During one trip to the property, I found a piece of red agate. The rock was just inside the waterline. Had it been up on the sand I probably would have skipped over. Most stones dry dull and gray in the sun. To find a stone's luster, we would lick a finger and rub it over the stone in several spots. If that didn't work, we dipped it in the lake. Most of the time we walked the thin beige line, that border between lake and rocky shore. Socks came off but shoes went back on when rock-wading. I spent many an afternoon with damp shoes.
The piece of agate I found was about the size of the tip of my thumb. I'm going to say it was a candy apple red that darkened from the opaque front to the tapered back. Concentric lines along the face formed almost perfect rectangles that appeared to recede into the stone. My mother took one look at it and snatched the stone from my hand.
Though we were not completely familiar with the Tolkien trilogy, we had seen the Ralph Bashki animated version of The Hobbit on television and the pseudo-live action animated version of Lord of the Rings, also by Bashki. In that moment along the shores of Lake Huron which could have been the banks of Belegaer, my mother was Schmiegel. Hunched over, hair blowing in the wind, a wet cigarette smoldering between her pale lips, all she lacked was a slurpy, breathy, squeaky declaration.
"My precious."
STUMPSTONE QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin’s Day will shine upon the key-hole. ― The Hobbit
No comments:
Post a Comment