OBSIDIAN: Birth to Venus

2121

Jai wanted to help the rest of the group investigate the Club O incident, but Joy’s condition had worsened. So, Jai stayed by her mother’s side and took Joy away, to their beach house overlooking the Long Island Sound. There, they watched the news, thankful that none of their family had been harmed during the riots. Each night, Jai waited until Joy nodded off, then returned to her room. She tried her best not to close her eyes, to avoid the nightmares she’d had each fretful night, but she couldn’t fight the exhaustion forever. She tried in vain to think hopeful thoughts, but there was no way to remove the splinter in her mind.

Then, somewhere in the dark of night, she fell asleep. She saw him there, Darin running across the path, toward the rice paddies. The sun streaked down on them. He turned, a mischievous grin on his face. “Slow poke!” he screamed, egging Jai to run and catch him.

Jai feigned a sprint. But, as she took the next few strides, the distance between them jumped into a wide expanse. She ran faster, but her legs, normally so strong, would not carry her, as if she were running on a treadmill, looping endlessly backward.

Darin giggled in the distance, his voice jingling like the bell on the bracelet Jai had given him. “You won’t catch me! I’m flying away!” he said. He threw his arms out, like helicopter wings. He began to fly, swooping left and right along the fields. Night was falling now with the sound of crickets and cicadas beginning to build. “Too late, slow poke!” He sang it like a nursery rhyme. Soon, his voice was muffled by the roaring insects, invisible in the dark.

Jai strained to run faster, but each step sank her feet further into the ground. She looked down at the grass, like the grass she’d admired all those summers long ago. Each blade of grass moved elegantly, like a dancer’s arms, caressing her legs. Then, suddenly, they turned, sharp edges twisting, binding, dragging her down. Like quicksand, they pulled her under, into muddy water. She was sinking into the earth, waist-deep, to her shoulders. Mud thick around her, she could taste the brackish water on her lower lip.

Her eyes darted, scanning the fields. Where’s Darin? She could hear the chime on his bracelet ringing, a periodic ding in the far distance. Her eyes strained to see under the night sky, but the stars were barely twinkling. The moon was just a slit. The water churned into a thick black sludge, sticking to her jaw. She pulled her chin up, straining to keep the sludge out of her mouth, but it moved like a tentacled slug, oozing, reaching slowly up her neck. It pulled itself upward. Its arms were on her lips. She clamped her mouth shut, moaning, straining to keep the sludge from her nostrils. Its pace was quickening, climbing faster, toward her ears.

There was no singing now; none of Darin’s laughter; not even the tiny ding of his bell. Just the blare of her heartbeat, pounding in her chest. She was hyperventilating. Her body heaved, pushing against the blackness, the sludge eating her alive, when suddenly she was free. Sitting alone, on a bench in a clearing.

Her breath began to slow. She looked around to gain her bearings. It was dark, but she recognized the bench. Atop the right wooden arm, was a small carving, a bird she and Darin had etched their last summer there. “My little coo coo,” she had called him, or “crazy bird,” depending on her mood. The day after she’d given him the tulip, he had asked her to take him there, to the place where she’d found them. He was amazed by how many there were…how beautiful and different the Siams were from the tulips he’d seen before. Remembering, she felt the life in him, could feel the blood coursing through his rosy cheeks. She cried, picturing how he’d looked up at her, an oversized bouquet of tulips in his pudgy little hands.

Suddenly, Darin was in front of her, nudging the flowers toward her, looking deep into her eyes. She embraced him, gave him the long hug she’d been yearning for. She wanted so deeply to see him, to play with him. The feeling of pure happiness overwhelmed her. The dark sky began to lighten, a pale grey to light blue. Past the mountains, the sun’s rays shone behind the distant clouds, coating the world in subtle pinks and creamy peach hues. Darin pressed his body against hers. “Up!” he said, beckoning her to carry him. She picked him up, his body light in her arms. He wrapped his legs around her waist, and placed his arms around her neck. He nestled close, massaging his cheek against hers. She smelled his sweet scent and felt his sticky fingers on her upper back, as if he’d just eaten a sugary treat.

Holding him, she relaxed, wanting to remember this feeling, this second skin wrapped around hers. She wanted to walk him around the gardens this way, the way they’d walked before. He clung to her, the way he used to do. But, her steps were awkward, disjointed. She lost her balance a few times. She caught herself, gripping him tightly, not wanting him to fall. She tried to distract him. “Look, Darin! Tiny frogs. Aren’t they cute?” He marveled at their slick green skin and watched them hop away into the tall grass.

Jai hobbled along. She pointed to a flock of birds flying in the distance, not wanting to draw his attention behind, where a pool of sludge had formed. She walked faster, as fast as her now crippled gait would carry them. She hoisted him around, to hold him piggy back, face-forward. Her eyes darted, searching for a shortcut, for the exit.

