* * *
A lovely smell of ginger blossoms,
lavender and sandalwood permeated the air as three figures glided smoothly on
soapy heels across a smooth stone trail. Their movements seemed perfectly in
sync as they skated on their large soap bars.
Claudette had her boot slung over her
shoulder and held her parasol like a hockey stick as she did elegant strides.
Silent Feather was also quite graceful in style, barely registering noise as
she glided effortlessly across the mossy plain. J.D. however was a little more
on the enthusiastic side and pumped intensely, launching off stone ramps strewn
along the mossy trail and doing anything you could to be completely
conspicuous.
Still the leader of the pack was Silent
Feather as she held onto the heart compass, which pointed straight ahead.
Looking straight ahead, a large fence popped into view, which seemed to stretch
as far as the eye could see. This obstacle prompted them to slow down until
they came at a full stop at the foot of the fence.
Looking at their soapy skates,
Claudette was thankful for the stop. “Good thing for this fence, we’re running
low on soap.”
“What do you mean low?” asked J.D.
“There’s plenty left.”
Claudette clicked her tongue. “Typical
man. To call a nub a bar of soap, I’m surprised more of you lot don’t stink as
bad. There’s no way you can get a proper skate or a proper wash from that.”
They looked on the red wire fence, wondering
what their next move could be.
“What now?” asked Silent Feather. “I
suspect we can’t chew our way through.”
As soon as she said it, J.D. got a look
in his eye Claudette recognized. “What did she say?”
With a grin on his face, he knelt down
to the wire and actually gave it a lick, which actually caused him to laugh out
loud.
“What is it?” asked Claudette.
“Rhubarb wire,” he stated simply. “My
dear friend, it is in fact by chewing that we will get through this obstacle.”
“Good,” said Silent Feather. “I’m
starving.”
After a few good chews to get through
the fence and a few more for the purpose of nourishment they passed onto the
field. The grass was wonderfully soft under their bare feet and they began to
see a field with fruit trees and vegetable patches surrounding a middle garden
with about thirty lush trees of different color leaves. The temperature was
pleasant and as J.D. looked around wondering whom they were there to see, he
began to hear a melodious humming of music, danceable music; salsa music.
A mound of wonderfully fluffy hair
seemed to be humming on its own and the trio now saw a young woman with
glasses, green eyes and soft white skin dancing with a basket in hand. She
twirled between the trees and gave them all loving looks that seemed motherly
in their nature. Her movements were graceful while at the same time full of fun
and in front of every tree, she would put down her basket, offer a dance in
front of it and embrace the tree lovingly. Each tree would respond by hugging
her back with their long branches before putting some of their fruit in her
basket.
When she noticed her new company, she
flashed a smile and rushed to Silent Feather and Claudette hugging them
breathless. “It’s so good to see both of you!!”
The two other women tried their best to
reply but as thin as she was, this young lady had quite the grip.
“What are you doing here?” she asked
after releasing her friend from her mighty hug. “And who is this?”
“Katya, this is J.D., J.D., this is
Katya.”
“Nice to meet you,” said the young man
with a nod of the head and a kind smile.
“Ah! So he’s the one who needs our help
to save his beloved.”
“Precisely,” answered Claudette.
“Nice to meet you, J.D. and don’t
worry, we’ll help your love.”
At that moment, J.D. was able to fully
appreciate that one can hold back tears even in dreams and was only barely able
to muster a very grateful thank you.
“So now that we’re here, where to
J.D.?” Claudette asked.
“We have to go to Malaise to free her.”
All three women remained silent. They’d
heard of Malaise, but had never thought they would visit the town of broken
dreams. Actually, they didn’t even know how to get there.
As if able to read their minds, J.D.
spoke up. “Getting there would be tricky because it’s a roaming town that feeds
on sadness in dreams.”
A bit confused, Claudette asked the
most natural thing: “So how do you pretend to find it?”
J.D. turned from the young trio and
walked for two full minutes away from the Abrazo Field. After he’d cleared the
last vegetable patch by at least forty yards, he turned around and faced them
with watery eyes. “It’s quite easy to find. Hope you’re ready.”
The wells of his eyes then released two
tears, which dove gracefully from his eyes until they fell on the ground with a
noise much too large of a thud to be a normal tear. “You might want to hold
on,” he added.
With no warning, the ground began to
shake and tremble and all four of them held on to each other just to not fall.
“What’s going on???” yelled Claudette
trying to be heard over the ruckus.
The worst part wasn't the shaking, it was how calm J.D. was.
The worst part wasn't the shaking, it was how calm J.D. was.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment