OUTWARD BOUND

A Trust Machines Story

Lisa wasn’t stupid. In fact, there would be no story at all, if she wasn’t inordinately clever. Although she was only going on a small hike into the woods behind her town, not far from her home, her backpack was full of “just in case” items, such as a tent, sleeping bag, first aid kit, ability to light fires, paracord, 24-hour rations, flashlight and spare batteries for it, her phone and her GPS unit. Oh, and a map and compass, along with the lunch she’d packed to eat at the top of the trail. She’d grown up on a farm, and with a tough dad and four brothers, had been quite a tomboy and understood the need for self-reliance. Lisa was prepared for most things, but not for what was about to happen.

Rather than follow the usual trail, Lisa thought she’d try cutting through the woods below and re-joining the trail further ahead. It would mean she'd have a bit of a climb at the end of her diversion, but she'd never been through this part of the woods before and wanted to see what it was like. She’d been walking about five minutes when she came to a section west of the trail where the trail had climbed at least a hundred feet while the forest floor here remained level. That meant the trail was way above her, forming a cliff ledge. She stopped for a moment and thought she could hear a woman’s voice. She called out to see if someone was nearby. Again, she heard a woman’s voice sounding close, but paradoxically faint. She moved towards where she thought the voice was coming from. She came to a large triangle shaped rock lying flat on the ground. A woman’s voice came out from under it “Hello?”

Obviously, someone was trapped under the rock. Lisa told her not to worry; she’d free her soon. She found a sturdy branch and some rocks to use as a fulcrum and began lifting the rock. After some minutes of trying, she finally tipped the rock over on its back and looked for the trapped woman where it had been. No-one was there. A voice piped up beside her. “Oh, hello!”

Lisa looked to where the voice came from – the rock she’d just flipped over. Near the apex of the triangle was a human woman’s face, made of stone, but with moving lips and eyes. “Hi, I’m Lily. Thanks for doing that”. Lisa had a closer look at Lily. She saw now that the rock was more like the silhouette of a woman than simply triangular. Beneath Lily’s face, at the right distance, two bumps suggested breasts, while there was a definite curvature of waist at the appropriate place. Lily widened at the bottom to support the weight of her upper body. She was obviously built to be in an upright position.

“Hi Lily, I’m Lisa. Glad I could help. Now, can you tell me how you came to be this way and here?” Lily told her how she had been part of a group of friends who, in deciding on how they could contribute to their community, had decided to become talking rocks planted along the forest trail to help guide hikers and joggers. The more Lily told her, the angrier she became. It was obviously a prank and Lily was the innocent naïve victim. Lisa knew all too well how it had transpired. The girls would have all agreed to pretend that they were all going to do this thing, and Lily, trying to fit in, would have volunteered to go first. They then would have taken her to the Venn machine and converted her, for the full three years and at maximum pleasure setting. They’d then put her in the back of a pickup truck, drive her to the spot where they left her, promising that they’d all be converted and planted at their designated spots. After a few weeks, Lily had been knocked over by the combined forces of wind and rain and had fallen down the steep slope and came to rest where Lisa had found her. Lily wasn’t sure how long she’d been there but remembered the date they’d Venned her. Lisa fumed. Four months since those nasty girls had left poor Lily here! They probably still laughed about it from time to time. Well, Lisa wasn’t about to let them get away with it.

“Don’t worry, Lily. I’ll get you back where you need to be.” Lisa trekked back to her house and went out to her tool-shed. She chose a selection of lever hoists and slings, stowed them in the tray of her pickup truck and followed the GPS trail to where she had left Lily. After obtaining Lily’s assent, she used her pulling and lifting gear to manoeuvre Lily into the back of the pickup. Driving back to Lisa’s house, Lisa lowered Lily to a proper standing position in the yard. Again, after asking Lily’s permission, Lisa hosed her down to clean off a layer of dirt and leaf litter that had built up on Lily’s rocky surface. Despite Lisa’s concern, Lily was appreciative of the wash and found it quite refreshing.

Once Lily had dried off in the sun, Lisa offered to drive her to a Venn Booth to change back. Lily simply said “No, thank you”. No amount of talk on Lisa’s part would persuade Lily otherwise. Lily was a rock, and she enjoyed being a rock. She was quite happy to wait out the remainder of the three years here in Lisa’s yard, feeling the touch of the sun and the wind and the rain.

“What about lightning?” Lisa asked.

“I’m granite. The charge will simply flow through me to ground”. Lisa found that nothing would persuade Lily to willingly be changed back.

