Stone Soup

"Oh, hey, Beeb," said Kri.

The figure came in with an enormous bag of potatoes and set it down in the middle of the kitchen. 

"Thanks," she said. "Now you can call me Betty." The screen changed almost immediately. "That’s as far as I can get those," Betty announced, standing up. "There’s some boys with the stone soup pot. I told them to come help with these once they’ve set that up."

Kris tapped the door-open bit and boys came through with the large painted metal tub. They were all knees and elbows, and looked at each other nervously as they navigated the way through the house. 

"Heh," Kri stuttered. Betty smiled at them warmly and stepped toward the sunken shrine, saying, "lovely bunch of candles." 

Kri regretted not making the teens scan the doorbell so she could get their names. She looked at them a bit too long trying to figure out if she knew them. They seemed to shudder under her scrutiny. 

"Uh, um, nice seeing you guys," she sputtered as they hurried past. They nodded awkwardly, and she thought she saw one of them look meaningfully at the curtained empty bedroom before they disappeared out the door.

New Assignment

"Ok, let’s line up, little ones," breathed Annie, with great effort.

She was in a bright room with glass walls all around.

"No. Not like that," scolded a squeaky, nasal voice. "They don’t listen to you."

The tiny figure giggled and barked at even tinier figures. They noisily bunched into a loud and sloppy line. Annie sighed and tried hard to stay on her feet, to breathe and to speak.

Onion Fire

The back yard was heavy with the smell of onions and that herb smell, a multifaceted sharpness with the sweet bite of onions, the sterilizing coolness of mint, the bite of lemon and the wholesome bitterness of cinnamon, plus everything else that there wasn’t time to notice.

One of the gangly teens carefully placed the washed and peeled potatoes into the stone soup pot with the carefully washed and placed stones. 

"Oh, hun, just dump ’em in. Those things won’t be visible by the time the leavers show up. Heh."

The youngling jumped a little at having been so suddenly addressed.

"Tell the other one that, too," Tara concluded and smiled warmly. The kid only grimaced further and chuckled awkwardly, then urgently dumped the potatoes into the pot.

Tara surveyed the rest of the yard. The receiving line was in orderly, the drink stations were all full and there were plenty of snacks.

"Oh, and nice job on the tent, if that was you," Tara mused vaguely in the teen’s direction, but when she looked he was fleeing to the edge of the yard, toward the street.

Tara stepped after Kri, who had seen everything and was heading back into the house. 

"Are they all like that? Is yours like that?"

"Have you seen my kid?"

"Well...no. Fair enough."

The house was empty Kri hurriedly swiped the screen to the wish list. The colored rectangles popped up. 

"Ugh. They’re not listed under stone soup pot."

"Oh, they did that for free. I grabbed them when they were finished with the tent."

Kri sighed and searched for the square that said "shrine tent."

but then the screen flashed, "BINGO" and the door opened. 

"Tsk tsk," he said as soon as the screen went back to the wishlist. "You can’t check prayers during prayer time."

A wide-shouldered bald man with the heavily lidded eyes that looked like he was always about to sneeze stepped dramatically in, and continued talking in a whiny drip of a voice: "It’s not fair to the leavers who have to visit everyone while you get to stay home all day."

Next Chapter: New Assignment