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2006-11-12 02:37The path I followed ended abruptly just ahead. I felt still no sense of urgency returning, yet nervous apprehension crawled over my skin as I approached the thick copse, pushing against the wind at my back. I shivered. Steps slowed. Fingers curled against my palms. Breathe deep, taste air, taste leaves. Hear the trees blow, long rise and fall, just a sigh. Step forward, nothing to worry about, nothing to fear. And I must go forward if I am ever to find my way.
These trees are too sudden, though. It ought not be allowed that trees can start so sudden, so dense, so artificial-looking. It is dark in there and ducking in, stepping in, I feel as though I am climbing into a tunnel. I stop a minute and let my eyes adjust. Good bye sun! Good bye fast fluffy clouds! The air is still in here and the trees more tangled than they looked from outside. I move forward cautiously, still nervy without anything to be nervy of, until eventually I come to, not a clearing, but a clearer region.
Trees no longer knotted together, through the space between I could look up to see blue sky again. The treetops were still swaying, reassuring me the wind still blew - for it was deathly silent here. It did not seem right that that wind might stop. I see also what appears to be a tree-house lodged high up there, with a ladder of handholds looking as if they grew out from the tree itself to reach it.
There! That tug in my soul again, pulling me forward. I hurried on again and gamely climbed as fast as I could, although it never had been something I was good at. By the time I reached the top my hands were cut, my shoes far below and my eyes must have been red from all the stinging bark I had blinked away. I clambered over the edge and found myself sprawled on a little wooden patio, fenced and roofed. Looking down I realised how very much I did not want to fall and so went inside.
This tree-house - my mind was insistently repeating 'cottage' somewhere in the back - had only one room. In the centre was a table and a chair, ornamented with a little cactus in a gravelly bowl, obviously well-watered for on close inspection it appeared quite turgid. There were two windows, one each on the walls to my left and my right and against one wall and each with a valance at its top, the one through which I had entered, sat a dresser. No obvious way to continue, lost so soon after I had found it again. I was in no mood to search just now and here was a convenient table ready. So, time for lunch.
These trees are too sudden, though. It ought not be allowed that trees can start so sudden, so dense, so artificial-looking. It is dark in there and ducking in, stepping in, I feel as though I am climbing into a tunnel. I stop a minute and let my eyes adjust. Good bye sun! Good bye fast fluffy clouds! The air is still in here and the trees more tangled than they looked from outside. I move forward cautiously, still nervy without anything to be nervy of, until eventually I come to, not a clearing, but a clearer region.
Trees no longer knotted together, through the space between I could look up to see blue sky again. The treetops were still swaying, reassuring me the wind still blew - for it was deathly silent here. It did not seem right that that wind might stop. I see also what appears to be a tree-house lodged high up there, with a ladder of handholds looking as if they grew out from the tree itself to reach it.
There! That tug in my soul again, pulling me forward. I hurried on again and gamely climbed as fast as I could, although it never had been something I was good at. By the time I reached the top my hands were cut, my shoes far below and my eyes must have been red from all the stinging bark I had blinked away. I clambered over the edge and found myself sprawled on a little wooden patio, fenced and roofed. Looking down I realised how very much I did not want to fall and so went inside.
This tree-house - my mind was insistently repeating 'cottage' somewhere in the back - had only one room. In the centre was a table and a chair, ornamented with a little cactus in a gravelly bowl, obviously well-watered for on close inspection it appeared quite turgid. There were two windows, one each on the walls to my left and my right and against one wall and each with a valance at its top, the one through which I had entered, sat a dresser. No obvious way to continue, lost so soon after I had found it again. I was in no mood to search just now and here was a convenient table ready. So, time for lunch.
