by C Lee Tocci
As she wrapped her arms around the stone, she caught the vision of a soft warm island in the middle of a bright aqua sea and felt the stone’s pain as he longed to return to the arms of its mother there among the enveloping black sand. She hummed to the stone, a gentle promise that one day it would return to its faraway home. Again, she gathered those grownup stones that knew who they were and would whisper comfort to the lonely baby stone and snuggled them together.
Lilibit was purring soothingly to the sobbing stone when she heard voices from the house. Sharp staccato voices speaking angry words she couldn’t understand. She saw Mrs. Lin Su’s head in the window of the house, yelling at her, her finger jabbing towards her like a lizard’s tongue. Lilibit patted the sobbing stone a rushed farewell and ran like a squirrel back to her path.
She ran down Willow Creek Road and took the corner onto Phillip Terrace at such a tear that she slammed into what, at first, seemed to her to be a brick wall. Her next thought, as she bounced back and fell on her behind, was that sometime during the night someone had planted a towering oak in the middle of the sidewalk.
From flat on her butt, Lilibit looked up and sighed. It was Mr. Tree. She rolled over to get to her feet, but Mr. Tree reached down and lifted her by her purple panda knapsack until her eyes met his and her bare feet dangled in the air.
“Put Me Down!” Lilibit squeaked with rage, her fists and feet flailing in the air.
Mr. Tree did not speak. This enraged Lilibit even more.
“You listen here, Mr. Tree!” she said. “If you don’t put me down right now, you’re going to be very sorry!”
Mr. Tree did not smile, but Lilibit felt he was laughing at her.
Fine! she thought, I warned you!
Then, from out of her left pocket, she pulled a Temper Tantrum.
Gripping Frando between her fingers. She whipped the large stone at Mr. Tree’s head with a movement so quick, most grownups wouldn’t have even seen her hand, never mind the stone.
Yet, with a swift twitch, Mr. Tree moved his head and the stone sped past his ear. Lilibit glared as she gave a silent order. Frando stopped in mid-air then veered around, aiming right for the back of Mr. Tree’s head.
As if by itself, Mr. Tree’s staff leapt from his hands, spun behind his back, and struck the stone to the ground.
Well, so much for the Temper Tantrum. Evidently Mr. Tree had a couple of tricks of his own.
Well her pockets weren’t exactly empty either. She reached in and pulled out The Girls. She did not throw these stones, but holding one in each hand, she glared into his face. Then, with a squeak of defiance, she slammed them together.
Suddenly, an icy gust of wind blew out of the east, building power as it buffeted the two of them. Leaves and branches flew off nearby trees. Trash barrels ricocheted off lampposts and a hail of dirt and sand pounded the cars parked in the early morning hush of Phillip Terrace.
Mr. Tree stood without moving, his eyes staring calmly at the girl. Then he lifted his staff and with one swift motion, stabbed the ground with a resounding crack. As quickly as it started, the wind stopped. Grains of sand fell gently like an early snow.
“That will be enough,” Mr. Tree said at last as he lowered Lilibit to the ground. “I did not walk from beyond the mountains to play silly games with a child.”
Lilibit decided to change tactics. She’d never met a grownup that could stop a Temper Tantrum when it blew. Brushing the sand off her clothes, she eyed him warily.
“Well Mr. Tree,” said Lilibit in her most grown-up voice, “I’m sorry that you came all this way, but if you’d asked me first, I could have saved you the trouble. I’m not going to Kiva.”
She stooped to pick up Frando where he rested in the gutter.
“It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be the least bit fun,” she added.
Mr. Tree looked at her expressionlessly.
“Thank you anyway,” she said, belatedly remembering her manners.
Mr. Tree stood. Lilibit fidgeted. They both waited. Finally, Lilibit decided that she had waited long enough.
“Thank you anyway,” she repeated, “and goodbye.”
She walked about a half dozen steps and then peeked behind her to see Mr. Tree standing calmly, as if he was planted in the middle of the sidewalk on Phillip Terrace.
She walked another dozen steps before risking a second glance behind.
Mr. Tree had disappeared.
