Dejected and depressed, Johann sat down on Maria’s rock with the pouches in his hands. Idly counting the figurines with his fingers, he realized that only seven of the eleven were inside the pouches. Curious, he opened the pouches and removed their contents.
The missing figurines were Johann, Beatrice, Yasin, and Vivien. Using his torch to look around, Johann noticed that off to the right a few meters, on a flat piece of sandy ground, a kind of crude village had been built with sticks and grass. In the middle of this village was a circular hole, into which two figurines had been stuffed.
Johann extracted the figurines from the hole with some difficulty. When he pulled them up beside his torch for a closer look, he saw that both were headless. The two had once been Johann and Vivien.
THREE
JOHANN HARDLY SLEPT that night. Whenever he heard any sound that he did not immediately recognize, he rose from his mat to look around. Each time he was awake Johann checked the other end of the cave, where the children were sleeping, to see if perhaps Maria had slipped home unnoticed. Her mat was always empty.
By daybreak Johann had formulated a plan to search for the child. In his mind there were only two possible places Maria might have gone. One, the closest, was the pool below the waterfall where Johann had spent his wedding night with Vivien. The family had gone there together several times on outings, and Maria was quite familiar with the route from the pool to their cave and back.
The second location was farther away. Three weeks earlier, while they were swimming together in the bay, Johann and Maria had been recalling the first sights of their new island home, after their harrowing escape from the nozzlers. Maria had wondered out loud why they had never again seen the sturdy, six-legged brown animals with the unusual antlers or tusks that had gazed down on their boat from the cliffs.
“Perhaps there aren’t very many of them,” Johann had said at the time. “Or their territory is comparatively small. After all, it was almost an hour after we saw them before we came into the bay.”
Without thinking, Johann had then asked Maria if she would like to take an exploratory expedition with him, to see if they could find the “tuskers,” as Maria called them, again. She had immediately and enthusiastically replied, “Oh yes, Johann. I would love that!”
Those three days together, Maria and I were very close, Johann thought as he put everything he might need during his search into his pack. It was the only time since we came here that I have really seen her laugh.
“I don’t think I’ll be gone long,” Johann said to Vivien, after reviewing with Sister Nuba and the girls exactly what Maria was wearing when she left. “I don’t imagine that she’s very far away.”
“Try to check in periodically,” Vivien said. “My guess is that Maria will be lonely and hungry and home before much longer.”
“Will you be all right?” Johann asked, feeling awkward about leaving his pregnant wife to look for Maria.
“I’ll be fine,” Vivien laughed. “I’ve done this twice before, and never had any trouble… Maria should be your primary concern.
Before Johann set out, Vivien insisted on rubbing a soothing herbal unguent on the scratches on his back. “This is what wives are for,” she said with a grin when Johann complained about the delay.
He reached the pool in less than an hour. Maria had been there, probably the previous afternoon. There were fresh little footprints all over the soft dirt right next to the water, and two neat fresh stacks of yellow fruit rind beside the flat rock to the left of the waterfall. Johann spent a long time studying the tracks away from the pool. He concluded that Maria had headed in the direction they called west, toward the region where the tuskers lived.
Johann was able to follow Maria’s footprints for only a few minutes. Then the grass and the undergrowth thickened and he was forced to guess which way Maria would have gone if she was trying to duplicate their earlier trek. This was not a modus operandi with which Johann was comfortable. He much preferred using deductive processes that eliminated uncertainty and constrained the possibilities.
But it was not just the uncertainty about whether he was going in the right direction that was bothering Johann as he walked along at his normally brisk pace. He was also concerned about Maria’s safety. Three weeks before on their trip together they had indeed encountered the tuskers. Maria and he had come upon a dozen of the animals grazing contentedly in a meadow Their response had certainly not been friendly. The tuskers had quickly moved closer together, into a defensive formation. While the others had continued to graze, the large leader had kept a wary eye on the two strange beings who were observing them from the edge of the woods. When Maria had come out of the trees making gestures of friendship, it appeared to Johann that the lead tusker had shifted to a charging stance. What might have happened to Maria then if Johann had not stopped her advance? How would the tuskers, or any other large, unknown animals that might live in the area, react upon finding a solitary; defenseless eight-year-old girl in their domain?
Johann continually looked on both sides, searching for any sign that Maria might have come in this direction. At length he began to sweat, and to feel the sting of the sweat on the fresh scratches on his back. Johann stopped and drank briefly from his water pouch, wondering what Maria would have done when she became thirsty. Imagining that she would have searched for something to drink, Johann turned to his left when he heard the sound of running water. He ate lunch beside a brook at the bottom of a steep bank.
Before proceeding, Johann tried to recall in detail all the major landmarks along the route Maria and he had followed three weeks before. Could she have found the way? he asked himself again. Or was it more likely that by the time she reached this brook, Maria would have become confused and unsure of her directions? He knew that Maria was an intelligent, practical child who would have realized, by the time she came this far, that she should not have left home without her water pouch.
She would have stayed close to the water, Johann convinced himself. She might even have followed this brook. Maria would have known that eventually it would lead her to the lake or the bay.
