Stones

Short story from Radi Todorov Radev, a 26-year old science fiction author from Bulgaria. As well as his fiction, Radi usually writes the Bulgarian SF news reports for Locus.

The man was sitting on a bench, resting. The people strolling round the park pretended they did not see him. Their heads, however, always turned and their eyes kept goggling, as if they were some of those BEM comics monsters.

The reason for so many eyes to rest on that man was the jewellery. He had jewellery all over him. They were all precious stones, actually. More stones than a jewellery shop window could ever show.

How pleasant it feels here, the man on the bench thought.

There he sat, watching the multitude of people that pottered about the park. Most of the benches were occupied: those located to the centre of the park had elderly people sitting of them. They hardly spoke to each other; they just sat and enjoyed the afternoon sun in silence.

Some benches were occupied by young mothers. They never stopped talking. They gossiped about this or that. It was as if in the meanwhile that they pushed gently to and fro their prams, babies nonchalantly hushed inside.

There were pairs of lovers in the park, too. They'd rather have those obscure places and showed amazing ingenuity to find some.

Such a view was only complemented by youngsters riding bikes, skateboards and roller-skates. The latter were the greatest in number and raised the greatest of din.

A couple of teenagers swaggered towards the man on the bench. Bob-haired, they had training suits and leather jackets that looked almost alike. One of them was of medium height, skinny, sly-faced and his eyes kept moving all about him. The other one was tall and fat, his lower jaw resembled a digger's shuttle.

'Wossup, dude?' the skinny one said.

The jewellery man paid no attention to them. Which seemed to encourage the two.

'You're havin' a nice load o'stones on ya, right?! How 'bout givin' us some,' the skinny one said.

'Well, you come nearer, so I can give you one,' the man with the stones suggested.

He then took a small ring off his right little finger. It was made of gold and had a tiny white stone incrusted.

The two youngsters approached carefully. Bristling as they were, expecting some sort of a trick, they were ready to attack him. The man on the bench flinged the ring to the skinny one. He caught it.

Suddenly, he fell to the ground and started kicking around frantically, throaty sounds coming out of his mouth, foam on his chin and lips.

The stout one screamed with terror:

'What did you do to him, you weird fuck!?'

'You'd like a ring too, wouldn't you?' the jewellery man grinned.

'What did you do to him, you scamp?! Pervert fuck, you!'

The fat guy then darted away. The man got up from the bench and took the ring from the ground. He touched the stone to the writhing teenager's forehead. Gradually he calmed down, stopped kicking and writhing. In a while, he sat up and instinctively wiped the foam off his chin.

'Run,' the man advised him gently.

The youngster got up and ran. Slowly he picked up speed and even amazed himself at how quickly he could actually run.

The man sat on the bench. He gazed at a group of children, scuffing with each other. They were trying to climb onto a small granite statue of a bear. The bear was on its four legs so it wouldn't have been that great a difficulty riding it, had it not been for a rather plump blond-haired kid who had already climbed on the back of the bear and would not let anyone else do so, pushing them down.

A broad back it is, the jewellery man thought. There should be room enough for everyone there.

* * *

A girl in a mini-skirt neared the man on a bench.

'Excuse me, may I sit next to you?' she asked.

'Of course,' the jewellery man replied and turned towards her. Besides the eye-catching mini-skirt, she wore brown shoes with ankle-straps and massive high-heels. She was dressed in a beige blouse with a very low neck, a silver chainlet round her neck and her hair clumsily bleached into blonde locks.

Quite unembarrassed, she unfastened her right shoe ankle-strap, took the shoe off and placed the ankle on top of her left knee. She started massaging it. The man could see her white bikini and the first signs of creases up her thighs.

'My shoes are so tight,' said the girl apologetically.

'Why do you wear them then?'

'They make me look taller.' She said and then noted, 'I live two blocks away. I was having a coffee with a friend of mine and I'd started on my way home when my feet started hurting. That's why I sat here. To have some rest. I hope you don't mind.'

'No, not at all.'

'And you don't seem to talk much, do you? May I ask you why are you sitting here all by yourself?'

'I'm having a rest,' answered the jewellery man.

The young woman sat silent for a moment; then she asked, 'I saw you looking at those children. You ain't one of... them guys who...?'

'I'm definitely not.'

