Dreamstone Read online

  Dreamstone

  By: Ben L. Hughes

  Copyright 2014 Ben L. Hughes

  Edited By: Jen Hughes & Lynn Cummings

  In Loving Memory of Guy E. Ward (1921-2004)

  United States Army Air Corps 1596th AAF Base Unit (1942-1945)

  Email: [email protected]

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  The Facts Behind the Fiction

  About the Author

  My Other Books

  Chapter 1

  A sharp screech pierced through the pre-dawn silence waking Matt from his slumber. Intrigued by the unfamiliar sound, he unzipped the flap of his tent and peered out into the pale blue sky. His eyes immediately trained upon a large falcon circling effortlessly above him. Its formidable wingspan cut effortlessly through the cold morning air leading Matt to wonder if the raptor was curious about their campsite, or just annoyed by the presence of humans in its desert habitat. As Matt looked on, the majestic bird folded back its wings and then dove from the sky disappearing behind a clump of sagebrush. A moment later, it reemerged atop a rocky outcrop across from Matt’s tent clutching a small rodent in its razor sharp talons. Then the falcon screeched again as if to proclaim a successful hunt before flying off to enjoy its meal in private.

  After Matt was sure the bird was gone, he pulled the flap of his tent the rest of the way open and walked over to the edge of the overlook where he and his friends had set up their camp the night before. As he gazed out over the Panamint Valley, he could see its long slender outline was clearly defined by the Argus Hills to the west and the towering Panamint Range to the east. A range so formidable that he could see isolated pockets of snow interspersed along its jagged gray peaks. A frozen paradox that seemed to mock the hot and arid desert below, yet served as a reminder that the mountains, not the desert, defined the harsh landscape they had come to visit.

  A gentle rustling sound shifted Matt’s attention away from the stunning views and back to the campsite where his friends were still lounging in their tents.

  “Good morning Melissa, good morning Greg,” he announced in a cheerful voice as he walked over to greet them.

  “Good morning,” Melissa replied as she poked her head out of her tent just long enough to respond to him.

  Greg’s reply was less welcoming, consisting only of illegible grunts that indicated he was not a morning person.

  After seeing that his friends were not quite ready to get up yet, Matt headed back to the overlook and sat on a large flat rock so he could watch the sunrise. Within minutes the cold dark voids of the valley below were transformed into vibrant pastels bursting with light and form. Then as the sun slowly edged up over the Panamints, its rays illuminated a small cluster of burnt-orange sandstone hills nestled against their base. With the veil of darkness lifted, Matt could see the labyrinth of winding canyons that had been etched deep into soft sandstone. To the layman it was a beautiful and mysterious feat of nature, but to Matt it was a geological masterpiece, formed over the ages, as the mighty Panamints shed their unwanted wind and water down upon the hills. Seeing the canyons made the lecture that his Teacher Mr. Wilson gave last week come to life. It had been a fascinating presentation about the Timbisha Tribe who called the harshest place in America their home. A location that Mr. Wilson fondly described as, “Magical, mystical, and containing some of the most exceptional petroglyphs in the region… a must see for anyone interested in Native American cultures and art. A place once called ‘a gateway to the gods’ by the Timbisha when they lived there.” After the lecture Matt and his friends Melissa and Greg decided they should come see the petroglyphs in person and then design their final class presentation around their meaning and significance. Officially, Melissa and Greg were both Anthropology majors, but Greg had changed his major so many times that Matt doubted the Anthropology thing would stick for very long. In Matt’s eyes, Greg seemed to be drifting through life without any direction or concern about what would happen next. In some ways Matt was jealous of that freedom, but he also knew that he could never be comfortable with such fluid boundaries. Melissa on the other hand was stable and well rounded. She was athletic and confident, and Matt could not help but admire her in every measurable way.

  As Matt’s thoughts drifted around randomly, a small alkali lake near the center of the valley caught his attention when the sun’s rays started to shimmer and twinkle off its reflective surface. As he gazed down at the glistening water, he noticed a faint shadow over the lake and instinctively looked into the sky to see what was casting it.

  “That’s odd,” he thought to himself after a few moments of searching the area above the lake without seeing anything. Then he glanced at the lake to try and determine if what he thought was a shadow was actually some algae floating on the water’s surface.

  “Hum?” he muttered under his breath after concluding that the phenomenon was not the cause of the shadow. Still perplexed, he lifted his hand up to his brow to shield his eyes from the sun, and suddenly realized that there was a large silvery object hovering over the lake. Not one to be tricked by a simple mirage, Matt immediately squinted his eyes to further sharpen the image, and as he did so, he could clearly see the mysterious object was definitely not a figment of his imagination. In fact, it almost seemed like the object was reflecting the sunlight in such a way as to mirror the lake in appearance. Matt blinked several times as he tried to find comfort in a logical explanation for what he was seeing, but nothing rational came to mind. Realizing that he needed some form of proof of what he was seeing, he quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his camera to take some pictures.

