Lauren--Part Forty-Two

Splog # 148

Forty-Two

   Lauren looked down into the cup after a nice long drink. The water had been so pleasant that it seemed almost to have had a flavor to it besides that of ordinary water. But water didn't have a taste to it. It was just water. She took another small sip and held it in her mouth. No, no actual flavor. Just a richness of sensation that she didn't associate with water. She swallowed and put the cup down. The water had been so refreshing that she didn't feel much interested in the food any more. She lifted a bunch of grapes from a bowl and broke off a small cluster. She returned the rest to the bowl and then got up from the rocking chair. She felt invigorated, ready to head out to the next level, curious as to what the landscape would be like. The first two had been so different from each other. She walked to the doorway and looked out on the black plain. As she stood there, the glowing ring at the doorstep slowly illuminated. She stepped out onto it, looking eagerly for the next one, expecting it would lead to her right so she could resume her journey. But nothing happened. No further rings began glowing in any direction at all. She stood looking around her and finished the grapes in her hand. Then she shrugged her shoulders, returned into the edifice and took the cluster of grapes out of the bowl again. This time she retained the entire bunch and decided to take a small tour of the interior of this rock or tower or whatever it was she had happened into. One look at the shadowy space told her there wasn't much to see besides the rocking chair and the small table. She looked closer at the table as she remembered that it had materialized, seemingly from nowhere, as she had rocked back and forth with her eyes closed. She looked at the floor under the table. The door had gone down. Maybe the table had come up. The floor was smooth, with nothing to show it had been manipulated in any way. The legs of the table were of a rough wood and circular like small even branches. But the surface was smooth and black, just like the floor. She looked at the rocking chair. And an idea popped into her mind. It was a wishing chair. Just like the star last night. Ten-year-old Lauren thought that might be a little bit foolish. She had never heard of a wishing chair, not in all the books she had read, not in all the stories her parents had told her, even the extravagantly imaginative ones that her father made up. Still, this place in which she found herself wasn't exactly an everyday, normal kind of realistic-type location. And many things had been happening that would probably fit in nicely with one of her father's stories. (She smiled when she thought of the role-reversals in store when she told him all about it.) So it could be a wishing chair. And the best way to find out was to give it a try. She immediately sat down and began gently rocking. But then she found she didn't know what to wish for. She remembered being at a loss when she saw the wishing star, too. Then she thought, since this is more in the nature of an experiment, don't even think about it. Just wish for the first thing that comes into your head. She closed her eyes, saw a gleam in the darkness and wished for a diamond. She slowly rocked back and forth, counting to thirteen. When she reached that number, she stopped rocking and slid her eyes open, wondering if a diamond would have appeared on the table. She let out a sigh as no diamond was disclosed to her view. She wasn't too surprised, however, to find there was no longer a table in front of her either. No wishing chair. Just hastily travelling furniture and snacks. She got up from the chair and walked to the door again. She watched the gold ring appear, stepped onto it and examined the plain far and near. No other change. She turned back inside, almost expecting to miss the rocking chair. But it remained in its place. She turned right from the doorway and decided to circumnavigate the room, inspecting it closely to see if there was something in the shadows that she had missed. Without thinking of the consequences, she put her hand to the wall and found that the texture was nothing like the stoniness she had observed on the outside. She moved her hand up and down a little and felt exactly as though she were running her hand over the bark of a tree. It was too dark to see much but she could feel all the cracks and ridges that were usual when one laid a hand on a tree trunk. She went back out onto the glowing doorstep and took a good look at the tall object she'd assumed was a boulder. But from out here it still looked like a gigantic rock. It wasn't exactly smooth but it hadn't the craggy look of a tree, though it did have a tree's height. She shook her head in puzzlement and went back inside to resume her exploration. She put her hand to the interior wall and then suddenly jerked it back, remembering what had happened when she'd touched the exterior wall. But realizing that she'd already been in contact with the tree-like interior, and suffered no ill effects, she allowed herself to gently lay her hand on what she thought of as the bark before moving further on. She walked slowly, peering into the shadows around her.