Little Mysteries

Thirteen year old Axel was convinced that the plane was going to crash. Only a moment before he had been leisurely peddling his bike in solitude along a bright treelined trail. All had been quiet save for the thrumming of cicadas in the surrounding foliage and then he was slamming his brakes in a panic at the sudden sound of the aircraft. He watched the small propellor driven plane skim perilously close to the highest leaves and braced to witness what he imagined would be an imminent and tragic intercourse with the earth. Instead he saw a door on the craft swing open almost directly overhead and a tiny dark object issue forth to plummet through branches like a seed dropped by a bird. The plane ascended away with a diminishing drone, disappearing into the sky almost as suddenly as it had materialized. Compelled by curiosity Axel sought out the object he had seen fall.

The black backpack he found was suspended in the twisted limbs of some berry bushes. With the swollen bag in his hands Axel looked around to affirm that there was no one within sight. He peeled back the zipper and opened the flap. The backpack was pregnant with cash. He looked around again to reinforce the certainty that he was alone. He pulled out a bundle of five dollar bills with a stamp on the band that read $500. He counted the bundles, there were forty all together. He repeated the counting a second time, and counted it once more after that to be sure. Euphoric with his find he zipped the pack tight, swung it onto his back and raced from the vicinity.

The sun was high and warmed a breeze that weaved lazily through the late summer trees. A column of starlings erupted into the sky like churning cumulonimbus, twisting and rising a single course into the deep blue above. Below this airborne bird ballet Axel rode, abandoning the trail for an intersecting road as he sped in a blur past an approaching black sedan with opaque tinted windows. The car slowed and crawled to a stop at the mouth of the trail.

Not long after and not far away a boy no older than Axel sat on a park bench next to a playground swinging his feet. A stray low moving cloud silently tumbled overhead tossing a patch of shade down an adjacent grassy slope. Simon paused thumb-scrolling through his phone to inspect a fingertip retrieved from his nostril. Brow furrowed in concentration he was about to switch apps and return for another dig when the cloud shadow swept over him and he peered up to see Axel approaching on his bike. He wiped his finger discretely on the front of his pant leg and gave his classmate a quick nod. “What’s up man?”

Axel came to a halt and tried to act nonchalantly, “Not much.” But he couldn’t disguise the elation he wore on his face like a bright crown on his brow.

“New bag?”

Axel offered an affirmative nod.

“Looks full. What’s in it?”

Axel shook his head and looked away, “Nothin.”

Simon appeared skeptical, “Nothing? Up to your old tricks again? Did you swipe it?” He grinned.

“Nope.”

A pair of chickadees flitted around a vacant swing set. Simon kept his eyes on the backpack, “Where ya headed?”

Axel was studying the chickadees and shrugged, “Nowhere, just riding around.”

Simon glanced at the birds and back to the bag strapped over Axel’s shoulders. He threw Axel a suspicious look, “You’re not telling me something.” He cocked an eyebrow, “Come on, what’s in the bag?” He wiggled his fingers and spoke in a spooky tone, “Reveal the great mystery.”

Axel turned and studied his friend. He was tempted to tell him about the money. Should he share it with him? Split it between the two of them? He briefly considered all the glorious things they could buy with it. Simon sat fixed on the bench with inquiring eyes. Axel glanced to where the chickadees had been but they were gone. He turned back, gave his head a shake and engaged the pedal on his bike, “Sorry. Gotta go.”

Simon sighed and sat with his shoulders slumped, picked at a scab, kicked at the dirt, and watched Axel ride away. Some time after, with his finger plunged in his nose to a knuckle, he noticed a black sedan with tinted windows drive past in the direction Axel had ridden.

The world spun through the afternoon and the sun washed light over a village lined with shops, parked cars, rows of planted trees, and pigeons perched on power lines along the main street. The sidewalk was splashed with blue shadow that extended from rusty red brick storefronts packed tight each next to the other. A classmate of Axel leaned against a wall in the shade next to the entrance of one of the shops, his eyes zeroed on the electronic device clutched in his sweaty palm. He peered up just as Axel was bringing his bike to a stop in front of him.

“Axel!”

Axel nodded hello, “Pickle.”

Pickle looked over his shoulder to the shop steps and back to Axel again, “What’s up man?”

“Not much, Just riding around.”

“Nice bag.”

Axel nodded thank you and again his expression betrayed him enough to motivate a mild inquisition.

“Looks stuffed. What’s in it?”

“Nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. Come on, what’s in it?”

“Nothing, just junk.”

“Bull, what’s with the mystery?”

“I swear.”

“Let me see then.” Pickle looked back over his shoulder to the shop steps once more, “Come on, before my mom comes out. She still doesn’t like you.”

“It’s nothing Pickle, there’s nothing to show.”

