Ty and Ashi immersed themselves in the files and books, plowing through massive amounts of information, trying to piece it all together. Ty felt as if there wasn't enough time to learn everything and all too soon they'd have to leave the beach. Ashi also felt the time pressure and gladly learned about calling for take-out.
Each night they they opened all the doors to let in the ocean breeze and set up computers, books and files on the table. They had just begun one night, when Ashi looked up quickly with alarm on her face.
“I just thought of something I must do.” She hastily stood up and left, taking the stairs two at a time. Without another word to him, Ty heard the click of her door closing.
He was bewildered. Maybe it's a girl thing, he thought, bemused. He expected her to come back but the light in the room dimmed as the sun set. He was sitting in the dark, working by the light of the computer screen without even being aware of it. Several times he wondered what she was doing and as he thought over the various possibilities he began to be concerned.
Maybe she's sick. Maybe she has a headache and I could get her some Motrin or something. Nah, if she had a headache, she'd just cure it herself. Maybe she just fell asleep. She has some weird sleeping patterns. Maybe all that sleeplessness finally caught up to her.
His curiosity overcame him. Ty went upstairs and knocked softly on Ashi's door. There was no answer. He knocked a little more insistently. “Ashi, are you okay? Are you sick?”
There was no answer. Ty knew she slept sometimes but his knocking was enough noise to wake her up.
“Ashi, Ashi, answer me,” he called loudly.
There was still no answer. Ty became frantic, with visions of her falling and hitting her head. He was about to open the door when he heard her voice.
“Come in.”
Ty opened the door. Ashi was sitting in the dark, cross-legged on her bed, facing the open doors. The balmy sea air wafted her hair around her face. Moonlight streamed in, casting her face in bluish light. Her eyes were closed. Her face was like a statue. Ty sat in the chair next to her bed and watched her, waiting for her to acknowledge him. After what seemed like an hour, she opened her eyes and turned to him with a smile.
“I am sorry. I could not speak to you before.”
“What was going on? Usually when you meditate you can answer me.”
“Rinpoche contacted me. He needed my help with a serious matter at the dzong.”
For a second, the ridiculous idea of her dzong being wi-fi ready flashed through his head. “How did he contact you? He doesn't have e-mail.”
“He contacted me in my consciousness.”
“Okay, I should have known that. And you helped him through your consciousness too, I suppose.”
“No, I go there. That's not right. I should say, I went there.”
Ty laughed. “You went there? No, you were sitting here the whole time. You mean to say you went there in your mind.”
“No, I went there. I appeared, not only to him, but to many people. He needed my presence so I went.”
Ty laughed again. “Impossible. I can believe you can do anything, but not this. I saw you sitting here.”
An amused look crossed her face. “Yes, it is hard to believe but it is possible for a person to be in more than one place at one time.”
“I'll believe it when I see it.”
Then maybe one day I'll visit you while I am far away. Did you find anything?” she asked, stretching her legs and standing up. “Is it late? I do not have a clock in here.”
“Not too late.”
They went downstairs and took their places side by side in front of their computers. Ty thought about what he wanted to investigate and found himself Googling “bilocation.”
Ashi glanced over at his screen and laughed. “So you do not believe but you are wondering if I tell you the truth.” Her eyes danced.
Ty shrugged his shoulders and smiled sheepishly before peering at his screen. On one website he read:
“Although it is uncommon, bilocation is an ancient phenomenon. It is claimed to have been experienced, and even practiced at will, by mystics, ecstatics, saints, monks, holy persons, and magical adepts. Several Christian saints and monks were adept at bilocation such as St. Anthony of Padua, St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Severus of Ravenna, and Padre Pio of Italy. In 1774, St. Alphonsus Maria de'Ligouri was seen at the bedside of the dying Pope Clement XIV, when in fact the saint was confined to his cell in a location that was a four-day journey away.”
Ty quickly closed the window and returned to scrutinizing a file he had picked out earlier, about the possibility of Templars visiting America long ago. He didn't want to think about what Ashi told him. He didn't believe her, yet didn't want to think she lied to him. Later, though, his thoughts returned to the information from the website about holy people being able to bilocate and it made him wonder.
****
As their days of summer were dwindled Ashi's English improved exponentially, as did her breadth of knowledge about the Templars and every tangential subject relating to the Templars. Still, she retained her halting way of speaking, her charming accent.
On their last night they went for a long walk and ended up, like so many evenings, sitting on the empty lifeguard chair, watching the waves.
“Last night of peace and quiet,” Ty commented, sighing. “Back to the real world tomorrow.”
“Why do you say that? It will be great. I cannot wait to go to a real school,” Ashi replied.
Ty took his eyes off the rolling waves and looked at her. Excitement was shining in her eyes. She was so utterly stunning that he didn't breathe for a second.
“Ashi...” He was at a loss as to how to explain his feelings. “We had a nice long rest here. Going back...people will be coming at us from all sides, professors who want information we have, teachers demanding we do a lot of work for school, judges who won't like us living by ourselves or the fact that you are living in this country.” He took a deep breath. “And someone or some organization who wants to keep the secret buried and would kill me to do it.”
Ashi was indefatigable. “No, I am sure it will be great. You must believe me. School will be fun. Judges will not be a problem. The professors can want and want and that does not mean they will get. And this person who wants to kill us...they will not.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I know. This work of your father's...it is a quest, an adventure. These people, they do not call on shots. We do.”
