Billy and the Prince

by Billy

<< Parts 1-6                                                                  Parts 13-19>>

Chapter Seven

As I rode home I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to have a friend like Jimmy. He knew I was gay yet it didn't bother him at all even though he was straight. It really never came up as an issue between us. Nor did the different colours of our skin. He didn't care that he got called gay also sometimes mostly because he hung around with me and some guys thought I was gay. I never really came out to anyone but Jimmy but I still got tagged as being gay. I didn't act or talk "gay" in the stereotypical sense but I guess there was something that gave me away. Maybe it was because I wasn't very aggressive or sports-minded. While the other guys talked about who won the hockey game last night, Buffalo or Toronto, I didn't really care. Besides Toronto hadn't won the Stanley Cup in umpteen years or something like that. Grandma and Grandpa were sports fans though and I did occasionally go to a ball game with them. Jimmy was more into sports than I was but he wasn't a big sports fan either.

It seems I had known Jimmy all my life. We were neighbourhood friends since we were little kids. We played together, went to movies together and talked every single day. I could trust Jimmy with anything. I guess that's why I came out to him a year ago in the summer. His parents took me along with them for a week when they rented a cottage up north. That was so much fun. We swam and biked and canoed and barbequed all day long.

One day we decided to spend most of the day canoeing along the shore of the lake that was dotted by thousands of small islands. Some of these islands were not much bigger than a small backyard. We packed food and drink and set out at 7 am for a full days' adventure. Around 11 am we were getting tired and hungry from all the paddling so we stopped a t a small little deserted island that had a couple huge smooth sloping rocks. It looked like a good place to eat and than lay down for a rest. We had our lunch and then laid down in the sun to rest our weary arms. Soon it got too hot to stay in the sun so Jimmy said lets go swimming. We didn't have bathing suits but no one was around and before I could react, he was naked and he dove into the water. Then I did the same and surfaced near him. He splashed me in the face and we played the splashing game for awhile. But that didn't help our sore arms so we quit soon and climbed out of the water back onto the rocks. We laid there beside each other in the nude, each in our own thoughts. "Do you think you are gay?" asked Jimmy. I was totally shocked at the question. Such a question and just like that out of the blue! I didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything. "I mean it wouldn't matter to me if you were. We'd still be friends and nothing would be different" he said as he turned to look at me. A tear rolled out of my eye. "Ahhh forget it, it was a stupid question. I'm sorry" he apologized. I really didn't know what to say. I wasn't sure what I was –gay or straight but I felt in my heart that I was gay or maybe even bi. I was 14 and had begun to masturbate and I usually thought of some hot boy in class when I did it so I guess I was turned on by some guys. I never thought of Jimmy in that way though. It's not that he wasn't good-looking enough, it's just that he was such a close friend I couldn't think of him that way.

Jimmy was starting to get up and I said "Wait, I think I might be gay but I'm not sure if I'm gay or bi or what." "It's ok Billy, we'll always be buddies for life, no matter what." "Thanks" I said "I feel the same about you." He laid back down beside me, our nude bodies, one black and one white, glistening in the sun. I was so grateful to have a friend like Jimmy. I wasn't crying out loud but a few tears kept flowing from my eyes. We were both looking straight up at the sky but then Jimmy turned to look at me. He saw the tears. "Ahhh Billy it's ok" he said as he put his arm under my neck and pulled me closer. I laid in the crook of his arm against the side of his chest. It felt good to be held by him. We laid like that for a very long time just enjoying each others presence. I felt at peace with the world. Then suddenly Jimmy moved and said "Race you to the water. Last one in is a rotten egg!" We both laughed, jumped up and raced to dive from the rock into the clear blue water below. We swam for awhile, then got out, got dried off and continued on our canoe journey. We never talked about it again after that. It was as if that day and those confidences we spoke of never happened. But it was comforting to know that my being gay was not going to be an issue in our friendship. If anything our friendship was even stronger. Still I knew the day would come when he would have a girlfriend and then I'd see less of him but that was ok with me too. I wanted him to be happy. And he'd still be in my life. I didn't see myself ever having a boyfriend. I guess I was destined to lead a lonely life as a gay bachelor.

As I approached my home, I saw two flashing red lights. Two police cars were parked in front of the castle. Damn, I thought, how did they find out it was me so soon? I'll be grounded for life!

