Water and Stone (31 page)

She remembered the cat from the hazy days of her childhood.

He'd been her first friend, an ally against the terrors of the world. The cat had followed her from the Middle East to Africa and later to Cuba. In those days it didn't seem strange to her that a cat should live virtually forever but finding him waiting for her after being away from the island for so long was cause for a celebration.

She'd named him Adame... a play on her first father's name and one she thought the man might have appreciated had he lived long enough to know the animal. Leaving Cuba had been hard for her, made even more difficult by knowing she'd left Adame behind to fend for himself.

To the best of her recollection the cat had come through her high window at the temple of Ur. To achieve the feat Adame had climbed up the shear outside wall of stone some one hundred feet above the ground, crawled through her open window, and snuggled under the blankets on her bed.

Entering the room and seeing the big cat sleeping in her bed had delighted her... it seemed some sort of sign that he would come to her room out of all the possible entry ways into the palace though in those days she wasn't an adept at reading the omens.

Later she took him with her to their palace in Alexandria back in the days when her family was still held in high regard among even the pharaohs of Egypt.

When she left Africa under the threat of death having outstayed her welcome Adame followed behind her despite her protestations for him to stay behind. She had no destination in mind nor did she have any method of procuring food for herself much less for him. Still, he followed.

The cat was instrumental in helping her find a way to board a ship going east to the New World. The hold teemed with rats—which kept Adame fat—as well as a group of slaves destined to be sold in the Americas. Evalena and the big cat made a nest among the bales of hay meant to feed the livestock that shared the hold.

The first week she ate nothing. Though Adame brought her freshly killed rats each day she had no way of cooking them without drawing attention to herself. The second week she still shunned the bloody carcasses the cat so lovingly proffered. By the third week hunger got the better of her. She skinned the fresh kill and ate it raw. From that moment on she would eat no cooked meat at all.

It was like he knew, that cat. Once she tasted raw flesh she realized what she'd been missing by searing it with flames. Adame had taken care of her all during the crossing and when they finally came ashore in the Caribbean he had been her only solace after she'd been forced into giving up the piedra.

The man to whom she had entrusted the stone had turned on her by claiming the piedra as his own while simultaneously denouncing Evalena as a woman of ill repute. He caught her by surprise... up until that moment she was sure the man was under her dominion... the stone's pull proved so strong that she was no match for its force, however.

If Yani had the piedra she knew the girl wouldn't be able to resist it... she'd do anything to keep the stone for her own rather than handing it over to another, unless it was someone she trusted implicitly... someone like Church.

The boy had fooled her. She always took him as one to watch yet she didn’t realize the secret might that he harbored... unbeknownst to her he had the strength of will it took to be a master of the stone. Even she had her limitations...

She'd heard it said that the piedra could sing though she'd never had the joy of having listened to its melody. Perhaps her senses weren't in tune with it... or maybe the stone remembered what she had done to obtain it and it disapproved.

Adame had touched it once.

She'd been careless and left the piedra out in the open... she liked watching it hover in space and flicker... enjoyed the way its colors were constantly flowing and shifting like curtains of light caught in amber... so she'd allowed the stone to remain outside of the box where she normally kept it. Or perhaps she only thought she allowed it... it was more likely the piedra influenced her.

Opening the box in which it was kept and turning it upside down released the stone yet it never fell to the floor. Instead it hung motionless in the air like a tiny planet all its own pulsing and vibrating with an inner energy and rotating ever so slowly. Evalena sat mesmerized by the piedra as its charisma kept her enthralled for hours.

She often saw Adame watching it too... it seemed to excite his attention as much as hers. They both spent hours staring into its ever-altering texture. She never thought the big cat would actually go after it or she wouldn’t have allowed him around it.

The stone didn’t seem to harm him in any way... in fact, when he reached a paw out for it, the piedra simply vanished and reappeared in a different spot. It seemed to be playing games with Adame... the big cat took to stalking the stone and the moment he seemed ready to seize it in his teeth the piedra disappeared only to reappear across the room.

Perhaps it was his tenacity or maybe the stone had finally given in to his desires, but one day the big cat caught it. She watched incredulously as he pounced upon it with both paws and it didn't disappear. Instead, it seemed to flow right through his body... his coal black fur became electric and there was a snapping sound every time tiny bright particles exited from the tips of each hair conglomerating into larger and larger droplets until the piedra was once again complete and hanging static shining forth in the air like a newly born indoor star.

"Adame... are you okay?"

The cat seemed momentarily dazed but otherwise the piedra had seemingly passed through him without any apparent harm. A couple days later though she noticed his teeth were falling out.

"Oh baby, no... did that thing make you sick?"

She was sure the piedra had poisoned Adame somehow... perhaps it was slow-acting, but it seemed all but certain the big cat was dying. In a few more days all his hair began falling out too but when Evalena looked closely she saw new fur growing in, soft and downy and thick and blacker than the darkest of nights.

