"The Final Leaving"
His life was still full of great joys and opportunities for creativity. His words held power in his home, and if he articulated a desire, it appeared to him. When he entered as an infant, he was warmed and held and fed, but eventually that warmth fled, and was replaced by cold jagged thoughts and cries. Thoughts of power, thoughts of creation. This small boy wished for solace and he found it, becoming the accidental god of creation. Not that he knew what God or creation was. He simply became him when he wished for comfort and it found him.
By the end of his eighth year, his only desire was for a playmate. His words once again became reality, and from behind a large tree came a young girl. Shyly she hid and gripped the bark giggling at the sight of him. The god of creation looked at her pleated dress adorned with ribbons matching the two on the top of her dark brown hair. God's curious stare narrowed as he walked over to her. The girl shifted in and out of view once she spotted his glance. With her hair in her mouth she was met face to face with him. She called herself Luci, and so did he. She showed him all kinds of wonders he never thought to question. Beautiful objects and foods. His eyes shimmered as he looked at all of his new toys, looking at her and them and feeling the joy both stirred. God cupped his hands to drink from his sweetwater river. He plunged his hand into the current and grabbed a colorful fish and bit into its gummy head. The sweet red innards stuck to his teeth in chunks as he met Luci with happy squinted eyes.
When he woke his face was still submerged. Pulling it out and shaking off his wet hair, he wished to be dry and he was. Luci was god's companion until his untimely fall, his final leaving. She did not follow when he left his artificial glutinous world. She was nowhere to be found, there was only darkness, only openness. One day in his fourteenth year it was all gone. What once was a place of all of his desires now stood a dark, empty, seemingly endless void, with only one source of light. A small shimmer that he followed until it became a door. A door that he followed until he entered a place much different than his own. Cold.
He searched and called out for her but found nothing but trees. Densely packed trees that morphed into a maze, excluding all but the sound of running water. He followed and found a river familiar to his own. He put his head into the cold current and shot up catching his breathe, "What is that! Why is it so cold! Why can't I breathe!"
"Boy! What are you doin'? The water's gonna be cold it's winter. Your imagination's running away from you talkin' 'bout breathin' underwater."
"What do you mean? What's winter?"
"The reason you're shiverin' boy c'mere. Where's your mama?" The man helped wet god out of the river and onto the broken rocks.
"I... I'm not sure"
"What's your name then?"
"Trey, I think."
"You think? Boy you make less than no sense. But I'll bite. Trey, I'm Rhett. Nice to meet ya. I was just heading back. My cabin's up that way. I gotta phone. I could call somebody. It's too late to shoot anymore anyhow so it wouldn't be any trouble."
"Ok."
Rhett walked and Trey followed. After a few steps the trees faded into blackness, and when his head hit the dirt his head did not bounce.
He dabbed the blood off of his lip, and wondered where he was.
"Why's the ground like that?"
"Oh you're up! Good. You took quite a tumble there kid thought I might need to take you to the hospital. I tried to clean ya up and I got some soup goin'."
Trey looked down at the warm bowl handed to him by the old man and thought about when he was god. This new wet sting on his lip was the first time he'd felt pain at all. Even unpleasantness didn't occur in the Here. He longed for home as he fingered the rough textures of the wool blanket against his bare skin. Without his great things and soft mountains, he questioned the change.
"Do you fall too?"
"Fall?"
"What happened to me earlier, when I got this," He puts his finger to his lip again dabbing the wound.
"No, I've never passed out, no."
"No one told you about the blur and fall?"
Rhett shakes his head, "No... what is it"
"They just told me it was normal part of life, it was necessary and I got to live in such a perfect place because I followed the rules and was special."
"Special?"
"They said I was chosen, that it was my duty, and they loved me. They let me build my whole world, and fill it with all the things they knew I'd like. I had a good life, and then it went black. And I can't find her."
"I'm sorry kid. You can stay here for tonight and we can try to find your folks tomorrow."
"Ok."
The hunter asked more questions before going to bed, but ultimately they ended up in the same place of confusion they had been to before. Early in the morning, Trey woke to the quiet rumbling of a coffee machine and screen door close. His eyes reluctantly opened to the cool dancing sunlight on his face. He slowly walked out towards the porch and stopped when he heard Rhett speak,"I don't know I really think it's him," followed by a stable crchhhh sound. "How do you know?" Crch.
"George he doesn't know anything it has to be Daniel. Right? He was right where you said he'd be. And he damn near drowned putting his head into the water thinking he could breath in it I'm pretty damn sure it's him." Crchhh.