Stacy--Part Ten

Splog # 36

Ten

   Stacy found herself less surprised than she might have expected to see the butterfly zigzagging in the air. Splog was still looking at her. Was he waiting for some kind of reaction? She pursed her lips, folded her arms and looked right back at him. Then, beyond his head, she saw the butterfly start to fly out over the arch heading away from the hill with the marble chair on it. Splog said, "Shall we go?" and turned and started following the butterfly.

   Stacy stood still for a moment but quickly decided that the best thing she could do in her current situation was stick with Splog and see what that led to. So she headed in the same direction and was soon walking by his side. Splog was quiet so Stacy waited to see where the arch led. As they were reaching the peak, Stacy saw two forms on either side of the arch at the point where it ended. She was having trouble making out what they were because it seemed to be getting darker as they walked. Almost as if night were falling, but much more quickly than she was used to. By the time they reached the end of the arch, all the light had faded from the sky but she could see fairly well because, as it had gotten darker, a bright light had begun to shine from behind her. She took a glance back over her shoulder and saw a full moon shining from just over where the chair that she had been sitting in when she woke up here was placed on the hill. She could no longer see the chair because of the curve of the arch but she thought it must look lovely against the dark sky with the full moon shining on it.

   Stacy turned back and saw that the forms on either side of the arch were life-sized statues of two women. The statue to her left was completely red and the one to her right was completely white. The statues were identical - both standing up straight with their arms by their sides and their eyes closed. They were dressed in long robes with shawls or veils that covered their heads but not their faces. The left statue was a deep dark red, almost burgundy, but its mouth was painted white. She looked to the white statue and saw that its mouth was red. As she gazed at it, the mouth seemed to be opening and closing. She looked back to the red statue. Its white mouth also seemed to be moving. Then it flew off and she realized it was the white butterfly which had alighted on the statue's red lips. She quickly looked to the other statue, just in time to see a red butterfly arise from the statue's white lips. The two butterflies circled around each other and then they both flew off the arch following a marble walkway which ended, after a few yards, in front of an enormous dark tree. The white butterfly flew to the left around the tree. The red butterfly flew to the right and they both disappeared from view.

 

   Splog had been standing patiently, letting her make her observations. He now said, "Shall we?" and started walking towards the tree. Stacy began to follow him, wondering where they were going, when a breeze came up suddenly and lifted Splog's hat right off his head. His curly hair was swarming in the breeze but he didn't even move his head to see in which direction his hat had disappeared. Stacy followed the hat with her eyes and watched it go higher and higher in the air. Then it was carried over the tree, which she saw ended not very high above her, and was gone. She looked to Splog and saw that he was walking around the tree to the right, as if nothing had happened. She followed him and, when she got to the back of the tree, she found him walking up a set of steps which were simply branches that had grown around the large trunk in such a way as to form conveniently-spaced risers. She watched him as he got to the top, but then he disappeared. She quickly followed him up, surprised by how easy it was. She didn't even have to hold on to anything to keep her balance. When she got to the top, she saw that there was a slide that went down to the floor. But it didn't go straight down. Instead, it was incorporated into the side of the tree trunk and so went around the inner space and ended at the bottom on the opposite side from where she was standing.