No Nothing

Carol liked apples but Ted preferred pears. One liked to sleep all day, the other went for long walks thru the land never returning before the sun was lower than the moons. Both enjoyed lots of other things the other didn’t like, that didn’t involve the other. Carol would spend all day marching the garden, circling the lake, and chatting with all the animals. fowl, lizards, furred or bumpy skin, 2 legs, four legs, 6 legs, no legs.2, wings, one horn. She would have long serious talks with them lasting hours. they would sometimes answer back continuing long conversations filled with nothing but gossip and daydreams, everybody interrupting each other raising their voices, all of them trying to get the last word in. They talk about their feelings, days of boredom, ideas of letting go and moving on, of changing their pasts and futures. About taking off for the edge of the earth. What was farther than the eye could see.

Ted would lie all day under the pear tree that was sitting on the edge of the orchid, thick bushes mazed thru the grounds, walling off the garden. Again, he spent hours thinking of Carols short legs and hair down to her split. He opened up his eyes and drifted off while staring at cloudless skies filled with moons of planets and suns bursting like balloons, stars falling like rain with the silence of nature ringing him deaf. The whole place was set to a perfect temperature, not a breath of Breeze, or evil scent wafting thru the air. Another perfect day. Ted got up and walked out of the garden. he rubbed his ribbed and pulled off the small tree limb wrapped around his wrist like a bracelet. He wanted for nothing, which filled him empty with longings for something, anything else. His feet sank into the soft dirt of the land, littered with large, ripe fruit and vegetables. Watermelons, potatoes, tomatoes, Corrupt with color. Grape vines that one day will make wine, peaches that will eventually make pie, oranges that will be squeezed for juice. Animals leaked in and out the garden, grabbing chucks from the ground. Prides of Lions walked with a flock of sheep, a sleuth of bears would sleep next in the brush right next to a bloat of hippos. Shivers of Sharks would swim with bales of turtles. He’d given them all their names, handing out titles on how the syllables sounded together, but no other inspiration. No need or no desire. Exhausted by the ease and the comfort in which things came.

No real reason to get up, yet.

He grabbed a peach and went back to lie underneath the tree. There was no need for shelter, the sun never got to hot, it never rained, and the flies never come by to wake him and be swatted away.

He laid back down resting his head on the butt of the trunk. He knew he was Steve’s favorite; who else was there? He was not aware he could do anything to make that change. He slipped right to rest but the thought kept waking him up ‘is this it?’. He didn’t speak the words but heard them in his head.

His ears heard Carol. They had only exchanged nominal number of pleasantries; he had spoken more to the swans swimming the lake then to her. Carols arms were full of fury animals. There was no reason to carry anything else. The warm fur of the creatures rubbed up against her naked body, she felt no shame because there was no one there to judge or to comment on her nude stumbling. She walked with a freedom she didn’t even know she had. She headed over to Ted to share with him some of the things a squirrel had said to her today.

‘Wake up’ she said getting on her knees and crawling over to his corpse like body. He heard her footprints but feigned asleep. She ran her hands thru his thinning hair and over his bald spot. She laid her head on his cold chest and dosed off. She ignored the possible chaos, only think about what the squirrel said.

His eyes opened to Steve's voice as a fat bird circling the sky. More empty words of Steve. He realized it was just the bird chirping and held silent so as not to wake her. She fit perfectly with his body. This was the only part of the day he really enjoyed. He laid there counting the silhouette of leaves drifting to the ground. A deer had come over and begin eating the grass beneath his feet. He moved Carol off of him gently, planting her into the soft ground, trying not to wake her. He sat up and rose to his heels, tossing a foot at the deer to chase him away. 'Maybe the lake'. He didn't know what he was looking for but headed towards the water. No chill or hunger found him. He followed the path to the tear drop lake lining the foot of the hills. the animals all ignored him.

Ted had called to Steve every day for last week but got no response. He no longer wanted him to return his call. He told him this might be the case, that the creator was busy doing other things and wouldn’t be able to devote all the time he would like to this project. ‘Oh well’, Ted said out loud, just so he could hear a voice in his ears, reminding him that life needed noise. He had come upon the lake and sat down at its edge, not knowing how to swim, he never made it father then up to his knees in the water.

In the middle of the lake sat a raft of ducks, swimming in circles, barking back and forth to each other. He understood them but did not feel like getting involved in their disagreement. He sat with his legs folded picking at grass and decided he would try again. He lifted his head up towards the green air, ‘Steve, hi…. It's me… it’s been a while and I was just wondering if you get the time if you could give me a call… we got to talk… I have a few more questions or at least clarifications… also, the last time we talked, I left feeling more confused and less sure of the answers you gave me… so if we could work it out that would be great… I’ve got nothing really to do but think of this stuff all day, so if you could call me back…. Uhm…’ he sat silent waiting for a sound to drop from the sky or shiver from the earth, but nothing came. Steve did not leave a lot of instruction behind when he was done. Just a few ‘not To’s’, which seemed easy enough, but even the curiosity of those have built up with time. His life was mostly filled with ‘what if’s’ and ‘maybes’. He picked up a pebble in front of him and skipped it towards the fowl. They kept circling like a wheel. He laid back and pointed his finger at each bright spot in the sky, wondering what the point to all this was. If there was someone sitting there pointing back a him. He heard footsteps behind him but didn’t turn around. The choices of who it could be were limited. ‘Ted…. Ted?’, Carol called with excitement. He set up and turn his body to see her. She was leading a parade of animals, some walking behind her and others wrapped around her body. She held her hand out showing him a dark red apple. The monkey hanging from her neck reached for it and she pulled away. A small, harmless snake twisted around her arm and over her palm, she smiled large with her eyes turning like clocks. She looked so beautiful right then.

‘Hungry?’ she said, revealing her perfect white teeth, rolling the apple towards him.