Between the Sun and the Stars

Between The Sun and The Stars

H J James

“...ninety-eight, ninety-nine, ONE HUNDRED!” Bella’s voice echoed through the forest.

An observer would have been surprised at the decibels emerging from such a slight young woman, crouched as she was near the base of an ancient Redwood. Opening her eyes and quickly readjusting to the light through a series of scrunches that rippled across her face, Bella stood up straight, swiping the dried leaves from the back of jeans. Her extended form was as unexpected as the sound levels, slight yes, but a strength was suddenly apparent in that leanness, the way she held her body, like a proud gazelle that one suspected might beat the lion back. She looked around, noting the rays of the soon-setting sun stalking through the gaps in the leaves and branches, dancing diamonds across the brown earth, each space it’s own prism for the sunshine, scattering rainbows across the earth; littered still with Winter’s dead loss even as Spring’s new green was busy arriving. She took it all in. God, it’s just so beautiful here, she thought to herself, exhaling slowly, continuing to muse to herself that in the case of Hapthor Grove, familiarity really did not breed contempt.

“HERE I COME, READY OR NOT”, again the volume at odds with the vessel. She leapt away from the tree as if it had a trampoline at its base, springing forward over the bluebells. She could hear the laughter already, it wasn’t going to be a long game. Seth and Cosmo, her seven year old nephews, were, in her sister’s words, “crap at hide and seek” but it was their favourite thing to do on a late spring evening such as now. Bella knew where they would be.

She stopped bounding about ten feet before the two grey boulders that a bygone ice age had neatly deposited side by side at the point where the wooded copse ended, just before the terrain abruptly changed into the Hap mountains; a great range of deep red and grey layers carved out by the warring factions of the Earth’s crust. Stealthily, silently she moved across the mud and stone, old leaves and trying-to-bloom flowers, carefully placing each foot heel to toe so as not to rustle or squelch. It was eerie, the laughter had stopped.

She paused close to the boulders, known locally as Mr & Mrs Hap-pily Ever After, placing her hand against the cool rock and marvelling at the swirling patterns of white, silver and gold that close-up replaced the grey with incomprehensible psychedelica. Leaning forward into the small gap between the two rocks, she spied a bright red trainer, Cosmo, she smiled to herself. Winding her body around the rock, and carefully leaning in, she pushed her head and shoulders through.

“Found you!”, she cried, quickly wrapping her hand around the ankle that belonged to the foot in the red shoe. The boys screamed in delight and the laughter started again. “Out you come!” Bella said, laughing herself as the owner of the red shoe made his way out backwards, limbs unfolding. One child out, the blue shoes of his twin came into sight next.

“You were very quiet”, Bella said, “you nearly had me worried!”.

Cosmo smiled, huge brown eyes lifting toward the Aunt he loved so much.

“We found something” he said, nodding sagely as only a seven year old can.

“Did you?” asked Bella, “What did you find?”

“THIS” exclaimed a slightly muffled voice as Seth’s body wriggled out face-down backwards, twisting to turn up again as more of it left the dark of the The Hap-pilys. He had clearly got hold of something that was making his movements less fluid as he wrestled himself out of the space. Finally free he triumphantly threw down a little balck book at Bella’s feet.

“It’s an instruction book”, said Cosmo.

“Is it now?” Bella felt the corners of her mouth turn up good naturedly, smiling as she tried not to let the bemusement at her nephew’s sincerity regarding the obvious seriousness of this discovery spread to her face.

“Yes”, said Seth, taking his turn at the wise head bobbing.

“It tells you…”

“Let me tell her…”

“I saw it first…”

“Well I read it first…”

“I read it too!”

“Shhhh! Boys!” interjected Bella. The gift that they played beautifully together for the most part did not go unnoticed by anyone, and it was truly lovely, but the constant competition made things frequently very loud. “Let’s start again” she said, “can I see it please Cosmo?” who had, Bella noticed, used the escalation in noise to pick up the book for himself.

“Ok” he said, holding it out.

“But I found it” Seth jealousy eyed the book as it travelled from one person to another.

“And I worked out what it is” said Cosmo glaring back at him.

“How about I read it” said Bella gently, “I wonder whose it is” she murmured, half to the boys and half to herself, turning it over in her hands, the smell of it’s black leather bind and starched paper wafting through the air as she did so.

“It’s Mr & Mrs Happily’s book” Cosmo said proudly, “It says Property of The Happily Ever Afters”.

Bella laughed, “Well I doubt that two rocks could write a book, Cosi, but it’s kind of cool that someone left it here. Maybe we should leave it here?”

“Noooooo” the boys shook their heads in unison. Seth whipped the book back out of Bella’s hands, scrabbling fast through the pages and then planting a muddy finger, “there’s two only two pages with words we know” he said, “page 1 says follow the instructions and live happily ever after”. The book took a journey to a new pair of hands as it was Cosmo’s turn to snatch it away, “And page 10 says and will have lots of money” he said, counting under his breath as he got to the tenth sheet of the now well finger-printed off white parchment.

