\u201cThank you,\u201d said Dun with a slight nod.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThank me for what?\u201d asked Mabel. She was elated. Dun had reappeared, and her outlook on this whole trip was better than ever.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat I didn\u2019t have to leave the garden to find you,\u201d replied Dun. \u201cIt\u2019s very uncomfortable for me.\u201d He looked slightly nervous and fingered his moon-shaped amulet as if for reassurance.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWell,\u201d said Mabel, \u201cI\u2019ve never met a dryad…I mean dryan, before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s a silly thing,\u201d said Dun, matter of factly.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat is?\u201d asked Mabel.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cCaring whether people think you\u2019re a girl or a boy. Only humans mind it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOh,\u201d responded Mabel. She sat down under a tree to think for a moment about what else she should say. Dun crouched under the same tree and leaned very close to Mabel.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey miss you,\u201d said Dun. \u201cVery much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \tMabel looked at Dun, who had a tiny tear glinting in the corner of his eye. It rolled down his sloping nose, and he turned his puppy eyes to Mabel. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s one of their sadnesses,\u201d he continued, \u201cand that makes my sisters sad, and then all of us feel it, all over.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWho misses me?\u201d asked Mabel, \u201cI don\u2019t understand what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSad that you\u2019re their only child and they\u2019ve never had a chance to know you,\u201d continued Dun. \u201cYou would be too, if you couldn\u2019t know your only child. And my sisters don\u2019t think it\u2019s my business to meddle, but I have to. I like to fix things, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cDun,\u201d began Mabel, with what patience she could muster, \u201cmy parents are here at Cochiti Spring with me, and I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDun\u2019s expression became lighter, and he let out a jingle-bell laugh, then stood, and peeked at Mabel from behind the tree. \u201cThis is not the only water that can heal, you know. There are many more sources, all sisters, just like my sisters and me. You must find one of the sisters…it is not so far from your home…and then they will not be sad because they will know you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI need you to tell me, who are these people that you\u2019re talking about?\u201d repeated Mabel. \u201cAnd where am I supposed to look?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNo, no,\u201d said Dun shaking his head. \u201cI must not meddle any more. My sisters will already fuss at me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWho are your sisters, Dun?\u201d asked Mabel, hoping she could get more information from him if she approached the subject in a round-about way.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cDon\u2019t you know?\u201d asked Dun. It seemed to surprise and delight him to be able to share the knowledge with Mabel. \u201cMy sisters are all around, all over the world. And we do talk. Whenever you hear the trees whisper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cDryads.\u201d said Mabel.<\/p>\n
\n\tDun suddenly looked like an autumn leaf whose glow had faded. \u201cI am tired, now. I need to return to my tree. Now I\u2019ve shared with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIt took Mabel a moment to realize that she was gazing at nothing but orange trees. She looked around, but Dun was gone. There was no point in calling him either. He had accomplished what he meant to.<\/p>\n
\n\tMabel wandered out of the garden feeling more awake than she ever had before. There was so much to notice in the world. So much more life to everything, than she\u2019d ever realized.<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the same time she felt deliciously confused. She was holding a puzzle which challenged her to discover its solution. When the time was right she would ask her parents. And they were her parents. She felt no doubt about that. There must be some symbolic meaning to the strange things which both Dun and Verdon Arbogast had said to her.<\/p>\n
*******<\/p>\n
\t\tNiles Lampkin set his dinner plate, piled with a great mountain of food, down on the table. \u201cSo,\u201d he began, with his usual bushy smile, \u201cwhat unicorns and pixies have we been chasing today?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIda Prickles, who was nervously crumpling her napkin into a tiny ball, appeared to be on the verge of throwing it at him. \u201cProfessor,\u201d she said, in a tiny voice which seemed out of step with her words, \u201cI\u2019m afraid that in your pursuit of facts, you must quite overlook the many life-forms around you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMy dear Miss Prickles,\u201d replied Professor Lampkin, forcefully spearing a forkful of dinner, \u201cI am more interested in this broccoli. It\u2019s real, it\u2019s here, and it\u2019s tasty!\u201d With that, the broccoli disappeared into his furry face. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMabel,\u201d said Margie, \u201cdid you go back and look for Dun today?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI found him,\u201d answered Mabel, \u201cand we had an interesting conversation.\u201d Suddenly Mabel realized that it was Margie with whom she wanted to discuss her strange encounter, even before her parents. \u201cMay I come to your office after dinner?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019d love it,\u201d replied Margie. \u201cIf it\u2019s alright with you, Peter and Clara.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Crocketts nodded. Professor Lampkin excused himself to visit the dessert table, and Ida Prickles shot Mabel envious glances while molding tiny bits of napkin into logs.<\/p>\n
\tMabel left the dining room with Margie. Along the way Margie explained how the multicolored stripes on the canyon wall represented millions of years of rock being deposited, one layer at a time. And how many more millions of years it took for water to carve this bowl-shaped valley out of the rock where now the only water source was a small spring.<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the top of the stone stairway, and down a ledge to the left, Margie opened the door to her office. Like the Crocketts\u2019 room, it was a dark and cool cave space, and Margie had filled it with a mismatched array of floor and table lamps, which cast a warm glow around the room. A wooden rocking chair sat next to a massive roll-top desk, and all the walls were filled with an assortment of artwork and bookshelves. At the deepest end of the room was a large table on which sat glass bottles in all sizes, a mortar and pestle, and a scale. It reminded Mabel of a chemistry classroom at school, or maybe Dr. Rotter\u2019s lab and kitchen because of the plants. On several surfaces potted plants were clustered under grow-lights, while overhead, dried plants hung in neatly tied bunches.