The Secret of the Desert Stone (8 page)

“Come,” said the chief, gesturing with his big arms, “You come. Come eat.”

Dr. Henderson went first—she had no choice, as the warriors carried her gently through the narrow door. Dr. Cooper, Jay, and Lila followed behind. Their eyes darted everywhere, alert for knives in hands, warriors waiting in ambush, any sign of danger.

Inside the chief's hut, they saw dinner already prepared, laid out in banquet style on a low, roughhewn table. In the center of the table, surrounded by meticulous arrangements of fruits and vegetables, was a huge roast pig, still hot and crackling, just off the spit.

They were going to
eat
dinner, not
be
dinner. Their relief was so obvious the chief asked through Bengati, “Are you all right? Is something wrong with the food?”

Dr. Cooper waved his hand and shook his head and even chuckled with relief. “No, no, everything's wonderful. The roast pig is . . . it's a wonderful sight to see!”

“Fabulous!” Dr. Henderson agreed, still drawing deep breaths so she could sigh with relief, her hand over her heart.

The chief introduced his family: a beautiful wife with coal black skin and a smooth, sculptured face—“She is Renyata”; a handsome, athletic son just a little older than Jay—“He is my son, Ontolo”; and a beautiful daughter about Lila's age with long, intricate braids—“She is Beset.” Then he thumped his chest and announced proudly, “And I am Gotono! I am chief!”

The Coopers and Dr. Henderson bowed in greeting and respect as they shook hands with each of Chief Gotono's family. Jay and Ontolo hit it off immediately and even exchanged a few small gifts. Then, at the chief and Renyata's invitation—and with the four warriors assisting Dr. Henderson— they took their places around the table, sitting on the floor on a comfortable woven mat of straw. The chief extended his hand over the table while he pronounced some kind of blessing, and they started eating. It felt just like family dinner on a Sunday afternoon.

As they ate, the chief spoke and Bengati interpreted. “I apologize for the embarrassment we caused you. You were not who we expected.” Before they could figure out what that was supposed to mean, the chief kept right on going. “But now you are guests here with us, and we welcome you.”

“Thank you,” said Dr. Cooper. “And we apologize that we did not meet your expectations.”

Bengati relayed the message in Motosa and the chief laughed. “So you have come to learn of the Stone,” he answered through Bengati. “The Stone is a work of our god, but it is a great mystery. We do not know what our god intends by placing it there. We do not yet know its meaning. That is why we asked
you.”

Dr. Henderson got bold. “Well, if you don't know the meaning of the Stone, then how can you be sure your god put it there?”

The Coopers tensed a bit at that question, afraid it would cause offense, but the chief only nodded in approval and gave his answer.

“That is a fair question,” Bengati translated.

The chief reached over and took his long, ornately carved staff from its place in the corner. He held it up for all to see, and ran his fingers over the carvings of animals, birds, and trees. Bengati relayed his words, “If you were to happen upon this staff in the middle of the desert, you would think another man left it there. You would not think it suddenly appeared for no reason. And why is that? Because anyone can see it is created. It is carved by a maker's hand. So the Stone is the same way. It is no ordinary stone. It is created by the hand of a craftsman, the hand of our god.”

Dr. Cooper could feel Lila's smile before he even looked to see it. He smiled back and threw her a wink.

The chief was continuing. “Our god does nothing without a reason, and soon we will know what the reason is. But this we do know: The Stone will bring us water for our crops, just as it has brought us you. This was all meant to be.”

“Water for their crops?” Dr. Henderson wondered out loud.

Dr. Cooper caught her eye, and her meaning.“Sounds geological, doesn't it?”

Dr. Henderson turned to the chief. “You say the Stone will bring you water? How?”

The chief was delighted by the question. “The day is coming to an end. Tomorrow morning, you will see.”

After dinner, the Coopers and Dr. Henderson were taken to a large home facing the village square. Like most homes in this village, it was a well-built, sod and grass, post and beam structure that rested on stone footings with a covered porch. The owner was an older woman with a round, jolly face.