“Jai, let’s go see Mom.” Darin’s breath was warm against her ear.

“Yes, let’s go home. Mom will meet us there.”

“We can show her the tulips,” Darin said, his face bright and happy.

“We will,” Jai assured, as she snuck a glimpse behind her. The sludge was gaining on them, reaching its tar-like tentacles along the ground. The sludge had eaten the grass, and was climbing up the tulip stems. With increasing speed, it swallowed the flowers. The benches and lampposts posed no hurdle. The more it swallowed, the more formidable it became. It was barrelling down, faster on them.

Jai could feel sweat falling from her hair, streaming down her forehead. She bounced Darin against her back and pulled his legs under her arms for a tighter grip. “Hold on to me!” she yelled. She could hear the fear in her voice and feel her throat tighten. She strained to hide the exertion growing in her body. There! Jai saw the gate a short distance away. Closer, faster! But, her legs were a cobbled clutter. She looked down. Her strong, beautiful legs were a haphazard mess, knees and ankles mixed with oddly deformed feet; and, an abnormally long femur jutting out from her left hip, throwing her off balance. Each part seemed to work against itself, churning with motion, yet somehow stuck in place. The sludge was seeping up against her toes, climbing to her waist.

Darin’s heart began to pound against her back.

“Look, look at me,” Jai cried, urging him to focus on her.

“What’s wrong?” Darin asked. He nuzzled close against her cheek.

“Look at me, Darin,” she said. “Let’s go home. We’re going home.”

“Mom’s home!” Darin squealed with delight. He trusted Jai, not noticing that they’d nearly stopped. She could feel the sludge coat her skin. It was seeping inward, filling her veins. Soon, it had passed her, and was beginning to touch Darin’s feet. Darin caught his breath at the first touch, the first sear against his skin. “Jai?” He looked at her, a puzzled then pained expression on his face. “What’s going on? Aren’t we going home? It hurts,” he whined, trying to contort his body into a more comfortable position.

“It’s ok. We’re ok,” she panted. “Just look at me,” she said. Jai tried not to cry, to hide the excruciating pain she now felt, but seeing the sludge eat at him was more than she could take. Tears streamed down her face.

“Jai, help me!” Darin was afraid, crying now, sobbing with the pain of it. The sludge had climbed farther up his legs. She tried to caress him, her hands still tight against his body, but she could barely move.

The pale pink sky was darkening with each passing minute. The sun was engulfed in a fiery red, a bloody mark in the blackening sky. “Save us!” Darin screamed. Cold wind blew, fierce against their skin. Jai could feel his arms shiver, knocking against her, in their black cocoon of sludge. “Save us!” He screamed. “Why won’t you save us, Jai?” For the first time, he looked back, to the sludge climbing both their bodies. “Run, run!” he pleaded.

Jai couldn’t bear it. “I can’t. I’m sorry!” she yelled with tears running down her face.

The sludge was swallowing them with a hundred gaping mouths. “Save me, Jai. It hurts!” And, with a piercing scream, he yelled, “Mommy!”

At once, Joy appeared at the edge of the garden. Young, as young as the day Darin was born, she smiled. But, as she walked toward them, her lustrous hair began to fade; her luminous skin took on a pallid hue; and, the strength in her body disappeared. Jai watched, as her young mother aged to the mom she now knew.

The sludge swarmed.

“Save her, Jai! Save Mommy!” Darin sobbed, his body heaving against hers until he was barely able to say a word. His body was weakening faster than Jai’s. His life was seeping away. Urgently, he cried, his words plaintive howls ringing in her ears.

Jai raged against the sludge, but her body was frozen. More than anything, she wanted to run, to save Darin, to save her mother. But, the sludge fixed her where she stood. Life was draining out of her. She fought the weakness welling inside, unwilling to avert her gaze. “No!” she screamed. The sludge had reached her mother’s feet. Though wrinkled and weary, Mom was every bit as beautiful as she had always been. Mom smiled, bursting Jai’s heart like the sun.

And, with one touch, the sludge eviscerated her. Body to ash, her ghostly outline blew away in the wind. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Mom!” Jai retched. “I’m sorry, Darin!” The sludge was burying the last of Darin’s body. It was choking Jai.

The sludge had snuffed her family out.

Jai screamed. Loud. Her body shuddered, jolted awake. Alone in bed, her sweaty skin stuck to the covers, her hair clammy against her neck, but her emotions were raw. She didn’t know where she was. Lips salty with tears; throat burning, hoarse; her mind raced. I didn’t save you. Either of you. I’m so sorry, Darin! I tried, I tried, but I can’t. I can’t save her. I can’t save Mom! Over and over again, her mind screamed. Worthless! she cried, gripping her pillow tight, until the blackness took what was left of her voice.