Sand Glass

by A M Russell

  Marcia very slowly put the canteen on the ground. She pushed her shirt sleeve up her left arm, so that the tribal tattoo was clearly visible. Janey stood up and kept herself still. I had no idea how this must seem to her. I had only the experience in the caves to guide me and this was no less alarming.

  We waited and then there was a shift of movement, like gust of wind rippling suddenly through a corn field. Someone moved through the others, and came out from among them towards us. He smiled broadly and shifted easily from one foot to the other. I was relieved then, as we had met before.

  ‘Andre!’ I said, ‘am I glad to see you!’

  We caused quite a stir then. As several immediately went to tell the chief that we were here.

  ‘You haven’t changed into a Man yet!’ Andre was still smiling.

  ‘Oh… You’re joking.’ I said, ‘but something is odd about you. You look older.’

  ‘I am,’ he said proudly, ‘I lead the main hunt for my father. We are the most skilled. It has been a long time since you disappeared into the mountain place of the heavy-footed tribe. We wondered if you had found what you were looking for.’

  ‘Some of it… and we lost something too. We had to flee.’

  ‘Ah!’ he seemed pleased with me, ‘You have feet of a bird; that you can flee your pursuers.’

  ‘Yes; that, and a hot wired car.’

  ‘Come with us. We will feed you tonight. Your machine is also welcome.’

  ‘You mean the Buggy?’

  ‘Yes. She is very noisy. But we like her.’ Andre glanced back up the banking.

  I saw Janey in the corner of my eye; ‘Oh dear Lord! Real people. Out here!’ she seemed at such a point of stunned awe, that it took several minutes to persuade her not to get a camera out.

  Several hours, and a lot of food and drink later; we had made up most of what turned out to be a whole year in time for the Summerland tribe. We had heard of various unsuccessful forays into the plains and forests by the people who lived in the mountain. It turned out that they simply couldn’t take enough of the drugs to be able to operate in this place without extreme discomfort.

  ‘You’d need a truckload of stabilisation drugs to even get close to this place,’ Marcia told us, ‘They can’t keep giving someone way above the max threshold dose for long without something going hideously wrong.’ she waved a meaty bone at me, ‘You saw what happened.’

  ‘With Janey? But that’s opposite to that?’

  ‘No. the thing is more or less the same,’ Marcia put the piece of meat down, and took the cup of wine that was offered to her, as many of the younger people brought food and drinks to feed the hunters and the chief.

  I looked towards Heelio. He sat in a calm circle of stillness. He ate and drank well, but with a studied calmness, that made us all seem very giddy indeed by comparison.

  ‘Ah!’ said Heelio, ‘we know the tribe they are. They have no soul for our place. And where the soul is empty, the heart and mind cannot follow.’

  ‘What about the body?’ I said. I guess I was having a stupid moment.

  ‘The body needs to listen to the mind. If its voice cannot be heard then you will get sick. And need to be repaired.’

  'How did we manage to come into this place at first?'

  'Ah!' Heelio was very still, 'We saw the path. It is hard to explain.... For you and your tribe you have a word for it. You have used the word, but we do not use it.'

  'What word?' I was intrigued, I felt that a deeper understanding may help my fear subside.

  'Your chief used this word to tell the way you have your tribe; how they stay together.'

  'Jared?' It hurt me to say his name; but I needed to acknowledge him now, to Heelio.

  'Yes. The Man called Jared. Your Chief; the one who is travelling the paths of the Moon, until the Great Water wets his feet.'

  'What was that?' said Marcia having heard Jared's name. Janey turned too, and stared very hard at Heelio, waiting for him to tell us more. There was a ripple through the room as everyone fell silent. I could hear the stuttering of the lamps, and hear my own heartbeat in my ears.

  'There is a word we do not know,' said Heelio to all the company, 'Their tribe say "Loyalty". Is it not so? It is a strong thing, creating order and strength of will. They care for those who are sick, and talk wisdom to those whose strength is waning like the Moon's second course.'

