Lauren--Part Seven

Splog # 29

Seven

   It wasn't a hill of anything, just a large shadow that looked smooth and white. Then, the shadow was in front of her and she was heading straight into it. She expected the chair to either stop or bump against whatever was before it. But the chair kept rolling forward and, after a moment in complete darkness, the chair came out into light again and stopped moving.

   Now Lauren got a good look at where she was. But, before her senses could take in her surroundings, she was astonished to find that the chair that she was sitting in was not the cushioned chair on wheels that had brought her upon her strange journey. She was sitting in a large white marble chair. The arms, back and seat were all set at sharp right angles. It felt smooth, cool and hard where the chair in which she had ridden up the hill had been velvety, warm and so comfortable that she had almost fallen asleep. Turning her head to look behind her, she saw that the back of the chair extended a few feet over her head.

   "I guess that I shouldn't be too surprised by anything that happens in a dream," she said under her breath, deciding that she definitely wasn't awake.

   Then she looked around to take stock of where she had ended up. There was plenty of light, but the sky was all white without any sun. Before the chair there were three wide marble steps leading to a large arch that led away from where she was sitting. She got up to walk around the chair and see what else was there. The chair was definitely at the top of a hill, but it seemed to be a man-made hill. There were small steep stairs leading down the hill on all sides. She found this rather confusing because there was nothing on which her chair could have rolled to the top of the hill. As far as she could see, to the left and right, each stair went all the way around. She couldn't see more than about eight steps down because there was a mist of some kind, and consequently she couldn't tell how far it was to the bottom of the hill. She thought of climbing down to see but the stairs were fairly steep and, with no railing to hang on to and no idea how far it was to the bottom, she wasn't sure how safe she would feel attempting the descent.

   As she was peering over into the mist, it struck her how quiet it was. That reminded her of the music of the chair and how it had stopped sounding when the chair had stopped moving. She turned to the back of the big marble chair to see if there was any clue as to what had happened to the other chair. Nothing. Just a tall white smooth marble slab. But it made sense that the music had stopped , being connected to the chair in some way , and the chair no longer being there.

   Then, as she was walking back around to the front of the marble chair, the music started again. But no, she thought, leaning on the left marble arm and looking up in an effort to hear the music better and discover where it was coming from. This was quite a different type of music. It was a jaunty tune and it sounded as though it was being played on a fiddle. And, even though it was soft like the other music had been, it was getting steadily louder, just as though someone was approaching her position beside the chair. Could someone be coming up the hill and making music on the way? Lauren walked around the chair again, looking down the steps the whole way, before she placed the whereabouts of the music. It was coming from the arch.

   She stepped out on the archway and slowly started walking, wondering what kind of escapade this dream was about to lead her into. As she walked, she saw, slowly coming into view, a small man who was, indeed, playing on a fiddle. When the man saw Lauren, a grin spread across his face as if she was just what he had been expecting to come across. The grin was rather infectious and Lauren found herself responding to it with a bright smile as they met in the middle of the archway.

   The man continued smiling, continued playing, and didn't say a word. Lauren watched him, still smiling also. He was exactly her size and was wearing a wide-brimmed hat, a long gray coat and black boots. Then he did a sort of shuffle with his feet and finished off his tune with a flourish of his bow and a slight bow. Without even thinking about it, Lauren clapped her hands a few times and let out a small laugh.

   "Splog, at your service, night or day, here or there, music and laughter a specialty."

   At this short speech, Lauren stopped laughing and said, with a smile, "Splog?"

 

   "Sp - log," the man replied. "And I suspect that your name just might happen to be Lauren."