The Hunt for Excalibur

15 Meet the Callany’s

Nina drove as fast as she could while the anxious boy directed her to his home. Dr. Le Roux had explicitly advised against the boy leaving, but Nina explained the situation at home which would give rise to more problems.

“More problems than having had a deadly charge ravage him?” the doctor had gasped.

Nina ran the dialogue back in her head as she drove. Understanding the doctor’s concern entirely, she still had to defend the child’s appeal to be home before his grandfather arrived from work. Eventually, Dr. Le Roux had to allow Brian to leave, but she strongly reiterated her disagreement with the decision. Nina had taken full responsibility and signed a release form indemnifying Dr. Le Roux, although the doctor thought it was ludicrous.

“Hurry, Miss Nina,” Brian urged. “It is almost 5 p.m.” Tightly he clutched the big leather sheath against his chest, still looking lightheaded from his injury. Nina could not believe that she actually played into this, but for some reason she knew that she should do what Brian needed her to do — to trust him.

“This is totally unlike me to allow this, I will have you know, young man,” she moaned.

“I know, Miss,” he replied, sounding wise beyond his years. “But I am not dead, see? As long as I am not dead, I have no excuse.” The child’s voice sounded morose and lost, evoking a deep sense of maternal protectiveness from the normally juvenile-challenged historian. Still, should anyone ask Nina to explain her actions, she was convinced that she would have no idea how to justify them.

“Here Miss Nina,” Brian suddenly pointed to the humble three-bedroom house with the almost garden full of mongrel plants and un-weeded gravel. The only thing pretty was the wooden screen with the thick ivy cover that parted the side driveway from the front of the yard. Brian smiled for the first time, and it cheered Nina to see his sweet face beaming.

“What?” she smiled.

“Grandpa’s car is not in the drive, Miss!” he sang. “If we hurry up I can get inside and put his scabbard back before he even knows it is gone.”

“That is fantastic, but have you thought of what your poor mother and grandmother are going to think the moment they see you in a hospital gown and shoe soles melted? You know, Brian, there are more important things than that sheath.”

“No, Miss. You don’t know grandpa when he gets angry,” Brian said seriously, shaking his head and stretching his eyes.

“You would rather be dead than to be caught having taken this thing?” she gasped, flipping her finger under the edge of the scabbard with disdain. The flick of her hand shoved the sheath, and as it moved, one of the threads lit up. With no sunshine, there could be no glare. Nina looked twice, in time only to see the sheen gradually fade. Ethereal in nature, the glow had emitted a strange energy, Nina thought, giving credence to her fasciation with the artifact.

‘Am I seeing things?’ she wondered. ‘Could it be a residual from the electric charge from the lightning bolt still lingering in that strange thread?’

Brian practically leapt from the car before she stopped completely.

“Wait! Wait!” Nina cried. “I have to go in with you to explain to your family.”

“No time, Miss Nina. They cannot see me with the sheath either, remember? I have to return it quickly, before they see!” he protested.

Nina sank to her haunches and clasped her hands around Brian’s upper arms. “Now you listen to me. I do not know why you are so terrified of your own family, laddie, but I am not taking this shit anymore. Look, I am an adult from your school,” she reminded him in a low, slow tone while her brown, hellfire eyes darted between his. “Your family will take my word and accept my excuses that I helped you when you were injured after school. They will not kill you for taking a goddamn sheath,” Nina raised her voice into an impatient growl, “because they will be too happy that their little boy is alive!”

The front door creaked open as a clap of thunder started Nina and Brian, both already high-strung from a very trying afternoon. Through the door poked a head. Nina looked up at the scowling middle-aged lady and cleared her throat. The woman’s face sank into despair and her mouth opened to say something, but Nina quickly rose to her feet and engaged her.

“Mrs. Callany?” she asked briskly, before continuing. “I am Dr. Nina Gould, from the school? Please do not fret. Brian is okay.”

“Jesus Christ, Beany!” the woman exclaimed, ignoring Nina and her opening speech. “What happened to you? Are you feeling alright, Beany?” She moved as fast as she could to collect the boy, but her frail, thin frame was infirm and shaky.

“Let me help you,” Nina offered. She held the woman’s arm for support. “Brian is fine. We have been to the hospital and he was examined by a doctor.”

“What happened?” the concerned grandmother wailed, finally paying attention to the pretty stranger who brought her grandson home. “This looks like he was on fire!”

Brian unlatched from his grandmother’s hand and without a word, he shot into the house to replace the scabbard. Nina helped Mrs. Sue Callany into the house, electing to explain all of it on the way in. As she recounted the whole debacle to Brian’s grandmother, the boy’s mother joined them from the small room the ladies used as a craft room for their needlework. Pamela was a very good-looking young woman, but not too smart.

“What?” Pam exclaimed hysterically. “Lightning? Where is he?”

“No, he is fine, Pam,” Sue consoled. “I saw him run into the bathroom just now, love. He is fine. He is fine.”

“How can he be fine after being struck by lightning?” Pam ranted, looking at Nina with a bewildered frown. She stopped at the mouth of the corridor and saw that the bathroom door was shut. “Beany? Beany, are you alright, baby?”