He decided to follow the brook downstream. Johann was now in territory he bad never explored before. The brook meandered this way and that, the steep, tree-lined bank giving way to a grassy meadow with thousands of beautiful purple flowers. On one side of the meadow was a large dirt mound, almost as tall as Johann and eight to ten meters wide. As he approached the mound through the flowers, Johann saw hundreds of long, skinny, multilegged creatures, each the size of an ordinary nail, filing in and out of the mound. Pairs of the incoming creatures were carrying parts of the purple flowers.
Johann paused briefly to have another drink and to watch the bustling activity When he walked around to the other side of the mound, he found Maria’s footprints in the dirt. Relieved by the evidence of her recent presence, Johann carefully examined Maria’s tracks. Eventually he spotted another stack of yellow fruit rind, not far away among the flowers. Johann smiled to himself, seeing the girl in his mind’s eye, and conjectured that she had most likely returned to the brook after visiting the mound.
Suddenly he heard a weird shriek from far above his head. Two small, sparrow-sized creatures were circling the meadow at an altitude of thirty meters or so. Keiko and Maria had once reported seeing a similar pair of flying beings, off in the distance, but this was the first time that Johann had seen anything other than the ribbons flying in the alien sphere. He watched the creatures circle, punctuating their flight with an occasional shrill call, for a few minutes.
When Johann glanced down at the mound again, he was astonished. All the mound dwellers had disappeared. In addition, the several exits and entrances, all of which had been clearly accessible just a few minutes earlier, were now plugged with some kind of white material. Momentarily distracted by the natural spectacle, Johann stepped back, away from the mound, and watched the two flying creatures dive to the surface.
Their attack was too
late. The element of surprise was gone. Johann’s presence had deterred the fliers just long enough to allow the mound dwellers to establish their defenses.
Mindful that dark was approaching, and that he had brought only a limited amount of fuel for his hand torch, Johann returned to the brook and continued downstream. The brook soon entered a deep, dark wood not unlike the one where Johann had been attacked the previous day. Johann was uncomfortable, and had almost decided to turn around, when he noticed the fresh footprints in the mud beside the brook. So she returned to the brook when it entered the trees, Johann thought. That makes sense. The easiest way through the forest would be to follow the brook.
As it always did, the artificial daylight vanished in a moment. Johann lit his hand torch and bent down to inspect the footprints more closely He followed Maria’s tracks downstream for several more meters, until he came to a break in the trees where the ground was covered with a short, tundra-like grass right up to the edge of the water. Johann could not find any footprints on the other side of this grassy area.
Johann yawned and realized he was tired. Except for this small section of grass, and the gurgling brook at his back, he was surrounded by a thick forest. “Maria,” he called out in a loud voice. His shout echoed through the dark woods on both sides of the stream. There was no answer. Johann spread his sleeping mat on the grass beside the brook and sat down upon it. “Maria,” he shouted again. After waiting a few moments, Johann extinguished his torch and went to sleep.
HE SLEPT FITFULLY, in spite of the soothing sound of the running water from the brook. He had many dreams, most of which were disturbing. In one dream Johann was lying on a sandy beach beside Vivien while Maria and the other children were playing in the water in the distance. Johann kissed Vivien and felt himself becoming aroused. She wrapped her legs around his body and began titillating his tongue with hers. Between kisses Johann turned toward the children briefly to see if they were still occupied with their play
In the dream Jomo, Keiko, and Beatrice began to scream. They pointed in the direction of the lake and started running across the sand toward Johann and Vivien. Behind them, Maria was on her knees at the edge of the water, playing with her figurines. She was oblivious to the huge tidal wave that had formed and was now rushing toward the shore.
Johann broke away from Vivien and jumped to his feet. “Maria,” he yelled, running toward her. The girl looked at him as if she had no idea why he was calling her. The wave rose off the top of Johann’s dream screen as he stumbled in the sand. He realized in horror that he was not going to be able to save her. “Run, Maria, run,” he screamed in desperation just as the towering wave broke upon her.
Johann was trembling and disoriented when he awakened. His heart was still beating rapidly. Johann lay on his mat, listening to the sound of the brook, until he returned to normal. When he was almost asleep he thought he heard a scurrying sound at the edge of the woods, off to his left. Johann sat up and looked around. He saw and heard nothing. Had he imagined the sound? At length he cautiously stretched out and managed to fall asleep again.
Johann was awakened shortly after daylight by the sound of snarls and growls. Sitting up quickly, Johann was stunned to see that five members of a six-legged alien species, each roughly the size of an average dog, were now spread out in a semicircle around his sleeping mat. The dark, furry creatures with the raccoon-like white masks and brightly colored red and blue streaks on their backs and torsos were standing on four rear legs and beating their chests with their two remaining front legs. One of the animals was beside the brook, behind Johann’s head, while another one was at his feet. The other three were on the grass between Johann and the thick forest.
Johann scrambled to his feet and prepared to defend himself The alien creatures dropped down on all six legs and paced for several seconds, snarling continuously, before stopping again to shout, bare their long teeth, and beat their chests. When this pattern repeated a second and third time, Johann concluded that no attack was imminent. No longer preoccupied with the immediate danger, he gathered his wits and surveyed the situation.
