Jordan Gravette Part 4 of 6

Jordan’s father leads the way through a featureless landscape as dry and hot as a furnace. There is not a living thing to be seen. Nothing grows here, and nothing breathes. Not even an insect. There is nothing to be seen but rock and sand from one horizon to the next. The track they follow is hard and stony and they have walked for so long, the soles of Jordan’s feet are sore and aching. His throat is dry and rasped by the sand laden air.

‘How much further,’ he asks, but his father’s only reply is to continue walking beneath the bleached white sky that offered no comfort, and a cruel, burning sun that gave no mercy. They walk all day and then on through the night; a night with no moon and no stars and where the temperature fell away like a stone until his ejected breath came in great steaming clouds and the sweat on his brow began to freeze. On and on they went until the sun rose once more and balanced on the rim of the world like a giant red ball. Then, much to Jordan’s relief, his father stopped.

They are in a shallow valley, through which a dry riverbed runs. Low hills rise on either side. They had, in better times been covered by a rich and vibrant forest. Now, all that remained was the bleached, petrified trunks that stuck up from ground like giant toothpicks. The valley floor is covered with piles of rocks arranged in neat pyramids as high as a man, stretching as far as Jordan’s eyes can see.

His father did not wait for him to ask where this place was or why he had brought him there or give him time to properly gather in his surroundings. He launched straight into the explanation of Jordan’s second challenge, which was this. Hidden beneath one of the rough stone pyramids there was a giant gold key. It was not a key that opened anything physical like a door, or a gate, or a padlock. It was far more than that. It opened up the future for whoever owned it, for them to acquire untold riches. Such unimaginable wealth would gravitate towards whoever had possession of the key without them so much as raising a single finger to earn it. If Jordan could uncover the key, it would be his and he carry it with him like a trophy if and when he returned to his life. 

‘But you know how life works,’ his father said. ‘If you want nice things, you must work hard for them. Every stone you lift can only be set down on top of the hills surrounding us. Set it down anywhere else and you fail the challenge.

Jorden surveyed the pyramids. ‘That will take forever,’ he said. ‘No man could do it.’

His father laughed his rattle-bone laugh. ‘You don’t need to find the key to complete this challenge. You only need to move one pile of stones. Once you have done that, if you wish to continue looking for the golden key, that is up to you.’

‘How long do I have,’ Jordan asked.

‘There is no time limit. Time has no relevance here. You may take as long as you like. Take all eternity if that is your wish. You may start at any time.

Jordan selected a pillow sized stone from the nearest pyramid and set off up the side of the valley. The early morning air was still cool, and the ascent was not steep or particularly difficult. It did not take long for him to climb out of the valley and by the time he had reached the summit of the hill he had chosen, he was neither labouring nor struggling for breath. He looked down at the figure of his father, who was sitting on a boulder watching him. I’ve got this he thought. I’ve really got this. He made three more journeys that morning, before the sun began to do its work and heat up the air and the ground around him. He remembered his mistake with the Meal of Plenty. There was no need to rush. He could stop now and wait until the sun had descended and the furnace heat reduced. After all, hadn’t his father said he had all eternity if he wanted. And that is exactly what he did. Every morning he would remove three, sometimes four stones and no more, before the oven had time to heat up. Whether he worked this way for a few weeks or for a hundred years, we shall never know, except that gradually, over time, the pyramids disappeared from the valley floor one by one. During all this time, however long it may have taken, Jordan Gravette did not exchange one word with his father.

At last, one morning, as Jordan lifted one of the stones, he saw something glinting beneath where it had lain. Quickly he took the stone he had lifted to the top of the nearest hill, before running back down to investigate what he had seen. He reached into the gap the stone had left and felt his fingers close around something cold and metallic. After all this time he had found the key. He spent the rest of the morning removing the stones from above the key as fast as he could. He didn’t care that the ground became so hot it was burning his feet or that his fingertips grew ragged and bloody from rubbing against the coarse stone. He did not care that the sweat ran into his eyes and stung like acid. At last, just as the sun was at its highest, he raised the key aloft. So big was it, he needed two hands and all his strength to lift it.

‘You have done well,’ his father said, ‘I would advise you sleep now and gather your strength for your journey home and your final challenge.’

Jordan lay down in the shade of one of the remaining pyramids and fell into a deep sleep. So soundly did he sleep, he didn’t hear his father approaching with a heavy chain in his hands, and he didn’t feel his father wrapping that chain about his waist. Nor did he hear the snap of a padlock securing the other end of the chain to the golden key.

When he awoke, his father was standing over him and the key was resting on his chest, making it difficult for him to breath. It was only when he tried to push the key to one side that he realised what his father had done. His father spoke.

‘You’ve worked hard for your reward. Hard work brings you nice things. I have always told you that. What I never told was that nice things, more than anything else, weigh you done.’

Jordan, against the weight of the key, struggled for breath. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘Why have you done this?’

‘Perhaps your vision will show you,’ his father said and went back to sitting on the boulder. No sooner had he sat down than the ground began to shake, the sky grew black as if the sun had been eclipsed and Jordan felt himself being borne away by unseen hands.

* * *

He is in his childhood home, on the landing outside his parents’ room. There are noises coming from within, like someone is in distress. Perhaps his mother is upset. He pushes on the door. It swings open. A woman he has never seen before is sitting astride his father. Her hips are gyrating slowly. Her head is tilted back, and her moaning grows louder and louder, until her body begins to shudder. His father moans with her. 

It is a devastating sight for a small boy, like an electric shock suddenly awakening within him the knowledge that the world was an ugly place. In this new world into which he had been suddenly cast, there was no room for compassion or mercy. In this new world everyone took whatever they could, regardless of the betrayals that may have involved.

He pulled the door shut and fled down the stairs and out into the garden where even the fresh air and the sound of birdsong now seemed so tainted by the human touch. There could be no solace for this.

* * *

When he awakes, his father is standing over him, glaring. After what has been revealed to him, Jordan cannot bring himself to look him in the eye.

‘So boy,’ his father growled. ‘You would condemn me for my infidelities. Do you think your precious mother didn’t know,’ his father hissed. ‘Of course, she knew. I had scores of liaisons, but as long as I gave her nice things she didn’t care.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ Jordan said.

His father crouched down so that his mouth was close to Jordan’s ear.

‘Then believe this. Nice things change you boy. First, they weigh you down and then they change you. They control you. Just like your nice things will control you.’ He reached down and lifted the chain attached to Jordan’s waist. ‘See? To what ends will you go to keep this in your possession?’

Jordan followed the line of the chain back to the key. ‘What have you done?’ 

‘I haven’t done anything. You’ve done this to yourself. You worked hard for your nice things. Now you have them you are weighed down by them. Just like your mother allowed herself to be weighed down. Just like I am weighed down. We are, none of us, that much different from the other. And because of that, you are about to lose everything. You just don’t know it yet.’

The ground began to shudder. Jordan’s final challenge was approaching.