Dillon Hunt And The Desert Oasis Resort by Chad Stewart (books suggested by bill gates txt) 📕
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- Author: Chad Stewart
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Jordan laughed. “It’s all yours,” he said motioning to the restroom. “I’ll see you back at the car bro.”
Dillon nodded. When he came out a couple of minutes later he glanced over to where the prairie dog was, just to see if his little friend was there. It was gone, but a small glint caught his eye. He walked over and, on the ground roughly where the squirrel had been, was a small steel arrow head. It was plain looking except that the middle portion of it, on one side, had three bumps formed there, almost like nubs, and there was a tiny hole in the middle that was barely noticeable. The nub nearest the point was positioned almost in the middle of the head, the next one was in the middle off to one side, and the one positioned near the end of the head was off to the other side.
“Come on Dillon,” he heard his Dad holler.
The call was enough to pull him from his thoughts. He quickly scooped up the arrow head and rushed back to the van.
As soon as Dillon was buckled in he started examining his find. Aside from the other features he already noted when he first looked at the item, he also noticed that there was a small hole drilled through the middle of it. That’s weird, he thought to himself.
“Whatcha got there?” Gwen asked as she noticed that Dillon was handling something.
“Oh nothing,” Dillon responded. “Just something I found at the gas station.” He said it like it was no big deal, but deep down inside he had that same strange feeling that he had with the watch. He felt this arrowhead was important somehow, but he didn’t know why. This feeling was irrational but he knew it was somehow right. It was actually starting to frighten him.
Derek watched the young boy run to the van as he continued to fuel up his car. He noted how Dillon had come out of the restroom and then observed, with surprise, as something caught the boys attention. He found the arrow head I just placed there! he thought to himself. He was amazed at the power of Dillon’s apparent observational skills. It was quite impressive. There had to be some sort of inherent ability to observe changes in his surroundings which displayed itself in finding things that others might miss, he reasoned to himself. Although, he thought, it wouldn’t be the first time he had seen something weird that couldn’t be explained by any science that they knew of.
He finished filling up his tank, grabbed the receipt off the pump, and climbed back in his car. Jake was sitting in the passenger seat this time.
“Do you think it wise to be giving these items to the boy?” Derek asked.
Jake merely shrugged. “I’m sure we could get them back some way or other if we had to. Besides, we’re running out of options and we need someone who will be able to find the entrance for us.”
“It is pretty desperate to leave our fortunes in the hands of a twelve year old boy,” Derek reasoned.
“We are desperate!” Jake snapped back. After he calmed himself he said, “It’s been a while since we have had any breaks in this case and, with the changes in Dillon’s grandfather, we had to go with Dillon.”
“Why not his Dad or any of his other siblings?” asked Derek.
Jake shook his head. “No, we observed his Dad and he just doesn’t seem to have the gift. His brother and older sister are a lot different than Dillon and don’t exhibit any of the traits of their grandfather either.”
“And what about his younger sister?” Derek asked with intrigue.
Jake paused for a moment before he spoke, almost as if to collect his thoughts. “Even if his younger sister does exhibit the same kind of qualities she’s too young to help us out with this particular exhibition,” he said at length.
“And a twelve year old boy isn’t?” Derek asked skeptically.
All he got in return from Jake was a slight smirk as he turned the ignition in the car and pulled away from the gas station as they continued to head for Dust Valley Desert Oasis Resort.
The Hunt family van rolled smoothly through the hills and valleys of the desolate desert. Cacti were scattered throughout the landscape, and vultures could be seen high up in the sky circling the terrain, waiting to pounce upon any of the small creatures they could see (living or dead) that were sprinkled throughout the arid land.
Jordan, Claire, and Gwen were all sleeping by this time as they were pretty worn out by the long drive and the monotonous view. Dillon, however, stared intently out the window imagining some grand adventure where he was being chased by creatures that have been hidden for years amongst the many caves and valleys that made the rocky desert interesting. This would be an awesome spot to explore! he thought to himself.
“Hey Dad. I don’t suppose there are any rest stops coming up where we can get out at and take a look around?” he asked.
“Unfortunately not,” Dad replied. “Besides, we are actually almost there.”
Dillon looked out the window skeptically. “Okay,” he replied dejectedly.
“Don’t be like that,” Mom reprimanded gently. “There are going to be tons of places for you to explore when we get to the resort. It won’t be long now … probably within the hour,” she stated.
About twenty minutes later Dillon felt the van slowing. He looked out the front window and noticed that dad seemed to be pulling over to an information center. He looked at Dillon in the rear view mirror and smirked. “Maybe we can afford a quick stop.”
“Awesome!” responded Dillon.
“But we’re not exploring,” Dad was quick to add. “We’re just here to see if there’s more information on the place than what they already sent to us.”
“Sounds good to me,” Dillon replied, sitting up all the straighter now and acting as though new energy had been injected into him.
The other kids woke up as soon as the van was pulling into the parking lot. The only one who didn’t seem interested in checking out the info center was Claire. She just seemed more interested in staying with the van and “chilling” but Dad made her get out anyway and go inside with them. There was no way he was going to leave the van on in order to keep the AC running, and he couldn’t leave her in a vehicle by herself in this desert heat.
Dillon and Gwen were the first to burst through the doors. As they did they were immediately struck with the sound of multiple chimes at different pitches going off in a musical pattern that sounded almost harp-like. They both stopped and looked for the source. There, at the top of the door were hand-crafted wooden pipes which were strung together with thin pieces of cord weaved through each pipe at different intervals. Hanging from the pipes were small hammers that moved and struck the strings as the door swung the chime freely when it was opened. The pipes also had holes of different sizes in them which whistled as they moved and air passed through them.
“Cool!” Dillon and Gwen both exclaimed at the same time.
The main room was circular with lots of different kinds of stuffed critters that were native to the area mounted on the walls and some standing on pedestals. Gwen was in awe. She looked around the large room and tried to take it all in. As she turned her head she jumped back and yelped as her face was inches from a grizzly looking stuffed coyote that was barring its fangs. Dad chuckled and put his arm around her when he came through the door. Dillon, Jordan, and Mom were already checking out the rest of the info center.
“It’s okay honey,” he said reassuringly. “It’s just a stuffed animal, like the ones you have at home.”
Slowly she reached over and touched the thing on the nose. It felt warm. She quickly pulled her hand away and stared at it in the eyes. “It’s eyes look so real,” Gwen said as she further inspected the creature.
“Some say that you can feel old Charlie here bore through your soul when he looks at you,” came a deep voice from the side. Dad and Gwen both looked over to see an older native man, with long jet black hair that was streaked with silver. His face was wrinkled and weathered from years of living under the hot desert sun. He wore tattered jeans, a plain baby blue t-shirt, and a worn leather vest. His brown combat boots made a distinctive clunking sound as he strolled across the wooden floor toward the Hunts.
“But I personally think those people are crazy,” he finished with a slight chuckle. “The name’s Tom Tom,” he said to dad as he held out his hand.
Dad took his hand and gave him a
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