Chapter Eight

As I rode my bike across the lawn I got stopped by two policemen who wanted to know who I was. I told them my name and that I lived here. I only had the name and address card in my wallet to show them plus my name on my Scene card for the movies. I asked them what the problem was and where was grandma and grandpa. They told me grandpa was injured badly and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Grandma went with him and dropped off Amelia at the home of our neighbour Dorothy just down the street in the property next door. I asked what happened and how did he get injured. They told me he was attacked in his library in the house and beaten up badly. I asked if grandma and Amelia were ok and was assured they were fine but both were deeply troubled by the attack. They took me in the house to the library to verify a few details and to see if anything was missing. The library was in shambles with books strewn everywhere. Two detectives were busy doing what looked like gathering evidence. I asked who did this and they said they didn't know but that they would find him. I gasped when I saw blood on the carpet and they took me out of the room. I told them I couldn't see anything obvious that was missing but maybe some books were taken.

They asked me a number of questions. Did grandpa have any enemies? Not that I know of. Was he running any business? Was he acting strange lately? Did he take street drugs? I answered no to all these questions.  I told them I was going next door to see Amelia and then I was going to the hospital.

I couldn't help but think they were looking for that book –"The Full Spectrum" I would have given it to them to prevent grandpa from being beaten up. Is that book really that valuable? Certainly not worth grandpas' life that's for sure. I thought about the words written in the book and was determined to try to find some reason in them for all this violence. I thought that I better hide that book good in case they return. Or maybe I should just tear out those two pages and leave the book where it's easy to find. Nah, they'd see the torn out pages and come after us again. Maybe I could change the message by rubbing part of it out or confuse them by adding lots more on other pages. But I didn't know who "they" were or even if there was a "they." But I did suspect the tall guy who shot the bookstore owner. I would bet that he was involved. I was also sure he'd kill me and Jimmy if he found out we had the book. He probably suspected grandpa of stealing it from the bookshop. Poor grandpa, he was suffering because of my sins. I felt really bad.

I went down the hill to our neighbour next door and Dorothy was sitting on the sofa with her arms around Amelia. Amelia was crying and when she saw me she jumped up and ran to me. We embraced and hugged and she told me that grandpa had been hurt really bad and that maybe they killed him. I hugged her and tried to comfort her but she was obviously deeply stressed and afraid. I thanked Dorothy for looking after her and told them I was going to the hospital to see grandpa. Dorothy told me not to stay long but to come back and spend the night at her place, I said I would and got my bike and took off for the hospital. The police were still there and stopped me but I explained where I was going and one of the policemen offered to drive me there, an offer I accepted.

I found grandma in the waiting room with her head in her hands in a state of despair. "Who would do such a thing to him? He never hurt anybody." She cried out. "How is he?" I asked. "He's in very bad shape. They don't know if he'll make it. They are operating on him now" grandma whispered in a hoarse dry voice. I asked if she had contacted Ty, my older brother. She said she tried but it seems he was away with his class on a filed trip but she left a message to call home at once. We sat and waited for about 90 minutes when the doctor and nurse came in and took us aside. The doctor said he has some broken bones and some internal injuries and that he was in critical condition with a concussion. He was unconscious. They would know better in 24 hours. I told Grandma we should go home but she insisted she was staying overnight. She told me to get a taxi and go back to Dorothys' place and spend the night there as it would be safer than staying at home. Anyways home was now a crime scene.

The next morning, I told Dorothy I was going to school but first I wanted to phone grandma at the hospital. Grandma said there was no change in grandpas' condition –still in critical condition. I told her she should come back to Dorothys' and get some sleep but she said she was ok and got a bit of sleep overnight and wanted to stay at the hospital. I grabbed my backpack and quickly checked the contents. The book was still there where I had placed it last night. I slept with that backpack all night. Today I had to make some sense out of the writings in the book.

