I Found It

The First Story in The Oracle of Toko-Ri

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Mabel tramped up the trail. Everyone had heard the story but, as far as she knew, no one had yet been up the trail to see. And she wasn’t fool enough to believe she would find an oracle, but the walk would do her good regardless.

She had spent half of the morning looking for a coin. She was a widow with a small income from her husband’s investment in the bar, and didn’t have enough to lose this coin.

But she had looked everywhere she could think of, so maybe this walk would help clear her head.

She came around the corner and saw the area. She had been up here dozens of times.  All of the village children came up here at one time or another. At first, chasing the local legend of a lost cave, and then, later, because it was a nice open area with a nice view, suitable for a picnic with friends or a clandestine rendezvous with a boy.

So she knew what she was supposed to see. A nice bend in the mountain with smooth cliffs dotted with clinging trees. A small waterfall leads to a small pool. A small meadow with grass and flowers.

All of which she saw. But she also saw what so many children, and probably adults, had come her to try to see. A cave in the side of the mountain, right where the trail led. A trail sitting there as if it had always been there.

Her feet carried her forward while her brain was frozen in shock and wonder. Across the meadow and up to the front of the cave. Which looked… like a cave. And ordinary, boring, hole in rock… just taller than she was, about ten feet wide, and which seemed like it went into the mountain just a little beyond where she could see.

She hesitated at the doorway, but there was no real chance that she wouldn’t go in…

… Into swirls of fog. Walls on either side, a ceiling overhead, but all around her and in front of her, swirling fog, limiting her view to just a few feet.

Numbly, she walked in, and the passageway went on. On and on, till she felt she had been walking for an hour. And then she saw a light in front of her and quickened her step.

The cave opened up into a wide open area, and there, in front of her, was a blazing fire. Suddenly, she felt cold from the long walk in the fog and hurried forward, stretching her hands out to the warmth.

“Like my fire?” she heard, just as she started to relax with the warmth.

She whirled around. There, sitting on a rock at the wall of the area, was a boy. About seven, if she had to guess. And filthy… dirt or worse covering him from head to toe. His hair looked like he had had to cut it with two stones banged together, and he was wearing what might have been a child’s nightshirt, that had been used, tossed in the refuse heap, and taken for a few years to line the nest of some animal. It covered nothing well, and most of him not at all.

“Well?” he asked, darting forward and turning a series of handstands before falling in a heap at her feet and laying there grinning at her. “Do you like the fire? I thought it was a nice touch after that long walk.”

“Who are you?!” she gasped out.

“I am the oracle you came to see, Stupid!” he said, rolling over a few times on the floor.

“I… they said it was a girl!”

“That man SAW a girl,” the boy said. “What I am is an oracle. No silly human form can hold me! You see what you need to see.”

She quailed at the idea that this filthy urchin was something she needed to see.

“Now! The rules!” the boy said, darting over to her and looking impishly in her face. “Rules, rules, must have rules!! First law of all such things!!!”

She said nothing, so he asked, “Well? Are you ready to hear the rules?”

“I, umm, yes, I suppose so.”

“I suppose so, too,” he said, standing on his head. “So listen!”

“Rule One! You come here because you want something.”

“Rule Two! There is always a price! If you want the thing, you must pay the price! Exactly!”

“Rule Three!! You must tell the truth! What you saw, what you did, no lying.”

“Or… or what?” she quavered.

He leapt forward, and she caught him by instinct. He leaned forward, and she almost gagged at his smell, “You. Do. Not. Want. To. Know!” he said. “Now put me down!”

She dropped him, and he landed on his feet, sprang away, and ran around the fire three times.

“Your price! Your instructions!!” he said when he stopped at the far side of the fire and put his hands on his hips. “You will leave here and go straight home! You will stand on your porch and say NOTHING until someone speaks to you. Then you will ask them where you should look for your coin.”

“Then! You will NOT yet look there for the coin!! You will still stand there AGAIN until someone speaks!”

He ran over to the wall and seemed to run up it until he flipped back down and fell in a heap on the ground. “Three people, you will ask! Then you will look for your coin… starting with the THIRD person!! Do you understand?”

