The Stone of Blood by Tony Nalley

door.
     
    “Well, good morning there, Mr. Toby! How are you doing this fine morning?” she replied.
     
    “I’m doin’ real fine Ms. Lillie.” I said thinkin’ of the right words to say to get me invited inside to eat. “I smelled your good cookin’ all the way over there from my yard! And I thought I would just come over here and say hello to you.”
     
    “Well why don’t you just come on in here then and get yourself something to eat?” she said openin’ the kitchen door for me and invitin’ me in. “Just sit yourself down there at the table and I’ll get some bacon on the stove for you.” she said smilin’ at me. “How do you like your eggs?”
     
    “I like my eggs just fine Ma’am.” I said as she continued to smile.
     
    Mr. Jones was sittin’ down in his chair, with his plate of breakfast in front of him. And I climbed up in the chair directly across the table from him and said hello.
     
    “Good mornin’ Mr. Jones!” I said all kind and cheerful like.
     
    Mr. Jones smiled and nodded his head as he scraped up the last of the eggs from his plate and took another bite.
     
    As the bacon sizzled on the stove, the sound of fresh eggs broken in a skillet made my mouth water. The wonderful smells of breakfast foods filled the entire room! Just then, a slight tappin’ noise could be heard from just outside the kitchen door.
     
    “Hello Ms. Lillie and Mr. Jones.” A voice came in softly through the screen. “Is Toby over here again?”
     
    I would never tell my mama where I was goin’. I don’t know why I wouldn’t tell her. Maybe I would simply see the hole located in the bushes between our two yards and would have to make a run for it! I just don’t know. I wouldn’t be gone for very long though, before she would come and find me! She generally found me at the precise time my food was ready to be served! With my mouth waterin’ and my heart set upon a pleasant breakfast shared amongst friends, she would find me and take me right home!
     
    “I’m so sorry Mr. Jones. I’m sorry if he’s disturbing you.” Mama said as Ms. Lillie opened the door for her. She came in and stood in the walkway.
     
    “It’s alright Maria, he’s in good company,” Mr. Jones said as he winked and then smiled at me like a Cheshire cat.
     
    Mama was always apologizin’ to Mr. Jones and Ms. Lillie for my many visits. I never could understand why. I knew she never liked me playin’ over there near Mr. Jones’s cellar door cause it was so dark and I could fall in, but they liked for me to visit em’ and they liked to feed me too! At least that’s what they always told me anyways.
     
    Mr. Jones once told me that Snow White and the Seven Dwarves lived down in his basement! He said that, ‘ if I looked through the vent in his living room floor, that I could see them playing down there ’!
     
    I believed Mr. Jones. And I would lie on that floor looking down through the dark metal screen for what seemed like hours, lookin’ for a glimpse of those seven dwarves. I couldn’t tell time. It might’ve only been a few minutes in real life but it sure did feel like a long time to me!
     
    Lyin’ there upon that hardwood floor peerin’ through that cold black metallic screen, my imaginations lead me into whole different worlds filled with strange and wonderful things!
     
    I could never see em’ though; the dwarves in the basement I mean. I thought I did a time or two, but they turned out to be only speckled bits of dust I imagined.
     
    It was hard for me to believe at the time that Mr. Jones had Snow White and the Seven Dwarves livin’ down in his basement and yet he wouldn’t let me play with em’! That puzzled me.
     
    I guess he thought I might scare em’ away.
     
    One afternoon as he sat beneath the shade of a peach tree in his back yard, Mr. Jones told me that the seed he held in his hand was really an ostridge egg! Lucky for him, I didn’t know what an ostridge egg was at the time. Or