by Darrel Bird
he Seventh Stone
Darrel Bird and Barbara Yoder
Copyright 2011 by Darrel Bird
Additional copyright holder ©Barbara Yoder 2011
The Seventh Stone
Isabelle did not know when her ancestors were brought here to their world under the dome. Her mother had told her they had been brought here by Ellen, and to watch the sky for the Prince to return to take them to his home world.
Each day Isabelle would watch the sky for the Prince to return, as she was instructed. They were told to put one white stone on the post in front of the house, one for each day, until seven stones were lined up. On the day of the sixth stone, they were to prepare to spend the day of the seventh stone in the house, doing nothing except tending the seventh stone. All the cooking and the cleaning had to be done by a certain time on the day of the sixth stone in preparation for the next day of the seventh stone.
On the day of the seventh stone, they were to gather around the seventh stone to polish that stone. Isabelle’s hands and arms grew tired on the day of the polishing of the seventh stone.
Her clan kept to themselves, mostly. She knew there were other clans on this world, and she had been warned the evil clans would someday come to kill them or torture them and take the seventh stone away. There was a fence wall that kept the evils separated from the stone clans, but you could see them through the fence. They didn’t appear to be doing anything. There were no stone posts in front of their house; they did not mark the days with stones as the stone clans did.
Usually Isabelle’s mind would skitter away from the idea of approaching the fence wall. Her best of best of friends, Jackie, didn’t seem afraid of anything, but Isabelle was afraid. Some days she ventured near the fence that kept the evils separated from them, and one day she came to her favorite tree; from there she could see the kids on the other side of the fence playing and laughing.
It was almost time for preparation. The sixth stone had been placed on the post already, but she lingered, watching the children of the evils playing. The grups tended their gardens and paid no attention to Isabelle even though she was in plain sight.
They didn’t seem all that evil, but she knew she had to be obedient and stay away. She felt bad that she longed to eat cookies and play like those children; they seemed so carefree. Their grups would work in their gardens and sometimes just stand to watch their children at play. They would wave to one another and smile at their children, but in the stone clan everyone was stern, and the grups wore a worried look as they worked in their gardens that grew the weed pods.
One day Isabelle was caught off guard. She had forgotten that it was the day of the seventh stone. As she ran by the fence on her way home and saw the children of the evils playing, laughing, and singing, she wondered why they had no stone. The red books of Ellen said that if they had no seventh stone they would not be taken to the Prince’s home world; yet they seemed not to be aware or care.
When she got home her family was gathered around the seventh stone, rubbing and polishing it until it gleamed. Her father warned her to never, ever forget the stone because the Prince would not come for those who ignored the seventh stone and were not able to follow the rules. The rules were stringent and hard to follow, especially on the day of the seventh stone, and she was always relieved when the day of the seventh stone was over.
One night she dreamed that the clouds in the sky began to move, and the birds that were in the sky began to flap their wings and fly. There was a hole in the moving clouds, and the sky was the deepest blue of blues she had ever seen. It was not like the washed out gray sky above their world, which never moved, and not like the birds that never moved. She awoke with such a longing in her heart to be free under her dream sky.
She remembered the water on the lake in the dream; it moved too, and caught the colors of the puffy white clouds and the deep blue sky as the little waves danced and leaped for joy under a bright sun that moved across the sky. It was nothing like the stagnant water in their pond. The water in their pond had a thin film over it and it never moved. They had to push back the film on the water to get water to drink, and always the water tasted like a mixture of things, dead things and half dead things. Sometimes her stomach churned; she longed to see what the water was like in the evil’s lake, but it was too far away.
After the first dream, the dreams came with regularity, until she would no more than get to sleep and be lost in a dream of a world of incomprehensible beauty.
Jackie had always been her very best friend, the best of friends, but Jackie was also a little mischievous. Her mother had warned her that Ellen had said the Prince did not love mischievous children, and would not take them to the Prince’s home world. Jackie was always getting into trouble because she ran and played and was always late for the placement of the seventh stone, and when her family rubbed the stone on the day of the seventh stone she wanted to play instead of tending the stone.
It wasn’t that Jackie was a rebellious girl; it was that life held so many mysteries to her that she could not keep track of herself. She was all wiggles and squiggles, and time to her was meaningless. But in spite of this, Isabelle loved Jackie, so she would try to keep Jackie out of trouble. After all, Jackie was a whole year younger than she was.
One day, on the day of the third stone, Jackie came to the door to call for Isabelle.
“Hi Isabelle, want to go somewhere and play?”
“Sure,” said Isabelle. “Mom, can I go play with Jackie?”
“Is your work done, child?” Her mother’s voice came from the kitchen.
“Yes, I have it all done; we’ll be back later.”
“Ok, you kids have fun, but don’t get into anything, and don’t go near the evils!” she called from the kitchen where she was preparing a dinner of the weed pods.
“Ok, Mom. Let’s go, Jackie.”
“Race you to the pond!”
Isabelle could never outrun Jackie, and she knew today would be no different, but in favor of her love for Jackie, she ran, arriving at the pond out of breath.
They strolled on along hand in hand, and eventually got out of sight of the houses. The last garden was in the distance, and eventually they came to the very edge of the dome. Jackie picked up a stick and hit the dome, but it did not move, a dull ‘thunk’ was all they heard.
Jackie’s face lit up in that mischievous smile of hers. Uh,oh, now I’ll have to keep her from getting into trouble again, Isabelle thought as she looked into the face of her best friend.
“I got a little black book to dig with, see?”
“Let me see it! That looks like something grups use, and how would you dig with a book? That is so silly, Jackie; it is soft and has thick edges!”
“Yes, but I was trying something the other day; I repeated some words, and they made the sand move at the edge of the dome!”
“What words did you repeat?”
“It goes like this: Prince come and save me, Prince come and save me, I love you,” and I just said them over and over, and the sand started to move right over there!” She pointed at a little recession right at the edge of the dome.
Isabelle looked at where she was pointing and sure enough there was a little dip in the ground there and the sand was loose around the hole.
“Will we get in trouble for saying those words? Who told you the words?”
“I was playing by the fence of the evil ones, and I heard the children and the grups repeating the words and holding their hands up to the sky.”
“Oh Jackie, then we must not say them.”
“Well, I like to say them; they make me feel good, and not so afraid all the time of the Prince not returning for me.”
“Yes, I am afraid all the time too, a
nd I want to see the sand move. Let’s do it, but just this one time, ok?”
“Ok!”
Isabelle pursed her lips as she looked at her best friend and knew in her heart, though, that there was never a ‘just this one time’ with Jackie.
“Let’s hold hands while we say them, Isabelle.”
They walked over to the low spot, “Here, give me your hand.” Jackie held out her hand to Isabelle.
As they held hands, Isabelle could feel the great love she had for her friend and for the Prince. She had never felt anything like it, and tears began to roll down her cheeks as they said the words.
When they began to say the words, the sand began to move in a little whirl wind and the
