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Two or three sharp raps on the front door, brought Emma shouting from the warmth of her snug bed, a mere four hours after dancing with Jim. Quickly snatching the cotton robe from the end of her bed, she raced for the steps; only to be stopped short when Alex's hoarse voice rang up to meet her. “Good God, man. Don't tell me in a house this size, you couldn't find a bed to sleep in."
Jim had opened the door for him, and now they both stood staring up at her at the top of the steps. "Good morning," Jim called looking like warmed over death, suddenly she wondered if she looked as bad. Smoothing her hair she thought "what the Hell" she’d traveled this far, she might as well go down and get the morning started.
"Depends on whose eyes you’re looking through." she answered, stumbling down to the landing.
"From where I stand, it looks pretty good." Alex responded looking directly at her, as she continued down the steps. Suddenly as her toe hit the third step, the slipper stuck and she was propelled into Jim’s arms; catching her about the waist, he lowered her to the floor.
"Hell Emma, good thing you didn't do that last night, those people from town would never have shut up." Blinking her eyes, in disbelief of how fast it had all taken place, she looked at him in confusion. "Don't tell me you didn't hear them." Alex answered her unspoken question, as he headed for the kitchen. "I don't believe you two."
She looked to Jim, hoping he wasn't hearing the accusation she was. He wasn't hearing anything. She doubted he’d even seen Alex, through the blur that covered both eyes.
Stopping at the large round table, that was the only thing in the old dining room, except the nine-foot china hutch. He looked back at them and added, "Sometimes, you two are in your own little world. You had to of heard them, everyone there was talking about it. Surely Jim, you heard them talking about the Legend." Self-doubt filled his face.
"Oh, shot Alex, I thought we’d really missed something." Emma proclaimed, pushing past him and into the kitchen, to make a pot of coffee. Jim wasn't moving so fast. Matter of a fact, he wasn't moving at all.
"What did you hear?" Jim asked, in the same tone she’d heard him use on Wes the night before.
"Shit Jim, they were talking about mixing blood." Mixing blood – that was the why Jesse had said it too. She never let go of the door, instead she softly stepped back into the room. She’d never put the two together before. What could mixing blood have to do with her valley, Or rather the magic of her valley?
"That's what your mom was talking about, that night." she looked to Jim for an answer.
"It's nothing." he responded, stepping past her to the kitchen, but she and Alex exchanged looks, His said “I don’t think it was that simple” as he to barged pass her as well.
"Not so fast." he declared clearly, making no mistake that he was upset, by Jim's unpretentious tone. "If what they were talking about didn't scare you Then what in the hell were you still doing here this morning."
He was defending her reputation, as he looked from one to the other of them. "Relax, Alex." he patted him on the shoulder as he started for the coffee maker. "I was protecting her, not attacking her." he never took his eyes off her, the entire time. Was that message intended more for her than him?
"From what"
"Mr. Harris." Jim proclaimed, looking straight at Alex. "Don't tell me you missed him grabbing at her last night."
"Everyone there was trying to touch her." Alex shot back. "Like they thought she could somehow, rid them of all their woes, or at least the STONE would."
"Stone?" she finally found her voice "What stone?" Jim looked as if someone had just hit him over the head with a stone of his own.
"Damn it. I knew this stupid fair was a bad idea." He announced heading for the back door.
"No way" Alex stepped in front of him "You're not going anywhere."
Turning to look back at her, he shrugged "Ok, I guess we drink coffee without cream."
He had only wanted the milk, Jimmy had left on the back porch, and it suddenly occurred to her that Alex was really over reacting to this stone thing. "Alex, sit down." she heard herself command. "You'd think Jim was public enemy number one, the way you’re treating him." She looked into Jim's clearing blue eyes as she got the creamer from the porch. "He'll tell us what the stone means, but I need some coffee first."
The two of them seem to be having, an unspoken conversation, while she proceeded to make coffee and toast for all, or at least they were caught up in a game of stare the other one down. She knew where Alex was coming from. He’d always looked after her like a big brother. She wondered if he saw Jim as a threat to her or him. Was he possibly fearful of losing the closeness they had?
"Stop it." she could take the silent treatment no longer, "Damn it." That caught their attention. She rarely swore aloud, four dark blue eyes now held her in their grasp. She’d never spoke to Alex that way before. His was filled with anger, but Jim's danced with a spark of amusement. Pulling her hair, tightly to the back of her neck, she sighed and asked "Jim, please."
"You could have any of those people tell you the story. I mean I'm not hiding any secrets."
"Ok then, why is it so hard to get you to tell us it." Alex asked, venting his anger on Jim.
"Like Emma's always saying, it's one of those silly little tales from this part of the world."
"We want to hear it just the same. Blood mixing, doesn't exactly sound innocent." Alex roared in his face.
