"I think they might be Haraara," Steve said.
"Haraara?" Laura said, skepticism pinching her face.
"My granny told me about them." Steve's gaze scanned the dark woods. "Look, here it is again," he pointed to the dancing green light.
"Oh, my God," Laura whispered hoarsely. "Let's get out of here."
"No, it's okay, really." Steven put his hand on Laura's shoulder reassuringly. "They won't hurt you."
"How do you know?" Just then the light blinked out. "Where did it go?" Laura took a step closer to Steven.
"It won't be gone for long," Steven said. "Besides, there is more than one of them."
"You're trying to scare me, right Steven?" Laura's body shivered.
"No, there is nothing to be afraid of," Steven said. "They won't hurt us, they might even help us if we just trust them."
"Do you really know something about them?" Laura asked. "I mean, are you making this up, or what?"
"No, I'm not making it up." Steven placed a protective arm over Laura's shoulder. "Look, we've been wanting to take a break, so let's sit for a few minutes and I'll tell you about the Haraara," Steven said. "At least I can tell you what granny told me." He took Laura's hand and let her to a tree. Steven lowered himself to the ground and then pulled Laura down to sit next to him. They sat with their backs against the tree, their legs outstretched.
"Okay, so tell me already," Laura said and then took a deep breath.
"I was at granny's house one night," Steven began. "She had been having trouble with her electricity, something to do with blown fuses or shorts or something like that." Steven looked around the dark forest, searching for the green light. Seeing nothing, he sighed and continued. "Anyway, when it got dark we sat down to have supper and about half way through the lights just went out. The room was in complete darkness. Granny chuckled in the darkness.
"What are you laughing at?" I asked her."
"Oh, nothing," she said, but she kept laughing."
"Where are you going with this, Steven," Laura said. "You know granny sometimes lapsed into some strange state of mind where she didn't make sense when she talked."
"Yeah, I know," Steven said quickly. "But this was different."
"Different how?" Laura asked.
"Well, for one thing," Steven paused for a couple of seconds while he searched once more for the light. He turned back to Laura and continued. "Granny's laughter was a happy laughter. She sat there in total darkness and she wasn't afraid."
"That's because you were there with her, idiot."
"No, no," Steven said, chagrined. "That had nothing to do with it." Steven exhaled a long, slow breath. "Look, do you want to hear this or not?"
"Just tell me the truth first," Laura said. "Is there really such things as Haraara? Or are you just making this up so I won't be so scared?"
"Well," Steven said slowly. "Actually there are more than one Haraara." He turned to Laura and reached out and took her hand. "Granny told me the Haraara are good, they help people. But first you have to believe in them."
"How can I believe in them if you won't tell me what granny said?" Laura slid her hand out of Steven's.
"If I won't...?" Steve leaned his head back against the bark of the tree and smiled ruefully. "You keep interrupting me, Laura. If you want to hear the story about the Haraara then you will have to be quiet for a few minutes and let me talk."
"So who's stopping you," Laura said. Steven just looked at Laura for several seconds. His face was masked by surprise.
"You are stopping me, that's who."
"Okay, okay, you don't have to get so testy about it," Laura said. "Go ahead, tell me this story you supposedly heard from granny."
"I'm not getting testy."
"Yes you are," Laura replied.
"No I'm not," Steven said a bit more forcefully.
"You are,"
"I'm not," Steven said.
"Are," Laura countered.
"Are not," Steven replied.
"Are too."
"Can we stop this, please?" Steven said exasperated.
"You started it."
"I did not!"
"Did too," Laura said.
"Did not!" Steven countered.
"Did," Laura said forcefully.
"Whatever!" Steven said and fell silent.
After a long minute, Laura said, "Well, when are you going to begin?" Steven just stared at Laura, but when Steven said nothing, Laura continued. "Okay, I understand. I'm the one keeping you from telling me the story. I'm sorry. Why don't you go ahead and tell me what granny said?"
"Are you sure?" Steven said skeptically.
"Yes, I'm sure." She put her fingers to her lips and made the motion as if she were putting a key in a lock and turning it. Then she tossed the imaginary key over her shoulder. She mumbled a sound that sounded like, "Okay?"
"Okay," Steven said. Steven leaned back against the tree, outstretched his legs and crossed them at the ankles. Laura pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them.
"Okay, like I said, it was one night at her house," Steven said, his voice growing softer. "The lights went out and we were pitched into total darkness. Granny began laughing and then told me not to worry. She said the Haraara would watch over us."
Steven's voice grew lower in volume and he seemed to enter some kind of a trance as he spoke. It almost sounded like it was granny talking to Laura.
Steven continued. "There were a band of people who lived in the forest. No one knew who they were or where they came from. Very few people saw them, actually saw them. Oh, there were traces of them, clues really, that people found when they went into the woods to walk. Foot prints, bits of material dyed with strange colors. I think granny called it psychodeic or something like that. A shoe was found once, a small one. But actually seeing them, no, no one ever really saw them."
Steven uncrossed his ankles and re-crossed them.
"It was said that they were a kind people. Everyone believed they were some kind of cult, some kind of small group that that been wandering around since the 60's, you know, drugs, sex, and rock and roll?"
"You mean, hippies?" Laura asked.
"Yes, kind of." Steven took a deep breath and continued. "Anyway, it seems that the people would hear strange music coming from the woods at night, weird guitar music, voices reading poetry really loud. Lots of clapping. One night a couple of people decided to sneak into the woods when they heard the music. They wanted to see who these people were, what they looked like. So they sneaked into the woods and no one heard from them again. Well, I shouldn't say they were never heard from again, but it was a long time before they were seen again."
"Really? Were they killed?" Laura shivered.
"No, no, will you please just let me finish?" Steven's gaze scanned the surrounding. "Anyway, I think granny said it was about a year later when these same guys came stumbling out of the woods one morning. They walked through town without saying a word to anyone. People stopped and stared, followed them with their eyes. But if the guys saw anyone, it didn't show on their faces.
About a week later the guys who had returned from the woods after a year began showing up in town. You know, like at the barber shop, the hardware store, two of them were seen in the movie theater one night. It was strange. But slowly they began to come out of whatever trance was holding them. Another week went by and they began telling people about what happened."
"What did happen?"
Steven turned to Laura and raised an eyebrow, a motion that made Laura become silent.
"They told people that they found the cult in the woods that night. But they weren't really people after all, well, not all of them anyway. It seems that they had to reach some sort of spiritual plain before they could change--"
"Change into what?" Laura asked.
"Into an intense green light." Steven paused, expecting Laura to interrupt again. But when she didn't he continued. "The guys said that the forest people gathered mushrooms and boiled them, and when they drank the brew they would act all mellow and lazy, they'd see strange colors all around them. And that's when the ceremony would begin. The one that changed them into the green light."
"Did granny tell you what the ceremony was?" Laura asked.
"Yes, she did," Steven said with a voice just above a whisper. And it was the spookiest thing I had ever heard."
"Tell me Steven, I'm starting to get interested in this story."
"Okay, good." Steven looked out into the darkness and then spoke in an almost reverent voice.
"While they were still in this strange trance, the forest people would dance around the fire..."
The darkness swallowed up Steven's words, and deep in the forest hundreds of intense green lights shimmered in the darkness.
1534 
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