Ty's mind worked quickly to determine she meant to say, “call the shots.”
“They do not prevail. We determine the outcome, yes?”
Ty smiled reluctantly, noticing how she always had a way of calming his fears. “Yes, Ashi, we will prevail.”
“Now tell me all about this school we will go to.”
“There are different groups of kids, some groups drink and take drugs, some are the jocks, the ones who play sports. Then there are the nerds, and kids who don't participate in anything.”
“Do you belong to a group?”
“I'm in all honors classes so sometimes they call those kids “preps” or sometimes “dweebs.”
“Preps, dweebs, jocks,” Ashi repeated. “Will it be so late and will we be so tired at the end of school that we will not have time for the quest? Do we have work to do at home that we will not finish until late at night?”
“No, no,” Ty laughed. “You go to class during the day and school ends at about 2:30. Then you can play a sport or be in a club or just go home. It must have been strange to never go to school.”
“I never thought so. I have lessons every day with Rinpoche or another of the lamas, depending on the topic.”
“Did you learn regular subjects like math and history?”
“Yes but the most important subjects were spiritual lessons. I have more questions. Do you address teachers, yes sir or yes ma'am? Do you bow to them?”
This precipitated a laughing fit. Ty could only imagine if he bowed to a teacher and said sir or ma'am, he would probably get detention.
“No, Ashi, you'll be fine. “I'll make sure we're together and you just do what I do.”
“Okay.” Her face brightened. “I worry that we will not be together. If we go to classes together I will feel very much better.”
“Tell me about your spiritual lessons. Did Rinpoche teach you how to be in two places at the same time? I read this thing once about astral traveling...”
“What is that?”
“It's when your soul leaves your body and you can travel to other places. Is that what you did when you went to Rinpoche and helped him?”
“No.” She grinned. “That is something different but I learned how to do that too. People identify with their bodies too much. A person is not their body. Or they think their brain is their mind. No, that is not the case. A body or a brain is not eternal. It is something we put on for a short time, like we put on a hat or a jacket. It is useful for a while but then we take it off. We would not be so foolish as to think we are our hats, right?”
Ty smiled.
“Neither should we think we are our bodies. We, our true selves, our souls, are eternal.”
“So your soul travels when you do astral traveling? And you can do this?”
Ashi nodded.
“But you actually went to visit your dzong when you went to your Rinpoche? I read that saints and holy people could bilocate.”
“Yes.” She smiled broadly as she realized Ty was struggling with his belief.
Ty laughed. “I think you will have to visit me some day. I think I need to see it to believe it.”
“Yes, someday I will surprise you.”
The next morning they packed their things into the rental car. The books and files, piled on the backseat, were the bulk of their possessions. They walked out onto the deck for one last look. The sun was a hazy light in the overcast sky. Without the clear blue sky above, the ocean appeared gray. Ashi stared at the waves. “I never see the ocean before and I truly love it here. Will we ever come back?”
“We could come back to this island every weekend if we wanted.”
“I would be grateful to return.”
Three months earlier, when they drove over the bridges leading to the island, their worries and fears dropped away. Now, with each bridge they crossed, as they drove toward the parkway that would take them north, Ty's burdens returned. As they got closer to home he felt the base of his neck tighten and knot. He wondered if it was due to his driving for hours or the dread of returning to a fearful situation.
Ashi glanced at him periodically with increasing concern on her face. She attempted to draw him into a conversation with no success. Finally, she asked for help, to divert his attention from their trip.
“Ty, I am a little troubled. I want to be like other kids but my English is not so good. I should talk like the kids in the school.”
In the months since he met her, Ashi never seemed to be troubled about anything. He saw through her ruse but played along.
“I don't think you need to worry. Just say, “awesome” all the time. It fits any situation so you'll be fine.”
He felt Ashi's gaze scrutinizing his profile and he felt a smile widening on his face.
“Please, Ty, I am serious.”
“Okay, okay. When someone says something that's totally obvious and everybody already knows, you say, 'Flash'.”
“Okay, flash. What other words?”
“When someone isn't acting appropriately you say, 'you're tripping'.”
“You're tripping,” she repeated .
“Okay, I've got one. 'You're sick'.”
“I feel just fine,” Ashi said, laughing.
“'You're sick' means something good. It's the same thing as cool or awesome.”
“Cool, like cold? Sick, like a fever or sore throat? Awesome...huge, or grand? They all mean the same thing? English is a difficult language. You are very fortunate you know this language already.”
“And then, you can reply, 'whatever' to just about any statement.”
“Whatever,” she giggled.
“Here's one for you...all that and a bag of chips.”
“Whatever. I can not even guess what that means.”
“You use it when you think someone is hot.”
“If I think a person has on too many clothes?” she asked, puzzled.
“No, no. If you think a person is cool.”
“Cool and hot at the same time. Really? You are not making a joke with me, are you? I could not be more confused.”
“Hot. It means when you think someone of the opposite sex looks very attractive.” Ty was laughing so hard he had to remind himself to concentrate on driving.
They passed the time laughing until they pulled into the driveway of Ty's large, stone house. His mood turned abruptly somber again. There were two men in a car, parked at the curb, part of the security Sam had arranged for Ty.
“It used to just look like a fortress. Now it really is one,” he murmured, waving at the men to acknowledge them.
He put the key in the door and opened it for Ashi.