On the other side of the brook, three more of the red, blue, and black animals paced the shoreline. When they saw Johann looking at them, they too went into a display routine, shouting and thumping their chests. Nearer to him, immediately behind his antagonists, Johann could discern dozens of the signature masks staring out from the protection of the thick woods. They had definitely come en masse to greet him. But for what purpose?
Two loud whistles emanated from the forest. The displays and snarls around Johann ceased. Moments later, four of the creatures walked out of the forest together, watching Johann warily as they came toward him. These aliens also had six legs, the white mask, and dark black fur, but they were missing the bright red and blue streaks of the slightly larger, warrior class who had been threatening Johann. This new contingent of the creatures approached within a meter of Johann’s mat. Then they dropped down on the ground and stared at him as if he were an object in a museum. Moving very slowly to make certain that he wouldn’t scare them, Johann smiled, made a gesture of friendship, and sat down on the mat on his knees. In response to his initial movement, the warrior aliens shouted and displayed, but they were quickly silenced by another pair of whistles from the woods.
A minute or so passed without anything happening. Johann, still smiling, gazed at the unusual faces and the dark, penetrating eyes that were fixed on him. He confirmed that the creatures had no nose, and nothing that looked like ears. What they did possess were those three extraordinary forehead indentations that he had previously seen on the infant’s face. On each of the animals facing him, the tiny triangular structure in the central forehead cavity was constantly in motion. Johann was musing about the possible purpose of this organ when a third pair of whistles sounded and a kind of murmuring chant swelled through the forest. The warrior aliens on both sides of the brook sat down, and added their voices to the chant.
A line of three more of the alien animals, each walking on its back four legs and carrying a covered object in its forelegs, now came out of the forest. The creature in the lead, who was holding something spherical the size of a baseball in its clawed, prehensile fingers, did not stop until it was only a few centimeters from Johann’s mat. Then, with a great flourish, it uncovered a lustrous blue sphere and placed it on the ground. The moment the sphere touched the grass, there was a short, shrill shout from all of the alien animals, followed by complete silence.
The leader of the creatures now raised itself to its full height of a meter or so, with only its back two feet on the grass, and began to speak to Johann in a combination of growls and whistles. At first Johann was distracted by the movement of its four free limbs that added histrionic punctuation to whatever was being said. After several seconds, however, Johann’s gaze focused on the creature’s face—he wanted to see if there was anything in its expressions that he might be able to interpret. When Johann realized that there was no way that he was going to be able to figure out what the creature was saying, he turned his attention again to the three forehead indentations of unknown purpose.
What does it do with that thing? Johann asked himself as he watched two tiny balls, connected by an elastic line that stretched and contracted, move around inside the right forehead indentation. Is that a receiving sensor or a transmitting device? Or maybe something altogether different?
The left forehead indentation was even weirder. Three minuscule, concentric rings, each a different shade of brownish black, filled the cavity. The gaps between the rings, and even the location of the composite structure inside the whole indentation, were constantly changing while the alien animal was speaking.
Johann was so absorbed in his study of the alien’s biology that for a few seconds he did not realize that the creature had stopped speaking. The alien leader dropped down on four legs, turned to its attendants, and uncovered the other two objects. Johann could not see them clearly until the animal placed t
hem on his mat. They were Maria’s final two figurines, Yasin and the beautiful Sister Beatrice, given to her by the glowing ribbons.
The shocked Johann immediately reached over to pick up the figurines. He did not notice that a new and different chant was now under way among the alien creatures until he lifted his head to look at the leader. “Where is she?” Johann said, with an expression on his face that he felt could not be misinterpreted.
He repeated his question a second time. Both the front legs of the alien leader pointed toward the forest. “Oh please, take me to her,” Johann said.
FOUR
THEIR ROUTE THROUGH the forest would barely have been called a path. The warrior aliens led the procession, hooting and growling to scare away anything living that might be in the way. Johann and the alien leader were just behind the lustrous blue sphere, which Johann had already determined was an object sacred to these creatures. It had been covered and returned to its box and was now being carried by the two largest warriors, each of whom had vines wrapped around their shoulders that were strung through rings on either end of the box.
Dozens of colorless, ordinary members of the species scurried through the woods beside and behind Johann and the leader. They chattered to one another in a mixture of growls, hoots, barks, and whistles, creating quite a din as they moved through the undergrowth. Early in the trek, Johann attempted to watch a few of the creatures who were nearest to him. His face and arms became scratched from countless encounters with branches, however, and he decided that it was better for him to pay attention to where he was going.
Deep in the thickest part of the forest, about a kilometer from the brook, the leader of the alien animals was met by a new pair of the creatures coming in the opposite direction. Several times during their interchange the trio looked up at Johann. When this new pair left, scampering back in the direction from which they had come, the alien leader pointed down the path in front of Johann. The light was so dim in this part of the forest that it was several seconds before Johann saw the large swelling on the ground in the distance.
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