  Then, after he was sure he had documented the event, he yelled out, “Melissa, Greg, come quick!”

  “What is it?” Melissa asked, sensing the urgency in his voice.

  “There is something hovering over the lake,” he replied in an apprehensive tone.

  Melissa ran over to the edge of the overlook and peered in the direction that he was pointing.

  “Do you see it?” he asked anxiously.

  “No,” she replied as Greg came stumbling over next to her.

  “What’s going on?” he asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

  “Look at the lake,” Matt insisted. “There is a shadow on it, and just above the surface there is an object hovering in the sky.”

  Melissa and Greg both stared intently at the lake as Matt impatiently waited for them to confirm the sighting.

  “All I see is the sunlight reflecting off the water,” Melissa responded sympathetically. Then a split second later she saw the curved outline of a large object floating above the lake for a moment. A shiver ran down her spine as she turned towards Matt and asked in an unsettled tone, “What was that?” Matt continued to star
e straight ahead and did not immediately answer her question. “What was that!” she asked again in a more demanding tone.

  “I don’t know,” Matt replied nervously as the object faded in and out, as if trying to perfect its deception.

  “It’s just a mirage,” Greg interrupted, even though he hadn’t actually seen what they were talking about.

  “I don’t think so,” Melissa replied hesitantly.

  “I don’t see anything,” Greg insisted.

  “I think you might need glasses,” Matt interjected jokingly as he glanced over at Greg.

  Greg frowned and then kicked at a large boulder that was perched near the edge of the overlook in response to his comment. The rock immediately started rolling down the hill after being dislodged by the blow. Matt looked on apprehensively as the noise from it echoed through the air, drawing attention to their location. As the boulder gained momentum, it dislodged smaller rocks in its path and formed a trail of dust behind it. Once the boulder reached the halfway point on the hill, Matt noticed the shadow over the lake started moving in their direction. Melissa noticed it too, and quickly stepped back from the edge of the overlook, unsettled by the fact that the object seemed to have purpose and intent.

  “What’s wrong?” Greg asked in response to her reaction.

  “It’s coming this way!” Melissa replied, not knowing if they should run, or if that would only draw its attention towards them instead of the boulder which was nearing the bottom of the long hill.

  “Don’t move!” Matt responded in a quiet, but firm voice. “I think it’s reacting to sound and motion.” Then as he and Melissa nervously watched it, the shadow faded away after leaving the margins of the lake.

  “Is it gone?” Melissa asked.

  “I guess,” Matt replied as he continued to stare apprehensively at the area between the boulder and the lake’s edge

  “What do think that thing was?” Melissa asked, hoping Matt might have come up with a reasonable answer now that the object was gone.

  “I told you it was just a mirage,” Greg interrupted.

  “A mirage?” Matt scoffed. “The object deliberately moved when you kicked the rock down the hill,” he added.

  “Oh boy, you’ve seen way too many episodes of Star Trek,” Greg replied with a sarcastic laugh.

  “Ha-ha,” Matt retorted.

  “I saw it too,” Melissa contended, but Greg only responded by rolling his eyes at her.

  “I’m sure it was just some kind of atmospheric phenomenon,” he replied.

  “Perhaps,” Melissa agreed half-heartedly, not wanting to see an argument erupt over the incident. Matt shook his head at Greg, but kept quiet. He respected their friendship and figured the sighting was not worth ruining the rest of the trip.

  Greg glanced at the lake and then rolled his eyes again, before heading back to his tent. Melissa paused for a moment to give Matt a chance to comment about the situation, but his reluctant smile indicated he didn’t have an answer. Melissa smiled back and then turned to go back to her tent.

  Matt continued to stare down at the lake for a few minutes, half thinking it would be cool to see the object again, but also relieved he did not. Then as he was about to leave the overlook, Melissa came back over to him holding out a large bag of cashews.

  “Thanks,” he said, as he reached in and took a few.

  “You’re welcome,” she replied with a reassuring smile. The kind of smile that said, ‘everything is okay, and whatever we saw it’s not worth worrying about’.

  “Why does everything taste better when you’re camping?” Matt commented.

  “Because when you’re camping, you have time to actually enjoy the taste of the food,” Melissa replied, “I also think that when you’re camping, your senses open up and as a result, you notice all the subtleties of life that are often missed in the hustle and bustle we are so accustomed to. Try not to laugh, but I get this inexplicable spiritual feeling when I am camping, it’s something I don’t feel in the city,’ she added.

  “I feel that too,” he replied so softly that he wasn’t sure if she heard him. Then he started thinking about his own connection to the outdoors and how he loved that geology was one of the few sciences that required lots of field work. He liked how it enhanced his understanding of how things formed, changed, and reformed into new things. Geology was the science of transformation, from the rearrangement of molecules on the atomic scale, all the way up to the formation of planets, solar systems, and galaxies. Matt planned on becoming a geology teacher after he graduated, that way he could spend the summer break exploring geological sites around the world. It was a dream that stretched back as far as he could remember.

