Stacy--Part Eighteen

Splog # 64

Eighteen

   A short time later, Lane was leading Stacy down the trail that led away from Splog's tree and to the plain where the Doolins lived. Johnny was walking behind them, but close enough so that Stacy could hear the abbreviated history that he was confiding to her.

   "Lane and I have no memory of our childhood and we've never known why that is. About five years ago, we found ourselves sitting between the two statues you saw back there. We knew our names and that we were brother and sister but not where we were or how we had gotten there or anything previous to our being there. Splog came upon us there and took us home but, after a while, he thought we should live among other people so he took us to the Doolins. The Doolins live on the large plain we'll be coming to when we get out of this brush. They live in large warrens tunnelled underneath the plain and, in general, they sleep or spend most of the daylight hours below and then come out at night to socialize and do whatever work or chores are needed. They're extremely long-lived and generally don't have more than one child per family, so there aren't a lot of them and many of them are quite elderly. Splog took us on a visit so we could meet the people and see what they were like and how they lived. They seemed to think very highly of Splog and everyone he introduced us to said they would be very happy to have us come and stay with them for as long as it pleased us. I won't describe it all as Splog said to give you a tour tomorrow. But it seemed a pleasant place and that night, back at Splog's, the three of us discussed it and Lane and I decided to give it a try.

   "So we went back the next day and the Doolins prepared a habitation, as they called it, for us to have to ourselves and anything we needed they showed us how to procure or make or grow. And we've been there ever since."

   They were just coming onto the vast plain that she had seen from the arch. The grass was fairly high over most of it, about to her waist, but in the moonlight she could see that there were places where it sprouted higher than she was tall. There were also shadows throughout the plain, where the grass seemed to be shorter, just a regular lawn.

   Lane said to Stacy, "We'll be there soon." Then she looked at Johnny and said, "Do you want to finish, or shall I take over?"

   "I can do it," Johnny said. "Just lead the way so we don't get lost."

   Without a word, Lane turned and plunged into the waist high grass. Stacy saw a path off to the left but figured they were going somewhere that path didn't lead to.

   As soon as they were walking, Johnny resumed his narration.

   "A couple of months ago, I think it was, Lane and I both woke up in the middle of the day. It's fun to go out in the daytime so it wasn't unusual that we did. But when we got outside the warren we were surprised to find that just about everyone we knew was out there also. People do go out in the daytime but not in such large groups, and the people who were out were mostly just standing around and not doing anything. I'm pretty sure nobody was talking. People were mainly standing still and looking around them, as if they had lost something but didn't know what and were trying to remember. If someone looked at one of us, there would be no sign of recognition and no greeting. Just a look to see who or what we were and then they would look away. Occasionally, someone would look up at the sky and stay that way for quite a while. There was no sun that day but it wasn't really cloudy, just a bright white sky. So we saw all these people standing still and looking around or staring up at the sky and we realized that they were all older people. There were very few people, besides us, under the age of forty or so. We were starting to feel pretty uncomfortable, so we came back to our habitation and tried to talk about what was happening. But there was little to say and we both fell asleep. That night, people seemed to go about their business as usual and whenever we asked anyone about what had happened or why they were out there and what they were doing, they would just stop and look at us for a moment. Often, someone would open their mouth to say something and then stop, seeming puzzled. Other people just laughed and murmured something about being overtired or getting too old or roaming around in a dream."