Chapter 2 – Stone Exchange
"Daria, dear, would you like more corned beef and cabbage, mashed, well everything?" Mrs. Fergus asked. "I hope you don't mind that we serve pretty simple fare tonight."
Berit's mother smiled as she asked having seen how quickly Daria had finished her first servings of corned beef and cabbage, mashed potatoes and green beans with slivered almonds.
"Yes, ma'am thank you. It's all very good." Daria remembered her manners as she accepted bowls and plates and served herself. "It's much yummier than our usual, store-bought lasagna."
She blushed a bit, aware that it probably did not reflect well on her to criticize her family. Daria did not notice Mrs. Fergus giving her a look of sympathy.
The tiny but growing girl was happy to tuck into second helpings of the hearty fresh food. Her father's pasta and chicken fried steak of the week or so before was a happy fluke in an otherwise string of dishes which only Jake could enjoy.
The Morgendorffer family frequently got by on dinners of frozen lasagna. As if to make up for it, Helen and Jake always made sure to have plenty of fruit and vegetables around and Daria would force herself to remember to eat some each day.
As Berit took seconds herself she happily announced, "And Da made cheesecake!"
Berit's father, her 'Da', watched the two tiny girls shoveling food in heartily and shook his head.
"Ah, I wish that I had the appetite and constitution of the young again. Berit's a little bird but she eats more than I can."
He went to the kitchen and came back to plop a chocolate cheesecake topped with bright red cherries in front of Daria. She could not help but look at it longingly. As they caught her intent look, Mr. and Mrs. Fergus exchanged smiles between them.
As Mr. Fergus cut slices he asked, "So what are you two up to tonight then? Assuming you don't fall asleep from all the cheesecake."
"Daria and I are in different sections but we're covering about the same subjects in algebra. We're comparing notes and reviewing before big tests next week. Then, you know, typical slumber party stuff," Berit answered.
Mr. Fergus chuckled. "Okay, you don't have to spill more secrets. It's a Friday but make sure you both get into bed by midnight then, yes?"
"Sure Da," Berit assured him.
Daria nodded half wondering how she had gotten herself into a 'slumber party' with Berit. Her experiences with slumber parties had ended when she wised up after one too many times being ignored after passing out the sexy books which her adult library card had permitted her to take out and the other girls demanded as the price of her admission. But she was pretty sure you needed more than two people to make it an official slumber party.
Still, she reflected as she dipped her fork into creamy cheesecake, this supper—as the Fergus' called their evening meal—could help her put up with a lot of uncertainty.
The elder Fergus' brushed away the girls' offers to clear the table and do the dishes.
"Go study your fancy math then, young ladies. Maybe you can teach some to an old man," Mr. Fergus said shooing them away from the table.
Daria doubted Berit's computer programmer father needed the tutoring but she thanked her hosts as Berit led her up the stairs to her bedroom.
Daria expected rather a jumble from Berit's room rivalling Quinn's half of their shared bedroom and was pleasantly surprised by the minimal decorations: posters of waterfalls and landscapes and one detailing how to cut gemstones; a mobile turning slowly and, of course, a large geodes and polished rocks prominently displayed and holding down papers. A kelly-green spread covered the bed. Berit shyly swept her hand around dramatically in lieu of a mini-tour. The only Quinn-like feature was two teddy-bears on the bed.
Much to Daria's relief, Berit briskly got them down to business on her expansive desk. Their mutual nerves were soon assuaged as they flipped pages, scribbled in notebooks and compared notes on algebra and the habits of their respective teachers.
"We started playing a trick on Mr. Stinson," Berit confessed in her soft Texas twangy Irish brogue. "When he moved to our left, his right, we straightened up and pretended to pay more attention. If he moved right we would slouch a bit. It's evil but we almost had him trained to move out the door. The poor man doesn't see it."
Daria found herself giggling, an unusual feeling. She resolved to conspire with her algebra classmates to attempt the conditioning of their teacher.
After an hour of hitting the books both girls sighed and pushed their papers away. After they stared at each other for a moment, Berit nervously giggled. She pulled a slim paperback from a drawer and consulted it while trying to hide the title.
"Well, let's see," she began. "I guess we could get into our jammies and…" She knit her brows as she flipped a few pages. "I know! We could play Truth or Dare."
As she quickly put the book back Daria caught a glimpse of the title: "Make Your Slumber Party Great".
"Maybe I want this girl to like me." Daria thought as she stifled a few choice remarks.
"Wow, your own attached bathroom," Daria said. "Could I move in after the weekend? Quinn would gladly help me pack." Berit nodded happily.
Helen had insisted Daria take a pair of soft flannel pyjamas instead of her usual sleep garb of oversize tee-shirt and boxer shorts. The only pair in the house which fit her was a hand-me-down from Quinn who had surpassed her older sister in height the year before.
"Just my luck," she mumbled as she emerged from the bathroom to find Berit in an oversize tee-shirt and boxer shorts. Berit's tee sported a heavily mustachioed Mark Twain gazing out impassively.
"Oh, unicorns," Berit cooed as she took in her pyjama's unicorn motif. "Daria, those are great jammies. I have to get a pair."
Berit said quietly then, "I think I saw a unicorn a month ago. In the big woods just behind our place. You know, I bet it's the same woods really that your brook flows through, where you found the adder stones. We really should go exploring deeper into those woods sometime."
"Unicorns, Berit?" Daria could not put up with this. "Unicorns don't exist, except as I read, probably some fiftieth-hand retelling of somebody getting trampled by a rhinoceros."
"No, I know what I saw," Berit affirmed. "Just a glance, mind you, but it was big and black and had a golden horn. Real unusual specimen that too."
"You only believe what you think you can see day to day?" Berit asked but smiled a sincere non-mocking smile as she did.
