Clicking Stones Page 15

  The car wouldn't start. She pounded her frustration on the steering wheel.

  A nearby tree stirred in the wind.

  Erica calmed herself enough to start the car - then quickly released the clutch, causing the car to lurch forward. She threw the weight of her foot against the gas pedal. Dust and gravel spewed from under the wheels, brush scraped the sides of her car in a series of slaps, whacks and screeches as the car bounced and dipped over the uneven surface.

  An eagle soared overhead.

  She slid to a stop at the cabin, jumped out and ran up the steps.

  She was alone.

  She took a clean sheet of paper from her father's desk. With bold strokes she wrote I'M GOING NOW. She put her keys on the page and left the cabin, slamming the door behind her.

  She found the path and continued until she reached the soft wall. She thrust herself through as though afraid it would be strong enough to stop her today.

  Once through the barrier she pressed on, ignoring the storm beginning to churn. It blew tree branches in front of her menacingly. Her hair whipped around her as the storm reached hurricane strength.

  Then it was calm. She was in the eye. The midpoint of her journey. She stopped momentarily to catch her breath. She thought she heard a footstep. She whirled toward the sound.

  Out of the darkness came a voice, the beloved voice, the slow, husky, easy voice. "Where do you think you're going?"

  "Morgan!" Erica's knees felt as though they would buckle.

  Morgan stepped out of the darkness and stood in front of her. "I asked you, where do you think you're going?"

  Erica's mouth dropped open. "You... you..." She looked around for a tunnel of light. Tears sprang to her eyes. "Did you... did you..."

  "No," Morgan told her. "I'm not really here. Right now I'm at home in bed."

  "Why are you joking with me?" Erica's voice was frightened.

  "I'm not joking."

  "You mean you're in two places right now?" Erica laughed nervously. Her reality was slipping.

  "Stop it!" Morgan ordered. "Do you think all those things you call reality are any more real than this?"

  "I don't believe you. You're playing a trick on me." Erica started to move away.

  "Don't be a fool," Morgan warned. "Here." She held out her hand. "You dropped this."

  Erica automatically opened her hand. Morgan placed a Stone in her palm and closed her fingers around it.

  Erica didn't have to look to know it was her Stone; it had been a part of her for thirty-nine years. She knew every surface, each curve, the exact weight - its pulse matched her own. "I... I don't understand," Erica cried.

  "Why do you have to understand? You accept the light of the Stone, you accept the old woman, you accept the soft wall, and you even accept the end of this path, which you seem to be in a hurry to reach."

  Erica stared at Morgan.

  Morgan smiled slightly. "Isn't there something you'd like to do before you go?"

  "Yes!" Erica said hoarsely and held up her Stone.

  The two women brought their Stones together with a crash. Light exploded around them.

  As they stood in the throbbing light, Erica could see Morgan's eyes as she had never seen them before, shining with the light that can behold no darkness. Erica felt herself slipping...

  "Are you all right?" Morgan asked softly.

  Erica tried to look at Morgan but the light... she turned away.

  "Look at me!" Morgan commanded.

  Erica turned back slowly and gazed into the light. The eyes remained the same but Morgan's face began to change. It became the face of her mother, then her father. It became the face of Nicole, Mike, Marty and Kelly. It became Isa and Becky. It became the face of Isica, Sally, Britt, Jessica and Billy. Then it was Julie, Nero, Guy and Mrs. Simons. The light in those eyes was the light that can behold no darkness. She saw every face she had ever known - the eyes shining with the same light. In the flicker of timelessness, faces she had never seen, all shone with the same light, the same eyes.

  Suddenly the faces stopped changing and she was gazing at the beauty of those eyes in her own face.

  "No!" She refused to look. "It isn't true!" Tears poured down her cheeks.

  "It's the only truth there is." The face changed again. It was Morgan's.

  "Oh, Morgan, help me," she begged.

  Morgan drew Erica to her and held her until the tears had stopped.

  "I guess I have to go back, don't I?"

  Morgan nodded and brushed Erica's hair out of her eyes.

  "Could we talk about this sometime?" Erica wanted to know.

  Morgan looked amused. "I'm afraid you'll have to fill me in on what's happened. Remember, I'm at home with a cold. I took two aspirin and went to bed early."

  Erica laughed.

  Morgan hugged her. "Come on, I'll walk part of the way with you."

  The storm had subsided. The two women walked together in the calm until they reached the barrier of the soft wall.

  "See you later." Just as the old woman had done so many years before, Morgan gently pushed Erica through the soft wall.

  The fire that had been kindled in Erica's heart when she was a child was now aflame. She walked out of the woods and back to the cabin. Inside, she crumpled the note she had written and tossed it into the fireplace.

