Stacy--Part Fifty-Two

Splog # 192

Fifty-Two

 Stacy felt something moving over face and her first thought was that an ant had crawled onto her as she lay on the platform in the tree. Keeping her eyes closed, she shook her head back and forth to dislodge whatever was using her as a walkway. The sensation stopped and relaxation had just begun to reclaim her senses when she felt once more something lightly touching her face. Her eyes came open to find a string dangling just above them and occasionally dipping to brush her forehead or nose or one of her cheeks. Automatically, one of her hands moved to brush it away but it jerked upwards about a foot and then bobbed in the air above her. She put her hand down and watched the string curiously. It was white and not very thick andwhile she was looking, it began to lower towards her again, as if it too were taking her measure and wanted to approach for better observation. She waited until it was almost touching her and then made a quick grab for it. It slid across her fingers as they closed and resumed its post a foot above her head. Her hand shot up in another attempt at capture and this time the string darted off to her left. She turned her head to see the string hanging directly over Johnny. Her eyes traveled up to see what it was attached to. The only possibility in her mind was a capricious balloon. What she found was nothing so pedestrian. A miniature rainbow seemed to have formed directly over the platform and the string disappeared into the midst of it. Of course, as the length of string stretched to the distance, it got more and more difficult to see. But as far as she could tell, it went up and up and there was nothing visible between it and the extraordinarily vivid rainbow.

 She turned back to Johnny. The string was hovering above his chin and she fleetingly wondered if he had a dimple there in which it could nestle. She smiled as she called in a whisper, "Johnny." He didn't respond and it occurred to her that he may have fallen asleep. She realized that whoever had been telling the story about the old man and the girl had stopped, although the music was still rising from the lower platform. She called again, slightly louder, "Johnny." But this time his hand came up and made a listless waving motion. He didn't seem to want to be bothered. She turned to her other side and found Lane looking at her without raising her head. Stacy pointed across her body at Johnny and the string hovering above him. Lane shrugged her shoulders and made an interrogatory grimace. Stacy pointed again and Lane sat up to take a look. Stacy turned at the same time and they both watched the string glide down the length of Johnny's body and directly to the steep stairs that led to the upper platform. The rainbow bathed the stairs in bright hues and the string jerked upwards, each abrupt movement raising it one stair-height higher. The girls took a quick glance at each other and then raced to follow the string. Lane was the first to the stairs and thrust her arm up just as the string disappeared through the trap door. The both clambered up as speedily as possible to find themselves and the upper platform bathed in the rainbow's various hues. They turned to each other and pointed and laughed and then turned outward to find the trees leaved in orange and purple and yellow and blue. Then they both remembered the string and began looking around above their heads. The sky had been divided into wide stripes of color but there was no string hanging anywhere in sight. Standing on opposite sides of the small platform, they looked across at each other and the string slowly dropped into sight right between them.