Conveniently, the storm was not long in coming. Rhonda was washed down the side of the hill, followed almost immediately by Myron (the pyramid shaped stone) and after quite a lot more heavy rain washing away parts of the hill, the Squire tumbled down in a slurry of mud to meet them.
They had to wait some time for the ground to dry up and longer until someone came along.
Their plan was simple – catch the attention of a hiker, then have that person 'think' they would like to try to balance the three stones, (not knowing the idea was planted there by the stones) and so get themselves carefully stacked, one on top of the other ,in prominent place, and then hopefully attract another passerby to stop and admire the 'balancing act' and decide to take them home . The balancing part, they thought, wouldn't be too difficult, as anyone with a shred of talent should be able to find the 'zone' fairly quickly, without too many collapses.
"It's always disappointing when they give up before they've even given it a decent try" the Squire thought to himself.
They heard someone coming up the path.
"Shhh, I'll do the communicating" said Rhonda.
A couple of hikers walked by without noticing the stones at all.
"Rats!"
"Let me try next time " said the Squire.
"Perhaps we should work together" suggested Myron.
Shortly afterwards, a young man came over the ridge wearing crocks, shorts and a faded burgundy T-shirt with the Japanese symbol 'ishi' printed on the front. (The word for stone)
"Looks like we're in luck." Myron whispered.
They caught his attention and it wasn't long before he was placing the stones in different configurations on the ground. Eventually he thought to try balancing them one on another. After a couple of failures, he made a reasonable three stone tower, and then stood back admiring his work. Rhonda and the Squire thought he was staring far too long at what he had made, considering the skill level required to produce such a simple balancing act.
"Let's hope he doesn't knock us down before he goes" said the Squire
"No chance of that " said Rhonda. "He's too pleased with himself."
Sure enough the young man dusted off his shorts and wiped his hands and proceeded on his way leaving the stone tower for someone else to discover.
"We should be able to stay balanced this way for a while" Myron informed them "As long as the wind doesn't come up."
They all three concentrated on staying as still as they could.
The Squire had the most trouble not moving. He was trying his hardest not to scratch. It was no good. He gave in and shimmied on one corner to alleviate the itch. The three of them nearly toppled over.
The other two peered down at him disapprovingly.
"Stop Rocking" Rhonda snapped.
"Seriously? I ask you. " he creaked back "How can you ask a rock to not rock? It's like asking a fly not to fly. It's what we do, for goodness sake!
