Guy--Part Fourteen

Splog # 49

Fourteen

   The woman closed her eyes and tried not to think of anything for a moment. The strange events of the day combined with her fear for her children had completely overwhelmed her. With her eyes closed and complete silence around her, now that the fountain had again ceased its flow, she put her attention on her breathing and told herself that for a short time she would do nothing and think nothing and feel nothing. She needed to get back a sense of herself amid the unreality of what she was experiencing. So she sat with her eyes closed and her hands folded in her lap and breathed.

   She remained there for almost fifteen full minutes and then rose and headed for home. She felt strong enough to do whatever needed to be done. But she was uncomfortably aware that she had no idea of what that was. Her children were gone! She had no idea what they were undergoing at the present moment. And the range of possibilities was endless. The protectiveness she felt for her children made it quite difficult to keep her mind away from thoughts of the dangers they could be facing. So she started to try planning what she needed to do when she arrived home. She had to try to get through to Will and find out from him what had happened that day in the village.

   As she walked home, she tried to put the experiences of the past few hours into some kind of framework. Her children were gone. That was the thought uppermost in her mind. She had to fit everything else around that. The villagers all seemed to be gone, too. Actually, what she really knew was that there had been no one visible around the green and the few places she had stopped into had been empty. That didn't necessarily mean that everyone was gone. And so a house by house search of the village would be one thing that could be done in an effort to discover what was happening. She filed that away in her mind. Then she returned to cataloguing the day. Her children were gone. It was a difficult and painful thought, but she must keep it as her major priority. At this idea, she almost laughed. She was sure that nothing would be able to supplant that one simple truth that was blazing through her mind and heart. Her whole body ached with it, but she must be able to focus beyond that truth. She started again. Her children were gone. Keep going. There was no one in sight in the village. The only person she had seen all day was her husband. Will was at home, sitting by the window, apparently in a stupor. But wait! She had seen someone else today. Able! She stopped walking and tried to remember where on the road she had been when she passed him. He had been sitting on a fence but she wasn't sure whose land the fence had been a part of. There were rail fences here and there along the road and she hadn't been paying attention to exactly where she was because she was so anxious to get to the village in the hope that her children were there. She looked ahead of her on the road. Some fences in sight (it would be on her left now, she remembered), but all unoccupied. She took a look behind her. No one anywhere. She took a step or two back towards the village. She saw no one and didn't think that she had been so distracted by her thoughts that she would have walked right past him. So she turned back and resumed her homeward walk, keeping her eyes open for Able and the fence she had found him on.

   Again, the framework. Her children were gone. Be strong for them. No one in sight in the village. Only Will and Able all day. They were both conscious and slightly responsive to external stimuli but they seemed to be in a sort of trance. They both closed their eyes when she touched their cheeks. They both looked at her for short periods of time. Will came home when she led him by the hand and sat down and even swallowed a sip of water. But it seemed unlikely that it would be possible to extract a coherent sentence from either of them, even if she were to find Able again. She was nearly home now and fairly positive that she hadn't passed him on the road.

   As she saw her house in the distance, she tried once more to put it all together. Her children were gone! (I will get them back!) No evidence of anyone in the village. Will at home fairly unresponsive. Able in the same state, but he seemed to have disappeared also. Rumbles that seemed to come from the ground. Unnatural silence of animals, birds and insects. A white sky that didn't look like clouds, but no sun. Was that the sum of the strangeness? No, there was the water in the fountain. But had she really seen those images or had her uneasiness about everything bubbled over into some kind of hysterical vision? No, she couldn't accept that. She just wasn't the type of person to see things that weren't there. And what had she seen? A spinning globe. There was a chain and a hand. The hand was pointing. And there were animals. A horse - no, a donkey that had become something else. A pig. But the pig had turned into the donkey, not the other way around. A globe, a hand, a chain, a pig, a donkey. And something else...She couldn't quite remember...Well, that was most of it. But did it mean anything?

