Noah+M

PARACOSM by Noah Melchizedek

**1. ****Recall **
..... All around him the world was alight with the frenetic sway of nature. At present, the man named Fletcher lay unmoving in whorls of hot sand, facing inward the earth with lifeless limbs sprawled ponderously about him. His taut skin denied the crawl of a pulse, the old attire that draped his figure stiff and spattered by eddies of seawater that welled up just a ways down the beach. A careless bystander might have dismissed this lone, foetal mound – remnants of a person at best – to be dead. Many of the startled beings that pulled themselves up from the sand thought just that. They wailed in a horrific cacophony of abhorrence and disbelief at the beached body: the man named Fletcher, embedded in the sand with almost sepulchral permanence. ..... The scene, lazing and shot with death’s aroma, failed to communicate that the man still lived. Tucked in the cavity of his breast was a heart still labouring, albeit slowly, and in his mind sat the afterimage of the last coalescent place he knew. Time inverted itself and in his mind’s eye he gazed upon the interior of an airplane car, shimmering with an ethereal distance but feeling oddly solid nonetheless. He saw the back of the next seat up not farther than arm’s length before him, smelled it, felt it intruding on his spatial acuity. He tasted his last inhalation of stale, recycled air, felt the protest of muscles groaning in flight despite their orientation to the relative body of the plane.

#
..... Somewhere in the car a beep sounded. A conductor relayed their placement over the ocean, and Fletcher started. Not seven hours ago this same plane had been leaving Seattle, taxiing off the runway and rolling like an enormous metal bird into the sky. Now he glanced out the window and saw in place of the drab cityscape a vast and sparkling ocean instead, dozens of thousan ds of kilometres earthward and heaving like a single mass beneath him. The sight drew him to awe. ..... Vaguely, he was aware of someone beckoning for his attention. He turned. ..... “Fletcher isn’t it?” the man was saying. He beamed down at Fletcher from where he stood in the aisle, a rickety smile plastered on his face. His skin was the colour of caramel and his cheekbones were gaunt. “I’m Jose. We met at the airport?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">There was a moment of hesitation, then Fletcher became animated and his cheeks tugged up in a smile that was only slightly less mechanical than Jose’s. “Ah, yes. The dentist. I remember you. Fancy two guys in the same outreach hitching the same flight.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “It’s quite the thing,” Jose agreed with a small laugh. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. I’ve this colleague – she’s with DREAM as well. We wanted to discuss a few things about the expedition. That is, if you don’t mind...” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fletcher took the hint and hastened dumbly out of his seat. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Oh, by all means.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">They strode through the plane car with perfunctory motions. On either side the passengers looked away and hid behind sombre expressions, each absorbed in their own personal confinement. Honey sunlight spilled in through portholes across the faded tropical shirt Jose wore and caused Fletcher’s own plain clothes to hum with deceptive brilliance. The two men entered a small cabin where a handful of booths populated the walls. It was a basic setup but it shone with sophistication in comparison with the coach cabin. At one of the booths there was seated a woman, intently working a mesh of thread through her fingers. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “I’ve another outreach worker,” Jose murmured triumphantly as he seated himself opposite the woman. Her eyes lifted in greeting, but her fingers remained working. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Fletcher.” The eponymous speaker imposed himself with an extended hand. “Pleased to meet you.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The woman let the galaxy of thread sag from her grip and flashed him a smile so disarming that he flinched when the feel of her handshake registered. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Ivvangelien.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Evangeline?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">She shook her head in amusement. “I-vvan-gelien.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">He stammered an echo, cleared his throat, and eased into the chair beside Jose. The caramel-skinned man was tapping the tabletop nervously and peering out the window. Ivvangelien noticed and nodded in the direction of the jittery dentist. “Don’t mind his nerves. He tends to get like this before a job.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Jose shot her a mild glower. She pretended not to see. “So what about you? What’s got you strung up?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">As if for the first time, Fletcher became suddenly aware of himself. He tugged on the cuff of his sleeve. “Never been on a plane before,” he admitted. “Actually never been out of Seattle.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ivvangelien’s eyebrows climbed with surprise, and even Jose forgot his tics and paused a moment at that statement. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “This is a big deal for you, then, innit?” Ivvangelien quipped, and he tried to stifle the flushing of his cheeks with a half-hearted chuckle. An invisible wall buckled at that moment and the three fell easily into conversing, oblivious to the passage of time or the diffusion of the intense golden sun into a soft orange that permeated the cabin. Their words flowed easily, even for Jose, and Fletcher felt the rigidity in his muscles slacken ever so gradually. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The conversation melted into an abstract loop of wordless voices, played like a CD on repeat over the menial tasks of the day that Fletcher hadn’t committed to memory. While the mechanical scene played out, his thoughts wandered into amorphous layers at the very fringes of his consciousness. He felt the plane as a whole even as he spoke, glimpsed the tangerine sun and was smitten by its beauty. Within his lungs the same breath of stale air sat. