Clicking Stones

by Nancy Tyler Glenn

  I was hoping I would hear from her today - but she rarely calls when she is away. She is always so involved with whatever she is doing.

  I could swear Deeny and Mig started growing. Morgan says it is natural. They are almost twenty-four, which is the equivalent to four-fifths of a month. I guess kittens grow a lot in a month. I really like that sleek seal look. The little rascals always bury the food they don't eat. They won't eat food with Livemore in it. We put the Livemore on the side.

  Morgan says it's better that way anyway in the event they ever stop taking it. At least they won't miss any meals. I thought Mig would miss Morgan more, but they're both very content.

  Everyone has been bugging me to get a new computer. They assert that it is getting too difficult to interface with an antique. Tough Thunder Eggs! Morgan gave me this computer and it is the only one I want. Besides, Poopsie has been very good to me and I wouldn't trade her in for anything.

  Morgan left so many prepared meals for me you would think she was going to be away for a year. I haven't been too hungry, though. I had a little tea and toast before I went to bed last night, and this morning I didn't want anything.

  Are you and wED going back to the colonies this year? I think Morgan would like to go - but there is no privacy on those spacecraft. Maybe I'll change my mind and we can go for our fiftieth.

  I think Morgan is losing some of her marbles. Do you know what she did? She left without her Stone. It's the first time she's been without it in forty-nine years. I think I'll talk to Jes about doing some tests on her. Maybe some new nutrients would help. Morgan is really good about taking them.

  I'm going to have to finish this tomorrow. I'm a little tired. I never sleep well when Morgan is gone. Two nights without sleep and I'm ready for my nap.

  * * * *

  Erica put her hand on the touchplate and a circle appeared.

  "Are you finished, Erica?" the little lips asked.

  "No. I'll finish it tomorrow. I want to take a nap now." She looked out the window. "Would you give me the weather report? It's clouding up a bit."

  "Ninety-nine percent chance of rain, Erica."

  "You'd better put up the C wave and answer the phone. I really don't want to talk to anyone but Morgan. If anyone else calls just take a message."

  "Erica," the little lips urged, "take your nutrients and do your routine. I'm not at all pleased with your pulse and skin temperature."

  "Thank you for reminding me," Erica said. "I'll take them and do my exercises after my nap."

  "Erica, I heard the nice things you said to Kelly about me. I want you to know I really appreciate your confidence in me," the little lips told her.

  "You've been very good to me Poopsie, and I never forget a friend."

  * * * *

  Erica put her hand on the touchplate and a circle appeared.

  "Well, Erica, how nice - who loves you baby?"

  "Morgan." Erica beamed.

  "Pitty pat pitty pat, you still have the same reaction when you say her name as you did forty-nine years ago. How may I assist you?"

  "Do I have any messages?"

  "Yes," the little lips said. "Isi has called twenty times. The last time she called she said she was coming up."

  Erica was concerned. "Is everything all right? Did she say what she wanted?"

  "All she said was she wants to see you."

  "I don't feel like seeing anyone," Erica said. "Anyway, I know what she wants. She has been asking what to get us for our anniversary. She is so frantic about that sort of thing. When she calls again tell her to get us the same thing as last year. We can always use more sonodots."

  "Her mood was... sad, Erica."

  "I know, I think she and Jes are having problems. They go through something like this every few years. I can't really talk to her today. Please tell her I'll talk to her in a couple of days. I definitely won't see her or anyone today, except, of course, Morgan. Is it raining?"

  "Yes, torrents," the little lips advised.

  "Leave the C wave up, and while it's up you'd better charge up the batteries in Morgan's studio. She's going to get right back to work when she returns."

  "Will do, Erica."

  "Morgan didn't call?"

  "No, Erica."

  Erica sighed. "Load Word Processing and get me Kelly's letter. Run the last line by me."

  The monitor went blank and then Erica read: Two nights without sleep and I'm ready for my nap.

  The monitor went blank again and a circle appeared on the screen. "We interrupt this Word Processing Program for a special bulletin," the little lips said.

  Erica was annoyed.

  "Isi is down at the entrance. She requests that you turn off the C wave so she can come in.

  "Not on her Diopside!" Erica spat. "Didn't you tell her I didn't want to see anyone today?"

  "She insisted, and used the emergency code to get through."

  "Why didn't you tell me it was an emergency? Put her through, voice only."

  "Mother, let me in.

  "You said it was an emergency. Is Morgan all right?"

  "Mother, turn on the visual."

  "I will not! I'm not dressed."

  "I demand you let me come in and talk to you."

