SARA, BOOK 2 (5 page)
Authors: ESTHER AND JERRY HICKS
Snakes Won’t Bother You
S
ara was waiting for Seth at the first fork in the trail. She mentally complimented herself for wearing brown and tan clothing
that blended well into her surroundings. She laughed at herself as she crouched down close to the ground, secretly waiting
for her partner to rendezvous. She saw an occasional glitter of light through the bushes as passing cars drove down the road
reflecting sunlight in her direction. She liked the idea that she could see them but they were unaware of her. “I hope Miss
Ralph didn’t nab him again,” Sara muttered.
Seth blasted through the trees, nearly running Sara over. They both let out a startled scream, and then laughed. “Geez, Sara,
I didn’t think you were in here.”
“Pretty good, huh?” Sara grinned, feeling rather proud of her camouflage.
“Yeah, you blend right in. If you’d a been a snake, you woulda had me for sure.”
“Nah, snakes won’t bother you,” Sara said assuredly.
“You’re not afraid of
snakes?”
Seth was surprised. He thought everybody was afraid of snakes. Especially girls.
“No, I used to be, but I’m not anymore. Let’s get going. I wanna swing from the trees.”
Seth couldn’t help but notice that Sara had the same intense sureness about not being afraid of snakes that she’d had about
knowing that she wouldn’t drown.
“Hey, Sara, how come you were so sure that you could never drown?”
Sara nearly stumbled on the path. Seth’s question had caught her by surprise. Here he was again, zeroing in on what was maybe
the most important experience—as well as the biggest secret—of her life.
“Oh, it’s a pretty long story,” Sara said. “I’ll tell you later.”
Seth sensed that Sara had something that she wanted to tell him, and he wanted to hear it. “Well, if it’s a long story, maybe
you should break it into pieces. You know? Give me a little more every day.”
Sara felt uncomfortable with Seth’s prodding. She wasn’t sure how he would feel about her if she explained the details of
her experience with Solomon. But there was an intensity about Seth that was compelling.
And so, Sara began. “Well, I never really thought I’d drown, but my mother worried about it all the time. She warned me just
about every day of my life to stay away from this river. I don’t know why
she
is so afraid of the river. I don’t know of anybody who has ever drowned in it. But she worries about everything, especially
the river.
“So one day when I was all by myself, I was standing out in the middle of the crossing log, and the water was really high,
you know? It was even washing up over the log a little, when this big old fuzzy dog just came out of nowhere and knocked me
right into the river!”
“Wow, Sara! What did you do?”
“Well, there wasn’t anything I
could
do. The water was really moving fast, and it just carried me away. But I wasn’t scared or anything. At first, I thought,
Oh no, my mother is right. And, boy, is
she going to be mad at me if I drown.
But then I just floated and noticed how beautiful it all was. And then I floated under a tree branch that was dangling down
into the water, and I pulled myself out. And from then on, I knew that I would never drown.”
“That’s it? That’s how you know you won’t drown? Sara, sounds to me like you were pretty lucky that you floated under the
tree limb. You
could’ve
drowned, you know?”
Sara watched Seth as he let his negative imagination run away with him, and then she smiled. “You sound like my mother.”
Seth laughed. “I guess I do.”
“Don’t you ever
know
things? I mean, don’t you ever just know something, and you know it so clearly that it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks
about it? You know because you know. And just because they don’t know it doesn’t mean that
you
don’t know it. You know what I mean?”
Seth was quiet as Sara spoke. He did know what she meant. He knew exactly what she meant. “You’re right, Sara. I do know what
you mean. And from now on, if you say you can’t drown, I’ll believe you.”
Sara was relieved that Seth had accepted her partial explanation and that she didn’t have to explain further.
“Good.” Sara felt triumphant. She wanted to change the subject. “And snakes won’t bother you either!”
Seth laughed. “Well, let’s just slash one deadly fear at a time, Sara.”
Practice in Your Mind?
S
ara and Seth rounded the last bend in the trail and came into the clearing where Seth’s wonderful tree house and swinging
rope seemed to be patiently waiting for their return.
