Lisa's Way

Chapter 15

Alek spread his drawings out on Lisa’s bed. His maps of Butler and Poplar Ridge occupied either end of the bed. Between them were his illustrations of the important buildings of both towns, their fence walls, and a few other pictures worth looking at.

Lisa had been amazed by his talent when she first saw him draw somewhere on White Rocks. He had an eye for detail. He sketched quickly, then would fill out the drawing later. He was as good at capturing features of objects as he was at capturing facial expressions. Even more amazing to her was his ability to get his hands on paper to draw on.

Before she said anything Lisa took a few moments to closely examine his maps. They showed every building of any size. They had notes describing the important features. Both towns looked identical at first glance; the details gave each its own character. Lisa hoped that the details would help her vague ideas gain some definition.

One detail on the Butler map caught Lisa’s attention. She pointed to it and spoke to Jane. “Is this right? Do they have bells on their walls?”

“Yeah.”

Lisa looked at the map again. There appeared to be four bells mounted on the fence wall. One bell was on the north, one south, one east, and one west. They weren’t perfectly aligned, but the map suggested that someone next to the west bell could see someone on the north bell, and vice versa. Clearly they were alarm bells.

“Did you see how many guards stood next to each bell?” Lisa asked.

Jane looked to Alek. He held up one finger.

“And at night?”

“We didn’t watch them at night,” Jane admitted. “Was that bad?”

Lisa smiled to reassure her. “No. We can go back and check that out ourselves.” Lisa returned to the maps. “I don’t see the same bells at Poplar Ridge. Did you see what sort of alarm that town has?”

Jane shook her head. “Didn’t look like they had any alarms,” she said. “Least not any that we could see.” She pointed to that town’s map. “They did have that tower. Maybe they can see pretty far from there.”

“During the day, sure, but at night?” Lisa searched through the other papers, looking for Alek’s drawing of the tower. She found it, picked it up, and examined it.

The tower was cobbled together from old strips of pre-Rain material. There was a ladder in the center of the supports. The top, which Alek’s notes said was taller than the tallest building, was a box with waist-high walls and a roof. There was a stand in the center of the box. On it were four curved objects; in front of each was a small line.

Lisa pointed to the stand. “Did either of you get a close look at this?”

“No.”

Alek waved to get their attention. He mimed himself looking. He pointed to the tower picture. His fist sprung open. He mimed himself being blinded, and turning away.

“A light?” Lisa asked. “A light from this hit your eyes?”

Alek nodded. He tapped the curved objects in the drawing.

“The light came from those? Sunlight?”

He nodded again.

“Interesting.”

“Do you know what they are?”

“Mirrors, I bet.”

“Mirrors? Those things you look at yourself in?”

“That’s right.” Lisa snapped her fingers. “Of course. Now I get it.” She looked at the other two, and cupped her left hand. “You take a mirror on a sunny day. You keep it angled towards the sun, and the mirror will shine a light anywhere you point the mirror.”