[THE BONE OF CONTENTMENT]

Peckham Industry had won a contract to redo the railroad by Ulster Avenue, following an explosion that had happened a week ago. In charge of this operation are Alfonso Jackson and Lorenzo Esposito.

Alfonso was a 52-year-old Jamaican man with dreadlocks and a temper reminiscent of a rude boy. Spends a tremendous amount of his time with family, well, when he is not at work.

Lorenzo, age 50, a dark skin Italian man with a low fade haircut, a down-to-earth attitude, and very loyal to Alfonso.

Hence, the reason they are both on this job!

Management did not explain why the railroad needed reconstruction.

The information was to dig up the busted railway and plant new ones.

And just like they had closed the railroad for repairs.

It was Friday, August 31st.

The time was now 10 AM.

Location: Peckham Industries. Catskill, NY.

The workers were getting ready to leave. Alfonso and Lorenzo are occupying one van, and the other thirteen men are driving the heavy-duty machinery.

The railway is just 15 minutes away.

One by one, the trucks left. Alfonso was also getting ready when the big boss fanned him down, a tall, scruffy Indian man with glasses, telling him to wait. He quickly pressed the brakes, and the manager rushed to the truck window.

“Wah Gwan, Mr. Benedict?” Alfonso asked.

Breathing heavily, he said.

“Not trying to rush you, but do you think you could finish this job in one day? I just got a call from the guys on the other side; they want this wrapped up quickly.”

Both men shrugged their shoulders.

“We think so,” they replied.

“Thank you, I know I could depend on you boys.”

“Sir, can I ask you something?” said Alfonso.

“Yes, sure.”

“Why were the F.B.I. people at the scene, minutes after the explosion?”

Mr. Benedict abruptly paused, looked under his glasses, and stared with mysterious eyes.

“You didn’t hear this from me,” he said, then looked to his left and his right.

Both men lean forward.

“I heard the government is tracking alien technology, and it led them here in Lennord County; something about 5 hosts, and a Sun God,” Mr. Benedict told them, and quickly walked off.

Alfonso looked at Lorenzo, spooked by Mr. Benedict’s statement.

“What was that about?”

“Old Bwoy Benny is just paranoid,” Alfonso replied.

They both laughed.

“Anyway, let’s catch up to the Man Dem,” Alfonso stated.

They were now cruising on the 9W heading to the Sage Town, when something about the whole railroad explosion and contract dawned on Alfonso.

“You know, di people dem started saying di explosion came from Bottini Fuel, but that is not true,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Lorenzo asked.

“At the time of the explosion, the LCNS news, Seh, the people dem Si something crash Deh?” Alfonso replied.

“You're right, they did say that something crashed there,” said Lorenzo.

“So why is everyone changing their statement now?” Lorenzo asked.

“I don’t know, maybe dem got paid to cover up something.”

“Yuh Nuh curious, why there was an explosion, and then in the next 5 minutes, a Wull Heap a government people, surround the entire railway?” Alfonso asked.

“What do you think is going on?” Lorenzo asked.

“Not sure, but anything the Government Inna, Neva good,” Alfonso replied, and pressed the gas.

Moments later, they arrive on Ulster Ave, at the busted railway just by Bottini Fuel. The crew was already on the tracks, setting up. Lorenzo quickly got out and put up the sign.

“ULSTER AVE WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE REST OF THE DAY”

“It is going to be a long day today, boss,” Lorenzo said.

“Yeah, Mek Wi Do Dis Quick and Fast,” Alfonso replied.

He then tied his dreadlocks in one, put his plastic hat on, and then his orange vest, with his Logo, saying, “Peckham Manager”

He then instructed everyone on what would be going on.

Moments later, you could hear drilling coming from all over the railway, as the sun steadily burned the damaged metal.

“Sir, is it me, or is the sunlight penetrating that one spot on the track?” Lorenzo asked, staring at a beam of light glaring in one area.

“It looks like a reflection pon some ting,” Alfonso replied.

12 hours later, they had dug out all the busted railroads and put them aside in a big pile

The time was eleven at night, and the big flood lights had come on. The workers were now slowing down.