"It just means marriage." Emma answered from the counter where she spread the toast, with butter.
"Not quit," Jim responded, after considering her comment. "It means the birth of a child, conceived in that marriage." That was what she meant to say, it made sense the blood of each parent would be mixed in a child.
"So what does it have to do with the legend?" Alex asked, running out of stream.
"Will you guy's cut me some slack here, it's early and my heads not working." It wasn't like Jim to look for excuses, he always called it the way he saw it, no matter where he saw it. "This isn't exactly my cup of tea here, I’ve grown up listening to it, but that doesn't mean I put much credit in it."
She couldn't help but notice his anxiety, after a few good swigs of coffee. He seemed more ready to include them in on the valley's legend.
"They’ve always told me that the story started before time itself, now you may think that I'm down playing God here, but I'm not." he was talking directly to her, a slight smile was all he required to continue on. "The Entity, I guess they were once as we are, I mean they had bodies at one time. But it's said that they were discarded because of their lack of use." That didn't make any since to her, but her confusion didn't stop his tale. "After they discovered the secret's to eternity, they simply were laid down."
Now that made more since, he was talking about immortal people. God's – One of the stumpers in the first of the bible for her “The word God's appears, not God," she interrupted his train of thought.
"What?"
"On the first page of the bible, Gods are quoted not God."
"So?" Alex questioned.
"Remember, when I asked about the reference, every one told me it was a miss print, or it'd been copied wrong – long ago."
"Yah, so what" Alex was still responding not following her thought.
"They wanted me to believe it was a miss print, but they also wanted me to believe every other thing there." Jim shook his head, as if he understood what she was getting at. "Sorry, I didn't mean—"
"You’re well read on the bible aren't you?" he was questioning her reliability.
"She's well read on everything." Alex responded. "Just don't try telling her about a horror story, she'll throw you out of the house." Jim looked surprised.
"Those things aren't books," she shuttered, thinking about the horrid things, "there something from the decrepit minds of, misguided people." He couldn't stop himself from laughing. "I learn more about you every day." He added with that twinkle in his eye.
"Yeah, but what we want to know about is the legend." she remind him.
"Ok, something happened to the Entities world, so they were left to wonder the universe looking for a new place."
"How old did you say this story is?" Alex questioned.
"Hell, how am I supposed to know?" Jim shot back. "Why?"
"Well, it couldn't be all that old, people haven't called it the universe, for all that long." Alex answered full of self-confidence.
"I didn't say I was quoting it, there's a name for their plant but I –” He twisted his napkin around his fingers. "I don't remember what it is, like I said, I don't believe it, and I’m just telling you what I can remember." She couldn't help but lay her hand on his leg, in hope of mellowing him out. It worked, without Alex even knowing, where Jim's reassurance was drawn from.
She carefully listened to him recreate, the first book of the bible, before getting up and wondering to the door. The large metal room offered little, in natural light, with no windows. She knew the sun would soon be rising, and the thought of missing it bothered her, more than his story of aliens, being added upon the beast of the land. When Jim paused to watch her, Alex reassured him she was only seeking the sunrise. "I doubt she's missed one since she was born."
She’d already missed the lavender and pink, softly glowing before the actually cresting. That was really her favorite time to watch the eastern sky. Turning back to find they had both sat absolutely still until she was prepared to continue, touched her.
"What are there about a sunrise, that so interreges you that way?" Jim asked in a reverent tone. "Your face glows as if it were the sun itself."
She was actually embarrassed, by his comment "I dreamed once, I saw the second coming, the sky was much like it was this morning, filled with those wispy clouds." she couldn't believe she was telling this to him, she’d never told anyone about the dream. "I can't even express the real beauty, I saw that day." she was no longer even looking at them, although her eyes were fixed on him, the imprint in her mind, had taken over. "The sky was soft lavender, with slivers of silver slashing across it. On each level were multitudes of angles, singing." She sighed and returned her gaze to them, their facial expressions, said she’d touched them beyond what was physically possible.
She wasn't one that could handle, being the center of attention. She had to return the floor to Jim. "So what does the story have to do with a stone, and what does it have to do with this valley?" It wasn't going to be that easy, she’d shifted gears, but they were stuck. Both watched her intensely, as she strolled back to her seat, next to Jim. "What?" she couldn't stand their gaze anymore "What?"
"Jim had just—" Alex stopped and looked to Jim, in question.
"I just told Alex, that the stone would be passed down through the generations, till a soul who could really see the beauty of the earth, received it." She’d obviously missed some important factors.
"I'm sorry. I thought I could hear you, while watching that, I must have missed something here."
"It's not important Em." Alex suddenly pushed back his chair and started for the coffee pot again. "But I have to ask." he turned to look straight at her. "Do you have the stone?'