  A murmur of understanding passed through the people for a moment, then they were still again.

  'It is very true,' I spoke clearly so they all could hear, 'we care for this a lot. But there is a better word. I am to go and find my.... Chief. The one called Jared. In the world I come from he is sick.... And I hope to bring him back from the place he has gone. I call this "Love" because I made an oath in a place that we understand to represent the err.... Creator. I care for him as my brother. I will do what I can.'

  Then they were all silent for the longest time. I began to feel foolish. Then a dark-haired woman stood. I recognised her as the one who had first approached and examined me the last time we were here.

  'I am Leanna; as all of the tribe know. I have seen many times in the eyes of this young kinsman. He carries the words of things that may be, or things that could be, he speaks with his eyes of other places, some that are very strange. They have plants in patterns like when a tribe mark is made with order. And a great one cares for the growing things. He comes from this tribe as well as his other tribe. He Loves them differently but would walk to the Moon's path for each of these.'

  They were all looking at me. I didn't understand what was really being said about me, but guessed that my mother Mary Anne Milnes was being described. Ordered plants sounded just as good a description of a nursery as I could hope to get.

  I waited. Heelio nodded to one of those sat near him. A moment or too later something wrapped in a leather parcel was passed to him. Marcia pushed me forward to Heelio who beckoned me towards him. He unwrapped the object. It was a roundish large pebble. At its heart it had a glow. Heelio held it in both hands. At his touch the light increased. It became very bright. He put it back into the cloth and its light faded to flickering phosphorescence.

  'Now you must feel this thing. Hold out your hands.'

  I did as I was told. The stone was cool in my palm. There was nothing unusual about its texture or shape, and yet a moment later it felt as if it was expanding outwards. I looked down. I had begun to glow. Softly at first, then gradually brighter; a warm tone like the burning of a coal in a fire.

  ‘Think about someone who is important to you,’ instructed Heelio, ‘then it will show you how it is to work with your touch.’

  I focused on my mother. I thought of the plants in the nursery, and how she tended them and made them strong. I felt it again, this time in a more springy sensation. It glowed now a warm pinkish colour that moved towards a clear blue at it centre.

  ‘Another.’ said Heelio.

  Janey came into to my mind most strongly then: and immediately it swirled with twisting shapes of gold and electric blue, twirling with the energy of two competing essences. I almost loosened my grip. It became more fierce and energetic until I was blinded. Marcia put her hand on my arm. Almost immediately it stilled. She was represented by a soft violet glow that was steady and not raging or conflicted.

  ‘Now.’ Heelio said firmly, ‘think of Jared, your Chief. Then we can help you travel there.’

  I thought of him then. When we had first met, so seemingly inconsequential in that moment, when others were loud and pushed to the fore; he had been a constant presence. I remember things he said. How it all was meant to build us, to help us; to protect us. And then I thought of that last moment and the fading glow. And lastly the stone chapel and the sweet herbs and the pendant I pressed into his hand. This time I had not felt anything resist or push against my grip. Instead I saw it burn like a multi-coloured torch, an intense flame that balled around my hands as if they were buried in a pom-pom made of light. Yet it felt cool, lik
e water flowing over my fingers. As if I had dipped them in a waterfall. This time I felt calm, I was not troubled or afraid. I turned to Heelio.

  ‘So how do I get there?’ I asked, ‘Can you show me the way to the place where there are dark rolling hills?’

  Andre came to me and held out the leather wrapping. I put the stone into it, and the glow returned to its quiet inner glimmer, just as before.

  ‘The land of the Moon,’ said Heelio, ‘it is easily found; but not easily crossed. And none of the tribe who travel into that place return again to this one.’

  I looked into his face; but it still had the same untroubled stillness about it.

  ‘Who of your people go there?’ I asked.

  ‘We all do.’