Pickle leaned in and with a hushed conspiratorial voice asked, “Were you shopping with the ol’ five finger discount?” His eyes darted back and forth.

Axel shook his head dismissively. Again he mulled over telling his classmate about the money. He imagined splitting it between the two of them and he briefly imagined all the glorious things they could buy with it.

Pickle, who had by this time become exasperated, desperately attempted to reach for the backpack. But at that precise moment the shop door swung open and a woman, his mother, came out onto the steps and called to him, “Dillan, could you…” Her face tightened in sudden disapproval at seeing Axel.

“Come on Dil, it’s time to go,” she said coldly as she descended the steps to the sidewalk.

Pickle offered a helpless goodbye with his eyes and gave one last quick glance at the backpack before sheepishly shuffling away with his mom as she brushed sternly past.

Axel allowed a subtle smile to spread as he watched them go before he continued on his way in the opposite direction.

Shortly thereafter Pickel’s mom was pulling out from where she had parked along the curb but had to stop suddenly to allow an approaching car to pass. It was a black sedan with dark tinted windows.

The afternoon waned, shadows stretched, a chain of heavy clouds sluggishly encroached across the sky. The silhouette of a solitary hawk circled high above.

Axel travelled down the street as the row of shops successively diminished and were replaced with a series of low-rise residential apartments. He found Sage Iolana perched in the window frame of her bedroom in her family’s apartment on the third floor. She was bathed in a shaft of golden sunlight that cut though a slight break in the cumulus. The sight took his breath from him. He could see that her attention was focused on something cradled in her gentle palm.

Axel intended to share the money with her. It had been his real plan from the moment he had found the backpack. In his mind he saw a future where they would spend it conjointly, blissfully, buying all of the glorious things they could dream of. A ranch with a stable of horses, a swimming pool, a private racetrack, a beach with a boat, a hot air balloon, a zoo, a roller coaster… and they would ride on their stallions across their fields in resplendent cascading sunshine every day, swimming in happiness for the rest of their long lives together.

He hopped off his bike in the empty courtyard below her window.

“Sage!” He called.

He could see now a pen dancing in one hand as she wrote into a little black book held in the other.

“Sage Iolana!”

She noticed him and the pen stalled, “Axel!” She exclaimed with pleasant surprise, her voice like silk to his ear.

“I’ve got twenty-thousand dollars!” He declared hurriedly.

She laughed, “What are you doing here?”

“I told you, I’ve got twenty-thousand dollars! I wanted you to know.”

“No really,” she said to him as though he had just told her he could fly.

“Look,” He swung the pack from his shoulders and unzipped it to reveal the banded bundles of bills.

A cloud of concern passed over her face. “Axel, is that real?”

“Yes, it’s real.”

“Where did you get it?” She asked incredulously.

“I found it.”

“Axel,” she spoke with a hint of sadness in her voice, “are you going to get in trouble again?”

“No,” he murmured unconvincingly while glancing away.

A single raindrop fell and landed on one of the bundled bills, staining it wet.

“I want to believe you but…” a gust of wind caught her dark hair and feathered it across her cheeks and her lips. She pulled it back with her pen hand, “…Don’t you think you should try to find who it belongs to if you found it?”

He stammered, “But…”

She blew a lock of hair from her forehead and began to scribble.

“What is that?” He asked.

She tore a page from the book and answered enigmatically, “It’s my little book of mysteries.”

He stared up at her, enchanted by her. More raindrops began to spatter around him.

She let the page fall and it fluttered down the side of the building like a single feather.

Axel let the backpack drop from his hands and dashed to snatch the page out of the air.

“Wait,” she said in a sober tone, “before you read it, it’s only on one condition.”

He waited as she continued.

“If you’re telling me the truth and you found all that money, you have to do the right thing with it. Okay Axel? Or you can tear that paper up and pretend that I never wrote it at all.”

Axel read what was written on the page and blushed.

“It’s a promise for a promise.” She spoke with a sound like the scent of summer rain.

“I promise.” He nodded with absolute sincerity, his eyes never leaving hers as he folded the paper and slipped it into his breast pocket.

He returned to the backpack and got on his bike. The light of the afternoon skies had dwindled and an early darkness had set upon the street. In the distance he heard the soft rumble of thunder. A raven spread its wings where it sat on the top of a street lamp. He turned and smiled at Sage as he rode away in the drizzle and she returned the smile.

As Axel began to ride back in the direction he had come he was defined by the headlights of an approaching vehicle. He let his bike glide as he neared the car and recognized it as the black sedan with the tinted windows he sped past earlier in the day. As the drizzle turned to a steady rain both the car and Axel slowed to a stop. One of the tinted windows slid down. Axel hesitated for the briefest moment. He allowed his hand to brush against the backpack strap on his shoulder. Then he set his bike down and approached the car.