"Do I look like I have the stone?" she through her arms up in the air, but that wasn't what he wanted to hear, sitting down again she bluntly responded "NO." She waited for him to pour a round for each and return to his seat. Before asking, “So what does it have to do with the valley?"
"Old Johnny said it was here." Jim answered right away.
"But he had to of believed in Mormonism, or else he wouldn't have been here."
"He believed in polygamy, and the method in which the plates were translated." Jim responded.
"It's silly. Em" Alex repeated his word of earlier. "Why waste a good morning listening to this bull."
She couldn't explain his change of heart, but he made it clear that he didn't want to discuss it any further. When Jim released a sigh of relief, she knew they hadn't told her the whole story, and she was once again left to find it out for herself.
Actually, Alex couldn't have chosen a better time to brake off the conversation. A split second later Rob and Beth, strolled through the back door, and proceeded to push each of them out, on their way.
Quietly returning to her room on the second floor, she pulled on a pair of jeans and a red checked balloon blouse. Staring at herself in the long mirror, she determined she hadn't heard enough of the legend, to decide how important it was. Jim wasn't off the hook yet, she would just find him, and ask the things Alex wasn't ready for her to hear.
Her search started at the horse corrals, every one there was preparing for the rodeo, later that afternoon. While she took a rigorous ribbing, Jim wasn't present. Even Kit got a slap across her butt, before she headed off towards the games, to be held nearer the Lytle White house.
Passing in front of the house, she suddenly remembered, she’d better check in on Jewel. However, Jim came storming out the door before she’d reached it. His jaw locked and eyes seeing only the ground as he marched towards her.
"I was—” was the only thing she managed to get out before he had passed her, and was half way up the road. He was in no mood to talk, and she knew it. Who had brought him to this state of mind, she could only guess… Alex
Why he couldn’t let her take care of herself, she didn’t know, she changed her intended destination and headed for the green house. Alex would regret trying to run her life, after all did he think he was his father, or something, she cursed under her breath.
First, she had to find Jewel. That wasn't as difficult as she’d thought. Sitting on the steps just inside the front door, the beauty held her head in her hands.
"Is there something I can do?" Emma softly questioned, wondering what had brought her to this state, was her homesickness that bad.
"No,” she responded sniffling back the tears “I need you to sign some papers, and I'll be on my way."
"You mean."
"There yours, I’d decided that before I came here, your voice spoke loud enough for itself, but when I arrived and the others took care of me – even when they didn't know I was coming. That says a lot, for the warmth of this place."
Emma ate up every bit of the praise, like a personal pat on her back. "Just let me get them." she finished trotting up the steps. Emma had forgotten all about Jim and Alex, hurrying into her office, she rapidly confirmed the group’s itineraries, filling her reservations until January. She’d done it. "No" she corrected her thinking "they had done it." meaning everyone, who had helped around the place in the last two months.
The papers weren't as complicated as she’d thought they might be. Simple assurance's on both sides and she signed a million dollar deal. What was there to keep Mike from come down, Now? It wasn't going to stop in January, Jewel ran tour groups for skiers all winter, that she was anxious to book as well, but she had to get back to her office before she could give her those names and dates.
Emma was flying high in her own pride, as she picked up the phone and called Mike. Ten minutes later, he’d deflated her ego, and had her running on improving even her best, full throttle. No matter what she did, he just wasn't going to budge. If he didn't want to be there with her, Jim would.
Why couldn't he see, that this was just what they’d wanted, for so long? All their planning, all their saving, and yet he wouldn't even give it a chance. Did he realize how far he was pushing her away? Emma couldn’t help running to her room. What she needed was a good cry.
"Sis, are you okay?" Beth asked from just outside her door
"Beth I can't do it alone." she pleaded as Beth came around the edge of the bed. "Mike won't come down."
"Who needs Mike anyway?"
"I do. He knows how to run this place, I'm just a glorified maid, he said as much today. And he was right, he's the only one with a degree in Hotels, but he won't come down here."
"You listen to me." Beth tugged her face up to look straight at her. "You don't need any one. He's not been here to put this place together, and you and I know that's half the battle."
After talking to Beth, Emma stepped out the back door. There Jim was waiting as if he knew she was coming. Taking Emma by the hand, dragging her onto the dance floor, where they spent the rest of the night, two stepping, which he was amazed she knew how to do. After showing off her fancy footwork with the cotton-eyed-Joe and the electric slide, he got the idea that she liked any kind of dance, and he kept her busy doing so, right in front of all to see.
She was oblivious to who was watching, but later when Alex pulled her aside and reprimanded her, for openly carrying on with Jim. She had to wonder if the kids had been watching.
They had, as she found out in the kitchen. Where they had all assembled for a cold soda, even Jimmy and Sara, were present. When Shelly told her that was the first time, she’d seen her smile like that, in years.
"He's good for you Mom." Kit added.
"No” Crystal spoke up "The dancing – was good for her."