Secrets of Cathedral Mountain

Catherine signed “Something weird happened to me last night.”

“No duh!” I signed back. “The World Trade center no longer exists, there is a gigantic beehive in front of my room that is mysteriously gone the next morning, two navy fighter pilots got killed in Iran, and I’m glowing like a light bulb! What else?” Okay, so I thought there was a beehive in front of my room that night, but I didn’t exactly run to investigate. I thought I could deal with it in the morning, when my dad would have been awake to help, but it was probably my imagination, I thought.

If there was a sign for “You idiot!” in sign language, I’m sure Catherine would have used it. Instead, she signed, “Last night I was able to see in the dark. It was weird. It was as if everything was tinted gray, instead of the usual pitch-black. I don’t understand. And you said you were glowing like a light bulb, or was that a joke?”

I sighed, and then returned, “No joke, that really happened. I’d have to have to have a dark room to demonstrate, but I can. Maybe it is nuclear radiation or something.”

I could tell instantly that was not the rapid-fire conclusion she had made. Catherine signed “No, Jessica, I think it was the Tyroid Avernon that did it. I don’t know how, but I think that is what happened. And I think, if the scientists ever find out, we are dead meat. They will make us into lab rats.”

_________________

Alexander couldn’t understand what the girls were saying. He had never bothered to take sign language in high school. He had taken Spanish and German instead, since they made him look sophisticated. Plus, Spanish was easy. Plus, German kids were visiting his school, and he wanted to talk in their native language. Plus, he didn’t know he was going to be hired by a group of scientists, and their greatest half-human, half-robot model, to go track down a pair of kids who spoke sign language, for Pete’s sake!

Still, he could tell the girls were very serious, at least, and he could see the suspicion in the girl’s eyes during those last words. This was pretty bad news, which put Alexander on edge. He could probably take the girls by hand- knock them out, carry them to head quarters, let them deal with them. But he knew that the girls were protected by all the kids around them, parents, teachers . . . things he would not go after without weapons. And weapons would only be given to him at the appointed time, in a week and six days.

It felt like forever.