Number 16 ©

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Invisible Number 16
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Sa and Atee once met each other for the first time, again, during a dream their first nap together.

Sa was atop a tree. The tree was shaky and it spun Sa in circles. When he looked to the sky, the spinning stopped and Sa nearly awoke. But, he didn't awake because the ground beneath him was too small too ignore. As he stared longer down, Sa's vision zoomed in and everything was larger, as if he were actually among them. Sa lost himself in this experience. Sa was no longer in his own self but an outside observer.

The beings on the ground mingled and sold pretzels and soda and stared up at Sa in his sole tree, thousands of stories high at the top. Atee was buying nachos.

Sa's vision travelled over shoulders at something else's will, not his own. Sa would have faint relapses remembering falling off the tree but, always the scene would rewind and his body again holding onto the top. Sa dove into a hotdog and was almost chewed by a child. Luckily, he came through the other side and everything was new. There were no beings on this side. Sa felt like he was falling again, but he quickly imagined a ledge to land on. Sa's fear forced the ledge to crumble, his stomach jumped and hung itself in the air while Sa fell. Sa's vision slid down into his free-floating stomach. It was like a waterbed. But, another ledge must have manifested itself because Sa's waterbed bursted and Sa was taken away by the current. A inflated raft-float was beneath him and exciting, exhilirating, breathtaking waters layed ahead. The sky was so open and receiving, the water gentle yet fast, urgent and immediate. As Sa came closer to the edge of the drop, a giant valley the size of the grand canyon was before him. Time had paused for just a long enough moment for Sa to leave his body again and witness the magnificience of this landscape. From all around the canyon water flowed to the center. Like steps, a giant circular, round bowl, each step a majestic waterfall larger than Victoria Falls.

Sa's body was struck by a tingling shock. It resonated all around Sa's skin and settled to his spine. It was soothing and kept recurring. All the urgency to act left Sa's soul. The whole force compelling Sa to work towards something was vanquished. Everything was enough, in fact, plenty.
As Sa was centered in this feeling, time began to play. The current pushed all the water off the edges, millions of gallons a second. The noise echoed so extraordinarily ominously, Sa felt he was out of place, as if he had been sent back in time to the making of a planet or to the extinction of a species. Within him,an irresistable sensation of being out of place, yet also,this is home, this is the only place to be, nowhere else. Sa was so tiny, his raft just the perfect size and as he noticed it, many other beings were relaxing on their own rafts. It was a tremendous, profound, super-significient waterpark.

Sa was pulled back out of his stomach, out of the other side, through the hotdog and back to eye level with the tourists and sight seers and photographers, journalists and other entertainment media.Sa was reminded that his body was still way high in the tree. His vision looked back to the sky. The sky began moving away and the tree grew higher. Both the ground and the sky moved away from him. Sa was being placed somewhere in the middle of them. The world was growing, the universe expanding. Sa felt like he was shrinking but knew that the space between spaces was only becoming more.Sa looked down at the ground even further away, the tree didn't even spin or wobble anymore.

Atee stood at the bottom, the only one not interested in the Sa-Tree spectacle. She sat on a bench and ate her nachos and watched all of the flowers bloom larger and larger. The bench she sat on grew larger, the distance between her and the beings around her grew larger. All of them were pushed even farther away. She looked to the sky and the clouds were being fragmented as they were stretched too thin. The sky was peeling apart. Each layer, each skin, each a new hue and new tones. Lighning struck and the flames grew. The flames began eating the tree. But the tree grew, but the flames grew. The media's interest grew, anticipation and expectations grew.
Lightning struck again, two bolts struck one another.

Atee was the only one watching the lightning battle itself. Everyone was looking in one direction, nobody even turned around to see.

Sa looked over at Atee. His vision moved over to her. Everyone was looking at Sa but Sa hadn't put one eye to them. Sa could feel the heat of the fire and imagined it extinguishing but, it would not be so. The collective will of all the beings was dominant over the will of Sa's. Sa didn't really mind much anyways, just seeing Atee, although miles below made Sa feel less lonely. Atee must have felt someone looking at her because her eyes left the feuding thunderstorms and was directed right to where Sa's eyes were. She knew they were there although she couldn't see them.

Lightning struck a third time and the tree split. The wood splintering, the fire falling, the bottom half of the trunk fell to the ground. The top half was floating off the ground. Sa clung to the top still gazing into Atee's eyes.

