Rakitaki: A Jonas Quartermain Adventure Read online

  “Oh yeah, you know your way around weed?”

  “I’ve been to my fair share of parties. I know a bit,” he said.

  She nodded, taking a sip of her drink.

  “I think it was like a half-hour later. We were working on our second round of drinks; the bong had passed by a few times. I noticed a flare of light in the corner of the yard. You know how they have those high fences? Well the neighbor’s lights were on, probably motion detectors or something. Anyway, it caused deep shadows in the far corner. I saw a lighter flick, and the cherry of a cigarette as it was lit. The guy’s face was lit up too. He had a big, dark brown beard, and a strong face.”

  “What the hell is a strong face?” She asked, drawn in.

  “You know, like super-masculine. Hard jaw, pronounced brow, bigger nose. Funky when I describe it like that, but it worked. He had a good looking face. Long hair, obviously past his shoulders. Wore a dark hoodie and jeans. And he was big. I mean, he was like Elliott, but tall. I’d guess two-hundred pounds of practically pure muscle.”

  “You sound obsessed.”

  “I’m not, I’m just relating what he looked like,” Jonas said defensively.

  “Well, you’re doing a good job of that. Why did he come to your attention?”

  “Isn’t that obvious? He was sitting by himself at a party. Nobody does that. I was curious, so I walked over and introduced myself. ‘What’s up, dude?’ I asked him. The guy looked up, and I could smell the weed. It was some seriously strong stuff. I felt like I was getting high just being near him.”

  “Oh, I think I know who you’re talking about.”

  “Okay, but don’t jump the gun. His eyes didn’t focus on me. Not entirely, at least. He waved his joint around as he talked. ‘Red means stop, man.’ Just like that, with the long, drawn out ‘maaan’. I’d never met such a stereotypical stoner before.”

  “Yup, I definitely know him. I can’t wait to hear what he said to you,” she commented.

  He nodded, took another sip, then recalled the conversation. “’That’s why the lights were made, man. It’s all a CIA plot to control us.’ He took a gargantuan drag off the joint. I felt dizzy just watching it. I asked him ‘do you mean traffic lights?’ He exhaled and talked through the smoke. ‘Yeah, man. That’s just what they want you to think.’ He held the joint out. I, ever the conscientious partier, accepted and took a drag before handing it back. ‘How do the traffic lights control us?’”

  “You shared weed with a stranger that was saying weird shit to you?”

  “Yeah…? Haven’t you been to a good party before?”

  She nodded. “Okay, that’s a totally fair point. But still, you don’t know what’s going on with him.”

  “I thought you were going to try to stop interrupting me.”

  She nodded, then mimicked zipping her lips shut. Which was immediately broken when she took a sip of her drink. She winked at him.

  “Let’s see. I think next he said something like ‘by controlling your path through the day.’ I shook my head. ‘Watching that many people, even in just our town, would require insane amounts of man-power.’ The weird guy took a puff and said ‘Now with the backing of you-know-who.’ I shook my head. ‘I’m lost, I have no idea who you’re talking about.’ Then he seemed lost himself.”

  “Yeah, that’s how it goes.”

  He glared at her, though it had no power behind it. She stifled a laugh.

  “He looked around in confusion, then down at the joint in his hand. He took another puff and said ‘You-know-who what?’ Then I was confused. ‘What?’ I asked him. ‘How much of that did you smoke?’ He looked at me and his face lit up. ‘You smoke?’”

  Lily snorted. She shook her head and covered her mouth when he looked at her with questioning eyes. “’Yeah, I smoke,’ I said. ‘You want to hit this?’ He asked me. I was completely lost. ‘Hang on, I think I have something here. Want to buy some? This is the good shit.’ I shook my head. ‘Nah, I’m good. Think I’ll be getting back to my friends.’ He tipped his joint like it was a salute. ‘Good to meet you, man. I’m Tricky.’”

  “It is him.”

  He ignored her little outburst. “‘You too, Tricky.’ Then he looked around all suspicious. ‘Who told you that name?’ I was just lost, man. ‘You did, just now.’ ‘Yeah, that’s me. Hey, want to buy some weed?’ I shook my head, hands up. ‘No thanks, man, you already sold me an eighth.’ He nodded his head and said ‘righteous, brah.’ Just like that. Like he was some California hippie surfer.”