Chapter Nine

At school I met Jimmy before class and filled him in on all that had happened after I left him yesterday. He was shocked. But we both figured it had something to do with the book and that the tall man was involved. We decided we had to spend some time trying to figure out the sayings in the book. To do that, we skipped classes and went to the Centreville Library and found a table in the back corner.  The library was virtually empty so we were not likely to be bothered or distracted from our task. When the librarian approached asking if we needed help and why we weren't in school we told her we had permission to work on a school project.
"Let's start with the written comments by writing them on this pad and see if we can make any sense of them," said Jimmy. I printed the comments out on the pad.
"The lonely busboy has the key
Can He arise despite zzz?"
"The word 'key' seems to be important. So there must be a key to something –but what?" I said. "Let make a list of things you can do with a key" said Jimmy. We began work on a list. Jimmy wrote down the items in the list as we both called out items:
key to a door
key to a safe deposit box
key to a jail cell
key to a filing cabinet
key to a car
key to a cabinet
key to a desk
key to a bike lock
key to a suitcase
"The trouble is we have no idea what the key refers to and there seems to be no clue about that in the two sentences" said Jimmy. We couldn't think of any way to proceed with the key part of the sayings so we decided to leave the key and look at the rest of the first sentence. "Let's look at the busboy part" I said as I moved to the nearby computer and typed in busboy. Up came the Wikipedia entry which I read aloud to Jimmy in a quiet voice:
"Busboys or busgirls or S.A. , increasingly referred to as bussers, work in the restaurant and catering industry clearing dirty dishes, taking the dirty dishes to the dishwasher, setting tables, and otherwise assisting the waiting staff.

At an upscale restaurant, they may bring water and introductory foods, for example tortilla chips and salsa in a Mexican restaurant or bread in an Italian restaurant. The busboy may also serve drinks and sweep the floor under the tables. Occasionally, they also perform extra duty for the server by refilling the customers water or getting more bread. The busser is also usually responsible for cleaning up spills occurring in the kitchen or dining room."
"Well that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the key idea. I can't think of what key a busboy would need to use" said Jimmy. "Me, either, unless the word busser is more important than busboy. Man this isn't going to be easy" I complained. "Why the word 'lonely'? Why a lonely busboy? What is a lonely busboy?"
"Haha" said Jimmy, "it's a busboy without a girlfriend." "Or a boyfriend" I said, "but how does that help?"
"Ok we have a busboy or busser without a girlfriend or boyfriend who has a key, a key to who knows what. There must be hundreds of busboys in town. We can't go around asking each one if he's lonely or has key. It just doesn't seem to lead anywhere" I said. "I agree –that doesn't seem to help at all. Let's look at this busboy thing again looking just at the words. A busboy that's lonely. A busboy without a girlfriend or boy friend." Said Jimmy. I wrote down the word busboy again and crossed out the boy part leaving just 'bus'. "See, a busboy without a boy is a 'bus'. Maybe we are looking for a key to a bus" I said. "But there are hundreds of buses in town. How could we ever find which bus –there is no other clue. A bus just doesn't make sense, although it does tie in with busser" said Jimmy. I agreed but kept doodling on the pad. "Look there's another boy in 'busboy'. Maybe we took off the wrong boy." I crossed out the first 'b' in busboy and the last 'oy'. "There, I removed the 'boy' and left 'usb'. A 'usb key'" "Hey that's the first thing that made any sense, a usb key. I have one of those, and you do too" said Jimmy. "So does almost everyone else with a computer" I replied.

"Let's suppose it's a usb key we need to find. What does the second sentence tell us? Said Jimmy. We both looked at the second sentence. "Can He arise despite zzz?" "Notice the capital 'H' in 'He"' said Jimmy, "What does that imply?" "It might mean God, or someone important or someone special" I said. "What about the 'zzz?' said Jimmy, "it suggests sleeping to me." "Ok, someone important is asleep and needs to arise –see the word 'arise' there" I said. So what have we got so far? We summarized it as "Someone important is asleep and need to be woken up and the usb key can do it" We were excited in making some sense of the two sentences but we still had no clear idea of what to do next or even if we were on the right track. One question remained. Where do we go from here and how do we get the usb key. As I continued scribbling on the pad, I underlined the first word in each sentence. The first sentence gave 't-l-b-h-t-k' and the second sentence produced 'c-h-a-d-z'. "chadz" I said excitedly.  "Chadz!"
 

Chapter Ten

We looked at the other sentence that had been circled, "… my patience is not infinite…" That sounds like someone has been waiting a long time but they are getting tired of waiting and want it over.

By now it was noon, so we packed up to go for lunch. We were kinda pleased with the progress we made but still none of it made any real sense. And what if anything was the connection to the Chadz forum? We'd have to investigate this later in the day. But after lunch, we checked in with grandma. When I phoned her I was happy to find her at home. But she just came home for a nap and to get cleaned up and she would be back at the hospital later in the afternoon and the evening.

I was happy that she was back home for a bit. She told me that grandpa was still in very serious condition but at least he was stable. The bad news is that he seemed to be partially paralyzed and couldn't speak or move his arms or legs. Whether that would pass with time and he would regain movement was as yet unknown.

Grandma was also worried that Ty could not be located. His class had returned from the field trip last night but he did not return with them. It was strange that he didn't return her messages also. I wondered where he was and hoped he was not in trouble.