The newspeople didn't want the top tree to fall, they wanted it to burn. The fire was dangerously close to Sa's feet. All the blood from Sa's limbs travelled to his feet. And with it travelled Sa's perception.In fact, the perception left its feet and went through the flames. Inside the flames was nothing. It was all an act, the true nature was just jealousy. The flames were just expression of jealousy, nothing but an illusion. Inside it was not even warm or burning, just silence.
Sa kept moving through the sap of the tree. The ghost of the bottom tree still remained, enough for Sa to reach to ground.

Sa moved to the bench and eye level to Atee. Sa came alive on that bench. Atee still staring into Sa's eyes, but not anywhere near the tree. The tree was gone. All the people gone. All the people, gone. Sa and Atee sat on the bench. The lightning gone, the sky gone, the expanding spaces, gone.

Sa's sight left itself once again. It went straight ahead in one direction. It went to where Atee was watching Sa. Their perceptions met each other between their eyes. And kept moving. Sa moved into her eyes and looked through and Atee looked through Sa's eyes. They both saw nothing, they blinked and they saw themselves, they blinked again and they were together.

The sun was high above them. They awoke, both already entirely awake, facing each other. Both together, as themselves.

Adventures: Number Twenty Two {incomplete}

Sa stood over the edge of a cliff. He looked over at a dreamlike pond. It was surrounded by a perfectly circular beach. In the very center was a tiny hole in the ground, water slwoly drained in, and its motion gave the whole pond a clockwise rotation.

There was plenty of rain in this area, so the pond never dried up.

Towels were spread all around, unbrellas too, for shade. A few stars were out and would sometimes, for a few hours of the day, cause an orange or green glow. It all depended on which stars were visible and their orbitals.

Today, there was only white light. It was very warm and dry, hence everybody was visiting the pond. The pond self-regulated itself, all of the gunk from the beings and the trash they produced was eventually pulled down the drain with the dirty water. The pure rain was replenishing.

There was a high cliff facing the pond, a popular spot to jump off of and do flips into the water.

Sa stood for an unusually long time looking out. There was a short line behind him, which was very anxious. Everyone behind him just talked.

Sa potted a gentle looking creature below and leaped off, looking to swim in her direction. Sa felt like he had made a large commotion with his splash, but no one even looked at him. Sa was free to express himself as loudly as he wanted and it was perfectly normal, everybody was doing it. He was completely at east and in enjoyment. Alone and yet surrounded by friendly beings.

He swam towards his target. She was going back to the beach to her friends under the umbrella.

Sa didn't think the rest of them looked very friendly but he followed her anyway. She was so beautiful, he thought.

A few other swimmers were swimming along the bottom, and Sa accidently tripped over one. He turned around to apologize but they had already left. The whole atmosphere of the pond seemed to keep everyone's blood pressure down.

A huge wave of water pushed Sa underwater. Smaller ripples carried him forwar. A giant creature had just dove into the pong with a few of its friends. Sa was learning everyone here just expected those things.

Sa wiped his eyes and looked around for where she had went. The wave had him disoriented.

A great comet zapped across the sky. A moment later, an ominous flash took captured everyone's attention. A colossal roar exploded from opposite the cliff, miles way from the pond. A gigantic cloud of dust and rock lifted into the sky.

The beachers and swimmers and divers and friends were only quiet for a moment, before engaging in their own enjoyment and pleasure again.

Sa saw a few small groups leave the beach to wander to another small cliff near the impact to get a good view of it.

Sa left the pond as soon as he could once he saw that she was among them.

The sand on the beach was so hot under his toes. He looked up to the sky and one of the stars shone right into his eyes. It was still warm and bright, the comet didn't change that.

He tried stepping on as many towels as possible while navigating off of the beach, to avoid burning his flesh off. He saw a pair of sandals and considered putting them on, until he thought how he wouldn't remember to return them.

He could hear another splash behind him, a few droplets even made it far enough to land on Sa's shoulder. He looked back to see it was the same mammoth and friends from before.

Sa's target and friends were up ahead but as long as they were in sight, he was satisfied. He was off the beach now and the dirt was much cooler, very soft and tender.

Sa noticed some people behind him were leaving the beach too, headed to the lookout point. He felt better knowing he wasn't the last one.

Appearently, her friends were very anxious to see the crater because they began running. Sa too had to run just to keep them in sight. He was much faster than them and used this as an oppurtunity to get closer.

He heard them speak but, it was in another language. He kept close anyways.

The stars were lowering and it wasn't quite so bright. It was still warm, there was a slight breeze now.

Way off in the distance, near the horizon, he saw another comet dart from the sky. It was very faint, yet still excited him.

