Stacy--Part Fifty

Splog # 188

Fifty 

 As she stood gazing at the silent and empty countryside, a thought struck Stacy. She turned to Lane.

 "Where's Johnny?"

 Lane leaned over the rail and searched with her eyes for a few moments. Then she extended her arm and pointed with a finger. Stacy moved to her and followed the direction indicated with her eyes. At first she didn't see anything, but after a moment she could make out a patch of blue on a tree branch. She looked back to Lane in puzzlement but Lane just motioned to her to look again. She returned her eyes to the spot and shortly two hands and a head entered into view and she realized that the blue was Johnny's legs.

 "He likes to get exercise in the tree, when he isn't working. He especially likes hanging upside down. He jumps from branch to branch. He's like a wild man. Someday he's going to kill himself..."

 "Oh, don't say that," Stacy was still watching Johnny's antics. "He looks sure-footed and confident enough."

 "I guess he'll be alright. But all it takes is one misstep."

 Johny let out a whoop as he jumped from a branch and caught himself with both hands on a higher one. 

 "Be careful, silly! Lane's worried. Aren't you going to finish telling me your story?"

 "Be right there," Johnny cried, moving along the branch hand over hand. "Lane can carry on if she wants. She knows it as well as I do."

 Stacy lifted her head to find that Lane had moved a little way off. She was gazing into the distance and her head was moving back and forth in a slight motion.

 "It was always so beautiful," she said plaintively when Stacy touched her arm. "It's still nice but..."

 She trailed off and Stacy waited to see if she would go on.

 "...something's not right. Something's...happened...Animals don't just disappear. If they'd died, there would be bodies around. Look at the sky. Where's the sun? Why are the people behaving so strangely?" She looked at Stacy. "Splog said you might be able to help, but..." She put her hand over Stacy's, which was still resting on her arm. "I'm glad you're here, Stacy. But I don't understand how you can help."

 Stacy just looked at her, at a complete loss for anything she could say or do.

 Deftly breaking the tension, Johnny's head appeared through the trap door.

 "Let's go down to W," he said cheerily, "where we can spread out." And he disappeared.

 Lane squeezed Stacy's hand and moved to the opening.

 "W?" Stacy queried.

 "West," Lane answered as she headed down.

 Stacy followed, holding the sides tightly. When she reached the platform, she found Johnny stretched out on his back with his eyes closed and breathing heavily. Lane was standing at the rail farthest away from the main trunk of the tree,.

 "See that spot of white?" she was pointing into the distance. "It's a little hard to make out against the white sky. It's just a little...whiter?'"

 Stacy looked, not quite sure whether she was seeing it or not.

 "Anyway, that's the Fe=-San."

 "What kind of a name is that?"

 Johnny laughed. "We haven't even finished the Doolin story and you want another one?"

 "Oh," Stacy said self-consciously. "I didn't know it was a story. I just thought..."

 "Don't worry about it," Lane interrupted. "Johnny's only joking. And he doesn't even know the origin of the name."

 "I don't?" Johny asked innocently.

 "That's where I came here," Stacy said quietly. "I don't even know how. I might have been asleep and woke up there. I don't know..."

 "You mean you were sleeping when you came here?" Lane asked.

 "Well, I fell asleep once, sitting on a rock. A white rock like that big chair. And it was moving through the air. But that must have been a dream, right?" No response, just avid looks. "Anyway, it got misty and there were faces all around me saying, 'I can't remember my name' and then I was sitting on the Fe-San and Splog was coming over the bridge and he knew my name."

 "I wonder if Splog brought you here," said Lane.

 "But how could he? Is he a magician of some kind?"

 Lane and Johny looked at each other.

 "We've never seen him do anything magical." Johnny said uncertainly. "Have we?"

 "Well, no," Lane answered. "I don't think he's like a wizard or anything. But..." She paused thinking intently. "And I don't think he can just snap his fingers and make things happen. But..."