Stacy--Part Fifty-One

Splog # 190

Fifty-One

 All at once, Johnny jumped to his feet and made a shushing sound. He moved to a corner of the platform close to the tree's trunk and leaned far over the railing. Stacy and Lane watched him without moving. After a moment, he straightened up and turned to his companions.

 "Someone's coming up," he said.

 The girls moved across the platform to where he was leaning with his back to the rail. They both searched the area of the tree but the foliage prevented any kind of view of who might be approaching.

 "I didn't think anybody came up here any more," Lane said, looking wonderingly at her brother.

 "The other people don't like it here?" Stacy asked.

 "No, it's not that," Lane replied. "But since everything's changed we haven't met a single person up here. But people used to come up here often. It was like a trip to a park. The swing would be going up and down all day. And now it's just the two of us. I mean, the three of us. It wasn't always so quiet up here. It even got noisy sometimes. But it was nice. And there'd be music..."

 As Lane finished her thought, the strain of a melody floated up from one of the lower platforms. Stacy recognized a fiddle or violin, playing a gentle tune that somehow seemed as if it belonged here in this tree. It was the sound of birds floating along a breeze and leafy branches swaying in the wind. Johnny resumed his prone position and Lane stretched out also and waved Stacy to join them on the floor of the platform. She lay down on the wooden planks and let her eyes roam through the myriad of leaves and branches that dappled the sky above her. The music seemed to be moving through the branches and dropping on to her like a fine mist from the sky. It also seemed to be rolling over the platform and enveloping her like a fog from the sea. A smile tugged gently at the corners of her mouth and her eyes lightly closed.

 "The old man took a blanket from the mule and spread it on the sandy dirt and the girl went over it on her hands and knees and whenever she found a stone sticking up, she would push it to the edge and then throw it to the side. While she was thus smoothing out their sitting area, the man brought a bundle of eatables and a jug of water and two metal cups. First, he took two smaller cloths and handed them to the girl and she spread one for each of them to use as a plate. When the bundle was opened on the blanket, a small heap of bread, cheese and meats was revealed. The meat had been previously cut into portions and the bread and cheese were such that pieces could be broken off. Before they sat down, the man and girl stood off the blanket and poured water over their hands and then just shook and rubbed them dry. Then they set to with gusto. There was little conversation as they ate with a will. The birds accompanied them with their 'ti-ti'. The girl broke tiny pieces of bread and moistened them with water and the birds seemed to enjoy this mush. The meal didn't take long and when it was finished they swished water around in their mouths to clean their teeth and then grandfather suggested a short rest to aid digestion before they resumed their journey. The food was put away, the cloths and blanket shaken out and then the blanket replaced for a sleeping mat. The old man lay flat on his back and the girl curled herself around the pot with the birds in it. Just before she closed her eyes, she saw an ant march on to the blanket, twitch its antennae at her randomly and then turn around and step off the blanket.

 "With her eyes closed, and 'ti-ti' lilting in her ears, she had visions of the two birds flying around her and leading her through a meadow of tall green grass. She's running after them and suddenly she finds herself standing on the brink of a wide river. The birds start to fly across it but, observing that she remains behind, they fly back and each of them takes one of her hands and now she's flying with them across the river. But then, instead of going to the other side, the birds turn and now the three of them are flying along the river as it flows through the verdant countryside. Suddenly, the river plunges underground and the girl and the birds follow it. And now all is dark but the walls gradually begin to light up in abstract designs and she's flying over a river through an underground kingdom."