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"I just want to sleep. Just a little longer, please..." We had gone camping, a little place up the coast, not far from the ocean. We walked to the beach, a long dirt road with a tunnel that passes under the highway. We joked, horsed around and laughed most of the way there. I don't quite know what happened. There were people there, at the end of the tunnel. They were shouting, screaming, someone threw a bottle at Topher and without thinking, I stepped in the way. And then it got quiet, I closed my eyes for a moment and when I opened them, Topher's face above mine.He was crying and shouting at me, i think. I could see the tears falling, but I didn't feel them. His voice sounded so far away, everything felt so far away. I could only read one thing from his lips... "Why?" I tried to speak "Toph, it's alright, I just need to sleep for a little while... just give me a mome..." --- I woke up to a little old man tapping my head with his cane. I sat up and peered around. There was no sign of Topher, the beach or well, anyone. We seemed to be on an island, under a withered yew tree and surrounded by darkness... the old man squatted on a small rock, he was as gnarled as the bark on the tree or weathered as my dad would say. He couldn't have been half my size... though he was slender, he had a rather large gut and a beard that seemed longer than he. He stroked his chin, curling his beard within his fingers, and turned to me, saying "Sonny, you've practically slept your life away. It's about time you've woken up." tapping my head with his cane again. "Meh, my name is not Sonny and you're not Cher, so stop friggin' hitting me with your cane." "You think I would be here if we didn't have business to attend to?" He said as he tapped my head with his cane again. "I said quit it! Ugh. Um, where are we? And where is everyone?" I asked. There was a twinkle in his eyes as he hopped up and grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground. He looked at me, replying "We're here...see? No one else here right now but us. Now can you get up quicker than this wood?" he pointed his cane at me, for a moment I thought he was expecting to help me up, but it seemed as if he could barely hold himself up, let alone try to help me... I started to roll my eyes when I realized what he was pointing to, I quickly tugged at the legs of my shorts and attempting to adjust myself before standing up. A frequent problem of waking up, even in circumstances such as this. Not that I've ever had any circumstances like this. I thought to myself, "the perv." and asking once again, "Okay a handful of dirt. Got it. That's there. But where is here?" "Patience, Patience" he said, he streched his dirt filled hand out to me ... I looked at him, thinking to myself "Great. I'm apparently trapped on a deserted island with a man that wants to get me dirty. And he's older than my dad's dad. Ugh. This is so not my fantasy island." "Go on, take it." he said, edging closer to me. I took the dirt from his hands as he grinned at me, replying "Now toss it into the branches" "Um, what?" I said... "Are you hard of hearing, blind or just daft? Toss it up into the branches." He said, leaning against the tree. I looked at him, I was inclined to tell him to shove it. But whatever. I tossed the dirt into the tree ... The moon appeared out of the darkness, beams of light shone through the dust as it fell, revealing the glittering threads of a spider's web spread across the branches of the tree. The old man's eyes shined with the reflection of moonlight. He grinned at me, "Now do you see? This is the universe" "Yeah, okay. So, a spider web in a tree on an island, surrounded by darkness. I mean, come on, I can't even see the water. Yeah, this is the universe and next you're going to tell me you're god." I said, crossing my arms and looking down at him. He grabbed his cane and hit me in the balls. I immediately doubled over "Listen you little shit. Don't you get smart with me. This is the universe. This is the web of life, your life." He said, reaching up into the tree and pulling a thread from the web. "This is your life." as he began pulling on the thread, the web was unraveling, systematically until it was one long, straight line from his hand to the highest branch of the tree. "This was your life" he said, as a spider crawled down from the web unto his hand. "She is spinner of all of life's threads. If you need a god, she would be it. But she'd as soon as devour you if you were to get caught up worshipping the likes of her. That she would!" My voice cracked a bit, a slight squeak, a bit of a wheeze as I tried to gain my composure and raised myself back up, "My life?" I asked. |