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m working on a little concoction of my own devising,\u201d said Margie, swirling a liquid around in a bottle she picked up from the work-table. \u201cPlants and herbs have many remarkable qualities on their own, and I\u2019ve found that using Cochiti Spring water in my formulations, I not only enhance the effectiveness of the plants, but it often puts a new and completely unexpected twist on the plants\u2019 properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMabel stood beside Margie and looked at the spinning decoction. \u201cWhat does it do?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWell,\u201d said Margie, \u201cit really surprised me. I used artichoke, jasmine, a little hawthorn, and a tiny bit of mistletoe, which would be toxic if the amount weren\u2019t so minuscule. My intent was a tea which could help ease the pain of romantic break-up, but when I blended it with the spring water something quite interesting happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat is it,\u201d asked Mabel, \u201ca love potion?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNot quite,\u201d said Margie. \u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019d want to toy with fate that much. But sometimes, in a relationship, there are little lumpy obstacles that the couple just can\u2019t quite work their way around. I\u2019ve found this formula can help them see everything in its proper perspective, and work things out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think our office handyman, Paulo, needs some of that,\u201d said Mabel. \u201cI\u2019ve been to their house. He and his wife can get pretty loud sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019ll tell you what,\u201d said Margie. She opened a drawer in the work table and took out a small glass vial which hung from a silk cord. Next she poured some of the liquid from the larger flask into the vial, and replaced the stopper. \u201cTake some home and try it,\u201d she said, handing the vial to Mabel. \u201cIt can\u2019t hurt and it might help.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThank you,\u201d said Mabel. She hung the silk cord around her neck and wore the vial like a pendant. \u201cThere\u2019s something else I wanted to ask you about. Dun said something really weird to me, and I can\u2019t figure out what it means.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWell,\u201d said Margie, \u201cI\u2019ve had a few conversations with Dun myself, and I\u2019ve always found they make more sense to me later, when I\u2019m not really trying to figure it out. But tell me if you like, and we\u2019ll think about it together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMargie sat down in the rocker and Mabel continued to look around the room. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe said there are some people who are sad and miss me, and that I\u2019m their only child, but he didn\u2019t seem to think it was necessary to say who they are, and he also said that I should find another spring, like Cochiti, and then I\u2019d find the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMargie momentarily slowed down her rocking, and looked at the ceiling. \u201cAt first glance that does seem even stranger than anything Dun\u2019s shared with me,\u201d she said thoughtfully. \u201cBut it\u2019s important to realize that Dryads have a much more evolved way of communicating with each other than humans do. I mean, even without telephones and computers, which we\u2019ve invented to compensate for the fact that we haven\u2019t yet learned to communicate without them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d asked Mabel.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat someone, who\u2019s connected with you in some way, knows dryads, and the dryads have spread the information on kind of a world-wide dryad network. That would be why Dun knows about it, but I think you\u2019ll have to solve the main part of the riddle yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s what I thought,\u201d said Mabel. \u201cAnd I guess I kind of want to.\u201d Mabel continued to casually poke around the room, tilting her head to read the spines of books on the shelves. \u201cBasic First Aid,\u201d she said, reading aloud, \u201cAnasazi Lore and Legend…Native American Herbology…A Compendium of Healing Plants…\u201d She stopped and squinted at the spine of the last title. The book looked old, and consisted of an inch of pages bound in a green cover. \u201cWickers,\u201d she read aloud. Quickly, Mabel pulled the book off the shelf so she could see the author\u2019s complete name. \u201cThis was written by Colleen Wickers!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYes,\u201d said Margie, \u201cyou know of her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cShe taught school in my town a long time ago, and she died in a fire. I\u2019ve read newspaper stories about her. She sounds like a person I would have liked to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMargie stood next to Mabel and gently turned the pages of the book. \u201cI\u2019ve never found a better reference volume on medicinal plants. She was one of the most highly credentialed individuals in the botanical community. Almost legendary, really. It was considered slightly peculiar that she chose to teach in a small town school. I found this book in the basement of a used bookstore. I understand she wrote a second book, as well, but I\u2019ve never been able to find a copy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMabel thumbed through the book. There were sections on gardening, preserving, formulations, and an alphabetical listing of plants and their properties. \u201cI\u2019d love to read this sometime, when I\u2019m not stuck on history essays,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis book has been out of print for many, many years,\u201d said Margie. \u201cI hope you will be able to come back and read it in person, but for now, how about if I copy a few sections now and then and send them to you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThank you,\u201d replied Mabel, \u201cI would like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAt night the Cochiti Spring valley was almost pitch black. A few gentle lights glowed from rooms embedded in the cliffside, but no lights bright enough to dim the glow of the sky which, from down in the salad bowl, looked like a real life planetarium. Margie saw Mabel as far as the base of the stairway to Zuni, and by the time Mabel reached the third level, she was very ready for bed.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the morning, the Crocketts would fly home, and perhaps, Mabel thought, it was time to see what her parents could contribute to the questions percolating in her head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThank you,\u201d said Dun with a slight nod. \u201cThank me for what?\u201d asked Mabel. She was elated. Dun had reappeared, and her outlook on this whole trip was better than ever. \u201cThat I didn\u2019t have to leave the garden to find you,\u201d replied Dun. \u201cIt\u2019s very uncomfortable for me.\u201d He looked slightly nervous and fingered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}