Water and Stone

by Glover, Dan

  "I'm losing him, doctor. His blood pressure is falling... I think his heart has stopped."

  The room below him erupted in activity as men and women worked feverishly over what looked to be a desiccated corpse lying on the table. The unfolding scene no longer interested him at all... he was drifting away now, taken by an invisible hand and being led into oblivion... or was it a place far greater than he ever imagined?

  Chapter 42

  When she opened her one good eye she was home.

  The house was obviously abandoned decades ago, perhaps since the days they last lived there. It seemed odd that no one would've moved into it during all that time but then again the sand she'd scattered was still in place. Any normal human being would be quickly overcome by sickness, and if they stayed, death.

  They'd tried to kill her.

  The fact that she found herself naked and alone on an island isolated from the rest of the world meant nothing to her... only that she'd survived when death seemed inevitable. Losing the only people she loved rendered her so despondent, however, that she wished she would've been blown to bits back at the chabola rather than face the reality of a life alone.

  She wondered if she'd have made the same choice had she time to mull the options open to her at the moment. Threatened with immediate death she'd reacted without thinking doing the first thing that came into her mind.

  Now, though, she just felt tired. Life had always been hard... she expected no less. Being with Yani and Church had lent her a sense of family she couldn’t remember ever experiencing before. Now, those days were over.

  Back on the island again and walking through her old home brought back the dark memories lurking like shadows around each corner... things better forgotten. Yet hadn’t her life always thrived on the same mysterious power that poured out of the void like water from a breeched dike?

  She needed no one but she craved acceptance from everyone. She'd rather spend all her time in the isolation of her own making but it soothed her ego to be around others.

  On the island it was forever summer, not an endless parade of seasons chasing one another around the calendar like marauding baboons. She didn't dislike the changes the more northerly climate offered back in Texas yet she missed the long languid summertime days running into each other until she'd forgotten all together about the passage of time.

  Why'd they all turned on her? Was it greed? Was it in knowing that she held the secret to life and death in her hands like so many playing cards?

  It was still dark outside and she shivered a little. A chilly early morning breeze blew though the broken windows bringing with it the scent of sea and smoke. Tearing down the tattered curtains she wrapped her nakedness in their dusty veil and tiptoed outside.

  The sky was indigo and turning into a dawn pink around the edges of the horizon. She stood for a moment to watch fish mongers loaded down with bait and harpoons leaving their hovels and kicking up sand on their way to the shoreline where their tiny ships awaited. She knew instinctively most of them would return empty-handed and hungry for the effort it afforded them.

  Like the seasons nothing in Cuba had changed. The island teemed with poverty and little else... it always had. With the piedra in her possession Evalena was able to live a life of relative luxury though she knew better than to draw attention to her prosperity. Now, without even clothes on her back, she doubted if she'd survive more than a week.

  She had to get back to Texas... Church still had the stone... he must have been hiding it somewhere close by the hacienda... she could feel its draw. The dolt hadn’t a clue how to use its powers otherwise he wouldn’t have come at her with explosives... he'd have sought to have trapped her within her own devices.

  Even if he'd succeeded in blowing her up she'd have returned... it might have taken twenty years but she'd do it... the hate she felt was that strong. Still, she had to take care lest the boy learned the secrets of the stone... if that happened, she might well be banished into the shell of her own weaving.

  The piedra taught her the lesson centuries before. It was both dangerous and advantageous to concentrate all one's energies into a singularity... dangerous because those who knew the secret could isolate and imprison a person that way and advantageous because it allowed the adept to ride the lines of the world as easily as walking across the street.

  It was how she escaped the explosion at the chabola... had Church acted just a second sooner she never could've summoned the sleep needed to dream herself out of there. But then again if the tiny spider hadn't alerted her to Yani's deadly presence the bullet that missed her might well have found its mark.

  Replaying the shooting incident in her mind Evalena realized with a start that the first bullet had struck the wall a few inches higher than her head. At the time she'd been so disconcerted by the attack that her senses had overlooked that fact.

  The girl had missed her on purpose. But if Yani hadn’t planned on shooting her, why did she make the attempt... after all, she filled the walls of the chabola with holes... yet every shot had missed its intended mark. How was that possible... unless it had all been a ruse... a way of scaring Evalena away?

  Knowing her sister hadn’t actually meant to kill her lent her the resiliency to continue despite the hardships lurking in front of her. Perhaps the shooting had been a ploy to find Billy before Evalena's charm ran its course upon him.

  Yani had always loved the boy nearly as much as her own son. The boys had the same father it was true but there was more to it than that... Evalena saw how her sister looked after Billy like a surrogate mother, especially after Lorraine Ford had fled Texas like the jilted lover she was.

  Now the woman was dead and yet Lorraine wielded far more power than ever before. It was a mistake using the stone to kill. Evalena knew it yet the sense of power it gave her over others overrode the rational knowledge gained through thousands of other encounters with those she deemed better off dead.