New teeth were sprouting from his naked gums too. At first she thought his jawbone was poking through but soon there could be no mistake... Adame, a twenty year old cat, was growing a fresh set of teeth.

His eyes were somehow different too... their color had become like that of the stone... it shifted and morphed from green to blue to yellow and back again with tiny starbursts of gold and silver suddenly erupting and disappearing just as quickly.

It had to be the results of his encounter with the piedra. Instead of harming him, the stone was reversing the aging process... Adame was growing younger by the day and larger too. Could the same thing work with human beings?

She could never remember when she actually came into possession of the piedra. She always just sort of had it. Even when her first father was alive he assured her that the stone was hers... that he was merely holding it for her. Of course when she asked him if she could hold it he refused her request telling her how dangerous it was to touch the piedra... that anything coming into contact with it would be irrevocably changed.

Perhaps it was he who constructed the box in which to keep the stone safe... she could never be sure with a memory grown hazy over the many centuries of her life. There were times when she almost succeeded in becoming a normal person... the years of living with Yani and Church had charmed her into thinking she was just another girl trying to make it down the road a mile more.

"If I had but one wish I'd want to change places with you, sister... you and your son are so happy all the time. The only bad part would be putting my misery upon your head... that wouldn’t be fair of me."

"But what do you have to be so sad about, Evalena?"

"Other than you, I've lost everyone and everything I ever cared about in life, Yani. That's the real reason I came back here... to be with you and Church. I know it's selfish of me... I shouldn’t be living vicariously off the happiness of others, especially those I care so much about."

"We're only too happy to have you here, sister... you know that, don't you?"

"I like to think so, Yani, but sometimes I get the feeling I've stayed way past my welcome. Promise me that if you ever desire me to leave, you'll out and tell me. I never want to be a nuisance to you or your boy."

She'd kept her promise but instead of words Yani had used bullets. While she supposed she should've been irate that her sister tried to kill her, Evalena only felt tired of being hated all the time. Even those closest to her ended up detesting her deeds as well as her personality. Maybe she was simply out of place but if that was true she'd no idea where she belonged.

When Adame reappeared, the truth of who she was and what she'd been came rushing back. She didn’t fit in living in the world of the mundane. Her destiny had long ago sent her on a path few mortals would ever tread... and even fewer would manage to survive the trials that she faced.

The big cat was her only ally... and it gladdened her to have him back in her life once more.

The up and down motion of the waves made her ill.

She remembered crossing the ocean years ago and how it took her weeks to overcome the feeling of still being on the water... now, she couldn’t seem to stop vomiting.

At first she was embarrassed by her affliction... the other people aboard the ship were apparently used to the crossing. She could hear snickers of laughter behind her. The longer they were on the ocean, however, the weaker she became until she felt in real danger of tumbling into the sea as she leaned over the bow.

Once she had upchucked everything, the dry heaves set in... they were the worst. She thought she might dislodge her esophagus from her stomach they hit her so hard. Finally, about the time she was ready to throw herself overboard and end her misery, the island appeared on the horizon.

Cuba was no longer as green as her memory of it. In between heaving fits she gazed at the island hoping a sense of horizon might settle the roiling besetting her insides but it did no good.

It took her a few moments to realize what changes had been wrought on her homeland... the forests were gone. During her heyday there the island gem had been a virtual jungle with a few roads carved through the thickets. Now, only a few lone trees stood like isolated tin soldiers left behind by their comrades to perish alone on the battlefield.

"Things have changed since you were last here, Yani."

Surprised to hear her name spoken but too sick to care she turned to the port side where Hajdani stood. It really was him... the boy she had known decades ago. Yet he hadn’t aged a day in all that time. It had to be a relative of his, a son maybe, or even a grandson.

"How do you know who I am, Hajdani? How'd you figure out I'd be here?"

She couldn’t bring herself to call him father. She realized long ago that it'd all been a charade... that her father wasn't the person she was led to believe he was... that instead he desired unspeakable things of her.

Her throat so badly she could hardly speak the words but she had to know... what was in store for her when she hit the shore? Were they waiting? Would she be taken prisoner, tried, and sentenced to die? It seemed an improvement over her present circumstances but still, if she had to leave this world, she would rather it be on her own terms.

"You know that, Yani... we've always known who you are and where you've been. We could've taken you any time at all. Did you really think you'd escape so easily?"

She made a sound perilously close to a whimper as she leaned over the side of the ship once more. Yes... the dry heaves were far worse than the vomiting... it felt as if her insides were coming apart.

The voice was an antithesis of how she felt... smooth and mellow, oily, as if the boy knew exactly how to disconcert her the most. He talked to her as if to a child and what he said she couldn’t help but believe despite knowing better.

