Stone by Stone

by Liz O'Neill

Background
Bea has made her way down the hill toward the river. She worries her level of stress is the reason for her hearing invisible voices.

Previously: Bea has accomplished her daunting task, to climb down a rather steep hill. It turned out, there was a level path. When she reached the bottom, she heard a single mysterious invisible voice.

A second unseen voice made a remark similar to the first voice about how someone had done well mastering their likeness. Bea worried her stress from losing everyone was making her imagine voices for friends.
The tinier voice seemed to move from up to down, however, the larger sizzing sounding voice was motionless.

Searching the ground around her feet, claws and paws, the confused wee bear saw no one. When the tiny voice informed the larger one Bea couldn’t see them, there was a sudden movement in the grass to the right of the startled bear.

How could a voice bend grass? She wondered what invisible creature could wiggle around and speak. It reminded her of the investigation exercises Scruffles and Sweet Puppy conducted with her in their attempt to figure out what the mist monster was.

It turned out, Doolie was another bear mom with all kinds of puppies. There was no reason, after all, for her fears to grow. The mysterious creature ended up becoming a great group of friends.

It occurred to Bea, maybe the voices could belong to potential friends. Her excited wee bear eyes plaintively searched the ground where the movement originated.

Doing her brain exercise, the curious bear realized why she hadn’t been able to see the source of the larger voice. Her newfound friend blended with or was as we call it, camouflaged the same color as the grass.

She experienced great joy as she concluded that yes, there was a great likeness. She wondered where the other friend might be. Maybe she was tinier, just like her voice.

She asked her friend whom she named Snakely where the little voice came from and who it belonged to. Spidie zipped down and dangled in front of Bea’s nose. There were proper introductions, closing with Bea exclaiming how pleased she was meeting both of them.

Bea’s new friends who began with a shadow of one and now three continued to discuss what a great likeness to them was on the large rock across the brook. If they were going to see Bea’s likeness they would have to cross the brook.

As your narrator, I will explain to you, they were discovering a magnificent petroglyph created by the stone pilers or Native Americans of long ago. This consisted of carved artwork or natural paints or charcoal used on stone. Petroglyphs can be found all over the world, if you want to research them.

Bea wanted greatly to know what they were talking about, but had no intention of crossing in that swift current. When she objected, both of her fresh friends laughed.

They explained they were not laughing at her, because true friends would never do that. They further explained they had previously thought the same thing, that the only way across was through the water. Although, Spidie saved the day.

Able to safely travel higher, Spidie saw what Snakely would never have been able to see. There were stones to cross little by little. When Bea heard those familiar words, she knew this was a message from the maker to cross, step by step, stone by stone.

Bea danced in her heart and soul to once again be a member of a team, discussing how reaching the opposite bank would take place. Neither Snakely nor Spidie thought they would be able to stay on wet stones long enough without washing into the river.

Bea did her talk to the maker of spiders, snakes, and wee bears practicing her brain exercise. Snakely was insulted when Bea admitted she’d heard of deceptive sneaky snakes who asked for a ride and even though they promised not to bite their carrier, bit them with a mean bite.

With that unpleasant matter out of the way, next came the question of where Spidie would ride. Spidie suggested, as lookout, she’d take the highest point, which would be the ears, belonging to Bea.

What a delightful sight, a bear with a grass green snake on her right shoulder and a glistening dew spider on her left ear, little by little, step by step, stone by stone crossing a full roaring, white, foaming river.

They were relieved to know when solid ground was beneath Bea’s paws, claws and feet. Because they were approaching the rock from a different direction than she’d been standing, Bea stopped in mid-step. She felt faint with chills running all the way through her whole being.

She had the answer to her lagging question of why the maker had wanted her to take risks in climbing down that dreaded hill, step by step, little by little and in making new friends.

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I hope people have had an experience of seeing pictures of, actually seeing a petroglyph. I had hope to see some Wabenaki petroglyphs between my USA state Vermont & New Hampshire. The traffic on the bridge crossing was too chaotic, so I never got to see them.

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Bea learns the meaning of stone by stone

A chapter in the book Be Wee With Bea Part 3

Stone by Stone

by Liz O'Neill

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