The Weight Curse

Part 1/ Part 2

‘Leaf in the current, gravitate. Ignorant, until meaning finds you.’

The ocean around me moved, like a summer breeze. The strangest thoughts surfaced. Deep-sea creatures floated towards me. With their long sharp teeth, spikes for ribs and stone cold scales, they brushed my feet. I knew they would. My toes expected the chilly touch. Maybe that’s why I didn’t jump.

Fins broke the surface.

Soft blue light shone from under the water, boiling, churning, fighting the starless, moonless sky. And the shadows they revealed took my breath. Creatures of horrendous size circled around me.

This was the ocean of conscience. Of course, there would be monsters. BANG.

The light sprung away from my location, like a fired torpedo. The darkness embraced me with its inky ocean and its dead sky. ‘WAIT!’ I swam through the black. ‘Don’t be rude!’ I swam with all my might, to catch the bright spot. No matter how far I moved, how tired I got, there was only the eternal night, and me in its guts.

BANG.

My limbs locked into place and I couldn’t move. Inertia pressed me into the matter of my rock body. I sank, like a marble statue with a reasonable amount of self-esteem. For once I wasn’t afraid. After all, stones couldn’t drown.

‘Already accepting the lie?’ The voice of the old woman chuckled.

*

‘No,’ was what I tried to say, but woke up instead.

The sun shone right into the kitchen. Beams of the noon caught in the smashed bits of glass and porcelain. Wait. What was I doing on the floor?  The tiles were hard, but I had my coat from the rack to warm me. Sort of. Someone put it on me.

The lights were on. Oh, yeah. I had some weird tea last night. And there was this tiny old lady, blind and not blind. She said something about destiny. Then she gave me something too heavy.

What a strange trip! I rubbed some kind of awareness into my face. But I knew waking up didn’t work that way. It never did. I sighed and plotted my way into the vertical world.

I sat up, like a hibernating bear. Slowly, grunting and complaining all the way. My shoulders, part china, part flesh felt cold and stiff. I needed a hot shower or hot coffee. Whichever I reached first. Ugh, there was lettuce in my hair.

I made myself a cup of liquid caffeinated bliss and took care of the mess in my kitchen, which was bigger than anticipated. All the drawers open. And I had new, not matching plates.

Funny- and, oh crap. Did the old lady go through my stuff? Where is my wallet?

 

---

Pic: Via Regia, original art by author (watercolor on paper 4×6 inch)