The Stone of Blood (47 page)

“Okay Mom!” I said draggin’ the way I said her name out kinda long
.

“We will Mrs. McAnully.” Cricket said. “We’ll be good.”

“I’m sure you will.” Mama said as she looked us both over again with her eyes opened wide and her finger still pointin’ back and forth. “You’d better!” And then she walked on back out of my room and we heard her walk down the stairs.

“I don’t think your mama likes me.” Cricket whispered.

“Yes she does.” I told her back. “You’re still in the house aint ya?” I continued. “If she didn’t, you’d be outta here!” I said as I pointed my thumb back over my shoulder like an umpire callin’ a strike in a baseball game.

Cricket smiled again and then we both returned to lookin’ at that map. And I ate a cookie!

“This map is old.” Cricket said. “You see this area here? All of these houses are gone. This is all a big field now.” she said as she pointed and circled her finger along the surface of the map.

I laid my hand right down on the map fast! And then I looked at Cricket and said, “Hey!” I said. “How come you never told me that you could speak
French
?”

“Well I guess it never came up now did it!” She answered back in a kinda flirty way.

“
One of these days…
” I thought to myself as I looked into her pretty clear blue eyes …and then I just let it go.

“This area here is where the rock quarry is now, right where the town of
Lystra
shows on the map. And this …this is where we are now.” Cricket said as she pointed to the spot on the map where my house now sat. “And this!” she said excitedly. “This is where Obadiah’s house was. It has his name written on it too! Right here! See?” She asked as she pointed to his name. “All of this farmland was his!” she said as she drew a big circle with her finger. “Look Toby! Part of your Mom and Dad’s land used to be a part of Obadiah’s farm too! This part here from the pond over to your barn and all the way up the hill! It all used to be a part of Obadiah’s place!”

“What about the barn? Was the barn there at that time?” I asked as I looked over her shoulder.

“Yes. There was a building there, but it doesn’t say that it was a barn though.” She answered.

“Could they have torn down that one and built our barn over top of it?” I suggested. “Can you tell what the old one was used for? I mean, if it wasn’t a cattle barn, or a tobacco barn?”

“It’s listed here as an infirmary? No. Wait …what’s the word I’m lookin’ for?” she said to herself as a question. “
Magasin de minerai …Forgeron!
” she said out loud in French and then she said it again in English so that I could understand. “
Ore
shop …Blacksmith! This was where he worked with iron! This was his workshop!” she said excitedly.

“So …if he didn’t keep his sheep in that buildin’? Where did he keep em’?” I asked. “Is there another buildin’ showin’ on his land, a bigger buildin’ for his cattle?”

Cricket scrutinized the details and drawin’s of the land that was partitioned out upon the page and then she pointed her finger to a location on the map and said excitedly, “This is it! It’s right here! You see this word Toby? It says ‘
bergers grange
’, it means ‘
shepherds barn
’.” And then she hit the paper hard with her finger. “It’s written there like little scribbles beneath the blackened square shape on the page!”

It was just as she’d said! Like a pirates treasure filled with gold doubloons marked with a
Frenchman’s
X upon the map! The treasure laid not more than a stone’s throw from where I’d sat on our front porch swing, not less than a million times or more!

And it was there beneath an October sky, outlined by the silhouette of darkenin’ pine trees that lay along an amber horizon …that Obadiah had hidden the stone. Everythin’ that had happened until now pointed there, to that place upon that map and to that precise moment in time! For over a hundred years the Stone of Blood had rested in its closely guarded slumber buried beneath these earthly grounds, the other side of my family’s farm …
just there …beneath the surface and the shadows of Mr. Roberts’s red barn.

Twenty Seven

When I Almost Died

I
ronically, the name
Roberts
was made famous in the early eighteenth century through the use of piracy, when a man of
Welsh
birth was captured aboard the slave ship
Princess
and was forced to join the pirate crew of the
Royal Rover
!
Within six weeks of his capture, the pirate named Roberts was reluctantly elected Captain of the ship, and then went on to become the most successful pirate of his day! His stories became legends as he and his crew successfully pillaged, robbed, raided and captured more than four hundred and seventy vessels; more vessels than all other pirates combined, including pirates: Black Beard, Anne Bonny, Calico Jack and Captain Kidd!

