Lauren--Part THirty-Seven

Splog # 129

Thirty-Seven

   King was walking along, his usual ambling gait speeded up somewhat, and Lauren sat at the curve in his neck, gently swaying back and forth. The transformation of the field of grass on her right was progressing in a wider and wider arc. She watched it with tears in her eyes, sad about her participation in what seemed to be the terrible destruction spreading farther and farther. She looked at King's head floating before her and tried to keep her eyes fixed on it. She didn't want to see any more of that awful waste reaching out who knew how far. She glanced to her left. When she had first seen the grass across from the Fe-San, it had seemed to be an unhealthy color. Or, if not unhealthy, then a least unnatural. And though it still struck her senses in a way that somehow wasn't quite right, she was relieved to know that half of the plain had been spared from that awful disintegration that seemed to be consuming the other half. She fixed her eyes again on King's head and gently rubbed her hands back and forth on his neck, taking comfort from the warm feling of strength she found there. Her voice was slightly hoarse when she started speaking. "Oh, King, I didin't know. I don't even know what I did. Well, I guess I do. It was stepping on the flowers, wasn't it? Or stepping outside the path. Or maybe it was both. But no one told me not to...But...well, maybe I should have known. But I didn't think of it. We just started walking down the path and except for the flowers it didn't really seem very different on either side. Of the path I mean. Or I mean between the rows of flowers or outside of them. I didn't know we couldn't step outside of them. And the breeze was so lovely and the flowers were moving and I wanted to move too. Well, I know I was moving but I wanted to move extra because I felt so good. But - but - well, I don't feel so good now..." And her voice trailed away. The camel moved steadily along beside the single row of flowers. And the ten-year-old girl rode on his neck, forlorn and feeling very small and young.

   They continued on in silence until they were nearly to the other side of the step they were traversing. When they arrived, the camel stopped and, in the cessation of the swaying motion, Lauren gently came out of her reverie. With a sigh she looked down and saw that the white flowers ended in front of a flat rock embedded in the ground. It was circular and wide enough for a person to stand on comfortably. Beyond the rock was a wall-like cliff and a stairway of similar flat stones, only smaller, that led up it to her left. She followed the stairway with her eyes as it climbed the cliff ahead of her. It didn't go very high before it reached the level of the next stretch she had to cross on her way upward. As she looked at the steps, an uncomfortable thought crossed her mind. "Can you really climb those?" she said out loud to the camel. It turned its head, looked at her out of one eye, and gave one of its widest yawns. Lauren began to feel a little panicky. "You're coming with me, aren't you, King? You're not going to leave me here alone?" The camel remained with one eye on Lauren and worked its jaws mechanically. Lauren was on the verge of tears. It seemed obvious that the camel couldn't pass up the narrow stairway. But it had to or she would be all alone in the middle of nowhere. "King, you have to come. I need someone to help me. Look what I did already. I didn't mean to but I destroyed half a field of grass and all those flowers. I don't even know where I'm going or what I'm supposed to do and everyone just said all these things about an inn and a chair and I don't know what else." The tears were sliding down her cheeks now and it wasn't easy to talk but she had to persuade King not to leave her alone. "Please King oh please." And then she didn't know what else to say. She looked at the stairs which didn't seem capable of accomodating a camel's hoof. She rubbed his neck with her hands and lay her head against it. But when she did, King lowered his legs to a kneeling position and she knew this was to facilitate her dismounting. "I won't go," she cried. "I want to stay witrh you. I won't go. I won't go." The camel didn't seem to react. It remained recumbent with its legs folded under itself, and every once in a while it would turn its head and look at her out of one eye or the other. At one point, with King eyeing her in this disconcerting way, Lauren, whose crying had spent itself, looked at him and said, "Do you want me to go, King?" She looked into his eye, in search of  a response, but found only a gaze of neutrality. "I  guess Mr. Splog wanted me to go."