Simon moused onto the link and clicked the button. Minutes seemed to pass by before the screen went blank and brought up a single message:
“Error 404 The content you have searched for is no longer available.”
He promised his mother two years previous that he would learn to govern his tongue. But this time and place simply begged for a good cursing which Simon promptly obliged.
“Okay. Fine. Next page then”, he said after the smoky haze from his impromptu vulgarity had cleared. But one after another the pages were either not available or had scrubbed all references to Giuseppe.
He switched back over to the first tab and stared again at the Priest. “Could it be you?” he asked thoughtfully. “Are you his brother? Are you the one in the Monastery?”
Simon leaned closer and closer to the screen, as if somehow it would bring more of the picture into view. There was something. His brain kept needling him that the answers were all right there. And then he saw it. A hand was resting on the Magician’s left shoulder. It had to be the Priest’s by the angle and position of the thumb. What caught his eye though was a large green stone on that hand’s finger. The stone was shining brilliantly, despite everything else in the picture being in shadow.
*****
The last Friday before Spring Break dawned majestically. A yellow sun blazed against fluffy white clouds giving the effect of a sky filled with golden mountains. Simon had never felt such peace. There was no reason he should feel so good. Actually, everything in his life was hovering on the dismal side. Ginni had broken-up with him and then fallen into a coma; he discovered the stone he had treasured since childhood was a murderous unknown that might try to kill him any second; Jody was pressuring him to move on with his life when Ginni was the only thing he wanted; and last of all, he’d been told to go find an unnamed someone at a Monastery before the complete stranger melted before his eyes. All in all, it had not been a very good month.
Simon’s favorite large bowl of Capt’n Crunch and Mt. Dew stood ready on the table when Jody came strolling into the kitchenette.
“Hey bro, ready for break?”
“Mornin’ Jody. Yea, I got a couple things to do before coming back to school.”
For some reason the possibility that he might be killed in the next few days was just not real to him. Intellectually he knew it could, probably even would happen. But he didn’t get the lump in his throat whenever he thought about it. Not like it did when Ginni crossed his mind. With her he could do anything, without her he had nothing left to lose.
“Gonna visit Ginni.” Jody’s tone was neither mocking nor inquisitive. He was simply stating an obvious fact.
“Yea, I feel like I owe it to her. Know what I mean?”
Jody did know what he meant but did not agree with him at all.
“Simon, Virginia was a big girl…”
“Is, Jody. Virginia is a big girl. His irritation bordered on anger.
“You know what I mean. I’m trying to say that whatever happened to her is not your fault. You didn’t make that building collapse. You didn’t make her break-up with you. Truth is, I don’t think she did.”
“WhatDoYouMean?” Simon’s words ran together in his haste to find any possible way that Ginni might still love him.
“Dude, think about it. What happened? She yelled at you for calling her a slut.”
“But I didn’t say anything like that!”
“I know! But when you started yelling back what happened?”
“She attacked me.”
“And after that?”
Simon screwed-up his face and tried to remember. So much had occurred since then.
“She started crying and…”
“And when you asked if she didn’t want you anymore she begged you to stay. I don’t know what all that Kung Fu crap was about but I do know one thing…that girl loves you.”
“How do you know?”
“Because every time she looked at you she got the same sappy adoring expression that I get when I see…well any girl. She loves you bro.”
A warmth flooded Simon’s body. If Jody was right, if she really did love him…That just meant he had to find a way of destroying the stone. It already tried killing her once. “Never again”, he thought with new determination.
“Jody, I’m going back to Vinton this afternoon. I’ll see Ginni, spend some time with my Ma. See old friends.” His voice had been light and conversational. But an edge grew quickly. “If you don’t see me again, find yourself a nice girl and settle down. Bringing a little happiness to hundreds of girls isn’t near as great as bringing joy to one.”
“Whoa! You sound like you’re not coming back.”
Simon had never told anyone the whole story about his stone. Mostly he thought it was so crazy that nobody would believe him. After Nachton he didn’t want to believe it himself. He was so freaked at what happened that night that for two days he didn’t call the police. By then what was left of his body was discovered by the manager and identified by George the Giant. Although he felt guilty for not telling what he knew, who was going to believe that either? It was all too incredible; as was what he planned to do that weekend.
“Jody, you’re the best friend I’ve ever had. But there’s something I have to do that I can’t tell anyone about. If it works, everything will be better. If it doesn’t then know that I tried to do what was right.”
Jody thought over what Simon had just said. His friend wasn’t a flake or a nut. If he said there was something he had to do, then there was.
“How about I go with you?”
“What?” Simon asked incredulously. “No, I need to do this alone.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean ‘why’? Because I have to.”
“Who said so?”
“I said so. It could be dangerous and stop answering all my questions with a question. You’re getting on my nerves.”
“Good! Means you’re thinking about it.” Jody sat back with a self-satisfied look on his face and crossed his arms. The man had an unbelievable habit of just assuming what he wanted and making you prove him wrong. Most girls thought his confidence so attractive that he won without even trying. The rock hard abs and charming smile helped a little too.
“Jody look, I’m going home to see my Mom and talk to Ginni. There’s a good chance that I might not come back. I don’t want anyone else hurt because of this, I mean me.” Simon’s attempt to correct himself did not go unnoticed.
Jody grew more serious than Simon had ever seen him. “I don’t need to know what this is all about. Tell me whatever you want. But you’ve stood by me longer than anyone ever has. People use me Simon. Girls build up their self-esteem by making other girls think they slept with me. Guys hang around trying to pick-up on the girls. Teachers recruit me to make their classes cool and get more students to enroll. Hell, the Dean lets me off three-quarters of the time I get caught doing pranks because Admissions says a fun school gives a better image. But you, you’ve never asked for one thing except friendship. For that I would do almost anything you need me to.”
“Almost?” Simon answered with a grin.
“You don’t want me to sing. I sound like a bullfrog halfway down a gator’s gullet.”
Jody opened his mouth and took a deep breath but Simon waved him off. “I’ll trust you. Okay, there is something you can do for me. Come to Vinton and stay at my Ma’s place. She was counting on me to do some chores and I hadn’t figured out how I was gonna get out of them. A couple days into break I’ll say that I got an urgent call from Grosskopf and he needs me back. Big breakthrough. If you could help her out for two or three days after that it would be a huge favor to me.”
Jody broke into his most devil-may-care expression. “That it? Doing a few chores, maybe some light repairs? Shoo, I practically built our house down on the Bayou. Don’t you worry ‘bout yo mamma. I’ll take care of her.”
The young men exchanged looks that said, ‘Take care of her?’ and ‘You know I’m not like that.’
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