“Yes…” she gasped, for following all of his antics was making her quite dizzy.

“THEN!” he screamed, running back at her and being caught again… “Then you must run… run… through town crying ‘I found it! And when people, no matter who and no matter when ask you the story, you must tell it to them. All of it. Truthfully.” He whispered.

“DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” he suddenly shouted, and she dropped him in shock.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Then GO!” he said, pointing, and she fled…

And after only two steps, she found herself back in the bright sunshine, panting. She looked down at her dress and saw the evidence of the boy all over it… dirt and filth everywhere.

She stood panting and then remembered the ominous instructions and hurried off toward her house.

Why had she been such a fool? She asked herself.

And how had I known that there actually would be an oracle?! She answered.

Well, I have no choice now.

No, no choice, indeed.

Well, at least the instructions would be easy. Embarrassing but easy. She came panting up to her house and stood on the porch. Her husband had done well enough while he lived, and their house had a decent porch. Maybe it didn’t even look that odd for her to be standing here. She could just be taking a break from…

… “Howdy, Ma’am,” she heard and turned to see Festin, her neighbour’s oldest boy.

She was just opening her mouth to return his greeting when it came to her… he had spoken to her. So instead, she bent down to his level..

“Festin, I lost a coin, and I can’t think of where to look for it. Where do you think I should look for it.”

“I’d look under the house,” he said, waving at the small space. “Maybe it fell down there.”

“Thank you, Festin,” she said, glad he was the first person to make a suggestion and not the last. How she would look under there, she did not know.

Festin grinned and ran off, and she stood back up. Seconds later, Festin’s mother came out.

“Was he being polite?” she asked.

“Oh, yes… but I have a question,” she said. “I have lost a coin and have run out of places to look. Can you think of anywhere?”

“Well, the other day, I was making the kids’ bed, and I found all sorts of junk in there at the very end.”

“Thank you.”

Too bad that wasn’t the last person to make a suggestion… That would be easy to do.

She stood there a good hour, watching the village at work. Some people glanced at her, but no one said anything, and she didn’t really feel that odd, either.

“Good evening, Ma’am,” she heard when she was looking down the street the other way, and she turned to see the town magistrate.

She blanched but plunged ahead, “Evening Mr. Magistrate. I wonder if I could ask you a question?”

“Certainly, Ma’am,” he said, stopping surprised.

“I lost a coin… it ain’t much, but I don’t have much. And I just can’t think of anywhere to look.”

He pulled at his beard, “Do you mind if I come in?” he asked and followed her in the house.

“Ah, just like my house,” he said, going over to her stove. “Do you see, these stoves have this ridge of metal here? The other day… yes, there it is!”

She hurried forward, shocked, and, sure enough, between two metal plates on the stove was lodged…

“You need something flat,” he said, looking around, and she hurriedly gave him a butter knife.

A few minutes worked and he had it out and handed it to her, hurrying out the open door.

She stood staring at it in shock. Then she came back with a start and realised that she needed to finish the instructions. She was just about to go running down the street…. Hardly too large a price to pay for getting her coin back… when she thought back to the exact instructions and went hurriedly over to her bed.

In seconds, she had the top cover off, but when she whipped the sheet off, she saw something fly across the room and clatter against the wall.

She hurried over. Her sewing scissors! She had misplaced them last week.

She hurried outside and went over to the crack under the house. How was she to…

“What are you doing?” she heard and turned to see Festin staring at her curiously.

“Oh, Festin!” she said. “I want to do what you said and look under my house, but I’m too big to go under there.”

“I ain’t!” he declared and wiggled himself under.

Anxious minutes went by, and then she saw his face pop out. “I found something, Ma’am, but it ain’t a coin. Sorry.”

“No, no, that’s wonderful, Festin, what is…”

He handed it to her, and her heart stopped. It was a ring. It was her sister’s ring. The ring she had lost last year and had been sure had fallen down the well. She had wept for days…

“I found it!!” she screamed and ran down the street… not even remembering that that was what she was supposed to be doing.

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