She Did Take A Ride

 
            True to her word, in 14 days at around noon, a Saturday, Marge returned to the Gifting Stump. Since she and Twigg had a date and she expected to see him this time, she brought some lunch which she thought he might find interesting. She had picked up three small trays of Maki rolls from the Japanese café in town just before driving out to her mom’s place.
            Enid and Arthur were home this time. Marge did her duty with a short visit. Enid was still a severely trim older brunette, but maybe not so brittle now. Arthur was an affable old retired guy in a green and black plaid flannel shirt, tan pants, and had gray whiskers. Marge was happy that her mother had someone else to think about besides herself. At last she was able to leave gracefully.
            The Maki were in a small insulated lunch bag contraption in her Honda trunk. She fetched them out and began walking the familiar path. This time it seemed like she had never been away. This time also, Ooog was in his garden. She waved at the short little man in his odd clothing and with that white braid tucked in the back of his belt with true affection. He waved back; he seemed to recognize Marge. She was touched and shouted, “Say hi to Thaga for me!” Ooog nodded and kept digging.
            The spell of the meadow fell upon her then. Each particular bud or bloom, each vine, each tuft of grass spoke to her of longing. Tiny brown birds, probably bush tits, washed over the landscape in obscure passages. She was sure they spoke, but not what of. The path was intimate and beguiling. The short walk which should have taken ten minutes seemed to take longer and to be reluctant to let her pass quickly.
            Nevertheless, she soon saw the Gifting Stump and beside it Twigg waiting for her, surrounded by his B’s.
            “Hi, Twigg. I had forgotten how pretty it is out here!” said Marge rather breathlessly.
            “Hi, Marge. I think it might be showing off a little for you today,” said Twigg. “Sometimes it just does that.”
            “Are you hungry enough to eat?” said Marge. “I brought something I bet you’ve never had.”
            “I can always eat. Let’s see what you’ve got!” said Twigg.
            So they sat on the grass together, leaning on the old cedar stump and she showed him the trays of pretty rolls with several different things rolled into the rice and nori wrappers. Some had salmon and cream cheese. Some had various vegetables and there was wasabi and soy sauce to dip them in and pickled ginger to go with. She was wise to buy two trays for Twigg.
            After all of the rolls were gone, Twigg asked her, “Do you still want to go for a ride?”
            She looked at his sweet smile as he sat there and all the residual fear she had been carrying left her mind. He looked much wiser and kinder than any fear.
            “Yes, I do,” she said. It seemed like the world pivoted as she said so.
            “I told my father what we wanted to do. He thinks it will work fine for you, as well as me. I remember that the vanishing thing worked for you! Remember that?” said Twigg.
            “Yeah, I only did that once, but it worked,” agreed Marge. “It sure fooled mom.”
            “He said it was easier than it seems it might be. That it’s a matter of intention. The lights will know if you stand with arms stretched up and intend to summon one. It does sound a little funny, but I called one last night. It came and I didn’t ride it, I sent it off,” said Twigg. “I wanted to go with you the first time.”
            Twigg told the B’s that he was going to be busy for a while and that they should fly back to the hive and tell Queen Bernadette that he might come to visit and bring a friend.
            Soon the sunlit meadow seemed to be full of small bits of light, not unlike fireflies, but brighter because they were visible in direct sunlight against the blue of the afternoon sky and the green of the surrounding grass.
            Twigg stood then and threw up his arms in a wide gesture, and closed his eyes to concentrate. To Marge he looked impossibly mythic, archaic, monumental. As she watched one of the small bright bits separated from the others and maintained a position in midair before Twigg. Then it grew. It grew again, and then again until it was large enough to ride.
            Its brightness was duller now, more like a moonshiny glow. In fact it looked a lot like a moon come to earth, just resting in the air there before Twigg. He lowered his arms.
            “There’s no hard shell or anything, Marge. We just step in like stepping anywhere. You don’t need a door. The whole thing is like a door really, if you think about it,” he said then. “Hold my hand, I’ll go first and bring you behind me.”
