Lauren--Part Nineteen

Splog # 65

Nineteen

   While she was standing and looking at the tree, Lauren felt the ground beneath her feet give a slight shiver and started to feel frightened of the possibility of an imminent eruption. And here she was standing not very far from the top. Suddenly, the thin branches of the willow started whipping around in the wind, but almost immediately Lauren realized that there was no wind to send the branches swirling as they were. The branches were moving on their own. The ones with black leaves were blowing toward the back of the tree, away from where Lauren stood. This left most of the flame-colored trunk facing Lauren somewhat bare. And the green-leafed branches were moving inward to create a pattern of some kind. Lauren took a step or two backward to try to make sense out of what she was seeing. And then she was looking at a face. A face of flame with black hair flowing back from its dark green features. The branches had wafted inward to create long green Oriental-looking eyes with green brows. There wasn't really any nose, just a line sketched in green and where the mouth should be there was a... She had to step forward to get a better view. The branches had come together vaguely in the shape of two lips. But in their center, eight individual leaves had formed a perfect octagon just about the size of a quarter. She stared at it, sure that she had seen that figure somewhere before and, while she was studying the shape, she heard a skittering sound from something rolling down the mountain. Pebbles dislodged by the rumbling of the volcano, she thought as she stared at the face the tree had assumed and racked her brain for the significance of the small geometric figure. And then something hit her foot and, when she bent down to pick it up, she saw that it wasn't a pebble but a marble. She looked back toward the crater and found that the entire hillside was littered with downward-rolling marbles. She looked in the direction the marbles were falling and saw that a few yards away, they were dropping in a little gully, like a dry stream bed, and then all rolling merrily along it. She figured, if gravity was carrying them along, then the gully must head down the mountain. She started following the marbles, but had only gone a few steps when the whisper touched her again.

   "The time is here."

   Even though it was only a whisper, it filled Lauren with a fierce sense of urgency. There was something she must do at the tree. Everything had led her there. But now something was leading her away. That's what the marbles were for. She had to follow them, and quickly, or she would die on this mountain when it exploded. She ran after the marbles and leaped into the gully. The footing was treacherous and awkward but she followed as best she could. It was leading down and away from the danger. But now she felt a warmth in the pocket of her shorts. She put her hand against it as she kept her eyes on the gully she was following. It was littered with loose dirt, pebbles and some larger stones, not to mention the marbles that were gaily bouncing along, caroming off of each other and the sides. She could feel the warmth through the fabric of her shorts, as if she had a coal in her pocket. But whatever it was, it was flat and round...She stopped her downward motion and put her hand in her pocket. Then, as marbles bounced lightly around her feet, she brought out a coin. An eight-sided coin with a flame-colored background and a letter on both sides, dark green on one side and matte black on the other. She looked at the coin and ran her finger around the eight straight sides, the sides that would fit perfectly into the pattern that the leaves had formed on the trunk of the tree, the tree whose colors were a perfect match for the coin. 

   "The time is here."

   She hardly heard the words. She knew she had to place the coin where it belonged on the tree. She knew if she did, the eruption would be halted, the sun would appear and the sky would be blue again.

 

She turned around and started heading uphill along the gully. She had to be careful not to step on the myriad of marbles that were no longer accompanying her, but were now a tide flowing against her. She thought she'd leave the gully as soon as she saw the tree. But it was becoming harder to walk. The mountain was rumbling and shaking and she could feel warmth through her sneakers. Where was the tree?