  "Just who do you think you're talking to, young lady? I asked you a question. Is Morgan all right?"

  "I'm not going to talk to you until you let me -"

  Erica lifted her hand from the touchplate and the voice disappeared.

  She put her hand on the touchplate again. "Get me Jes's private line. Invoke emergency if you have to. I want her on the phone in thirty seconds."

  "Jes, get me Morgan. I have to talk to her."

  "Morgan can't come to the phone, Mother. What's wrong?"

  "Just answer one question. Was Morgan in an accident in her I.F.O.?"

  "No, she wasn't."

  Erica relaxed. "Would you ask her to call me as soon as possible. I've been worried about her. Isi has me all upset."

  "Where is Isi?"

  "She's down at the entrance. She wants me to lift the C wave and let her in. Isn't it time you two started learning to deal with your own problems? You're fifty-eight years old."

  "Morgan told us to leave you alone. Hang up and I'll give Isi a call. Morgan said she left you a message."

  Erica lifted her hand from the touchplate and put it down again. "Morgan left a message for me. I want it."

  "Here it is, Erica," the little lips said. "Water garden, charge batteries in studio, make shopping list, call vet about shots-"

  "No! No! Give me her other message."

  "I'm sorry, Erica," the little lips told her. "I don't have any other message."

  "She must mean the standard one she leaves whenever she goes away." Erica laughed. "OK, the cute little joker. Give me her standard message."

  "I have no standard message, Erica."

  "Of course you do. She left it with you when she went away to install her show in Seattle. You know: Keep the bed warm, I'll be home soon."

  "Erica, that message was cancelled on April eleventh, this year."

  "Maybe she wrote me a note," Erica said. "I'll go look."

  Erica looked through the stack of addressed envelopes on Morgan's desk. "Maybe it's in her studio."

  Erica made her way to Morgan's studio and opened the door. It was there in the middle of the room - a sculpture of two forms, gracefully moving apart - almost pathetic; and it had been dusted and polished. Life Without You. Erica stared.

  She went over to the sculpture and looked at it. She touched it. Morgan's hands had created it. She ran her fingers over the surface, and then took her faded Stone out of her pocket and tapped it lightly. The room burst into light.

  A slow, easy voice seemed to say, "Artists live on in their work."

  Erica walked to her sculpture, Life With You. She tapped it and there was another burst of light. She put her own brilliant Stone back into her pocket.

  Erica took the snapshot of Morgan from her
desk. On the way to Morgan's studio she picked up her flute.

  In the studio she placed the snapshot next to the sculpture and sat looking into the face of her fifteen-year-old friend. The face looked back. It was softer than usual. She looked vulnerable - almost sad, and her eyes... Erica studied the eyes. It was clearly a look of love. "Oh, Morgan," she said aloud, "how could I have been so stupid?"

  She lifted her flute to her lips and filled the emptiness of that room with the mournful sounds of Meditation on Life Without You.

  She went outside. She felt numb. Tears filled her eyes and she looked at the refracted lights through a blur. As the numbness dissipated she was left with an ache, an agony so ancient it seemed to echo from a place light years away.

  The walk down to the path took longer than she expected. She leaned against a tree, holding her side as she tried to catch her breath.

  She looked at Morgan's final work for a long time before she tapped it with her Stone. When it lit, Erica was fascinated and enchanted. Not only did it light, but light beamed out from the insignia on the helmets of the two magnificent women, each beaming light into the light of the other.

  "How did you do that?" Erica asked.

  A slow, easy voice seemed to say, "I'm an artist. It's just part of my job."

  * * * *

  Erica sat in Morgan's favorite chair. She had her brilliant Stone in one hand and Morgan's faded Stone in the other.

  "Will it do it with these?" Morgan scooped up a handful of gravel.

  Erica's Stone hand moved, tapping the air in front of her.

  "If your parents divorce, which one will you live with?"

  Erica put her hands in her lap and shrugged.

  "I was hoping I would find you here."

  "Morgan," she whispered.

  "I've missed you."

  Erica rocked from side to side, humming in tune with Morgan 8743.

  "It's a ruby. The small stones around it are chipped diamonds. I want you to have it - I've thought about it for a long time."

  She looked at the ring on her finger and then turned it so the ruby pressed against the Stone in her hand. "Morgan."

  "I've never wanted to Click more than I do right now."

  Erica stared at the snapshot and lifted a hand to her mouth, lightly brushing her fingers across her lips.

  "Britain wanted to get you something for tonight. You'll find it on the dressing table."

  Erica moved her hands in the air, lifting the lid.

  "Will you drink from both goblets with me?"

