Stacy--Part Thirty

Splog # 114

Thirty

   Stacy's first impulse was to turn around to find out what was creating the rhythmic sounds filling her ears. But something held her in position as she tried to imagine why the sounds seemed familiar. It was something from television or movies, not from everyday life. Ba-bump-bum. Ba-bump-bum. An effect more of the imagination than reality. Ba-bump-bum. Running feet. Ba-bump-bum. Four running feet. Ba-bump-bum. The shod hooves of a running horse. But here in the middle of nowhere?

   She started to turn her head, her hands still holding to the rim of the cauldron, when something passed completely over her from behind. Moving upward, her eyes encountered a blur of white and orange. And then the fast-moving object landed with a muted clang on the bottom of the cauldron. As her head slowly described a wide arc in the air on its way back to its original position, Stacy was struck by the absurd idea that a Creamsicle had just vaulted over her into a golden vessel. But before she had a chance to peer over the rim at her mysterious running and jumping novelty, the small yellow feather floated up into her field of vision. It must have been disturbed by the rush of air that had entered the cauldron with the unknown leaper. It was drifting up at a not very great distance and Stacy was inspired to make a leap of her own. With one hand on the rim, she crouched down slightly and then flung herself upwards with all her strength and energy, grasping out with her other hand as she did so. She missed the feather by a few inches and the gust created as her hand swept the air sent the feather spinning away from her. A sigh burst from her lips and at the same moment the "Creamsicle" burst from the cauldron on the side opposite to where she was standing. She steadfastly kept her eyes on the feather which, to her delight, was thrown back towards her by the force of the air current created by the creature's eruption. As it wafted gently down towards her, she plucked it from the air like a flower and then quickly looked towards her mysterious cauldron-jumper. But there was nothing to be seen. She looked back to the feather and was pleased to find it held firmly between the thumb and two fingers of her left hand. Determined to keep a good grip on it this time, she fumbled the envelope out of her pocket with her other hand and, although it was somewhat awkward using only one hand to unfold and open the envelope, she refused to relax the pressure with which her fingers held the feather confined until she could place it precisely into a corner of the envelope, position the note on one side of it and the coin on the other, close the envelope and insert the flap into the body, fold the envelope over once firmly and replace it snugly in her pocket. At that point, she drew in a large breath of air and then released it in a satisfied sigh.

   Her sigh was answered by a rumble of breath, somewhat resembling the snore of an open-mouthed sleeper, from the other side of the cauldron. Starled from her concentration on imprisoning the feather, Stacy held her breath and remained still, listening for any further hint of what was sharing space with her, separated only by a cauldron which somehow didn't seem as large as it had a few minutes ago when she was attempting to enter it.