Daria considered. "No, I can't see atoms either but I believe in them."
"That's different, no it's the same," asserted Berit. "We can see atoms and stuff like that with our instruments."
Both girls paused, each aware that she did not want to argue with the other just then no matter how strongly they held their differing opinions.
"I have a present to thank you for inviting me." Daria broke the silence.
"And I for you," Berit announced happily as each dug into her backpack and presented the other with a small box.
Berit's eyes shone as she protested, "No, no, I can't take this."
She held up the off-white adder stone. Jake's military school training had come in handy as he had helped Daria tie a cunning, eye-pleasing knot in the narrow black leather cord which wound a couple times around the hole.
"It's yours," Daria insisted. "I gave Mom the other and she's using it for a paperweight in her office. I never saw any faeries through it. Maybe you'll, eh, have better luck."
As anyone would have done Daria had peered through the hole a few times although never expecting to see anything unusual.
She almost shrank back from the hug Berit impulsively wrapped her in. She forgot the box in her hand until Berit glanced at it meaningfully.
"It's beautiful," Daria said sincerely as she lifted a silver chain up weighted down with a small clear crystal set into a silver bezel. Daria was sure it was pure quartz. She could not see any imperfection in its depths. Rainbow spectrums flashed around the room as she turned it in the light. A cord of black leather lay in the box ready to take the bezel too.
"Quartz is power," Berit said simply. "It will hang about half-way between your heart and your mouth to give power to both. When those girls bully you this will help."
Berit bit her lip then and continued, "I mean, I found it while walking along the railroad tracks. That's a great place to find crystals in the crushed rock but Da yelled at me that I was a foolish, silly thing and made me promise never to go there again or I would get run over by a train while my eyes were in the dirt."
Berit swept into her next planned activity. "Okay, Daria, truth or dare: which boy at school do you think is the dreamiest looking?"
"I…uh…don't…er…" Daria stammered as she felt her face getting hot.
"Oh, oh, I know, sorry, too fast. We have to build up to that," Berit explained. Daria had a feeling that Berit was trying to recall the book's tips.
"Uh," now Daria had the feeling Berit was improvising. "Okay, Daria, what's your favorite smell?"
"Tar," she said immediately and could feel her face not cooling any at an answer which her third-grade classmates had assured her was a supremely stupid scent preference.
"Really? I like that smell too," Berit confessed. "But my favorite smell is good old clean dirt. In fact our root cellar."
"You have a root cellar? What do you keep down there, cabbages for your beef? My Dad would probably keep his beer cold down there." Daria asked in the monotone she had been perfecting at school.
"Eap, that sounded sarcastic, I think. She's being very nice to me and her mom's cabbage is yummy."
"Yep, and carrots, parsnips, and potatoes too," Berit answered seriously. "But no beer; Da likes his Irish."
Then she smiled mischievously. "Hey, that could be a dare for the both of us then. Let's sneak out and go down in the root cellar."
Daria tried to think of ways to object but she somehow found herself putting on sturdy slippers and waiting at the bedroom door as Berit scanned the house.
Berit made 'be quiet' motions and the two slipped down the stairs. Her parents were playing cards in the living room as Berit dropped to her hands and knees. Daria followed feeling rather foolish but getting caught up in the game.
The two crawled slowly and carefully past the living room apparently without detection. They straightened up in the kitchen and Berit led Daria out into the back yard. A door on a red painted out building squeaked murderously as Berit eased it open.
A few moments later Berit was shining a flashlight up a short flight of steep but easily navigable stairs. Daria climbed down to join her in a small underground room with packed dirt walls. Berit shone the flashlight around revealing piles of vegetables and shelves of canned goods.
Berit took progressively deeper draughts of the moist air with apparently increasing murmurs of appreciation.
Daria took a massive breath and moments later Berit was anxiously inquiring, "Daria, are you okay? Oh, my Gosh. Are you okay?" as Daria coughed and hacked.
"Yeah, yeah," she gasped. "I think I'll take up smoking now. It can't be much worse."
As Daria was recovering, the lights went up in the building above them. Mr. Fergus darkened the trap door.
"Well, did I catch a couple of bunnies raiding our carrots then? Berit, are you really teaching your friend—the poor child—about the joys of smelling dirt? I'd almost rather have you trying to raid the liquor cabinet then, almost."
Mr. Fergus marched them back to the kitchen where Mrs. Fergus was making tea. She berated Berit softly and warned them about catching their death in the cold, damp root cellar. Neither parent seemed angry. The four shared a pot of tea around the kitchen table and chatted.
"That was fun," Berit enthused when they were back in the bedroom after giving her parents promises to stay in the house the rest of the night.
"Yeah, it was fun." Daria said sincerely. "Even coming that close to choking to death."
"Okay, now for the real truth. Which boy at school DO you think is the dreamiest looking?"
"Todd…" Daria stammered and then tried to prevent herself from talking. "Er, no, not Todd, I meant."
"Yes! I know. Todd Ianuzzi." Berit would not let her get away. "A bad boy, but yes. Those are the dreamiest. I like him too, well, just from afar."
Both girls blushed and looked at each other.
"We may have to form a mutual suicide pact," Daria proposed. "Or murder-suicide, if we can't agree to keep that a secret."
Berit giggled and Daria managed to chuckle.
"Yes, you can admire Todd from afar," Berit observed. "Just keep it quiet. If that girlfriend of his, Gina, finds out she will kick your ass. Mine too."
Both girls giggled then, tickled at Berit's language. They played board games and talked about books until half past midnight and Berit allowed they should get to bed. Daria insisted on taking the floor but Berit's Da brought in a comfy-looking cot which Berit took over.
Daria had sweet dreams of medical abnormalities until morning light and Berit's stirring awoke her.