Water and Stone

by Glover, Dan

  She hadn’t recognized her own son... his normally thick and muscular body had shrunk down to nothing and his arms were no more than sticks. It was obvious the boy hadn't eaten in a long time. Still, he seemed strong and fully capable of handling himself.

  "Church! Where have you been? We all thought you were dead. I'm not leaving you now... come with us."

  "Just get into the Jeep and drive away, mother... father, make her go. There isn’t time to talk now."

  Though she tried to grab hold of him, to at least hug him before they parted, Church pulled away disappearing as promptly as he had appeared. He was holding a sack in his hand... the sack that contained the box that held the piedra.

  Her heart nearly gave out at the sight. He was going to give the stone to Evalena as a way of placating the woman. Though she longed to call out to the boy—to tell him to stop, to come back and go with them—she did as Church instructed, climbed behind the wheel of the Jeep, and as soon as Rancher was seated she started the engine and drove down Cherry Creek Road as fast as she dared to the highway that would take them to town.

  "He's in bad shape, Yani... I'm not sure Billy's breathing. I'm going to climb back there to see what I can do to help him."

  It was at least thirty miles to the nearest clinic and forty to a real hospital. The clinic wouldn't be open so early in the morning though perhaps they could call from there and have an ambulance meet them.

  She hated leaving Church behind and had half a mind to turn around... to talk him into coming with them. But Billy wouldn’t make it if she did and she knew Rancher would never forgive her.

  The sun was just beginning to rise when a far off explosion shattered the dawn silence. It seemed to come from behind them. Suddenly she realized what Church carried in the sack wasn't the piedra after all.

  Chapter 34

  He was a half mile away from the chabola when the sound of gunfire split the silence causing him to jump the way he did in Mexico on the Day of the Dead when the little kids lighted firecrackers and threw them high into the sky to watch them explode in showers of light..

  Church had never known a night as dark as that one. There was no moon and clouds had moved in covering what little light came from the stars overhead. He couldn’t hear a sound save for a weird sort of rasping that set his nerves on edge... not one bird called out... even the insects had seemingly disappeared or else had been scared into silence.

  A ghostly mist seemed to creep up out of the ground to cover the landscape growing thicker as he made his way down Cherry Creek Road to the chabola hunkering nearly invisible at the end of his long journey.

  Rancher Ford's Jeep Comanche glinted in the dark where was parked behind a large bush. Church wouldn’t have seen it but for his choice of taking a path that he knew from his years of living there that ran down by the creek and came out behind the shack... he thought a stealth approach might be best. Apparently he wasn’t the only one.

  He pulled his pickup truck into the clearing beside the Jeep, pulled the cloth sack from behind the seat, and set off up the path. From a distance the resplendent retorts sounded like automatic weapon fire. Church had been on many hunting trips with Rancher and Billy Ford... they both enjoyed hauling out the heavy artillery to blast away at old beer cans and soda bottles that tended to collect in the dry gulches after periodic flash floods.

  Rancher was particularly fond of his pimped out AK-47 and though he often said he felt the assault rifle gave him an unfair advantage over his quarry he loved using his collection of military weapons in target shooting. Church had heard the unique sound that gun made many times and as he crept closer to the chabola he became convinced its bark was what he was hearing.

  It sounded like a war zone what with the continued rattle of gunfire along with the splat of bullets splintering wood. As he listened Church couldn't discern any return fire.... apparently whoever was under attack had been surprised and had no recourse in fighting back.

  As quickly as the gunfire started, it stopped. At the same time he realized the mist he was seeing wasn’t what he thought... it was a vast conglomeration of spider webs twisted around dead trees and woven between bushes even encasing the ground in a writhing mass.

  A flame shot up somewhere in the not too distant cobweb besmeared landscape as if someone had a campfire burning but like the gunshots it raged for a few seconds and then went dark again leaving him blind to what little light his eyes had heretofore grown used to.

