The Black Hand--Part 3

 The Black Hand--Part 3

When Friday rolled around I mentioned the noises to Calvin.

All he said was, “Hmm. I don’t like the sound of that.” But I could tell by his face he was unsettled by what I had told him.

After a few tense moments he forces a pleasant smile, “Marina, Amy told me to ask if you would come stay the weekend with us at our beach house. Sometimes we get lonely out there, with just the two of us, and we would love to have some company.”

The beach! I hadn’t realized just how home sick I was until this invitation was given to me. I grinned delightedly, “Do you really mean that?  I would love to go with you!”

I tossed my backpack into the trunk and hopped in the back seat a few hours later when Amy and Calvin swung by campus in their black mustang to pick me up.

The ocean had never seemed so beautiful to me I thought as I stepped out near a large red light house. Of course, I had only seen it from this angle once before so I didn’t have much to compare it to.

“So where’s the house?” I took my back pack from Calvin and looked curiously around at the sandy landscape.

“There.” He smiled and pointed towards the light house.

“The light house? How neat! Trust you two to come up with something original. Do you actually own it?” I struck out eagerly across the beach towards the imposing structure.

 “Yes.” Amy hurried to catch up with me. “And all the land for a mile around.”

“A mile!” I gasped. Where did they get their money? Not only did they have two houses but they also had a mile of land! Of course that was nothing to what I owned but the difference was mine was at the bottom of the ocean, and therefore free for the taking.

The moment Amy opened the door and ushered me into a large and well furnished living room I could since that this was a different kind of beach house. A telescope peered curiously toward the sky out one large window, another machine I did not recognized turned suspiciously on me when I entered and began beeping loudly while a flat cart with low sides appeared out of a side room and rolled purposefully up to our feet.

Amy laughed at my startled face and turned to Calvin. “Would you please explain your creations to our guest?”

“First,” He pushed past me rather hurriedly, “I had better inform Mr. Warden that she is safe.” He began pushing a few buttons on the unrecognizable machine and almost immediately it stopped beeping.

“Marina Aqua is a safe friend.” It informed me in a robotic voice and I stepped back slightly, bumping into Amy.

 Calvin chuckled at my discomfiture. “Now, the next time you come, instead of rudely beeping at and x-raying you for concealed weapons it will say, ‘Hello Marina Aqua. Welcome to The Beacon. ‘ ”

“It was x-raying me for concealed weapons?”

“Mm-hmmm.”

“Do you have a lot of people come around here with concealed weapons?”

“Well not a lot but there are some.” He walked over and took my backpack off my shoulder. “ It’s like this Marina, I am a bit of an inventor—“

“A bit!” Amy cut in from behind me. “He’s a rather well known inventor Marina.”

“Amy exaggerates. But anyway, some of my inventions have become rather popular and so I am occasionally paid unwanted visits but “robbers” who are really connected to rivals hoping to get some of my plans.” He bent over and spoke into a small box on the side of the cart. “Mr. Carry, please take Marina’s things to the Marine room.” Then he quickly dropped my backpack onto it and it vanished.

“ I feel a bit like I just walked into a Sci-Fi movie.” I said to Amy as the cart reappeared empty and obeyed her command to “take their things to the Emerald room.”

“Just wait until you see Calvin’s lab.” Her eyes twinkled.

Amy was right. The living room felt like it was part of a normal life after I walked into Calvin’s work room. Both of my hosts smiled proudly as my repeatedly “oohed” and “ahhed” over Calvin’s creations. At last, we came to the end of the large room and I saw sitting on a table like it was yet unfinished, a black box  with a black and white striped screen on the front of it.

“What’s this?”

Calvin’s face grew serious. “That is the biggest reason for me inviting you to spend the weekend with us. I am not quite finished with it but I think I will be in a few hours and then, perhaps it can solve the your questions about the noises during Marine Biology.”

“Then you believe me?” I hadn’t been sure when I had mentioned it before. He passed over the issue so quickly, and yet, I had felt like I saw something deeper and rather disturbed in his face.

“That there is something strange in the middle of that building? Yes. And if you’ll here me out I’ll tell just exactly what I am very afraid it is. Something Marina, that you may wish some day that you had not discovered.”