It’s so cold.
It’s
so cold. Have you noticed? The rains have been hammering away for a few
days but usually the humidity is so high the heat sits like a blanket on us
all. I can’t understand why I’m so
cold. Unless…
I’m
under a spell. I'm not sick but I'm not right. I’m thinking someone has a small
doll with no hair and a beard and that someone is dipping that doll into
ice-cold alcohol. My bones are chilled and my head is swimming. There is no
warmth to be had though the sun shines outside for the first time in days. The sun, yes, the sun will warm me. I’m outside now. The sun is high in the sky. The man on TV says the temperature today will
be in the high 90’s. So I’ll stand under
the noonday sun and bake in the heat.
Yeah, the warmth should seep in soon.
I’ll raise my arms and will the warmth into my being.
I
can tell there is warmth I can feel it touching my skin but it isn’t
penetrating. I’m so cold inside. Here in a sweater and jacket under a noonday
sun in humidity well above 90 I am still shivering as if in a blizzard.
A sightless shadow is closing over me slowly minute by minute. Numbness creeps
inward from my feet and hands. There is a central point to which all the warmth
within is collecting. And, yet, it seems to be dissipating inwardly. As if a
black hole were located within my person sucking all the warmth from me
into…into what or where?
It's a deep bone chilling cold that slowly inhibits movement. My unfocussed
woozy mind has become less and less coherent. I fall to the ground. I can't say
how long ago because there are no clocks out here. The warmth evacuating my
body is taking the vital part of me. It is sudden. I have been looking into the
warmth of the sun willing its heat into my body when everything went black and
there was a resounding pop like a cork escaping a champagne bottle.
I don't know where I am. I was a liquid funneled through a small circular
opening into a new place. I have awakened on a hill. There is a melody in the
air. I looked up to see where it was coming from. And there in the crisp blue sky two suns sit
at either end of the horizon. They radiate warmth. The shock of it is overcome by the warmth my
body drinks in.
I lay there for a long time. The heat of
the suns brings me back from the chill that had set into my bones. I try to stand and my legs fold beneath me. I
sit. I close my eyes and raise my face
to the sky. The heat of two suns burrows
into my shivering body.
The
warmth begins to settle deep within me.
The comfort of it is wonderful.
Lazily I open my eyes. Before me
is a field of oat and rye waving slowly in the breeze. A road of gravel cuts through the countryside
farther down the hill. A crow flutters
upward from the roadside and glides along the sky into a large oak at the crest
of the hill. There is a beautiful young
woman standing beneath the stately oak. Its canopy of leaves produces an
umbrella of gigantic size. Her garment flows gently in the breeze. Her look is
one of curiosity. She is smiling at me.
I attempt to stand again. My strength is returning. The legs are wobbly. I try to take a step but
once again collapse falling on my face. I take a hard mouthful of grass.
Stunned from the impact I shake my head. There is grass in my mouth. It tastes good, very good, and I begin to
chew it slowly. Reaching to pull more I
see a hoof instead of my hand. Confused
I inspect my body. I see four hoofed
feet and a brown coat of short coarse hair dappled with white spots. What’s happening? Confused I begin to run in circles, the
reality is rushing into my consciousness.
“This is all a dream!” I
shout. But inarticulate grunting spouts
from my throat. I cough to clear my
throat and shout again with the same result.
While I was making this discovery the woman beneath the tree begins to walk
toward me. I want to run, but I’m confused and my addled brain hasn't mastered
the four feet attached to this thing that I apparently am. She came closer. She
had one hand behind her back and beckoned with the other. The smile on her face
slowly loses its warmth and curls into a cruel cold grin. Her features lose all
softness in the short stroll from beneath the oak limbs into the bright garish
light of two suns.
I begin to back away as she comes closer.
“Stay away!” I scream. The
grunting is as wild as my eyes. I move
further away from her.
"Come to me, little darling, I won't hurt you."
I continue to back away. Behind me I hear a voice.
"I thought you said you'd have him by now."
"He looked so helpless there for a moment," she said. "It was as
if he didn't know what his purpose was."
"Of course he does. All his kind knows," came the voice behind me.
"But look at him. See how confused he is."
"Oh, who the hell cares? Let's get on with the ceremony and then begin the
feast."
I understand the word feast. I panic and
attempt to run with all my strength. When used to two legs four are impossible
to handle, which I don't and fall face first. It is my undoing. Whoever is
behind me scoops me up into heavily muscled arms and begins to carry me away
from the woman and the oak. She runs to catch up and walks beside him. She
strokes my face with her hand. She looks puzzled.
I’m slammed onto a hard rock and my limbs tied. The man is small but powerfully
built. Cracked yellow teeth glint beneath a bushy mustache on a face full of
hair. Serpent’s eyes glare from beneath thick eyebrows. Looking at the woman, he says, "All
right then. Get on with it."
"I don't know, Clonius. There is something different about this one. I
can't explain but..."
"Oh, to hell with it. Give me that..."
"No, you mustn’t. Only the hand of the priestess may touch the
blade."
With those words she produces a knife of brilliant steel. The blade is twelve inches of razor sharp
edge. The handle is encrusted with
emeralds of the purest green. It flashes in the light. She wields it with a
practiced certainty. The edge touches the right side of my neck. Understanding
bursts upon my mind and I heave upward to free myself. Realization has come too late. The razor edge rips through my jugular. Her
expert hand draws it quickly through the flesh under my jaw to the twin artery
along the other side. Blood gushes onto the rock's surface. I hear them
murmuring something. It’s a prayer.
Their voices fade. The heat of my blood begins to cool on the ground at the
base of the rock. My life’s warmth pours from my body. The cold returns. The cold once again begins
settling into that central point. My consciousness
once again rushes into the black hole within. I swirl into the unknown and with
a pop I lie under the heat of our single yellow warm sun. Consciousness slips away.
Upon awakening I examine myself. Two
hands and two feet. There is grass in my mouth.
I jump up spitting and running for the safety of my house. The door slams. I grasp the bottle and drink. The Scotch burns down and meanders into my
arms and legs eliminating the cold from my limbs. In my haste some of it spills down my neck. It burns.
“Ouch!” I scream. “My voice is
back!” I rush to the bathroom and flip
on the light to stare into the mirror.
There is a red line running along my neck from ear to ear with a trickle
of blood oozing slowly along the entire length.
I collapse.
I don’t know how long I have been unconscious.
The blood has coagulated. I don’t
think there will be a scar. I have the
heat turned up to 98 degrees and a heavy turtleneck on. It’s so cold. It’s so cold.
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