  The tarnished goblets were sitting on the mantel over the fireplace. She closed her eyes. "Yes."

  "I hope you get used to riding/and because I love both."

  "Yes, Morgan."

  "You know, when I realized I was in love with you I was very inexperienced."

  Erica looked at the snapshot, its image blurred by her tears.

  "It's for you. I told Leona to let me know if there was something you particularly admired."

  "Oh, Morgan." Tears washed down Erica's face.

  "I didn't know you two knew sign language."

  Erica smiled peacefully.

  "You aren't giving up, are you?"

  "No, Morgan." Erica pushed herself up from the chair and hobbled to her desk. She took a clean sheet of paper from the drawer. Her hand was shaking as she scrawled, "I'm going now."

  "It was as though all my life I'd been looking for a little girl tossing a light into the air."

  Erica placed the two Stones together on top of the page.

  "It was worth it."

  "Yes, it was worth it, Morgan." She shuffled toward the door.

  "Are we going to put our heads together and work this thing out?"

  Erica looked back at the snapshot of Morgan; the look shining from her eyes was clearly a look of love. "Yes, Morgan." She pushed the door open and moved carefully until she reached the handrail.

  "I can't seem to get enough of you tonight."

  "Oh, shit!" Erica's foot almost slipped on the broken step.

  "I was sketching you at different ages. Look, this is how you'd look at sixty."

  Slowly and carefully she shuffled toward the path.

  "Wait until you get a load of these tits."

  Erica chuckled.

  "We don't need goddess tea to make love."

  Tears formed in Erica's eyes. "Morgan, I'm out of balance."

  "I want to hold you."

  Erica leaned against a tree, holding her side as she tried to catch her breath.

  "I finished it today, but I wanted to wait until tomorrow to show you."

  She looked, amazed at the light beaming - each light beaming into the light of the other.

  "I have to go spend some time with Jes this week."

  "Why did I wait so long?" Erica grumbled as she started down the path.

  "You can open your eyes now."

  Erica leaned against a tree, holding her side as she tried to catch her breath.

  "I'd better get going. I don't want to get into traffic."

  Erica was alone. When she reached the barrier she walked right through it. There was no storm. For a moment she saw a flicker of light ahead of her. She pressed forward, every step more difficult than the last. At the midpoint of her journey she leaned against a tree, holding her side as she tried to catch her breath. She heard the sound of an impatient hoof and the soft nicker of a horse. "Deeny?"

  Out of the darkness came the beloved slow, easy, husky voice. "Erica."

  "Morgan!" Erica's knees felt as though they would buckle.

  Morgan stepped out of the darkness and stood in front of the trembling form. "I was hoping I'd find you here."

  "Oh, Morgan. I was so worried about you." Tears streamed down Erica's face.

  "I've been thinking about your mouth since I woke up." She looked at Erica's mouth and then reached up and brushed those soft lips with her fingertips.

  Erica's hand covered Morgan's. She pressed those fingers against her lips. "Tonight?"

  "Yes," Morgan whispered huskily.

  The women looked up through the trees at the darkened sky. They were looking past the stars at some distant light.

  Then their mouths were together - demanding -insisting. Erica was breathing Morgan. Her nostrils expanded - petitioning Morgan's fragrance into her senses.

  Morgan loosened Erica's kimono and slipped a hand around to Erica's back and pulled her lover to her. With the other hand she pushed the kimono over Erica's shoulders.

  Erica relaxed against Morgan, allowing her kimono to slip to the ground. Her chest expanded as she drew in the fresh evening air, and then she had the sensation - not of breathing, but of being breathed. The air she was inhaling became the sweet exhalation of her surroundings.

  Morgan stepped back, pulling Erica with her. They were suddenly lighter than air. The wind began to howl. Images changed to shapes and colors.

  They became the wind - wild and furious - whipping, tugging and blowing. They were free. Flying higher and higher. Above the trees - lightning streaked across the sky.

  Higher and higher - aiming for a distant light. They looked down from the heights at the earth, and swooped down toward it in a rocking motion - back and forth. Closer they swooped - closer - they were above the cabin.

  Two magnificent women sat together on a hill overlooking the illusions they had left behind. Their mares grazed peacefully nearby. They turned, each toward the other. The light shining from the close fitting helmets beamed. Each beamed light into the light of the other. Their eyes were riveted, each on the eyes of the other. Their expression, as always, was love, compassion, wisdom, trust, acceptance and joy - and they understood.

  They beamed their light to the many gathering below, and then turned again, each to the other, and then their mouths were together. Their nostrils flared as each breathed the essence of the other.