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">As time progressed the words of Jose and Ivvangelien grew more and more distant, until they were naught but shapeless booms of thunder on an unseen horizon. The illusion stayed in his mind, but motion seemed to have glaciated, until the steady orange light of the sun fixed in place and the faces of his two acquaintances turned to statues. This was the last sight he had of the plane, he knew, the image that pervaded his thoughts and lulled him into a blissful detachment while unseen wreckage occurred. He could sense the havoc that unfolded beyond this time-frozen scene, became aware of vestiges of reeling motion and dampened screams of terror that his mind had up to now done its best to expunge. His stomach lurched and rolled but it caused him no discomfort, feeling as though it were attached to him by loose astral threads. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">This is what it’s like to be dead, he thought laconically. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Then, he heard – rather, he felt – one last echoed screech of tearing metal before an overwhelming pulse threw him even further out of reality than he presently was. That was when the plane crashed. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">His eyes remained loyal slaves to fantasy, and the view of Jose and Ivvangelien in the dim orange sunlight stayed fixed in his vision. But everything else had fallen to null: his sense of the plane, the stale air in his lungs, the buzzing of the underbelly of his mind. All muted. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Jose spoke, and the illusion shuddered. Fletcher turned to look at the face of his travelling companion, but the sharp caramel cheekbones, the earnest brown eyes, all remained stiff and still. A woman’s voice this time, but the projection of Ivvangelien was as unresponsive as Jose’s. The world continued to rumble, disturbed by an earthquake of the mind. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">A claw tore through the dim orange and stark brilliance poured in. Fletcher’s subconscious struggled to hold the illusion together, but the crack bore too deep. White light spider-webbed through the evening hue, and a new, motional world burst into reality. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">At present, Fletcher thrust himself up on his arms and gasped hoarsely. His muscles ached with immediate pain and wild fragrances assaulted his olfaction; light seared his retinas and the surf pummeled his ears. He retched then, heaving up a foul smelling brew of seawater and half-digested airplane food and a few bits of lumpy visceral matter he’d probably be better off not identifying. His nose plugged and for an eternal moment he thought for sure he was going to die. Then he felt hands on his shoulders and before he knew it his back was pressed against hot sand and he was staring into a blinding sun, eclipsed briefly by a crimson figure that was brutalising his chest. He felt his throat and nose clear as though a bubble had burst, and he began gasping again. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The figure resolved in his vision to be a woman’s face, framed by curving blonde hair, cast in deep shadow that made the details indefinite. He spluttered, “C-Claire?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Nancy,” was the short reply, and the woman helped him to his feet. He clambered in his body as though he were unsure of how to use it. “Where—?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Take a look around.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">He did so obediently, eyes straining against the lurid blue of the sky and the unrelenting white torch just over the horizon. A radiant beach sloped out to either side and bordered an impossibly large swathe of exotic verdancy and rolling hills, like something out of an adventure film. The small tendrils of his mind whispered that it was still an illusion, but the immediacy of his body proffered furious denial to this supposition. In the distance, he saw the smouldering ruin of the plane, sheared into pieces along a mountain spine with several portions missing. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fletcher gawked, still caught as to how to react. His thoughts barrelled at a thousand kilometres per second, his tongue numb with the questions he wanted to ask. Trauma threw him into a disconnect with these thoughts, however, and the first intelligible question he asked the woman who’d just saved his life was, “Where’s the airport then?” <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;">

**<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; text-align: justify;">2. Promenade **
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The lukewarm sun climbed with infantine slowness over the broiling horizon, throwing its first arms into the dim sky and lighting up invisible layers in the heavens. Waves lapped soothingly at the shore of the island. The foam was lame and pale and licked at sallow beige sand not yet golden under currents of afternoon light. Farther into the island, the jungle was a wall of yawning silhouettes rustling with untold distance. Birdsong played that might have been a couple metres into the treetops or a canyon’s width away. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fletcher gazed upon the glassy, indistinct portrait of the land and saw himself reflected. Looming shadows prodded holes in his certitude and whispers in the wind spoke to him. The hazy calls of rousing wildlife echoed his thoughts. For an ineffable moment that was both fleeting and perpetual, he was the world and the world was him. His thoughts collapsed to a singularity and reality paused, and someone sat next to him in his mind’s eye and spoke, but the words were indecipherable. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">His blissful stasis was shattered with a snap, followed shortly by the vibrato of a quivering blade. Animation leaked back into things and a tangy smell filled the air. Juice ran down the grimy knife that was wedged in the log beside him. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Want some?