Lilibit walked backwards, her eyes searching everywhere, trying to figure out where Mr. Tree might have gone. She gave a little yelp as she collided with him again when he reappeared behind her on the sidewalk. Once more, Lilibit ended up on her butt.
“Oh, for all the stars in heaven!” she exclaimed, sounding just like her Auntie Shalla. “If you’re going to move like that, you can at least look where I’m going!”
“Where you are going,” said Mr. Tree, “is back to your aunts’ house. Would you like to walk there, or should I carry you?”
Picking herself up off the ground, Lilibit wrapped the shreds of her dignity about her.
“I will walk.” Like any good general, Lilibit knew when a strategic retreat and regrouping might be necessary to achieve ultimate victory, and as she marched back to the Aunties’ house, she was already planning her next coup.
When Lilibit reached the curb at Willow Creek Road, she reached up and grabbed Mr. Tree’s hand. The Aunties always told her to hold their hands when they crossed the street, so Lilibit assumed Mr. Tree, like all adults, needed her help to cross a busy street.
Lilibit scrambled over the rear fence and landed with a splat in the back yard. She turned back to see how Mr. Tree was managing, only to find him standing beside her on the grass. She sniffed and marched defiantly into the house.
Inside, Lilibit discovered the Aunties in turmoil. Mrs. Lin Su was there, with a police officer.
“Oh Lilibit!” breathed Auntie Wolla, “What have you been up to this morning?”
“It is not just this morning!” Mrs. Lin Su trembled like a mosquito. “She is always vandalizing my garden! She tears apart my landscaping over and over again, but today I caught her in the act, you evil child!”
Auntie Shalla moved to place herself between Lilibit and the shrieking Mrs. Lin Su, but Lilibit would have none of that. She stepped around her Aunt and peered up into the angry woman’s face, her head tilted to the side in curiosity. This seemed to infuriate Mrs. Lin Su even more and she lunged towards the child as if to slap her.
Officer Garcia stepped in at this point, restraining Mrs. Lin Su with a word and bending to speak to Lilibit, eye to eye. “Lilibit,” asked the policeman gently, “can you tell me why you keep moving Mrs. Lin Su’s rocks around?”
Behind her, Lilibit felt Auntie Shalla’s body tense as she reached her arm out to draw Lilibit in closer. Lilibit would have told the officer about the weeping stone that wanted to go back to its island home, but it was difficult for a six-year-old to put the feelings she heard from the stone into words. She thought hard for a moment, and then settled for the words that would make sense to the grownups.
“It’s making the baby sick,” she said.
As one, the Aunties’ eyes darted to the suddenly rigid form of their neighbor.
“What?” gasped Mrs. Lin Su.
Lilibit tried to find better words, but since she wasn’t quite sure how she knew this, she gave up with a shrug.
“Well, well, well,” Officer Garcia said as shook his head. “You know, I wasn’t sure if we were dealing with a hardened criminal or just a malicious vandal…”
The Aunties held their breath, but Lilibit saw the smile hiding behind his eyes and grinned back.
Officer Garcia chuckled as he straightened, reaching out to tousle Lilibit’s hair. His smile stopped, however when he looked at Mrs. Lin Su. Her hands grasped the back of a chair as if the bones had been removed from her legs.
“It’s just a case of an overactive imagination,” he said, watching her pale face
. “I’m sure she won’t do it again, right Lilibit?”
Lilibit opened her mouth to argue the point, but Auntie Shalla silenced her with a squeeze on her shoulder.
“Lilibit will be going off to school soon, Officer Garcia,” said Auntie Shalla. “We can assure Mrs. Lin Su it will not happen again.”
Auntie Shalla’s eyes locked with Mrs. Lin Su’s, who nodded blankly, her eyes unfocused. She then turned and walked out of the house without saying another word.
Mrs. Lin Su waddled quickly down the street and into her front door. She barked at the nanny to move the baby out of his bedroom. While the woman scampered to obey, Mrs. Lin Su dialed her husband at his office, hysteria working her voice into a squeaky whisper.
