Stacy--Part Forty-Three

Splog # 164

Forty-Three

 

   Stacy felt herself motionless and opened her eyes to find herself lying in a bed, complete with pillow, sheets and blankets. The room she was in was fairly dark but she could see light escaping from around a partition of some kind and she could hear movement and voices. She lay still for a short while, thinking about the children and the tiger and the ants and soon a voice on the other side of the partition called softly.

   "Stacy? You there? Are you awake yet?"

   Someone stood for a moment waiting and, just as they began to move away, Stacy responded.

   "I'm here, I'm awake."

    Lane pushed the curtain aside and walked into the room. Immediately, the lines on the walls began to glow with a soft luminescence. Lane was eating an apple and had another in her hand.

   "Would you care to break your fast with this or do you want to wait for a regular meal?"

   Stacy put out her hand for the apple saying, "Thank you. I do feel rather hungry." She had a vague memory of eating a sandwich of some kind and gradually her mind began filling with the images of her trek across the monotonous plain.

   Stacy had moved into a sitting position as she reached for the apple and now Lane perched on the bed beside her. "Did you have a good rest?"

   Stacy thought for a moment and replied:

   "I never even knew I was asleep. I remember looking at something interesting when we got here..."

   Stacy was trying to remember what it was when Lane said, "You thought they were interesting? Johnny likes to construct them and then remodel them and make them different, but they make me confused when I look at them. They seem to move and...I don't know. I feel like I could fall into them..."

   She bit into her apple and Stacy said, "That's what happened! I fell into them and went somewhere where there were two children in a cage and they said they were you. But I think it was two cages and they said - no, they didn't say anything, but I knew they were you."

   "How old were they?"

   "Well, I was flying over them and I didn't see them up close. Maybe ten or twelve?"

   "Flying, huh? I haven't had a flying dream for a long time. Were you just flying around at random?"

   "I was riding a red butterfly," Stacy said, somewhat shyly. "But maybe it was white. But we rode through a rainbow and each color had someone in it. You were green and Johnny was blue and Splog was purple."

   Both girls laughed for a moment.

   "Was that where we were in cages? In the rainbow?"

   "No. The cages were later. I flew over them and wanted to go back so I got off the butterfly and started walking..." Stacy wasn't sure if Lane would be interested in a comprehensive narration of her entire nocturnal escapade so she concluded, "...and a lot of different things happened."

   "Anything fun or interesting?"

   "Well, some ants led me to an underground river. And there was a tiger named Bones."

   Stacy giggled a little and took another bite of apple. Lane's expression  sobered slightly and she asked, "Are you ready to get up and go have breakfast?"

   "Sure," Stacy said, taking a last big chunk of apple. Lane took the core, saying,"I'll let you get dressed. We'll be out here when you're ready."

    As Lane went through the curtain, Stacy glanced down at herself. She was wearing a long white night dress that she had no recollection of donning. She quickly changed it for her shirt and shorts and then decided to wear her sneakers barefoot, rather than use the same socks another day in a row. These she lay across the seat of a chair to give them the benefit of an airing and then went through the curtain.

   Lane and Johnny were talking quietly and looked up when she entered. "Much time," Johnny said with a smile.

   Stacy smiled, not knowing what he meant and Lane gave him a small nudge with her elbow.

   "That's just the general greeting around here," she explained to Stacy. "Much time - no waste. It's just like hello or good morning. So do you have everything you need? Are you all set for breakfast?"

   "I left my socks on a chair to air out," Stacy said softly to Lane. "Is that ok?"

   "Sure. Do you want a pair of mine for today?"

   Stacy looked at her sneakers. "I think it'll be fine."

   "Well, let's go."

   As they walked past the table with the two sculptures, Stacy glanced at them but, careful to avoid a repetition of yesterday's incident, she stayed close to the brother and sister.

   They left the habitation via the short hallway and Stacy found herself travelling through caverns and tunnels the closely resembled the streets and squares of the small town she lived in, with no sky for a covering but instead stone and earth ribboned with fluorescent designs. They passed people often. Some seemed preoccupied and ignored them. Others greeted them with "Much time" and Lane or Johnny would respond "No waste." But even the people who greeted them seemed a little distant and no one stopped to talk. Every once in a while they saw someone standing completely still and regarding nothing, as though in a trance. Stacy could feel Lane and Johnny's spirits dampening from the cheer with which they had greeted her to something more somber.