Erica Demar headed into the woods on the same path she had taken the day before.

"Don't go too far from the cabin," Paula Demar called. "Your father wants to get back to town in time for President Truman's speech."

"All right, Mommy," the little girl called back. "I just want to find my ball." Her eyes searched the ground and she kicked at piles of leaves. After a while she was no longer looking for the ball, she was having too much fun kicking leaves, sticks, rocks, anything else she found.

The deeper into the woods she walked, the darker it got. "Boo!" she said to a tree. She liked to scare herself.

Then Erica wasn't scared anymore, she was frightened. "Mommy," she wailed. "Daddy, I'm lost. Mommy!"

She strained to hear her parents' voices.  It was too dark to see. "Daddy!" she demanded.

Erica came up against a soft wall. She pushed against it. Suddenly she felt it give way and she fell forward on her hands and knees. "Ow! Mommy."

A soft wind churned around her. The harder she cried, the stronger the wind. At times it almost lifted her off the ground. "Help," she yelled and was surprised at how small her voice sounded. She tried to run. The wind whipped her hair into her face where it stuck to the wet from her tears.

"I'm going to die," she moaned. She could picture her mother and father clinging to each other in their grief. As she became absorbed in this fantasy, the storm subsided. There was calm.

In the distance Erica saw a flicker of light. She moved toward it. It must be a search party. She had heard the term on the radio when some boy scouts were lost in the mountains.

"I'm over here," she called. "Here I am!" She ran toward the light, waving her arms. She wasn't watching where she was going. She tripped over a tree trunk and pitched forward.

Stunned, she watched the light move closer. She looked up to see a bent-over old woman peering at her. The source of the light was an object the woman held in her hand.

"I'm lost," Erica appealed. She had never seen such an old woman. Even her father's mother, Babu, wasn't that old. She stood up, brushing the dirt, sticks and leaves off her overalls.

The old woman's eyes twinkled. "You're not lost, you just forgot where you put yourself."

Erica giggled. Then she said soberly, "I'm not lying, I'm lost. My mommy and daddy have a search party looking for me right now. I've been gone for hours."

"Probably not as long as you think," the old woman said kindly. "Time does funny things out here. Let's get you cleaned up a little." She brushed Erica's hair back with her gnarled fingers, then moistened the tip of a handkerchief with her tongue and wiped the dirt from the little girl's face.

"Are you going to take me back?" Erica asked.

"Yes, I'll go with you for a bit." The woman held the light in front of them and took Erica's hand.

"That's the brightest light I've ever seen." Erica was dazzled.

"You can see it?" the old woman questioned eagerly.

"Of course!" Erica exclaimed. "Who couldn't see it?"

The old woman chuckled from deep within her belly. "You'd be surprised how many people think they can't. Eventually, though, everybody will see it."

Erica shook her head. "They would have to be stupid not to see a light that bright."

They reached the soft wall.

"This is as far as I can go with you, child."

"But it's dark, I'll get lost. I'm scared," Erica wailed.

"Would you like to hold my light?" The old woman placed an object in Erica's palm. "Tell me what it feels like."

Erica closed her fingers and moved it around in her hand. "It's hard and smooth. It feels like a stone."

"It is a stone." The old woman laughed.

Erica returned the light to the old woman. "What kind of stone?" she asked curiously.

"One that is clicked." With effort the old woman bent down and found a smooth flat stone. She gave it to Erica. "Here, hold this. Now hold it up." With a flick of her wrist she tapped Erica's stone with her own. An explosion of light enveloped them.

"Look!" Erica squealed excitedly. "Mine lighted. How did you do that?"

The old woman chuckled. "Anyone can do it if they have a clicked stone."

Erica looked in awe at the light in her hand. "Is that what I have?"

"It looks as though you do." The old woman smiled.

"I like you." Erica hugged her. "Can I come see you again?"

The old woman shook her head. "But one day you'll come this way again and you'll go down that path." She pointed a gnarled finger in the direction from which they had just come.

"How do I get through this wall?" Erica asked. "The last time I fell through."

"Don't push so hard," the old woman cautioned. "Just pretend you're walking through water." Gently, she pushed Erica through the wall.

"Come with me," Erica pleaded, but suddenly she was alone. She felt a hot pain in her chest; her eyes filled with tears.

With the light from the clicked stone Erica easily found her way out of the woods.
 

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