Mythical Link ▸ Link Neal {Book One}

Thirty Five

     Rhett had the kids in front of the television watching a movie. He made them a bag of popcorn against Jessie's wishes, because she said that it would spoil their dinner. He argued that it was pizza, and the kids would have that down in a matter of seconds no matter what they ate prior. 

     Lincoln, Lando, and Shepard were into the movie. Locke had Rhett's phone and was playing a game on it and Lily watched with her head on his shoulder. 

     Lily suddenly sat up, her eyes bright with excitement. "We should take a selfie," she suggested. 

     Locke grinned and he closed out of the game. He clicked on the camera button. They leaned in close and made funny faces, Locke crossing his eyes and Lily sticking her tongue out. He snapped the picture one too many times, the both of them in a fit of giggles. He went through the images and began to delete all of the extras when he stumbled across an image of a creek drawn in the dirt. Locke narrowed his eyes as he scrutinized the image.

     "What's that," Lily asked. 

     Locke shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. Whoever drew that is a master artist, though. They've got mad skills."

     "Definitely. Hey—" she trailed off and she pointed to the phrase in the middle of the creek. "What does that say?"

     Locke zoomed in on the picture to get a closer look at the words. His left eyebrow arched up and he turned his head to Lily. "It looks like it's written in some foreign language." 

     Lily laughed. She tilted her head to the side and played with the phrase in her mind for a few seconds. Her expression faded to dull concentration, and then a flash of recognition beamed in her eyes. "Locke... Locke!" She tapped Locke's arm excitedly. "Flip the image around! I think this is something written backwards!" 

     Locke wasn't convinced that it would be that easy, but he tapped on the button to flip the image anyway. The both of them looked at each other with their eyes wide. Written in the middle of the creek were the words Buies Creek. 

     Rhett walked into the living room just as Locke and Lily had made the discovery. He caught the two of them looking at each other with wide eyes and he marched toward them. He held his hand out with his eyebrows raised. "Let me see my phone, please."

     "Sure, dad," Locke said, handing Rhett his phone. He didn't close out the image on purpose, and he waited for his father to look at it so the both of them could see his reaction. 

     Rhett brought the screen up to his face and he studied the image. His heart beat increased slightly. His palms began to sweat and his phone nearly slipped out of his hands. "Locke, what did you do?" His tone was almost accusatory.

     Locke swallowed. "I just flipped the image around. Me and Lily found the picture on accident when we were taking a selfie. Who drew that picture, dad?" 

     Rhett looked at the image again, and it seemed like no matter how many times he tried to look away back at it again, the harsh reality punched him in the face. His best friend had drawn this picture, and he had written Buies Creek backwards. There was an underlying message and Rhett shook his head, quickly exiting out of the image. 

     "I'm not sure, son. We found the drawing when I found Link. Isn't it awesome?" He hoped he could divert their attention away from the fact that it said Buies Creek. They knew their dads grew up in Buies Creek, North Carolina. In fact, they had family in Buies Creek that they visited every year, especially during the holidays.

     Rhett knew the kids were highly intelligent, but he had the highest hopes that they wouldn't link it back to... Link. There would be no way to explain why their dads had been hiding this stuff from them. Not easily.