The Book of Sight (4 page)

Suddenly, Terra stopped. They were in a small clearing where a roughly flat, mossy rock was surrounded by wildflowers. The trees leaned in ever so slightly so that, though there was space among the trunks, overhead there was a thick roof of branches.

“Welcome to our home,” said Terra.

Alex looked around in surprise. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but at the moment she didn’t see anything at all. Where were all the other Gylf, Terra’s cousins?

She heard Adam whisper, “Whoa.” And as she stood, looking around in confusion, things began to change. It was like that ugly 3D picture at her Uncle Gabe’s house; one minute it was just a bunch of lines and the next minute there was a picture. As if her eyes were suddenly coming into focus, she saw that there were faces looking out from the trees all around her and from the flowers in front of her. There must have been thirty Gylf standing around the clearing; there were even a couple sitting on top of the rock.

Then Alex realized why she hadn’t seen them at first. Each one was wearing clothing that blended in perfectly with their surroundings. Those among the tree trunks wore rough brown clothing very like Terra’s. Those in the flowers were wearing the green pants and flowered hats that she had noticed on the little man, Florin, the first day. And those on the rock wore clothing of wrinkled gray mottled with mossy green. It was such perfect camouflage that only their faces stood out.

Now they were all emerging into the clearing. The ones on the rock stood up and smiled. As they approached, Alex could see that though they were all roughly the same height as Terra and had the same fine features and large eyes, they did not all look alike. Alex saw hair ranging from short bristly grey to almost transparent wispy blonde to long dark tangles. There were eyes as deep and green as forest pools and eyes bright and sparkling blue and eyes as grey as slates. Some of the Gylf seemed young and had smooth care-free faces and others were old and leaned on knobbly wooden sticks.

One of these, an old man who moved slowly, though his long hair was still thick and dark, looked up at Adam and Alex and extended a hand in greeting. “Welcome, humans. You are the first of your kind to visit our home. We are pleased to meet the seeing ones that our traditions speak of.”

There was much excited murmuring at this. All the Gylf were looking in wonder at the kids. Alex felt self-conscious with all the staring, but there was nothing malicious in it. On the contrary, the Gylf all seemed very happy with this unexpected encounter.

“Thank you,” said Adam. “It’s really great to meet you, too. You may have stories of us, but we’ve never even heard of you. This is incredible.”

“Yes,” said the old man. “Your people are known for blindness. But we should be introduced.” He looked meaningfully at Terra.

She stepped forward at once. “Yes, Grandfather, this is Alex. She is the one who saw Florin. And this is Adam who came with her today to find us. Alex, Adam, this is my grandfather, Terfol. And,” indicating a very old woman with long fair hair in braids down her back, “Celana, one of our grandmothers.”

The old woman looked up with a very young twinkle in her blue eyes and a beautiful smile that lit up her face. “Welcome, young ones. The other grandfathers and grandmothers are in the forest today,” she said sweetly. “We did not, of course, know that you would be coming, but they will be pleased to be introduced to you in due time. And now, your coming is cause for celebration!”

She clapped her hands, and all the Gylf laughed and began to clap with her. Their clapping turned quickly into a rhythmic beat, and some began to stomp their feet. A few of the younger Gylf began to dance and soon all but the two grandparents were whirling and stamping and laughing in a circle around Adam and Alex. The joy in the little clearing was like a fountain, and Alex felt it flow into her and well up in a bubble of laughter. Beaming, she turned to look at Adam who was clapping and stamping along with the rest. He caught her eye, and they both grinned.

The tempo around them increased. The Gylf were swinging and spinning faster and faster until some lost their footing and tumbled into a heap or collapsed, breathless and laughing outside the circle. Those who were still dancing called jokingly to them, but once someone had sat down, he did not join the dance again. Instead each one clapped along and increased the pace more and more until only a few were left on their feet. Finally, one of these last dancers tripped and all the others stumbled over her and came crashing down together. Obviously this was a well-established game because all the Gylf laughed at this ending and jumped to their feet to help untangle the winners.