“This is Jo-Jota,” said Bengati, “a widow of three years and mother of five who are now grown. She has room inside for strangers, and you can all stay here.”

“Wow,” said Dr. Henderson, “Jo-Jota's boarding house.”

“You may stay here in our village while you try to learn the secret of the Stone,” the chief said as Bengati interpreted. Then he looked at Dr. Henderson. “And we will care for you until your leg has healed.”

She shook the chief's hand and replied, “Thank you, sir. We are indebted to you.”

Dr. Cooper took Jo-Jota's offered hand in greeting. “We deeply appreciate your hospitality.”

“Tomorrow,” said the chief, “we will see the Stone together, and you will learn how the Stone will bring us water.”

When morning came to the Motosa village, there was a strange, overcast dimness about it, as if the sun had come up, but not really. When Lila stepped onto Jo-Jota's porch to stretch and breathe the cool, morning air, she found her brother and father already observing how the Stone had affected the morning light.

“We're still in the Stone's shadow,” said Jay.

“The desert, the grasslands, the village,” Dr. Cooper observed, looking east, then west, “a lot of the forest, too, is all in the shadow. The sunlight won't break over the top edge of the Stone until midmorning.”

Jo-Jota brought them a breakfast of wheat kernels mixed with raisins, which reminded them of granola, and goat's milk. They had just finished their meal when Chief Gotono, Bengati, and four warriors arrived, all smiles. The chief had appointed himself their official guide and had come to take them on a tour around the village.

The Coopers walked while Jennifer Henderson rode in style in a special chair carried by the four warriors. She griped a little bit, complaining that she was not a cripple, but the Coopers could tell she was actually enjoying herself.

Bengati tried to keep up with the translating as Chief Gotono rattled on and on like a tour guide. The chief pointed out new huts that had been built in a special expansion project for new sons- and daughters-in-law. Next he showed them the recently improved village well. Because of the recent dry years, it was now dug out twice as deep as it had been originally. Then he took them to the sheep and goat corrals, now with dwindling populations due to the loss of grazing land. From there they went to see the spinning and weaving projects that provided clothing, blankets, and household linens. Last, the chief showed them the fields of corn and wheat that were necessary for survival and yet sparse for lack of water.

“But that will change soon,” he added.

They passed through the village heading eastward, toward the desert and toward the Stone. As they came from under the wide canopy of the trees and started to cross the open prairie, they could once again see the Stone stretching across the golden horizon and filling the sky like the biggest red barn ever made.

Lila admired the reddish color that seemed so deep on the shaded, western face of the Stone. It seemed to glow around its edges where the hidden sun's rays shot outward like the spokes of a huge wheel. “It's beautiful, isn't it?”

Dr. Cooper studied the Stone's distant outline and quietly asked his children, “Why aren't we afraid of it?”

Jay thought the question a little odd. “Are we supposed to be?”

“Well, come on: It's popped into existence out of nowhere; it's indestructible; it cuts the day in half; it quakes; and we got the scare of our lives in that storm it caused.”

Jay considered that. “Well, we're okay now. Nothing really bad happened.”

“The people on the other side are afraid of it.”

“I've
never
been afraid of it,” said Lila.

“And neither have I,” said Jay.

“But why not?” their father pressed.

“I don't know,” said Lila. “It'd be like being afraid of a sunset, or a beautiful mountain, or a whole forest turning golden in the fall. It's beautiful, and God made it, that's all I know.”

“Yeah,” Jay agreed. “I think Lila and the chief are right: God put it there.”

Dr. Cooper nodded. “Which really makes me curious: What is it about a huge rock that draws such a response from us?”

“Well, what about the Motosas?” Jay asked. “They must be feeling the same thing. I mean, all those people on the other side—Nkromo, Mobutu, the soldiers—they think the Stone's a
boloa-kota,
and they're afraid of it. But the Motosas are glad the thing's here; they think their god sent it.”

“Now
that
was interesting, to be sure,” said Dr. Cooper. “I'd like to know more about the religious system here. They apparently believe in a creator, in one god.”

“And they aren't cannibals, either,” said Jay. “I don't know what Mr. Mobutu was talking about.”