Jimmy and I went back to school as we had a math test that afternoon and neither one of us wanted to get zero on the test. After class we talked a bit and then Jimmy invited me to his place for dinner since grandma wasn't home to cook. After dinner, we came back to my place to check out the forum on the computer.  Damn! Wouldn't you know it! The forum was down with some kind of SQL error. I'd have to wait for jaxx to fix that.

We talked for a while about what we had learned and then Jimmy left to go home. I got out some milk and grandma's cookies and was about to go back to my room to see if the forum was fixed when I heard a faint voice from the basement calling "Billy." Oh great I thought, now what! I opened the door and flipped the light switch in the darkened basement but the lights didn't go on. I heard my name called out softly again but I hesitated to go down into that dark scary place. I grabbed a flashlight and went down the steps to investigate. The flashlight was pretty weak and I could hardly see anything. I jumped and cried out when the flashlight illuminated a face in front of me. It was Ty.

"Ty" I cried out, "Am, I happy to see you. I was really worried. Did you hear about grandpa?" He replied that he had but he had something important to tell me. "This is going to sound pretty unbelievable but it is true. I want you to listen to this story very carefully."

He began slowly, "The Maya were an ancient civilization that died out long ago or so it is believed." "The Maya!" I exclaimed, "What have they got to do with anything. Why are you telling me a story when grandpa is in the hospital and we're down in this dark basement?" I don't want anyone to know where I am" he said. He told me to just listen and trust him.

He began, "The Maya discovered that the periodic alignment of the Sun with the center of the Milky Way is the formative influence on human evolution. It is important to visualize our relationship to the Milky Way. The Milky Way is saucer shaped and appears as a white band of stars because we see the edge of a spinning disk from our earth. But looking in another direction towards the centre of this disk we would see a plethora of stars and a rich cauldron of creation. Here is the cosmic oven of the Milky Way, wide in this area as if pregnant. The Maya recognized this as the womb of the sky. They considered this bulging area of the Galactic Centre to be the cosmic source and centre, the Womb of All.

Over millennia, the Maya observed the drama of the approach of father sun towards the vagina of mother sky and, though the cosmic event itself was calculated to occur many centuries in the future, they made this event as the anchor point in their machinery of cosmic time keeping.

This alignment of the sun with the centre of the Milky Way happens once every 6400 years. The Maya observed this in 4400 B.C. some 6400 years ago. This was the fabled Golden Age, an era where a harmonious alignment existed in the sky. When the sun crosses over the Milky Way at a certain angle it forms a cosmic cross which was called the Sacred Tree. The next alignment of the Sacred Tree occurs in 6400 years or around the year 2012! This is the centre of our galaxy. It is the cosmic womb from which new stars are born and from which everything in our galaxy, including humans, came.

But the Maya knew the importance of the year 2012 to the survival of mankind when their civilization came under attack and they felt that they were doomed to extinction. They managed to put together a secret sect called the House of the Sacred Tree to carry on the Mayan beliefs and to ensure the survival of mankind in 2012. But it might not be exactly 2012. That's because they felt there could be a four year error span in the calculations meaning it could happen as early as 2008 or as late as 2016. The House of the Sacred Tree exists today and has survived all these years ready to play its role in the survival of the world in 2012. One of the members of the House of the Sacred Tree was a young Mayan prince. They bred successive generations over the years and today the surviving prince is 17 years old. He is essential to the survival of the world as we know it.

But there are evil forces who wish to use the opportunity to take over the world themselves. They are the House of Elogog. They are extremely powerful and are poised under High Priestess Oprahma to take over the world. She already heavily influences the book market through her endorsement of books on a television show so she controls what people think and do. She presents herself as black woman and endorses black candidates so that they will eventually be in her pocket and under her control. But she hates blacks and hates gays even more. She is truly evil. But that's not all she also controls the entire internet and knows everything about everyone. She controls all information through the House of Elogog which rearranged makes the word "Google."

Fearing the House of Elogog would try to capture the Prince, he was put into a deep trance and moved to a safe hiding place. This location and the means to revive the Prince was entrusted to a senior Protector of the Faith. Just to be safe, they also produced a fail-safe method if this Protector was removed by the Elogog. This took the form of a book with some inscriptions that would need to be deciphered before they could be understood. As the book was being transported to a safe location, the team was ambushed and killed by The Elogog. But the Elogog were also heavily wounded in the battle and a third party came along and removed the briefcase containing the book form the car.  This tall man figured that since both sides were willing to die for the book, it must be worth a lot. He planned to bargain for it and give it to the side that offered the most. Everyone is looking for the Prince now -both the House of Elogog and the House of the Sacred Tree. We have to find the Prince before its too late. It's already 2008."