  “Surfers and hippies are two very different types of people,” Lily said. He waved her off.

  “As I was leaving, he said something else. I don’t think I heard him right. He was already headbanging to music only he could hear, completely off-beat from the music in the house. He said ‘run and take it, you ain’t gonna make it, he’s gonna shine, but you will too.’ I think it was lyrics to something. If it is from a song, it’s one I’ve never heard. When I went back to the fire-pit-circle, Elliott and Angie were gone. I figured they went back inside for drinks.’”

  “Yeah, how dare they leave you behind when you went to go talk to a stranger sitting in a corner doing drugs and mumbling to himself.”

  “Shut up,” he said with a laugh. “That was basically the whole interaction, that time at least.”

  “Okay, but what happened with Elliott and Angie?”

  “I went back into the house, got a fresh drink, and wandered. Eventually I found them upstairs playing pool. I’m guessing Elliott was running the table based on the language Madsen was using.”

  She snickered. “He really doesn’t take losing well.”

  “Well, Elliott sank the eight-ball and stood from the table. Madsen growled something and pulled his wallet out." Then Jonas deepened his voice by a half-octave to mimic Elliott. “He said ‘Nah, man. It’s chill, don’t give me the money.’ Angie launched herself at him and he caught her in a bear hug. ‘I think I need to go do some dancing. I have been promising her all night.’ She nodded from inside his arms.”

  “She’s a spider monkey,” Lily said.

  “That’s what I said!”

  She snorted. “Okay, but that can’t be everything.”

  “And you are right. Elliott was walking away; Angie had hopped down by that point and was walking arm-in-arm with him.” Jonas paused to make his voice even deeper for the larger man. “He said, well he mumbled something like ‘how does he do that?’ Which, of course, Elliott heard. ‘I’m just that good.’ ‘Whatever, nerd’ Madsen said loudly. ‘And I wear it with pride,’ Elliott shouted over his shoulder. Madsen flipped the bird at Elliott’s back, then turned to me. ‘You want on the table, Jonas?’ Of course I wanted on the table.”

  “But Madsen just got stomped on…” Lily said in concern. She put the straw of her drink to her lips. She was staring at Jonas, waiting for what would happen next.

  “Which means I did not get on the table. I thanked him and chased after Elliott and Angie. I found them dancing in the living room. So, obviously, I joined them. They even cleared space for me to show some real moves,” he said as he gyrated his hips in his seat. The odd movement made her snort, spitting a tiny bit of her drink out. She wiped her mouth with a sleeve, then lightly smacked his arm.

  “Don’t do that! And I seriously doubt you danced like that.”

  “I guess you’ll just have to see in Egypt,” he said with a wink. “I’ve heard there are some good clubs out there.”

  “Maybe, but I’m going to be busy with school.”

  “Too busy to party?” He put a hand to his chest as if he were wounded. “It cannot be!”

  “Drama queen.”

  “Am not. Anyway, what do you mean too busy with school? Actually, why are you going to Egypt? I know you’re not on the Archaeology trip.”

  “No, you’re right about that. I took a position at the American University of Cairo. Studying abroad for a semester. It’s supposed to round out my CV.”


  “What is a CV?”

  “It stands for Curriculum vitae. Kind of like a resume.”

  He nodded sagely. “And it’s fancier because it’s in Latin.”

  She rolled her eyes in return. “Get on with the story.”

  “Fiiiine,” he said in a drawn-out manner. “We danced for an hour… or five minutes. Or the rest of the night. Wait, that one definitely isn’t true. We were just drunk… and high. Well, I was. Anyway, we finished dancing, then grabbed fresh drinks and went outside again. I actually looked for Tricky in the yard, but he was nowhere to be seen. We sat down at the fire pit on the couches. Something about the fire, especially in the cold, was awesome.”

  “It’s really hypnotic. I’ve done that at his place a bunch of times. Just being warm, relaxing in front of the fire.” She stretched then, popping her back. Jonas’ eyes strayed down her body, then back to her face. She was smirking.

  “You are damn good looking. How have we never met before?”

  “Just never run into each other, I guess,” she said carelessly.