Suddenly, the man got up and headed towards the children who were still trying to climb the stone bear. The girl cast a greedy look at him. He was quite handsome, wearing a pair of shabby blue jeans and his leather jacket was of this strange green-like colour. He was tall, broad-shouldered and had auburn hair. His mouth seemed to be too small and his bite - not quite a regular one. Actually, this was unimportant. What mattered were the precious stones he had on him.

The man approached the plump kid who rode on the back of the bear and would not let anyone else climb on. The kid noticed the stranger with surprise and tried to run away. The man calmed him and handed him ones of his rings.

The child objected, saying, 'Mom said not to take things from strangers.'

The jewellery man whispered something in his ear and the child eventually took the ring.

The man went back to the bench and sat.

'Why did you give it to him?' the girl inquired. 'Are you sure you ain't one of them homo...paedo...them guys who like small kids?'

'I already told you: I'm not.' The jewellery man held out his hand, 'My name is Tawn Givens.'

She pressed his hand, saying back, 'Penelope Rut. Everyone calls me Penny. But why did you give that boy the ring? It looked like an expensive one.'

'Well, you see, that boy was riding the bear and would not let the others climb onto it. So I went to him and told him I'd let him have the ring as long as he lets the other kids ride the bear too.'

'I don't understand you. Do you think he will stop being selfish after you've given him the ring?'

'Well, broadly speaking, yes!' Penny fastened her shoe-strap and suggested, 'Would you like to see my home? You're a bit weird but you don't seem to be dangerous.'

'All right,' Givens answered.

So they both got up from the bench and strolled down an alley. They had walked for some time when someone from behind shouted: 'Hey, mister!'

They turned and saw the plump boy, whom Tawn had given the ring, trying to catch up with them.

The kid came nearer and stuttered: 'Take your ring, mister, I don't need it anymore. I realised it's bad when you want it all for yourself.'

Givens took the ring and ruffled the boy's hair. 'Go play with the others!'

Penny laid a look of amazement on him: 'What was that? Is this boy your kin or you've just plotted it?'

'Why would I do this?'

'Then what was that? You give him the ring, he holds it for a couple of minutes and like...changes?! Are you a shrink or something?'

'No, I'm not. The stone does all there is. It's inside the ring.'

That's all I ever meet, weirdoes and likes, Penny thought. I get to have a new boyfriend every week and never anyone's...like normal. Wouldn't it be nice if I met someone to keep a relationship going for like two, three years maybe? He's definitely not going to be the one. I only hope I get to take him in and make off with a couple of rings., That's it. Then I dump him right away.'

* * *

The two went out of the park. Penny would not speak, afraid she might get some crazy answer of the sort she'd been getting for the time being.

Obviously, Tawn wasn't the talkative type either. He turned his head in every direction and gazed at all the people they met. The people gazed back at him, too.

Penny's brains ached with effort until she could find a safe subject to discuss. Eventually, she plucked up courage and said: 'What's it you do for a living? You a jeweller?'

'Something like that'; the answer came.

'Looking at those jewels you're having, I'd think you're one. "Something like that" ain't an answer, you know. You a jeweller or not?'

Tawn said nothing. Instead, he made a pair of lovers, coming in the way, stop. It was a skinny boy with pockets under the eyes and a beard lock and a girl with neck-long tresses, small bust and thin legs. They were both so lean they resembled a pair of pencils.

Givens stood in front of them and asked, 'Excuse me, could I make a present?'

'Go away,' the boy snapped. 'I'll call the police!'

The girl, evidently of a more worldly mind, asked, 'What is it that you want to give us?'

Tawn took a ring off a finger and gave it to her.

'Is it real?' the beard-lock guy inquired. "Why would you..."

His girlfriend took the ring and dragged him away. They both strode off without even saying a 'Thank you.'

Tawn and Penny went on, too.

'You seem to like making presents, don't you?' she noted.

'Yes, that's me,' Givens humbly replied.

'And those jewels of yours...are they real?'

'Absolutely.'

'So the ring you're just given costs something like a ten grand?

'Forty grand. It was a hyacinth, that stone.'

He was, surely, someone totally nuts. He'd just live roving about with jewels worth a fortune. But that was nothing. He'd like give these away to total strangers. Penny did not know why the man next to her would offer precious stones as gifts just like that. Did he do this to impress her being a rich nutter or did he have some other reason? She knew, however, she'd make it off with some of these rings. Even if she had to sleep with him.

