torsdag den 14. januar 2021

The Greenhouse - Part 2

Here are the Words for Wednesday LINK.

And here's the first installment of The Greenhouse.

I found a little more time for writing and more words inside my brain. Now I only have Labour left over


Next day Susan returned to the greenhouse in the long lunch break. She found Tom eating his lunch in an artificially lighted cubicle adjoining the greenhouse.
   "Don't you ever eat in the Barn with the rest of us?" Susan asked without thinking. Tom only shook his head. Susan looked despondently to the floor.
  "Sorry. I did not mean to pry ... only ... well the Nisser are cooking for us, and it's so tasty. I would like you to have ... " She stopped and looked at the tiny table. "Oh, they bring some over to you! How very good," Her face lit up in a smile and Tom had to smile as well. He realised that Susan really was not nosy or rude, only impulsive and very young still.
   He pointed at a stool, and Susan sat down, patiently and without a word waiting for Tom to finish. She was really quiet, and thought to herself: 'The quiet here, together with Tom is a good quiet, a full quiet. Not like the awkward quiet in the school back home when no-one but me knows the answer, or even worse the impatient, waiting quiet in the mornings, when I wait for Dad to go to work. How come quiet can be so many things?' She would have liked to ask Tom, but she did not know which words to use, or how he would reach to such a question. And then the time for asking was past, Tom stacked the plates, shortly bowed his head as in thanks or prayer and stood. Susan also stood and followed him into the damp, musty smelling greenhouse.
   He walked ahead of her to the furthest corner, and stopped by a basin filled with water and stones.
   "Sea water," he said. "Look into it." Susan bent close to the surface and looked into the depths. It was as if the basin was deeper and larger than it could possibly be. The smell of brine was in her nostrils and the sound of rolling waves in her ears. She looked and looked, and suddenly she saw several of yesterdays flowers floating on the water. Thy were called sjóblóm (Sea flowers) she looked closer and saw small clusters of eggs clinging to the stems that were underwater.
   Now she realized that Täthi never really told much about the flowers yesterday. and she pulled out of the mild spell she was under without noticing.
   "Yesterday, I brought the sjóblóm to Täthi, she told us almost nothing about them, but used them in a potion against drowning. She even did not teach us how to make this potion. Are sjóblóm dangerous?"
   Tom looked at her, surprised, like a man awakened from a dream: "You are wise. Sjóblóm are dangerous. Did you feel it? The spell?"
   "You mean the smell of the sea, the sound of waves and the feeling like I was standing at the shore of a giant ocean. Yes, I felt it. Now the basin looks small and normal again. You would not have let me fall into it, would you?" Susan realised that she was all alone in a far off corner of the farthest building of the Farm, with a man several times older and stronger than herself. And nobody even knew where she was.
   "I take care of you. You will come to no harm. At least of my making!" Tom protested. He looked straight at her. "Trust me?" And Susan did. Together they bent over the basin, and again Susan smelled the sea, heard the waves and felt the ocean stretching in front of her. She felt the spray engulf her and she felt Tom's hand in her own. Together they dived in and swam towards the deep sea.

5 kommentarer:

  1. Ah, i hope there is more to this adventure.

    SvarSlet
  2. Your ending took me by surprise. Now there needs to be a next chapter so I know what Susan experiences.

    SvarSlet
  3. This and the previous part is fun. I like the idea of traveling the sea without actually going anywhere. Where can I get those magic flowers?

    The snowflakes are pretty and the snow plow is cute. but they are quite a distraction for me.

    Have a lovely day.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Thank you. The snowflakes won't stay up forever. It is probably going to rain soon - or I migth try some other snow effect.

      Slet
    2. I made the snowflakes smaller - hope it helps.

      Slet

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