Minutes later, a large gleaming car screeched into the driveway. Mr. Lin Su did not question why he must take his wife’s favorite landscaping stone far away from their home. He never argued with her when she got herself like this. At first, it was his intention just to throw it off to the side of the road into the nearest ditch. Twice he slowed down to pull over, but something pushed him onward and he found himself driving eighty miles to the ocean. He wrestled the stone out of his trunk, carried it to the peak of the cliff, and grunted as he flung it over the edge.
A strong gypsy breeze rose, caught the falling pumice stone, and sent it sailing over the rocky shore.
The man looked down, expecting to see the stone smashed against the craggy beach below, but instead it bobbed merrily on the waves. And then, as if propelled by some invisible sail, it floated west, homeward at last.
Mr. Lin Su returned home to find his son sleeping peacefully in his mother’s arm, neither squirming with discomfort nor crying in pain. He stood and watched them for a long moment before calling the office and canceling the rest of his appointments for that day.
From the foyer, Lilibit looked at her Aunties as they watched the police car drive down the street. Mr. Tree entered from the kitchen where he had stood, still and silent, unnoticed by the visitors.
“That was unfortunate. We must leave now,” he said.
The Aunties turned to Keotak-se and nodded sadly.
Lilibit’s eyes darted from her Aunties to the tall man.
“No!” Lilibit she folded her arms and plopped to the floor. “I won’t go!”
Auntie Shalla moved to the stairs. “I’ll finish packing her things.”
Auntie Wolla lowered herself to speak into Lilibit’s eyes.
“You will like Kiva,” she told Lilibit as she pulled her to her feet. “There will be other children there to play with and lots of aunties and uncles to take care of you. Auntie Shalla and I shall come there too, as soon as we are able. Now you be a good girl and obey Keotak-se. He will take you there safely.”
Lilibit read nothing in Keotak-se’s face as he glanced down at her. She stuck out her lower lip as she met his gaze before turning and stomping upstairs.
Chapter Four
The Road
An hour later, Lilibit sat in the passenger seat of a 1928 Dodge sedan as it rolled eastbound down the interstate.
“Nice car,” Lilibit offered conversationally.
Mr. Tree was silent for a while and Lilibit thought he was ignoring her. She looked out the window and watched her misty blue mountain roll slowly past.
“We might have taken horses all the way, but traveling by car will create less notice,” Mr. Tree said at last.
Lilibit stared at him thinking he was trying to be funny, but he appeared to be serious. If puttering down the interstate at forty miles an hour did not get them noticed, driving in an antique automobile that looked like it was just transported from another century certainly would. Lilibit watched as nearly every passing car slowed to look at this relic drive by.
After a few minutes of this, Lilibit decided to explore the backseat. Climbing over the bench, she plopped into the back and began running her fingers over the upholstery, her fingernails traveling up and down each ridge in the leather. Within minutes she’d squirmed her way over every inch of the interior and now worked her way back to the front by wriggling under the passenger seat. Her head and shoulders appeared on the floor next to Mr. Tree and he watched her bemusedly as she lay on her back and began to intricately fold and unfold an old gum wrapper she had found.
“Are you in discomfort?” he asked.
Lilibit looked up at him, puzzled. “No. Why do you ask?”
“Why do you not sit quietly on the seat that was given you?”
Lilibit stared at Mr. Tree as she pondered this question.
“I did,” she answered. She returned her attention to the gum wrapper.
“Get up and sit on the seat.”
Lilibit opened her mouth to argue, but something in Mr. Tree’s voice made her think twice about that.
With a huff and a flurry of twisting limbs, Lilibit was again on the seat next to him, though her bare feet were where her head should be and her long brown hair fell over the seat to where her feet belonged.
A long, stubborn silence, then the dam broke. “Where is Kiva? How far is it? How long will it take to get there? Are we more than halfway there yet? What is it like there? Do they have television? Can I have a dog?”
Mr. Tree blinked twice, perhaps befuddled by this onslaught. There was another long pause before he spoke.
“Kiva is many miles away. Today we shall drive east eight hundred miles to the End of the Road. We shall rest tonight at the End of the Road and tomorrow morning we will ride horses to the Valley between the Four Mountains. We should be at Kiva by tomorrow evening. At Kiva, there are homes created by the Earth and food given by the Creator.”