  “Except we have. At least once, but probably twice.”

  “Call it cosmic fate then. I happened to go to Egypt on the same flight as you to study because the fabric of the universe itself demanded it,” she said with a sly grin.

  “That puts a lot on us. Gives some credence to us being important. It also robs us of agency.” He shook his head in distaste.

  “Robs us of agency? How so?”

  “If fate demands we are present at this time, then our choices leading to this moment aren’t really our own to make, are they?” He asked her back.

  She looked at him. Her opinion of him until that point was a mildly handsome, overly cocky young man. His insight into the moment, whether booze induced or not, was surprising.

  “Does that bother you? That you might have no agency?”

  “I don’t believe in fate. I think I am in charge of my own destiny. I will be great because I strive for it, not because some unknowable, unseen, omniscient entity controls my every action.”

  She looked deep into his eyes. He thought perhaps the alcohol was kicking in with a little extra during the flight, because he returned her stare without blinking. He had been raised to not stare, yet she did it without reservation. He felt he could return the stare.

  She blinked, then let out an exasperated sigh of anguish. “Guhh, you beat me!”

  He laughed, then clapped his hands. The sudden noise annoyed his neighbor across the aisle who shushed him. “Sorry,” he said. It was purely in reaction, not something he actually felt.

  “Ah, who cares. Let’s get another round,” she said.

  “I don’t think I can afford that,” he replied.

  “Then this round is on me.”

  Her forward actions gave him pause. He had never had a woman pursue him like that before, even on friendly terms. He had always been the one chasing. She pressed the call button. It lit up and a chime sounded overhead.

  9

  Fresh drinks sat in front of them. They had lost track of the number they had consumed, though the flight attendants had yet to cut them off. The plane was dark, though not so dark they couldn’t see outlines. Lily reached up and turned her light on. Jonas looked at her, trying to memorize her face. She had an ethereal beauty he couldn’t pin down. High cheek bones, long, sleek hair, dainty hair, cute button nose.

  “Wait,” he said with a slight slur to his voice. “Wait, I just remembered.”

  “You remembered what?” She asked. She had one eye in a squint. Both were drunk, leaning against each other. Her head was on his shoulder, his head leaning on hers. Their friendship had blossomed incredibly fast.

  “The… the… hang on. I’ve got it.” He shook his head, then took a sip of his drink. “Right, right. I’ve got it. That wasn’t the only time I talked to Tricky that night.”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Well, tell me about it.” She held her glass up, then clinked it against Jonas’. They both took a sip and placed them down.

  “Okay, let’s see. I think I mentioned going out to the fire pit in the back yard.”

  “Yeah, I remember that,” she said slowly.

  “I fell asleep in my chair. I mean, I must have. I closed my eyes, and then when I opened them I was cold, the snow was thick on the ground, and the house was quiet.”

  She nodded without moving her head. “I’ve done that before. The couches he has out there are really comfy. Wait, I thought you said it was an unusually warm day.”

  “They are. It was, but it was also really clear during the day. After dark, I guess clouds drifted in and started to snow. Anyway, I looked around, and both Elliott and Angie were out cold on another couch, cuddling. Disgustingly cute.”

  “I know she is. Elliott must be a good looking guy, based on what you say,” Lily said quietly.

  “Mhm.” Jonas took another sip of his drink. It was nearly empty. “Tricky had reappeared. He was perched on the arm of the couch Elliott and Angie were sleeping in. The fire had gone out some time before. It was just embers at that point. I could see his face every time he took a hit on his joint though. Everything was the kind of quiet you can only get in winter time.”

  “I love that. Something about the quiet that just makes you feel… alone. In a good way. Walking in the snow, hearing it crunch, hearing your breath. Everything is given a fresh coat of white. A chance to be totally new.”

  He pulled back a bit, and she looked at him. He stared into her eyes for a long moment. “You are amazing.”

  “Get back to the story!” She said with a smile. She liked his compliments.

  “Uh, right. Tricky was on the couch. He was just kinda looking at me and smoking. His body language was totally different too. Not a drugged out hippie anymore. He looked every bit the Olympian he was modeled after. But it was his words that creeped me out. He said ‘sunlight is the answer. Red still means stop. Old bones bring new problems.’ He took a hard hit on his joint then, and I could see his eyes. I didn’t like that. He looked maybe thirty earlier that night. Older than me, but not old. Just then, when he was talking to me… it was like he was old. Really old. Like… the queen of England old.”