They were now near her block. Penny was already making plans of how get him to her place. Tawn, just as he'd been doing all the time, kept staring at people as he wondered whom to make a gift. Penny started get annoyed with that look of his.

A heap of cardboard nearby moved. Some human-like creature crawled out of it and babbled, 'Hey, mista, give sumtin' to da poor, mista!'

Tawn halted readily, which made Penny furious. She was the first to meet him! What if he gave away all the jewels before she could manage to get him inside her apartment? She was just about to object when she saw that Givens had already squatted and was handing something to the man.

The tramp had several pairs of clothes on him. Because of the dirt, the colors of these seemed to mingle into grey-black and you couldn't see his face because of the thick bushy beard he'd grown.

Why would that muff she was with ever go near such a bum? And why would he give the man a ring with a violet stone? Penny thought. Didn't he know the bum would sell the ring right away and drink the money up?

'Here, take this and stop living like that!' Tawn said.

The tramp snatched the ring and began muttering blessings. He seemed to know these by heart because he never stuttered or repeated once.

Finally, Penny took the jewellery man under the arm and made him go. She had now decided to ask no more questions but fleece him as much as she could.

They went inside her entrance. While waiting for the elevator to come down, Penny prayed that no one came. Otherwise the fool would give away more and more of the jewels and there wouldn't be any left for her to have.

Thanks God there was no one in the elevator. They went up to the fourth floor.

Unlocking the door, Penny announced, 'Look now, I don't what you to think I'm one of those girls. I don't ask home everyone I meet. We are only having a coffee and that's it.'

'Alright.'

She made him sit in an armchair in the living room. She put a Kenny G CD in the stereo and played it then went to the kitchen to boil the coffee.

A great idea came to her. She'd read about hookers who'd put sedatives in a client's coffee, rob him afterwards and disappear. What would there be to prevent her from doing the same thing? Those jewels he had appeared to be quite expensive ones. She'd have to call her 'boyfriend of today' though.

Samuel would come with his pick-up truck. He'd drag this bloke out of her apartment, load him in the truck and throw him away in some remote quarter. After he wakes up, the Tawn Givens guy would no more give jewels away. Because he would have none.

'I'm co-o-ming in a se-e-cond!' Penny cried larkily.

'No su-u-gar in my co-o-fe-e!,' the jewellery man voice came.

'Quite bitter it's going to be,' Penny said to herself.

She kicked the living room door open, holding a copper tray in her hands. There was a coffee-pot, a china sugar-bowl with handles shaped like an elephant's trunk, two cups and a spoon. She unloaded the tray onto the small table that was placed in the middle of the room. She then returned the tray to the kitchen and came back. She sat herself on the plush coach opposite him.

'I made the coffee a bit stronger, because...'

'...you've put sedatives in mine,' Tawn finished the sentence.

This gave Penny the creeps. She was living all by herself. What if he attacked her?

'Fear not. I will not hurt you.' The jewellery man said. 'You had decided to either intoxicate me or fuck me, in order to obtain a stone.'

'How would you know?'

'I knew it through one of my stones.'

'You're crazy, you know?! You live in some strange world of yours. You think your stones are like magic and you're like giving 'em away for free. Let me have one of them!'

'Shut up and hear me!' Tawn ordered. 'I come from another time and from another place. My stones are magic indeed and can magic things happen!'

Penny wanted to say something but he pressed one of his rings to her lips and all of a sudden her voice went numb. All she could do was moo inarticulate sounds. Her lips wouldn't produce a single word.

'You just nod for yes and shake your head for no,' Givens commanded. 'Do you understand me?'

Penny nodded.

'Do you think you'll be able to speak unless I cast the spell off?'

She thought for a moment. Then she shook her head.

'Fine. You will now be able to speak, but I don't want you trying to escape or scream.'

He pressed the same ring to her lips. The moment he did, she started screaming and darted towards the door. The man jumped onto her, twisted her arms and gagged her mouth.

'You know,' Tawn said thoughtfully, 'I think you want to be blind.'

He pressed another ring to her eyes. Instantly, Penny turned her head.

Impossible! She could see nothing.

She stopped resisting and shut up. She wanted to show she'd do anything if he only stopped maltreating her with these stones.

'Ah, finally I see you're behaving yourself! Admit, did you put sedatives in my coffee?'

'Yes, I did.'

'You wanted to rob me, didn't you?'

'Yes, I did.'