  ‘You said some do this. So what does this mean?’

  ‘Ah! I see the difference between us. You have another way to pass to the Great Water.’

  ‘What is that?’

  ‘I think that my son will instruct you. And tomorrow we will show you the way to the edge of that place.’

  We were in the cave that Jared, Oliver, Marcia and I had been in when we first were welcomed to the Summerland Tribe. It seemed quite the most homely place now. And the fire that burned dispelled the creeping sense of fatalistic seriousness that had begun to infect me, in what I now realised was a negative way. Heelio’s demonstration with the stone had made Janey quite animated. She felt that there was some relationship between the electrical signals in the brain and the way the stone reacted. ‘After all,’ she said, ‘we have used quartz crystals to tune into radio signals.’

  I made no attempt to challenge her. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps science could explain any of the phenomena that we had encountered this late summer and autumn time. Yet the feeling from the inside had been quite different. Jared’s admonishment came back to me: if you what to know it, you must see it for yourself. If science was not excluded then this was also true. And there was no argument between these different ways of seeing. Maybe it was only our fear that told us there had to be.

  Andre came in with a scroll, the first I had ever seen in this place. He spread it out on a little cloth that was rolled out for the purpose. It had pictures rather than words to represent the information. He pointed to the human figure.

  ‘This is a man. He is nearing his time.’

  We saw then other images. There was a man folding his robes and giving his hunting equipment to another man. Then we saw him standing with two others at the edge of two upright rocks. He appeared to be kneeling. One of the others looked surprisingly like Heelio.

  ‘The man then walks into the land,’ said Andre, ‘that is the time of not returning.’

  ‘You mean this is how you celebrate their death?’ said Marcia in a surprised tone.

  Andre looked at her blankly.

  ‘When life ends?’ Janey suggested.

  A thought occurred to me: ‘So what you are saying Andre is that you do not have any graves?’

  ‘I don’t know that word.’ He frowned. His attempt to teach us something was perhaps not turning out as he had hoped.

  Janey seemed annoyed; ‘So you don’t have a funeral? They just go and die in the wilderness?’

  ‘Die?’ Andre regarded her soberly. I wondered if he was calculating the amount of trouble he would get himself into if he should ever decide to find a suitable mate.

  ‘I think it would help,’ Marcia suggested, ‘if we found out what we all do have in common.’

  A thought occurred to me: ‘Andre, if you are on a hunt and the wild animal was very fierce and strong and it attacked one of the hunters and overpowered him; what might happen then?’

  I saw the light go on in Andre’s eyes; ‘You tell of the hunt… we sometimes take the walk of the moon early from the hunt; or if it is better the hunter can be carried home to find rest…. Then for a while they will not hunt.’

  ‘So let me get this straight,’ Janey said in an “I’m-going-to-make-you-squirm” kind of way, ‘You have no death, no funerals, no burials, and people are just left out in the field if they die in a hunt?’

  ‘Janey, stop it!’ I saw the annoyance in Andre’s eyes. That was probably natural. She seemed to have that effect on everyone except me, but then again I’d had other things on my mind just recently.

  ‘What happens if they don’t come back from the hunt?’ I asked.

  ‘He comes and carries them home.’ Andre said simply.

  ‘Who is he?’

  ‘The creator.’

  ‘Oh.’ I felt that with Janey still on simmer I better end the conversation quickly before Andre was put through any more displays of our ignorance and rudeness.

  ‘Thank you so much Andre. I think I understand now. Please thank your father for allowing us to see the scroll.’

  Andre grinned suddenly. I saw the boy that was still inside the Man. Yet he glanced at Janey as he rolled the parchment back up and replaced it in its case. He was certainly too polite to comment or anything she might say, but personally whatever it was, I would probably agree with him.

