An Odd Way of Looking at Things

 

 

            It was early winter in the Forest. Snow came sometimes, and sometimes it melted away. Ramona never knew for sure what she would find when she opened up the green door to face the dawn.
            This particular morning could only be described as bleak, if you went by human sensibilities. It was dark. It was cold. Everything was wet. Melting snow lay in little lumps, appearing ghostly in the dimness.
            She said her morning praises while she fed the fire some dry, but outwardly soggy, branches. She was thinking on what to make for the rest when they woke. She had flour and a few eggs, so she decided to make a bunch of pancakes. She didn’t have anything sweet to go on them, but no problem. They would just roll them up in their fingers and eat them.
            She went back inside to gather supplies.
            When Ramona came back out, a weak gray sunrise was beginning. That was exactly as expected on such a day. She glanced around, as she normally would. But then she stopped and tried to focus on an area just beyond the fire. She shook her head and squinted. Something was really off, or else she was losing her ability to see, but in just one part of her field of vision. She knew that wasn’t likely. That’s not how blindness works.
            There was an area before Ramona where nothing existed. It wasn’t like a wavy vision, like wet glass, it didn’t twinkle or anything like that. It wasn’t a portal. She knew about those. It was just Not There. Later, she had a heck of a time explaining how that could be. It was like something had taken a bite out of the world and left nothing behind. It didn’t exactly look funny; it didn’t look at all!
            She put down her stuff on her little work area, because she was going to go over there to be sure she wasn’t dreaming or something.
            Some wind came up right then, making a sad moaning sound as it blew through her world.
            When she got close to the strange area, she felt like she was subtly tipping toward it. Like the unreal place, the non-existence of it had a pull of some kind. She found that anything she focused on outside of this non-existence slipped into the same condition.
            It made no noise, no ominous hum. It just wasn’t there.
            She picked up a handful of wet forest floor and threw it toward the not-there. The potential here was not lost on Ramona. She thought of her family, and everything she loved falling into the non-existence.
            The wind made such a fuss blowing against the cave door, that the racket woke Ralph. He threw an arm across the bed, and found that Ramona must be out in the wind. That was normal, but something seemed wrong this particular morning.
            Alarm filled his heart.
            “Where is she?” went through his mind, as he left the cave, closing the door behind himself.        
            Outside, he found Ramona standing looking at the Nothing as if entranced by it, or maybe just trying to work it into her understanding, but leaning toward it.
            “Mona, turn around,” Ralph said.
            She did, giving him a strange vacant look.
            “No,” he said. Something changed.
            The wind quieted down, watching, listening.
            “Baby?” she said, seeming to wake up.
            “Stand behind me, Mona!” said Ralph. “I won’t have it!”
            She walked behind him, and clung to him, her face pressed into his back.
            “This came from below. I won’t have it here!” he said.
            “What will you do?” she whispered.
            “Wait for me, Mona. I will return. Go inside and wait for me,” said Ralph. He gently removed her hands from his body and kissed her. Then, facing the Nothing, he stepped into it and was gone as if there had never been such a person, as if reality collapsed on the memory of Ralph.
            But Ramona did remember her true love, and she obeyed him. She went back inside and lay down, and began to wait.
            Into that dark place below all, Ralph fell. It was the same vacancy that had trapped Cherry, Sky, the lost young man whom he had rescued, and many others. All the sorrows that ever were seemed to press down on him there. The darkness, the absence of light, was absolute.
            He began to sing. He sang of light. He addressed the Power that he served. And there was light. With that light came existence.
            The Nothing fled before his voice and his knowledge.
            He sang of life. He sang for the love of life. Tears ran down his beard, and yet they were tears of great joy. His voice rolled and rolled, and the sound was like choirs and thunder at the same time.
            At last, he laughed.
            He was home, and all was well. The clouds rolled away, in celebration. The sun began to shine down into the Clearing.
            Ralph slipped into the cave, where Ramona waited for him. He sat on the bed.
            “Was I gone long?” he said.
            “While you were gone, it seemed long, Baby. But now, it seems like no time at all!” she said. “Isn’t that strange?”
            “It’s very hard to think of nothing at all,” he said. “In fact, now, it seems as if nothing at all happened. We might forget all about it!”
            “That would suit me,” said Ramona, throwing off the big quilt, and rising to her feet.

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