheet of parchment, maybe 7 inches by 3 inches, which looked considerably old. She squinted at it for a few seconds before angling it towards the light.
"The People Know,
What Only Has Been Told.
The Story Lost,
It's Age Of Old.
The Names At The Bottom,
Signatures signed,
Among them hold value,
The Place hidden,
Blind."
He sat there in silence after she finished reading it, letting the words sink in. She watched him carefully, the cogs in his head churning almost audibly. He stared at the bookshelf behind her, blinking every so often. One minute, two minutes, three minutes…eventually 15 minutes passed by of complete silence. She waited for him to figure it out, since she knew he would. It was pretty clear what document the parchment was talking about. She, Abigail, and Ben had all realized it the first time they'd read the clue. The first line correlated to one of the most significant documents in US history, besides the Declaration. She knew he'd figure it out too. He was a genuis, supposedly.
Finally, she watched him bring his eyes back towards her and his featured change from contemplative to horrified. He looked striken, as if he couldn't believe what he'd just realized. His jaw almost hit the floor as his face became paralyzed with the realization.
"The US Constitution"
((Author's Note: Hey everyone! Thanks for the wait. So here's the first clue!!! I hope you guys like it, it took me a couple weeks to figure out what I wanted to do but I think I've got a good direction. Schools coming up so I'm going to get as much done as I can in the coming couple weeks and then I'll try and update as much as I can once I start school. REVIEWS OWN MY LIFE so they'd be much appreciated. I'll give you a cookie? Seirously ))