  Most people weren't aware of the time folded within a second. They considered time as something quickly sweeping by, immutable and persistent, a clock ticking away the seconds always and forever. The piedra had taught her how to abide within the space between those ticks of the clock where time had no meaning... where a second might last a thousand years or more... even an eternity.

  She'd yet to master the piedra and its power. Long ago she made a mistake of entrusting it to a confidante who turned on her, like all her family seemed inclined towards doing. She didn’t feel she had the conviction to wield the stone... it was capable of so much and like a child she was afraid of losing herself to it.

  "Let me keep it for you, Evalena... so you'll not be tempted."

  At the moment she thought he was the one... the love she'd searched for the world over and traveled across mountains of time to find. She'd confided her fears in him and he in turn beguiled her with words of passion and love all the while surreptitiously striving to steal what was rightfully hers.

  It was strange... she couldn’t even recall his face now... only his name remained. They had met in a town not far from the ocean on the island where she'd migrated in an effort to distance herself from those who would take by force what she'd give freely if only asked.

  She remembered feeling the heat of desire boiling off of him as he took the box containing the piedra in a hand shaky with greed. At one time, that want of his directed itself towards her but now she was forgotten and instead he struggled to open the container as if to make sure she wasn’t deceiving him.

  "How does it work, Evalena?"

  "I don’t know."

  And she didn’t... she only knew that it did work. The piedra was too temperamental to touch with living flesh... it would melt on contact... but that was unnecessary. She'd discovered that the stone had only to be close by to feel its effects... and there was always the sand.

  And then the box opened to expose the treasure inside. She watched his eyes as they feasted upon the piedra revealed in its nakedness... it was like a
heart beating, pulsing with its own light, alive though dead. When he finally tore his eyes from the stone and looked up at her, she knew he was lost. The rest of his life would be devoted to caressing the stone with his eyes, longing to touch it. Like all the others, in the end the stone would drive him mad.

  For years she heard tales of alchemists who tried to simulate the piedra without success. Some of the fools even used their own piss as a substitute. None of them realized its true origins or they'd have known they were wasting their time. Even those men of knowing were fooled into thinking the stone was something natural to the earth... they didn't sense its source as being otherworldly.

  Finally, as she knew he would, the man had succumbed to the lure of the piedra. He came to her with questions that she had no answers for. Perhaps she knew she'd fall prey to the stone as well... maybe that was why she gave it into his keeping even while knowing he hadn’t the strength to resist its pull.

  "Why can't I hold it in my hands, Evalena? It's like water... it pours right through my fingers."

  "It isn’t a solid nor is it a liquid. They say the stone is the first material... it came here eons ago after falling from the sky. The woman who found it wasn’t a woman at all."

  "That doesn’t make any sense, Evalena... how could a woman find it if she wasn’t a woman?"

  "The stone changed her into something else after she touched it and she became the woman. It will change you too."

  "Touch it with me, Evalena... maybe that's what it takes. We'll both be changed into something better than what we are."

  "No... I'm afraid. Take it away... keep it. I only want to be who I am, not something I'll no longer recognize."

  She remembered the look on his face as he closed the box and grasped it to his chest... a conquering sneer, as if he was somehow better than her for having the strength to grasp what was right there in front of them.

  Even then, though, she saw the changes erupting upon his person. Still, she'd warned him not to touch the stone. She'd watched as others endured its embrace, witnessing the devastatingly hideous transformations that inevitably ensued, and secretly lusting to taste the same transmogrifications.

  One morning she woke and the man was gone. He'd left without a word. On the floor sat the box and for a precious instant she wondered if he had taken the piedra with him... but of course he hadn’t. When she opened the box to see the stone smiling at her she thanked the night.

  Yet she gave her treasure away again... sometimes she wondered if she did so on purpose to rid herself of its infernal influence. She couldn’t live with the damned thing but when the stone wasn’t close to her she suffered its absence in cruel ways she'd never been able to understand.

  She promised herself that if she was fortunate enough to be reunited with the piedra that this time she'd never let it go again. The years had taught her well. This time she felt she could finally tame the wild thing from the sky.

  The changes wrought on her right eye were a small step in that direction. It had been an accident, a slipup, something she could not afford, and yet it alerted her to the potentiality of what was waiting for her... for anyone who could tame the piedra and snare its power.

  She was ready now. With the stone back in her hand she'd remake her world into a place more livable. She didn’t care about wealth and finery so much as simply having an abode to call home, a place where she wouldn’t be constantly under assault by those closest to her.

  She had done nothing to deserve the despicable treatment foisted upon her by Yani and Church. Billy Ford had come to her of his own accord and stayed without any coercion on her part. He loved her and she loved him. They'd made a pact to both live together and die together.

  She couldn’t help what she was... and she always gave them a choice. That they chose badly wasn’t her fault any more than if they had done well by her, which some had. A long and fruitful life of wealth and pleasure wasn’t a thing to be shunned lightly yet there were those who seemed intent upon living in poverty and filth.

