Love is a Haunting

May 17, 2018May 20, 2018 ~ Piece, of the Sky

Seaweed twisted and floated overhead. Dappled sunlight cut through the waves and rippled down from above.

Alli was walking, on the shallow ocean floor, in a white suit. Gray, wooden buildings lined the street, on either side, underwater. The doorways yawned, black, empty entrances, that doubled as windows to oblivion.

The water was clear. Nealy also walked, far ahead, in a beige suit, instead – her beige suit. Her orange hair floated behind her, longer than Alli remembered, dangling in a loose braid, stray wisps sticking out in every direction. The halo on a sun. The corona, the crown.

Alli walked behind her, dragging an ax on the ground, holding the yellow handle in her left hand. The blade cut up clods and carved out furrows of brown sand, which curled into clouds, following in Alli’s wake.

Nealy turned and met her gaze. The green eyes that locked with Alli’s, over the thin shoulder were unmistakable. Alli knew it was Nealy, but it could have been anyone. She barely recognized her anymore. The memory was shredded to ribbons.

Alli woke up in tears, staring up into the cold, still night.

I did everything for you, her lone thought hung in the darkness, rattling in the air, like a question.

Second image courtesy of Kristina Stipetic

Music

Beyoncé – “Haunted”

Relief from Incongruity

April 25, 2018May 20, 2018 ~ Piece, of the Sky

Alli was standing in the tree, on one of the thicker branches, looking down at the white-green leaves littering the ground. Nealy was standing above her, on a higher branch. The dappled sunlight cut through the canopy and fell on them both.

Nealy kept one hand resting on the trunk, while she held out a spoon, that she had brought with her. “Watch this,” the high schooler said.

The silver utensil bent, the silent depression turning inside out and the business end, undulating and twisting around, like the instrument had been made of leaping mercury and not stainless steel.

A spark of familiarity flashed through Alli’s eyes. “I can do that,” she thought. What she didn’t realize was that she had said that aloud. “Then do it,” Nealy challenged her. She dropped the spoon, and Alli deftly caught it, before it fell to the forest floor below.

Alli held the spoon, since returned to its former shape. The surface felt lukewarm and dull to her tiny fist. Alli huffed. The mindless metal was suddenly alive in her hands; the scoop wrapped itself all the way around, curling 360 degrees. Alli felt a slight ache in her forehead and a bitter, coppery taste in the back of her mouth. A faint, high-pitched whine receded in her ears.

“See,” Alli looked up, at the other girl, standing there in jeans and a jean jacket, “I can do it!”

“Heh,” Nealy said with a wolfish half-grin, “I knew you could do it.” She laughed and glanced at the sun and the passing clouds.

Alli laughed too and dropped the spoon. It hit the murky carpet of dirt and bounced back up, at her beck and call, like a rubber ball – morphing in the air, like a bubble of silly putty. Alli gasped and chuckled. “I haven’t done that in years,” she said to Nealy.