After such an exuberant welcome, Alex and Adam could not help but feel perfectly at home. They sat in the clearing and talked with Terfol and Celana while the younger Gylf prepared food and carried out their normal tasks. Alex loved watching them; they moved quickly without ever seeming to hurry and frequently exchanged comfortable jokes.

Adam was much more interested in talking with Terfol. He was explaining about the books and how they had begun to see things after reading them. Terfol seemed interested in this, but he had never heard of anything like it. The Gylf had nothing in their traditions about how humans gained sight. In fact, their traditions said very little at all about humans.

“There is only one mention of humans speaking with Gylf,” explained Terfol. “It says that the seeing ones come who are able to see as the Gylf see and will help them in their task.”

“Task?” asked Adam. “What task?”

“The task of rejoicing,” said Terfol.

“Rejoicing?” Adam could not have looked more confused.

Terfol smiled. “You see all this?” He gestured at the trees and sky. “Why does it exist? It exists to bring delight, to cause joy. But this can never happen if there is no one to feel the delight, to taste the joy. This is the task of the Gylf.”

After all she had seen that day, Alex thought she knew what he meant, but Adam was still looking at Terfol blankly.

“So you just…enjoy things? What do you do, just sit and look around?”

“Sometimes. But there are many ways of enjoying the world. True joy grows when it is shared. So we share it. We walk among the trees and in our walking our joy overflows in song which brings joy to the trees who listen. We gather fallen wood to make fires for the food we enjoy, and this helps to keep the forest from becoming cluttered. We aid hurting animals that we might rejoice to see them in motion again, and this becomes their salvation.”

“So you look after the forest. You’re like caretakers,” said Adam.

“In a way,” replied Terfol, “but this is not our main task. Our main task is to enjoy.” Seeing that Adam still did not comprehend, he continued with a smile, “Do not worry. Many mornings begin in fog, but the sun comes and burns the mist away. You will see more clearly in time. You would not be here if it were not so.”

“Come,” said Celana. “The meal is ready.”

She pointed to the rock, which had a fire lit in the middle, over which a large pot of soup was cooking. At least, it must have been enormous for the Gylf; for Alex and Adam it looked more like a sugar bowl. In small mounds around the fire were berries and nuts and some lumpy roots that Alex didn’t recognize. There were also tiny loaves of bread being handed out by several young women.

The Gylf ate with the same enthusiasm that they danced. Each one had his own loaf of bread, but the bowls of soup were passed around and shared. Adam and Alex were included in this sharing, though of course for them it was more like sipping from a small wooden thimble. Even with such tiny portions, Alex could tell that the food was delicious. She was still hungry after everything was finished, but she decided against finding one of the sandwiches they had brought along. It just seemed too ordinary after everything else that had happened.

Celana had thought of this, however. She came to Alex and Adam after the meal leaning on the arm of a young Gylf with close-cropped grey hair and slate grey eyes. “You will not have been satisfied with our food, large as you are,” she stated simply. “I do not know what you are accustomed to eating or if we are able to provide it, but we must do what we can so that you do not go hungry.”

“We did actually bring some of our own food,” said Adam.

“Good!” smiled Celana. “Then you must eat it. Everything has its place in this world, and our food is a delight to us, but it cannot suit you as your own food would.”

“I don’t think…” Alex began, but Adam was already opening his backpack and taking out a sandwich. Alex felt a brief flash of annoyance. How could he eat a plain sandwich here? Then her own stomach rumbled loudly. When Adam offered her a ham and cheese on rye, she gave in. To her surprise, she found that Celana was right; the sandwich was just the thing. She ate it hungrily and felt much better when she was done.

Celana waited politely for them to finish and then said, “Come. To mark the occasion of your first visit to us, we will show you the treasure of our forest. But we must move quickly if we are to arrive by the changing hour.”

Then, with no sign of embarrassment, she turned to the young Gylf next to her, and he lifted her into his arms as if she were a baby. The whole group was moving now, filtering through the trees on the other side of the clearing.

