The Twelve Stones (2 page)

“What are we doing?”

“I told you, we’re here to make our fortune.” Alex smiled at Scott as he took out a tin plate people used for baking pies. “You see this?” Alex waved the tin plate in front of Scott’s face. “This is the key to us dropping out of school and make a million dollars. “

Scott’s face went wide in anticipation. “A million dollar
s?” he asked in wonder, his ten-year-
old brain instantly calculating exactly how much that would buy in video games, soda and movies. “How are we gonna do that?”

“Easy,” Alex responded
,
bending down to the rushing creek with a gleam in his eye. “We pan for gold.”

“There’s gold in this stream?” Scott asked skeptically, as he leaned in closer to examine the bottom of the stream in front of them.

“Of course there is
,
stupid. It’s a stream in a mountain; don’t you ever watch any movies?” Irritated, Alex turned away from his companion
,
dipping his pie plate into the rocks and silt.

“
I did this once at Six Flags
;
all you gotta do is dip your plate thingy into the stream, get some dirt in there
,
and then wash it back and forth like this.” Alex pulled the pie tin from the river and demonstrated the back
-
and
-
forth movement
as he rocked the pie tin filled with water and sand in his hands. “The water washes out all the dirt and stuff we don’t want, and then the gold settles at the bottom of the pan. Simple
-
dimple.”

Scott’s eyes went wide in wonder. “Wow Alex, how’d you learn to do this?”

“My mom took me…” Alex stopped short, un
sure how to finish the sentence.
“
B
efore she…”

“Yeah…” Scott never knew what to say when Alex brought up his mother. She had died in a car accident a few years ago
,
with him in the car. Alex had survived the accident
,
and Scott suspected he carried around a lot of guilt because of that.
Only once had Alex talked about her
, when he was explaining to Scott why his father had moved them away from the city. His father had been a well
-
respected civil engineer in Los Angeles for ten years. But after the accident, nothing had made sense for
either
of them. Alex's father had moved to the mountains
.
He had hoped that
a new start
,
and the slower pace of life
,
would give them some comfort
—
or
,
at the very least, an illusion of peace.

“Right, yeah.” Alex continued his work in silence, concentrating on the movement of his hands dipping into the freezing waters instead of those final few moments with his mother. The crash and squeal of metal tearing apart was one of the worst memories Alex had, and he tried every day to avoid think
ing
about it.

Hoping the awkwardness would pass, Scott watched for a few moments in silence as Alex dipped the pie tin in and out of the stream.

“Find anything yet?” Scott asked.

“It’s been less than a minute
,
dude. Jeez
,
Scott, miners would get out here and do this for at least an hour before they got a buncha gold.” Alex scratched through the plate
,
looking for anything golden.

“Can I do it some
,
then?” Scott asked as he peered over Alex’s shoulder.

Alex rolled his eyes. He liked his best friend well enough, but sometimes he could be a little irritating. Scott was a nervous kid, always asking questions.

“I only brought one pie tin, but you can look for bigger nuggets if you like…” Alex held his breath
.
Scott was a single child
,
and sometimes prone to temper tantrums when he didn’t get his way. They were never serious
,
nor did they last for long
;
it was just something Scott had yet to grow out of.

To his relief, Scott wasn’t offended
.
Instead, he
began peeking over the riverbank
,
looking back at the rest of the park and the trees beyond.

“That’s OK
.
I’ll just go play in the tree over there
,
” Scott replied.

“Whatever floats your boat
,
bro!” Alex called back to Scott, who had already retreated towards a particularly large and
sickly
pine tree.

Alex played with the pie tin for a few minutes while Scott explored the meadow, as rabbits and animals attracted by the abundant water source began to realize that the two boys were not a threat and began to move freely about again.

Rhythmically, Alex fell into a routine, taking the pie plate tin
,
washing it in and out of the water and sand several times, stopping occasionally when his hands grew too cold from the chilly mountain
stream
.

It was at this moment that a stone, long and thin, with the curve of a claw from some vicious beast, began hurtling its way down the mountain stream. An odd
-
looking stone, it had a deep black color and projected an undeniably otherworldly feel. Dashing itself against rock after rock, it flew towards Alex’s gold
-
digging efforts as if it had a mind of its own.

Filling the pie tin with a fresh batch of rocks and dirt,
Alex felt the cold water begin to numb his hands. He withdrew his hands and flexed them, leaving the pie tin to sit underneath the rushing water for a moment
. Blowing into his fists, he wiped them dry on his shirt and
stuffed them under his armpits
as he glanced around looking to see what Scott was up to.

Faster and faster, the stone traveled down the swollen river. It
bounded
off a few various rocks before finally settling into Alex’s pin tin with a gentle clinking sound. Alex
,
his hands now sufficiently warm, glanced down at the stone now sitting in his tin. He grabbed it
,
held it closer to his face
,
and examined it closely
.

