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| Desperate in need of some dreamtime, Laura chose one night to drive her car into a tree. The police report called it "accident," but the full moon had been watching and Selene, the moon goddess, noticed the set of jaw that defines conscious decision. Selene sighed and decided to grant Laura her wish of dreams. In the hospital, Laura's unmoving body lay hooked up to machines that beeped and whirred and dripped and pulsed -- leaving the Laura that lived inside the body free to roam. Like a bird loosed from its shell, she soared over countless miles until she finally alighted on a beach. Laura sat naked at the water's edge, letting the waves wash sand and shells over her outstretched legs. With each ebb, the rough sand and sharp shell bits scraped more of her skin loose, leaving behind a new shining surface of scales. When her mermaid's tail had fully emerged, Laura lay back and let the waves pull her into the sea. The shock of deep cool water shook her soul and she began to swim as she had always wanted to swim, gliding rhythmically through the sea. She leaped like a whale and laughed like a porpoise before submerging again. She swam for miles without thought, just drinking the depths through her every pore. She found some ancient manatees and perfectly executed a polite dance of hello. She waved to anenomes and zipped through coral banks, making permanent impressions of their colors on her memory. She scattered schools of small fishes and stroked giant clams. She let the peace of the sea envelope and permeate her. Finally, she broke surface and sighed. "Free. I am finally free." With that thought, Laura looked around at the waiting world where she had surfaced. It was a secluded cove, perfect as only dreams can be. She lay suspended, just her eyes and the crown of her head above the wet. Her hair, which had grown three feet during her travels, spread gently in a web around her, each tendril floating on the surface as if enjoying an exploration of its own. Suddenly aware of her hair, she dove for the bottom, searching out a bit of broken coral to use as a comb. Resurfacing with her prize, she sought out and naturally found a half-submerged rock suitable for sitting. Pulling herself up its side, she settled into this temporary nest and began to comb her glowing hair. And as she combed she sang, a song strange and sweet in a language she did but didn't know. The song became another, different dream, and Laura went soaring again, twisting through time and past vision to the realm of pure feeling. Coming through on the other side, she found herself in a lush jungle that pulsed with life. She was liquid gold now, a form that moved with grace and beauty but no clear defining lines. Where she walked, she left sparkling footprints, bits of diamonds in the damp, rich soil. |
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| Please click on the links below to read exerpts from some of my other stories. | ||||||||||||||
| Retreat | Dreaming | Signs and Portents | Tattoos | ||||||||||||||
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