  If Rancher Ford was here, Yani was with him. The thought of his mother in trouble drove Church to abandon his slow pace and break into a trot despite the near total darkness. Running with his knees bent and stepping high allowed them to act as shock absorbers over the treacherous terrain and keeping his eyes half-lidded and slightly crossed gave him a near total view of the night as long as he didn't try to focus upon anything in particular.

  Just as his breath was coming in fits and starts the chabola came into view... the door stood partly open and he caught the tail end of a man walking inside with a rifle in his hands. The person was too thin to be Rancher Ford and the way he walked the man looked too old to be Billy. Was he mistaken? Perhaps he'd seen a woman rather than a man. The need to hurry rose up in him about the same time a voice in the darkness spoke.

  "Use the stone, Church... take it out of the sack and put it in your hand... it'll protect you and your loved ones from harm."

  He had grown used to hearing Lorraine Ford's voice in his dreams and he'd even begun to expect her to speak to him in his waking life. Something seemed wrong however... the woman's voice was disjointed and so oddly out of place that he wondered if he was actually asleep back in Mexico and dreaming his whole journey.

  For a moment he felt rather than saw millions of monarch butterflies flapping their orange and black striped wings as they fluttered all about him and the entrance to the cave that had become a sort of home for him. A fresh smelling breeze wafted over the trees as he watched a full moon hoist itself into the bright Mexican sky just as the setting sun bloated an iridescent orange settled into the opposite horizon.

  A flash of lightning overhead brought him out of his reverie as it illuminated the lands through which he walked, surreal with cobwebs full of spiders and otherworldly with the carcasses of small animals some of them still writhing in agony although wrapped in silk and hoisted into the air. Someone was standing only a few paces away though their countenance was shadowed even with the burst of light from the sky.

  "I didn’t bring it along when I left Mexico... it's still there."

  "You never could lie to me, Church... what makes you think you can do so now? Hand the stone over to me and I'll allow your mother to live. It's too late for you and your father—you both know too much to live—but if you love her as much as I think you do you can still save Yani."

  The darkness, the storm, the cobwebs... the surreal input inundating of all of his senses combined to confuse him into thinking he was somewhere else... in a foul-smelling brothel with hundreds of filthy whores pressing around him demanding he pay them for their services... and in the midst of them the madam stood glaring at him with one eye on fire, seeing who and what he really was and refusing to back away.

  He could see right through her but he knew that didn't necessarily mean Tia Evalena wasn't with him. He'd learned long ago that his aunt had powers beyond the ordinary... he thought how sensing that magic was what had frightened him so much when she was around. Growing up he would've rather spent all his time alone instead of being under the sway of that witch.

  He suddenly hated Evalena. All the years he'd spent cowing to her came roaring back. The wraith in front of him was nothing more than a mirage but the woman herself was close at hand... he could feel her malignant tentacles reaching out to grasp what he carried. He knew he could use her haste against her but he had to wait for the right moment.

  "All right... you can have the stone, Tia. Here... I'll set it down for you."

  "No... don’t leav
e it there, you fool. Someone will take it. You must bring the stone to me and lay it at my feet. Failing that, your mother will die a horrible death screaming in misery and you'll bear the responsibility for all her pain... at least until you follow her."

  "Where are you, Tia? Tell me and I'll bring you the stone... just don't hurt my mother."

  "You know where I am, Church."

  A vision of the cave back in Mexico with its dirt walls and damp odor floated in front of his eyes and into his lungs but Church knew Evalena wasn't there... she was in the chabola, hiding. Despite her bravado she could be fought and even killed. Evalena had always been that thing in the dark which used the unknown to bolster her lack of self esteem and sagging power.

  She was a coward. He'd always suspected her true nature but it had never before manifested itself as upon that night. Evalena had always ordered him about under the guise of authority yet now he understood it was instead a weakness. He could use it against her.