“
Meh,” Alex grunted to himself, “
y
ou’re pretty, but you ain’t gold.” Alex tossed the stone off to one side and returned once again to his work. As he bent down to pick up the
tin, he was surprised to see an identical stone
sitting in the middle of the sand and rocks. He looked over to his side
,
where he had tossed the previous errant
stone
. It was missing. Frowning to himself, he stood and threw the stone deep into the meadow. Satisfied
that
it was gone
,
he crouched back down to the stream
,
intent once again on making his fortune.

Something whipped past his ear at an incredible speed
.
Alex slapped at his head, intent on killing whatever it was that had just invaded his airspace. He missed
,
and as he turned, he saw the mysterious stone at his feet, laying innocently in the noontime sun.

Alex’s eyes narrowed as he picked up the stone
again
.
It
felt warm, warmer than it should have been
,
considering it had come from the frigid waters of the mountain stream. It vibrated softly in his hands, creating a tingling sensation that wasn’t unpleasant, only…unexpected.

“
All righty.” Alex muttered to the stone in his hand, “Either you’re some sorta boomerangy stone thing, or...” he trailed off, he laughed. It probably fell out of his hand as he went to throw it. Shrugging and still addressing the stone,
he added,
“You’ll be less trouble in here.” He slipped the stone into his pocket, his thick jeans unable to mask the soft vibration from the stone against his hip.

He was about to return to his work when Scott yelled to him from across the meadow.

“Hey, you dare me to climb this tree?”

Alex looked up towards Scott
,
who had traveled to the other side of the meadow. If there was one thing he loved about his friend, it was how Scott was always trying to show off for him. Alex waved back at his friend. Scott mistook his wave to mean he should start climbing the tree.

The vibrations on his hip began to intensify
,
and Alex slapped his pocket. “Cut it out
,
”
h
e
muttered, but the stone happily ignored Alex, and continued to vibrate once again against his hip.

“Come on,” Alex said out loud
.
He
took the stone out of his pocket and let it lay in the palm of his hand. His eyes settled on the stone, and for a moment, the world paused.

The stone was flawless. It sat comfortably in Alex’s hand, almost as if it had molded itself to the contours of its environment. Alex didn’t know why, but as he stared into the stone, he was overwhelmed by a calming influence. It was the feeling of Christmas
;
warm, soft, comfortable, with a pleasant afterglow of peace and love.
Alex
had felt that way when he was smaller, each and every time his mother had tucked him into bed before he fell asleep.

On reflex, Alex closed his eyes and began to smile, basking in the pleasing power of the rock in his hand.

As Alex basked in the glow of his new find, on other side of the meadow, Scott climbed his way to the top of an old and tired
-
looking pine tree. He stood triumphantly at the top
,
waving his cap
and
screaming at Alex.

“I did it! I made it to the top! You owe me five bucks!” Scott screamed from the top of the tree.

“I didn’t bet anything!” Alex shouted back
,
snapping back to the present moment
.
“Besides, you gotta come check out what I just found
!
”

“What is it?” Scott yelled from the top of the tree
.
“
D
idja
find gold?”

“
No, but it’s pretty cool anyway!” Alex shouted back at Scott.

“
OK! Hold up, I’ll be right down!”

Scott retreated from the edge of the branches and back towards the
tru
n
k
of the old pine
tree. Standing at just over eighty feet tall, the tree had been through many generations of fire, drought, and floods. Thanks to Smokey the Bear, the yearly cycle of rejuvenation through fire had gone out of style, and now without proper management, the forest was dying. For this ancient tree, it had been a nasty infestation of bark beetles (a nefarious insect that burrowed its way through the wood, killing the tree slowly over time). The trunk of the enormous tree was black and looked rotten in several areas. Suddenly, Alex didn’t feel so good watching his fr
iend scale down the tree
.

“
Hey
,
Scott!” Alex shouted at his friend. “Ta
ke it easy on the way down.
T
hat tree doesn’t look so good.”

“
You worry too much
,
Alex!” Scott shouted back from the tree
,
st
epping down onto lower branches.
“I’m fine. This tree is solid as a…”

BANG! Like a gunshot, the branch Scott had just set his weight on snapped clean in half, revealing the rotting carcass of the former giant that had once ruled over the valley. Scott began to fall to the ground, almost as if in slow motion.

Too far away to do anything but scream, Alex watched as his best friend’s body took a beating through the branches of the tree. The sickening crack and snap of bone echoed across the meadow
.
F
inally
,
with a thud, Scott landed on his back, his limb
s
sticking out at odd and unnatural angles. His right leg bled profusely from a nasty compound fracture, the white bone sticking out sharply from his shin.

“
Scott!” Alex ran for all he was worth over to his broken best friend. He reached him, his eyes blurry through the tears. The blood was everywhere, and Scott was not moving at all. Alex whimpered, scared to touch him, “Scott? Are you OK?”

Scott mumbled something unintelligible. Wiping the tears
from
his eyes, Alex sniffed and drew a deep breath
.
H
is young mind raced to think of what to do.