The group he was following began climbing a different cliff. A cliff which only overlooked the pond, not the crater. He decided not the follow them.

As he continued walking towards the crater, a great, strange silence captivated him. It was as if, everyone at the pond quit splashing and began whispering. The breeze had even stopped.

Sa turned around and saw everyone looking at the sky. Several flaming rocks were accelerating towards the area. Despite the great distance, they still approached quickly. Sa looked for just a few moments before thinking why everyone wasn't panicking.

The stars had lowers even more, night was very near. The temperature had dropped and Sa began running. Not towards the pond but to behind the high cliff.

There was a road there and Sa would just take it back home, unless he saw another bus, like the one that brought him here.

The road seemed so much longer than before. The comets in the sky were already so much bigger. And what he really wanted to do is become completely seperate from all of this and just watch it from a safe distance. But, he was a part of it, he didn't want to play. This was a game much too dangerous, he didn't expect his life to be this thrilling. He enjoyed having control or, at least, understanding how it would be controlled. But, this was simply bafflinf and it left Sa with no power.

He thought of the safest place to be, a deep cavern. Sa had no idea where to find a deep cavern.

One of the ponds ramous rains began. Heavy dark clouds, from seemingly nowhere, blocked anyone from seeing the comets. This really frightened Sa, who would gauge his lifespan and everything he wanted to accomplish in his life, but the proximity of those.

Nevertheless, Sa continued to walk down this road. The pond was so far back by now, but the rain still touched him.

Sa thought back to her. He decided that they probably weren't looking at the pond, but at some other crater on the other side of it. Craters were probably everywhere.

He considered that the pond itself could have been formed by an asteroid impact. It wouldn't explain the center drain, but then again, nothing else could either.

This was his first time at the pond, his first time anywhere near this region. he was busy with his own thoughts that he barely heard the rumbling of a vehicle. He got out of the road just in case the driver wasn't planning on stopping for people in the street today.

It was another bus, or the same one, they all alike. It slowed down, even though Sa wasn't at a bus stop. Sa was tremendously relieved when the driver opened up the door and he could climb in.

It was very chilly, the seats were stiff and cold. The bas was very spacy, practically every seat was open. He sat down next to a window. He loved watching everything go by. He loved the motion of the bus itself moving too.

He was scared when he realized it was traveling the same way he had just walked from. He tried reasoning with the driver, but he was unconvincing. He understood, he shouldn't expect anyone to believe comets are actually bombarding the planet. The driver told him he could get out right now if Sa wanted too, but it was his job to pick up the vacationers from the pond.

For some reason, Sa felt safer in the bus. Even though he could still be annihilated by a terrestial boulder.

He wondered where these other people on the bus came from and if they believed him about the coment. He thought they would have spoken up if they would have been seriously concerned.

Sa did notice one good thing, the bus seemed to be moving much faster. Maybe the driver heeded the warming, if only a tiny bit.

The rain was gaining power every second. Huge pools of water were being displaced by the bus as it splashed along the road.

Sa started to have trouble seeing out the window. And for those few instances when water wasn't smeared against the glass, the fog it was creating was too thick to see through.

The noise of the water blasting off the roof of the bus woke up a few beings, from their dreams.

Now Sa was wishing that the driver would slow down. This new turn of weather had really made Sa lose track and time and space. He had no idea how long it was back to the pond, and he doesn't even remember how long he was out until the bas had came. He started to doubt the bus driver's competence.

An idiot in the row beside Sa had opened a window, water began to flood his seat, before the driver commanded him to close it.

The idiot hesitantly closed it as if he wasn't sure if it was he who was being ordered, or some other idiot opening windows.

Sa thought about the beings on the beach and hoped they were okay. They might not even be able to see one another if they weren't directly beside them.

Suddenly, the bus driver stopped. Sa figured they were at the pond, but he admitted to himself that he couldn't see anything outside by greyness.

The driver opened the door and many people desperately hurried. All of them were drenched, but a few were drenched and had umbrellas from the beach.

More and more came in. Sa didn't think there would be room in the bus for all of them.

When all of the seats were taken, they started pushing in closer to one another. A few strangers, one with an umbrella, sat next to Sa. They dripped water all over. Sa scooted closer to the window to avoid getting wet as much as possible. He could see the dry person in front of him did the same thing.

Sa was right. Some people had to sit on the floor, others managed four to a seat. There just wasn't enough room. Once nobody was standing up, the driver began driving. Luckily, he turned around, driving away from all the craters and comets.

The rain seemed to ease up a little bit as they drove away. People began talking and the bus seemed a bit livelier.