The Druid

Chapter 2

Will wasn't serious.

They all weren't going to die. Probably. Alan and Savannah asked Will as many questions about the matter, while they ate. Will was a software programmer at heart, but a scientist by trade. He was the only student to get an "A" on three consecutive exams in Mr. Aalberts's class freshman year. The first student he ever had accomplished such a feat, he told the class.

But Will had no answers and proved that his scientific knowledge was quite limited in the field of quantum physics and astronomy. After the pizza was finished, Savannah and Georgia went home. Savannah had a stress headache and needed to rest. She got those often. Will asked Alan if he wanted to come over to game all night, but Alan declined. He wanted to catch up on his reading. He had been slacking, thanks to the nice, sunny weather.

So, here he was, after triple checking that every door in the house was locked, reading The Celtic Reality in the comfort of his bed. Instead of returning to page 112, where he left off, he began by reading the "Dedicated to" page.

To my Loving wife, Emma. Without you this book would not be possible. To my Beautiful son, Alan, and to the man he will become.

Alan had pondered and the man he will become dozens of times, perhaps more. He was unsure of the true meaning, unless it was intended to be something generically inspirational.

The Celtic Reality was a synopsis of the proposed true history of the Celtic people. His father was not the first to write on the matter, but his research was the most polarizing.

According to traditional history, the Irish and the Scottish immigrated to the UK from mainland Europe. They worshiped false gods until the arrival of Christianity, which then, with the help of priests, decimated the entire religion, along with the class of people known as "druids." The druids were a prestigious group of (mostly) vagabond bards known for their teachings, natural magic, and oratory skills. They were people of the oak, the wisest of all trees.

Alan's father proposed an entire different history, one that earned him nationwide rejection by his peers for its ludicrous and fantasized ideas. Aunt Flora once told him that. He nearly lost his job as a professor, when the book first hit the shelves. Alan could understand why. This was his third time reading the three-hundred page book and he still had all the same questions. How could they have just disappeared, considering that his father proposed the idea that they were an existential race and not conjured gods? His father's explanation was that they banished themselves to the "Burrows," a different realm. And what about their enemies, the Fomorians, where did they go? The Fomorians or Fomorri were a race of monsters that possessed evil magic of nature, such as storms, disease, and fog.

The Celtic Reality was one of several books his father bequeathed to him, but he only revisited two. He reached beneath his bed where he kept the large brown book that was absence of any writing or marking. It, quite literally, contained nothing. He heaved it on his lap. It was the size of two Bibles. Alan was ashamed to say that out of extreme boredom, he counted all two-thousand and twenty-one blank pages. It proved to be an all-day endeavor.

The book was supposedly a family heirloom, bequeathed to the next generation's oldest son. Aunt Flora said, the night Alan's father disappeared, his mom found the book beside Alan in his crib. For that reason, Alan kept it tucked beneath his bed. He stopped flipping it years ago.

There was only so much you could do with two-thousand and twenty-one blank pages.

Alan was enjoying a chapter on Druids, when his phone vibrated in quick successions. Who would call him this late at night? And then he looked at the clock. It was nine-thirty on a Friday.