Mind stone hidden at Potomac Branch library

By PAUL LAGASSE
plagasse@somdnews.com
August 20, 2018

Charles County may become the next battleground in the ongoing war between the nefarious villain Thanos and the remaining Marvel superheroes, if a startling discovery last week in Indian Head is any indication.

Wednesday was a day just like any other for Bryans Road resident Mary DeMarco-Logue when a chance discovery at the Potomac Branch Library changed her life forever.

“I was absorbed with scraping gum off my daughter’s shoe at the moment and really frustrated when a stone caught my attention,” DeMarco-Logue told the Maryland Independent in an exclusive interview. “The rock was underneath a tree. The contrast of the stone’s yellow on the notepaper’s blue is what made me notice it.”

The yellow rock had the words “Mind Stone” written on it, and the note, perhaps written by an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., gave urgent instructions:

“It is your mission to find the infinity stones before Thanos does. Good luck.”

“It completely turned my mood around,” DeMarco-Logue said of her surprising find, which she posted on Facebook.

The Mind Stone, as Marvel comic book and movie fans know, is one of six Infinity Stones that are scattered across the universe. Thanos, the Mad Titan, seeks to collect them all to harness their powers for his evil aims. In the recently released movie “Avengers: Infinity War,” Thanos destroys half the universe, and many superheroes, in the fight to control the stones.

The Mind Stone, which can be used to control the minds of others, has a storied history.

Originally part of Loki’s scepter, the Mind Stone was used to bring to life the supervillain Ultron, who then created an android named Vision and implanted the Mind Stone in its forehead. In “Avengers: Infinity War,” Thanos was able to yank the stone out of Vision’s forehead.

Judging from DeMarco-Logue’s find, however, Thanos apparently lost it again shortly thereafter.

The timing of her find, DeMarco-Logue said, was eerie; she and her family had just watched “Avengers: Infinity War” the prior evening.

“It was hilarious timing,” she said. “I enjoy the films but have not been a comic reader in the past, so I learned about the Infinity Stones specifically via the film franchise and a supplementary special.”

DeMarco-Logue said that her 5-year-old daughter, Ruby, is very much a Marvel fan. “She loved Spider-Man and Thor the most,” she said.

Spoiler alert: Spider-Man, as you may know, was killed in “Infinity War,” while Thor survived the cataclysm.

“I told her I found the Mind Stone,” DeMarco-Logue said. “She asked if Thor was going to come over to get it!”

It is a question that all Charles County is asking as the hunt for the remaining Infinity Stones is on.

The good news is that the ranks of rock hunters in Charles County have swelled in the last 18 months.

Local residents have joined in the recent social media phenomenon of painting rocks with uplifting phrases and placing them in various locations around the community. When people find the stones, they post photos of their finds along with a note on where and when they found them, and then either take them home or place them somewhere else for another person to find.

According to Britt Parker Richardson of Welcome, today there are more than 11,200 members of the Charles County Rocks Facebook group, which she launched in January 2017.

Last year, a friendly competition between the towns of La Plata and Indian Head over which town had the best rock, each of which is hidden in their respective municipalities every week and returned to their town halls for a small prize.

Erin Kaede Timmermann, a friend of DeMarco-Logue’s and an avid rock painter and finder herself, was pleased for her friend’s luck.

“I haven’t found any rocks, but someday I might,” Timmermann said. “The more people who plant rocks, the more likely it will be that I’ll find one.”

Timmermann has also painted and hidden countless stones around Charles County, she said.

“None of the ones I have painted have been found that I know of,” Timmermann said. “But that’s not why I do it.”

“It can really make your day to find a rock with a hopeful message,” she said. “It can make somebody feel good to find it.”

For her part, DeMarco-Logue said that she and her family will try to keep an eye out for more of the Infinity Stones.

“It would be more fun as a community effort,” she suggested. “Let the stones assemble their own unsuspecting team to defeat Thanos!”

DeMarco-Logue said it seemed logical that the Mind Stone would be found at a library. Her working theory is that each of the remaining five stones is located at an equally logical place.

For example, the Soul Stone could be at a church or graveyard; the Power Stone might be found near a government or law enforcement building.

“Maybe the Space Stone would be by the [James E. Richmond] Science Center in White Plains,” she theorized. “If I were hiding them, that is what I would do.”

DeMarco-Logue said that because the idea behind Charles County Rocks is that found stones are eventually returned to the wild for others to find, she plans to set the stone back out into the wild, perhaps with a new note.

In the meantime, how does DeMarco-Logue plan to use the awesome powers conveyed by the Mind Stone that she found?

“We just started homeschooling for kindergarten, so I am hoping it will help me find the wisdom to best guide the development of my kiddos’ minds, but probably not control them,” she said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t want to tame their fantastical imaginations.”

Twitter: @PaulIndyNews