  "You're in the cellar."

  "You surprise me, Church. Not many people in the world are as adept as you have grown. It'll be a pity to kill you... now, wait until they're gone and then come to me. I promise to make your death as quick and as painless as possible."

  As the vision of Lorraine vanished into the darkness Church turned back. Coming to Rancher's Jeep he opened the hatch in back where the man kept a case of dynamite at the ready so if they needed to blast rocks out of the way when they were setting fence.

  "Aren't you worried driving around with that stuff in the back of your Jeep, father?"

  "Dynamite is perfectly safe, Church... unless it gets old. I replace my stock each year. Besides, I only use the Jeep on the ranch."

  It was still there. Grabbing up four sticks, a length of fuse, and a roll of electrical tape Rancher kept in case they had to rewire the electric fences and putting his stash all into his jacket Church started up the path to the chabola once more as the first pink of dawn painted the horizon as red and forbidding as the gate to hell.

  Chapter 35

  He could tell by the detached way they talked that they didn’t know who he was.

  Why should they? He was no longer sure himself... was he really Billy Ford the boy or was he in actuality Billy Ford the old man? It was pretty apparent he wasn’t a boy... not from the reflection that he saw of himself... not from the way Evalena treated him.

  It hurt too badly to talk... the best he could do was breathe and even that sent screaming pains through his body. Yani appeared first... she must have been the one doing the shooting. The first bullet had hit him in the shoulder knocking him out of the bed and onto the floor where his low profile probably saved his life.

  "Oh my god... I'm so sorry! I'll get help for you right away, sir!"

  A second later his father appeared in the doorway... or someone who reminded him of his father. This man looked like a walking corpse... the skin was stretched so tightly over his face that if he smiled Billy was sure his cheeks would split in two.

  It was his father, though. As the man moved closer to him Billy was sure of it... the light in his eyes was the same as he remembered and though his visage had changed his voice had not... but he didn’t seem to recognize his own son. Then again, how could he expect him to?

  "We need to call a doctor, Yani. This man is seriously hurt... he won't survive the trip to a hospital... and besides, what will we tell them?"

  "The bullet went clean through his shoulder, Rancher. If we can stop the bleeding, he'll be okay until we can get him to your friend the horse doctor."

  Billy couldn’t believe what he was hearing... were they honestly going to take him to the veterinarian who de-balled the horses, the bulls, and the pigs on the Triple Six ranch? It made sense though, in a weird sort of way. He knew from his television watching that hospitals were required to report gunshot wounds and his would be hard to explain... especially when they found out it was from an AK-47... he could see the weapon still smoking as it hung on a strap from Yani's shoulder.

  "It doesn’t look like you hit any major arteries, Yani... if you had he'd be bleeding out by now. Here... take this sheet and wrap the wound tightly."

  His father was staring at him as if he was about to have a sudden revelation. Though Billy wanted to warn them about Evalena the best he could do was make gaping sounds with his mouth while flailing around on the floor as if he was a fish drowning in air.

  "Who does this guy remind you of, Yani?"

  "He looks a lot like Billy... but he's too old, unless..."

  "Unless what? What are you getting at, Yani?"

  "Unless Evalena has done something to him... remember that time we were hoeing beans and a rat ran across the row in front of Billy... how he chased after it and ran right under Church's hoe and how he was cut on the arm? We had to take him to get stitches... look at that scar... Rancher... this is Billy."

  He had just enough strength to blink his eyes. The room was growing darker or was it only the periphery of his vision? He couldn’t be sure. He was no longer inside the shack where he lived with Evalena... he was in a cave... that's where he was.

  "When the shooting starts... and it will... you have to crawl up onto the bed, Billy."

  "But why, mother? Wouldn’t it be safer on the floor?"

  "For the moment, Billy... but only for the moment... listen to me, son. You're going to die either way. If you can crawl up onto that bed, your death will be sweet."

