Marina nudged Leon down into the pit and he obediently opened the hatch. It was the perfect hiding place. From the road it appeared whoever once lived there was either dead or long gone. Once inside their secret lair they had all the amenities of home, dirt walls, dirt floors, spider webs, water bugs, two uncomfortable cots, and one flimsy folding table with a matching twisted metal chair--almost heaven. Marina indicated to Leon to sit. She said what she always said to made the moment appear much grander than it actually was, "I have some ancient wisdom to impart."

Leon flopped down onto his army issued cot and rolled onto his stomach while simultaneously rolling his green eyes, "Not now Nana."

"Oh, feeling a bit sorry for yourself??" Marina teased.

"No it's just I'm not in the mood for playing the ancient wisdom game today." Leon sulked.

Marina sighed, kicked her cot to the side and then she moved a large box filled with supplies and climbed on top of it. Out of the sub basement wall, she pulled out a large brick making an awful scraping sound. With a loud thud she dropped the brick onto the ground creating a cloud of dust. She lit a candle and illuminated the small cave. "Look here Leon and tell me what you see," Marina directed.

"Fine," Leon begrudgingly got up and peered into the small hand dug tunnel. "It looks like my old homeschooling stuff. Why'd you save all this junk anyway?"

"Look closer Leon..." Marina enticed. She wanted to commit this moment to memory and so she didn't rush her words. "Tell me exactly what kind of homework it is..."

Not interested Leon glanced, "I dunno... English I guess."

"Look closer!" Marina shoved his head inside the opening.

"Ouch!" A brain light came on. "Hey... this is that book you made me copy over and over." Leon remembered.

"Right... and?" Marina  pulled Leon's mental string.

He answered, "And it was so boring, copying the same manuscript over and over, day after day for months and months..." He dropped back down onto his cot.

"For three years, nine months, two weeks and four days to be exact." Marina was nothing if not precise.

"What a mean grandma... Making a kid copy the same thing day after day... never anything else, no math or science or--"

Marina interrupted his list by jumping up and hitting him, with the perfect replica, on top of his hard head. "This book is full of math and science and history, astronomy..."

"Okay, okay... but I just don't get it. I mean I'm sure the mindless repetition kept me out of your gray hair--which you constantly reminded me was all my fault--but couldn't you be a bit more imaginative Nana?"

"It wasn't about you Leon it was about the greater good."

"I remember at the end of each day you'd grade my papers giving them either a big red "A" for absolutely perfect or a giant "F" for fire."

"Correct! Good boy." Marina cheered him on like the able teacher she was.

"You had this system of cross checking my work off an original source. Night after night I watched my hard work go up in flames..."

"Don't you realize what you've done son? Didn't any of it sink into your subconscious?  Let me spell it out for you. You and you alone made copies of the only book able to save mankind."

Still bewildered Leon asked, "Huh?"

She pulled Leon down so she could kiss him on the exact spot she had just smacked him. "You are the best kind of hero Leon--the clueless kind."

"How many?" With the rare kiss Leon's anger began to melt.

"How many what?" Marina asked replacing the copy.

"How many exact replicas did I make?"

"Nineteen." Marina was proud.

"Nineteen?"  Leon's fury flooded back. "I only made nineteen stinkin' copies?"

"No," Marina objected,  "You only made nineteen perfect copies. I burned all the stinkin' ones, remember?"

—-

Now what? Izzy cried up to the unknown heavens. She unfolded her outdated map and began to scan its wrinkled page. "It's very hard to follow a map when you don't know where you are and nothing is where it was!"  She wished for a giant "You are here" sign to pop out of the ground as easily as Nana-in-the-box had. As she perused the map she mumbled to herself, "Atlantic Beach docks... Southwest... by the water... Here it is. Thirteen miles?! Come on, do I always have to run a half marathon at a time?"

She wished she hadn't been so hasty with that annoying Leon. He was arrogant, rude and oh so pretentious--but he was adorable in an annoying kinda way.  Izzy snapped out of her daydream and did what came as second nature to her. She gambled. She bet herself she could make it to Atlantic Beach well before they drowned her grandfather.  When she ran she didn't have to touch things, count things or wash things. She felt as if the speed purified her sins the way rubbing her hands killed the germs.

As she ran the invisible author watched her closely and thought what a sad world it would be if all its ills fell upon Izzy Quest's shoulders. He knew better--they fell on his.

-End of Chapter 17-

Author's note: I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Please vote, comment, follow and add The Wasting  to your library. If you've got a book you'd like me to check out—COMMENT the title here! I'd be delighted.