Giggleswick: The Amadán Map

Chapter Sixteen: The Empty Tomb

Chapter Sixteen: The Empty Tomb  

The chill of the night air against his wet clothes stirred Elliot from the sleep his body so desperately wanted. He lay with his head on the grass staring up at the night sky when he heard a familiar squawk. Evol had streaked past once again, this time hovering slowly overhead as if beckoning Elliot to move. 

He pulled himself up onto his elbows, causing every bone in his body to ache. It was probably well after nine o’clock by now, he thought, but it felt more like three in the morning. Evol continued to squawk, reminding Elliot that he needed to find Lefty ... had to get help for Eliza. He brought himself to his feet, hoping that perhaps Evol would show him the way. 

“Come on boy, where’s Lefty?” he said to the bird, who took off instantly. 

Elliot hurried after him as quickly as he could but was too weak to run. His head throbbed and his lungs tightened with every breath of air, but he’d already lost the map –– he wouldn’t lose Eliza too. 

Evol led him along the edge of the forest and away from the water until they came upon the dark outline of Lefty’s wooden shack. Elliot’s hopes faded when he saw that the only light in the windows was that of the moon reflecting in the glass. Perhaps Evol hadn’t been taking him to Lefty after all, he thought. He heard a flutter of wings as the bird came to rest on his shoulders and then began to peck at his ear. 

“Ow!” cried Elliot, rubbing the side of his head. “What’d ya do that for?” 

But the bird squawked once again, taking to the air and flying past the empty shack. 

“Wait!” Elliot called. He ran after him the best he could.  

He followed Evol around the side of the shack and into a thick of trees where a glow was coming from somewhere inside the forest. He stumbled along the dead branches, at one point snagging his clothes on a thorny bush, and caught his foot in a rabbit hole he hadn’t seen in the dark. A few minutes later he limped his way up to some sort of work-shed. The glow emanating from the windows illuminated a perfectly smooth path from the water that Evol had neglected to show him, and Elliot grimaced at the bird, who simply ignored him and flew into the shed through a crack in the window. He could hear him either squawking or talking, but Elliot couldn’t tell which.  

Before he could even put his knuckles to the shabby door, it burst open and Lefty stuck his head out peering from side to side until he spotted Elliot beneath him. 

“There ya are,” he said gruffly. “Evol’s just told me you were ‘ere.” He yanked Elliot inside where Olive Juice was overturned and propped up on three jacks and then set about polishing the boat’s hull with a dirty rag he’d retrieved from a tool box. “Well, ‘ave out with it. Wha’s the matter, me boy?” he said.

“Well ...” Elliot didn’t know where to begin. He didn’t bother mentioning the map and instead hastily explained that George had trapped Eliza in Poppy’s tomb.  

“Oh my,” said Lefty when Elliot had finished, sparing no time for questions. “Best get goin’, then.” Noticing Elliot’s bound hands, Lefty first set him free with a knife and then yanked his rain hat over his head and stalked through the door. “Foller me,” he said, trudging along the side of the shed toward the back where a small looking vehicle was parked. 

“Lefty, where’d you get that?” asked Elliot, recognizing it as a very muddy four-wheeler that looked as though it’d never seen a drop of water in all its life. 

“Present to meself from America one year,” said Lefty as he flung his leg over the seat and plopped himself down. “Well, ‘op on!” 

Grateful to rest his legs, Elliot got on behind Lefty and grabbed for the man’s rain coat as the vehicle roared to life like a chainsaw and sped off through the forest. It wasn’t until they’d entered the cemetery and the bumpiness subsided that Elliot opened his eyes and slackened his grip on Lefty’s coat.