“Wow!” Lila said suddenly.

They were coming over a rise and could see the vast golden prairie in front of them. Where it faded into the desolate desert basin, the Stone, as solid, immovable, and mysterious as ever, towered above like a pillar holding up the sky. But now they had a new sight to behold.

At least fifty men, women, and children were laboring in a long, straight line, swinging picks and shovels, throwing the stubborn dirt out of a ditch that reached better than a mile across the prairie, into the desert, and to the base of the Stone. It was a marvelous accomplishment considering the primitive tools they were using—no backhoes or bulldozers here, only picks, shovels, muscles, and determination.

The chief was proud of the project, that was easy to see. He traced the path of the ditch in a long, flowing gesture and said with Bengati translating: “For years our life has been hard for lack of water. Our crops have struggled, our well has dropped lower and lower. But now, water will come. It will flow through this ditch from the Stone to our village.”

Jennifer Henderson rose awkwardly in her chair and strained to see the farthest limits of the ditch.“But where is the water?”

“It will come,” the chief replied.

He continued on, and they followed, hiking along the ditch through the prairie and into the desert, getting closer and closer to the Stone. Dr. Henderson became visibly nervous again, but the men carrying her actually seemed to be excited for the opportunity to come this close to the Stone.

The Coopers continued to inspect the ditch as they walked along, until it came at last to a sudden stop at the northwest corner of the Stone.

Here, almost as a courtesy, the Stone allowed access to its corner over flat desert ground. Only a few hundred feet away, the Stone was jammed up against the sheer, rocky cliffs, barring any approach to the rest of its north surface as well as denying any passage to the other side. The Coopers and Dr. Henderson had never been to one of the Stone's corners. They'd never touched one or measured its angle, never placed their hands on the keen edge that shot straight up, true as a laser, into the upper reaches of the sky.

Dr. Cooper got there first, and with an excitement that he made no effort to conceal, he touched the corner. He ran his hand up and down it, sighted along the Stone's west face with one eye, then the Stone's north face, then carefully measured the angle formed where the two surfaces met.

“Incredible!” he exclaimed, so excited there was laughter in his voice. “Ninety degrees! Perfectly formed!”

Jennifer Henderson fidgeted in her chair and urged her carriers on. “Come on, get me over there!”

They carried her to the corner where she did the very same things Dr. Cooper had done, her breath quickening with excitement, her face filled with awe.

Jay and Lila took their turn, sighting up the corner, marveling at the dead-straight line and the perfectly square angle.

“Oh, Lord,”
Dr. Cooper found himself praying,
“what is it? What does it mean?”

But now Dr. Henderson was carefully surveying the ground and the rocky strata the ditch had cut through. “Dr. Cooper. I don't think I have any good news for us or the Motosas. There's nothing here to indicate any kind of water table or aquifer.”

The Motosas standing nearby did not fully understand her words, but they could understand her somber tone. They fell silent, wanting to know what she was saying.

“So you're saying . . . ?” Dr. Cooper asked.

“I'm saying there is no water here,” she replied.

The chief seemed to understand what she was saying and touched her arm. Then he spoke, and Bengati translated. “You see with only one set of eyes and see only what is, not what can be.”

Dr. Henderson didn't want to argue with their host. “I suppose that's right,” she agreed. Then she muttered to Dr. Cooper, “I suppose
he
can predict what the geological forces will do next.”

Then Chief Gotono turned to Jay and Lila with a sparkle in his eye. Bengati translated as the chief asked them, “Do
you
see with other eyes? Do you see the water flowing to our village?”

Well, of course they didn't, but they thought they understood his meaning.

Jay ventured, “You're, uh, digging this ditch in faith?”

Bengati wasn't sure how to interpret that.

Lila tried, “It's like a dream, a vision. You don't see any water, but still you believe it will be here.”

Bengati interpreted that to the chief, and the chief laughed a deep, thunderous laugh that echoed off the Stone so clearly it sounded like a second man laughing right next to them. “Yes!” He thumped his heart. “In here, I know.”