Eldorado Read Online Free PDF Page A

Deepens
     
    It was a worn, stapled notebook – the cheap kind kids used for taking notes in school. Its black cardboard cover was creased, scuffed, and bent, as if it had been folded and carried in somebody’s back pocket. With a sense of dread Richard slid the book from under Danny’s mattress and carried it into the living room to read. Zonk lay in a corner and lazily opened one eye as he passed. Sitting on the edge of the couch with the book on his lap, Richard thumbed through the faded blue-lined pages.
    It was some kind of journal, but it didn’t contain a narrative, like a diary. It was filled with terse notes, mostly unintelligible, presumably about where Danny had been going, though it never mentioned what he was actually doing there. There were scribbles around the margins, and sometimes even in the middle of the page. Some entries were dated. The journal wasn’t exactly written in code, but the entries were succinct, as if Danny had included only enough information to jog his memory about things he already knew. Most of the pages were blank, and even the ones with writing weren’t completely filled. The first entry he read was:
    Apr 11 – 101st and Heather. Some indication. Nothing definite.
    Another read:
    5 blks S 8 W KG.
    Beside the entry, in a different colour of ink, was written: False alarm.
    One word that was repeated several times, seemingly at random, was Eldorado , once in giant letters with lines radiating from it as if it were glowing with light.
    Near the middle of the notebook, half-way down the page, an entry caught his attention. It read:
    9 blks E 20 N KG. W*ld Rose Energy Ltd ! ! !
    Under the text was a long line of exclamation marks, and around the page were excited scribbles, most of which were meaningless. In the upper left-hand corner was a crude drawing of a flower, which, in keeping with the scribbling below, Richard guessed to be a Wild Rose. Beside the picture was scribbled the word, Yes!
    He hit several blank pages. At first he thought he’d reached the end, but then he found a new entry, written with a different coloured ink. It wasn’t dated, but Richard had the impression that some period of time had passed between the previous entries and this new one. The entry read,
    F says C can get transportation.
    Don’t know if I should trust him – sounds kind of unstable – dangerous.
    He went back and re-examined the entry that Danny seemed excited about:
    9 blks E 20 N KG – W*ld Rose Energy Ltd
    So… he thought. 9 blks – that is, blocks – E – that is, east and 20 – blocks? N – that is, north. So it’s: 9 blocks east and 20 blocks north – of KG… KG? But what is KG?
     
    That night Richard was exhausted. His affliction was something deeper than physical fatigue – it was an exhaustion of spirit – as if his will to live was draining away. He sat with his head in his hands and for the thousandth time re-lived a night four years ago.
    He’d been in class at the College. Danny had been staying over at a friend’s. A tired looking cop told him later what the police had been able to piece together – that his parents had surprised thieves who probably planned to steal from their garden.
    He pictured his father’s lifeless body as he’d found it, twisted like a broken stick and lying in a pool of his own blood on the path to the back yard. His mother lay bleeding nearby, in the back doorway. Both were rushed to hospital. Richard contacted the people where Danny was staying and they sped to meet him.
    His father was dead on arrival. His mother was still breathing; they allowed Richard to visit her. She was awake and lucid, though extremely weak. She tried to speak, and Richard leaned down and put an ear close to her lips.
    “Your father?” she whispered. He couldn’t suppress his tears. She closed her eyes and shook her head faintly.
    “Promise me you’ll look after of Danny,” she said, her voice fading. “He’s not like you – he needs