Stacy--Part Eleven

Splog # 40

Eleven

   Stacy was looking forward to sliding down into the tree when she started hearing noises over to her left. By moonlight, she could faintly see a trail leading through some foliage and off to the plain where Splog had told her that the people called the Doolins lived. From her vantage point, at the height where the tree abruptly ended, she could make out something moving along the trail towards where it ended at the marble walkway. She stepped down a branch or two so she could see what was coming without being seen herself.

   Whoever or whatever it was, was making quite a lot of noise moving along the trail and she could see that its size was about that of a tall person. So she wasn't surprised when a man came from the brush, headed onto the marble path and then turned and walked the short distance to the statues. He stood between them looking back and forth and then he approached the one on the left as if to get a better look at it. He stayed there only a moment, then turned and moved toward the one on the right. After another moment looking at this one, he came back to the center of the walkway. He was now facing Stacy and she could see that, although tall, he looked fairly young. Only about twenty years old (if that), she thought. He stretched out one hand toward each statue and seemed to be straining to reach them even though they were both too far to touch.

   He stayed that way for a little while and then dropped his hands to his sides. He looked up for a moment, right in Stacy's direction, and she quickly ducked behind one of the shards of the tree which were sticking up at irregular intervals all the way around the trunk. When she stuck her head out just a little to take another look, the boy had seated himself, cross-legged, right where he'd been standing. His head was bowed and he was holding it in his hands. He didn't move for some time after that so Stacy looked down into the tree to see what Splog was doing.

   Splog's hat and coat were hanging on the inner wall of the trunk, though she couldn't see what was holding them up. Then she remembered that Splog's hat had blown away before they got here. This might be another one, though it looked the same. Then again, the hat had blown upwards over the tree, so it was possible that it had landed inside. Splog was seated beside a stump which had a fiddle lying on it. He was applying some rosin to a bow. He put the bow down beside the fiddle, took the rosin to a hollow in the wall of the trunk that seemed to serve as a shelf and then, returning, he picked up the fiddle and bow and started very softly playing a tune. The music was gentle and maybe a touch sad and Stacy found it very soothing. She looked around at the inside of the tree. There were two large round stumps growing from the ground that were obviously used as tables. Each of these had two smaller stumps on either side of them, probably seats. On each of the table-stumps there was a candle burning which gave the interior a warm golden flickering glow. There wasn't much else to see. A thin stump against one of the walls and some hollows on the inside of the trunk.

   Splog continued playing as if he were all alone and Stacy was beginning to wonder if he had forgotten about her when she heard movement along the trail again and looked up to see if the boy was leaving. He was still sitting at the beginning of the arch but he had obviously heard the noise too, for his head was up and he was looking in the direction from which it was coming. Then Stacy heard a female voice call "Johnny!" and the boy jumped up and ran to the other side of the red statue, which was on Stacy's right as she looked out over the tree. He crouched down in the shadows and Stacy waited to see who was coming and what would happen.

 

   A moment later a young lady came into view. She looked to be the same age as the boy. She stopped at the end of the trail and again called, "Johnny!" She walked up to where the statues were and stood for a moment as if trying to decide whether to head out over the arch. She looked back toward the tree and then said quietly, "Oh, Johnny." Then she sat down in the spot that the boy had just vacated and, in unconscious imitation of him, she put her head down and rested it in her hands.