By the waterfall

Enter Jelana

Interlude

The man pulled out his cane, and tromped into the woods, down the hill, and to the water's edge. He stood for a moment, watching the thin veil of water falling into the small pool below. He shook his head fondly, cupped his hands around his mouth, and bellowed, "Jelana!" He waited a moment. No response. He bellowed "Jelana!" again, and waited.

When there was again no response, he reached down with a smile, and scooped up several small flat stones. He began to expertly skip them across the surface of the pond.

After the third stone, the surface of the water began agitating. He grinned briefly, and took a handful of steps to lean against a picnic table just off the pebbly beach.

The water surface continued to agitate, then, just off of the shore, a head broke the surface, followed closely by the rest of the body, a girl, appearing maybe 15 or 16 years old, with red-brown short, wild curly hair, dressed in a dark green stretchy tunic over brown leggings. Her feet were bare. She came up to the man's chest. A copper-colored wedding band, covered in green enameled leaves circled her right wrist.

The young girl stepped onto the shore. "Tolly! That was rude!" she said, as she shook out her curls (perfectly dry) and came up to him, with steps more like dancing than walking.

Tolly just grinned at her. "Glad to see you, too."

"Tolly!"

"You didn't answer," he said, reasonably.

"I was asleep!" And then, "For all you know, I might not have been home!"

"Then it wouldn't matter if I skipped stones across the surface or not."

"You could have called first! Then I would have been waiting for you."

"What would have been the fun of that?" Tolly said, with another grin. Then he sobered. "Truthfully, I didn't know I was coming until I was halfway here."

"Oh." The girl was silent for a moment. "That bad, huh? Come on, tell us about it." She walked, with her dancing steps, down the path into the woods, trusting Tolly to follow.

He followed her into a small clearing, which had two seats, looking rather like aged stumps, near the middle of it. Tolly sunk down into the taller one with a sigh, finding, as he expected, that it fit and supported his particular legs and height perfectly.

"Thank you, Daved," he said into the air.

"He says you're welcome," she said.

Tolly took her ability to speak for Daved for granted, and just nodded.

"What is it, Tolly?" the girl said gently. "We're listening.

He glanced around. "Daved isn't going to come out today?"

"Not unless he has to.

Tolly nodded again. "It is easier to talk to someone with a face," he grumbled.

She laughed. "But I'm here, Tolly. And Daved understands quicker, deeper, when I'm listening for him as well.

Tolly grunted. "Well, Jelana, and Daved," he hastily added to the surrounding trees. "It's about that art cataloger, again."

"Did you hear back from the investigation?"

"Yes, this morning."

"And they discovered something bad about her?"

"Worse. They found naught."

"Naught?" Jelana looked puzzled. "They found nothing, and that is bad?"

"She totally vanishes between assignments. No one sees her, no one talks to her, she doesn't go shopping. She just walks through a door, and vanishes. Then, maybe months later, she walks through another door, and goes on another assignment." He paused. "She does answer letters."

"I . . . see," Jelana said, though she clearly didn't. "What do you think it is? Could she just be private?"

"What it is, is dorst impossible!" Tolly exclaimed.

She raised her eyebrows at his tone. "Impossible?"

"She'd have to have records of some sort, no matter how private she was. There is no way for her to just totally vanish. There'd be rent, store, something to show where she was."

"Maybe she uses a different name. Or someone else takes care of things for her."

"Even so," Tolly said stubbornly, "it doesn't make sense."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know," Tolly said, glumly. "I just have a feeling . . . something's wrong."

"Are you sure you don't want Daved and me involved?" Jelana said.

"I'd rather she didn't know about you," he said slowly. "Not as such. Although . . ." His voice trailed off. "She heard about this little bit of parkland. Somehow. She's been pestering me, politely, to come out here, to see it, ever since." He shook his head. "Don't know why. I keep telling her that there's naught out here but the wood and the water."

Jelana laughed. "That's one way to put it. But you're thinking, maybe bring her out here? But not let her see us?"

"If you and Daved don't mind. Would you be able to tell anything from her?"

She didn't answer immediately, a look of deep concentration on her face. "Maybe. It's harder when they don't know we're here. Or don't want us to read them." She concentrated again. "If you could get her to wade in the pond, it'll be easier."

"Should have brought her last week," Tolly grunted. "Before this cold snap." He looked around. It wasn't like the cold of winter, but still, too chilly for most people to even think of getting their feet wet.

"Just do your best, Tolly," Jelana said.

"Could you, maybe, heat the water?" he asked hopefully.

"Heat?"

He reached out and took her hand. "Warm," he said. "I know you regulate your own temperature. Couldn't you do the same to the pond when you're in it? We could let her think there's a hot spring here."

"Really, Tolly?" She waved in the direction of the pond. "Do you have any idea how much water is there? Yes, it's a small pool, but still, that's a lot of water." She indicated herself. "And I'm small." She shook her head. "Maybe if I had a month. And a way to keep the warmed water from moving downstream. But I'd be exhausted by the end of it."

"That's a no, then," Tolly said. "I'll think of something. And somehow, I need to win her confidence."

"You always do think of something," Jelana said, with a smile. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "We'll do what we can to help, brother dear."