“Aye mom!” came the boy’s cry from the other side of the door, accompanied by a ruckus of flushing and taps opening. What his mother did not know was that, through the bathroom floor, there was an access hole to the crawlspace beneath the house. She was relieved to hear his voice and it calmed her for the moment.

“Well, hurry up so we can have a look at you!” she ordered. The tall, slender Pam rushed down the corridor to speak to Nina at the table where she sat with Sue. “Sorry, but who are you again?”

Sue looked impressed. “This is Dr. Gould, Pam.”

“Nina,” Nina corrected with a smile. “I am a part-time advisor to Miss April at Gracewill for the week. History Week, they call it.”

“She was the one that took Beany to hospital, love,” Sue interjected.

“Aye, but he was miraculously not hurt too badly,” Nina reported to the boy’s worried mum. She covered for Brian’s mission to replace the scabbard, so she took her time explaining to give him enough time. “He only suffered a few minor scratches and some electrolyte imbalance, which they treated. Other than that, he is in fine form.”

Pam looked suspicious. “But, isn’t that like, impossible?”

“Unlikely, but not impossible,” replied Nina, hugging her rapidly cooling cup of coffee. “I guess he was just extremely lucky to have survived this with almost no repercussions.”

“And you know this because you are a doctor?” Pam pressed. Nina hoped that Pam’s assumption was the product of minor miscommunication. If not, she was dumber than dirt.

“I hold a doctorate in Modern History, so… I am not a medical doctor,” Nina reiterated, trying not to laugh. The house made her feel claustrophobic and a little sick. Neat and humble, it seemed to remain dark even with the lights on. Something made it a miserable place, but she could not figure out what. All she knew was that it sounded like bad sewer pipes and mold, but even so, she could not ascertain what Brian found so terrifying about his family.

“How do we know you really took him to a hospital?” Pam second-guessed the visitor.

“My dear, he came home in a hospital gown,” Sue defended Nina, who was slowly getting annoyed with the carrot-haired bombshell calling her a liar.

“His clothing was burned off during the force of the current,” Nina countered, tossing the plastic bag on the table. Inside was remnants of the boy’s clothes and shoes, black and reeking of charge burn. “And that is why he needs to put this in his eyes every four hours.” With that, Nina slammed the small bottle of eye drops down on the table. She had had enough. Nina got up to leave just as Brian exited the bathroom. He smelled of detergent and hand soap and he wore his pajamas.

“I just decided to take a bath before grandpa gets home, Grandma,” he smiled. Those wise eyes found Nina’s, silently signaling that the deed was done and covered up. As Sue and Pam cuddled him up and picked him for traces of injuries, he smiled at Nina.

“Right, then, I’m off. My last day tomorrow, so I have to head home,” Nina proclaimed, not even trying to hide her enthusiasm for getting out of Glasgow.

“Already, Miss?” Brian asked.

“Aye, young man. I have another meeting tomorrow evening in Edinburgh, so I have to get all my stuff ready,” she smiled. “Besides, your grandfather should be home soon, right?”

Sue looked at Pam with a look of concern. “Hasn’t answered his bloody phone all day,” she scoffed. “I called his workplace. Bekka says he left work at ten or eleven this morning, claiming to be sick. I tell you, if he is back to his bloody gambling days, I swear to God…”

“But he is never late form work, except the other night when he had to work late,” Pam remarked. “You tried the pub?”

“I even called the hospital he was supposedly going to this morning, and there was nobody by that name in for anything,” Sue hissed. “Are you married, Dr. Gould?”

“God no!” Nina inadvertently exclaimed. Brian and his mother laughed at her sudden, passionate response. “Sorry,” Nina grinned. “No, Mrs. Callany, I am happily single.”

“Dyke?” Pam asked with a wink.

“No!” Nina frowned. “Jesus.”

More laughter ensued around the table. For a moment, the family forgot that the man of the house was absent later than he should be.

“Come on Dr. Gould. One more cuppa before you take off,” Sue cackled, coughing sporadically. Her demeanor was so light that she appeared almost healthy for a minute, but as she crept toward the kettle, Nina could not help but wonder. Carefully she dared ask, “Sue, if I may pry. What is it that ails you?”

Sue looked alarmed. Her eyes fell to Brian immediately. Nina got the hint, and nodded.

“Just some bug,” Sue lied. “The doctors do what they can on what we can afford, you see. Just wish I got more painkillers in the time being, see, but they are just too expensive.”

As the night wore on, one cup became two, then three, until Nina finally had to leave. It was past 10 p.m. and Court Callany had still not returned home. After hours of anger, worry and speculation, Nina reluctantly said her goodbyes to the poverty-stricken family. She hoped that the grandfather was just out on a pub bender and would turn up hungover and sorry the next day.

All the way to her quarters, she could not help but reminisce about the truly unbelievable events of the day. What especially haunted her mind was the way in which Brian’s scabbard gleamed unnaturally when she touched it. It would be very interesting to hear what Purdue could dig up about the piece and she looked forward to visit Wrichtishousis the following night.