Back at it this week with something new. I hope you like it. 🙂
Nautilus
Right foot, sixth step.
Left foot, twenty-forth step.
Left foot, eleventh step.
Right foot, seventy-second step.
Face the sun.
Both palms down, infinity step.
I repeated the sequence over and over in my mind through my entire journey here, before I took the first step. Even now as I concentrated on counting each piling and paying exact attention to where my foot placement and where the infinity symbol was located along the way, I whispered it as a mantra.
Right foot, sixth step.
Left foot, twenty-forth step.
Left foot, eleventh step.
Right foot, seventy-second step.
Face the sun.
Both palms down, infinity step.
I wasn’t sure what this all meant, or where I would end up. But the sun was setting for the last time, fading into its own oblivion, and unless I wanted to what…perish? Die a slow death? Or would the freeze be absolute and immediate? No one knew for certain, but I knew what my mother did. She and her sisters from all across the world—rebels amongst the theocracy—had been preparing for this day for many generations. Strong women scientists: oceanographers, biologists, meteorologists, botanists, pharmacists… all part of the group who had successfully built a life, and self-sustaining ecosphere in a part of the world long forgotten and mostly overlooked as insignificant.
Right foot, sixth step.
Left foot, twenty-forth step.
Left foot, eleventh step.
Right foot, seventy-second step.
Face the sun.
Both palms down, infinity step.
But my mother wasn’t here. Hunted down and imprisoned for ‘heretic beliefs and insurgency against the republic’. She never wavered in her stance against the ruling class, even as they publicly shamed her. Even as they whipped her in public forums, televised for all the world to see what would happen to them if they challenged the deity, and the believers.
Right foot, sixth step.
Left foot, twenty-forth step.
Left foot, eleventh step.
Right foot, seventy-second step.
Face the sun.
Both palms down, infinity step.
My mother isn’t here with me to guide me to our safe place, our refuge while transportation to the next forever home is complete. My thumb absently rubs across the indentation on the worry stone she gave me so long ago, reminding me of how strong she is. Was. How strong she was. To the very end. I watched on the screen from an entire continent and an ocean away as she mouthed her final word to me, one agreed upon that would seem innocuous to anyone else, but would be my signal to run.; to run fast and not stop until I reached these coordinates. It was also a signal for the rest of the ‘non-believers’ to initiate a secretive retreat to their assigned rendezvous points.
Right foot, sixth step.
Left foot, twenty-forth step.
Left foot, eleventh step.
Right foot, seventy-second step.
Face the sun.
Both palms down, infinity step.
I reached the last line of the sequence and bent to place my palms on the infinity piling, saying a final good-bye on the cool breeze to my mother. A small whitecap broke over the piling, covering my bare feet and palms; the tropical waters were already beginning to cool from the diminished sun. Then the piling began to descend as I watched the dying of the sun; I was on my way to Nautilus.
~2015 Deidre Meyrick
539 final word count
As always, look for more great flashes on the facebook group page! Have a great Monday and week ahead 🙂
Deidre Meyrick 