Stacy--Part Forty-Two

Splog # 161

Forty-Two

   Stacy could decipher none of the words of the song, if words there were, but the music seemed to pull at her. She placed both feet on the final step before the raft and looked down to see what the ants were doing. The stone step was empty but for her two feet. The ants had all ascended to the step above and most of their frantic motion had become stilled. They seemed to be waiting for her next movement. She looked at the large figure of the tiger curled up at the rear of the raft and then at the paper she still held in her hand. "Don't let his looks frighten you." She thought that his looks weren't all that scary. Aside from his size, he really looked very soft and gentle. But he was asleep and everything has a gentle look when it sleeps. And he was a tiger. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She had ridden here on a giant butterfly and later been acompanied, even guided, by a colony of ants. This was obviously a place where nature, as she knew it at home, behaved in a rather unique fashion. A note had been left for her in which she was informed that she needn't be frightened of someone called Bones. And the ants had indicated Bones in this direction. They seemed to be encouraging her onto the raft and surely they hadn't brought her all this way to be eaten by a tiger. Well, that was merely a personal assumption but so far nothing in this strange place had seemed to indicate that horrible things were likely to be commonplace. And the tiger had passed her by more than once without attempting to harm her in any way. She looked back to the ants, who were almost completely still at this point. "Oh, well. Here goes nothing." She spoke aloud and then turned and stepped onto the raft. At once, it gently unmoored from the step and slowly began floating downstream. She turned back, wanting to wish the ants farewell, and found the steps already empty and the last members of the colony scurrying out of sight back towards the cave entrance. She wished she could have thanked them and again hoped that any damage she'd done would be repaired without too much difficulty. She was sorry to see them go and be travelling alone again. And then she remembered that she wasn't alone. She looked back at the tiger, which lay without movement except for the rise and fall of its breath and the occasional lashing of its tail. Then she looked forward to see  if there was any indication of where she was going. As the raft moved along, the designs on the walls would bloom into light but there was nothing to see except herself, the raft and the tiger. In the distance, both ahead and behind, all was in darkness. After a while, she sat down at the front of the raft and just listened to the melody floating along with her. It seemed to be composed of a wordless melody, and yet every once in a while a word would catch at her hearing. Once it was "you" and another time, "there". But both of those sounds being easily imagined, she figured she was probably imposing form where there really was none. With no idea of where she was going and nothing to do until she got there, she stretched herself out and lay on her stomach. She reached an arm over the side of the raft, to try what the water was like. The water was cool but not cold, as she would have expected of an underground stream, and she let her hand trail as the raft glided gently along. She thought of Lane and Johnny and suddenly remembered the two children in the cages. She wouldn't be able to help them travelling underground. She hoped someone would get them out and wondered how they'd come to be imprisoned in the first place. Surely no one would put children in cages. But, if not, what was the explanation? Had they somehow been trapped accidentally? Were the cages meant for something else? As she floated along, caressed by a light breeze and the music in the air, Stacy closed her eyes and saw two large cages. In one was a giant butterfly that kept changing from red to white and in the other was a large but very sweet looking tiger who kept repeating, "My name is Bones. I don't frighten you, do I?" in a kind and gentle voice. Between the two cages was a large golden cauldron. When she looked over the edge, she saw ants emerging from holes in the bottom and scurrying all around the cauldron. Every once in a while, the ants would form words by linking their bodies together. The two words they repeatedly created in this way were "you" and "there". A boy and a girl came up to where Stacy was standing eating food from the lid of the cauldron. The girl said, "Hi, Stacy, I'm You." and the boy said, "Hi, Stacy, I'm There." Then they started running around the cages and cauldron yelling, "We're out. We're free. You. There. Sta-Cee." Yellow feathers started falling from the sky enveloping over the whole scene. Stacy looked at the ones falling on the food next to her. The ends were all strangely shaped.