“Okay, I’ll go first,” Sara said, as she climbed quickly up into the tree. She crawled out onto the big branch and positioned
herself on the platform while Seth caught up with her. “Okay. I’m going to get this right. I’ve been practicing.”
Seth was disappointed that Sara hadn’t kept her word. “Sara, you said you’d wait for me.”
“I
did
wait for you, Seth. I’ve been practicing in my mind. Over and over, I saw myself swinging out across the river, and then,
just at the perfect moment, I would let go of the rope and land perfectly on the grass on the other side. I’m ready, Seth.
Give me a big push.”
“I don’t think you need a push, Sara. Just fall out of the tree. That’ll be plenty.”
Off Sara went. “Yahooooooo!” she shouted, as she flew through the air, her pretty brown hair blowing straight out behind her.
She flew back and forth, back and forth, slowing a bit with each pass over the river.
She pulled her foot from the loop,
and then, at the perfect moment, she let go of the rope
and landed in the grass right on the spot she had
practiced in her mind.
Her landing was so perfect she didn’t even fall down, but instead she absorbed the shock of her jump with her knees.
“Yes!”
she shouted in glee.
Seth applauded from the tree house. He was impressed.
Seth swung from the tree and then let go of the rope and crashed into the leaves as he’d done before. “Not a smooth landing,”
he noted.
Sara smiled. “You need to practice in your mind. That’s all. It doesn’t take long. And it’s almost as much fun as really jumping.”
“Okay.” Seth seemed distracted. “But for now, I think I’ll practice with the tree and the river and the rope.” And up the
tree he went again.
His landing this time was even worse than the last two times. He was
not
pleased.
Sara laughed and then covered her face with her hand, pretending that she was coughing. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings,
and she didn’t want to make him mad.
Again, Seth climbed the tree, and again his timing was off and he rolled into the leaves.
He climbed the tree again, and this time Sara climbed right up behind him.
“Seth,” Sara said, as he put his foot in the loop getting ready to leap into the air again, “wait just a minute. Stop and
close your eyes and imagine climbing up the tree again, really happy because you just made the perfect landing. Pretend that
I’m smiling and clapping.”
“And laughing and coughing,” Seth teased.
“No, just smiling and clapping.” Sara grinned.
Nothing gets by Seth,
she thought.
“Now, see yourself releasing the rope and jump-ing onto the bank. Like landing with a parachute and dropping softly to the
ground.”
Seth smiled as he imagined.
“Now, go,” Sara said, softly touching Seth’s back, giving him a light nudge. And off he went.
He swung way out over the river. And then at the perfect moment, he let go of the rope and landed perfectly on the grass and
then jumped into the air, clicking his heels together. “Yes!” he shouted, at the very same time that Sara shouted, “Yes!”
“Man! Sara, that really works. How’d you learn to do that?”
“Oh, a little bird told me,” Sara teased. “It’s a really long story, Seth.”
And before Seth could say anything, Sara laughed and continued, “I know, I know, I’ll break it down into short chapters for
you and give you a little bit of it every day. If you really want to know, Seth, I’ll tell you the whole story, but you have
to promise not to laugh—and you have to promise not to ever tell anyone.”
“I promise,” Seth said. He had never seen Sara so intense before. “I promise. Now tell me.”
“Later,” Sara said. “I have to practice this in my mind first.”
Seth grinned.
“See ya,” Sara said.
“Yeah. I’ll see ya tomorrow.”
Weird in a Good Way
S
ara sat in a comfortable fork high up in the swinging tree. She’d climbed up the ladder all the way to its end and then had
climbed up still another ten feet or so to a nice wide fork in the tree, big enough for the two of them to sit.
This
is an amazing tree,
Sara thought as she sat quietly waiting for Seth.
His last class of the day was a woodworking class.
I’ll bet he’s good at that class. He’s probably helping
the teacher clean up the whole shop,
Sara thought, looking at her watch.
He’s so nice. People take advantage
of him.
Sara leaned back in the tree and tried to imagine explaining her amazing story to Seth. She felt strongly that he was really
ready to hear the story, but she also felt a strong sense of risk. He had become a very good friend. In fact, he was just
about the best friend Sara had ever had, and she sure didn’t like the idea of frightening him away. She couldn’t really be
sure how he would react to her secret.
