Stranded

This is another excerpt of the sci-fi novella that I will work on at some point in the future.

When I woke up, I thought I had sleep walked again. I thought maybe I had tracked sand in from the park, but there was too much. I couldn’t remember and was totally lost as to where I was and from where I had come.

I moved my feet. My toes were dried and caked. I opened my eyes to bright blue skies with thick, puffy, cotton ball clouds nudging me awake by shadows going across my face.

I ached. More than ached, every muscle in my body cried out with the slightest movement. My neck muscles compressed into my nerve endings when I tried to turn my head, and the resulting tears stung my dry eyes, causing more tears and more pain.

With one big effort, I pushed myself up, sitting on my butt, my arms barely able to support my upper body. The pain of falling back down would have been worse, so I stayed in that position, wavering and swaying to stay slightly erect.

Through the filmy lens of my tears, I saw the white sand and blue water. A beach. Why was I at a beach? A fly buzzed in front of my face and I moaned loudly as I tried to stretch my arm to shoo it away. It was already too difficult to see. Instead of the fly going away, I fell backward, and wanted to forever close my eyes and not deal with what was going on.

I imagined the fly now lying on my forehead as my spiritual friend and guide, and focused my energy on that one speck of creation. Inside my head, a spectral, brilliant light soared out from within me, dissolving everything from the fly, to the sand on my feet, the beach, waves and trees, and even the pain within me. There was nothing left but the light pulsating and fluctuating with the flow of blood coursing through me.

I opened my eyes, and saw everyone smiling at me, pride beaming from their eyes almost as bright as the light that was diminishing and quenching itself in the core of my heart.

“You have made it!” One voice said, and they all gathered closer to me, helping me up from the mat on the floor.

“You’re one of us.” Another voice said. Then the overhead lights ignited, revealing through the invisible floor the five others who had attempted to become one of them and failed. The five flies fidgeted their legs, while licking their feet and wiping their heads constantly, as if incapable of believing the reality of their new existence.

Of course, there was no more pain. The beach was now underfoot, along with the five flies, who were truly stranded. Giving them one more glance and then looking up to my new family, I smiled. “At least they’re in a beautiful location.”

-- This short is a work in progress, part of the sci-fi novella I'm working on. I've decided that this will be a Christian book, although I don't have an outline and am not sure exactly what it's about. "Stranded" is not the title of the book, just this section, which is a longer piece than what's here.

I did write some yesterday, which made me feel better. Yesterday was just an emotional day for me. Glad I made it to church today. And my mom is home!