            Marge took his hand, and he stepped into the light. She felt him pulling her along, so she followed him in, naturally. And it did feel natural, as natural as breathing.
            Inside the light, the air was slightly pearlescent, and smelled faintly of something like sandalwood. There were no seats, they just seemed paused in the atmosphere, timelessly without the ability to fall. It was warm, but not too warm. Twigg and Marge were filled with a sense of expectation and elation.
Outside the sweet meadow and the old stump were perfectly visible in the afternoon light. The smaller lights drifted away like moving daytime stars, leaving only theirs with them inside.
            “I know where I would like to go, but you pick first, Marge” said Twigg.
            “Oh, I hardly know. Let me think,” she said and was silent for a few moments. Then, “Can we just go high enough to see the whole forest and this meadow and maybe if it’s not too much, Milltown and then go where you want to go?”
            As she finished speaking the light rose softly into the air. Below the whole of the meadow was visible and then Thaga’s place and her mother’s house. They saw the little dirt road leading back to the highway. Then they rose to maybe a couple hundred feet and drifted over the Great Forest, in the air of Maeve’s world above the tree canopy.
            “Oh, I can hardly believe this is possible, and yet, here we are!” exalted Marge with tears in her voice.
            “Yes, it’s like a dream,” said Twigg. “I’ve never been near the town.”
            The light rose up higher and passed over the land between the forest and Milltown until they were looking at Marge’s world from on high. It looked a little like a map, and a little like busy toys beneath them. No one seemed to notice them drifting over, of if they did Twigg and Marge couldn’t see their astonishment. Perhaps some did see the large shining orb in the sky.
            “Where did you pick, Twigg,” said Marge.
“I would like to visit inside the B’s hive and see Queen Bernadette for a little while,” said Twigg.
            This time it was different. They didn’t feel movement. The sky outside of the orb vanished. Suddenly the daylight dimmed. They heard a very loud humming sound. The smell of honey was thickly around them.
            Before them stood a monarch, a Bee Mother. She was larger than either one of them by far. Attendants came to her and left her busily.
            “Let’s step out and greet her, Marge. The light will wait for us,” said Twigg.
            The Queen’s antennae waved, and she spoke when she saw who it was that had entered her domain. “Friend of Bees! Welcome! This is a fine meeting indeed. Seeing eye to eye at last! And, as Beryl told me when she returned from you, you have a friend! She appears to be human. What magic is this Twigg?”
            “Yes, Lady Queen, here is my friend Marge. She was brave enough to fly in a light with me!” said Twigg.
            “Hello, Ma’am, I am quite speechless. Please forgive me. I am honored to meet you!” said Marge. Once again, there were tears in her voice and perhaps some on her cheeks.
            “All is well. No forgiveness is needed. You are welcome,” said Bernadette kindly.
            She was a very busy queen, so Twigg and Marge only stayed for a short time and then felt they should take their leave respectfully. After thanking Bernadette, and wishing all the B’s well most sincerely, they re-entered the small glowing moon.
            In no time, they were back at the Gifting Stump, where the sun was beginning to descend behind the tall trees. Twigg and Marge stepped through the wall of light again, landing on the familiar grass. The light grew small, then very small and then drifted off into the sky and vanished completely.
            They stood together, still holding hands, watching it go and then watching the evening begin to dim towards night.
            “I don’t want to go back to Milltown and that room! I don’t want to ever leave here,” said Marge, surprising herself again. “I don’t think I ever fit in that world very well, but I don’t think I will fit now at all, Twigg!”
            “I don’t want you to ever leave either,” said Twigg.
            “I don’t know what to do,” said Marge.
            “We’ll figure it out somehow,” said Twigg. “I know we will. I’ll walk you to your car. Why don’t you go home, and when you are there decide which is best? Can you bear it?”
            “For now, yes,” said Marge, as they walked the path to where she had parked her car.

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