Givens took a deep breath. 'I will let you have a ring; then I will tell you a few things.'

'Get the hell away!'

'You will first have to listen to me! I want you to know that the ring I gave the kid in the park was with tourmaline.'

'So what?'

The tourmaline suppresses egotism and makes people generous.'

'Yeah, right!' Penny grumbled.

'So you don't believe in the power of my rings?!'

'No.'

'Why did you go numb, then?'

Penny thought for a moment, then she said, 'I don't know. You must be hypnotising me in some way.'

'How did I know of the sedatives in my coffee, then? And that you wanted to rob me?' he laughed.

'That ain't difficult to guess.'

Tawn pressed a stone to her forehead. He then pressed it to his and declared: 'Find how do I know that since the beginning of this year you've slept with sixteen man?'

Penny lost speech. He must have hired a whole gang of detectives to follow her. How could he know such things?

'You don't pick out the guys you sleep with, do you?' Tawn mocked at her.

'That's none of your business!'

Givens shrugged his shoulders. 'I'd like you to know that my stones help me to see things. I gave that strange-beard boy a hyacinth stone on purpose.

'Did you?' There was not a trace of interest in her words, contempt only.

'My stones told me he was going to be struck by a lightning some time later.'

'And so you give him a hyacinth, right?'

'Yes, this stone prevents one from lightnings.'

Penny made a desperate face: 'Even if I believed your words to be true, you haven't saved the boy.'

'And why?'

'Because his girlfriend must have taken the ring from the boy by now.'

'It's his own choice,' Tawn shook his head.

Penny now took the initiative. He must be totally out of his mind, that guy. However, she realised that it wasn't so difficult to think the way he did.

'So the ring you gave the trump will make him quit drinking?' she asked:

'Yes, a violet amethyst.'

'Even if that stone had the power to do it, the bum must have sold it a thousand times by now.'

Tawn repeated: 'I already told you: I give people magic stones. It's their own choice what they do with them.'

Tawn spent some time examining the rings on his fingers. Obviously, he was looking for one to give to her. Eventually, he picked up a ring with a bluish translucent stone.

'Is this for me?' Penny asked cunningly.

'Yes, this one is a sapphire. You will know yourself what it does.

Tawn Givens stood up and left.

Penny dashed after him to lock the door. She then picked up the phone and dialled her boyfriend's number. She would moan about what she'd gone through and now she had eventually obtained a golden ring with a sapphire. How much would she get for that?

Something made her hang up the moment Samuel answered the phone. What had Tawn Givens said: 'I give people magic stones. It's their own choice what they do with them.'

Should I sell the sapphire? Penny asked herself. What if the stone can really make a difference in my life?

* * *

The librarian handed the encyclopaedia to the girl with the beautiful ring. She then suggested, 'If you are interested in stones, why don't you let me offer something more detailed?'

'No, thank you. A general one is fine.'

Penny leafed through the encyclopaedia. On her way to the library she had dropped by in a jewellery store. There they had examined the stone and said it was genuine. At last, she found the word. Now she would know what the purpose of the stone that strange man had given her was.

This is what the encyclopaedia read:

SAPPHIRE [Greek, of Hebrew origin: SAPHEIROS ] - precious stone coloured blue or green. It is considered to bring loyalty, modesty and virtues; prevents one from anger and fears.

END

(c) Radi Radev 2004 - all rights reserved
translated into English by Stefan Stefanov

Radi Todorov Radev is a 26-year old Science Fiction author from Bulgaria with approximately fifty of his short stories and articles published. Two of them 'Confession' and 'Séance' were awarded by Bulgarian Science Fiction magazine 'Zona F'. 'A Caring Daughter' was published in the American webzine 'Nuketown'.

'Abstract Time Strategy' was awarded 3rd place in the 'PC Magazine Bulgaria' SF short story contest. 'Hunger' was published in 'Literary Forum' newspaper. In its native Bulgarian, the above short story 'Stones' was included in the new Bulgarian SF authors collection 'A Point of Arriving'.

'SF Fandom In Bulgaria' has been published in May 2003 in Locus Magazine & another this August, 'SF Bulgarian News'.

In May 2004, the short story 'A Store Of Mallice' was awarded on 2nd place at National Student's Literary Contest 'Shumen 2004'.

On June 2004, the short story 'Confession' received Honourable Mention at Better Karma Writing Contest.

To find out more about Radi's work check our the website www.swordandmagic.com

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