Map Seekers: The Brotherhood

Chapter 6

Nothing special happened the next day at school, unless you counted Nat Williams being sick in the cafeteria after eating four servings of spaghetti as special.

At the final school bell, the group met and agreed to call each other later for a progress report of how everyone was doing with their assignment.

Jacob and Alexis had practice so they took off, and Sheldon was already lost in thoughts about what he would do when he got home. Without saying goodbye, he walked away.

Hunter and Maricella were used to Sheldon's odd behavior and just chuckled to each other.

"Thanks for walking me home last night," Maricella said.

"Sure." Hunter didn't know what else to say.

The two stood awkwardly together for a minute. As much time as they spend together, Maricella was always amazed that whenever they started to get close, Hunter would begin to act all weird.

"Well, I guess I should go get started on the translation." Maricella finally broke the silence between the two of them.

"Yeah, I have some stuff I want to look up too. Did you know that in medieval times, almost all maps were created by monks?" Hunter asked. He had entered full geek mode without realizing it.

Thankfully, Maricella found it an endearing trait, but wished Hunter would get over his nervousness around her at times. It really was true, she thought, girls mature faster than boys.

Hunter continued with unbridled enthusiasm. "Monasteries were the main source of education in the Middle Ages and the monks used maps filled with tons of illustrations from scenes of the Bible and symbolism. I guess a lot of it was used to scare people from straying from the path of righteousness. I have some pictures of this one map call the Hereford map, which was huge. It was made around 1276 and is filled with images from the Bible and tiny spiritual notes. It is really pretty cool."

"So, there is a lot more to this map stuff," Maricella said.

"Totally!" Hunter replied.

At least when he was talking about the map, Hunter was no longer nervous around her.

Sheldon was lost deep in thought as he walked home. There was nothing special about that, but today he spotted a dark-colored sedan following him. He didn't think anything of it at first, and he certainly didn't notice that similar cars had followed Hunter and Maricella as they left the school. It wasn't until he turned the corner to walk down Alexander St. that he realized the car moving slowly behind him was following him.

Normally Sheldon wouldn't be paranoid, but with everything that had happened in the last forty-eight hours, he had to admit this had him a little freaked out.

He decided to test his theory that the car was following him and he cut through Ms. Hackelman's yard to reach his street. Instead of going straight through to his street, he ducked into some bushes on the side of the house and waited until the car passed.

Sure enough, the car slowly passed by and both the driver and passenger were looking down the side of the house where Sheldon had cut through. He knew they couldn't see him from where he was hiding. The car passed and sped off, turning the corner quickly. He could hear the squeal of the tires as the car went around the corner faster than it should.

In that instant Sheldon decided it would be better to act like nothing was out of the ordinary if the sedan circled back, so as not to alert the men in the car that he suspected something. He jogged to the opposite sidewalk as if he made this shortcut all the time. Luckily, a school bus had stopped at the corner in front of him and it was blocking traffic as kids dumped out in a noisy display of youth.

By the time the bus moved, the sedan was rounding the corner on its return lap. Sheldon was walking calmly as if nothing was out of the usual. He had assumed correctly that the driver would go around the block and return, and Sheldon had positioned himself so he was now walking towards the mystery car. Within seconds he would be passing the car, close enough to see the occupants inside. Even from down the block Sheldon could tell the driver was frustrated by the situation. Sheldon could see the man yelling at his partner and motioning with manic waves of his fists.

Sheldon casually walked and the car drove past him at a normal speed. As they passed each other, Sheldon looked at the man on the passenger side and the man stared back at him with a dark scowl on his face. Sheldon didn't like the look of the guy at all; he secretly hoped they really weren't following him, though he knew that was a hopeless wish.

Sheldon wondered why anyone would be following him since he knew Solomon was already aware of where he lived. He figured they might just be tailing him to see if he went to someone else's home, and it finally occurred to him then that if he was being followed, certainly all his other friends had been as well.

The realization that his friends might be in danger caused Sheldon to panic and he picked up the pace to reach his home. It was at times like these that he wished he wouldn't be coming home to an empty house.

Hunter received the Snapchat group video from Sheldon just as he was about to enter his home. He was glad he watched it before going inside because his mother normally greeted him and wanted to know all the details of his day at school. His mother was the quintessential, cliché helicopter mom.

If she had heard or saw,what Sheldon posted, she would have totally freaked out.

Hunter could see that Sheldon recorded a snap and sent it to the crew that included Maricella, Jacob and Alexis. He played the video while standing in his front yard.

In it, Sheldon explained how he had been followed from school.

"Be on the lookout for cars that look like this," Sheldon said into the camera, then positioned the camera so his face was no longer filling the screen and Hunter could see the car driving away behind him.

Sheldon was into James Bond enough to know that if anyone saw him, he would look like a normal teenager using his phone camera to take a selfie. Snapchat was the hip social media app to communicate with friends instead of calling or even texting, with the added bonus that all the posts were deleted after 24 hours. It was a teenager's dream tool.

Hunter could see that Jacob and Alexis had both watched the video. Alexis snapped back a photo of her punching the screen with the words "Come at me, bro!" typed across it.

Jacob snapped a picture of a similar car following him.

Hunter looked down the street but didn't see a car. He couldn't be sure one hadn't been following him since he had never looked until now. He wished he had walked Maricella home instead of parting ways with her at school, and was kicking himself for not being more careful.

He finally entered his home like he had been shot from a cannon and ran upstairs to his room. As he took the steps by twos, he yelled to his mom, "I have a ton of homework. I'll be in my room. Call me when dinner is ready!"

Before he heard an answer, he slammed his bedroom door shut and was dialing Sheldon.

Sheldon answered without saying hello, "Bro, why are you calling me?"

"Because, I saw..."

"I told you, I have a ton of homework today. I can't talk on the phone."

Hunter was totally confused.

There was silence between them, and in that moment there was a loud click on the line. Both Hunter and Sheldon heard it.

"I've got to study for the trig test. Why don't you call Maricella and see if she has the notes we need. Maybe you can email them to me. I don't want to be on the phone all day."

Hunter noticed Sheldon's emphasis and slowly he realized what Sheldon was saying without saying it.

"Yeah man, I'll do that and talk with ya later."

"Cool. Later."

Sheldon hung up but Hunter waited a moment longer before he did, and he was rewarded for his patience when he heard a second loud click on the line.

Sheldon's suspicions were real. Their phones had been tapped and someone was listening.