The Secret of the Desert Stone (7 page)

What might have happened to the former owner of those shorts was something they tried not to think about.

Dr. Cooper gave a slight bow, as did Jay and Lila. Dr. Henderson, still seated on the ground, bowed as best she could.

The chief came forward and eyed Dr. Cooper carefully as some of his warriors whispered counsel to him, pointing at the airplane, gesturing at Dr. Cooper. The chief seemed to agree with whatever they were telling him, and the more they talked, the more alarmed he looked. Finally, he spoke to Dr. Cooper, pointing and giving instructions in the Motosa language.

His words meant nothing, of course, and the Coopers and Dr. Henderson could only exchange blank looks.

The chief grew impatient, and repeated the order, pointing at Jacob Cooper's head. Dr. Cooper raised his hand and touched his hat. The chief nodded. Dr. Cooper removed his hat and held it in his hand.

There was an audible gasp from the circle of warriors and the chief cocked his head, his face full of wonder.

“Looks like you're in the spotlight,” Dr. Henderson said quietly.

“So what do I do to perform?” Dr. Cooper asked.

“English!” the chief exclaimed. “You speak English!”

Dr. Cooper wanted to feel relieved. Was this a good sign? “Uh . . . yes, I do.”

“Who are you?”

“Dr. Jacob Cooper, from America. And this is my daughter Lila, and that is my son Jay. And this is Dr. Jennifer Henderson, also from America.”

The chief broke into a wide smile, then laughed with joy. Then he bellowed a loud announcement to his warriors. They erupted in cheers, waving their spears in the air, smiling, laughing, hopping up and down.

Dr. Cooper just smiled at them as he quietly told Dr. Henderson and the kids, “Well, we've done
something
to please them.”

“Maybe they just heard tonight's menu,” Dr. Henderson whispered.

Then Dr. Cooper asked the chief, “Are you the Motosas?”

“Yes, yes!” replied the chief. “Motosas, yes!” He stepped forward, all smiles, all joy. “You come! Come to village! You talk! We hear!”

Before the Coopers understood what was happening, four men locked their arms together to form a chair and lifted Dr. Cooper off the ground like some kind of football hero. Four others did the same for Dr. Henderson, while two pairs of men carried Jay and Lila. With a majestic wave of his staff, the chief led the parade, and, breaking into a song, they headed across the grassy plain.

It was an odd feeling, being carried along by these cheering, mud-painted savages. Jay and Lila tried to smile and act pleased, but they'd heard stories about savage tribes who went to great lengths to win friends just so they could betray and eat them later. Dr. Cooper had heard the same stories and was trying to remember if he'd heard them from Brent Anderson, who had worked in this country.

The parade passed over gently rolling prairie land, through waist-high grass, and past lone, aged trees. At last the Coopers caught sight of the thatched rooftops of the village on the edge of a forest. The trail took them under the sheltering canopy of the trees and then into the center of the village. There chickens and goats scattered out of their path and women and children stopped to stare and wonder at the commotion.

The warriors called to their wives, pointed at the Coopers, and rattled off rapid, excited explanations. The women grew wide-eyed and clapped their hands in awe, chattering among themselves and calling to their children. The main thoroughfare through the village was coming alive with men, women, and children, all gathering and babbling and clapping their hands as they followed the parade.

The Coopers and Dr. Henderson just let themselves be carried along through the village, observing the well-built, multi-roomed, pole and grass structures, watering troughs for the animals carved from whole logs, inventive, hand-woven garments, and intricate jewelry made from stones, bones, and leather.

The thoroughfare opened into a large village square where chickens scratched about and children kicked and chased a furry, fuzzy ball in some kind of team sport. In the center of the square was a well. It was enclosed with a circular wall of stones and topped with a beam from which a bucket could be lowered. At the far end of the square was a large, tent-like structure with a thatched roof but no walls

.Beyond that, fields of corn and wheat struggled to survive in the dry climate.

