‘It’s not a cow. I’m wrapping it up now.’
‘I guess if he’s wrapping it up it can’t be a cow,’ Jenna told Karli, and she watched as the little girl practically lit within with excitement.
She knew exactly how Karli would be feeling right now. In the past, birthdays for Karli would have been exactly the same as they’d been for Jenna. They’d either be forgotten completely or they’d be occasions to show off. They’d be huge, glittering affairs with jugglers and clowns and caterers and the children of every celebrity worth their salt, none of whom she knew, and parents drinking too much on the sidelines and gushing kisses and paparazzi…
Ugh.
There was still time, she thought. She could give Karli a happy childhood-if she was allowed to.
There was much thumping happening next door.
‘I’m having trouble with my gift-wrapping,’ Riley called. ‘There seems to be a dearth of newspaper. Can I pull some out of the chinks?’
‘You do and you’re dead.’
‘Not even for a birthday?’
‘Not even for a birthday.’
Silence.
‘Okay. Necessity is the mother of invention,’ he announced. ‘Close your eyes, Karli.’
Karli squeezed her eyes so shut her little nose was wrinkled to a quarter of its normal length. She was practically vibrating with anticipation.
Jenna was starting to do some anticipating herself. Her soap had been a sorry sort of offering, but it was the best she’d been able to do. The fact that it had been received with such delight had choked her up.
What would Riley produce?
Riley walked back into the room with his hands behind his back. He looked at the eyes-squeezed-shut Karli and he grinned. He looked across at Jenna and started to smile-and then thought better of it.
The tension zoomed back with a fierceness that took her breath away.
Concentrate on Karli, she told herself, and Riley had obviously decided that was the best thing to do, too.
‘Are your eyes closed really, really tight?’ he asked, and grinned as Karli nodded her head so hard one of her braids fell free.
He waited, drawing out the delicious anticipation for as long as he could. Then: ‘Open now,’ he told Karli and held out his hand.
Karli opened her eyes-and stared. Riley was holding out something long and black and a bit frayed around the edges.
‘It’s a sock.’
‘Well guessed, Miss Karli.’ Riley grinned still more. ‘It is indeed a sock. It’s my very best sock, however, specially laundered by the famous Maggie in honour of this auspicious occasion. I figured if Santa Claus can put Christmas presents in stockings, then I can put birthday presents in socks. Take it. It’s yours. There’s something inside.’
Karli stared across at Jenna, as if awaiting instructions, and Jenna smiled. ‘Hold your breath while you check it out, Karli,’ she advised. ‘Men’s socks smell.’
‘Hey.’ Riley sounded offended. ‘You’re casting aspersions on my Maggie.’
‘Heaven forbid.’
He smiled at her, a gently laughing smile, and Jenna felt her heart twist again. He walked forward and laid the sock in Karli’s lap-and then stepped back.
‘Happy five and three-quarther’th birthday,’ he told her.
Karli lifted the sock with caution, holding it out at full stretch by its top corner. Even from across the room Jenna could see it was heavy, weighed down by something large stuffed into the foot.
‘What is it?’ Karli breathed and held it to the light.
‘Guess,’ Riley told her.
She felt it with care, extending the moment for all it was worth.
‘It feels like a rock.’
‘You are too clever,’ Riley told her, as if she’d just done something extraordinary. ‘But what sort of a rock?’
A rock, Jenna thought blankly. She’d thought her soap was a sad effort. How could he pull off a rock?
A pet rock maybe? Was Karli young enough to be talked into enthusiasm for a pet rock?
Better than pet dust, she thought with wry humour. But not much.
‘Pull it out,’ Riley was advising, and Karli did, cautiously, as if it might bite.
It was a slab of rock, maybe four inches wide, eight inches long and two or three inches deep. It was soft gray and dusty, and jagged as if it had just been pulled out of the dirt. Karli slid it down onto the table and gazed at it in confusion.
‘What is it?’
‘What do you see?’ Riley asked her gently and she looked perplexed. But then she frowned, concentrating, and Jenna leaned forward to see for herself.
There was an imprint on the rock’s surface. It was a six-pointed star, with tiny round circles embedded along each of the star points.
‘What does it look like?’ Riley asked Karli, and the little girl traced the imprint with care.
‘Like…a starfish?’
‘Hey.’ His smile was delighted. ‘Exactly right. Now turn it over.’
She slid it over, moving slowly and with wonder, as if it just might turn out to be infinitely precious and she wasn’t taking any chances. There on the other side was a shell, a mollusc, a beautifully coiled thing embedded deep into the rock.
‘It’s a shell,’ she said, wondering.
‘Not just a shell,’ he told her. ‘It’s an amazingly special shell. And an amazingly special starfish.’ He watched her finger tracing the shell with wonder. ‘Karli, you know the dust you walked over on Thursday when you walked from the train platform?’
‘Yes.’
‘A million years ago that dust was sand at the bottom of a very big ocean. Once upon a time this place was all under water, and this starfish and this little sea-snail were crawling around the ocean floor, right where you’re sitting.’
Her eyes flew up to Riley’s. ‘Really?’
‘Really. You’re sitting in the middle of an ocean, Karli. An ancient ocean that ceased to be an ocean a million years ago.’
She could hardly take it in, Jenna thought, watching the little girl’s changing face. But she was trying.
‘My starfish and my snail were alive a million years ago?’
‘Yep,’ he told her. ‘And when they died they were buried on the ocean floor. Sand came up over them. The waves washed over them, over and over. Gradually the ocean disappeared, but still they stayed where they were buried. They stayed and they stayed, and the sand that buried them pressed down so hard that it became rock. Then this afternoon while I was digging out a pipe taking water to my cattle, this rock slipped up from under the ground. It was almost as if it had been waiting for a million years for this very special occasion. For Karli’s five and three-quarter’th birthday.’
Jenna blinked. She found she had to blink several times.
Karli was gazing at Riley with stars in her eyes.
‘And now it’s mine?’
‘It’s yours to do with as you like, Karli,’ he told her. ‘If you like, when you get to a city you can take it to the museum and ask them to tell you exactly how old it is. You can look at the other rocks and see what else has been found from long ago. Sometimes museums really like rocks like this and maybe if it’s very, very special they’ll ask if they can borrow it and put it in a glass case so that everyone can see your special rock. If they do that then they’ll put a notice on the bottom of the case saying where it was found and that it’s your rock. It’s your very special birthday gift, Karli. Your starfish and your sea-snail.’
Karli turned to Jenna, her face glowing.
