City of Stone

It wasn't long before Margaret noticed Baby Pierre in her carry-on luggage. I don't remember packing a stone, she remarked. Let me see it, said Gaius. Hello! It's Baby Pierre! What are you doing in Margaret's bag? Stowing away, said Baby Pierre. And reading Joyce's Portrait of the Artist. How are you finding it? asked Margaret. Good, said Baby Pierre. I like the part where he gets knocked over by a bully at school and his glasses get broken on the cinder path. Are cinders stones? Not exactly, said Margaret, who was a field geologist. But they are very hard. I suppose you are fond of stories that include stones? Yes I am, said Baby Pierre. Hey, how long is this flight? I'm bored Twenty three hours, in total, said Gaius. Try and get some sleep. Stones don't sleep, said Baby Pierre. ........ Twenty three hours later they arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, in Paris. It was six o'clock in the morning. They caught the Metro into St Germain and found their hotel. Baby Pierre immediately decided to go exploring. The streets were cobbled in many areas. Cobbles! said Baby Pierre. I love cobbles. He hopped from cobblestone to cobblestone. Soon he found himself outside the old stone church of St Germain. He went in. There was heavenly music pouring down from somewhere above his head, and several people were sitting listening, on straw bottomed seats,. Baby Pierre wandered round the church looking at the different chapels, with their stone statues. He stopped in front of a statue of a smiling virgin. She was not all there. She was in three parts, and had been found buried under the earth during excavations for a carpark. She had a smiling face, a shoulder covered with drapery, and something indistinguishable in the crook of her one arm. Baby Pierre wondered what it was. He walked down the other side of the church, where he saw on the walls, above a painting of Palm Sunday, the words LAPIDES CLAMABUNT. A shiver went through Baby Pierre. He had a feeling the words were important. He must ask Gaius what they meant.