I have written these first two posts and a few more drafts successfully…but posts on this topic are getting harder to write. I guess the old spirits are averse to my confessing my knowledge.
Before I get on with our reasons for building The Stick House, and other things related to it, I want you to know that we were prone to visions while having to do with The Eye Tree. Visions were her preferred form of communication, although she also spoke directly to our minds.
This being the case, we saw many things at and around The Stick House. I’ll get to some of the others in good time. But here is one that struck my siblings and I hard.
Woman with Soap Pot; Climbing Roses
The Stick House roof was covered in climbing yellow roses. They twined up the sturdy elm at the southeast corner, and reached onto the Supplies Room roof…which looked healthier than it had ever looked yet.
Grass grew over The Stick House, disguising its structure. It was like a dugout.
Before it stood a woman. She had a stick in her hand, and was stirring a pot of lye soap. We could vaguely smell the fatty, chemical odor, but the woman did not seem bothered by it. It was an everyday part of living to her.
We looked at her dress, and knew she was a refugee of some kind, and had taken shelter, probably with her family, in The Stick House.
How long had they been there?
Of course, we had built it for just this purpose.
We had stocked it with a few things already: a camp shovel, some bottles and other containers for storing food and drink in…and we had gathered knowledge.
We had begun to study what was good to forage around our home – could we eat certain grasses, if need be? What about the blue cedar berries, and puffball mushrooms?
We also began to ask questions? Like, Who was the enemy?
As we stood looking at this woman, we knew she had been driven here…but by whom?
The Eye Tree seemed silent on this question.
Part 7