  "I don’t want to die, mother."

  "I know... no one does, Billy. But just think... we'll be together again. Now promise me... when you hear the sound of gunfire, crawl up onto the bed."

  "I promise... will it hurt to die, mother?"

  "No, my son... it only hurts to live."

  There was light at the end of the tunnel but he was sequestered in the dark, sentenced there for crimes yet to be committed. He hadn’t lived long enough to do the harm a man was capable of perpetrating upon the world. If he'd the opportunity he might yet manage a misdemeanor or two but he sensed time was fast running out.

  Lately he'd been dreaming of that cave all the time. His mother was there. Since he knew she was dead he assumed the cave was an allegory of heaven though being underground seemed to indicate it was more like hell.

  Billy had never been big on religion. Though his mother had taken him to an old Catholic church numerous times when he was younger his father always begged off by saying he didn’t like the way the priest said the mass in Latin... that he didn’t understand what was going on. In point of fact he knew his father didn't believe in any god.

  While Billy listened Rancher had talked many times and at length with one of the farm hands named Michael who sought to convert his boss to the ways of the Lord. The man belonged to the Jehovah Witness church over in McLean and spent his time working all the nearby ranches to spread the word of god.

  Billy had to admit most of the gospel that Michael was so fond quoting didn't make much sense. He had done a little research on the bible—the King James version that Michael swore by—and discovered it was written back in the 1600s by a group of forty seven scholars all of whom belonged to the Church of England.

  Though Michael seemed adamant that the text was the word of god so far as Billy could see it was written by a bunch of old men who believed in that god. Other religions also professed to being the personification of different gods and each creed declared their god as the one and only.

  He'd listened as his father argued what he thought was rather eloquently with Michael about how, if man was common and god divine, it would be impossible to know the word of god... that the whole aura of taboo had grown up around just that eventuality. Michael for his part always seemed unfazed by Rancher's words.

  As he grew older his mother seemed to lose her affinity for religion too. He wondered if it had to do with his father's propensity towards atheism or if she'd simply given up hope of ever instilling the faith in Rancher.

  Billy felt like a wraith, weightl
ess and invisible. When he looked at the cave walls he saw that he cast no shadow though a fire burned throwing silhouettes of his mother on the rocks and dirt.

  "I'm not really here."

  Though he spoke the words they didn't sound in his ears. It was then he knew he was dreaming... until that moment he thought he was awake and with his dead mother no matter how incongruous it seemed. Still, he listened.

  She started telling a tale about a rock... a special stone that belonged to Church, or perhaps rightfully to Evalena. Apparently the stone possessed certain properties that rendered onto those around it long life and excellent health. On the darker side, the stone slowly subjugated its users to a life of thralldom and servitude whereby they only thought of it to the exclusion of all else.

  The rock had fallen from the sky, or so the legend went. When the first woman found it she hadn't been a woman at all... she was a monkey. When she picked up the stone it had instantly transformed her into a woman. Being different from the other monkeys the girl had taken the stone and gone off to a far off land where she used it to transform a male monkey into a man and between the two of them began to begat a new lineage of the human race.

  Since there were now two of them she named him Ado while she called herself Eva. Heretofore it had never occurred to her that she needed a name but once the word lodged in her mind others followed and language came into being.

  Eva and her man Ado had two sons as different in temperament as night and day, cold and hot, wet and dry. The boys seemed to mirror the stone which Ado kept wrapped in a cloth and would sometimes take out to show it off to his burgeoning family. Being naïve Eva had given the stone into her man's keeping at his insistence.

  Trouble soon ensued.

  As the boys grew Ado noted how his two sons got into heated arguments over the stone, each of them claiming it as their birthright. One day the younger man came upon the older while out hunting game and hiding in the weeds waylaid him and slew him with an arrow through the heart, running back home and telling his father that it was all an accident, that he'd mistaken his brother for an animal.