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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Autumn or The Fall


There is a crunch of dry, old leaves and from somewhere nearby comes the monotonous hum of cars driving by. The trail is a gravel path, I can feel the loose rocks shift beneath my feet. But they’re invisible to me, covered by layer upon layer of colored leaves, all of them at different levels of decomposition. It’s still early in the morning and I am alone here in the forest. No living thing stirs; there is only myself and the gentle falling of dead leaves.
And so it is that I’m the only one around to notice when the world moves. Beneath my feet I feel the whole earth shift ninety degrees to the left. It happens so suddenly and instantaneously that even the leaves on the ground are surprised; it takes a few seconds for them to realize what has happened. It’s another thirty seconds for them to react and only then do they being to fall sideways down the earth. Tumbling, rolling, dancing, they pick up speed as they continue falling into the distance. I am too shocked to move. My feet seem to be cemented to the ground and, although I can feel gravity pulling me down, that is, to my right, I don’t budge an inch. Though leaves and rocks tumble down all around me, I stand there, unmoving, jutting out sideways from the earth like a tree sticking out of a sheer cliff wall.
It has been about five minutes now since the world moved and I’m still just standing here awkwardly in the same spot. I stick out horizontally from a vertical landscape. The shock of this terrestrial shift has worn out by now and, to be honest, I’m starting to get bored of it already. I dare not move however, for fear that nothing is keeping me from falling away save for my immobility. But the earth, so it would seem, is not willing to wait. It gives a violent shudder and my feet slip out from under me. I fall and my face crashes hard into the unforgiving ground. Against all logic, I lay there, flat against the hard, cold earth. It stands vertical against me and I lay there vertically against it. There is nothing but air beneath my fee and I can feel gravity tugging angrily against me but somehow I remain unmoved. Through no effort of my own I remain lying flat against the sheer ground.
Frustrated, the earth shakes again, the tremor more violent than the first. All around me the ground cracks and opens up, but still I lay there without falling. Somewhere above my head a stone is jarred loose by the shaking and I watch it tumble towards me. Still I do not move. It makes contact with my face, just below my left eye. My vision flashes red, then black, then a blinding white. I feel nothing. Still I don’t move.
With considerable effort I peel my eyes open and look around. I am standing at the edge of a rocky cliff. A valley opens up before me, it is overflowing with autumn color. Wave after wave of trees crash upon each other in bursts of orange, red, and yellow. All around me tourists and hikers are posing at the edge of the cliff, taking pictures and laughing. I look all around but no one notices me in the crowd of strangers. I take my cell phone out of my pocket and stare at its face, confused by the thoughts in my head. It’s already three in the afternoon. I open up the phone, select her phone number, and begin texting, “I’m going to fly away from here,” I type, “if I fall will you catch me?” I press send and shut my phone. I place it on the ground because I can’t stand to receive a reply that says “No”. On the ground at my feet, the phone begins vibrating quietly. I take one last look at it and then at all the people around me, I step forward and away from the cliff. As I fall away from everything I wonder what her reply was.


A Low Rising

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