Stacy--Part Sixteen

Splog # 57

Sixteen

   Stacy took a moment to swallow the morsel she had in her mouth.

   "Splog was here when I got here," she said.

   Then she took a sip of cider and went on.

   "No, he wasn't quite here. I was sitting in that chair right there," she pointed behind the trio, "and he came walking up this marble path and said, 'You're Stacy' to me. He walked right up to me and said, 'You're Stacy.' "

   She paused in wonderment at the fact of Splog knowing who she was, when she had never seen him before, that she was aware of. Lane turned to Johnny with a smile and said, "That sounds like Splog."

   They both smiled and then Lane turned back to Stacy.

   "So what were you doing sitting up here on the Fe-San?"

   "I'm not really sure." Stacy put her food down on the cloth spread in her lap and a far-off look came into her eyes.

   "I was in my garden at home and there was a white butterfly just like..." She lifted a hand and turned her head at the same time but, to her surprise, there was no butterfly on either of her shoulders.

   "Oh!" she said. "They're gone!"

   "That's what we said." Johnny pointed out over the arch. "They come and go but they're usually back before very long. They're never very far from Splog. They're probably over at the tree now. So one of them was in your garden?"

   "Well, I'm not sure if it was one of them. But it was a white butterfly and it seemed to want me to follow it into the woods. So I did. And it led me to a circle of large rocks that were all different colors. And in the middle of the circle was a white rock that looked like an egg from behind. But it was really a chair. So I sat in it and I think that I may have fallen asleep. And when I woke up I was sitting in that chair right there."

   The three of them turned to look at the chair, spread with fragments of their picnic.

   "Ah! But that's not the whole story, is it?"

   The voice seemed to come from the chair but, after a moment, Stacy realized that it must have come from behind it. Splog stepped out of the shadow. He held a tomato in his hand, which he lightly tossed to his other hand and back again.

   "Don't you want to tell Lane and Johnny the rest of the story, Stacy?"

   "You mean about the faces?  But I was thinking that maybe, if I fell asleep in the chair, well, all of that could have been a dream..."

   "Well, then, tell us about your dream."

   Stacy thought that it might seem silly. But when she looked at Lane and Johnny, they were watching her quite intently, as if what she were about to say could be of some importance. Then she looked back at Splog, standing by the chair, and he gave a slight reassuring smile and a small nod so she figured she'd give it a try.

   "It wasn't really very much. But it was like I was in a mist and I saw smudges in the mist and they turned out to be faces. And then I thought they were saying something and it took me a long while to figure out what it was and when I did they disappeared."

   Stacy imagined she could vaguely see the smudges again. They began to coalesce into faces. Then the mouths moved and the faces said,

   "I can't remember my name!"

   But the faces had become those of Lane and Johnny.

   "I can't remember my name!" they both said again in a low voice, nearly chanting in unison.

   The three of them sat looking at each other, their eyes wide with wonder.

   After a moment, and from what seemed like far away, Stacy heard Splog say,

   "Johnny, could I bother you to moisten the corner of this cloth for me? I do so enjoy tomatoes but they simply cannot be eaten without getting oneself into a somewhat sticky situation."

 

   Johnny got up and took Splog's handkerchief. Then he stepped upon the arm of the chair that didn't have food spread on it and it seemed to Stacy as though he dipped the cloth into something on top of the chair's back. He then climbed back down and handed it to Splog, who wiped his fingers and mouth with the damp edge and then touched them again with the dry edge.