   The woman closed her eyes and tried not to think of anything for a moment. The strange events of the day combined with her fear for her children had completely overwhelmed her. With her eyes closed and complete silence around her, now that the fountain had again ceased its flow, she put her attention on her breathing and told herself that for a short time she would do nothing and think nothing and feel nothing. She needed to get back a sense of herself amid the unreality of what she was experiencing. So she sat with her eyes closed and her hands folded in her lap and breathed.

   She remained there for almost fifteen full minutes and then rose and headed for home. She felt strong enough to do whatever needed to be done. But she was uncomfortably aware that she had no idea of what that was. Her children were gone! She had no idea what they were undergoing at the present moment. And the range of possibilities was endless. The protectiveness she felt for her children made it quite difficult to keep her mind away from thoughts of the dangers they could be facing. So she started to try planning what she needed to do when she arrived home. She had to try to get through to Will and find out from him what had happened that day in the village.

   As she walked home, she tried to put the experiences of the past few hours into some kind of framework. Her children were gone. That was the thought uppermost in her mind. She had to fit everything else around that. The villagers all seemed to be gone, too. Actually, what she really knew was that there had been no one visible around the green and the few places she had stopped into had been empty. That didn't necessarily mean that everyone was gone. And so a house by house search of the village would be one thing that could be done in an effort to discover what was happening. She filed that away in her mind. Then she returned to cataloguing the day. Her children were gone. It was a difficult and painful thought, but she must keep it as her major priority. At this idea, she almost laughed. She was sure that nothing would be able to supplant that one simple truth that was blazing through her mind and heart. Her whole body ached with it, but she must be able to focus beyond that truth. She started again. Her children were gone. Keep going. There was no one in sight in the village. The only person she had seen all day was her husband. Will was at home, sitting by the window, apparently in a stupor. But wait! She had seen someone else today. Able! She stopped walking and tried to remember where on the road she had been when she passed him. He had been sitting on a fence but she wasn't sure whose land the fence had been a part of. There were rail fences here and there along the road and she hadn't been paying attention to exactly where she was because she was so anxious to get to the village in the hope that her children were there. She looked ahead of her on the road. Some fences in sight (it would be on her left now, she remembered), but all unoccupied. She took a look behind her. No one anywhere. She took a step or two back towards the village. She saw no one and didn't think that she had been so distracted by her thoughts that she would have walked right past him. So she turned back and resumed her homeward walk, keeping her eyes open for Able and the fence she had found him on.

   Again, the framework. Her children were gone. Be strong for them. No one in sight in the village. Only Will and Able all day. They were both conscious and slightly responsive to external stimuli but they seemed to be in a sort of trance. They both closed their eyes when she touched their cheeks. They both looked at her for short periods of time. Will came home when she led him by the hand and sat down and even swallowed a sip of water. But it seemed unlikely that it would be possible to extract a coherent sentence from either of them, even if she were to find Able again. She was nearly home now and fairly positive that she hadn't passed him on the road.

   As she saw her house in the distance, she tried once more to put it all together. Her children were gone! (I will get them back!) No evidence of anyone in the village. Will at home fairly unresponsive. Able in the same state, but he seemed to have disappeared also. Rumbles that seemed to come from the ground. Unnatural silence of animals, birds and insects. A white sky that didn't look like clouds, but no sun. Was that the sum of the strangeness? No, there was the water in the fountain. But had she really seen those images or had her uneasiness about everything bubbled over into some kind of hysterical vision? No, she couldn't accept that. She just wasn't the type of person to see things that weren't there. And what had she seen? A spinning globe. There was a chain and a hand. The hand was pointing. And there were animals. A horse - no, a donkey that had become something else. A pig. But the pig had turned into the donkey, not the other way around. A globe, a hand, a chain, a pig, a donkey. And something else...She couldn't quite remember...Well, that was most of it. But did it mean anything?