Lauren--Part Four

Splog # 12

Four

    Lauren was trying to think of words that began with "C". Not ordinary words like coat or cold or cat. But important words - words that had a magnificent sound to them - codicil, cosmopolitan, coagulation, cantaloupe. She started saying them out loud - "Coaxial! Cassiopeia! Catamaran!" She almost started laughing because she didn't know where she had heard some of those words or even what they meant. But she went on, almost chanting. "Crocodile! Conviviality! Claustrophobia! Clartropilius! Cromwoduvian! Canbolento!" She had dissolved in laughter at the sounds of the words she found herself making up when suddenly a different type of sound reached her ears. Something was rolling down the hill through the grass. There was a swishing noise and occasional little clicks or clinks. Whatever it was, was coming in her direction. In the fading light, the grass higher on the hill seemed to be waving or bowing as an avalanche of little stones passed over it. As they came nearer, their smoothness revealed them to be marbles. Where could they have come from? She looked past the marbles but there was nothing there that hadn't been there before. Then they were upon her. Possibly a hundred marbles seemed to divide and roll past her on either side, straight through the bushes where she had picked up the coin. She ran around the bushes and found that there was a path stretching to her right and left. This being Lauren's very own hill, she was startled to find this hitherto unknown path. Contemplating this curiosity, she watched the marbles drop onto it and start to roll to her right. "It must be going downhill that way," she figured. She wanted to pick one up to  get a good look at it. But as she started walking after them, she found they were going at the same speed that she was. So she broke into a slight jog to catch up to them but, no matter how quickly she went, the marbles rolled along just out of reach. Then she noticed a shadow in the path ahead of her. It seemed some sort of wheeled contraption and she saw that the marbles were all rolling under it. When she reached it, she ran past  but found no trace of marbles on the path. They must have all been caught underneath the - what was it? It seemed to be a chair on wheels - but it wasn't an ordinary wheelchair. The wheels were wooden and polished and the chair was cushioned and looked very comfortable, with a rest to place your feet on and a small pillow for your head. Thinking of the marbles, she went back behind the chair to look beneath it. When she touched the chair, it rolled forward a few feet and then stopped. There was not a single marble in the space left empty by the chair - but there was a hole just the right size for a marble to go through. Had they all fallen in during the few moments she had spent observing the chair? When she looked back at the chair, she saw that as  it had rolled forward it had turned to face her. So she sat down to take a rest after her unsuccessful marble chase.

 

Reviews

[TLK]

And the quest for the C-words commences.