  “What? Why the queen? She’s also not that old. She’s what, fifty something?”

  “Yeah, old.”

  She smacked him on his elbow. “That’s not old.”

  “Fine. But his eyes were different. They looked old. Really old. Like… like he had seen all of history.”

  She was quiet as she pondered what he’d said.

  “You know his legend, right?” she asked.

  “I’ve heard some of it.”

  “How much?”

  “Nobody kicks him out of a party,” he said. He picked up his glass, sadly realizing it was empty.

  “Tricky is a legend in Akron. He attends parties all the time. The last time a party had turned him away, it was crashed by cops. Two people got shot, and thirty went to jail for the night. Ever since, every party extends an open invitation. Nobody ever sees him show up, they just find him later in the night, smoking some good green and enjoying music only he can hear.”

  “That’s crazy,” Jonas said a moment later.

  “Look, don’t mess with him. But do buy his weed. I’ve heard he’s got stuff you can’t get anywhere else. And it always has these crazy names.”

  “Yeah, he tried to sell some to me at that party.”

  “You know what I don’t get?”

  “What?” he asked. They both sounded tired.

  “You called it totally right. He is bodacious. A real Olympian. But how does a hardcore druggie like him keep such an amazing body up?”

  Jonas shook his head. “I don’t know. But his arms are like my legs.”

  She poked him playfully in the thigh. “Not this big.”

  “Hey, don’t poke my fat. It’s carefully cultivated.”

  She giggled to herself at the retort.

  He shook his head to clear
it. “The conversation didn’t end there. I asked him ‘hey, are you okay, bud?’ He looked at me, joint still in hand, and said ‘you have bud? Let’s smoke it, man.’ I was confused. ‘No, dude, you do though.’ He looked at his hand, then in a flash he smoked the whole thing in one puff. I was seriously impressed. I mean, that thing was a cannon. Had to be a few grams at least.”

  “He does that. I’ve seen it. It’s like a party trick he does. Did he hold his breath for a really long time?”

  “Yeah. Coughed when he exhaled. Even though he had just smoked that huge joint, he was rolling a new one without looking. ‘You know what they say: never smoke your own product.’ I just couldn’t keep up with him. ‘Woah, where did this beauty come from?’ He was looking at the new joint. It took him like thirty seconds to roll. I’ve never seen someone so good at rolling before.”

  She nodded. “I’ve seen that too. It’s supernatural.”

  “So I told him ‘you just rolled… you know what? I rolled it for you when you weren’t looking. Spark it up, bro. Let’s smoke.’ He had a lighter in his hand like a magic trick a second later, lighting it. He spoke while lighting it somehow. ‘That is the first thing you’ve said tonight that made sense.’ ‘Yeah man, I know. Hey, you know what time it is?’ That’s when it got weird. He forgot the cannon, forgot the lighter. Kept the zippo out, flame still it and everything. He leaned back and looked at the sky outside the tent. ‘Dawn is the cleansing fire.’”

  “He said that?”

  “Yeah. Confusing, right?” He said in confirmation.

  “I mean, dawn is a cleansing of a sort. It’s a new day.”

  “Okay, but you didn’t hear the tone he said it in. He was… he sounded like the old Tricky, not the one that smoked.”

  “I guess I needed to be there.” She tipped her drink back to drain it. She let one of the ice cubes fall into her mouth, then started to chew it.

  “Yeah. I looked around, but couldn’t see the dawn, or even pre-dawn grays in the sky. ‘It’s dawn already?’ Then Tricky looked confused. ‘Dawn is here? I owe her money for a thing she did.’ He seemed like he shrank. ‘No, dude, I don’t even know a Dawn. Look, I’ve got class soon. But I appreciate the convo.’ He nodded and said ‘I tried to wrap you up.’ I looked around. There was no blanket inside the tent. I looked back at him, confused. ‘There’s no blanket here.’ ‘You have a blanket? Rad, it’s cold out here, I could use one.’ I just shook my head.”