As she and Adam followed the crowd, Alex felt again the disadvantage of her size. While the Gylf slipped between roots and branches without ever disturbing a leaf, she was lucky if she didn’t trample anyone. At one point, too busy watching the gracefulness of the Gylf to notice her own feet, she tripped and would have come crashing down on the whole lot of them if Adam hadn’t caught her arm.

“Do not worry,” spoke up the young grey-haired Gylf. “We do not have far to go.”

Alex couldn’t help but think it was the Gylf who should be worried with such a clumsy giant along with them.

“I am Pidras,” continued the Gylf, not showing any sign of the exertion of carrying Celana. “It is a joy to have you with us. I have long been curious about humans.”

“Thank you,” said Alex. “This has all been incredible. You’ve been so wonderful to us.”

“How else should we be?” asked Pidras.

Alex had no answer to that. Instead, she asked, “Where are we going?”

“To the changing tree,” said Pidras.

“What is that?”

“You must see it for yourself. No words of mine could be adequate.”

Just as Pidras said, it was only another 10 minutes or so when they all emerged from the trees into a very large clearing with one enormous and beautiful tree standing in the middle. The sun was very low and a soft warm light surrounded the group of Gylf who gathered expectantly around the tree. They were all very quiet, but Alex could hear a whispering from the branches above her. She glanced up. The trees around the edge of the clearing were leaning into each other and whispering softly.

“You hear the trees speaking,” said Pidras matter-of-factly.

“What? Yes... I mean, are they really talking?” asked Alex.

“Of course,” Pidras replied.

“Can you understand what they are saying?”

“No. To my knowledge no one can understand the speech of the trees.”

“Then how do we know it is speech and not just noises?” Adam asked.

Pidras looked puzzled. “Because they are speaking,” he said. “You have seen them. You have heard them. If they choose to only speak to brother trees and not to us, that does not make their speech any less.”

At a quick gesture from Celana, he fell silent and turned toward the magnificent lone tree. There was a moment when everyone in the clearing seemed to hold their breath. Then the branches began to glow. The sun had lowered to the level of the surrounding forest and its rays were lighting up the Changing Tree with increasing intensity. What began as a glow brightened until the leaves burned. They glittered and sparkled almost as if...

“The leaves are jewels!” exclaimed Alex.

There was a collective sigh of contentment from the surrounding Gylf.

“Yes,” whispered Pidras. “For just this moment they are stones.”

They all stood and watched the shining jewel tree until the sun sank below the tree tops and the light of the tree slowly faded.

Alex turned to say something to Adam but fell silent when she saw his face. It was alight with a glow almost as bright as the Changing Tree itself.

O
pening the front door at home that night, Adam felt like he was waking up from a dream. There was his dad, sitting on the couch reading the paper just like he did every night. The television was on in the family room where Adam’s older brother, Brian, was inevitably watching baseball. And if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a bit of smoke in the air. His mom must have burnt dinner even more than usual tonight.

It was all so depressingly normal that Adam almost turned around and walked right back out the door. But he wasn’t quick enough.

“Where have you been?” Sheila Cleary was high strung even on the best of days, and it was clear as she came charging out of the kitchen that this had not been the best of days. “You said you were going to friend’s house, but you didn’t say who, and that was six hours ago. I called your cell phone four times, and it sent me straight to voice mail. I expect better of you, Adam. I expect you to call if you are going to be gone longer than you thought. I don’t have time to run all over town looking for you. I have a meeting tonight and now the dinner is ruined and the last thing I need is to be worrying about where you’ve run off to.”

“Sorry, Mom,” said Adam calmly. The only way to survive with her was to avoid giving her any fuel for the fire. It wouldn’t do at all, for example, to tell her that he intentionally left his cell phone at home so that she couldn’t call him. “Do you want me to call and order a pizza for dinner, so you can get ready for your meeting?”

She ran a hand distractedly through her hair. “Yes, that would probably be good.”

She disappeared into the kitchen again and came back rummaging through her purse. “Here’s thirty dollars. Don’t forget that your dad will want onions on his. You’d better get two pizzas. Brian won’t eat it with onions. And don’t get any of that cinnamon stuff. It’s pure fat.”