Later that evening, Lisa checked on Lily who said she was fine. Rocks aren’t afraid of the dark after all.

A few days later, after many fruitless attempts to persuade Lily to be changed back, Lisa had hatched a plan that would at least bring a form of justice to those nasty girls who had tricked Lily this way. The ringleader was a girl named Nina. Lisa phoned her and told her she’d found Lily and demanded that Nina come over to her house and tell Lily that what she’d been tricked into doing was all a prank. Nina was at first reluctant and somewhat arrogant about it all, but Lisa told her that, while under the law, Venn machines were a grey area, there were certain volunteer groups that didn’t take kindly to this sort of trick using Venn machines, and Nina might find herself at the end of some vigilante justice. Lisa also told her she could very easily contact such a group and have Nina “seen to”. This part was true; at least two of Lisa’s burly brothers and a few of her cousins belonged to such an informal group. Nina at last gave in and said she’d come over. Lisa told her to wear some sturdy hiking clothes but didn’t elaborate further.

Nina arrived at Lisa’s house not long afterwards and was ushered out to the back yard to meet with Lily. Nina made the appropriate show of confession and contrition. To Nina’s surprise and Lisa’s chagrin, Lily not only forgave Nina, but thanked her. Lily waxed lyrical about the wonders of being stone and being a part of nature and not just watching time pass, but experiencing it, from the warmth of the sun, to the cool of the night and to the briskness of the rain and hail. This was hardly how Lisa wanted this to end: with Nina as some sort of heroine and benefactor. Luckily, she had a plan B.

Lisa phoned one of her brothers and arranged to meet him shortly at the nearest Venn Machine. She then had Nina join her in the pick-up truck and drove to meet her brother. At the Venn machine she revealed her plan to Nina. Nina was going to be changed into a rock like Lily and spend a month where Lily had been deposited by Nina and her group of nasties. Lisa wouldn’t hear of any protests. After all, hadn’t Nina agreed to this when they pulled the prank on Lily? Nina was eventually worn down and agreed to enter the booth. Lisa warned her not to try to turn the tables because her brother was there and was very particular about Venn Machine fraud. Nina got the point.

Two minutes later, there was a large rock with Nina’s face on it in the Venn booth. Lisa and her brother manoeuvred it onto a trolley and with slings and lifting gear got Nina onto the back of the pick-up.  They then drove her to the spot where Lily had once been, beside the forest trail. They deposited her there making sure she wasn’t close enough to the edge to fall as Lily had. Lisa had used the maximum pleasure setting so Nina wouldn’t absolutely hate the experience. Besides, that was the setting she and her friends had used on Lily.

The month passed uneventfully. Every day Lisa would spend some time in her yard with Lily to keep her company. Every day Lily refused to hear of being changed back to human form before the three years were up. Like her form, Lily’s resolve was rock solid.

A month after Nina’s transformation, Nina herself walked into Lisa’s yard. She was in the sensible hiking attire that Lisa had suggested she wear before her transformation. She’d apparently walked straight to Lisa’s place after she returned to human form. Lisa happened to be in the yard having her daily chat with Lily. Nina rushed up to Lily and hugged the rock girl, telling her how wrong she was to trick her, and how marvellous it was to be a rock and how she’d felt the changes in the earth and observed and felt nature all around her. And Lily said that she’d already told her how awesome it was and was glad she had a chance to experience it all herself. Next thing Lisa knew, Nina was begging her to take her back to the Venn Machine and make her a rock like Lily again, this time for the full three years. She also wanted to be set up here in the yard with Lily, so they both had the company of a rock-girl. Lisa was unprepared for this outcome, but she complied with the odd request and soon Nina joined Lily in Nina’s yard.

To tie up what she felt were loose ends, Lisa found the other four girls and with Nina’s help, persuaded them to take the plunge and join Nina and Lily in Lisa’s yard. Nina was the ringleader of the group, so they were easily persuaded to take this very odd step. Soon, Nina and Lily were joined by Tracy, Marie, Catherine and Nicky. They were set up in a rough circle, facing inwards and within the hearing of each other. Able to see each other and able to converse or be still as they wished, the six rock-girls spent the passing time enjoying the feeling of the cycles of nature and the friendship of the others.

Lisa had never expected it all to turn out this way, but she watched the growing friendship of this literal circle of friends like a proud mother. After all, in a way she was, as she was the one who had brought this odd little family into being. More than once, she said to herself “I done a good thing!”

The End