"We?" I said. "What's all this got to do with us?"

"Everything," said Ty "It has everything to do with you."

"Me?" I gasped.

"Yes, you!" said Ty.

 Chapter Eleven

Just then we heard the door to the castle open and close and could hear a voice calling "Billy". It was grandma and she was back for the evening. Ty told me to go back upstairs but not to say anything about seeing him or what was talked about. He told me he would contact me again soon and explain more.

It was good to see grandma again. She was a calming influence. She wanted to know why I was down in the basement so I made up some excuses about hearing a noise and went to investigate. She said it was likely that old furnace growling again, I agreed. Then she gave me an update on grandpas' condition. He was still in serious condition and still partly paralyzed and couldn't talk but the doctors were now a bit more hopeful. That was good news. Grandma was still worried about Ty and where he was. It was unusual for him not to contact her and none of his classmates knew where he was. "I'm sure hope he's ok and not in some kind of trouble" she said. I assured her he would be ok and would likely be in touch soon. I wanted to tell her he was just down in the basement but I honoured Ty's request of silence.

Grandma was very tired so she soon went up to bed. She told me not to stay up too late but to get some rest also. After her bedroom door closed, I waited 10 minutes and then I decided to go back down into the basement to talk more with Ty. I had left the flashlight at the top of the stairs, so I picked it up, switched it on, and descended the steps. I called out softly, "Ty".

There was no answer. I called again. Still no answer. I searched the basement and there was no sign of Ty. That was impossible. The staircase to the kitchen was the only exit from the basement and I had been in the kitchen with grandma all this time. How could he have left? This whole thing was getting to be too much. Stealing the book, the murder of the bookstore owner, grandpa's beating, the code in the book, the link to Chadz forum, the incredible story told by Ty, the fact that this all had to do with me, and now Ty disappearing in the basement. This was all swirling around in my head and none of it seemed connected. None of it also made any sense. I decided to give up trying to figure it all out for the evening and went up to bed. I'd have some story to tell Jimmy tomorrow at school.

I met Jimmy just before class and suggested we get together second period in our spare as I had some wild stuff to tell him. "You find something out on chadz" he asked. "No, I didn't have a chance to do that but we can check it out today.
We went to the school library after our first period class and found a quiet corner alone. I told Jimmy all about the meeting with Ty and what he said about the Maya. "Wow," he said, "is your brother on drugs or something? That sounds totally wild. And how could it all possibly depend on you?" Then I told Jimmy about Ty's disappearance from the basement. "That's easy he said. There must be a second secret entrance somewhere. Nothing is beginning to surprise me in this thing. It's just one mystery after another. Let's try to figure out that chadz clue thing and go online on one of the library computers.

I logged into chadz. "Ok, somewhere there is a message in chadz for you" said Billy. "Right, there's like a zillion messages there, But which one is the one" I replied. "Lets do a search for something –how about "usbkey". I typed it in and got the message: "No posts were found because the word usbkey is not contained in any post." We tried "usb key" in messages and got "No suitable matches were found." Search for someone called 'busboy' said Jimmy. "Search found 1 match" It was a post by busboy made in July 2007 that said "Hi guys good to be part of this princely forum. I like music and Amelia's song will set Him free for the chosen." The subject was "Hey."

"I think we're on to something" said Billy excitedly, "Look the Him we thought was someone important is the prince –see the word princely. And Amelia –that could refer to your sister." "Amelia's song –she loves that song from her music box. Maybe that's it. That song will bring the prince out of his trance" I said. "But what about the usbkey? We haven't tied that in yet" said Billy. That was true, but now more than ever, we felt were making good progress. Still the song would set the prince free for the chosen. But who were the chosen. "Maybe it means the Elogog –so he can fight them. Or the Order of the Sacred Tree to protect them and save the world" I said. "And maybe it means you. Maybe it means you are the chosen from what Ty said that it all depends on you." "But I don't know anything about it or what to do. I hope it doesn't all depend on me. What if I fail?" I said. Just then the bell rang for period three, so we packed up and left for our next class.

But we decided to go home after school to investigate Amelia's music box since the clues seemed to be pointing in that direction. We were excited at the prospects of what we might find. Was the song another clue?