The Meq Read Online Free PDF

one of her crazy stories about us.”
    He stopped talking and tossed me the baseball. I caught it and sat there in a daze.
    “Where’d you get that?” he said.
    “My papa made it.”
    “Well, if my hunch is right and it usually is, that ain’t just a baseball. Did he tell you what to do with it?”
    I looked down at the baseball, remembering Papa. “He said ‘never lose it.’ ”
    “That’s because you’re Egizahar. You gotta protect the Stones.”
    “What does it mean,” I said, “ ‘Egizahar’?”
    “It kinda means ‘old truth.’ According to my old lady, there’s two bloodlines: the Egizahar and the Egipurdiko. ‘Diko’ for short, which kinda means ‘half-assed truth.’ The ones who Waited and the ones who didn’t. I don’t really know what it means. She was crazy, but I don’t know; I ain’t so sure now that I seen you and what you did.”
    “What did I do?” I said.
    “You stopped the Giza. You made them all forget, turn around, and leave. They wouldn’t—couldn’t have done that on their own. That’s old magic, old power, and for us, there ain’t nobody that can do that without the Stones. We got other things we can do, but not that.”
    I still sat on the edge of the bed. I hadn’t moved. I was lost . . . overwhelmed. It was like one of my dreams. I felt as if I had stepped into a shallow pool only to be dragged out to sea.
    He stepped away from the window and took something out of his pocket.
    “Look, kid,” he said, “I know what that baseball probably means to you, but . . .”
    “Don’t call me kid,” I said. “It’s ridiculous. You look just like me. Why don’t you be Ray and I’ll be Z.”
    He put his hand out to shake. “Deal,” he said.
    I looked down at Papa’s baseball. “So, Ray, you think this baseball is magic?”
    “I don’t think the baseball is magic, but I think what’s inside is.”
    “Inside?”
    “That’s right. I think your papa put the Stones in the middle of that ball. Why don’t you give it to me and let me cut the stitches. I got a penknife right here.”
    “No,” I said, but I didn’t say it with much heart. I wanted to find out myself. I had to. I tossed him the ball.
    He didn’t waste a second. Without a word, he sat down on the bed and put the baseball between us. He cut the stitches one at a time and carefully peeled back the flap of hide. He took out the coarse hair and fiber underneath and suddenly there it was. Like a single egg in a bird’s nest, there it was. In fact, it was shaped like an egg. A dark, pockmarked stone in the shape of an egg that would easily fit in the palm of your hand. And like the four points on a compass, there were four tiny gems embedded in the Stone. In the light, they all reflected a different, brilliant color. I lifted the Stone gently and it was heavier than I expected. The gems were a mystery, I had no idea what they were. But Ray did.
    Ray said, “That one there at the top, that’s blue diamond. The one on the bottom is star sapphire. The other two are lapis lazuli and pearl.”
    I turned it over and over in my hands. I touched the gems with my fingertips, then I put it in my palm and closed my hand over it. I shut my eyes and thought about Mama and Papa. I couldn’t touch them anymore. I couldn’t run up to them and ask them a thousand different questions. I opened my eyes and looked at the cold glass of the windowpane. The light coming through was low and faint. I turned and looked at Ray. He was putting his knife back in his pocket.
    “What do I do now, Ray?”
    “I don’t know,” he said, “but I got a hunch you’re gonna figure it out.”
     
    Three days later it was almost hot, just like the “Weatherman” had predicted. Solomon was on his rounds again, doing more bartering than gambling, now that he was getting prepared for his annual trip west. I went with him and tried not to let him see what I was thinking and feeling. I should have realized he knew me better than that.