“Boss, I know we promised Mr. Benedict we would do this in one day, but it’s too dark, plus the men are tired,” said Lorenzo.

“We already took all the rails out, let’s stop here, and continue tomorrow.”

Alfonso had agreed and quickly dismissed the men, leaving only him, Lorenzo, and all the equipment on site.

“Hey Lorenzo, go take one final walk on the track, and make sure Wi good Fi tomorrow.

Because as soon as we wake up, we a put down every Ting.” Alfonso said.

“You got it, boss.”

Lorenzo grabbed his flashlight and headed off on the rails, walking on the dug-up pieces, waving his flashlight left to right, when he suddenly fell.

“Yuh good, Brethren?” Alfonso asked.

“Yes, I’m okay, something tripped me.” He replied.

“Alright, be careful.”

“Yeah, I know, thank you.”

Lorenzo got up, shined the flashlight on what had tripped him; it was a loose rope that ran down into the ground. He started pulling it out. He pulled and pulled, till something came out. It was a black metal rope that connected to a strange box. He quickly placed it on the ground and shone the light on it. It was a black box with a strange symbol.

أربعaة

“Boss, I found something,” he said.

“A Wah Dat?”

“You might want to take a look for yourself.”

Alfonso grabbed his flashlight and quickly made his way down.

He shined his light on the box.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but this thing tripped me.”

“You think it’s money?” Lorenzo asked.

“No, it looks too weird to be money, a probably dis, di government Bwoy dem did a look fah.”

“Anyway, bring it with yuh, and let’s hit the road,” he said when they both saw an old lady with a white hooded garment standing over by the barricade, looking down at them, as if she wanted to say something.

Moments later, the two were leaving and decided to stop by the peeping woman, who told them that, a week ago, she witnessed something fall from the sky blazing with fire, then blow up the track. And how it was the Sun that spat it out, and there were others, shooting in other directions.

“They had different colors,” she told them, tightening her headcloth, looking at the strange box.

“Don’t open that box, it belongs to someone evil,” was the last thing she said.

Alfonso laughed, paid the old lady no mind, and drove off.

“She sounds like the old drunken man who drinks on your steps,” Lorenzo said, giggling.

“You mean Jack?” he replied, laughing.

“Yeah, why do you allow him?”

“He is a family friend.”

Moments later, they were approaching McDonald's on Ulster Ave when Lorenzo decided on food, so Alfonso quickly pulled up to the drive-through.

Lorenzo quickly cashed his order and approached the second window, where a young Black girl was registering.

“Here is your Coke, sir,” she said as she handed it to Alfonso.

“Your food will be out in a minute,” she said.

“Thank you,” Alfonso replied.

Moments after, she returned with the food. Upon giving it to Alfonso, she saw the black box in the truck and instantly became a jittery nerd.

“Wicked cool,” she said, smiling hard.

“You guys have a fake version of the fourth tomb.”

“It looks so real,” she said, looking at it.

“You mean this box?” Lorenzo asked.

“Yes,”

“What do you know about this box?” Alfonso asked.

“I don’t know much about it really, I saw it in Andre Paul’s Article about Alien languages, of the Pyramid people, and how every 1000 years a few boxes will fall from the sky and land in different parts of the world, and that something inside the boxes finding their hosts, and that a God will come to collect the soul of those hosts, for a divine purpose, but as I say I don’t know much. Anyway, that is how I recognized the writing.”

“That symbol means the number (4),” she replied.

“Shit that was a lot,” said Lorenzo.

The nerd girl laughed.

The car behind them suddenly started blowing its horn.

“Thank you,” Lorenzo said, and Alfonso drove off, taking a right onto Kings Highway.

“You didn’t want anything?” Lorenzo asked.

“Badman Nuh eat Burger,” Alfonso replied.

Lorenzo laughed out loud.

“But seriously, though. Doesn’t that little girl look like that history lady?”

“Who?”

“I forgot her name, C.L-something?”

“What was she talking about, though?”

“Probably watch too many Science fiction movies,” Alfonso replied.