A gust of wind swept through the trees, moving the leaves and smaller branches, and a flutter of dust and leaves showered
down from above.
You, too, are a teacher,
Sara remembered Solomon’s strong words to her.
And when the timing is
right, you will know.
I think the timing is right,
Sara thought.
But how
do I know for sure?
When there is asking, the timing is right. Sara remembered Solomon’s advice.
Well, Seth sure has
been asking,
Sara thought.
I guess it is time.
Sara heard a rustling on the trail below. Standing up and holding tightly to a big branch above her, she leaned out as far
as she could to see who was coming. Seth came blasting in from the bushes and called a breathless, “Hi, sorry I took so long.”
He was so winded, Sara knew he had run all the way.
He climbed up the tree and stopped on the big branch that led out to the platform. “Should I come up to where you are, or
do you want to come down?”
“Come up here. It’s great. And there’s plenty of room,” Sara called back. She liked the greater feeling of privacy far up
in the tree.
Seth climbed up and propped himself in a big V across from Sara. “So,” Seth started right in, “tell me.”
“Okay. But remember, this is
our
secret.”
“Sara, don’t worry. You’re the only one I ever talk to, anyway.”
Sara took a big breath and tried to find a starting place. There was so much to tell that she really didn’t know where to
begin.
“Okay, Seth. Here’s what happened. But I’m warning you. It’s going to sound weird.”
“Sara,” Seth sounded impatient, “I won’t think it’s weird. What
is
it?”
“Well, one day I was walking home from school when my brother, Jason, came running up to me, more excited than I had ever
seen him, blubbering that there was a giant owl over on Thacker’s Trail and that I just had to go and see it. He was so intense
it was scary. And he halfway dragged me over to the trail.”
“I love owls,” Seth chimed in, wanting to encourage Sara to go on.
“Well, anyway, the snow was really deep, and it was a very cold day. We looked for a long time but didn’t see any owl. And
I told Jason he was making the whole thing up and that I didn’t care about any stupid bird, anyway. But the next day in school,
I couldn’t stop thinking about this owl. And I couldn’t figure out why I was so interested; the whole thing just felt weird
to me. Anyway, after school I went back to the thicket by myself to look for him again, but I still couldn’t find him. It
was getting dark and I was feeling pretty stupid, and then I tried to take a shortcut by walking on the ice across the river,
but the ice gave way under my feet and I fell down—I thought I was going to fall through the ice and drown. And then I heard
a voice coming from the tree. It said,
Have you forgotten
that you cannot drown?
And then the voice said,
The ice will hold you. Crawl over here.
“At first I felt so dumb because I should have known better than to get out on the ice like that, and then I was mad that
whoever was talking to me wouldn’t come out where I could see him and help me. And then it hit me. How did he know I couldn’t
drown? I had never told even one other soul about that. And then I saw him.”
“Saw who?”
“I saw Solomon. This gigantic, beautiful, magical owl. He flew up out of the tree and circled around the pasture, nice and
slow so I could see him really well, and then he flew away. And I
knew
I’d found Solomon.”
“Now I see why you were so sure you won’t drown. Geez, Sara, that
is
weird. But it’s weird in a good way,” he added quickly.
Sara sat, almost breathless. She gulped and took a big breath and looked at Seth. She wanted to tell him everything about
Solomon. How they had met, and all that he’d taught her, and how Jason and Billy had shot and killed him, and how even though
he had been killed, he was still able to talk to Sara.
“Did you ever see him again?” Seth asked.
“Yes, I saw him a whole bunch of times. But then . . .”
“Then,
what?”
Seth was so interested in this amazing story.
Sara just couldn’t bring herself to go any further. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
Seth was disappointed. He knew Sara had much more to tell him. He could feel it. But he also knew this was a tender subject
with Sara, and he didn’t want to push her.
“Well, I told you that I’d tell you this a little bit at a time. So, I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Tomorrow.”
“Wanna swing once before we go?” Sara asked.
“I think I’ve had enough excitement for now,” Seth teased.
“Yeah, me too,” Sara said.
“See ya.”