The Soulkeepers

Chapter 21: Red Stones for Manioc

Chapter 21
Red Stones for Manioc

With all of the preparations made, Jacob jogged across the street to Dr. Silva’s house the afternoon of June 10th. He’d barely slept the night before thinking about the journey. Tonight he would finally know for sure what happened to his mom.

In his heart, he was sure she was still alive. He didn’t have the sort of peace or finality he did with his dad’s death. But as he crossed through the gate into Dr. Silva’s backyard, he wondered if that was because there hadn’t been a funeral or a body to see. There was no proof. If she were alive, what he learned in Peru would be the key to saving her. But he also knew that it was equally likely his greatest fear might be revealed. If his instincts were nothing more than wishful thinking, he might find out she was dead.

As planned, Dr. Silva met him at the mouth of the maple orchard.

“Are you ready to go?” she asked with a quirky half smile, as if he couldn’t possibly be ready.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he replied.

Dr. Silva handed him a safari helmet with mosquito netting and then coated him in a thick fog of bug repellant. From her shoulder, she removed a canteen on a long leather strap.

“Put it around your neck and shoulder so that it travels with you.”

“What is it?”

“Tea. Just in case.”

“In case of what? Early Peruvian tea time?” he laughed.

“It has medicinal properties,” she said.

The pieces clicked together within Jacob’s mind just as they approached the privet. Dr. Silva had told him her specialty was horticulture, and John had said that her plants were used to make drugs. Now she was admitting that the tea had “medicinal properties.”

“The first day I was here … that’s why I told you all of those things. You drugged me!”

“Now, now, I merely gave you something to help you relax,” she said. “Anyway, it was for the best. I had to know enough about you to make sure you were ready.”

Jacob wondered what other means she’d used without his permission to attain her goals. He crossed his arms over his chest as they entered the back garden. As he covered his nose to pass the corpse plants, he couldn’t help but think that Dr. Silva had been pulling his strings from the very beginning. She wasn’t human, that was for sure, and she’d never been honest with him about who or what she was. He’d trusted her because he’d had no choice.

While he trotted over the stone path and walked the sandy meadow trail, he realized trusting Dr. Silva might not be an all-together wise thing to do. In fact, by the time he reached Oswald, Jacob was jumpy with suspicion about Dr. Silva’s motives and sure this trip was a bad idea. But there was no turning back now, not with the hope of finding his mother so near at hand.

“Hey, where’s Gideon?” Jacob asked, noticing for the first time that the cat wasn’t in his usual place by Dr. Silva’s side.

“Oh, he’s in the house. He doesn’t like to travel through the tree unless it’s absolutely necessary,” she replied. “Now, it’s important we hold hands as we do this so that we aren’t separated during the journey. We wouldn’t want to end up on different ends of Peru.”

Jacob hadn’t thought of that scenario and wasn’t happy to have something else to worry about.

Dr. Silva interlaced the fingers of her right hand with his. She looked him in the eye.