The parade carried the Coopers and Dr. Henderson right up to the big tent-like structure as two musicians started pounding big drums as a clarion call. In response, the rest of the villagers began to gather from the fields, from the huts, and from the dry prairie beyond, chattering with curiosity and excitement.

The men carrying the Coopers set them down gently; the men carrying Dr. Henderson continued to carry her under the big roof. The chief extended his big, powerful arm inside. “Please! Come! We sit! we hear!”

The Coopers followed the chief inside, past rows of log benches arranged in theater-like fashion, to an open area in the front where a large, flat stone served as a one-man platform.

“Wow,” Jay whispered to Lila. “If I didn't know we were in a primitive African village, I'd think we were in an old revival tent!”

Lila nodded, smiling at the similarity. “It must be their meeting hall.”

Dr. Henderson was already seated comfortably on a log bench in the very front, wincing just a bit as a gray-haired man in a bone necklace and grass skirt examined her knee, nodding and muttering to an assistant or apprentice who nodded and muttered back. This was apparently the village witch doctor.

“It's fine, really,” Dr. Henderson protested. “I don't need any spells cast on me, thank you.”

The chief motioned for the Coopers to stand beside the stone platform while the people swarmed in from every direction, filling the log benches, chattering, and staring at the Coopers with wonder.

The chief stepped onto the stone and raised his arms to signal for quiet. The place quieted down immediately. He addressed them all in a voice that did not need a microphone or loudspeakers. And he appeared to be introducing the strangers who stood there, still oblivious to what was going on.

Then the chief looked down from his stone platform and grinned at Dr. Cooper. The people grinned, too, snickering with delight. The chief pointed to Dr. Cooper's head, bellowed another few sentences, and then, before Dr. Cooper could resist or react, he reached over and rubbed his fingers furiously through Dr. Cooper's hair. That being done, he stepped back and held out his hands toward Dr. Cooper's tousled head as if to say, “Voilà!”

The people seemed to understand the point. They rose to their feet, laughing, cheering, pointing, nodding, clapping.

“Speech! Speech!” Jay cheered, clapping along, which earned him another corrective poke from Lila.

The chief offered Dr. Cooper his big hand and yanked him up onto the stone. The crowd sat down, and the place got quiet.

“You talk,” said the chief. “We hear, yes!”

Then the chief sat down on the front log and waited expectantly with all the others.

Dr. Cooper looked out at all those faces looking back and felt stark naked. What in the world were they expecting him to say? What was he supposed to do? He caught a look from Dr. Henderson. She wasn't saying it out loud, but her eyes sent the message clear enough: “Doctor, you really
are
in the spotlight now!”

The warriors who had brought them here still had their spears in their hands and were eyeing him warily.

Hoo boy,
he thought.
If they don't like whatever speech I come up with, we could all be Cooper soup!

And still the people waited.

SIX

U
m . . .” Dr. Cooper cleared his throat and gave the people a smile he hoped they would like. “Uh, on behalf of my children and my colleague, Dr. Henderson, I bid you greetings.”

Jay and Lila, still standing on the ground in front of the platform, gave a little wave, hoping that would help convey their dad's meaning.

The chief stood up to look for someone and finally caught the eye of the gray-haired witch doctor who had been looking at Dr. Henderson's knee. The chief jerked his head toward Dr. Cooper and the man hurried over and leaped up on the rock, offering his hand. “I am Bengati! Welcome.”

Dr. Cooper was relieved to find another English speaker in the group. “Dr. Jacob Cooper. You know English, then?”

“My father was a guide for white hunters. He learned the language, and taught it to me. I have taught the chief and his family, but . . .” He shrugged. “When there is no need to speak it, it is hard for them to remember.”

Bengati immediately introduced Dr. Jacob Cooper to the crowd. Dr. Cooper picked up his cue and introduced his children and Dr. Henderson, and Bengati interpreted again.

The chief spoke several sentences. Bengati interpreted, “Our Chief welcomes you and says the people have gathered to hear whatever it is you have to say.”

Dr. Cooper confided in a lowered voice, “I'm not really sure what I'm
supposed
to say. Is there—”

Bengati interpreted Dr. Cooper's confidence to the crowd before he could stop him, and everyone exchanged puzzled looks.