“Well” said Bella, “that certainly sounds like a worthwhile book to have! Where are the instructions then?” Bella held out her hand to take the book back.

“They’re in the middle, but don't understand them” said two voices at once.

Bella opened the book, and immediately became sure she couldn't read it either. There were straight lines and swirls and dots and,

“HIEROGLYPHS!” she yelled suddenly.

“Hiro what?” said Seth. “What’s a glif?” asked Cosmo.

“Hieroglyphs” Bella repeated, this time calmly. “They’re like an ancient way of telling a story, look I think that one is a tree” she pointed at the strange symbols, “and that one looks a bit like a two hands if you squint…”

One of the boys, she didn’t even know which one, grabbed the book from her hands and suddenly two brown heads were bobbing and twenty dirty fingers were sliding across the pages as they spoke to each other excitedly. Bella sighed, one minute at each other’s throats the next almost working as if they were one person! She was used to it now, although it was a strange thing to observe if you weren’t. She knew her job was to wait, until they were done bouncing off each other like atoms in some sort of high compression chamber.

The heads looked up, and the little bodies filled themselves with air, the air of importance as if they were about to deliver a world changing speech in front of an audience of thousands.

“We have to…”

“Take a branch…”

“From the oldest tree…”

“And place it in the stream…”

“Not the river..”

“Where the forest ends…”

“At sunset…”

“And say a prayer…

“And put the branch on the book...”

“With some money on it…”

“And let it float away….

“And we already know where the oldest tree is...”

“And where the stream is.”

They paused, grinning at each other. They knew that they were something special when they finished off each other’s sentences.

“Oh” Bella said. “Well, we can do all that. How did you work all that out?” The boys quickly explained their thinking, the lines, the triangles, the circles and the spheres and although Bella didn’t believe a word of it she was completely convinced that their deductions were made from sense not nonsense.

“Very impressive boys, let’s do it! Back to the Redwood!”. Quickly they made their way back to where Bella had waited, counting, what seemed like a lifetime ago even though it was probably only twenty minutes if that. Too excited to notice so much now they grabbed a small twig, apologising to the tree as they pulled it from between the rough shards of bark, barely stopping as they made their way to the stream; which was actually a tributary of the River Hap, from which the whole area took it’s name and marked the boundary of the grove.

“Ooh” exclaimed Seth, “we need money”. Four brown eyes gazed upwards again, “Have you got any Aunt Bella?” asked Cosmo, in what was most definitely his sweetest, too difficult to refuse voice, the one usually reserved for chocolate. Bella shoved her hands into her jean pockets. She felt the familiar texture of a well used bill, pulling it out she saw the $10 and felt her stomach flip slightly. Since her sister had disappeared, she’d struggled to keep afloat. Ten dollars was a lot. She looked again at their faces, and knew this was the sort of adventure that stayed with them for a lifetime and God knows they needed the good memories to start being built. She decided this was more important than ten bucks, passing over the grubby note.

She watched as the boys put the book, the twig and the ten dollar bill together, balancing them carefully. Glancing away and along the stream she was aware that the air was turning cooler, the white light she’d observed earlier through the forest now a dim yellow glow. How strange, she thought, it actually is sunset.

“We need a prayer!” one of the boys shouted, Bella turned back, stretching fully as she did so.

“Ok, let’s do our prayer” she said, bringing her arms around and down in a huge circle, placing them gently around the boy’s shoulders,“ready?”

The nods returned.

The three began, “God, whatever you are and wherever you are please bless us and keep us safe. Let us see the light in all things, know the dark is always filled one day and be happy and grateful for all we have”. They usually said it before bed, and saying it outside of a pyjama moment sent both boys into fits of giggles.

***

They arrived home about half an hour later. Bella’s stomach flipped again, this time as she saw the suitcase at the front door. She skirted the boys along the fence to the backgate, ushering them through into the garden with mutterings of taking their trainers off and washing their hands at the outside tap. Shutting the gate behind them she returned to the front, she knew before she picked up the envelope it would be her sister.

“Bella, I watched you today at the Grove. They are still crap at hide and seek. I am so sorry that I’ve left you all, and I hope you will one day forgive me. I simply couldn’t cope, and you’ve always been so alive, so steady, so grounded, I know you are better for them than I. I hope you will accept this money, it’s not enough forever but it’s start. There’s $20,000 in this case. I love you. Tell the boys I love them too. When it’s right. S”

Bella looked back to the now dark sky, her heart pounding like a bass drum in a marching band through her chest. Was that a test? A coincidence? Just what had happened? She looked up at the night sky and contemplated her sister’s name, Stella, the star. She realised that she didn’t need to know.