Smoke Rising: Book III

Part One ~ Chapter One

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Part One

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Chapter One
Emery

The stone is small enough for me to hold in my fist. It's smooth on one end, for the part of her that made me feel safe, and rough on the other end, for the part of me that still hurts from losing her.

With a long wooden stick with short, soft hairs at the end, I paint the rock pink because it was her favorite color. I use a smaller, stronger brush to paint the black curly designs on the smooth side, inspired by the natural curls of her hair. On the rough side, I use blue paint to make a circle. It breaks and bends over the uneven surface, rising and falling like I do when I think of her. Happy thoughts accompanied by pain.

Inside the first ring, I make a slightly smaller circle, and then another until it looks like imperfect ripples. But inside of me, the ripples don't grow like they would if I threw a pebble in a pond. Instead, the ripples work backwards. It starts all over my body, the warmth of her love. Then it shrinks and shrinks, each ripple growing colder and colder as it reaches my heart.

This is what the Shadow Casters do for those they have lost. They search for days for the stone that symbolizes the person that is gone, or sometimes, just their feelings about that person. They then take the rock and paint it, decorate it, let it dry, and then tie a string around the stone and hang it over the bridge.

Ella hands me a long, purple string. "Evelyn said the stone stays on the bridge forever, in between where we live and where we cross. When you die, you will have to cross the bridge that takes you to the afterlife, and your loved one will be on that bridge, waiting to guide you."

Taking a deep breath, I tie the string around the rock and submit. Evelyn, Eli's grandmother, thinks this will help Ella and I with our mothers death, but I think it's just another pretty story people tell themselves to make them feel better. Although, if helps Ella, I'll play along.

"What do you think?" Ella asks. She painted her stone blue, covering it with pink swirl designs.

"I think that yours looks a lot better than mine," I laugh, making Ella smile.

"Yours is nice, too. I just think you're channeling more pain into it than love." She pauses. "I'm going to make one for Luke and Tania." She pulls out a stone from her pocket and hands it to me. Two rocks have seemingly melted together, forming a strange but familiar shape.

"Is the eight for how many days they were together?" It's meant to be a joke, but she doesn't laugh. Instead, she shoots me the glare of death.

She takes the stone from my fingers, turns it on it's side and snaps. "It's an infinity symbol."

"Ah," I nod. "Why?"

"Because, Emery," she groans, finishing tying her string. "They'll be together... forever."

In death.

My sister, the depressing poet. She's always loved to write. "That's a good idea." I smile, trying to recover from the bad joke. "I bet they would have loved it."

She closes her eyes and sighs. I was going to wait to show her, but I think it'll mean a lot to her if I do it now. I pull out the dark black rock I painted with white and yellow lightning bolts all over, and set it down next to her. "I made this one for your dad."

Her eyes open and her chin quivers. Her fingertips brush over the lightening bolts and she smiles. "Lightening... for how much he loved watching thunderstorms."