Eric--Part Five

Splog # 30

Five

   As the mist cleared, Eric was able to see all about him. He was sitting in a large white marble chair. There were three broad shallow marble steps in front of him leading to a large arch, which seemed to be a walkway, but because of its upward curve, he couldn't see to where it led. He got up, put his knapsack down on the chair and took a walk around it. He was at the crown of a hill, but the hill was obviously man-made. It was white marble like the chair and the archway, and had steps leading downward, but he couldn't see the bottom.

   As he was standing, looking down this hill, he heard another plop. He looked all around but couldn't see anything that would produce such a sound. So he stood still and waited to see if it would repeat itself. Just as he figured that it wouldn't, it did. And it sounded as though it were occurring over his head. When he looked up, he saw nothing but a white sky, which in itself was intriguing for its brightness with a lack of any visible sun. While he was engrossed in searching for the source of the light, he heard another plop. It was coming from the location of the chair. Again he walked around it, studying it to see if there might be anything about it that would be the source of plopping sounds. He ran his hands along it. Smooth, cool, solid. It didn't seem as though any sound could be coming from inside. He knocked on parts of it with his knuckles, but that hardly produced any sound at all. Only the lightest of taps. Another plop came from above him, so he got up on the seat, avoiding his knapsack, but the back of the chair was so high that, even standing on its seat, he couldn't see the top of it. So he stepped on to the arm, which was rather wide, and by standing on the arm, part of his head, to the middle of his nose, was over the top of the chair's back.

   What he saw there didn't seem to make any sense at all. There was what looked like a circular basin carved into the top of the chair's back, which at his best guess was about eighteen inches in width. He couldn't see how deep it was, so he reached over to put his fingers in and try to feel the bottom.   Then he hesitated. Could there be something in there that was making the plopping noises which he had heard? If there was a fish and it jumped into the air, it might make that noise falling back in. Or something sitting on the side of the basin, like a frog, might make that sound jumping into the water. But he had heard the sound five or six times. Would something be jumping in and then climbing out and jumping in again? He tried to think if there was something in his knapsack that he could use to probe the basin. But then he wondered why he was wasting time exploring an inexplicable basin when he didn't even know where he was. There was no sign of life anywhere. He looked up to see if there were any birds in sight. No birds but, after a bit, he noticed a small speck of light that seemed to be falling towards him. Just as he was realizing that it looked like a drop of water, it landed with a plop in the basin on the back of the chair. He gave a small laugh, thinking how weird this all was, then looked up to see if it would happen again. It seemed as though he waited a long time but then, as he was giving a large yawn and thinking he should definitely be in bed, there was another speck of light and a few seconds later another drop of water plopped into the basin. As the thought occurred to him that he didn't know that it actually was water, he realized that he was too hungry to care if it was or not. He got down and started to rummage in his knapsack but soon remembered that he hadn't brought much food with him, figuring he'd be home in time for a good supper. And what he had brought had been eaten either while reading or while standing waist deep in the water and watching the waves come rolling towards him.

   Well, standing in front of a marble chair and listening to water plop into a basin out of a clear sky wasn't going to get him anywhere. He put his knapsack on and then paused to decide which way he should go. The archway looked rather more inviting. He didn't feel like climbing down steep steps with a heavy knapsack on his back. So he headed out over the arch.

   As he walked, he became more aware of his surroundings. It seemed unnaturally quiet compared with anyplace else he'd ever been. Aside from his footsteps walking on the marble arch, there didn't seem to be any sound at all. As he got farther from the chair, even the occasional plops began to fade away, and they hadn't been very loud to begin with. He had probably only noticed them because everything else was so quiet. At one point, he walked slowly, making no noise with his steps, trying to hear something around him. He finally stopped and stood, turning in all directions, searching for any sound at all. The air was warm, without a breeze, but it was a comfortable temperature. He looked over the side of the arch but, like the hill of stairs, nothing could be made out in the depths below.

   Finally, having passed the peak of the arch, the country that he was in began to come into view. It seemed to be mostly forest. What he saw were the tops of trees in front of him and stretching to the left and right. Ahead of him, the arch blended into a marble walkway that led to a very large tree and then ended. There was a dirt path that led off to the left but, not very far along, it disappeared into the forest. But, he figured, it must lead to somewhere where there are people. The path wasn't overgrown so it should be currently in use.

 

   When he got to the end of the marble walk, he stopped to decide whether he should follow the path into the woods.