  *****

  Eight

  Marcia and I awoke early and crowded into the back of the Buggy to make coffee and check our equipment. We had a lot of hanks of fine nylon rope. We would each carry some of them. We had debated about taking the Buggy. But since it was our only way of getting home, we decided to take a stroll and see if the roll hills would consider our investigation a reasonable one and give up some of their secrets without too much struggle.

  We checked the ice suits and the masks. We had full bottles of oxygen and the link to the masks had been checked thoroughly. Marcia was quite calm. She was always like this when practical tasks had to be done in order. We would take a line and run it out from the edge of the boundary, into the strange terrain. When we got the end of the rope, we would secure it to the next piece and peg it down. Then we would continue onwards with each piece until we had no more rope. Marcia had marker beacons that she would plant with my help at the 3000 metre mark.

  That was the point at which the plan went slightly awry. I could then take the second beacon and walk until I could still see the first beacon. Then plant that one. After that I was out into the place as far as I could go until that beacon became only just visible. Then I could plant a third. After that I hoped that I could continue while still sighting the third beacon to find the edge of this world.

  Marcia knew, as I did, how variable the visibility could be out there. No one had ever attempted the thing we were trying to do. We agreed that Marcia would wait as long as she felt able, leaving plenty of time to return to Summerland before nightfall. We would decide how to set the audible signal. It was a last resort if the clouds came in thick and impenetrable. We also set our tags to proximity warning. So as long as we were within a hundred metres of each other they could still flash red every two seconds.

  We worked quickly and efficiently. I was just clipping down the last flap of my pack when Janey climbed into the front of the cab. She peered at us in a lost and angry way. That, and a hint of jealously, as much as she tried to hide it.

  ‘Is there anything else you need?’ Janey tone of voice seemed woefully normal and reasonable. There didn’t seem to be any predicting what that could turn into, once we were about to go into the boundary land when first light arrived in the next half hour.

  We left the back of the buggy all kitted up. Heelio and Andre and the dark-haired Leanna were waiting for us. A little way away we saw in the misted dew soaked grass, two standing stones that sprouted from the ground. They appeared very creepy. I greeted Andre in a cheery fashion. This was no time to get the hebbe-jeebies.

  We approached the stones. Janey had stayed in the cab of the buggy, for which I was profoundly grateful. This was an occasion where her “science” really would get in the way. Perhaps the presence of both Andre and Heelio had held her back. Leanna stood with them. She looked at me enquiringly.

  ‘Thank you.’ I said, my mouth suddenly begi
nning to dry. Marcia just nodded in acknowledgement of the respect they were showing us. Marcia and I took the first rope that she carried and fastened it to the ring on the spike that we had driven into the ground yesterday. Despite our pictures of the infraction into sacred space, Heelio was not bothered by what we did.

  We ran the rope out a little and then clipped our masks in place. The intercom was working I could hear Marcia breathing rather heavily.

  I remember that Janey was monitoring us from inside the cab of the Buggy. She would log the elapse time and send a message to us if the signal became faint.

  We approached the gap between the two stones playing out the rope as we did so. We passed through them. It all seemed rather silly then as the sun began to slide across the landscape. A few yards away and in no real bother yet.

  We walked about twenty more steps over the first curved hill.

  ‘You getting this Davey?’ Marcia’s voice came through clearly.

  ‘Yes. A temperature drop of ten degrees, reading just above freezing.’

  ‘Yes I concur.’

  We carried on. The reading dropped by another ten by the time we had got to the end of the first rope. We stopped to join the next one and peg it down firmly. The morning light slanted across the landscape of black earth and hard frosty patches. We made sure we had secured it well and carried on.

  The temperature didn’t descend any more.

  ‘What are we really doing here?’ asked Marcia as we put in the next spike.

  ‘Saving the world!’ I said in a jokey tone, conscious of the fact that Janey was probably listening in on everything that was said.

  ‘Mmm….’ She started as if sucking on chocolate. I could see Marcia’s eyes smiling through the eyepiece. ‘You realise that if we succeed that neither of us will ever get any recognition?’