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Standing to his side, Nancy produced an open-faced pineapple with several gouges in it and most of the spiny skin removed. Fletcher took it gratefully and bit into the juicy flesh. Nancy moved around the log as if to take a seat beside him, but stopped just when she came in front, stayed by the dignity of detachment. “You’re up awful early.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “I guess,” he said plaintively, setting the fruit beside him. “What about you?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">She shrugged. “Jose woke me in his rush this morning. Wanted to get to the crash site before the sun came. I thought what the hell, might as well get some foraging done while I can. You know, the way some people allot their time productively rather than sitting on their haunches and moping daylong.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">He flinched at the thinly veiled stab but did not respond. Over a month they’d been here and she hadn’t lightened up to him yet. Maybe she was right about his tardiness. Maybe he ought to work more and ponder less. In the back of his mind he thought of a woman who’d always seemed to manage to strike a fine balance between work and contemplation. Before he could filter himself, he blurted, “Any sign of Ivvangelien?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The mention of the name quelled the fire that was working its way through Nancy. Her disposition went hollow. “Not yet.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">She’d been gone for more than a week now. They shuddered to consider the possibilities of her disappearance. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nancy cleared her throat. “Anyway. I’m relocating the shelter. Get up and give me a hand.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">It was an order, not a question. Nancy yanked out the knife from the log and sauntered off. Freed from the paralysis of her intimidating proximity, he scrambled to his feet and tagged along. They walked along the shore until they reached a point where a clearing pressed into the earthen shelf which sported the jungle. It was a squared, roofless grotto with a dirt-caked blue tarp stretched out over four broken stumps. Currently, that tarp bulged inward to form a concave pouch of last night’s rainfall. Nancy snatched a plastic bucket from where it sat on the ground and pulled the side of the tarp, draining out the rainwater. When the bucket was full, she took a long draught and handed it to Fletcher. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">As he drank, she raked the tarp off of the stumps and rolled it up into a sketchy tube. Detaching a coil of rope from her belt, she tied the waist of the tarp and hefted one end. Tufts of irritation escaped her eyes as she glanced over at him. “You gonna drink all day or you gonna help?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fletcher set down the bucket and rushed over to lift the other end. Together they hauled the large tarp out of the clearing and strode farther down the beach. Pale sand gradually turned to rough gravel and ultimately gave way to jagged rocks, slick with sea spray and protruding from the earth at the base of a cliff side. Ancient high tides had worn away pockets in the cliff, from black windows in the heights of its face to shallow caves at its bottom. Nancy led them into one of those caves. They travelled until their breathing resonated off the walls of earth around them and the morning light was but a receding memory behind them. What illumination there was, albeit thin and dusky, was ample enough to outline the cave walls and the pebbly ground in contours of brazen light. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Abruptly, Nancy dropped her end of the tarp. Fletcher’s strides had become automated and he nearly barrelled into her. “Right here,” she said. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Sighing, Fletcher turned to peer back out the mouth of the cave. The sun would be higher in the sky at this point, judging by the rich colour that was now saturating the land. The jungle was bright but not yet undulating with a shroud of heated air, painting a stark and unreal scene that was imposed against the immediacy of the cave mouth like a dream teetering on the first vestiges of wakefulness. The beach was a sweeping promenade of gold that tapered out to an indefinable point in the distance: a highway to the gods. Everything about the vision thrummed with warm lucidity. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nancy had been speaking. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “…or just stand there, daydreaming. That’s cool too.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">He swayed to face her. “Sorry,” he said. Still the image of the island glowed tantalisingly in his peripherals. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “What’d you say you was back home again? A journalist? I don’t imagine it’d be easy keeping up with the world when your head’s always in the clouds.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nancy had finished her work and was now standing there, her skin glossy with sweat and her dirt-smeared attire becoming brighter in the growing light. She flicked aside her damp blonde hair and regarded him. Her eyes had lost some of their usual pugnacity. “What were you thinking about?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">He thought of the living island. It was hardly anything he could express in words. “Nothing.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">She nodded knowingly, her choler momentarily forgotten. Then, “Can I ask you something?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Even in her moment of sincerity this came over as more of a statement than question; regardless of how he felt or responded, she would ask what she wanted to. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Who’s Claire?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">He flushed. “Sorry?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “When I first found you on the beach, you called me Claire.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fletcher surveyed the tarp on the ground, the beach outside, the rugged cave walls. Anything but her eyes. “Just someone I know from back home.” The tiniest of tremors touched his voice. For a moment they did not talk. