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fractal007
Senior Member
since 2000-06-01
Posts 1958


0 posted 2002-04-17 01:29 AM


Aaron viewed the ocean expanse with some trepidation.  He'd never seen it at night.  He remembered his upbrining, when his mother would always tell him stories of nasty beasts that lived in the inky waters of the calm night-time ocean.  Despite his youthful protests that the ocean was even more beautiful at night than during the daytime, he eventually came around.  His mother finally won over a new convert.

Now, fifteen years later, Aaron was viewing the same mysterious beauty through different eyes.  He listened to the gentle lapping of the waves across the soft sands of the beach.  He could see a distant moon obscured in the faroff cloudscape of the night sky.  At times the clouds would glow, revealing the sharp shadows of landmasses he hadn't even been aware of during the daytime.  Mother warned me of such things he thought to himself, pushing the otherworldly voice aside as soon as he heard it.  

The sight of those jagged lines in the distance was unnerving at first.  It was like opening a watch for the first time.  His curious mind feared the unknown that it might encounter, while the curiosity driving that mind drove him onward.  I guess this is just another of those human paradoxes.

It was this kind of thing that his mother said would capture him.  The blatant contradictions of human behaviour, the illogical heart of night, would reach from the ink-filled depths of the midnight ocean and grab at him and pull him in.  He would drown alone in a terror-filled ocean.  Sharks and jellyfish would make quick work of him while he was still alive sucking in the watery substitute for air.  

The moon illuminated the mystery for him, briefly revealing her face from behind the veil of clouds and shining on the dark waters.  For a moment the ocean looked as though it were trapping a large crystaline tree beneath its depths.  He wondered what might be down there.  Where would he go if he climbed that tree?  What icy depths would he reach were he to step in and descend the tree down to its roots?

He decided there was only one way to find out.  But that would mean entering the forbidden world.  Life can't grow there he recalled the teachings of his mother.  Night is not a thing to be tampered with, for it soon it will tamper with you.  Indeed, it would.

Aaron set one foot into the the dark gently moving waves.  He then placed his other foot into the waters.  It was elementary.  He was learning to walk all over again.

When he finally reached the spot where he thought he'd seen the tree it was never there.  He tried again and again.  Aaron learned much about navigating the cold night-time waters.  Despite the protests of his mother, he learned more about the dark night-time world than most average people ever will.  

Aaron would live on to tell his own children of the beauty of the oceans at night.  He would tell them all the secrets the ocean had chosen to give to him.  Eventually, his children went on discovering more secrets and mapping even more of the infinite unfathomable depths of the ocean.  

Some days Aaron's mother can be seen seated on the front porches of abandoned homes where hope has given up its foothold for lack of better things to do.  

"Aye!" She yells to passers by, "I told him so, but did he listen?  Oh no!  He just waltzed right in there, and now look what the world has come to!"

Don't take me wrong, Aaron's mother has been seen elsewhere.  She is certainly not a lazy woman.  I've heard her voice at night, echoing through the words coming from the mouths of some of my closest friends.  I can only laugh when I hear it.  She tells us all a story of woe.  But some of us have chosen to ignore her.  Many call us writers or artists or painters or sculptors, or any number of names.  Whatever our names may be, we have learned as Aaron learned.  We have been taught the lessons of humility and faith.  We have learned to let the night tamper with us, and now the story goes on forever.

It goes on, while Aaron's old mother, creaky and gray, sits by in her chair complaining about the state of the world, complaining about the evils of the night-time waters that lap up on her shore inviting her, eventually tearing away her once steadfast world of monotony with every spit of spite and refusal.

"If history is to change, let it change. If the world is to be destroyed, so be it. If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh"

-- Magus

© Copyright 2002 fractal007 - All Rights Reserved
serenity blaze
Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738

1 posted 2002-04-19 10:14 AM


" Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
T.S. Eliot


smiling, but that WOULD appeal to ME...

Nice bit of allegory. Loved the metaphor of dark ocean. Smoothly constructed--I thought this flowed well, and it kept me interested (and I bore easily)

Enjoyed.

Kethry
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-07-29
Posts 9082
Victoria Australia
2 posted 2002-04-24 07:43 AM


fracta,
I liked the smooth flow of this. I liked the way also that life commands can be broken to find new horizons.
Well done
Kethry

Here in the midst of my lonely abyss, a single joy I find...your presence in my mind.  Unknown



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