"We knew you'd come home to us one day, Yani, and we always expected you to bring it with you. Where is it? Do you have it stashed away in your luggage? You may as well hand it over now... we'll find it anyway. And things will go easier for you if you cooperate."

He meant the stone. Of course that was what they really wanted. Had he been the one who sent it to Evalena? And if so, why didn’t he simply keep it? It dawned on her that there were two factions on the island—there had always been—and as her luck ran ill she had stumbled across the wrong one.

Hajdani would have never parted with the piedra... it must have been the others who sent it to Texas... those who reviled the stone and yet knew it was impossible to destroy... those who'd dedicated their lives and that of their descendants to the task of isolating the stone.

But how did they know where she was? That was the mysterious part... and if indeed they'd discovered her place of hiding why did they leave her in peace for all those years? Some things didn’t make sense and no matter how suavely Hajdani acted she could see right through the façade.

"Somewhere close... a safe place... you'll never find it unless I give it to you, Hajdani. Make me want to do that and it's yours... just give me one reason."

"I'll help you find her, old woman."

"I know where she's at, son. You're going to have to do better than that."

"Son? It used to be father, didn’t it? I'll make you a promise, Yani. I'll make it stop, old woman."

"I can do that myself, Hajdani. I guess you really don’t want it back, do you."

"Tell me what I can do, old woman, within reason... and I'll do it."

"This is just a dream, isn't it, boy."

"Of course it is... it's always been a dream... you know that, Yani."

"What will you do with it if I give it to you, Hajdani?"

"Use it for good... we've always sought for the piedra for the bettering of humanity, old woman."

"You were never a good liar, son. The years haven’t taught you much, have they."

The disappointment was palatable on the boy's face as Yani felt the bump of the boat against the wharf jutting out in to the ocean. She nearly began giggling and might have if she didn’t feel so seasick.

"You'll regret not helping us, Yani... have you forgotten how persistent we are?"

"I've forgotten nothing, you old bastard. You can fool the rest of them but I see right through you... that always bothered you, didn’t it."

But she was talking to the wind. Had the boy been beside her, or did she simply imagine it all? She was lightheaded with weakness, probably dehydrated, and sicker than she'd ever remembered being.

"Are you okay, ma'am?"

The ship's captain was standing not three feet away from her... he'd obviously heard her whole conversation with the unseen combatant... did he think her mad? Most likely the man had dealt with elderly passengers who suffered from dementia so she decided to go with it.

"I was just telling my friend here how rough this crossing was... I guess I lost my sea legs after all my years of living in Miami."

"Perhaps you might want to sit down for a spell, ma'am. You look pale."

"Yes, thank you... you're so kind sir... I'd like that."

The man pulled a deck chair over, helped her into it, and hurried back to the cabin, most likely to make a call. As soon as his back was turned Yani stood up and walked off the ship as quickly as her aged body would allow.

Something deep inside of her made odd little sounds with each step she took, like her stomach might be rubbing up against her backbone and once a hole was worn in it she'd bleed to death as quickly as blinking her eyes. She hoped whoever the captain was calling would be held up for just a while longer. The last thing she needed was the Cuban authorities showing up to investigate a senile old American woman.

Even on land she could still feel the shifting of the waves. It reminded her of being a girl again and riding the empty iron merry-go-round down by the school yard for too long. Even when she got off the world kept spinning around until she fell to the ground and held onto the grass to avoid rolling away.

If the captain managed to alert the Cuban officials to her plight she doubted they'd spend much time looking for her... the island had been filled with crazy old women before she escaped and she imagined it still was. One more wouldn’t make much of a difference to anyone.

So much had changed since she'd been gone. The old familiar paths were gone... even the roads had been altered. She knew the family home was situated on the eastern side of the island but not much more.

Evalena was waiting for her... the girl must've known it was her that tried to kill her back at the chabola. There'd be no welcome home... not for her. This time she had no weapon with which to fight and her body was old and worn... she didn’t stand a chance against her young rival. Still, she had to go to her.

Her legs were rubber and her knees ached and her toes seemed to have grown too long for her shoes and she couldn’t seem to walk a straight line. The sand on the side of the road pulled at her feet making it more of a chore to walk than it should've been but she didn’t trust the erratic island traffic... some of the cars and trucks were traveling at a high rate of speed. The last thing she needed was to be run down by an errant driver.

All she had on her was American money or she'd hire a taxi... she should've converted some of it into pesos while on the mainland but she hadn’t been thinking that far ahead. Still, as a last resort she flagged down a passing driver, pulled out a handful of dollars, and asked for a ride in her halting Spanish.

Much to her amazement the driver was delighted to take her dollars. Apparently there was a flourishing black market in Cuba that relied upon the dollar and not the peso. Within minutes she was hurtling along the gravel road at a rate of speed that exceeded even her furiously beating heart.