A shiny little car leaned on its horn as it screamed past on the right. Mr. Tree stared coldly at its taillights as it passed. Lilibit squirmed up to look out the window just in time to see the shiny car began to sputter, grey smoke pouring out from under its hood.
“And there is no television,” Mr. Tree added.
“No television?” Lilibit flopped back down onto the seat and waved her toes out the window to the shiny car that was fuming in the breakdown lane. “Do I have to go?”
It was the same question she had asked the Aunties a hundred times already, so she wasn’t surprised to receive the same, short answer.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Now the Aunties knew better than to start the never-ending game of why-because, so Lilibit was secretly pleased when she got a real answer to that question.
“Because Kiva is the place where all Neophytes go to learn to serve the Stone.”
Intrigued, Lilibit’s toes stopped fidgeting.
“What’s a… knee-fight?”
“A Neophyte is a young man or woman,” his eyes flicked towards her before returning to the traffic, “or child, who hears the call of the Earth Stone. At Kiva, they learn the skills they need to become Stone Warriors.”
“What do Stone Warriors do?”
“They serve and protect the Stone Voice.”
“And what’s a Stone Voice?”
Mr. Tree took some time before he replied. Lilibit wondered if she had used up all her questions. When he finally spoke again, his voice was curt and flat. He almost sounded angry.
“A Stone Voice serves as the eyes and ears of the Earth Stone.” He glanced sharply at her before continuing. “The Stone Voice is not only the servant of the Earth Stone, she also serves the People as well. She must be humble and obedient, wise and strong.”
“She?”
“There have been instances of male Stone Voices, but usually the Stone Voice is female. And when the new Stone Voice rises, she will grant special stones to her warriors. Those found to be worthy of the Stone will wield great power.”
It was quiet in the car despite the rumble of the motor. Lilibit kicked her heels against the bench seat as she digested his words. Finally, with a flurry of movement, she squirmed herself upright. Standing in her seat, she turned to face Keotak-se.
“And wha
t about the dog?” she asked darkly.
Mr. Tree let out a large sigh and shook his head.
“We shall see,” was all he would say.
Lilibit flopped back onto her seat with a huff. “We’ll see” was on her list of the most annoying things grownups said. It was right up there with answering a question with a question, or saying she will understand when she gets older.
She pulled out Veranda and Winnie from her pocket and began playing with the two white stones on the dashboard. She hummed to them quietly and in the pauses between her songs, she listened to their replies.
Mr. Tree watched her with interest. With a sniff she turned her shoulder away, her nose in the air. These were her stones. They were talking to her.
From deep within her top right pocket, a stone began to sing. Quite loudly. Lilibit pulled out all the quiet stones but it took her only a moment to find out who was making that racket. Branken was singing so loudly, you could almost see him humming. This was surprising. Branken was normally such a quiet stone. In fact, he spoke so seldom she sometimes forgot to pack him along. She pulled him out and placed him against her cheek.
There was a frown between her brows as Lilibit listened to Branken.
“Are you sure?” she hummed. Stones don’t speak with words, but Branken’s reply was definite.
She looked closely at the stone, then stood on the seat so she could reach Keotak-se’s face. Placing the stone on his cheek, she almost dropped it, Branken’s song became so loud, he was almost shouting. Again, she pressed him against her own cheek, listening one more time, just to be certain, but there was no mistake. Branken was emphatic.
“Branken wants to stay with you,” she said, tucking the stone into the pocket of Mr. Tree’s tunic.
Lilibit sat back down and gazed out the window. She didn’t know what to make of this. She’d never had a stone want to stay with someone else before. But that’s what Branken wanted. From her seat, she heard him singing. Singing for Mr. Tree.
“Thank you,” Mr. Tree said after a long pause.
Lilibit looked at him closely. His face seemed a little paler than its normal weathered brown color. He reached one finger into the pocket of his tunic to stroke Branken almost reverently. Perhaps even fearfully. With an unusual awkwardness, he pulled his hand away from the stone and gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles gleamed white.