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Then a voice sheared through the quietude and snapped both of them alert. There was no hesitation in Nancy’s stance – she ran out of the cave in search of the shout. Fletcher exited a bit more tentatively. On the beach, Jose had come crashing out of the foliage and was rambling about something. He and Nancy fell easily into conversing. Fletcher came up beside them and noticed a glinting object in Jose’s hands. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “What’s that?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “This, my friend, is our salvation.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fletcher took the object and studied it. “It’s a compact.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “It’s a parabolic mirror,” Jose explained patiently, his shyness all but forgotten in his zeal. “We can use it to focus a beam of light, make a fire.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nancy immediately fell into charge. “What are we waiting for? We need to make a fire pit.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “That little thing is going to get us rescued?” Fletcher scoffed, not sure whether to be baffled with amazement or tearful with laughter. Nancy’s overbearing personality seemed to think it was a plausible idea, and Jose rarely spoke up unless he thought he had something worth saying. Fletcher felt as though he should accept the proposal, but cynicism pattered in his mind like acid rain. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “I know a place we can make a fire pit,” Jose said, ignoring Fletcher’s jeer. He and Nancy fell into step moving down the beach, and Fletcher eventually staggered to catch up. The surf burbled at their flank, and the jungle fronds rustled in derisive laughter at their blind hope. They were able to make it only halfway across the leeward shore of the island before a scream interrupted their trek and set their blood to curdling.

<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;"> **3.** **<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Horizon **
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">Ivvangelien turned away from the fire, allowing the waves of torrid heat to fall on her side, and faced the jungle proper. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Though he averted his eyes, Fletcher could feel her gaze perusing the short slope of the beach and falling on him. He fiddled with the smoky bird’s leg in his hands, bashfully examined the ground. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Already she was walking up to him, a composed sanguinity playing off her eyes and the smile that she wore. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Do you always feel the need to distance yourself during a meal?” she asked, but there was no edge in her voice as might be found in Nancy’s, only a playful jeer. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Yes,” he replied matter-of-factly. Turning away, he pawed a hole in the sand and placed the fowl bones inside. “How’s your leg doing?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “I’ll survive.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">She didn’t even glance at the injured limb in question. On the other hand, Fletcher couldn’t help himself looking. Nancy – who had revealed herself a trained surgeon from a past life, much to Fletcher’s surprise – had mended the wound as best she could and torn a shirt for use as a bandage. In the days following, Ivvangelien would learn to fare just fine, apart from a case of chronic hobbling. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “How’d you make it out there?” Fletcher blurted. “Alone in the jungle for over a week, on the other side of the island with the rain and God knows whatever’s hiding in those trees. How’d you make it?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">She blinked, taken slightly aback by the question. “Well, it certainly was difficult,” she began, groping for her words. “It crossed my mind that I might die, more than once even. But I found the beach and I just followed it round ‘til I found you guys... and well, you know the rest.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">They had found her at the base of a steep stone rise, where she had attempted to round the elbow of the island. Their timing could not have been more auspicious either, coinciding directly with the accident – a result of one misplaced step on the crest of that rocky hill. Of course, all that had been quite some time ago; its only reminder was the sodden garment tied around her calf. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “You’re tough, Ivvangelien, I’ll give you that. I wouldn’t last it a day. In the dark, by myself... drive myself crazy.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">She shrugged, and said lightly, “I guess it just wasn’t my destiny to die at the time.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Destiny, huh?” Fletcher scoffed. “That’s bold, clinging on to some sort of ‘destiny’”—he mimed quote marks in the air with his fingers—“in spite of everything that’s happened. What do you reckon ‘destiny’ has in store for us next?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “We’re going to get out of here,” she said without a second thought. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">He looked at her as though she had lost her mind. “We’ve had that bonfire smoking for weeks now and all it’s done is made the meat acrid. You honestly think toasting wood for all time’s gonna get us noticed?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Have faith,” she said with a reassuring smile. “It might.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">It was then that Fletcher baulked, wondering how she could smile so easily in a situation so obviously hopeless. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Anyway, I came over here to give this to you. Found it in the rocks.