Chapter 4 4 ~ Bruce ~ Oklahoma

Finding the location of the caves of Anubis was not an easy matter. It took some time in the library digging to discover an approximate location. "We'll sniff out the exact location after we get to the nearby town. The location is more than a little mysterious," said Wes.

"I have never heard of an Anubis Cave. Isn't Anubis an 'Egyptian' deity or something? I've looked it up on the computer and it doesn't make sense for markings of an Egyptian deity to be in the middle of Native American Indian territory. How did it get there and how old is it?"

"I don't know... I wonder if we need to know anything about it?" I pulled out a sheet I printed out from the library. "I have some information about it here. It'll give us something to do on the bus ride."

Another bus ride, this time to Oklahoma. With a couple of cute girls on this bus, I didn't get to look at the paper I printed off. We sat behind them and thought it would help us pass the time if we could talk to them on the way.

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," whispered Wes.

Our mom used to say that every once in a while. Mostly she wanted us to be working though. Mom and Dad were big on having a good work ethic. They always said if we learn how to be good workers, we'll be successful no matter what we decide to do with our lives. They were also big on being readers. Truth: the vocabulary of modern man is about one-tenth the size of 150 years ago. I wondered what that really meant. Technology has progressed but people have regressed. My Dad's friend thinks we're headed for the way things are depicted in the movie Idiocracy. It portrays a time when everyone has degenerated to the point, they're all low in intelligence and a guy who was average intelligence in our timeline was frozen and thawed out later to find he's now a genius in comparison to the rest of humanity. With the creation of the Guardians and the group that calls themselves POE, it makes me wonder if that is where we're headed.

It turned out the girls are going to the same town as we are. What a coincidence! We settled down in the seats and I asked them why they were headed to "nowhere U.S.A." like us.

Bailey was the name of the blond who had beautiful blue eyes. Her friend Mia was coming to spend some time this summer with her.

"We used to live in the same town, but my parents made us move away to manage a ranch out in Oklahoma," said Bailey

"But at least our parents let us spend some time together in the summer. You guys should come over to the house! We have a pool and it would help keep us from being bored." Bailey's smile was so warm and bright. His eyes danced when she spoke to us.

"We have some business to take care of," I said.

"But maybe after we get our business taken care of..." said Wes.

I flashed Wes a look. He rolled his eyes at me. He thinks I'm always the spoilsport.

"Give us your number and we'll see if we can look you up later," he said.

I knew he could tell I was ticked off. We're twins, but we aren't exactly alike. I was busy looking over the information on the Anubis Cave and I was trying to get to know the girls better, so I thought why not meld the two things together?

"You girls ever hear of the Anubis Cave?" I said.

"Sure," said Bailey, "It's on a nearby rancher's property. He doesn't let people just go into it though. You have to get special permission. When the last owner had it, they didn't care much, and some kids left some graffiti on it. He said it was ruining a national monument."

I looked over at Bruce. He caught my drift. Getting to this site may be a little more difficult if it isn't open to the public or abandoned like the last one.

"Hey, let me see that paper you printed off," said Bruce.

I flipped it out of my folder and passed it over to him. Girls were more interesting to me than the bull god of Egypt.

We got to the small town of Kenton, Oklahoma. The Anubis Cave was not listed on the map in order to preserve it. No wonder it was a place that was chosen by the Guardians to visit. It's full of historical significance and definitely an out-of-the-way meeting place. I don't know if we'll learn more through the words we have to learn or from the places we have to go or both.

"Where you staying?" asked Bailey.

"It looks like we need to stay at the Kenton Cabins. It's right in town so we won't have far to walk."

"Good, our ranch is just down the road a way," said Bailey.

"Boy, Oklahoma girls are sure friendly," I said.

"Yeah people in general around here are friendly; that's because there isn't anyone around here, so if you find someone, you better be friendly if you want someone to talk to," said Mia. She looked over at Bailey smiling coyly.

"Well, I guess we're in the same boat. We have this historical search for Native American sites we're doing for a project for my uncle." I said. "He's writing a book and needed us to do some research for him." I looked over at Bruce to see if he noticed my story. He looked up from the folder of information long enough to catch my eye. I knew he was cool with the story.

"One thing you can never get your fill of out here is the night sky," said. Mia. I've been out here once before and there's nothing like it. Do you know how it's hard to see the stars in the city? Out here you can see so many stars it almost seems like there're clouds of them, but it's not clouded, it's just that many stars."

"That's something I'll look forward to," I said. The bus was pulling into the town and stopping at a small mercantile store with a wooden porch on the front. It looked like it'd been built in the 1800s. We both stretched as we got off the bus. Our legs were cramped from riding for so long. In the store were food items, bottled water, and a small short order area where they prepared food.

"We better get some supplies and find our cabin at Kenton Kabins," said Bruce. "We don't know how long it'll take us to find all the sites were supposed to visit."

"You can probably get everything you need to know from Mr. Riggs the mercantile owner.' Said Bailey.

"I figured, we'll hit him up in the morning after we've had some time to rest and get a fresh start." I didn't want to tell her that we didn't want an audience as we tried to get the needed information from Mr. Riggs.

"Let's go check in Wes, I know there isn't a lot to choose from in a town of only 37 people, but I'll say the food at the mercantile was great. The Burgers were big and juicy, and the fries were so tender and crisp at the same time. I was so hungry! Do you want to check out the sky tonight?" said Bruce excitedly.

"Yeah, we won't get a chance to see a sky devoid of light pollution any time soon. I was wondering when you were going to come out of your shell and be a person again."

"Yeah, I was just nervous about this new place since we don't have clear directions on how to get there and it's not on any map. It made me worry that it wasn't real. But if those girls knew about it, then it must be here somewhere. We'll find out in the morning."

We studied the words for a while until it got good and dark and then went outside to take in the stars. Bailey and Mia were not kidding. I have never seen so many stars in my life. You could actually see constellations and galaxies out there with your bare eyes. The wonder of it all made me want to learn more about stars, galaxies, planets, and anything else out there that we never get to see much of while living in the city. You have to believe that some grand design planned all of this. It was too big and too awesome to be a coincidence. J.R.R. Tolkien said. "Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars." I guess you could say that about streetlights too.