Wendy grabbed the small, smooth stone that she carried inside her pants pocket for reassurance as she followed the charge nurse down the brightly lit corridor and into a small alcove that contained a few upholstered seats. “If you will have a seat here, the patient will join you soon,” the nurse said as she turned and walked back down the hallway. Wendy sat down and thought back to the day when she had first come into possession of the stone.
Wendy remembered that she had inwardly groaned to herself as she looked across the street and saw the throng of students that had already begun to crowd around the school buses. She hated being late any morning, but especially on a field trip day. She quickened her pace into a mad dash, the weight of her book bag slapping her side, only pausing at the curb to scan the crowd for her friends. Anna was flapping her hand at her through the narrow slit from the mostly closed bus window, and she could see the others were seated nearby, but a teacher stopped Wendy at the door as she rushed to scramble onto the already filled bus. Wendy cast her head down as she made her way to the next bus, climbed the steps and scanned the aisle for a vacant seat. There was one left, next to Stephanie. Wendy caught her breath and tried to smile, ignoring the evil gleam in Stephanie’s eyes as she approached and sat down next to her, her thick auburn braids smacking the back of the seat. Late and sitting with Stephanie-can it get any worse, she thought to herself as she inwardly sighed.
While Wendy was short for her age, Stephanie was almost a foot taller than most of the boys and girls in the 6th grade class at Gladeville Elementary School. She had short, tightly curled, dirty-blond hair that barely went past her ears, and she wore thick glasses with over-sized frames. The effect of this, when combined with Stephanie’s piercing brown-eyed gaze, always reminded Wendy of an owl, a very intense, alert owl that was always on the lookout for prey.
Wendy closed her eyes and she pulled her legs up and against the seat in front of her as the bus lurched into gear, starting her classes’ trip to the natural history museum in nearby Three Forks. They were only a few minutes into their journey when she felt Stephanie’s shadow over her and she looked up as Stephanie looked down at her. “I bet you are looking forward to this trip, arentcha Encyclopedia…” Stephanie had asked her mockingly as she shoved into her, scooting Wendy to the edge of the seat. Wendy hated it when Stephanie called her that. “You think you are sooo smart, you don’t even need to go on this trip, do you, Encyclopedia?” Wendy held her breath and tried to brace herself against the seat as Stephanie shoved her again and Wendy tumbled into the aisle. Everyone on the bus laughed and one of the teachers, Mr. Bates, looked back with a scowl, “What’s going on back there?” Stephanie smiled as she called out to him, “Oh it’s nothing Mr. Bates, Wendy was just daydreaming as usual and fell out of her seat.” The class laughed some more as Stephanie held out her hand to Wendy as though she was her best friend in the whole world and just trying to help her. Wendy straightened her clothes as she sat back down, ignoring Stephanie’s evil grin. They would be at the museum and off the bus in a few minutes, and Wendy was already thinking of how to get off the bus as quickly as possible and run ahead to join the group from the first bus. She knew she had to be quick or she would remain in this group and be forced to “buddy up” with Stephanie.
The bus came to a stop and Mr. Bates stood up in front of the doors. “Now I want all of you to walk slowly off the bus and line up outside so that we can divide up into groups.” Wendy sprang from her seat as he opened the doors and took off outside and ran to the group that was already exiting the first bus. The other students from her bus followed her, and soon everyone from both buses was mingling outside in one large crowd. Coach Huff and Mr. Hayden stood in the parking lot as Coach Huff blew his whistle and Mr. Hayden began to bark at them, “Everyone line up!” Wendy and her friends held hands in line as Mrs. Jenkins passed by dividing them into groups of two, Deena and Penny, Anna and Robin, Sonja and Daryn, Tina and Shelia, Kathy and Wendy, and Wendy let go of her breath as Mrs. Jenkins went by dividing the other students. With any luck, she wouldn’t have to endure Stephanie the rest of the day.
The park ranger began to lead them on a tour of the grounds and the museum. They saw demonstrations of how the area’s first pioneers had lived, learning how to make soap and how log cabins were built. They heard a presentation about how Christopher Gist led the first survey of the area hundreds of years ago, and how the Indian tribes before him had been too afraid to settle the land, stopping only to hunt on it but never staying, believing that it was a holy place and if one stayed longer than a fortnight that the spirits would come in the night and claim their bodies. They learned about the unique geology of the area, and how the area’s rich mineral and ore deposits led to the development of the towns and counties there today.
The class was then shown the museum’s gift shop and told they would have an hour for lunch before they would return to school. While in the gift shop one of the girls had spied a bag of rocks, a selection of “gems” from one of the nearby quarries, and the girls began to pool their loose change together to have enough to buy the bag of rocks. Wendy glanced nervously around as they were pooling their money, and saw Stephanie begin to stride over to her group, but luckily they had raised the required funds and made their purchase before she joined them.
The girls hurried outside and opened the bag and Daryn counted the rocks, there were ten, enough for each one of them to have one. Penny pulled off her cap and Daryn dumped the rocks in and held the cap high above her head, “Everyone reach in and pick one!” Each one of the girls reached in and picked out one of the small, smooth stones. Wendy’s was white with brown streaks, a piece of quartzite sandstone that had been polished smooth by water. Everyone’s was a bit different. Anna’s was white with streaks of purple, like amethyst and Daryn’s was blue with dark swirls; it resembled the turquoise jewelry that Wendy’s aunt often wore. Everyone was admiring their rock when Penny said, “I can’t believe we spent 5 dollars on a rock! “And everyone laughed. “But these are special rocks, Penny, we bought them together!” Sonja had exclaimed and the other girls nodded. “They are friendship rocks!” Denna declared and everyone laughed again. Wendy stretched out her arm and held her stone in the open palm of her hand, “We should make a wish on our rocks, we should promise that we will always be friends, for forever and ever.” And the other girls laughed and everyone stretched out her hand with her rock and promised, “Friends, for forever and ever, Amen!”
Wendy’s reverie was interrupted by the appearance of her friend. A nurse gently steered a skeletal Anna over to one of the chairs, but before she could sit down Wendy jumped up and ran over and hugged her friend. Wendy could feel Anna’s bones sharply sticking out through the hospital gown. Anna was beginning to cry as they both sat down. “I didn’t think you would really come, it has been so long since either of us saw one another.” “Too long” Wendy sadly agreed. It had been years since Wendy had left the mountains to go off to college and then moved to the city to begin her career. Like many people, she had grown busy with trying to work and live, and trips home had become infrequent before stopping altogether. “I brought you something” Wendy whispered as she took the stone out of her pocket and placed it into Anna’s hand, “do you remember?” “The wishing stones…” Anna whispered back as she began to cry harder. “Yes,” Wendy said, “We all promised that we would be friends for forever and ever, and it may be a little late, but I keep my promises old friend.” The two women sat, arm and arm, as they cried together; they had a lot of catching up to do.