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">He received the small slip and eyed it in the dying sunlight. It was a laminated identity card, its face scratched and caked with dirt. Printed beneath a photo of himself that took him back to times when hygiene was an afterthought and not a luxury, the words read, <span style="font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fletcher Hannigan of Seattle, WA. 23. M. DREAM Employee <span style="font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB',sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">. <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> He snorted derisively. “DREAM?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Our outreach. The whole reason any of us left in the first place. Remember?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Weight like nothing he had ever known settled in and conscious effort overrode the urge to let his chin drop, crestfallen by the onset of reality. He glimpsed up and for the first time noticed a card identical to the one he held now, stitched into the ragged jacket Ivvangelien wore. Over at the campfire, similar ensigns too glistened off the attires of Jose and Nancy. Knowledge of the past uncaged itself and flooded into his mind as though a dam had caved, and the searing sting of anguish engulfed him. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “’Delivering Relief to the Empty and Malnourished’,” Ivvangelien recited, shearing through his reverie. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">It was a moment before he found his voice. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Isn’t that a laugh.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ivvangelien looked earnestly at him, her eyes awash with sympathy. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">He did not meet her gaze. Hatred toward her blossomed inside his breast, hatred that she could share this predicament yet still be impervious to the melancholy that gripped his heart. She needn’t be, nor should she. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “We’ll make it out of here. I promise,” she said quietly, before standing and walking away. Fletcher watched her go, saw her shadow sweep across the beach under the light of the setting sun. In the distance, the horizon fogged with the looming haze of twilight. Her words echoed repeatedly in his mind, but he could not rouse an inkling of hope in his heart to respond to them.

<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">#
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">Fletcher looked outside the window and marvelled at the height. More than that, he found joy in the tempered panes forged there, the sill of industrial metal they were wedged between, and the ice crystals that were forming on their outer face. He gaped at the colossal wing carrying them through the sky, and at the fleeting Earth’s surface, which had once been his prison and his hell for what had seemed a lifetime. Fletcher lifted outstretched hands and regarded them as a newborn regards a novel toy. He saw his groomed nails and his palms, clean, washed, and mostly recovered from the scratches and calluses he had accumulated during that nightmare. His shirt, pliant and soft, was heaven against his skin. As he awed over the tiniest details of a life he had learned to abandon, he could not help but think – Ivvangelien was right. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">A beep sounded in the plane and a conductor voiced their coordinates. In only two hours, they would be touching down in Seattle. Fletcher would know pavement again, and he would fall asleep that night in a bed that was his own, with a mattress and sheets...  <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “You sure you’re all right?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">From the seat solely adjacent to his, Claire reached over with supple fingers and brushed a lock of unruly hair back from his face as she looked at him. He turned to meet the gesture and heaved a sigh, his eyes damping with adoration – still more, longing – in their depths. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Yeah,” he breathed. “I’m just kind of rattled.... I didn’t think I’d ever leave that place, Claire. I thought I’d die there.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “But here you are now,” she whispered. Her voice was the most delicate thing in the world, Fletcher decided, and when she leaned over, he embraced her with all he had. The motion was devoid of warmth, yet it was still somehow the best feeling in the world. She sank contentedly into his arms and he let her. The aroma of her hair sat like a preserved capsule at the base of his nose. He remembered this being the one thought on his mind when he climbed aboard that rescue helicopter, so long ago now. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Vaguely, he became aware of a man standing in the aisle. It was Jose, whose phlegmatic manner had eroded in recent times. He now wore the grimace of a haunted man, his face taut and fatigued as he looked at Fletcher. “Listen, I’m sorry about Nancy,” he started. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “Nothing could have been done. You couldn’t have helped and neither could’ve I. What happened, happened.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Jose nodded sullenly, but he did not seem convinced. Before he walked off, he said, “You take care out there, y’hear?” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> “And you.” <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Beyond the window, the sun threw into focus the clammy air that Fletcher had grown up with, and an ever-so-distant cityscape rose into view. The horizon gleamed an affable shade of orange, promising that the industrial life of schedules, profligacy, and complaints would once again be upon him soon. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the cabin around, people grumbled, and they conversed in short, terse remarks. Their faces spoke of souls hardened to the terrors of the modern world, a plight that made him sniff in scorn. Fletcher sighed. He sank back into his repose and turned to the empty seat beside him. A faint smile played on his lips. <span style="color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">..... <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Time stagnated to the pace of flowing syrup. The faces of the abounding passengers ossified to slates and the golden sun levelled in the air. As the plane droned on in its flight, a dull and almost mocking thrum, Fletcher could not help but thinking: I don’t feel so alive.