Our next door neighbor, Mr. Roberts wasn’t a pirate. But the thought had occurred to me that if he were a pirate, he’d be very interested to know about the treasure that lay buried beneath the soil of his land. Perhaps he knew of the legend? Perhaps he had knowledge of the
prophecy
?

Mr. Roberts always waved whenever I’d pass him by and he always spoke whenever I was within speakin distance of him. I once found a four leaf clover that was as big as the palm of my hand and I showed it to him! He was so impressed by its size that I offered it to him as a gift, but he said that it was too special and that I should keep it. So I looked again into the patch of clover and found another one nearly twice as big! And I gave it to him! He thanked me, and then he traveled on.

I have heard it said that ‘
a man can travel a great distance by sittin’ still and thinkin’ deep thoughts
’. Well, while as I was sittin’ there holdin’ Cricket’s hand, I was doin’ a whole lot of thinkin’ …but it wasn’t gettin’ me nowhere!

The full moon would rise in four days; up and into the vastness of that cold October sky. And time was passin’ fast!

I sat with Cricket upon our rooftop lookin’ out over the horizon blowin’ bubbles from a plastic jar. And I looked at her as she watched them floating freely upon the winds. I felt such an attraction to that girl. I felt there was such
good
in her.

“Take me out and show me around the barn, Toby!” Cricket urged me as she broke my concentration. “I want to pet your pony, Prince, and you can show me where you saw the ghost!”

“Okay.” I told her as I helped her step back into my room through my upstairs bedroom window and I held her hand as we walked together down the stairs.

“Where are ya’ll off to?” Mama asked us as she eyeballed us again as we strode through the kitchen to the back door.

“We’re goin’ out to pet Prince and then I’m gonna show Cricket around the barn.” I answered matter of factly.

“Well …okay then. But ya’ll be careful out there by the barn. And watch out for snakes in the tall grasses!” Mama said as we went out through the kitchen door.

“Young Lady!” My mama shouted as she held open the screen door. “Does your mama know where you’re at? Do you need me to call her and let her know you’re alright?”

“Yes Ma’am …she knows.” Cricket answered back as I pulled her along by the hand. “I told her I’d be back before suppertime.”

“Well …okay then!” Mama said just before the door slammed shut.

Like I said, mama was always lookin’ out for me and stuff, a little too much for my likin’ most days!

My pony liked Cricket alot! All of our animals did. Prince would always come runnin’ whenever he saw her up next to the fence line! And our dog, Mr. Whiskers, would bark for her attention too! At least whenever he was awake enough to know she was there! And of course our dog Candy liked her; she kept mostly under foot whenever she was around!

Cricket was so beautiful standin’ there reachin’ through the fence line, feedin’ Prince handfuls of grass and pettin’ him! She laughed out loud when he nibbled at her fingers and she sat down upon the grasses and picked up more of it by the fistfuls and slipped it through the fence wires for him to eat.

I believe that girl must have kicked out of her shoes and shimmied back into a pair of cut off jeans the moment she got off of the school bus! And she stayed that way, pert near all of the time! But today, since it was colder I guessed, she had managed to keep her long legged blue jeans on instead. Not that I minded none. She’d still be pretty and lookin’ good to me no matter what she had on! But she never could seem to be able to keep her shoes on! And I don’t guess I minded that none neither!

I couldn’t put my finger on the exact moment in time that I fell in love with Cricket. But I knew then ...just as I know now, that I would be in love with that girl forever, or at least until I was a grownup or maybe even after that! And I think that she loved me too! Cause she was always laughin’ at me and nudgin’ me, and she never seemed to mind holdin’ my hand!

She’d even kiss me softly on the cheek sometimes too, whenever she said that I was bein’ really cute and other stuff like that. I kissed her back too! But mostly when nobody was lookin’!

The old barn stood before us by the fence in the field, just as it had the day me and Mary had been there. It was cold and dreary lookin’, with its door swingin’ loosely upon its hinges. I held Cricket’s hand as I pointed out to her where the ghostly apparition had appeared in the loft and I told her of how the ghost had knelt down by the windows edge and looked down into my eyes! I also told her of how my heart had pounded rapidly as I looked upon its ghostly face! And I mentioned to her of the voices that had filled my mind; voices that had scared me then, and of how we had run!

“What was that?” Cricket whispered as she pulled me towards the barn. “I thought I saw something just the other side of the door, in there in the dark!” And before I could stop her she had entered the darkened barn and she had pulled me along with her; inside that creepy, eerie barn!