Stacy--Part Twelve

Splog # 43

Twelve

   Stacy waited to see what would happen. But nothing really did. The girl sat between the statues. The boy, Johnny, crouched by one of them. And when she looked down into the tree trunk, Splog was sitting and playing his fiddle. He was playing so quietly that the music barely reached Stacy's ears. So it didn't surprise her that the boy and girl didn't show any awareness of the serenade. Then, in the bright moonlight, Stacy again became aware of the two butterflies, one red and one white, fluttering around her head. She had just noticed them when they flew away from her and towards the statues. Stacy couldn't remember ever seeing butterflies at night before but there they were and they seemed to have absorbed the moonlight and become fluorescent with it because she had no trouble following their flights as they again landed on the mouths of their oppositely-colored statues. A moment after they had landed, the girl lifted her head and said, "Come on out, Johnny."

   The boy stood up beside the red statue but stayed where he was. They looked at each other without moving or saying anything and Stacy began to grow impatient because she wanted them to reveal who they were and what they were doing here and she hoped that, if they started talking, the mystery might begin to diminish. Then the white butterfly and the red butterfly both flew to the girl and alighted, one on each of her shoulders. She was wearing a simple dress of light blue and, as they settled, they looked like brightly colored ornaments that were slightly out of place on such a plain garment. But they remained there and, after a glance at each, the girl looked back to the boy as if nothing surprising had happened.