Dr. Cooper hurried to say, “But, uh, we are scientists from America, and we have come here to study this vast, mysterious stone that has appeared in the desert.”

The people fell silent and serious when Bengati told them that, nodding their heads, their eyes glued on Dr. Cooper.

The chief asked a question.

“The chief and the people want to know, what does the stone mean?” Bengati interpreted.

“Mean?”
That question caught Dr. Cooper by surprise. “Uh, well, we're not sure what it means.

We've only just arrived and as you know, encountered some trouble with our airplane. We're not even sure where the Stone came from, or how it got here.”

When Bengati delivered that answer, Jay and Lila could see it didn't please the crowd at all. In perfect unison, all those awestruck, expectant faces changed to disappointment.

The chief wasn't very happy either. He fired another question, his voice a little more stern.

Bengati interpreted, “You really do not know how it got here?”

“Uh . . . no, not yet.”

The chief rose to his feet, exasperated, shaking his head and waving his arms as if trying to erase the whole event. He bellowed an announcement to the crowd, and everyone stood up and started to leave.

“The meeting is over,” Bengati told the Coopers.

“You did not answer the chief's questions correctly.”

“You could have
made up
something,” Dr. Henderson muttered.

The chief stepped up to Dr. Cooper, still shaking his head, and made a simple statement.

Bengati interpreted, “Have you no eyes?
God
put it there.”

Lila's mouth dropped open. She shot a triumphant glance at Dr. Henderson. The geologist merely sneered.

The chief continued to speak while Bengati interpreted. “We hoped you would teach us, but now
we
must teach
you.”

The chief gave some quick orders to his warriors and stomped from the building, obviously angry and disappointed.

The warriors moved forward and surrounded them again, pushing Bengati to the outside of the circle. The warrior in charge shook his spear and shouted, gesturing toward the village. Bengati called from across the crowd, “You are to go with those men now.”

Four warriors got their arms locked under Dr. Henderson and picked her up, but there were no such seats for the Coopers.

They had to walk, guided by the points of spears.

“Well, it seems our popularity has lagged,” said Dr. Cooper.

“Face it, Cooper, you bombed,” said Dr.

Henderson.

Surrounded tightly on all sides and led by armed warriors, they left the meeting hall and went out into the village square as the crowd continued to disperse. Some returned to their homes, others back into the fields, and several back to the open prairie, disappearing over a low rise. The formidable Stone filled the sky beyond them.

“What do cannibals do?” Lila asked. “I mean . . . do they just throw you into a big soup pot or what?”

Dr. Cooper touched her. “Lila, don't give in to thoughts like that.”

Jay sniffed. “Hey. Smells like a barbecue.”

“Of course,” said Dr. Henderson. “And guess who the main course is going to be!”

Jacob Cooper's voice was firm. “Dr. Henderson, I'll thank you to control such outbursts!”

“Sorry.” Her tone said she wasn't.

They seemed to be going toward the smell, marching up a narrow path that wound between the grass huts and beneath the sheltering limbs of ancient trees. When they rounded the last corner, they beheld a sight that made them stare. At the end of the path was a special grass hut, built in and around a massive tree so that the roof timbers were suspended from the tree's lower limbs.

“Now
this
is different,” said Jay.

“It's like something out of Peter Pan!” said Lila, captivated. “Where the Lost Boys live!”

The warriors led them up to the front door and halted there in a neat formation. There was a shout and the tribal chief, now without his ornate headdress, emerged from his house and stood before his door, his expression grim, his fists on his hips.

“Ben-ga-ti!” he hollered.

Bengati shouted in acknowledgment as he came running from behind the crowd.

The chief thundered a few sentences as Bengati came alongside to interpret. “The chief wishes to have you as his guests for dinner.”

The Coopers and Dr. Henderson exchanged glances. Now just what did he mean by that?

The warriors all bowed slightly and turned away, heading back down the path into the village. The only ones who remained were Bengati and those bearing Jennifer Henderson.