“Nah, something about what she said sounded real."

Both men had forgotten they had just met an older woman who had just said something similar.

Lorenzo took a bite of his burger, put his soda in the cup holder, spilling the soda all over the strange box.

“Shit,” he said and grabbed the paper towel. When the box suddenly opened.

They stared.

“Deer,” Lorenzo shouted.

Alfonso swung, “Bomboclaat,” he said as he broke up.

They came to a stop in the middle of Kings Highway, in the pitch-black night, looking out in front of them, when something tiny fell from the box and went under Lorenzo's seat.

“Drive, I will look for it,” he said.

Alfonso drove off.

“There are always two,” he said.

“Mi a tell yuh enuh Lorenzo a Wull Heap a Bloodclaat Deer deh a Lennord County enuh,” Alfonso aggressively stated.

Lorenzo started giggling repeatedly when the item lit up with a yellow glow, revealing its location.

“Damn it glows,” he said, then stopped laughing. And the light stopped as well.

He grabbed it and got back up.

“Check this out,” he said, showing the item to Alfonso.

“What do you think it is?” he asked.

They were both staring at a small milky grey object, about three inches long and one inch wide.

“It looks like a peanut,” said Alfonso.

“It does, but I've never seen a grey peanut,” Lorenzo replied.

“Anyway, drop me off at Martina’s tonight,” he said, putting the item back in the box.

Moments later, Alfonso had arrived at Martina’s house.

Lorenzo quickly got out.

“See you tomorrow, and get this box thing to the railroad company, maybe they know what it is?” he said and walked off.

“Remember, I have church in the morning. So, I will be a little late,” Alfonso replied and drove off.

After arriving at his Kingtown home, he saw that the lights were on, and his son Kemar was waiting for him.

Alfonso then exited the car and went in.

Kemar greeted him.

“You are late, Dad.”

“I know, I’m sorry, we can ride another time,” Alfonso replied.

“It is okay, I know you didn’t do it on purpose,” the boy replied, smiling.

Kamar Jackson, 10 years old, with an afro.

He is an extremely kind kid, always happy, and

finds everything beautiful.

“Why are you up so late?” Alfonso asked.

“I was waiting for you.”

“Weh Yuh Madda Deh?”

“Mom is sleeping.”

“Is that for me?” the boy asked, looking at the box.

“Oh! This! Lorenzo found it, but we have no idea what it is,” Alfonso replied.

“Can I see it?”

“Sure.” He replied, giving Kemar the box.

“Four,” he abruptly said.

“What?” Alfonso shockingly asked.

“It says four,”

“How did you know that?”

“I don’t know, I just knew,”

“OPEN,” the boy said.

“It doesn’t work like that, son,” Alfonso said when it suddenly opened on its own.

“It is a bone,” he said.

“A bone?”

“Yes, it is a bone from someone's skull.”

“I thought it was a peanut,”

Kemar laughed.

The item lit up immediately as he touched it.

“Can I have it, Dad?”

“You can keep it tonight, but I need to be back in the morning.”

“Let me see something,” he said as he took the item from Kemar.

He held it, but it did not light up.

He gave it back to him, and it lit up again.

Attempts after attempts.

Alfonso realized this strange item is lighting up for Kemar only.

“Strange,” he said.

“Anyway, go to bed now, we'll talk Inna the morning zeen Rasta,” he told him.

Kemar hugged his dad and went to bed. Alfonso took a shower and did the same.

One hour later!

The house was quiet. But in Kemar's room, the strange box was behaving rather strangely…

A warm yellow light glows from the top, and it suddenly opens like a coffin. Releasing the milky, grey item that Kemar had described as a bone. It levitated and lodged itself on the back of the boy’s neck, gently sank into his skin, and disappeared, as he slept.

Then the strangest thing happened!

A light shot from the boy’s mouth, through his window, and into the dark sky. It stretched to the furthest corner of the earth.

It was unclear if anyone else was seeing this, since it is 1 in the morning, and Lennord County is usually asleep by then.

Oh wait!

