A couple of days after spring vacation ended, I was heading toward the school library at lunchtime when I noticed a boy sitting all alone on the steps.
He looked a little familiar. I tried to remember if I had ever seen him at school before. I couldn’t picture him at school, but I could see him . . .
swinging . . . on some rings . . . two years ago!
“Michael!”
He looked up and stared at me kind of funny for a moment. Then I could tell he was starting to remember. I joined him on the steps.
“Alice?”
“Ariel.”
“That’s right! You taught me to do the rings at the park!”
“Do you go to school here now?” I asked.
“We moved three blocks and I had to change schools. Pisses me off.”
“That’s stupid. Now you have to make new friends. What grade are you in?”
“Seventh.”
“I’m in sixth. Do you still do the rings?”
“Yeah. Whenever I get a chance to go to the park.”
“I have a friend named Penny, and she and I do stuff at the park all the time, like climb trees. Would you like to do it with us sometime? We put up big rope swings that are really fun!”
“I don’t know. It sounds like fun, but . . . I’ll come if you don’t tell anybody
else, okay?”
“Oh, you think it would be sissy if you played with girls?”
“Kind
of.”
“Well then, go around and ask some of the guys if it would be sissy to do things with Ariel. And then if you want to, meet us at the park tomorrow after school.” I went into the library, a little disgusted.
I met Penny at her house after school that day.
“It’s beautiful, Penny!” The altar was all sanded on the top and sides, reddish-brown cedar and smelling so wonderful. The alder legs still had the bark on them.
“Don’t touch it yet. He still wants to put several coats of varnish on it,” she said.
“I met a guy at school . . .”
“Really? Is he cute?”
“Yeah, but he’s afraid people will call him a sissy if he plays with girls. I taught him how to do the rings two years ago, and then I didn’t see him again until today. I invited him to join us at the park tomorrow.”
“Do you think he’s the kind we want to join the Grove?”
“I don’t know yet. Let’s just do things with him for a while, if he comes.”
We did homework together, I stayed for dinner, and we watched some TV.
I kept wondering if maybe Michael could be the next Sprite.
The next day after school, we walked to the park. Penny carried the rope and I picked up two Magic Circle rocks on the way. When we got to the playground, Michael was there, swinging back and forth across the rings.
“Hi,” I said when he dropped down.
“I asked around, like you said. I learned it’s not sissy doing things with Ariel — it’s dangerous! ”
“Then why’d you come?”
“I thought it would be kind of fun, as long as you don’t get me killed.”
“This is Penny, my best friend. Would you like to swing with us?”
“Okay.”
We picked out a nice maple. Michael looked up at it and said, “Oh my
God.”
Penny climbed it like a spider, let down the rope about 60 feet and made it fast.
“We’ve swung in this tree before. It’s a nice one. You can almost touch that other tree over there when you fly,” I said while Penny brought up the rope.
“Ariel, since you met Michael, you get to show him how to fly.”
“Okay.” I coiled the puller rope and flew. Out at the far end of the flight, my hand came within inches of the other tree. Then I did acrobatics as I swished back and forth through the air. Bringing the rope back up, I said,
“Michael?”
“I
have
never seen a swing that neat! Here I go . . .” He reached for the rope.
I stopped him. “If you’re going to do things with us, you have to learn how to do them right and safely, okay?”
“Okay . . .”
“The most important thing is your hands. Right, Penny?”
“Yep!”
“Grab high on the rope and trust your hands. You might get one foot in the loop before you go, but sometimes you can’t. Trust your hands and worry about your feet later.”
“Like
this?”
“Yeah. Go for it!”
“Whoopee!” Michael shouted as he flew into the air.
Penny and I watched him swing. He looked like he was having fun. We had to coach him for the drop-off, and remind him to bring the puller rope up with him.
“Was that sissy?” Penny asked him. Before he could answer, she was in the air.
“Can you really swim faster than anyone else around?” he asked as we watched Penny fly.
“Penny’s the fastest. Some of her times are very close to the world’s record.”
“What else do you guys do?”
I told him about alder climbing, and swimming in the inlet. Penny returned, and I talked about running in the woods, day and night.
“Would you like to do stuff with us? We would teach you,” I said.
“Gosh. I don’t know. You guys are so much better than me . . .”
“And we’ll stay better unless you let us teach you!” Penny said.
“Hmm. Okay, if you promise not to laugh at me, and never blab at school what I can and can’t do.”
“Of course,” I said. “We believe in keeping secrets for friends, but I don’t want to feel like you’re ashamed of us. If I’m going to be your friend, I don’t want you to pretend not to know me at school or something.”
“Okay.”
“And you have to learn from Penny, too. She’s the swimming and running teacher. I learn from her.”
“I guess so. You’re nine?”
She
nodded.
“You look the same age as Ariel.”
“I
wish.”
We all swung again, and then I climbed the 60 feet up the rope without stopping.
“Will I learn to do that?” I heard Michael ask Penny.
“Yep,” she told him.
I think Michael really wanted to be our friend. He started walking home from school and meeting Penny with me almost everyday. He saw us climb alders, and we started teaching him maple climbing and rope work. When we would all run together, he would get tired after a mile just like Penny and I did at first. “How far can you guys run, anyway?”
We told him. He looked hurt, so we both put our arms around him and I said, “If you will be our friend and our brother, then we will teach you and help you until you are as strong as we are, or stronger.” That made him feel good.
Penny and I had to take a couple of days to ourselves to get ready for Beltane. I had rocks stashed at school, at home, and in empty lots, and all of them had to go to the Grove. We had to collect lots of firewood. And then
there was the altar — it took both of us to carry it, and it was heavy! Getting it through the Guardian Hedge was the hardest part, but after almost an hour of pushing and pulling, we did it. I measured a string four and a half feet long with a loop on one end, stuck a stick in the center of the Magic Circle clearing, and marked out a nine foot circle. Then I set the stones in the ground so they were firmly rooted, but still sticking up about 6 inches.
Just a few days before Beltane, I learned that we had a special spell to cast.
Penny’s mom wasn’t happy all the time, and she had decided to try gardening so she would feel better and get some extra food, too. She had bought a whole bunch of garden seeds, and Penny asked if we could do some magic to help the seeds grow and to help her mom be happy.
“Sounds good to me!” I said. “We’ll be helping someone, and it’s perfect for Beltane, the time to bless the fields and the cattle.”
Penny asked if I would be the one to do it, and I agreed.