  Yani was one of the worse offenders. The girl had every chance to acquit herself of the mistake she made in running away on her fifteenth birthday yet she never made a move in that direction. Instead, she seemed content to live as a thrall to a man who'd despoiled her, implanted his seed inside of her, and then abandoned her.

  Why did so many women cling to men who only used them? She witnessed the same thing over and again. Evalena could never understand the desire to debase oneself, to open up the heart to the scorn and ridicule that was invariably the end result of any love affair.

  Though she too had succumbed to the lure of love, Evalena had always been the one in charge, the string puller to whom others danced. Men were too easy... all they desired was a pretty woman with big boobs, someone they thought would cow to them, be their acquisition, a plaything dangling from their arm, until they decided to move on to someone younger and prettier.

  Even though she knew how much Yani detested her, Evalena always watched out for the girl, protecting her from the ardors of age and sickness seeking to rob her of life and youth. Now, though, things had changed. If the girl thought so little of her protector, let her fend for herself. Once she had a taste of old age she might well come crawling back begging for forgiveness... which of course was hers for the asking.

  None of them seemed to understand that all they desired was theirs... that they'd merely to utter the words—to hold the thought in their head—and the piedra would grant any wish, fulfill promises not made lightly, and secure for them a life of wealth and passion. That it might well be understandably shortened was all part of the bargain they must make.

  Billy had been a prime example. The boy wanted her for her body and she gave in to his yearning without a thought for herself. He did nothing for her. Billy was simply one more in a long line of lovers who failed to excite or to satisfy yet she took it in stride knowing it was written and so it would be.

  Everyone seemed to think of time as something unfolding, new and unpredictable. They didn’t seem to fathom the possibility that what they saw as the passage of time was in actuality the only way human beings could conceive of it. Even when Evalena tried to explain the concept to Billy the boy only laughed and shook his head as if he thought she was insane.

  "The thing I'm searching for is something that looks like a stone yet it doesn’t exist in this world like ordinary rocks. Common stones arise, linger a while, and then crumble back into the dust from which they're formed. My stone exists as something outside of time. It neither arises nor will it one day disappear. It's been called many things by as many different people, Billy, but the one name no one has ever hung upon it is ordinary."

  "I don’t understand, Evalena... if that thing doesn’t exist in this world how can anyone see it?"

  "I don't think we do actually see it, Billy... not in the same way we might see a tree or a house. We perceive it each in our own way. Perhaps once you do come across the stone you'll understand better. Until then, help me search for it. Ask Church about it... I'm sure he has knowledge of it which he's keeping to himself."

  "I'll ask him, Evalena, but I know Church pretty good. If he had something like what you're talking about I'm pretty sure he would've told me about it by now. Are you sure you're not just playing me?"

  He hadn’t taken her seriously yet she expected nothing else. It had been the same for all the years of her life. Still, she kept waiting for the day when she might meet her equal... someone with whom to give all her secrets.

  No one ever realized how much love she had to share. All they thought about was taking instead of giving, of lust and greed and all things evil. They even thought of her as in league with the devil... why else would Yani have tried to kill her without warning?

  If only she could travel back the same way she got to the island... but what she had accomplished was done under extreme duress. Now, she had few alternatives other than to either hitch a ride to Florida in a passing boat or to wait until she wa
s able to procure funds to buy her way back.

  As always, waiting seemed the best option.

  Chapter 43

  The thumping of the landing gear being lowered woke her.

  It sounded like a skipped heartbeat. She'd been sleeping poorly of late... each time she closed her eyes she saw Rancher Ford walking down Cherry Creek Road moving away from her and when she called out he ignored her entreaties to turn around.

  Something was on his back. At first she thought he'd perhaps fallen and gotten his shirt dirty but as she watched the spot moved. In a sudden flash of insight she realized it was an enormous spider with venom dripping from its fangs. As it climbed toward Rancher's neck she tried to shout out a warning but her voice was but a whisper of wind blowing through the denuded treetops.

  Even within the nightmare Yani knew she was but dreaming yet something inside her chest fluttered so loudly she thought it might burst from her ribcage. She'd failed again... once more, when love was ripe for the taking it was ripped away from her. The hate she felt for Evalena crystallized into a hard little kernel in the pit of her stomach and no matter how she swallowed the ringing in her ears wouldn't subside.

  It was probably too late now... even if she found the girl the spear of age in her side had wounded her too deeply to be healed by any magic. She might yet have the luxury of watching Evalena die first, however. She had to be eradicated... wiped off the earth in a way which she might never return.

  There were ways to accomplish that feat. For most of the last few decades Yani had turned her back on the black arts, shunned them as something unholy, not worthy of her attention. Now, however, she needed them again.

  On the trip to the airport she'd a sudden insight into how she could turn the tables on Evalena... how she might even use the girl's own power against her. Had she managed to shoot Evalena that night at the chabola her body might well have died but her spirit would remain intact. By making use of cellular memory she'd be reborn into the body of another whose personality Evalena would usurp and shunt into nothingness.