The old lady from earlier was still standing by the rail, and it seemed like she had spotted the yellow light. Her eyes followed it to an unknown destination, when suddenly four more beams of light appeared, from other directions, with the same destination: a green, a red, a blue, and a purple.

She held her head down.

“I did all I could. Now it is time to prepare for war,” she said, taking off her headdress.

“As the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, I praise Antony, I have dispraised Ceaser,” she said, and magically morphed into a beautiful black girl, it was the same girl from McDonald's.

She then walked off, looked back once, and spoke.

“I wonder who is on the other side of those beams?”

The yellow light then started to disappear! She followed it until it was no longer in sight.

Seeing all of this was an old man sitting on Alfonso's steps.

Jack Oliver.

Drunken Jack was sipping on white rum, hiccupping when a strange man floated by, heading for Kemar’s window. Jack rubbed his eyes, for he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

He had witnessed a tall man wearing Egyptian clothing with wide hips and naked breasts like a woman, creating an androgynous appearance.

He looked like a monotheistic deity, a mixture between masculine and feminine energy.

He was wearing a Khepresh blue crown with white headdress that of a Pharaoh, a Shendyt skirt, and a long red robe. The God like figure sported jewelry of all kinds.

“Is it Halloween yet?” the drunken man asked with a drunken tone and sipped again.

The strange man stood and looked at Kemar on his bed.

He would not take his eyes off him.

He then began to speak with a demonic-sounding voice.

اسمي أمنحتب أخناتون، فرعون مصري، والد الملك توت. وأنت، أيها

الولد، قد سرقت عصاي من الاستعلاء، وأحتاجها مرة أخرى.

Jack didn’t understand anything until he heard Kemar repeating it like a possessed child.

“YOU ARE AMENHOTEP AKHENATEN, THE GREAT EGYPTIAN PHARAOH, FATHER OF KING TUT. AND I, KEMAR JACKSON, THE HOST OF THE BONE OF CONTENTMENT, MUST BE ONE WITH YOU.”

The drunken man watched as a huge yellow light burst from the boy’s bedroom, followed by 4 other lights that SHONE FROM THE SKY, A RED, GREEN, BLUE, AND a PURPLE.

“FOUR MORE TO GO, AND THE ULTIMATE WILL BE CREATED,” the man said and vanished, leaving a trail of sand on the street of Lennord County.

Jack fainted!

NEXT MORNING

At 8 am.

Alfonso was already up, with his wife, Grace, who was already in the kitchen making breakfast, a thick, short Black woman.

“Hey, babes, what time are you going in today?” she asked.

“11. And yes, I remember church,” he said.

“Just remember, I don’t want to be late for work, we're on a special assignment.”

“Okay, and can you wake Kamar and get him ready? he was waiting for you the whole night,” said Grace.

“What were you two talking about so late?” she asked.

“This box, which I had brought home.”

“What is it?” Grace asked.

“Not sure, but there is this little thing in it that glows this calm yellow light whenever Kamar touches it, and some kid at McDonald’s said this strange word means 4,” said Alfonso

“Suits him,” said Grace, smiling.

“What?” Alfonso asked.

“Yellow.”

“Yellow suits Kamar,” she said.

“Why?” he asked.

“Honey Yellow means happy; you didn’t know that?” Grace asked sarcastically, while smiling.

“I didn't know that.” He replied.

“Did you know it's the fourth emotion?”

“Out of?” Alfonso asked.

“5, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and happiness,” she replied.

Alfonso looked at Grace with concern.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yes, you said 5, and I had a quick flash back about something that has to do with the number 5.”

“Where did I hear the number 5?” he thought.

“Anyway, mi ago wake up di Bwoy,” Alfonso stated.

“KEMAR, COME GET READY FI CHURCH BRETHREN,” he said, and headed for his room to wake him.

“BOMBOCLAAT?” he shouted when he came upon the curtains sliced in half. And Kemar wasn’t in bed, only an inflated version of him.

“Bwoy yuh Madda a Guh kill Yuh if you prank her like that.”

“Anyway, get dressed, we have church,” he replied, and shut the door.

BOOM!