  Exhausted, she found her room and dropped onto her bed.

  * * * *

  Erica awakened in total peace. She walked out onto the porch, into the beauty of the day. The birds were singing, the sun was shining and the air was deliciously clear.

  Erica put her hand into her pocket and pulled out her Stone, half expecting to see it lighted. She turned it over in her hand and gasped. The M from Morgan's Stone had left a sideways imprint on her Stone. It was emblazoned E.

  ~ Chapter 32 ~

  Erica walked from the porch to the big boulder and sat down. She was aware of the sun bathing her in light while a soft breeze caressed her skin. Her hearing more acute in the quiet of that place, she listened to the sweet song of peace.

  Her chest expanded as she drew in the fresh morning air, and then she had a sensation - not of breathing, but of being breathed. The air she was breathing suddenly became the sweet exhalation of her surroundings. Her own exhalations became breath for the life that supported her.

  Erica felt herself become the quiet which was also the breeze which was also the swaying of the trees which was also the bird whose eye was also the sun.

  Into her reverie came an intrusion. A voice: Erica, call Kelly - Erica, call Kelly - Erica, call Kelly.

  * * * *

  When Erica walked into the store, Jenny was smiling. "I'm so glad you came in. I got a call for you a while ago. Since Dad retired it's not easy to get away to deliver messages."

  Erica noticed a difference in Jenny. Light seemed reflected in her eyes. "You look radiant today."

  "Does it show? Last night I had a dream about your father. This morning he called me and said he woke up in the middle of the night thinking about me. He asked me to marry him. I called the real estate agent this morning to put the store up for sale."

  Erica was very happy. She embraced Jenny and then teased, "Do I have to call you Mom?"

  She called Kelly.

  "Jenny gave me your message. I got your other message too. Three times loud and clear."

  "That's great! So much is happening here. Morgan called early this morning."

  "How is she feeling?" Erica was concerned.

  "Great. She said she had a dream about you last night and she woke up without a cold."

  Erica laughed.

  "She wanted to bring Britain by to meet you on the way to the airport. Britt had to leave Saturday, but Britain stayed with Morgan to take care of her."

  "I can't wait to meet Britain." So she had been the woman with Morgan. "She's Britt's double," Erica said.

  "You'll have your chance. Britain's going to UCLA in the fall. Morgan will stop by on her way back from
the airport. We're having lunch together."

  "Why?"

  "Well," Kelly teased, "I think she's secretly hoping you'll be back sometime today - but also, in talking to her I found that we have some interests in common, and she's going to tell me a story about her brother Jesse for my book."

  "Did you get her phone number?"

  "No." Kelly was incredulous. "I thought you'd have it."

  Erica laughed. "I'll be home tomorrow."

  "What are you doing up there that's more important than being with Morgan down here?"

  "Thinking," Erica told her, "and drinking orange juice."

  "You're not reconsidering getting involved with Morgan are you?"

  "No, that would be impossible anyway. I am involved with Morgan. Kelly, I met her phantom double last night on the path."

  There was silence at the other end.

  "Are you there?"

  "Yes," Kelly answered. "You don't seem too excited about it."

  "It isn't that I'm not excited, Kelly. It just presents a whole new set of problems for me. I know now why some people can see the light from the Stone and others can't."

  "Tell me."

  "Kelly I can't." Erica struggled for words. "You know, even though I've denied it continually I've enjoyed the prestige of being the Lady of Light. I'm a little afraid of what'll happen if everybody finds out that my whole life has been structured on a little tiny white lie."

  Kelly giggled. "What is a little tiny white lie?"

  "Maybe there's another way to handle the whole thing."

  "Usually the easiest way is the simplest way," Kelly urged. "Don't make it complicated."

  "Would you be just as content with life if you didn't have the prestige of being Kelly Redmond the award-winning writer?"

  "Sure. I don't get my goodies from the prestige anyway. I get high from doing whatever I'm doing to the best of my ability."

  "I'll have to think about it," Erica confessed. "I'm still confused."

  * * * *

  Before going to her apartment Erica stopped downstairs.

  When Becky saw her she started crying. "I'm feeling very anxious. I have to talk to you." In Erica's office she wept again. "I lied to you, I can't really see the light. I was afraid you'd ask me to leave."

  Erica looked at Becky. "I tested you and you passed with flying colors. How could you fool me?"

  Becky shook her head. "I knew what you were doing. I'm a clever and sensitive Wit. I knew which Stones were lighted and to what degree. I'll write up my resignation this afternoon."

  Erica put her arm around the unhappy woman. "There has to be a better way. I'd hate to lose a sensitive and clever Wit."

