Story#7: The Story of a Rock

A rock sat alone on a hill.  The hill was high and had a lovely view of a beautiful grassy valley, but the rock was still very lonely.

Years would go by, and the rock would not see a soul.  Then suddenly out of the blue a bird would land on the rock or a mouse would come scampering up the hill.  The rock would try to talk to them, but they were always in a hurry and never wanted to stop and chat.  If the rock had eyes, he would have cried.

Five hundred years went by and the rock was still stuck on top of the hill.  One day a tree sprouted up close to the rock.  The rock was excited to have someone new to interact with. The tree turned out to be a priss.  She refused to talk to the rock because he was low down in the dirt and she was too good for anything so filthy.  She stuck to whispering to the wind instead, leaving the rock alone once again.  His only solace came when she died of blight a couple hundred years later.

Sadly after all this time, the rock had become bitter.  He had given up trying to make friends.  In fact when a family of rabbits moved in near by, he did everything he could to run them off.  He found that by shifting himself slightly he could make thumping sound against the hill.  Underground the thump was like a boom.  So he thumped against the hill day and night until the rabbits were nearly driven mad, running down the hill to get away from him.  If he wasn’t so angry about his situation, the rock might have laughed.

Five hundred more years passed, and the rock had given up all hope of ever meeting anyone.  Suddenly a crack of thunder filled the sky, and a heavy rain began to fall.  This rain did not stop for many days, and eventually the hill turned to mud.  As the rain continued on, the earth around the rock began to wash away.  That was when something miraculous happened.  The rock started to slide.

The rock had been on top of the hill for at least a thousand years, and for the first time he could remember he was moving–and fast!  As quickly as his adventure started, it was over.  The rock plunked into a river at the bottom of the hill, and was alone again.

Five thousand more years passed, and the rock had given up on the world.  Occasionally a school of fish would happen by and pause to nibble the algae off the rock.  The rock would ignore them because he knew they would not want to speak with him.

In that long span of time, the rock would sometimes feel a rush of current that would lift him from the bottom of the river and carry him along for a short distance.  Everything looked the same at the bottom of the river so the rock just ignored this too.

Until one day he was tossed by the flowing water into a shallow pool.  He could see the reflection of the surface on the top of the water and all the things that were happening in the world.  He grew to love the lush green of the plants and the dazzling blue of sky and the puffy white of the clouds.  Now that he had something to enjoy, his heart grew lighter.

Another few thousand years rolled by, and one day a man was walking by the shore.  He was staring into the water as if searching for something when he noticed the rock.  With a raise of his eyebrows, he reached into the pool and lifted the rock into the air.

“Perfect,” the man said and tossed him into a bag full of other rocks.

Because they were shocked and confused by the man’s actions, none of the rocks spoke.  Eventually the bag of rocks rode in a car for a very long distance.  When the car stopped they were brought into a house.  The rock saw a whole family, including a dog and a cat.  This was the greatest adventure of his life. Along with all the other rocks, the rock was placed in a bowl where he was scrubbed and polished until he met with the man’s approval.

The next day, the man took the rock into a garden where he spread concrete and very carefully placed the rock and all the other rocks into a decorative pattern.

“Perfect,” the man smiled when he was done, and walked into the house to clean himself up.

“Hey,” said another rock wedged in close to the rock.  “Have I got a story for you.”  The rock would have smiled if he had a mouth.

“I can’t wait to hear it,” he answered.  “Then you won’t believe the story I have for you.”

As he listened to the other rock, the rock felt like was home.