  “What are you thinking about?” Melissa asked as they sat there enjoying the view of the Panamints.

  “Nothing much... just taking it all in,” he replied with a smile as he glanced over at her. Melissa smiled back, and for some reason it reminded him of the day her family moved next door to his when he was still in grade school. It was a warm summer day, and while he was out playing in the sand pile, this sweet little girl climbed through a hedge of junipers that separated their yards and introduced herself. It was the start of a friendship that had endured through the years. He wished he could repay the countless times she used to get him to laugh when he was feeling down, and encourage him when he was having trouble in school. He felt a connection to her unlike anyone else he had ever met, and she was a true friend in every measurable way. Over the years he watched her mature and grow into an incredible person, someone who seemed destined for greatness. He always pictured her going off to some Ivy League college, but the day she told him that she was going to stay in Arcadia and attend Humboldt University, he felt relieved. It was as if some inevitable dark event in his life had been avoided. He knew that Humboldt was famous for its natural science curriculums, but he never imagined that Melissa would stay so close to home.

  Matt’s daydream came to an abrupt end when Greg whistled loudly and said, “Hey, are you two ready to get going?”

  “Yeah,” Matt replied, as he and Melissa got up and returned to their tents to pack up their things.

  After a few minutes of rushing around, Matt slung on his backpack and buckled down the waist band. “Alright, I’m ready,” he announced.

  “Me too,” Melissa added a moment later.

  “What do you think is the best way to get over to the canyons,” Greg asked as the three of them looked out over the Panamint Valley.

  “Down the slope and straight across is the most direct route,” Matt replied with a hit of hesitation. He knew this path would take them by the area where they had seen the mystery object earlier that day.

  “Okay,” Greg replied.

  “Are you sure that’s the best way to get there?” Melissa asked in a tone that indicated she was a bit concerned by the intended route.

  “I don’t think we can make it to the canyons before nightfall if we circle around to the south,” Matt remarked without mentioning the lake.

  “Alright…I would really like to make it to the petroglyphs before dark,” Melissa admitted as she started heading down the hill towards the lake.

  “Me too,” Greg exclaimed as he followed after her. Matt lingered behind for a moment to survey the area around the alkali lake one last time to make sure the mystery object was gone. Then he headed down after them.

  “I don’t remember which of the canyons Mr. Wilson said the petroglyphs were in?” Matt asked when he caught up to Melissa.

  “As I remember, he said they were along the upper canyon walls wherever the desert patina was still intact,” Melissa noted.

  ‘As you remember…’ Matt laughed under his breath knowing full well that Melissa’s memory was virtually infallible, especially when it had anything to do with archaeology.

  “Where are you going?” Melissa asked in a worried tone as Matt suddenly took off down the side of the slope towards a rocky outcrop.

  “I’m just going to
take a quick look at that formation,” Matt replied as he made the talus laden incline seem like a well-groomed path. She knew Matt was remarkably agile on rocky terrain and paused for a moment to watch him jump with pinpoint accuracy from one spot to another. It was a skill that had earned him the nickname ‘rock hopper’ by his fellow geology buddies. A name she liked to tease him with at times like this.

  “What did the rock hopper find?” she jested when he reached the jagged white formation that protruded out of the ground several feet.

  “Nothing much… just a small siliceous epithermal vein devoid of any interesting minerals,” he remarked.

  Melissa laughed. She knew exactly what he was talking about, but it was amusing when he tried to use scientific jargon to impress her.

  “So, you found some quartz,” she responded with a smile. Matt nodded and then moved on.

  Once they reached the bottom, Matt paused to wipe his brow as he gazed out across the valley. “The sandstone hills look a lot farther away from down here,” he commented.

  “Do you think we can reach them before dark?” Melissa questioned optimistically.

  “I think so,” Matt answered as he surveyed the valley north and south as far as he could see.

  “Luckily we only have to cross the narrow west to east part to reach the petroglyphs,” Greg interjected before heading off towards the alkali lake.

  Melissa and Matt exchanged glances that indicated their reluctance to pass so close to the lake, but then they sighed and moved on.

  As they walked along, Matt started daydreaming about the history of the area. He remembered reading that in the late 1800’s the surrounding mountains had once drawn miners by the thousands to its rich copper and silver deposits. He tried to imagine what life must have been like back in those forgotten boomtowns. Towns like Darwin and Ballarat that were once filled with fortune hunters eager to strike it rich. It was a time when the miners chiseled away at the precious ore by day, and spent their earnings in the saloons and whore houses at night. All of that was gone, but to the trained eye a few clues still remained; a rusted square nail, a purple chip of glass, some faded boards that marked the location of an old homestead reclaimed by the desert.