  Erica walked with her out of the office into the hallway. She indicated the tiny rooms. "What would you think about tearing down all these walls and having a big auditorium again?"

  "It would be nice in some ways. I've never been to a big Click and we could have parties, dances and concerts, but where would the different groups meet? We don't have enough rooms as it is."

  "How many people are comfortable in these little rooms?" Erica asked.

  "Between fifteen and twenty," Becky guessed.

  "A perfect number for groups to meet in their own living rooms," Erica observed. "We could have a bulletin board announcing these meetings. How is it going with the questionnaires we sent out?"

  Becky sighed. "The center managers with computers have read the results in. The ones doing it by hand are all late."

  A tall, brunette woman came in. "Excuse me, I'm new here. I just got into town. When I was passing through Martin's Ferry, Ohio, I got this." She held up a Stone. "It's faded now. Can somebody here Click me?"

  Becky Clicked the woman's Stone and watched her face soften with pleasure.

  "My name is Jerri," the woman said. "Is there anything I can do here to be helpful?"

  "I was just going to stack these chairs," Becky told her. "And then I was going to call a carpenter."

  "What a coincidence," the woman stated. "I'm a carpenter. By the way, I like your hair... what did you say your name was?"

  "Becky."

  "Well, Becky, I really like your hair."

  Upstairs, Erica found Kelly studiously looking over her notebook.

  "I'm glad you're here." Kelly took off her reading glasses. "Morgan's been calling every hour."

  "Hmm," Erica said. "What did you two find to talk about yesterday?"

  "You mean besides you?" Kelly laughed. "She really is hung up on you. We did manage to speak about some of my interests too. She told me about Jesse and we talked about the theory of twin worlds."

  "What worlds?"

  "It's a theory," Kelly explained. "Many people think, and with good reason, that there is another world - a duplicate of our own that exists simultaneously with this one. It's invisible to us as ours may be to them. Occasionally a being becomes visible to our side and probably the reverse happens. It would explain a lot of things we don't understand now."

  "Like what?"

  "People being seen in two places at the same time or meeting their phantom double." Kelly added, "There are people who have seen other beings step through what appears to be a rip in the air. Usually the beings are helpful in some way."

  "When I saw Morgan's double - the significant thing wasn't seeing her. The thing that really made a difference was the light coming from her eyes. I was feeling kind of special about it and then I heard a song describing my exact experience."

  Kelly sat forward. "How do you know you weren't hallucinating?"

  Erica produced her Stone and handed it to Kelly. "We Clicked. I thought, when I woke up, that I'd been dreaming. But look at the Stone."

  Kelly looked at the Stone and then handed it back. "I wasn't going to tell you this because you haven't been very receptive to my work. About a year ago I took a plane out of Hopkins Airport in Cleveland. I was very depressed - almost suicidal. I'd just been to a conference with several scientists. I was doing research for the book on nuclear weaponry. Looking down at the lights from the boats on the Ohio River, I wondered what it would look like at ground zero. Suddenly, in the distance I saw lights moving together toward a central point. By the time our plane passed over it the lights had converged into what looked like a giant sun."

  "Billy," Erica said.

  "Who?"

  "Billy, the manager of the Martins Ferry Stone Clicking Center. She had her people meet at the river with their lighted Stones."

  "The effect was indescribable," Kelly told her. "Everyone was looking. When we passed over the site, I glanced up at the steward and I saw the same light you described coming from his eyes - and then his face began to change. It even became my own." Kelly searched Erica's eyes.

  "I understand," Erica assured her.

  Kelly's face was wet with tears. "When I was finally able to look around, everyone was looking at everyone else and their expressions revealed they had experienced something as profound as I had."

  Erica was moved. She had never seen Kelly cry.

  Kelly continued. "A General sitting across the aisle from me started crying and taking off his ribbons and then said 'No, I can do more if I stay where I am.' What he... I... we experienced happened in a microsecond. I had been concerned that it would take too long to educate people about the danger we face. It takes years sometimes to effect change. Now I know it can be speeded up by experience. A profound experience is far superior to education."

  "Shall we fly everyone over a brilliant light?" Erica joked.

  Kelly laughed. "That's a thought. If there were just some way for people to experience how connected we all are. We are all really concerned about the same things. I'm convinced the answer is in experience rather than education."

  The two women sat in silence for a while and then Erica picked up Kelly's reading glasses and tried them on. She was surprised. "These things really work."

  "Are you going to see Morgan today?" Kelly asked.

  "I certainly hope so." E
rica looked around. "Morgan was here."

  "For about three hours."

  "Did she - look around much? Did she go into the bedroom?"

  Kelly laughed. "She kept looking at the door. Also she kept staring at Jessica's picture. She asked me twice if I knew the last name of her birth mother."